NOTED WITNESSES
FOR
PSYCHIC OCCURRENCES
Incidents and Biographical Data .
with Occasional Comments
Compiled by
THE RESEARCH OFFICER
OF THE
BOSTON SOCIETY FOR PSYCHIC RESEARCH
May, 1928
Boston Society for Psychic Research
346 Beacon Street
Boston, Mass.
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Copyright, 1928, by
Boston Society for Psychic Research
846 Beacon Street, Boston, Mass.
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CONTENTS
Introduction 5
Men of Science 13
Lawyers and Physicians 58
Men of the Army and Navy 79
Statesmen, Diplomats and Publicists 104
Poets and Playwrights 131
Novelists 154
Miscellaneous Writers 184
Artists, Sculptors, Actors, Composers and Musicians 243
Clergymen, Theologians and Evangelist 267
Persons of Title, Financiers, Teachers, Travelers and Magicians . 304
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It does not necessarily impart to an “ occult ” incident more weight
that it was experienced or related or credited by a person whose name
is prominent for one reason or another. A given noted person, as well
as an obscure one, may have a streak of insanity or of credulity in his
nature. But it is certainly much easier, generally speaking, to judge
whether that is likely or not, in the cases of persons not our personal
acquaintances, when their careers are within public view, and their
deeds and writings are widely known.
Nor is a rare psychological incident more or less a problem, nor
has it more or less significance, in the experience of honest John Jones
than it has in that of an honest Garibaldi. If once it is proved that
John Jones saw the apparition of a particular friend, at the moment
when he died thousands of miles away, the incident has exactly the same
validity and value that it would have were his name replaced by that
of Lord Brougham. If it is abundantly evidenced that the experience
was accurately told before reception of news of the corresponding
fact, science cares nothing for the name.
But an alleged experience may entirely lack, or be susceptible of
insufficient corroboration. Then comes in the question of veracity.
The reader is certainly generally in a better position to judge for him-
self whether the narrator is a romancer or not, if that narrator is a
person of prominence. If I am the character-witness for an obscure
man who relates a psychical incident, I am but one and may myself
have been deceived in my impressions of him. If, however, the narrator
is a famous man, and many persons of standing have spread abroad
his reputation for judgment and character, it is much harder to believe
J> ’ have been deceived in him. There may be no better man
,irjvu 1 Moggs of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, but the fact is not
»1\ . >wn, and it is not quite satisfactory to be told by another
...an whom, perhaps, we know as little, what a good man he is. But
there are fe’/ who would feel the least doubt that a declaration by
Abraham Lincoln was at least an honest one.
There are also types of experiences more or less complex in them-
selves or their settings, which properly demand discernment and judg-
5
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meat at the time of them, and accuracy of memory afterward, if they
are to be taken at their face value. Less well-known men may be able
to tell their stories with such manifest marks of intelligence, and so to
buttress them with collateral evidence as to convince readers of their
discernment, judgment and accuracy. But the very names of many
noted men are guarantees that their testimonies will be characterized
by these qualities. The reader either knows their careers or he can be
told in a few words what a glance in a biographical dictionary or
Who's Who will the more confirm. Hence the brief biographical
sketches in this volume. If in regard to their own simple though
weighty experiences (remote from the bejugglements of the senses by
art which can make wise men foolish) we cannot trust the discern-
ment, judgment and memory of such lawyers as Erskine and
Brougham, such scientists as Delitzsch, Linnaeus, Romanes and Muir,
such brilliant masters of varied affairs as Depew and Clews, such
physicians as the Coopers, Holmes, Esdaile and Liebeault, such keen-
witted men as Henry M. Stanley, Carl Schurz, W. R. Newbold and
Bishop Huntington, to name but a few of the witnesses we have sum-
moned, in whose can we place confidence?
There is another advantage which such witnesses of psychic occur-
rences possess. While I do not think that, as a matter of fact, more
than a very small percentage of the comparatively unknown persons
who relate incidents of this character actually invent them, the suppo-
sition that many of them do is much more plausible than with persons
of prominence. The latter are both, because of that intellectual keen-
ness which has made them prominent, less likely unconsciously to exag-
gerate and elaborate their experiences, and they are more protected
from the temptation to invent. An obscure person could get a little
publicity and attention by concocting a psychic romance in cold blood,
although careful inspection would generally, sooner or later, reveal the
imposture. But a popular writer like Sir Gilbert Parker, a great
military leader like Lord Roberts, a noted sculptor like Hiram Powers,
a cold-blooded geologist like Pumpelly, a psychologist like James, a
famous poet like Browning, a clergyman of national reputation like
Russell Conwell, — what has any of these to gain by telling a story of
the sort that the most of contemporary intellectuals still view askance?
In fact, so many of the class we are considering wait until their later
years before disclosing to the public their own peculiar incidents,
although these may have happened in their youth, ,that it looks as
though it were the consciousness of reputation which such a disclosure
cannot shake that at last encourages them to reveal the truth. On
similar grounds, we must suppose, certain lately reminiscencing ex-
royalties have been telling personal and family anecdotes which would
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embarrass most people to disclose. They feel insulated by that atmos-
phere of rank and grandeur which still lingers about them.
The collection of a large number of “ occult ” incidents experienced
by, witnessed by or, for compelling reasons, credited by, persons of
more or less note, is entitled to be called psychic research. It has cer-
tainly required research , perhaps beyond what would be supposed, to
bring together so many incidents, to find in nearly every instance bio-
graphical data from which to provide them with brief but illuminating
introductions, and, in many cases, to add some terse analysis or com-
ment. It is scientific, in that science, when its subject admits, always
endeavors to study it in what might be called the three scientific dimen-
sions: (1) Intrinsically — as to the nature of the thing in itself; (2)
Extensively — as to its distribution throughout the whole region where
it occurs or can be traced, be that region a small locality, the whole
planet, or one comprising inter-stellar space; (3) Historically — as to
its development or continuance in time. In this book a little is accom-
plished in all three directions. Every incident, if once it is accepted as
valid, reveals both in its narration by a person whose very name carries
weight, and in any editorial discussion, something of the intrinsic
nature of a phenomenon. Taken together, the incidents show that
either for their existence or their verification the several types of phe-
nomena do not depend solely upon the witness of persons whose ante-
cedents are obscure, or persons of a particular temperament, or
persons who are hysterical or otherwise abnormal, or persons of par-
ticular modes of thinking and belief. It unmistakably appears that
they are shared by a large number of prominent or even illustrious
people, including many whose neural and mental soundness has never
been questioned, persons of various opinions and temperaments, scien-
tists, agnostics, leaders of thought and moulders of history. And
something has been accomplished in the way of showing that the types
of phenomena reported here do not, as some seem to suppose, date only
from the Fox Sisters or from the Epworth parsonage, but go back,
essentially the same (however intensive experimentation has during the
last half century or so increased their number and enlarged their
scope), as far as we can carry our research.
The entire exclusion, except for one case, of incidents supposed to
involve supernormal physical phenomena will certainly puzzle many
readers, and be ascribed to invincible prejudice on the part of the
compiler, unless it is explained. The two principal reasons for this
exclusion are:
1. That no account of a physical phenomenon is worth anything
which does not set forth the surrounding conditions and the details
exhaustively, and this book is not the place for long technical reports
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and dry weighing of opposing arguments which claims of physical
phenomena always involve.
2. That sensory illusion is so gravely in question in connection
with physical phenomena as evidenced by the war regarding particular
cases between investigators convinced of such phenomena per se, and
by their occasional startling reversals of opinion, while it is so seldom
a question in connection with mental phenomena, as quite to justify, if
not demand, the entire separation of the two classes.
But I also exclude incidents drawn from experiments with profes-
sional mental mediums, and this also for two reasons chiefly :
1. Not because there are not plenty of good incidents of this pre-
cise character, but because to make them satisfactory to critical minds
they would require an amount of collateral detail for which there is not
here space.
2. Because there are plenty of extended reports of experiments
with professionals already accessible, whereas there is not in existence,
so far as I know, any large collection of the spontaneous and private
experiences of prominent people.
I even go so far as to include very few incidents growing out of the
work of recognized private mediums. This accounts, in part, for the
otherwise singular fact that there is not to be found here a single inci-
dent under the name of a well-known scientific psychical researcher
such as Professor Sidgwick, Mrs. Sidgwick, Myers, Gurney, Barrett,
Lodge, Hodgson, or Hyslop. For, in addition, so far as I have dis-
covered, none of these persons had any spontaneous experiences which
they thought worth reporting. I have not found in the whole task of
preparing this book, and at the moment I cannot remember, with a
single exception, any person of prominence in professional psychic
research who is generally regarded as scientific in his modes of ap-
proach, and who has admitted having had in his own person, a spon-
taneous psychic experience. It may be that there are such and that I
ought to recall the instances, but they must be few indeed.
This fact I recommend to the consideration of those who so glibly
employ the expression “ will to believe,” to explain the convictions to
which some of these leaders in psychic research, as Myers, Barrett,
Lodge, Hodgson, Hyslop and others, have come. If the will to believe
has its deadly control of their whole trend of thought, why did not
suggestion, auto-suggestion, illusion and morbid hallucination, which
are supposed by the same critics to account for the peculiar mental
phenomena of more obscure folk, induce in these men also peculiar
spontaneous experiences? Myers, Barrett, Lodge, Hodgson and
Hyslop all became convinced of spirit communication, but I have not
heard that any of them ever thought he saw a spirit, or had an appari-
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tional experience, in whatever light it should be regarded. It was not
Myers who declared that he saw the hallucinatory figure of a person
on the hour or day when that person died, but the eminent lawyer Lord
Brougham; it was Garibaldi, the military man; it was Harriet Hos-
mer, the sculptor. Not Barrett saw in the glass a distant scene and
distant acts, but Balfour, the statesman. Not Lodge experienced a
strange and compellingly evidential “ monition ;” but it was the
naturalist Muir, who had paid little attention to psychic research; it
was Moody, to whom the term psychic research probably suggested
heresy and sin. Not Hodgson, who would have enjoyed the experience,
was wakened by the sensation as of a hand and by words seemingly
ringing in his ears which had been uttered by a dying man in that room
shortly before, but Mrs. Stanton, who hated it at the time and disliked
to tell of it afterwards. It was not in the house of Hyslop nor ob-
served by himself and members of his family that various inexplicable
“ haunting ” phenomena occurred, but in that of the writer, scholar
and clergyman, Baring-Gould, and observed by himself and many
others of his household.
If there is any other class of persons which antecedently would
seem bound to be prolific in psychic experiences, it is that made up of
clergymen, theologians and lay evangelists. These men believe in the
survival of the dead, in interpositions from heaven in human affairs in
consequence of faith and prayer, in “ another world ” and in spiritual
realities. Their life business is largely to speak and write along these
lines. Then, if it is a matter of preoccupation, auto-suggestion and
the will to believe, it is quite to be expected that men of this class
should have many peculiar experiences of the sorts included in this
volume. And as a matter of fact, as will be seen, they father more
incidents, twenty-nine in number, than do any other class. But if this
is because of preoccupation with idealistic and unworldly thoughts,
auto-suggestion and the will to believe, the conclusion brings along
with it a corollary which is like being drenched with a bucket of cold
water, namely, that men of scientific pursuits are next to them most
infected with predisposing thoughts and impulses to believe. For their
names, twenty in number, are next the most frequent among the classes
I have roughly assembled.
But, if comparison is to be made, one of the two lists should not be
packed by a process unfair to the other. The fact is that, not expect-
ing to make any statistical comparison, I specially looked through
Sprague’s hundreds of biographical sketches of clergymen, and also
rather carefully examined the writings of the Ante-Nicene Church
Fathers; whereas no parallel compendium relating to scientific men or
any other class was consulted. The clerical and theological names
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found casually, as were those of the scientists, were twenty, which
makes the numbers equal.1 On the face of the fair returns, then, a
scientific man is exactly as likely to have a psychical experience as a
man whose profession is the inculcation of religion, and preoccupation
with purported spiritual realities no more tends to induce such experi-
ences than preoccupation with minerals, chemicals, bugs, beasts or the
physiological or mental characteristics of human beings.
But, again, we get no true statistical result unless we are able to
make some comparison between the respective numbers of the two
classes from which the representatives named in this book are drawn.
First be it observed that no man who is here classed as a scientist is
reckoned so because he simply taught some scientific subject; everyone
was or is an original investigator, and in nearly every case he has
added something to the world’s stock of knowledge which can be defi-
nitely traced to him. I have no means of knowing how many scientific
investigators there are, say in this country and in England, nor do I
know the number of clergymen, but no one can doubt that the latter
are far more numerous than the former. Then, so far as chance has
led me to the discovery of their stories, the appalling fact seems to
loom up, that scientists are more likely to have psychical experiences
N than are clergymen and theologians ! 2
It may be suggested that perhaps scientific men are more inclined
to tell their peculiar experiences than are men of the cloth. But why
in heaven’s name should that be? If many clergymen are inhibited by
the fear of being suspected of inclinations toward Spiritualism, surely
most scientists would dislike both that implication and the one of being
unscientific. Possibly scientific men tend to be bolder. But while I
know clergymen who will not permit their peculiar experiences to be
printed, I know men of science of which exactly the same thing is true.
Of course, on the basis of less than two hundred names, no serious
attempt can be made to measure the respective liability to psychical
experiences, of the various classes into which they may be arranged.
Else we would conclude that a military man cannot have such an
experience unless he is of the grade of General, since all of the eleven
military men represented here are of that rank. This is probably
1 Strictly, the figures are 19 to 19. as neither the incident of Professor Hilprecht
on the one hand, nor that of the Rev. Mr. Backus, on the other, is given as probably
of genuine “ psychic ” quality.
2 It may be objected that my statistics take no account of two or three clergy-
men, like Baring-Gouid and Sayce, assigned to other classes. They were so assigned
because primarily something else, and secondarily clergymen. If all the persons in
the book who really did scientific work were added to the list of “ Men of Science ”
it would gain more in number than the clerical list would gain by a similar proced-
ure. Several of the men listed as “ Physicians ” did genuine scientific work, as in the
study of hypnosis and suggestion, and in development of surgery.
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because none of the colonels and majors I encountered seemed to me
sufficiently “ noted ” to be entered, whereas certainly no higher creden-
tials of prominence were exacted from the clergymen than from the
scientists.
The difficulties of classifying human beings are insuperable. The
same man may be a great statesman and a great lawyer, a physician
and a scientist, a clergyman and a writer of stories. I have done my
clumsy best to put each man where he predominantly belongs,1 and
have then lumped together groups of the smaller classes so as to make
up chapters of not too unequal length.
Similar difficulties attend the classification and naming of phe-
nomena. The reader is emphatically notified not to regard the titles of
incidents in this volume as declarative. They are simply convenient
labels, giving names to phenomena (such as “ Monition,” “ Premoni-
tion,” etc.) according to what these seem, purport or are by many
believed to be, and sometimes even employing popular designations
(as “Haunted House” and “Traveling Clairvoyance”).
Incompetent testimony cannot acquire affirmative force through
mere mass. The combined opinions of a thousand untutored tribesmen
regarding the nature of zoological fossils would be worth precisely
what the opinion of one is worth — nothing. Even though a hundred
university professors, profoundly versed in their several specialities
but ignorant of certain species of human guile, should combine in de-
claring that they were witnesses to a marvelous feat of dexterity on
the part of an unknown man, that feat consisting in putting a long
thread into his mouth, following it with a quantity of loose needles,
and the stringing of the needles at intervals along the thread with his
tongue, their united testimony would be nullified in a moment by the
discovery that the stranger was Houdini or any other magician who
appears to do this very thing but does something quite different.
But in matters of spontaneous experience, which do not require for
their authentication a particular and rare species of knowledge, mass
of respectable testimony, in itself, undoubtedly does logically augment
the average convictive force of every individual testimony entering into
the mass. Certain of the incidents may be told intelligently by persons
apparently honest and yet, because they each depend upon the nar-
rator’s words and memory alone, be regarded with deep misgiving by
the reader. But when other incidents of precisely similar character
are told by other persons who bring to the support of their word
1 It is probable that a number of the assignments would be unsatisfactory to
their subjects, if living. For example, 1 think that Dr. H. R. Evans would prefer
to be designated as a writer. But as what seem to me his most important books
deal with magic, and he is himself considerably expert in that art, I classify him as
a magician, using the term in a wide sense.
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abundant collateral testimony and other proof, the unsupported inci-
dents at once gain in credibility, especially as the various narrators are
independent of each other, widely distributed in time and space, from
all the walks of life, and frequently uninterested in or even strongly
averse to the whole class of phenomena which the incidents apparently
illustrate.
Another weighty factor is added in this book. The more than one
hundred and seventy principal witnesses summoned are picked men and
women, selected because they stand above the common level for some
species of mental power. It may indeed be questioned whether a talent
for writing popular stories is necessarily accompanied by superior
judgment in regard to facts. But at any rate, their skill in the art of
description generally enables these writers to inform us clearly as to
the details of what happened to them. But the list embraces not a
few of the world’s geniuses, men who altered the current of civilized
thought or ushered in epochal discoveries. It embraces outstanding
scientists,1 eminent lawyers, statesmen and diplomats, great physicians,
famous military leaders, noted clergymen, and even well known repre-
sentatives of that very suspicious fraternity, the magicians. Certain
of them told their experiences but, like Delitzsch who could not repudi-
ate but would not answer questions, had no desire that the experiences
should appear in print. Some, like Obregon, manifest their internal
conflict between caution and candor by expressly disclaiming any
tendency toward “ superstition,” and others, like Schipa and Baring-
Gould, by ineffective attempts to explain. But they have told the
facts, or their friends who heard the facts from their lips have told
them, and these are what we want. By far the greater number, more
concerned with the claims of truth than with the gabble of the mob,
seem to have testified without any particular qualms, as befits men.
Nearly all of them, whether clergymen, scientists, poets, statesmen,
novelists, physicians, generals, lawyers, or whatever they may be, evi-
dently believed that their experiences were in some manner supernor-
mal. The authority of nearly all their one hundred and seventy names,
which shine with greater or less brilliancy, is on that side of the
question.
1 According to my reckoning: 1 geologist, 1 zoologist, 2 botanists, 1 astronomer,
3 metallurgists, 1 chemist, 2 naturalists, 2 mathematicians, 1 electrical engineer,
1 aeronautical engineer, 1 scientific inventor, 1 psychologist, and 3 orientalists.
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MEN OF SCIENCE
UTILIZABLE TELEPATHY 1
(LUTHER BURBANK)
The name of Luther Burbank (1849-1926), Sc.D. from Tufts Col-
lege, is familiar as that of the famous student and moulder of plant life,
originator of spineless cacti, the plumcot which is a quite new fruit, the
Shasta daisy, and a large number of varieties of potatoes, plums,
apples, peaches, nuts, cherries, vegetables, flowers, etc. His Experi-
mental Farms in California had, toward the end of his life, 6,000 dif-
ferent botanical species, and a million plants a year were tested. He
was a special lecturer on evolution at Leland Stanford, Jr., University,
and a member of many organizations.
I inherited my mother’s ability to send and receive communications.
So did one of my sisters. In tests before representatives of the Uni-
versity of California she was able, seven times out of ten, to receive
messages sent to her telepathically. My mother, who lived to be more
than ninety-six years of age, was in poor health the last years of her
life. During these years I often wished to summon my sister. On such
occasions I never had to write, telephone or telegraph to her. Instead,
I sent her messages telepathically, and each time she arrived in Santa
Rosa, California, where I live, on the next train.
It is hard to credit that, had records been kept of Dr. Burbank’s
attempts to send his sister messages by telepathy, they would have
shown unbroken success; on the other hand, it is very hard to believe
that such a statement would have been made by such a man without
considerable basis of fact.
THE TRANCES OF A PIONEER IN MATHEMATICAL AND
GENERAL SCIENCE 2
(JEROME CARDAN)
Girolomo Cardano (1501-1576), to give him his name in his own
language, was a famous Italian mathematician and physician. In
1 Article in Hearst's Magazine , May, 1923.
2 Taken immediately from Flammarion’s Autour de la Mart , p. 45, which derives
from Cardan's De Rerum Varietate, XXXIV. Translated by W. F. P.
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NOTED WITNESSES
1545 he published a book which marks an era in the history of mathe-
matics. His great work, De SubtUitate Rerum , printed in 1551, sounds
crude enough now, but it “ in his own age embodied the soundest phys-
ical learning of the time and simultaneously represented its most ad-
vanced spirit of speculation.” In a general way he divined some of the
principles worked out by Darwin 300 years later. “ Alike intellectually
and morally, Cardan is one of the most interesting personages con-
nected with the revival of science in Europe. . . . He possesses the
true scientific spirit in perfection.” “ Numerous instances of his belief
in dreams and omens may be collected from his writings, and he
specially valued himself in being one of the five or six celebrated men
to whom, as to Socrates, had been vouchsafed the assistance of a
guardian d®mon.” 1
In his fifty-fifth year, Cardan began to experience peculiar trance
or ecstatic states, which he thus described :
When I go into a trance I have near my heart a feeling as though
the spirit detached itself from the body, and this separation extends to
all the body, especially the head and neck. After that, I have no
longer the idea of any sensation, except of feeling myself outside of
the body.
During the trance [ extase ], he no longer felt the gout, from which
he suffered much in his normal state, because all his sensibility was
exteriorized.2
RAPS AND A VERIDICAL APPARITION 3
(THE EARL OF CRAWFORD)
James Ludovic Lindsay (1847-1913), earlier known as the Master
of Lindsay, was a Scottish peer and scientist, owning a string of de-
grees and titles, among which were K.T., V.D., D.L., J.P., LL.D.,
F.R.S., F.R.S.A., and V.P.S.A. He was a Trinity College, Cambridge
man, for a time a member of Parliament, also a President of the Astro-
nomical Society, a large landed proprietor, in 1874 organized and
1 The quotations are from Richard Garnett, LL.D., of the British Museum, in
Encyclopedia Britannica.
- Flammarion adds that “ Alfred de Musset saw sitting by his side a man ‘ who
resembled himself like a brother,’ ” and that “ George Sand declared that she had
many times had a hallucination, both visual and auditory, of her double.”
3 Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society,
1873, pp. 206-208.
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MEN OF SCIENCE 15
equipped an expedition to observe the transit of Venus, and erected the
Observatory at Sunecht, etc.
The following is a part of his testimony to the Committee of the
London Dialectical Society, read July 6, 1869:
I first met Mr. Home at the house of a friend of his and mine, Mrs.
G ; and when we left the party, I asked him to come into my
rooms, in Grosvenor Square, to smoke a cigar, etc. As he came into
the room I heard a shower of raps along a beam that crosses the ceil-
ing. It sounded like the feet of a flock of sheep being driven over
boards. This was the first thing of the sort I had ever heard and,
naturally, I was interested and wished for more, but in vain; nothing
more happened, and soon he went away. . . .
Another time, says the Master of Lindsay:
That evening I missed the last train at the Crystal Palace, and had
to stay at Norwood, and I got a shakedown on a sofa in Home’s room.
I was just going to sleep, when I was roused by feeling my pillow slip-
ping from under my head; and I could also feel, what seemed to be a
fist, or hand, under it, which was pulling it away ; soon after it ceased.
Then I saw at the foot of my sofa a female figure, standing en profile
to me. I asked Home if he saw anything, and he answered, “ a woman,
looking at me.” Our beds were at right angles to one another, and
about twelve feet apart. I saw the features perfectly, and impressed
them upon my memory. She seemed to be dressed in a long wrap,
going down from the shoulders, and not gathered in at the waist.
Home then said, “ It is my wife ; she often comes to me.” And then she
seemed to fade away. Shortly after, I saw on my knee a flame of fire
about nine inches high; I passed my hand through it, but it burnt on,
above and below it. Home turned in his bed, and I looked at him, and
saw that his eyes were glowing with light. It had a most disagreeable
appearance. The only time since that I have seen that occur, a lady
was very much frightened by it ; indeed, I felt uncomfortable myself at
it. The flame which had been flitting about me, now left me, and crossed
the room about four feet from the ground, and reached the curtains of
Home’s bed; these proved no obstruction, for the light went right
through them, settled on his head, and then went out ; and then we
went to sleep. There were no shutters, blinds, or curtains over the
windows; and there was snow on the ground, and a bright moon. It
was as lovely a night as ever I saw. . . . The next morning, before I
went to London, I was looking at some photographs, and I recognized
the face I had seen in the room up-stairs overnight. I asked Mrs.
Jencken who it was, and she said it was Home’s wife.
Riveting our attention on the female figure, it is difficult to imagine
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16 NOTED WIT>pSSES
how Home could in any way have produced the appearance by decep-
tion. The room seems to have been lighted by the moon, Home could
be seen in his bed and Lindsay talked with him as he was looking at the
figure. The witness says that he recognized her in one of the photo-
graphs he looked over the next day before he knew whom it represented,
and that it proved to be a photograph of the woman named by Home
as the “ figure.”
HEARS HIS FRIEND’S NAME MYSTERIOUSLY CALLED,
SHORTLY AFTER THE FRIEND DIED IN A
DISTANT LAND 1
(FRIEDRICH DELITZSCH)
This German Assyriologist (1850-1922) became, after the date of
the incident which follows, as renowned as George Smith himself, though
less of a pioneer, and proportionally not so prolific, since he lived
exactly twice as long. Delitzsch was professor of Semitic languages
and Assyriology successively in the Universities of Leipzig, Breslau and
Berlin, also director of the Asiatic section of the Royal Museum. He
wrote many noted books on Assyriology, the Semitic language and
the Old Testament.
George Smith died in Syria, August 19, 1876. In the (London)
Times of September 11, that year, appeared the following:
A most striking coincidence may here be mentioned without com-
ment. A young German Assyriologist of the highest promise, Dr.
Friedrich Delitzsch, is now, for the second time, in this country, having
been sent, as on his former visit, by the King of Saxony to study the
arrow-headed inscriptions in the British Museum. During his former
stay here last year, which was noticed at the time in our columns, Dr.
Delitzsch and Mr. George Smith naturally became fast friends, and the
Leipzig savant and his brother Hermann were chosen by Mr. Smith to
introduce to German readers his Chaldean Account of Genesis , which
has accordingly just been published at Leipzig under their joint
editorship.
On the 19th ult., the day of Mr. George Smith’s death, Dr. Delitzsch
was on his way to the house of Mr. William St. Chad Boscawen, who is
also a rising Assyriologist. Mr. Boscawen resides in Kentish Town, and
in passing the end of Crogsland Road, in which Mr. George Smith
1 Phantasms oj the Living, II, 563.
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lived, and within about a stone’s throw of the house, his German friend
said he suddenly heard a most piercing cry, which thrilled him to the
marrow, “ Herr Dr. Delitzsch.” The time — for as soon as he got over
the shock he looked at his watch — was between 6:45 and 7 f. m., and
Mr. Parsons gives the hour of Mr. Smith’s death as 6 p. m. Dr.
Delitzsch, who strongly disavows any superstitious leanings, was
ashamed to mention the circumstance to Mr. Boscawen on reaching that
gentleman’s house, although on his return home he owns that his ner-
vous apprehensions of some mournful event in his own family found
relief in tears, and that he recorded all the facts in his notebook that
same night. Dr. Delitzsch told the story at our informant’s breakfast-
table, with all the circumstances mentioned above, including the hour
at which he heard the shrill cry. He distinctly denied having been
thinking of Mr. George Smith at the time.
In 1885 the S. P. R. Committee, after several failures to get any
responses, sent Prof. Delitzsch a copy of the above and asked him to
contradict anything in it which was untrue, warning him that if not
contradicted it would be printed. As no reply was received, and the
“ reluctance to write on the subject ” which he expressed to an official
of the British Museum would surely not have extended so far as to fail
to stamp a falsehood, the account seems vindicated.
Mr. Gurney remarks that [taking in consideration the difference
of longitude], if the hours were correctly given, the cry was heard
about three and one-quarter hours after Mr. Smith’s death.
Note that Delitzsch was in Smith’s home town, to visit another
Assyriologist, and likewise near Smith’s house, when he heard his own
name called, with a “ most piercing cry, which thrilled him to the mar-
row.” Can it be supposed that any flesh-and-blood person screamed
out in such fashion, and without any indication of his presence? — for
it would not have been in human nature not to look in every direction
instantly. Would a human voice have “ thrilled him to the marrow ”?
Would he have been so affected afterward — he, who disliked such things
so much — if he had found any normal explanation possible? And was
it not odd, if any living person caused that impression of a terrible cry,
that it happened to be in Smith’s town, near Smith’s house and so soon
after Smith’s far-off death?
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NOTED WITNESSES
“ TRAVELING CLAIRVOYANCE ” IN HYPNOSIS 1
(AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN)
Professor De Morgan (1806-1871) was one of the most eminent
mathematicians and logicians of his period. He graduated from Trin-
ity College, Cambridge, but his refusal to sign the theological tests
blocked the way to an M.A. degree and a fellowship. At the age of
twenty-two he became professor of mathematics at University College,
London, where he remained for a third of a century. “ As a teacher of
mathematics De Morgan was unrivaled. . . . The most prolonged
mathematical reasoning, and the most intricate formulas, were given
with almost infallible accuracy from the resources of his extraordinary
memory.” 2 He wrote a Treatise on Differential and Integral Calculus ,
and many other mathematical books and articles. But it is probable
that his influence in the field of logic was greater still, and here his
principal work was Formal Logic , or the Calculus of Inference , Neces-
sary and Probable. “ Apart from his conspicuous position as a logical
and mathematical discoverer, we may conclude that hardly any man of
science in recent times has had a more extensive, though it may often
be an unfelt influence, upon the progress of exact and sound knowl-
edge.” The testimony of such a man is of great weight, and the sig-
nificance of the incident he relates it seems impossible to evade.
I have seen a great deal of mesmerism and have tried it myself
on for the removal of ailments. But this is not the point. I had
frequently heard of the thing they call clairvoyance, and had been
assured of the occurrence of it in my own house, but always considered
it as a thing of which I had no evidence direct or personal, and which
I could not admit till such evidence came.
One evening I dined at a house about a mile from my own — a house
in which my wife had never been at that time. I left it at half-past ten,
and was in my own house at a quarter to eleven. At my entrance my
wife said to me, “ We have been after you,” and told me that a little
girl whom she mesmerized for epileptic fits (and who left her cured),
and of whose clairvoyance she had told me other instances, had been
desired in the mesmeric state to follow me to Street, to ’s
house. The thing took place at a few minutes past ten. On hearing
the name of the street, the girl’s mother said:
“ She will never find her way there. She has never been so far
away from Camden Town.”
1 Modem Spiritualism, by Frank Podmore, I, 148-50.
2 This and the following quotation are from W. S. Jevons in Encyclopedia Britan-
nica, 9th edition.
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The girl in a moment got there. “ Knock at the door,” said my
wife. “ I cannot,” said the girl ; “ we must go in at the gate.” (The
house, a most unusual thing in London, stands in a garden; this my
wife knew nothing of.) Having made the girl go in and knock at the
door, or simulate or whatever the people do, the girl said she heard
voices up-stairs, and being told to go up, exclaimed, “ What a comical
house! there are three doors,” describing them thus. [Diagram given.]
(This was true, and is not unusual in any but large houses.) On being
told to go into the room from whence voices came, she said, “ Now I see
Mr. de Morgan, but he has a nice coat on, and not the long coat he
wears here ; and he is talking to an old gentleman, and there are ladies.”
This was a true description of the party, except that the other gentle-
man was not old.1 “ And now,” she said, “ there is a lady come to them,
and is beginning to talk to Mr. de Morgan and the old gentleman, and
Mr. de Morgan is pointing at you and the old gentleman is looking at
me.” About the time indicated I happened to be talking to my host
about mesmerism, and having mentioned what my wife was doing, or
said she was doing with the little girl, he said, “ Oh, my wife must hear
this,” and called her, and she came up and joined us in the manner de-
scribed. The girl then proceeded to describe the room: stated that
there were two pianos in it. There was one [piano], and an ornamental
sideboard, not much unlike a pianoforte to the daughter of a poor
charwoman. That there were two kinds of curtains, white and red, and
curiously looped up (all true to the letter), and that there were wine
and water and biscuits on the table. Now, my wife, knowing that we
had dined at half-past six, and thinking it impossible that anything but
coffee could be on the table, said, “You must mean coffee.” The girl
persisted, “ Wine, water and biscuits.” My wife still persuaded that
it must be coffee, tried in every way to lead her witness, and make her
say coffee. But still the girl persisted, “ Wine, water, and biscuits,”
which was literally true, it not being what people talk of under the
name of a glass of wine and a biscuit, which means sandwiches, cake,
etc., but strictly wine, water, and biscuits.
Now, all this taking place at twenty minutes after ten was told to
me at a quarter to eleven. When I heard that I was to have such an
account given I only said, “ Tell me all of it, and I will not say one
word ;” and I assure you that during the narration I took the most es-
pecial care not to utter one syllable. For instance, when the wine and
water and biscuits came up, my wife, perfectly satisfied that it must
have been coffee, told me how the girl persisted, and enlarged upon it as
a failure, giving parallel instances of cases in which the clairvoyants
had been right in all things but one. All this I heard without any inter-
ruption. Now that the things happened to me as I have described at
twenty minutes after ten, and were described to me as above at quarter
1 He may have been, from the viewpoint of a “ little girl.”
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NOTED WITNESSES
to eleven, I could make oath. The curtains I ascertained next day, for
I had not noticed them. When my wife came to see the room she in-
stantly recognized the door, which she had forgotten in her narrative.
All this is no secret. You may tell whom you like, and give my
name. What do you make of it? Will the never-failing doctrine of
coincidence explain it?
A DYING VISION 1
(AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN)
For many years, as we have seen, he had been deeply interested in,
and had closely investigated, tales of appearances of the dead to the
dying. During the last two days of his life his son William, watching
by him, observed that he seemed to recognize the presence of all those
of his family whom he had lost by death — his three children, his mother
and sister, all of whom he greeted audibly, naming them in the reverse
order to that in which they left this world. Whether it was the wan-
dering of a dying brain or a happy vision of actuality, who shall decide?
PREVISIONAL DREAMS 2
(J. W. DUNNE)
Mr. Dunne is said to be an aeronautical engineer of very high repu-
tation in England, who has been prominently connected with the devel-
opment of aviation.
In the spring of 1902 I was encamped with the Sixth Mounted In-
fantry near the ruins of Lindley, in the (then) Orange Free State. We
had just come off trek , and mails and newspapers arrived but rarely.
There, one night, I had an unusually vivid and rather unpleasant
dream.
I seemed to be standing on high ground — the upper slopes of some
spur of a hill or mountain. The ground was of a curious white forma-
tion. Here and there in this were little fissures, and from these jets of
vapor were spouting upward. In my dream I recognized the place as
an island of which I had dreamed before — an island which was in immi-
nent peril from a volcano. And, when I saw the vapor spouting from
1 William De Morgan and His Wife, by A. M. W. Stirling (Henry Holt & Co.,
N. Y., 1922), 81.
2 An Experiment with Time, by J. W. Dunne (Macmillan Co., 1927), 34-7.
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the ground, I gasped : “ It’s the island ! Good Lord, the whole thing is
going to blow up! ” For I had memories of reading about Krakatoa,
where the sea, making its way into the heart of a volcano through a
submarine crevice, flushed into steam, and blew the whole mountain to
pieces. Forthwith I was seized with a frantic desire to save the four
thousand (I knew the number) unsuspecting inhabitants. Obviously
there was only one way of doing this, and that was to take them off in
ships. There followed a most distressing nightmare, in which I was at
a neighboring island, trying to get the incredulous French authorities
to dispatch vessels of every and any description to remove the inhabit-
ants of the threatened island. I was sent from one official to another;
and finally woke myself by my own dream exertions, clinging to the
heads of a team of horses drawing the carriage of one “ Monsieur le
Maire,” who was going out to dine, and wanted me to return when his
office would be open next day. All through the dream the number of
the people in danger obsessed my mind. I repeated it to everyone I
met, and, at the moment of waking, I was shouting to the “ Maire,”
“ Listen ! Four thousand people will be killed unless ”
I am not certain now when we received our next batch of papers,
but, when they did come, the Daily Telegraph was amongst them, and,,
on opening the centre sheet, this is what met my eyes :
Volcano Disaster in Martinique — Town Swept Away — An
Avalanche of Flame — Probable Loss of Over
40,000 Lives — British Steamer Burnt. Etc.
Note the correspondences :
Dream
1. Volcano.
2. On an island.
3. French inhabitants of a neigh-
boring island.
4. Mountain “flushed into steam.”
5. “ Going to blow up.” Memo-
ries in the dream of another
case where conditions “ blew
the whole mountain to pieces.”
6. Mention of “ ships.”
7. Dreamer oppressed by the
number of people to be killed.
8. Number killed, 4,000.
Facts
1. Volcano (Pel6e).
2. On the island Martinique.
3. The white population of the
adjacent island, St. Lucia, is
nearly all French.
4. Mt. Pel£e sent out a blast of
incandescent gas.
5. The narrator in the newspaper
described how “ the mountain
seemed to split open all down
the side.”
6. Printed article has about a
“ British ship burnt,” and in
fact there were many ships in
the harbor.
7. The destruction of life was
indeed enormous.
8. Number of killed the same with
another cipher added.
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There are certainly a number of striking correspondences. Even
in respect to the number of people killed, while in one sense there is a
great difference, in another there is little; whether in hastily glancing
at print or in recollecting a round number, it is easy to leave off or add
one cipher. I am not suggesting that any analogous process was in-
volved— we know nothing, whatever our various conjectures, as to
the process.
Be it noted that the dream was “ unusually vivid ” and very emo-
tional— characteristics which attach to most dreams which find com-
plex external correspondences.
But the fact above all which makes it exceedingly difficult to assign
the correspondences to chance coincidence is that Mr. Dunne has
recorded so many which also complexly coincided with outward and
future events in many of their salient features.
We do not know how soon after the dream the disaster took place —
seemingly the date of the former was not recorded, but it was “ in the
spring of 1902;” the Mt. Pelee catastrophe occurred May 8.
DOWSING PHENOMENA 1
(WILLIAM E. GREENAWALT)
William E. Greenawalt (1866-....), C.E. and B.S. of Cornell,
spent ten years in engineering and architecture in New York City, but
has since turned his attention to mining and metallurgy. He has taken
out more than one hundred patents, mostly in connection with the
“ Greenawalt Electrolytic Copper Extraction Process,” and is the
author of The Hydrometallurgy of Copper , and many technical
articles.
Some years ago I visited a mining camp in southern Colorado, and
spent an evening with the superintendent of the largest mine in the
district. In the course of the conversation he told me that a dowser
had been to see him sometime previously, and that he was curious
enough to pay $25 for an exhibition. The dowser, he said, indicated to
him the exact position of a vein of which he had no knowledge. He was
then cross-cutting to intersect the known veins, and was interested to
see if there was anything to the dowser’s information. He found the
vein almost exactly as described, and asked me if I could offer any
1 From letter by Mr. Greenawalt in Engineering and Mining Journal, January
14, 1928.
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explanation. I told him coincidence might be an explanation, if it
explained anything.
About the same time I was superintending the construction of a
mill in Colorado. One of my associates in this work had read about
locating mineral veins with a forked stick, and he suggested that we try
it. I agreed, but with the stipulation that he was to carry the forked
stick. As we tramped over the hills he remarked several times that he
felt a perceptible tug on the stick, and I concluded that his imagination
was working overtime. Suddenly he stopped, and apparently was
making a great effort to hold the stick horizontally against a force
which was attempting to pull it down. He called my attention to it,
and as I looked him over in an incredulous way, he said, “ Well, if you
do not believe it, try it yourself.” I did, but to me it was simply a
forked willow stick we had cut a short time before. I handed it back
to him, and immediately apparently the tugging started again. I
concluded at the time that if there was not a mineral deposit where we
stood, there was at least an interesting psychological problem con-
nected with the affair.
The phenomena of dowsing does not appear as obscure to me now
as it did then. The mistake is usually made by confusing a psychical
phenomenon with a physical phenomenon. Dowsing, as I see it, is
purely a psychical phenomenon. It finds almost an exact duplication
in the very common psychic phenomenon known as table-tipping and
automatic writing. It is, in fact, essentially the same thing. While
dowsing cannot very well be investigated experimentally, everyone can
easily experimentally investigate table-tipping and automatic writing.
Few people who have scientifically investigated these common phe-
nomena doubt their reality. Everyone who has scientifically investi-
gated them knows about their unreliability. Sometimes results are
obtained bordering on the miraculous; then again, at other times, the
results are entirely negative, apparently without cause.
Nobody realizes better than I do that these phenomena are ridi-
culed and explained on the basis of fraud, but ridicule and fraud do not
explain anything except the mental attitude of the one who asserts
them. Anyone can observe these phenomena, and anyone who claims to
know even the elements of research and experimentation can eliminate
fraud and coincidence without much trouble. I eliminated them by
experimenting with friends and members of mv own family and house-
hold. I even eliminated them from consideration of fraud and coinci-
dence by giving mental directions and by mentally (not audibly) ask-
ing questions. In table-tipping, for example, the table would respond
to my mental directions when there was no physical contact between
me and the table. These phenomena are very common, and I am simply
mentioning them here to show their identity with the much-discussed
subject of locating water or mineral deposits with a forked stick.
Those who can produce the phenomena of table-tipping can usually
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without much difficulty produce the phenomena of automatic writing,
and I should confidently expect, on experimentation, to find that they
could also produce the phenomena of dowsing, and vice versa. These
phenomena are admittedly unreliable and unsatisfactory, but as one
roams over the mining regions of the West and sees the innumerable
abandoned prospect holes dug by hard-headed prospectors and intelli-
gent engineers, he is far from impressed with the infallibility of their
judgment, even on matters they claim to know about.
William E. Gbeenawalt.
“ TRAVELING CLAIRVOYANCE ” 1
(WILLIAM GREGORY)
Professor William Gregory (1803-1858), son and grandson of
eminent professors in medical colleges of Scotland, was professor of
chemistry first at the Andersonian Institution in Glasgow, then at
King’s College in Aberdeen, and finally at Edinburgh University. He
was author of treatises on chemistry, an essay on “ animal magnetism,”
and translated several works of Von Liebig, whose theories he
championed.
Mr. Podmore quotes also a letter of Professor Gregory, of Edin-
burgh. Professor Gregory had paid a visit to a friend in a town some
thirty miles from Edinburgh, and there met a lady who had been twice
mesmerized by this friend and who'was not known to Professor Gregory.
She apparently had some clairvoyant powers and described Professor
Gregory’s house in Edinburgh so accurately that he was moved to the
experiment which he describes in the following letter:
“ I now asked her to go to Greenock, forty or fifty miles from where
we were (Edinburgh was nearly thirty miles distant) and to visit my
son, who resides there with a friend. She soon found him, and de-
scribed him accurately, being much interested in the boy, whom she had
never seen nor heard of. She saw him, she said, playing in a field out-
side of a small garden in which stood the cottage, at some distance from
the town, on a rising ground. He was playing with a dog, but had no
idea of what kind, so I asked her. She said it was large, but young
Newfoundland, black, with one or two white spots. It was very fond
of the boy and played with him. ‘ Oh,’ she cried suddenly, ‘ it has
jumped up and knocked off his cap.’ She saw in the garden a gentle-
man reading a book and looking on. He was not old, but had white
1 Enifftnas of Psychical Research, by J. H. Hyslop, 278-79.
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hair, while his eyebrows and whiskers were black. She took him for a
clergyman, but said he was not of the Established Church, nor Episco-
palian, but a Presbyterian dissenter. (He is, in fact, a clergyman of
the highly respectable Cameronian body, who, as is well known, are
Presbyterians, and adhere to the covenant.) Being asked to enter the
cottage, she did so, and described the sitting-room. In the kitchen, she
saw a young maidservant preparing dinner, for which meal a leg of
mutton was roasting at the fire, but not quite ready. She also saw
another elderly female. On looking again for the boy, she saw him
playing with the dog in front of the door, while the gentleman stood in
the porch and looked on. Then she saw the boy run up-stairs to the
kitchen, which she observed with surprise was on the upper floor of the
cottage (which it is) and receive something to eat from the servant,
she thought a potato.
“ I immediately wrote all these details down and sent them to the
gentleman, whose answer assured me that all, down to the minutest,
were exact, save that the boy did not get a potato, but a small biscuit
from the cook. The dog was what she described; it did knock off the
boy’s cap at the time, although not of the household. Every one of
which facts was entirely unknown to me, and could not, therefore, have
been perceived by thought reading, although, had they have been so, as
I have already stated, this would not have been less wonderful, but only
a different phenomenon.”
EXTREME EXAMPLES OF THE POWER TO CARRY ON
PROCESSES OF REASONING SUBCONSCIOUSLY
(HERMAN V. HILPRECHT)
These are included, not because they are presumed to be supernor-
mal incidents but because they might easily be deemed such, and illus-
trate the very great care which must be exercised before one takes his
stand upon a conclusion of supernormality. They show that some per-
sons, once they have performed conscious mental labor on some intri-
cate problem, are able to carry on the ratiocinative process after they
are asleep. Probably in varying degrees this is the case with all peo-
ple, but some are insufficiently reflective or introspective ever to take
notice, while with the majority who do little in the way of hard thinking
even when awake, the ability to do so while asleep is too feeble to leave
recognizable traces.
Since it is presumed that most “ supernormal ” mental events first
pass through the subconscious, though they do not have their origin in
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it, the examples given will show that, potent as that “ machine ” may
be for such a purpose, it may also sadly interfere with it by its own
normal activity. Hence it is expected that, although automatic writing
or speaking may announce facts in such number and complexity as defy
any attempt to normally explain them, since the psychic’s subconscious
had no known data on which to found even inferences, yet it will, once
-tehe prime facts, say about a stranger present, emerge within it, tend to
make its own inferences, often erroneous, and so evidently obscure and
damage the record. Only in rare instances does it appear almost com-
pletely to escape doing so.
The instances selected were furnished by Dr. Herman V. Hilprecht,
Professor of Assyrian in the University of Pennsylvania, and were first
printed by Professor William Romaine Newbold in the Proceedings S.
P. R., Vol. XII, pp. 13-20. I abbreviate and analyze them in my
own way.
During the winter of 1882-1883, he was working with Professor
Friedrich Delitzsch, and preparing to publish the original text, its
transliteration and its translation, of a stone of Nebuchadnezzar. He
had accepted Prof. Delitzsch’s explanation that the name Nebuchad-
nezzar— N abu-kudurru-usur — meant “ Nebo protect my mason’s pad ”
(mortar-board), i. e.> “ my work as a builder.” One night, after work-
ing late (it is not said that he was engaged on the problem of this
name — probably not, but at least on related or similar ones) he went
to bed at about two o’clock in the morning. He woke after somewhat
restless sleep, with the thought in his mind that the name should be
translated “ Nebo protect my boundary.” He but dimly remembered
dreaming of being at work at his table. As he began to reflect, “ at
once ” (illustrating how the bright thoughts which suddenly emerge
full-grown in our consciousnesses may have been worked out in the sub-
conscious) he saw that kudurru could be derived from kadaru, to en-
close. “ Shortly afterwards he published this translation in his disser-
tation, and it has since been universally adopted.”
The second example is far more intricate and striking. This is
Prof. Hilprecht’s own account.
One Saturday evening, about the middle of March, 1893, 1 had been
wearying myself, as I had done so often in the weeks preceding, in the
vain attempt to decipher two small fragments of agate which were
supposed to belong to the finger-rings of some Babylonian. The labor
was much increased by the fact that the fragments presented remnants
only of characters and lines, that dozens of similar small fragments
had been found in the ruins of the temple of Bel at Nippur with which
nothing could be done, that in this case furthermore I had never had
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the originals before me, but only a hasty sketch made by one of the
members of the expedition sent by the University of Pennsylvania to
Babylonia. I could not say more than that the fragments, taking into
consideration the place in which they were found and the peculiar
characteristics of the cuneiform characters preserved upon them,
sprang from the Cassite period of Babylonian History (circa 1700-
1140 b. c.) ; moreover, as the first character of the third line of the
first fragment seemed to be KU, I ascribed this fragment, with an in-
terrogation point, to King Kurigalzu, while I placed the other frag-
ment, as unclassifiable, with other Cassite fragments upon a page of
my book where I published the unclassifiable fragments. The proofs
already lay before me, but I was far from satisfied. The whole prob-
lem passed yet again through my mind that March evening before I
placed my mark of approval under the last correction in the book.
Even then I had come to no conclusion. About midnight, weary and
exhausted, I went to bed and was soon in deep sleep. Then I dreamed
the following remarkable dream. A tall, thin priest of the old pre-
Christian Nippur, about forty years of age and clad in a simple abba,
led me to the treasure-chamber of the temple, on its southeast side. He
went with me into a small, low-ceiled room, without windows, in which
there was a large wooden chest, while scraps of agate and lapis-lazuli
lay scattered on the floor. Here he addressed me as follows : “ The two
fragments which you have published separately upon pages 22 and 26,
belong together, are not finger-rings, and their history is as follows:
King Kurigalzu (circa 1300 b. c.) once sent to the temple of Bel,
among other articles of agate and lapis-lazuli, an inscribed votive cylin-
der of agate. Then we priests suddenly received the command to make
for the statue of the god Ninib a pair of earrings of agate. We were
in great dismay, since there was no agate as raw material at hand. In
order to execute the command there was nothing for us to do but cut
the votive cylinder into three parts, thus making three rings, each of
which contained a portion of the original inscription. The first two
rings served as earrings for the statue of the god; the two fragments
which have given you so much trouble are portions of them. If you
will put the two together you will have confirmation of my words. But
the third ring you have not yet found in the course of your excavations,
and you never will find it.” With this, the priest disappeared. I awoke
at once and immediately told my wife the dream that I might not for-
get it. Next morning — Sunday — I examined the fragments once more
in the light of these disclosures, and to my astonishment found all the
details of the dream precisely verified in so far as the means of verifica-
tion were in my hands. The original inscription on the votive cylinder
read: “ To the god Ninib, son of Bel, his lord, has Kurigalzu, pontifex
of Bel, presented this.”
The problem was thus at last solved. I stated in the preface that
I had unfortunately discovered too late that the two fragments be-
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longed together, made the corresponding changes in the Table of Con-
tents, pp. 50 and 52, and, it being not possible to transpose the
fragments, as the plates were already made, I put in each plate a brief
reference to the other. (Cf. Hilprecht, The Babylonian Expedition of
the University of Pennsylvania, Series A, Cuneiform Texts, Vol. I,
Part 1, “ Old Babylonian Inscriptions, chiefly from Nippur.”).
H. V. Hilprecht.
Professor Hilprecht finally verified the principal facts asserted in
the dream relative to the rings and inscription, as he says, the next
day. But immediately following the dream he went to his study and
provisionally verified it by reference to his working copy. His wife
made a statement narrating that she was awakened by a sigh, saw him
hurrying into his study, and heard him cry : “ It is so, it is so ! ” She
followed him and heard the story of the dream.
The following was also furnished by the Professor. It is necessary
for a clear understanding of the matter.
The following transliteration of the inscription, in the Sumerian
language, will serve to give those of us who are unlearned in cuneiform
languages an idea of the material which suggested the dream. The
straight vertical lines represent the cuts by which the stone-cutter
divided the original cylinder into three sections. The bracketed words
are entirely lost, and have been supplied by analogy from the many
similar inscriptions.
Line 1. Dingir N
inib du
(mu)
To the god Ninib, child
“ 2. dingir
En
(HI)
of the god Bel
“ 3. luga
1 - a - ni
(ir)
his lord
“ 4. Ku-r
(i-galzu)
Kurigalzu
“ 5. pa-
(tesi dingir "
2nlil)
pontifex of the god Bel
“ 6. (in- na-
ba)
has presented it.
Now let us condense and newly frame Prof. Hilprecht’s explanation
of the subconscious process of making inferences from data which had
been consciously known.
1. The first line of ring 2 completed the name Ninib begun at the
end of line one of the first ring. Reading the second lines of the rings
together made “ of the god Bel,” except that a part of the god’s name
was missing. The third lines read together made sense, “ his lord,” if
ir were supplied at the end. Probably a little more study done in the
ordinary way would have disclosed these facts. Continuing the study
while asleep, the scholar’s subconsciousness recognized the connections.
Therefore the two rings must originally have formed one piece.
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2. But the words at the end of lines one, two and three of the
second ring were not complete, though the conjectural completion of
them was not difficult. Hence there must have been at least another
ring belonging with the first two, as was announced in the imagery of
the dream.
3. But slight additions were required at the end of lines one to
five of the second ring to make the whole inscription continuous and
complete. Hence it would be unlikely that the original cylinder was
sawn into more than three rings, the number given in the dream.
4. After the two discovered rings, or copies of their inscriptions
were placed in juxtaposition, line for line, it could easily be made out
by an Assyrian scholar that somebody presented an object to the god
Ninib, child of the god Bel, and that the name of that somebody very
likely began with the Ku-r. Having arrived so far, the name of the
known Babylonian King Kurigalzu would come to mind — in fact it
already had done so to Prof. Hjlprecht’s waking consciousness. So
King Kurigalzu plays his part in the dream.
5. The fact announced so graphically in the dream, that the
object was given to the god Ninib, appeared in the first line of the two
rings when they were subconsciously remembered and joined.
6. And the fact, also announced in the dream, that the rings were
originally a part of a votive cylinder, could also be inferred from the
joining of the lines on the two rings.
7. The fact announced in the dream, that the rings were ear-rings,
is not a certain fact. But it is a reasonable supposition, and one for
which data were not lacking, though the conclusion shows how saga-
ciously the subconsciousness reasoned. Prof. Hilprecht had consciously
doubted that the rings could have been used as finger-rings, as the size
of the hole to be made out from their fragments did not seem to be
suitable. But why might they not have been seal-rings? In fact they
may have been, but such usually have pictorial representations upon
them, these had not, and presumably hence the plausible guess that
they were ear-rings.
8. The assertion in the dream that the third ring had not been
discovered probably had its origin in the inference that, as the frag-
ments had been supposed to belong “ to some Babylonian,” hence were
found in the same place, had there been found a third one or a part of
it, this would also have been submitted for examination. As to the
added statement that it never would be discovered, this was a very
probable one, as the spot where the other fragments were found would
of course have been thoroughly cleared out.
9. But what of the location of the “ treasure chamber ” at the
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southeast side of the temple? Prof. Hilprecht remembered that he had
heard from Dr. John P. Peters, before the dream, of the discovery of a
room the floor of which was strewn with fragments of lapis-lazuli and
agate, the latter being the material of the rings, but said he knew
nothing of the location of the room. Dr. Peters, however, afterward
declared that he furnished Prof. Hilprecht all these facts, including
that of the location of the room, as many as four years previous to the
dream. It only needs to be presumed that he stored away in his sub-
consciousness a fact which he consciously forgot.
The two rings were represented to be of different colors, and this
may have hindered the Professor from thinking that they might belong
together. For some reason the dreaming consciousness ignored this
fact, in presence of the compelling fact that the lines did actually join
to make sense. I say ignored, rather than inferred what proved to be
the case, that the sawing happened to be at the line which joined a light
to a dark band of the agate, a stone whose distinguishing feature is that
it is so banded. If such an inference had been made it would probably
have come out in a dream story of the cutting apart of the cylinder.
All the other features of the dream are simply fanciful conjectures.
This dream is admitted among the “ psychic ” incidents of this
collection, because it is such a beautiful demonstration of subconscious
mechanics.
A HARVARD PROFESSOR DECLARES THAT HE SUC-
CEEDED IN PROJECTING HIS “ DOUBLE ” 1
(REPORTED BY WILLIAM JAMES)
The Professor shielded himself from the deep disgrace of having
successfully performed a curious but very important scientific experi-
ment, by requiring William James (who, although a psychologist of
great reputation and equally a Harvard professor, was not at all em-
barrassed at having his interest in psychic research known) to with-
hold his name.
We do not know who the narrator was, but have the assurance of
William James that he was “ an able and respected professor in Har-
vard University,” also that he told James the story soon after the
thing happened, and that the version which was finally written out
tallied exactly with James’s recollection of the earlier oral one. It is
i Journal A. S. P. R., Ill, 253-4.
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unfortunate that the testimony of “ A ” and “ B ” was not available, of
course, but the testimony of a man in a high academic position, a man
vouched for by William James, is worth something.
In the present case the “ agent ” is a colleague of mine ; an able
and respected professor in Harvard University. He originally told me
the story shortly after it happened in 18 — . The present account,
written at my request in 1903, tallies exactly with my memory of that
earlier story. “ A ” at that time was unwilling to give me her version.
She is now dead, and of course the narrative is in so far defective.
Cambridge, April 16, 1903.
My dear Dr. James:
I recall exactly all the details of the matter which you wish me to
write about, but I cannot be sure whether the thing occurred in the
latter part of 1883 or the first part of 1884. At this time A and I
were seeing each other very frequently, and we were interested, among
other things, in that book by Sinnett on Esoteric Buddhism. We
talked a good deal about it, and about the astral body, but neither ever
made any proposal to the other to try any experiments in that line.
One evening, about 9:45 o’clock, or, perhaps, nearer 10, when I
had been thinking over that subject as I sat alone in my room, I re-
solved to try whether I could project my astral body to the presence
of A. I did not at all know what the process was, but I opened my
window, which looked toward A’s house (though that was half a mile
away and behind a hill) and sat down in a chair and tried as hard as
I could to wish myself into the presence of A. There was no light in
my room. I sat there in that state of wishing for about ten minutes.
Nothing abnormal in the way of feelings happened to me.
Next day I met A, who said something to this effect. (I mean that
I cannot give the exact words.)
“ Last night about ten o’clock I was in the dining-room at supper
with B. Suddenly I thought I saw you looking in through the crack
of the door at the end of the room, towards which I was looking. I said
to B: ‘There is Blank, looking through the crack of the door!’ B.,
whose back was towards the door, said : ‘ He can’t be there ; he would
come right in.’ However, I got up and looked in the outer room, but
there was nobody there. Now, what were you doing last night at
that time? ”
This is what A told me and I then explained what I had been doing.
You see, of course, that the double evidence (I mean, A’s and B’s)
might make this story pretty well founded, but it must be left entirely
independent on my account, for there are good reasons why neither
A nor B can be appealed to.
One such successful experiment is worth a dozen spontaneous ap-
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paritions of the living. To suppose that a woman should, through the
activity of her own brain unassisted by any force coming from without,
experience the hallucination of seeing a man who was at that moment
or very near it endeavoring at a distance to produce that very phe-
nomenon in her consciousness, and this by sheer coincidence, is a prac-
tical absurdity. Even if there had been a proposal to try the experi-
ment but without arranging the time for doing so, the case would have
been striking, but with no such plan between them to experiment at
any time, it would seem as if every connection between what occurred
and the field of what we understand by the word “ normal ” had been
severed.
Put it in still another way. We do not know how many years of
adult life “ A ” had. Suppose them to have been only ten. Compara-
tively few persons experience the hallucination of seeing a living person
not actually present, once during their lives. If “ A ” had ever had
such an experience before she met or talked about the astral body with
the then or after professor of Harvard, it would have been so relevant
that she surely would have told him of it. It is unlikely that she ever
had another such experience afterward, but let us suppose that she did
three times. We are now straining probability from two directions in
favor of conservatism, first by assuming that she had only ten years
of adult life, and second, by assuming that in those ten years she four
times had a visual hallucination of seeing a living person. Now, ac-
cording to the Harvard professor there was no doubt at all that she
experienced the one of seeing him within the half hour when he was
endeavoring to make her do so. Mathematically, on the basis proposed
that the lady would experience such a hallucination four times within
the ten years, the chance that one of those times should coincide with
the half hour within which the Harvard professor was trying his ex-
periment would be 1 in 43,800, or, if we exclude one-third of the time
as being spent in sleep (rather unfairly, as there are alleged instances
of persons being wakened as one of the results of such a successful
experiment), the chance would be 1 in 29,200.
HEARS IN A LOCKED ROOM WALKING RESEMBLING THAT
OF A FRIEND WHO DIED THE SAME HOUR 1
(CAROLUS LINNAJUS)
This famous botanist of Sweden (1707-1778) was, in 1761, granted
a patent of nobility and took the name Carl von Linn4, but is generally
1 Flammarion’s Autour de la Mort, 300-01.
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referred to by the earlier one. He probably advanced his science more
than any other one man. His Genera Plantarum was the beginning of
modern systematic botany, and he first established the law by which
plants are classified in genera and species. “ He found biology a
chaos; he left it a cosmos.” For many years he was a professor of
botany in the University of Upsala, attracting students from all over
the world and wielding an immense influence over them. The number
of students at the university was normally 500; it trebled while he
lectured there. His published works are many.
He left at death a manuscript of 200 pages recording many dreams,
intuitions, apparitions and other interesting facts. The following
incident was witnessed by him :
On the night of July 12-13, 1765, toward midnight, my wife for a
long time heard someone walking, with a heavy step, in my museum.
She woke up. I also heard it, although I was quite certain that no one
could be there, for the doors were fastened and the key in my pocket.
Some days after, I learned that my very faithful friend, the commis-
sary Karl Clerk, died precisely at that hour. It was certainly his step.
I used to recognize Clerk, in Stockholm, merely by the sound of his
footstep.1
Linnaeus, one of the greatest scientists and closest observers of
facts of his age, here puts himself on record as having heard, together
with his wife, sounds resembling the walking of a friend in a locked and
empty room, at the hour when that friend died.
TELEPATHIC INTIMATIONS OF DISASTERS HAPPENING
TO HER SON
(HUDSON MAXIM, GUARANTOR)
This eminent inventor (1853-. . . .), ended his formal education at
what is now Kents Hill Seminary, in Maine, but was made D.Sc. by
Heidelberg University, and LL.D. by St. Peters. He was the first to
1 Alexandre Dumas the elder (1802-1870), the celebrated French novelist, tells in
his Memoires, with much detail, how when his father. General Dumas (1762-1806),
died unexpectedly and at a distance from him, he and his cousin were wakened sud-
denly, by a knock on the door of his room, at the same hour, and he went toward the
door, crying, “ Good-by, papa 1 ” But he was only four years old at the time, and if
we have difficulty in crediting that he could remember all the conversation which
took place at his so early an age, we cannot feel certain of all his facts. Still, the
event of his father’s death, and a startling occurrence the same night, might and prob-
ably would stamp themselves indelibly, in their essentials, upon his consciousness.
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make smokeless powder in the United States, and it was adopted by
the Government. He invented “ Maximite,” the first high explosive to
penetrate heavy armor plate, perfected “ stabillite,” which produces
better ballistic results than any other smokeless powder, and produced
many other inventions, mostly having to do with powder and explosives.
He became a member of the United States Naval Consulting Board in
1815. As author he produced The Science of Poetry and the Philos-
ophy of Language, Defenseless America, and Dynamite Stories. Sir
Hiram S. Maxim, an eminent inventor of automatic firearms, was his
brother, and Hiram P. Maxim, inventor of the “ Maxim silencer,” etc.,
is his nephew.
I copied the following letter from the original, written to Dr. Isaac
K. Funk. So far as I am aware, it has not previously been published.
March 25, 1908.
My dear Dr. Funk :
Following are the stories I told you a few evenings ago at my house
about the peculiar mental powers which it was believed my mother
possessed.
These incidents are entirely outside my own personal experiences,
as I was too young at the time to understand much about such things,
and I simply repeat the stories as they have often been told to me.
My father and mother were spiritualists, and spiritualism was very
popular in Maine between forty and fifty years ago. There were many
experiments made from time to time to test spiritualistic or medium-
istic powers, so-called. My mother was blindfolded, while a five-dollar
gold piece was buried or hidden under a stone or concealed in some way
in a ten-acre lot. She was then unblindfolded and followed what she
called the “ influence ” and used to find the five-dollar gold piece all
right. This test was repeated many times.
One of the neighbors, a blacksmith, made a large knife for her and
hid it in the woods and told her that she should have it if she could find
it. She made several ineffectual attempts, the “ influence ” bringing
her up against a big tree every time which blocked her way. She would
then go back and make another start, — always with the same result.
Finally, she went around the tree and found the knife sticking in the
tree on the other side.
One day, mv father and mother and a spiritualistic neighbor, to-
gether with a spiritualistic medium who resided at our house, drove
down to the seashore to bring back a load of Captain Kidd’s treasure,
which the medium claimed she could locate. I was a little fellow —
perhaps six years old — at the time, but I distinctly remember how we
children spent that money building air castles and how disappointed
we were when the party returned at night without the gold.
My brother Leander was one night spearing suckers in the flume.
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through which the wrater ran with considerable swiftness, rushing down
under the gate at the lower end. My mother woke my father in the
night very suddenly w’ith the exclamation, “ Isaac ! Isaac ! Leander
has fallen into the flume ! ” My father told her that she had only had
a bad dream ; but a little while later Leander came home, soaking wet.
He had fallen into the flume, but as he was swept along by the current,
he caught hold of one of the large wooden pegs in the side of the flume
and pulled himself out, thus saving his life.
Leander served in the heavy artillery in the Civil War, and when,
during the Battle of the Wilderness, the artillery men were taken to
the front as infantry, he was shot at Spottsylvania Courthouse. My
mother woke my father in the night, as before, and told him that
Leander had been shot and killed. Several days later, news came of the
battle with the list of the killed and wounded, and Leander’s name wras
among the killed. Her dream had been on the night of the battle.
Yours faithfully,
Hudson Maxim.
Of course the witnesses were nearly all dead when, ten years later,
I wrote to Mr. Maxim, asking for corroboration. The reply is dated
July 10, 1918.
I enclose you a letter received from my cousin Caroline Maxim
True, of Dexter, Maine. She is an old lady now nearly eighty, and
she remembers and verifies what I told you.
Faithfully yours,
Hudson Maxim.
The enclosed letter, in part, reads :
My dear Cousin : In answer to your question in regard to your
mother finding things, I believe you are right, as your sister Lucy told
me all about it just as you said, and she was a dear girl and I think she
told it just as it was.
Your loving cousin,
Caroline.
As to the incidents of finding hidden objects, it would be necessary
to know the conditions under which the feats were performed, in order
to estimate their evidential value. If her hand was in contact with any
other person, it might be muscle-reading, though she were quite uncon-
scious of the fact. If others accompanied her, they may have quite
unintentionally guided her.
But the incidents of waking and announcing the mishaps of Leander
are not subject to any particular reasons for doubt. We know that
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many incidents of this character take place, and Mr. Maxim’s recol-
lections of the repeated statements of his family make it fairly certain
that his mother had these supernormal intimations.
A REMARKABLE MONITION
(JOHN MUIR)
The geologist, naturalist and explorer John Muir (1838-1914),
was born in Scotland, educated there and at the University of Wiscon-
sin, and had the degrees of A.M. from Harvard and LL.D. from Wis-
consin. Muir Glacier in Alaska was discovered by him, as well as more
than sixty other glaciers among the Sierras where geologists had
thought there were none. He spent the most of his mature life in
Alaska and California, and labored for forest preservation and the
establishment of national parks and reservations. He wrote The
Mountains of California and a large number of articles on physiog-
raphy and the natural history of the Pacific Coast, and edited Pictur-
esque California.
Dr. James D. Butler was a member of the faculty of the University
of Wisconsin, being professor of ancient languages and literature from
1858 to 1868. He was an honored citizen, a man of much learning,
and traveled extensively. Data about him may be found in the Ameri-
can “ Who’s Who ” for 1906-7, and in the National Cyclopedia of
American Biography, 1899.
Mr. Muir’s premonition, telepathic impression, or whatever it may
be called, concerned the writer of the notes which precede his own
narrative, Prof. Butler.
Madison, Wis., Feb. 7, 1888.
Friend Hodgson :
I have tried to rouse John Muir to tell you, or me, his story of our
Yosemite rencontre, in ’69. I will again.
He did write my wife at the time but his letter cannot be found.
Yrs. James D. Butler.
Madison, Wis., Feb. 8, ’88.
My Dear Sir :
The letter long sought in vain has just turned up. I have taken
pains to copy and oblige you. . . .
James D. Butler.
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Headquarters of the Tuolumne near Castle Peak,
Aug., 1869.
Mbs. James D. Butler,
Dear Friend : I found your Professor a few weeks ago in the Sierra
Nevada Mountains, and in the very Yosemite Sanctum itself, and
among the divine harmonies of the Vernal and Nevada Falls. Where
you first met your Professor I do not know, but surely I might venture
to say that it was not in so goodly a mansion as this, — not amid such
blazing assemblies of God’s mountain grandeur.
I have been taking care of 2,500 sheep in the mountains all summer.
Your husband wrote me a letter in May, before he decided to visit Cali-
fornia, which I received in July when I was camped in a maze of sharply
cut mountains, a day’s journey above Coulterville. Shortly after re-
ceiving his letter we moved our sheep higher, and camped upon the
north wall of the Yosemite Valley two miles from the brink. We re-
mained here nearly three weeks, and almost every day I wandered along
the valley domes and falls sketching and absorbing the inexhaustible
treasuries of glory, when suddenly I was seized with the idea of going
down into the valley to find Professor Butler.
I knew a way through the wall by an immense canyon or chasm, and
I felt that I should be resisting the spirit if I did not go. The next day
I started for the valley and reached the bottom in five hours. Consult-
ing the hotel register I found, James D. Butler, Madison, Wis. I could
scarcely believe my eyes and read the precious words over and over.
At last I got faith to believe that after the long cold years of isolation
a friend was really near in the flesh, and that my eyes would be blessed
that very day with light from a familiar face. I started in pursuit.
Ere long I met Gen. Alvord with his guide and others who had started
for a climb with Prof. Butler, but had turned back exhausted. They
informed me that Prof. Butler and Joshua Jones, of New York, had
undertaken without a guide to reach the top of Mount Broderick. I
lay in wait for the Prof, at a place near the Nevada rapids, on a trail
I knew he must take. Towards evening he came to light among the
rocks, half erect, groping his way among the broken granite and
bushes; sleeves rolled up, vest open, hat dangling behind his back, etc.
On seeing me approach he sat down to wipe the perspiration from his
brow and neck, and to inquire the way down the rapids. I showed him
the path which was marked by little piles of rock ; but he did not recog-
nize me. Then I sprang directly in front of him and asked if he did not
know me. He said he thought not, but soon changed his mind. . . .
Farewell,
Most cordially your friend,
John Muir.
And Professor Butler adds to the letter a note of his own :
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When the feeling above described arose in Muir that he might reach
me, his old teacher, within a day’s march, the word telepathy — far feel-
ing— had not yet been coined. That feeling demanded such a word to
describe it.
It is fortunate that Muir described his strange impulse in black and
white, and that within a month of his unique experience. I am also
glad that his letter, mislaid and long given up for lost, has remained
safe and sound.
My own impressions derived from conversation with Muir as he
piloted me down the mountain, that but for his appearing “ as an angel
dropped down from the clouds,” I must have been lost in the darkness
then coming on, I have described in a paper entitled “ Presentiments.”
They harmonize with Muir’s letter, and have been often reprinted as
one of those pages of truth which are stranger than fiction.
James D. Butler,
Feb., 1888. Madison, Wis.
Owing to the fact, for which Dr. Hodgson was not responsible, that
he was unable to secure the promise of extra copies of the publication
in which the incident was to appear, Professor Butler forbade its pub-
lication. But many years have passed, the parties are all dead, and
there can be no reason for withholding it, especially as, in substance,
it had already been told, probably in newspapers or magazines. But
if the letter by John Muir has ever before been published,1 we are not
aware of the fact.
COINCIDENTAL DREAMS 2
(RAPHAEL PUMPELLY)
Professor Pumpelly (1837-....?) had a long and distinguished
career as a geologist and author. He made geological explorations in
Corsica, Japan (for the Government of Japan), various parts of
China (part for the Government of China), the Gobi Desert, etc.,
before becoming professor of mining at Harvard, 1866-73. After
that he was state geologist of Michigan for three years, then directed
the geological survey of that State, and was afterwards chief of a
division of the United States Geological Survey. He organized and
xThis appeared first in the Journal A. S. P. R., for August, 1921, as part of an
article by W. F. Prince.
2 The Cosmic Relations and Immortality, by Henry Holt (Houghton Mifflin Co.,
1919), I, 258-59.
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directed the Northern Transcontinental S.urvey, 1881-4, made the
discoveries on which were based most of the iron-ore industry of
Michigan and Western Ontario, 1867-1901, and directed a great geo-
graphical and archaeological survey of Central Asia. He was the
author of a number of books dealing with the geology of various lands.
Between forty and fifty years ago, while visiting my sister in New
York City, I came down to breakfast where I found my brother-in-law
reading the morning paper. Soon my sister also came down and joined
us at table. She said she had had an awful dream; she had dreamed
all night that she was standing in a church, where a continuous pro-
cession of men was filing by her, carrying on litters something covered
with sheets.
Her husband resumed reading his paper and soon said : “ Why,
Netty, here it says that they are removing the bodies from the St.
Mark’s graves.”
Now, my sister’s first child had been buried several years before in
the graveyard of St. Mark’s Church. My sister had not seen the
paper, and neither she nor her husband had heard of any intention to
disturb the graves.
In the late winter of 1864-5, I was on my journey through Siberia.
In one of the first nights after leaving Irkutsk I dreamed that I had
arrived at my native village of Owego in New York and had walked
home from the station. As I came up the driveway to the house I saw
my mother and my father standing at the door showing signs of great
relief. I noticed that my aunt, who lived with us and whom we all
loved dearly, was not there. As soon as I waked I was so impressed
by the dream that I made a memorandum, as I remember, in the form
of an inverted torch, with the date.
When I reached St. Petersburg, about three weeks later, I found
in my mail the first news I had had, for six months, from home. I
learned that the aunt I had missed in my dream had died. I do not
remember now the relation in time between the dates of the death and
the dream. It was close, and my impression is that I thought, in read-
ing the letter, that there was coincidence.
In 1906 we were living in Capri. One morning my wife told me of
dreaming that she found her sisters and her brother Otis (who had
died several years before) in tears. When they saw her, Otis said:
“ We must tell Eliza.”
That same day there came a cablegram saying that my wife’s favor-
ite brother Horace was very ill, and within an hour another cable
saying he had died.
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MONITION OF A DEATH, AND OF A SENTENCE UTTERED
WHILE DYING 1
(PROFESSOR R. A. S. REDMAYNE)
“ Professor R. A. S. Redmayne,” wrote Sir Oliver Lodge to me on
February 20, 1928, “ was at one time a colleague of mine in the Uni-
versity of Birmingham as our first Professor of Mining. He was very
successful in establishing a Mining Department, which dealt with metal-
liferous mines and methods of extraction, but more especially with the
mining of coal; and that gradually developed into exploration and
boring for oil : so that when he retired from the Chair he was succeeded
by Sir John Cadman, who is now Chairman of the Anglo Persian Oil
Company. Redmayne vacated the Chair to take up duties of advising
the Government in all matters connected with coal mining. He is now
Sir Richard Redmayne, and has offices in or near Whitehall.”
A case of clairvoyance or distant telepathy was told me by my
college Professor R. A. S. Redmayne, as having happened in his own
experience when he was engaged in prospecting for mines in a remote
district of South Africa accompanied only by a working miner from
Durham. His account is here abbreviated:
So far as they could keep a record of weeks the solitary two used to
play at some game on Sundays, instead of working, but on one particu-
lar Sunday the workman declined to play, saying he did not feel up to
it, as he had just had an intimation of his mother’s death, — that she
had spoken of him in her last hours, saying that she “ would never see
Albert again.”
My informant tried to chaff his assistant out of his melancholy,
since it was a physical impossibility that they could receive recent news
by any normal means. But he adhered to his conviction, and in accord-
ance with North Country tradition seemed to regard it as natural that
he should thus know.
Weeks afterwards complete confirmation came from England, both
as to date and circumstance; the words of the dying woman having
been similar to those felt at the time by her distant son.
The occurrence made a marked impression on my informant and
broke down his skepticism as to the possibility of these strange
occurrences.
Fortunately I am able to quote confirmatory evidence of this narra-
tive; for very soon after the verification Professor Redmayne wrote an
account of it to his father, and from this gentleman I have received a
certified copy of the letter:
1 The Survival of Man, by Sir Oliver Lodge, 77-79.
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Letter from Professor Redmayne to His Father
“ Mgagane, Nr. Newcastle, Natal,
‘‘21st Nov., 1891.
“ I have a curious and startling thing to tell you : About six weeks
ago, Tonks said to me one morning, * My mother is dead, sir. I saw
her early this morning lying dead in bed and the relatives standing
round the bed; she said she would never see me again before she died.’
I laughed at him and ridiculed the matter, and he seemed to forget it,
and we thought (no) more of it, but Tonks asked me to note the date
which I did not do. Last Wednesday, however, Tonks received a letter
from his wife telling him that his mother was dead and had been buried
a week, that she died early one Sunday morning about six weeks since
and in her sleep ; but before she fell asleep she said she would never see
‘ Albert ’ again. About a fortnight since I told some people what Tonks
had told me, giving it as an instance of the superstitiousness of the
Durham pitmen, and they were startled when, the other day, I told them
the dream had come true. I will never laugh at anything like this
again.”
The above is an extract from a letter from my son R. A. S. Red-
mavne written from Mgagane, Natal, S. A., and dated November
21st [1891].
John M. Redmayne.
August 1, 1902.
Harewood, Gateshead.
Professor Redmayne has also been good enough to get a certificate
from the workman concerned, in the form of a copy of the main portion
of the above letter, with the following note appended:
“ The above extract correctly relates what occurred to me whilst
living in Natal with Mr. Redmayne.”
Signed Albert Tonks.
Date August 21, 1901.
Witness to above signature, N. B. Paddon,
Seaton Delaval.
APPARITION OF A PERSON ABOUT TO DIE 1
(GEORGE JOHN ROMANES)
Professor G. J. Romanes (1848-1894) was a distinguished English
psychologist and zoologist. He was born in Canada, educated at Cam-
bridge, elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1879. He lectured at
the Universities of Cambridge and Edinburgh and elsewhere, con-
1 Proceeding a S. P. R., XI, 440-41, article on “ Subliminal Self,” by F. W. H. Myers.
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tributed extensively to periodicals, and wrote Science Lectures for the
People, Mental Evolution, Animal Intelligence, Charles Darwin: His
Character and Life, and other books.
Professor Romanes wrote to Mr. Myers, November 20, 1889:
Towards the end of March, 1878, in the dead of the night, while
believing myself to be awake, I thought the door at the head of my bed
was opened and a white figure passed along the side of the bed to the
foot, where it faced about and showed me it was covered head and all in
a shroud. Then with its hands it suddenly parted the shroud over the
face, revealing between its two hands the face of my sister, who was ill
in another room. I exclaimed her name, whereupon the figure vanished
instantly. Next day (and certainly on account of the shock given me
by the above experience) I called in Sir Wr. Jenner, who said my sister
had not many days to live. [She died, in fact, very soon afterwards.]
I was in good health, without any grief or anxiety. My sister was
being attended by our family doctor, who did not suspect anything
serious, therefore I had had no anxiety at all on her account, nor had
she herself.
I have never, either before or after this, had such an experience.
(Signed) G. J. Romanes.
Mr. Myers adds:
The impression made by this incident upon the late Dr. Romanes,
F.R.S., was, as he has more than once told me, very deep; nor was
there, he thought, any such anxiety in his mind at the time with regard
to his sister as could have predisposed him to this unique hallucination.
There were, I may add, other unpublished circumstances which con-
firmed him in his view of the matter.
A “ HAUNTED ” HOUSE 1
(ARCHIBALD HENRY SAYCE)
The Rev. A. H. Sayce (1846-. . . .) was educated at Oxford, of
which he was made a Fellow in 1869. He became a very distinguished
Orientalist, and his books on the archaeology, languages, religions and
history of the ancient Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites and Hebrews
were many. He successfully vindicated the political and ethnic impor-
tance of the Hittites and the Biblical statements regarding them which
1 Reminiscences, by A. H. Sayce (1923), 14-17.
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had been discredited by scholars. For twenty-four years he was
deputy professor of comparative philology at Oxford, and was a
member of the Old Testament Revision Company, 1874-1884. He
traveled much in the East.
When thirteen years old he and his brother visited friends in a
house near Bath, which they had just taken. While there events took
place which made an indelible impression upon his memory.
On a Thursday afternoon when the light was failing I closed my
books and went up-stairs to prepare myself for dinner while there was
still sufficient light to do so without the help of a candle. I was stand-
ing brushing my hair before the toilet-table which stood in front of the
window, when I happened to turn to the right and there saw a man
standing a few steps away at the entrance of the dressing-room. I can
still see him as he stood facing me, with a closely-shaven face, fine
features, dark-brown hair parted in the middle, and a dark coat but-
toned below the chin like an oriental Stambouli or a clerical coat. The
button was of gold, and there was a gold button also on either wrist.
The suddenness of the apparition naturally startled me, and with-
out imagining for a moment that it was anything more than an ordi-
nary individual who had found his way into the house, I rushed
down-stairs into the morning-room and there told my hosts that there
was a strange man up-stairs. I was naturally laughed at, and informed
that poring over books indoors day after day had excited my imagina-
tion and that the whole thing was merely the result of “ nerves.” By
the time dinner was over I had been induced to believe that such was
really the case.
The following Sunday I awoke early in the morning. The log-fire
was nearly extinct, but there was still sufficient light from it to enable
the outlines of objects to be discerned. In the dim light I saw a human
figure pass to the foot of the bed and there stand for a moment or two
between the bedstead and the dying fire. I asked my brother Herbert,
who was sharing the bed with me and happened also to be awake, who
it was. He, too, saw the figure and replied, “ It’s only Lizzie ” — the
daughter of our hosts, whose room was close to ours, and thereupon we
both turned round and went to sleep again. In the morning I men-
tioned to our hostess, Mrs. Boyd, that her daughter had visited our
bed-room during the night; she replied, “What could she have been
doing there? ” and then the matter passed out of our memories until it
was recalled to me the following autumn by Mrs. Boyd.
The next event of which I know was a visit paid by a Mrs. Herbert
to the house in the spring. On a certain Sunday morning she asked if
she might change her room, as she had had an unpleasant experience
early that morning. She had seen a man come out of the dressing-
room, pass along the side of the bed and then stoop down so as to be
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NOTED WITNESSES
concealed by its foot. She jumped out of the bed to see who was there,
and nothing was visible. The whole story was naturally treated as a
dream by those who heard it.
In the following September the married daughter of the Boyds and
her husband paid a visit to the Court. A few days later we were lunch-
ing there, and I heard from Mrs. Holt a somewhat vivid account of the
experiences they had just had. They occupied the drab room, and she
slept on the side of the bed nearest the dressing-room. Early on the
previous Friday morning she was roused from her slumbers by feeling
“ a cold, clammy hand ” laid across her forehead. She opened her eyes,
and saw “ the dark-brown figure of a man hieing away ” from her into
the little dressing-room. She awoke her husband, who told her she had
had a nightmare ; but she refused to sleep again on that side of the bed.
The next night Mr. Holt was rendered sleepless by a toothache, and,
therefore, as he informed his wife, had there been any ghosts about, he
must have seen them. By Saturday night, however, his toothache was
cured, and his sleep accordingly was sounder than usual. He was
startled out of it by feeling the same “ cold, clammy hand ” as that
described by his wife, and, as he opened his eyes, seeing the same figure
retreating into the dressing-room. He looked at his watch and found
that it was four o’clock. He got out of bed and sponged his face and
head with cold water; then returned to the bed and sat up in it for a
moment or two. Before he could lie down “ the figure ” returned from
the dressing-room and stood close to his shoulder. He was able to
measure it against the window-frame, but I do not remember what he
said was the exact height. His description of “ the figure,” however,
agreed exactly with what I had seen, even to the three gilt buttons.
While he sat gazing at it, the figure slowly vanished out of view.
That there was “ a ghost ” in the Court now began to be noised
abroad, and the old servants of our friends threatened to leave them.
In the course of the winter, consequently, they gave up the place and
took a house elsewhere. From that day to this I have heard nothing
more about it or its occupants, ghostly or otherwise.
PSYCHIC PHENOMENA AMONG SAVAGES 1
(ERNEST THOMPSON SETON)
The following account is of incidents not indeed witnessed by Ernest
Thompson Seton (1861-....), but they were evidently credited by
him, and he lived for years in the wilds of Canada and on the Western
plains as they were forty years ago, and had many contacts with In-
1 The Arctic Prairies, by E. T. Seton.
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dians. He was at one time official naturalist to the government of
Manitoba. He has written many books on wild animals and the woods,
and furnished the illustrations representing birds and animals in vari-
ous books, including many of those in the Century Dictionary.
Mr. Seton thus sets down incidents reported by Thomas Anderson,
who was in the service of a commercial company :
In the winter of 1885-6 he [Thomas Anderson] was to be in charge
of Nipigon House, but got orders beforehand to visit the posts on Al-
bany River. He set out from Fort William on Lake Superior on his
1200-mile trip through the snow with an Indian whose name was Joe
Eskimo, from Mantoulin Island, 400 miles away. At Nipigon House
he got another guide, but this one was in bad shape, spitting blood.
After three days’ travel the guide said : “ I will go to the end if it kills
me, because I have promised, unless I can get you a better guide. At
Wayabimika (Lake Savanne) is an old man named Omeegi; he knows
the road better than I do.” When they got there, Omeegi, although
very old and half blind, was willing to go on condition that they did
not walk too fast. Then they started for Osnaburgh House on Lake
St. Joseph, 150 miles away. The old man led off well, evidently knew
the way, but sometimes would stop, cover his eyes with his hands, look
at the ground and then at the sky, and turn on a sharp angle. He
proved a fine guide and brought the expedition there in good time.
Next winter at Wayabimika (where Charley de la Ronde was in
charge, but was leaving on a trip of ten days) Omeegi came in and
asked for a present — “ a new shirt and pair of pants.” This is the
usual outfit for a corpse. He explained that he was to die before
Charley came back ; that he would die “ when the sun rose at that
island ” (a week ahead). He got the clothes, though every one laughed
at him. A week later he put on the new garments and said : “ Today I
die when the sun is over that island ! ” He went out, looking at the sun
from time to time, placidly smoking. When the sun got to the right
place he came in, lay down by the fire, and in a few minutes was dead.
We buried him in the ground, to his brother’s great indignation
when he heard of it. He said : “ You white men live on things that come
out of the ground, and are buried in the ground, and properly, but we
Indians live on things that run above ground, and want to take our
last sleep in the trees.”
Another case of Indian clairvoyance ran thus: About 1879, when
Anderson was at Abitibi, the winter packet used to leave Montreal
January 2, each year, and arrive at Abitibi January 19. This year it
did not come. The men were much bothered, as all plans were upset.
After waiting about two weeks some of the Indians and half-breeds
advised Anderson to consult the conjuring woman, Mash-kou-tay Ish-
quay (Prairie woman, a Flathead from Stuart Lake, B. C.). He went
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and paid her some tobacco. She drummed and conjured all night. She
came in the morning and told him : “ The packet is at the foot of a
rapid now, where there is open water; the snow is deep and the travel
heavy, but it will be here tomorrow when the sun is at that point.”
Sure enough, it all fell out as she had told. This woman married a
Hudson’s Bay man named MacDonald, and he brought her to Lachine,
where she bore him three sons ; then he died of smallpox, and Sir George
Thompson gave orders that she should be sent up to Abitibi and there
pensioned for as long as she lived. She was about 75 at the time of
the incident. She many times gave evidence of clairvoyant power.
The priest said he “ knew about it, and that she was helped by the
devil.”
Dr. J. H. Hyslop thus comments on this account : 1
It is of peculiar interest to find such phenomena among savages,
even when they are not as fully confirmed or investigated at the time,
because savages are not sophisticated and are so removed from the
ideas and habits of civilized people as not to be as much infected with
the influences that make for fraud. There is fraud and imposture
among them. Their priests and medicine men often learn how to dupe
their victims, but in spite of this the phenomena appear with individ-
uals not in the craft and they help to prove that the phenomena belong
to the human race, and are not limited to the craft formed for the pur-
pose. Besides this the conditions of life are such that intercommunica-
tion and other forms of casual information, which affect evidential pos-
sibilities, are not present, and the facts are more easily freed from the
difficulties that affect them among the civilized, though defects in the
reporting of them often compensate for this advantage.
CLAIRVOYANTLY WITNESSES A FIRE IN PROGRESS AT
THREE HUNDRED MILES DISTANCE
(EMANUEL SWEDENBORG)
This great man of science, mystic and theologian, originally
named Swedberg (1688-1772), was son of a Swedish bishop and pro-
fessor of theology; and in his childhood his parents thought that
“ angels spoke through him.” He was taught Latin, Greek and He-
brew, mathematics and the sciences in the University of Upsala, and
became one of the most learned men of his age. Successively he was
1 Journal A. S. P. R., March, 1918.
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editor of a scientific magazine, appointee of Charles XII. as assessor
in the Swedish College of Mines, inventor of a machine to transport
boats overland, author of mathematical and mechanical works, created
Count by Queen Ulrica with name changed to Swedenborg, author of
several more books of science gradually verging upon philosophy. In
1744 he believed that “ heaven opened to him,” and then began his
series of theological works on which is founded the Swedenborgian (or
“ New ”) Church.
The evidence for this incident and those relating to Swedenborg
which follow it is condensed from a paper prepared by the Rev. John
Whitehead 1 for reading at a meeting of the B. S. P. R., and printed
in the New Church Review, October, 1927.
What is the evidence proving that Swedenborg saw, described, and
announced the fire and its progress? . . .
The report of these three remarkable experiences 2 soon reached
the ears of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who discusses
them in his Dreams of a Spirit Seer, published in 1766. This book
excited the curiosity of Madam von Knobloch, who wrote to Kant ask-
ing him about the facts. Kant replied to this letter on August
10, 1768.
Kant had a friend, an Englishman, named Green who was going to
Stockholm. He commissioned him “ to make particular inquiries re-
specting the miraculous gift which Swedenborg possesses.” “ Kant
made the acquaintance of his friend Green during the summer of 1767 ;
Green saw Swedenborg early in 1768, and returned to Konigsberg in
time to meet Kant on Whit-Monday, 1768.” Green was a highly edu-
cated English gentleman who became an intimate friend of Kant, and
it is to him that Kant owed his direct knowledge of the facts concerning
Swedenborg. These facts he communicated to Madam von Knobloch.
He wrote her as follows concerning the Stockholm fire:
“ The following occurrence appears to me to have the greatest
weight of proof, and to place the assertion respecting Swedenborg’s
extraordinary gift beyond all possibility of doubt. In the year 1759
[the German original has 1756] toward the end of September [July],
on Saturday at four o’clock p. m., Swedenborg arrived at Gottenburg
from England, when Mr. William Castel invited him to his house, to-
gether with a party of fifteen persons. About six o’clock, Swedenborg
1 Mr. Whitehead, a member of the B. S. P. R., is probably the most learned
clergyman of the New Church in America, translator and expositor of Swedenborg,
theological professor, lecturer, editor. A full set of Swedenborg’s more generally
known works has been placed in the B. S. P. R. library through Mr. Whitehead’s
good offices, and Swedenborg’s Spiritual Diary in five volumes, and Journal of
Dreams, of more direct interest to psychic research, have been given by Mr. Clarence
W. Barron, editor and author.
2 The Fire, the Lost Receipt, and the Queen’s Secret.
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went out, and returned to the company quite pale and alarmed. He
said that a dangerous fire had just broken out in Stockholm, at the
Sodermalm [Gottenburg is about fifty German miles, or 300 English
miles, from Stockholm], and that it was spreading very fast. He was
restless, and went out often. He said that the house of one of his
friends, whom he named, was already in ashes, and that his own was in
danger. At eight o’clock, after he had been out again, he joyfully ex-
claimed, ‘ Thank God! the fire is extinguished, the third door from my
house.’ This news occasioned great commotion throughout the whole
city, but particularly amongst the company in which he was. It was
announced to the governor the same evening. On Sunday morning
Swedenborg was summoned to the governor, who questioned him con-
cerning the disaster. Swedenborg described the fire precisely, how it
had begun, and in what manner it had ceased, and how long it had con-
tinued. On the same day the news spread through the city ; and as the
governor had thought it worthy of attention, the consternation was
considerably increased, because many were in trouble on account of
their friends and property, which might have been involved in the dis-
aster. On Monday evening a messenger arrived at Gottenburg, who
had been dispatched by the Stockholm Board of Trade during the
time of the fire. In the letters brought by him the fire was described
precisely in the manner stated by Swedenborg. On Tuesday morning
the royal courier arrived at the governor’s, with the melancholy intelli-
gence of the fire, of the loss which it had occasioned, of the bouses it
had damaged and ruined, not in the least differing from that which
Swedenborg had given at the very time when it happened; for the fire
was extinguished at eight o’clock.” 1
Tafel remarks on this account:
“ This is the most minute account which we have of this occurrence ;
and as Kant’s friend, the Englishman Green, according to Kant, ‘ ex-
amined all, not only in Stockholm, but also in Gottenburg, where he
was well acquainted with the most respectable houses, and where he
could obtain the most authentic and complete information,’ we have
full reason to place implicit reliance upon it.” 2 *
There are several other independent testimonies to this incident.
Swedenborg himself gave an account of it to Bergstrom, a resident
of London, who reported it as follows :
“ Swedenborg also related the story of the fire at Stockholm, that
after he had gone out from the company into the garden of the house
at Gottenburg, he returned, and told the company soon after, that his
house and garden were safe, and described how near the flames had
come to it, though no account from thence had then arrived.” 8
1 Documents Concerning Swedenborg, II, 628-29.
2 Ibid., II, 630.
2 Ibid., II, 631.
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Jung-Stilling, in his Theory of Pneumatology, narrates the story
of the Stockholm fire, and says,
“ I consider it my duty to make known the -pure truth respecting
him, since I have had opportunity of knowing it pure and uncontami-
nated. . . . This story is certain and true.”
Christopher Springer, one of Swedenborg’s personal friends, a man
very prominent in Swedish political affairs, and later residing in Lon-
don and receiving important positions under the British Government,
says of the fire:
“ I asked Swedenborg whether it was true, as I had been informed,
that when he was at Gottenburg (a town about sixty Swedish miles
from Stockholm), he had foretold to his friends, three days before the
arrival of the post, the precise hour of the great fire that had happened
in Stockholm ; to which he replied that it was exactly true.” 1
There are several other accounts which give the general facts.
Kant’s account, derived through a personal representative, who went
to Sweden and gathered the facts first hand, is the fullest and most
satisfactory of all. In reviewing the evidence we think that it is fully
proved that Swedenborg told of the Stockholm fire while it was still
raging, he being three hundred English miles distant.
We have, then, the express testimony of three persons, one of them
a very prominent one, that they heard the story, independently, from
Swedenborg’s own lips. But, still more important, we know that after
the story as printed by Kant, had been questioned, he expressly com-
missioned Green, an educated friend (one of the three above referred
to) in whom he had confidence, to make an investigation, and that
Green promptly reported so that Kant was able to give a more specific
account which he said was based on Green’s thorough examination of
witnesses not only in Gottenburg, where Swedenborg’s pronouncements
caused a sensation before the news of the fire arrived, but in Stockholm,
where the fire was. Of course, had it been in the twentieth century
Kant would have had Green write and sign a report, including affidavits
from the witnesses. But no one will suspect that Kant lied and did not
receive such a detailed account from Green. Moreover, after such a
request from a man like Kant, already highly advanced in reputation
as a writer and lecturer, surely his educated friend would take pains to
look up the facts carefully. Let us remember also that Kant printed
his first account of the Stockholm fire incident only seven years after
the event, when there were plenty of persons living to deny it if it could
be denied, and, so far as I know, no solitary denial has come down to
us from that period.
i Ibid., II, 630.
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THE QUEEN OF SWEDEN’S SECRET
(EMANUEL SWEDENBORG)
Mr. Whitehead continues :
The persons concerned in this experience are very eminent in the
world’s history. Queen Louisa Ulrica was the sister of Frederick the
Great of Prussia, her brother Augustus William, who is mentioned in
the narrative, was the Crown Prince of Prussia, brother of the reigning
King Frederick the Great. From this brother were descended the mon-
archs of Prussia and the Emperors of United Germany. The son of
Adolphus succeeded Frederick the Great on the throne of Prussia.
Augustus William had been declared heir apparent of Prussia ; but un-
fortunately for him, he lost the battle of Hastenbeck, July 26, 1757,
which greatly displeased the King. Augustus was compelled to resign.
He retired and died within a year, of “ chagrin.” It was with this
brother that Queen Louisa had the secret.
Kant’s account of this event is as follows :
“ Toward the end of 1761, Mr. Swedenborg was called to a princess,
whose great understanding and penetration ought to have made an
attempt at imposition almost impossible. He was summoned to her on
account of the general rumor which had reached her of his being the
subject of visions. After asking him some questions, more for the pur-
pose of deriving sport from his imagination than of obtaining infor-
mation from the other world, the princess dismissed him, after having
charged him first with a secret commission touching his intercourse
with spirits. After a few days Mr. Swedenborg appeared again with
a reply of such a nature that, according to the princess, according to
her own confession, she was greatly astonished; for his reply was true,
and yet no living person could have given it to him. This narrative is
derived from the report of an ambassador at the Swedish court, to
another ambassador in Copenhagen ; besides, it agrees with what we
were able to learn by special investigation.” 1
General Tuxen, a Danish general, having heard these stories, sought
an interview with Swedenborg. Tuxen says, “ My first question was,
Whether the relation, reported as having passed between himself and
the Queen in Stockholm, was true? ”
[Swedenborg then told Tuxen that, in accordance with the wish of
the Queen, Count Scheffer had asked him to attend court.] “ The
Queen asked him, Whether he would undertake a commission to her
lately deceased brother? He answered, ‘ With all my heart.’ On this
1 Documents, II, 653-54.
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he followed the Queen, with the King and Count Scheffer, to a window
in the apartment, where the Queen gave him his commission, to which
he promised to bring her an answer. [Shortly afterward he accom-
panied Count Scheffer to court again.] The Queen, on seeing him,
said, ‘ Do not forget my commission.’ He answered, ‘ It is already
done.’ And when he delivered her his message, she was extremely sur-
prised, and became suddenly indisposed; and upon recovering herself,
she said, ‘ This no mortal could have told me.’ ” 1
Another account of this incident was given by Count Hopken,
which he states was made to him by the Queen herself. He says:
“ At the next reception Swedenborg again appeared at court ; and
while the Queen was in the so-called white room, surrounded by her
ladies of honor, he came boldly in, and approached Her Majesty, who
no longer remembered the commission she had given him a week before.
Swedenborg not only greeted her from her brother, but also gave her
his (the brother’s) apologies for not having answered her last letter;
he also wished to do so now through Swedenborg; which he accordingly
did. The Queen was greatly overcome, and said, ‘ No one, except God,
knows this secret.’ ” 2
Count Hopken adds this to his account:
“ The reason why she never adverted to this before, was, that she
did not wish anyone in Sweden to believe that during the war in Prussia
she had carried on a correspondence in the enemy’s country. The same
caution Her Majesty exercised during her last visit to Berlin. When
she was asked about this transaction, which had been printed in a
German paper, she did not answer.” 8
Several other sources of information concerning this event are on
record. Some of them were derived from Swedenborg; some are traced
to the Queen ; while others are traced to persons close to the Court.
The Queen, on a visit to Berlin, in 1772, several years later, in a con-
versation with several academicians gave an account of the affair, but
did not tell what the secret was. Thiebault afterward published a long
account, in which he says :
“ The Queen did not repeat the words, but she protested to us they
were the very same her brother had pronounced, and that she retained
the most perfect recollection of them. She added that she nearly
fainted at the shock she experienced.” 4
The Queen was not superstitious and easily duped. All agree that
she was a highly intellectual woman. Her brother Frederick the Great
declared her “ to be the ornament of her family.” She was of a mascu-
» Ibid., II, 651-52.
2 Ibid., II, 660.
3 Ibid., II, 660.
* Ibid; II, 656.
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line understanding, was remarkably eloquent, and had great force of
character.
One distinguished chevalier, whose name is not given, telling of an
interview he had with her in relation to her experience with Sweden-
borg, says:
“ The Queen herself told me the anecdote respecting herself and her
brother, with a conviction which appeared to me extraordinary.
Everyone who was acquainted with this really enlightened sister of the
great Frederick will agree with me that she was the very reverse of
fanatical, and that the whole tenor of her mind was free from all such
weaknesses. Nevertheless, she appeared to me to be so convinced of
Swedenborg’s supernatural intercourse with spirits, that I scarcely
durst venture to intimate my doubts, and to express my suspicion of
secret intrigues; and a royal air, Je ne suis pas facilement dupe (I am
not easily duped), put an end to all my attempts at refutation.”
Swedenborg himself has given testimony concerning this event. In
a letter to Louis IX., Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, he says :
“ As to what is related of the daughter of the Prince Margrave, it
is a fiction invented by some idle newsmonger, and I never even heard
of it before ; but what is reported of the brother of the Queen of Sweden
is true; yet it should not be regarded as a miracle, but only as a memor-
able occurrence of the kind related in the True Christian Religion con-
cerning Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, and the rest. For all these are
simply testimonies, that I have been introduced by the Lord as to my
spirit into the spiritual world, and that I converse with angels and
spirits.”
Cuno, a Dutch gentleman who frequently entertained Swedenborg
when he was in Amsterdam, writing about the stories of the late Prince
of Prussia and of the lost receipt, says :
“ The truth of both these stories he (Swedenborg) affirmed; but he
did not dwell long upon them, observing that there were hundreds of
similar stories. He did not think it worth while to waste many words
upon them, saying that all these things were trifles placing in the shade
the great object of his mission.”
Neither Swedenborg nor the Queen ever revealed the nature of the
message itself which Swedenborg conveyed to the Queen. It was a
secret between her and her brother. Some of the accounts state that
it related to a conversation with her brother some seventeen years
before. But Count Hopken indicates that it related to a correspond-
ence in the last year of his life and that her last letter remained un-
answered. It seems a sufficient reason why the matter was a secret that
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neither the Queen nor Swedenborg could divulge was, that Sweden and
Prussia were at war, consequently correspondence with the enemy was
treason. So the secret was not divulged. In addition to this, the
Queen was accused of influencing her husband to adopt autocratic
methods in the government and against the constitution, which strictly
limited the powers of the King. Something also of this matter may
have been involved in the secret correspondence.
THE DUTCH AMBASSADOR’S LOST RECEIPT
(EMANUEL SWEDENBORG)
Mr. Whitehead continues:
Kant, in his letter to Madam von Knobloch, gives the following
statement, the facts having been communicated to him by Green :
“ Madam Marteville, the widow of the Dutch Ambassador in Stock-
holm, some time after the death of her husband was called upon by
Croon, a goldsmith, to pay for a silver service which her husband had
purchased from him. The widow was convinced that her late husband
had been much too precise and orderly not to have paid this debt, yet
she was unable to find the receipt. In her sorrow, and because the
amount was considerable, she requested Mr. Swedenborg to call at her
house. After apologizing to him for troubling him, she said, that if, as
all people said, he possessed the extraordinary gift of conversing with
the souls of the departed, he would perhaps have the kindness to ask
her husband how it was about the silver service. Swedenborg did not
at all object to complying with her request. Three days afterwards
the said lady had company at her house for coffee. Swedenborg called,
and in his cool way informed her that he had conversed with her hus-
band. The debt had been paid seven months before his decease, and the
receipt was in a bureau in the room up-stairs. The lady replied that
the bureau had been quite cleared out, and that the receipt was not
found among all the papers. Swedenborg said that her husband had
described to him how, after pulling out the left-hand drawer, a board
would appear, which required to be drawn out, when a secret compart-
ment would be disclosed, containing his private Dutch correspondence,
as well as the receipt. Upon hearing this description the whole com-
pany arose and accompanied the lady into the room up-stairs. The
bureau was opened; they did as they were directed; the compartment
was found, of which no one had ever known before; and, to the great
astonishment of all, the papers were discovered there, in accordance
with his description.” 1
1 Documents Concerning Swedenborg, II, 635-36.
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NOTED WITNESSES
Quite a number of versions of this story exist, which may be traced
back to eleven different sources. Robsahm and Bergstrom heard the
story from Swedenborg himself. As Green visited Swedenborg, no
doubt Swedenborg confirmed the truth of it to Green himself. Leto-
card, who was Secretary to the legation and executor of Marteville’s
estate, gives an account very similar to that of Kant.
As the story passed from mouth to mouth, the particulars were
modified in various ways; so that we find a number of accounts which
vary as to the particulars, the central fact remaining practically the
same. Kant’s account seems again to be the clearest and most
consistent.
In the case of the lost receipt no one in this world knew of the
secret compartment where the receipt and the secret papers were con-
cealed. The silversmith knew there was a receipt ; but he did not know
where it was. The widow was convinced that the bill was paid, but she
had no actual knowledge that it was paid. How did Swedenborg gain
the knowledge of the secret drawer known to no one in this world?
DIVINES HIS FRIEND’S SECRETS
(EMANUEL SWEDENBORG)
Swedenborg, in referring to these and other similar facts, speaks of
them as proving his intercourse with the spiritual world. Christopher
Springer, writing of Swedenborg, with whom he had intimate friend-
ship, says:
“ All that he has told me of my deceased friends and enemies, and of
the secrets I had with them, is almost past belief. He even explained to
me in what manner peace was concluded between Sweden and the King
of Prussia; and he praised my conduct on that occasion. He even
specified the three high personages whose services I made use of at that
time ; which was, nevertheless, a profound secret. On asking him how it
was possible for him to obtain such information, and who had discov-
ered it to him, he replied, ‘ Who informed me about your affair with
Count Claes Ekeblad? You cannot deny that what I have told you is
true. Continue,’ he added, ‘ to merit his reproaches ; depart not from
the good way either for honors or money; but, on the contrary, con-
tinue as constant therein as you have hitherto, and you will prosper.’ 1
“ The Count had provoked him to draw his sword upon him, differ-
ing about politics, but they had made it up, and promised not to men-
tion it to any one while in life ; that afterward the Count had attempted
1 Documents, II, 533.
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to bribe him with 10,000 rix-dalers, which sum Swedenborg particularly
mentioned to him as having been learned from the Count, just then
deceased.” 1
DIVINES WESLEY’S WISH AND THE DAY OF HIS
OWN DEATH
(EMANUEL SWEDENBORG)
John Wesley received a letter from Swedenborg dated in February,
1772, which read:
Great Bath-street, Coldbath Fields, February, 1772.
Sir: — I have been informed in the world of spirits that you have a
strong desire to converse with me. I shall be happy to see you, if you
will favor me with a visit. I am, sir,
Your humble servant,
Eman. Swedenborg.
Mr. Wesley received and read this letter in the presence of some of
his preachers, one of whom, Rev. Samuel Smith, tells the story.
Mr. Wesley frankly acknowledged to the company that he had been
very strongly impressed with the desire to see and converse with Swe-
denborg, and that he had never mentioned that desire to any one.
Mr. Wesley wrote for answer, that he was closely occupied in pre-
paring for a six months’ journey, but would do himself the pleasure of
waiting upon Mr. Swedenborg soon after his return to London.
Swedenborg wrote in reply, that the visit proposed by Mr. Wesley
would be too late, as he, Swedenborg, should go into the world of spirits
on the 29th day of the next month, never more to return. ( Documents ,
Vol. II, p. 565.)
Swedenborg died March 29, 1772.
A PROBLEMATIC DREAM 2
(CROMWELL F. VARLEY)
This incident was told by Mr. Varley, a prominent English elec*
trician, to the London Dialectical Society.
I have had another case in 1860; I went to find the first Atlantic
• Ibid., II, 534.
2 Report on Spiritualism, etc., 163-64.
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NOTED WITNESSES
Cable; when I arrived at Halifax my name was telegraphed to New
York. Mr. Cyrus Field telegraphed the fact to St. John’s and then to
Harbour Grace; so that when I arrived I was very cordially received
at each place, and at Harbour Grace found there was a supper pre-
pared. Some speeches followed and we sat up late. I had to catch the
steamer that went early the next morning and was fearful of not waking
in time, but I employed a plan which had often proved successful before,
viz., that of willing strongly that I should wake at the proper time.
Morning came and I saw myself in bed fast asleep; I tried to wake
myself, but could not. After a while I found myself hunting about for
some means of more power, when I saw a yard in which was a large
stack of timber and two men approaching; they ascended the stack of
timber and lifted a heavy plank. It occurred to me to make my body
dream that there was a bombshell thrown in front of me which was
fizzing at the touch-hole, and when the men threw the plank down I
made my body dream that the bomb had burst and cut open my face.
It woke me, but with a clear recollection of the two actions — one, the
intelligent mind acting upon the brain in the body, which could be made
to believe any ridiculous impression that the former produced by will
power. I did not allow a second to elapse before I leapt out of bed,
opened the window, and there were the yard, the timber, and the two
men, just as my spirit had seen them. I had no previous knowledge at
all of the locality ; it was dark the previous evening when I entered the
town, and I did not even know there was a yard there at all. It was
evident I had seen these things while my body lay asleep. I could not
see the timber until the window had been opened.
This is one of the most interesting dreams for study with which I
am acquainted. On the one hand it is easy to form a theory of normal
explanation. While dreaming he heard the sound, correctly guessed
that it was caused by a falling plank, inferred that therefore there was
probably a yard near the house containing timber, also inferred from
the sound that the plank must be too heavy to be lifted by one man, and
correctly guessed that there were two. All this, although a happy com-
bination of accurate inferences and guesses, might be possible. But Mr.
Varley testifies that he dreamed he saw the stack of timber and two men
approach, ascend the stack and lift the plank, and that he dreamed a
device to make himself wake, before he had the sensation of noise in the
dream. An ordinary person might during the time which had elapsed
since the dream, nine years, have misplaced the order of its details, but
it is less likely that a man of science strongly impressed and bound to
study his recollections on waking, should have done so. But there is
some evidence tending to show that dreams affected by real sensory im-
pressions do sometimes rearrange the time order so as to present on
waking the illusion that the cause of the sensory impression was imaged
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before the impression itself was received. But it is at least exceedingly
rare that a dream should present imagery corresponding to the real
facts, as though by inferences, and yet not connect that imagery at all
with the sensory impression as its cause, but attribute the cause to
something entirely different. Mr. Varley’s dream correctly pictured
the real external facts, yard, stack of timber, two men, plank and fall
of the plank, but ascribed the sound to a bomb ! If “ clairvoyance,”
whatever process that term really covers, is deemed established by a
mass of other evidence, it is perhaps simpler to ascribe this particular
case to it.
PARALLEL AND SIMULTANEOUS DREAMS 1
(CROMWELL F. VARLEY)
In a second case my sister-in-law had heart disease. Mrs. Varley
and I went into the country to see her, as we feared for the last time.
I had a nightmare, and could not move a muscle. While in this state, I
saw the spirit of my sister-in-law in the room. I knew that she was
confined to her bed-room. She said, “ If you do not move, you will die,”
but I could not move, and she said, “ If you submit yourself to me, I
will frighten you, and you will then be able to move.” At first I ob-
jected, wishing to ascertain more about her spirit presence. When at
last I consented, my heart had ceased beating. I think at first her
efforts to terrify me did not succeed, but when she suddenly exclaimed,
“ Oh, Cromwell, I am dying,” that frightened me exceedingly, and
threw me out of the torpid state, and I awoke in the ordinary way. My
shouting had aroused Mrs. Varley; we examined the door, and it was
still locked and bolted, and I told my wife what Tiad happened, having
noted the hour, 3 :45 a. m., and cautioned her not to mention the matter
to anybody, but to hear what was her sister’s version if she alluded to
the subject. In the morning she told us that she had passed a dreadful
night, that she had been in our room and greatly troubled on my
account; and that I had been nearly dying. It was between half-past
three and four a. m. when she saw I was in danger. She only succeeded
in arousing me by exclaiming, “ Oh, Cromwell, I am dying.” I ap-
peared to her to be in a state which otherwise would have ended fatally.
This was the second case in which there were more witnesses than one,
and I think it may be considered a second case attended with reliable
evidence. There is in addition this peculiarity that we were neither of
us dead.2
1 Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society
(London, 1873), 161-62.
2 For parallel dreams of Mrs. and Mias Griggs, see Journal A. S. P. R., XVII,
101-05, and Bulletin IX of B. S. P. R.
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INCIDENTS REPORTED BY A NOTED LAWYER1
(SIR ASTLEY COOPER; REPORTED BY WILLIAM
BALLANTINE)
Serjeant William Ballantine (1812-1887) was one of the foremost
lawyers in England, noted for his skill in cross-examination. He was
counsel in the Tichborne claimant case, one of the most celebrated in
the history of English courts, and in the equally famed trial of the
Gaekwar of Baroda.
I do not think it will be out of place whilst upon this subject to
relate a story told by Sir Astley Cooper.2 I am not certain that it has
not been already in print, but I know that I have had frequent conver-
sation about it with his nephew.
There had been a murder, and Sir Astley was upon the scene when
a man suspected of it was apprehended, and Sir Astley, being greatly
interested, accompanied the officers with their prisoner to the gaol, and
he and they and the accused were all in a cell, locked in together, when
they noticed a little dog, which kept biting at the skirt of the prisoner’s
coat. This led them to examine the garment, and they found upon it
traces of blood which ultimately led to the conviction of the man.
When they looked around the dog had disappeared, although the door
had never been opened. How it had got there, or how it got away, of
course nobody could tell. When Bransby Cooper spoke of this, he
always said that of course his uncle had made a mistake, and was con-
vinced of this himself; and Bransby used to add that, no doubt, if the
matter had been investigated, it would have been shown that there was
a mode of accounting for it from natural causes. But I believe that
neither Sir Astley nor his nephew in their hearts discarded entirely the
supernatural.
Was it an apparitional dog?
Mr. Ballantine added an incident which some may think accounted
for by a telepathic impression, followed by auto-suggestion which
lowered the mental alertness of the player.8
1 Ballantine’s Some Experiences of a Barrister’s Life (New York, 1882), 257-58.
2 Sir Astley Paston Cooper was perhaps the most famous and influential surgeon
of his time in England.
8 Some Experiences, etc., 261.
58
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There was the member of the club, a very harmless, inoffensive man,
of the name of Townend, for whom Lord Lytton 1 entertained a mortal
antipathy, and would never play whilst that gentleman was in the room.
He firmly believed that he brought him bad luck. I was witness to
what must be termed an odd coincidence. One afternoon, when Lord
Lytton was playing, and had enjoyed an uninterrupted run of luck, it
suddenly turned, upon which he exclaimed, “ I am sure that Mr. Town-
end has come into the club.” Some three minutes after, just time
enough to ascend the stairs, in walked that unlucky personage. Lord
Lytton, as soon as the rubber was over, left the table and did not
renew the play.
Mr. Ballantine observes that “ it is very interesting to note the
number of remarkable men who have exhibited similar impressions ” of
a psychic character.
APPARENT FULFILMENT OF A CONTRACT TO APPEAR
AFTER DEATH
(LORD BROUGHAM)
Lord Henry Brougham (1778-1868) was probably the most con-
spicuous figure in English civic life for a long period, and particularly
from 1820 to 1840. He was “ a man of letters, man of science, advo-
cate, orator, statesman, and Lord High Chancellor,” with “ a vigor
and variety of intellect almost unparalleled.” “ His indomitable en-
ergy, his vehement eloquence, his enthusiastic attachment to the cause
of freedom, progress and humanity, caused him to be justly regarded
as one of the most extraordinary and illustrious men of his age and
of his country.”
He contributed “ to the progress of liberal opinions, to the reform
of the law, to popular education, to the emancipation of the negro race
from slavery, and to the maintenance of the peace.” 2
Lord Brougham’s narrative was originally an entry in his diary.
It is copied, together with comments, as found in Phantasms of the
Living , I, 394-7.
The entry must apparently have been made very soon after the
occurrence which it describes; as we can scarcely doubt that had the
1 The novelist.
2 The excerpts are from the article by Henry Reeve in Encyclopedia Brilannica.
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NOTED WITNESSES
fact of his friend’s death, which he learned soon afterward, been known
to him at the time of writing, he would have included it in his account.
In December, 1799, Lord Brougham was traveling in Sweden with
friends. [He says,]
“ We set out for Gothenburg [apparently on December 18], deter-
mining to make for Norway. About one o’clock in the morning, arriv-
ing at a decent inn, we decided to stop for the night. Tired with the
cold of yesterday, I was glad to take advantage of a hot bath before I
turned in, and here a most remarkable thing happened to me — so re-
markable that I must tell the story from the beginning.
“ After I left the High School, I went with G., my most intimate
friend, to attend the classes in the University. There was no divinity
class, but we frequently in our walks discussed and speculated upon
many grave subjects — among others, on the immortality of the soul,
and on a future state. This question, and the possibility, I will not say
of ghosts walking, but of the dead appearing to the living, were sub-
jects of much speculation ; and we actually committed the folly of
drawing up an agreement, written with our blood, to the effect that
whichever of us died the first should appear to the other, and thus
solve any doubts we had entertained of the ‘ life after death.’ After
we had finished our classes at the college, G. went to India, having got
an appointment there in the Civil Service. He seldom wrote to me,
and after the lapse of a few years I had almost forgotten him ; more-
over, his family having little connection with Edinburgh, I seldom saw
or heard anything of them, or of him through them, so that all this
schoolboy intimacy had died out, and I had nearly forgotten his exis-
tence. I had taken, as I have said, a warm bath, and while lying in it
and enjoying the comfort of the heat, after the late freezing I had
undergone, I turned my head round, looking toward the chair on which
I had deposited my clothes, as I was about to get out of the bath. On
the chair sat G., looking calmly at me. How I got out of the bath I
know not, but on recovering my senses I found myself sprawling on the
floor. The apparition, or whatever it was, that had taken the likeness
of G., had disappeared.
“ This vision produced such a shock that I had no inclination to
talk about it or to speak about it even to Stuart ; but the impression it
made upon me was too vivid to be easily forgotten ; and so strongly was
I affected by it that I have here written down the whole story, with the
date, 19th December, and all the particulars as they are now fresh
before me. No doubt I had fallen asleep; and that the appearance
presented so distinctly to my eyes was a dream, I cannot for a moment
doubt; yet for years I had had no communication with G., nor had
there been anything to recall him to my recollection ; nothing had
taken place during our Swedish travels either connected with G. or with
India, or with anything relating to him or to any member of his family.
I recollected quickly enough our old discussion and the bargain we had
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made. I could not discharge from my mind the impression that G.
must have died, and that his appearance to me was to be received by
me as a proof of a future state, yet all the while I felt convinced that
the whole was a dream; and so painfully vivid, so unfading was the
impression, that I could not bring myself to talk of it, or to make the
slightest allusion to it.”
Lord Brougham afterward wrote that “ Soon after my return to
Edinburgh, there arrived a letter from India, announcing G.’s death,
and stating that he had died on the 19th of December! ” Was this a
dream, as Lord Brougham was inclined to think? Was it coincidence;
if not, what was it? The profound impression the incident had on
Lord Brougham’s mind, the finding himself sprawling on the floor, and
the identity of dates are hard to reconcile with either a dream or the
hypothesis of coincidence.
EXTRAORDINARY COINCIDENTAL DREAMS
(HENRY ARMITT BROWN)
The general caption of this series is applied somewhat liberally.
But a gentleman who is of sufficient importance that a biography of
him was written by the learned James M. Hoppin, for many years a
professor of Yale University, -first in the Divinity School and after-
wards in the Art Department, may be considered, provisionally, a
“ noted person.” The experience was shared by Henry Armitt Brown,
the subject of the biography, who was a “ scholar, orator and lawyer.”
The incident may be found under its date in the book, which was pub-
lished by Lippincott in 1880. The incident was related in a letter
written to a clerical friend of his family, and was comparatively recent
at the time of its narration.
May 3, 1869.
Rev. and Dear Sir:
After many delays I send you a short account of the dream which
excited your interest last summer.
In the fall of 1865, I think it was in the month of November, while
I was studying law in the city of New York, I retired to my room about
midnight of a cold and blustering evening. I remember distinctly hear-
ing the clock strike twelve as I lay in bed watching the smouldering fire
until drowsiness crept upon me and I slept. I had hardly lost con-
sciousness when I seemed to hear loud and confused noises and felt a
choking sensation at my throat, as if it were grasped by a strong hand.
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NOTED WITNESSES
I awoke (as it seemed) and found myself lying on my back on the
cobble-stones of a narrow street, writhing in the grip of a low-browed
thick-set man with unkempt hair and grizzled beard, who with one
hand at my throat and holding my wrists with the other threw his
weight upon me and held me down. From the first I knew that his
desire was to kill me, and my struggles were for life. I recall dis-
tinctly the sense of horror at first and then that of furious determina-
tion which took possession of me. I did not make a sound, but with a
sudden effort threw him half off me, clutched him frantically by the
hair and in my agony bit furiously at his throat. Over and over we
rolled upon the stones. My strength began to give way before the fury
of my struggles. I saw that my antagonist felt it and smiled a ghastly
smile of triumph. Presently I saw him reach forth his hand and grasp
a bright hatchet. Even in this extremity I noticed that the hatchet
was new and apparently unused, with glittering head and white polished
handle. I made one more tremendous fight for life, for a second I held
my enemy powerless and saw with such a thrill of delight as I cannot
forget the horror-stricken faces of friends within a rod of us rushing
to my rescue. As the foremost of them sprang upon the back of my
antagonist he wrenched his wrist away from me. I saw the hatchet
flash above my head and felt instantly a dull blow on the forehead. I
fell back on the ground, a numbness spread from my head over my
body, a warm liquid flowed down upon my face and into my mouth, and
I remember the taste was of blood and my “ limbs were loosed.”
Then I thought I was suspended in the air a few feet above my
body, I could see myself as if in a glass; lying on the back, the hatchet
sticking in the head, and the ghastliness of death gradually spreading
over the face. I noticed especially that the wound made by the hatchet
was in the center of the forehead at right angles to and divided equally
by the line of the hair. I heard the weeping of friends, at first loud,
then growing fainter, fading away into silence. A delightful sensation
of sweet repose without a feeling of fatigue — precisely like that which
I experienced years ago at Cape May when beginning to drown — crept
over me. I heard exquisite music, the air was full of rare perfumes, I
sat upon a bed of downy softness, when, with a start, I awoke.
The fire still smouldered in the grate, my watch told me I had not
been more than half an hour asleep.
Early the next morning I joined an intimate friend with whom I
spent much of my time; to accompany him, as was my daily custom,
to the Law School. We talked for a moment of various topics, when
suddenly he interrupted me with the remark that he had dreamed
strangely of me the night before.
“Tell me,” I asked, “what was it?” “I fell asleep,” he said,
“ about twelve and immediately dreamed that I was passing through a
narrow street when I heard noises and cries of murder. Hurrying in
the direction of the noise, I saw you lying on your back, fighting a
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rough laboring man, who held you down. I rushed forward, but as I
reached you he struck you on the head with a hatchet and killed you
instantly. Many of our friends were there and we cried bitterly. In a
moment I awoke and so vivid had been my dream that my cheeks were
wet with tears.”
“ What sort of a man was he? ” I asked. “ A thick-set man, in a
flannel shirt and rough trousers; his hair was uncombed and his beard
was grizzly and of a few days’ growth.”
Within a week I was in Burlington, New Jersey. I called at a
friend’s hotise. “ My husband,” said his wife to me, “ had such a hor-
rid dream about you the other night. He dreamed that a man killed
you in a street fight. He ran to help you, but before he reached the
spot your enemy had killed you with a great club.”
“ Oh, no,” cried the husband across the room, “ he killed you with
a hatchet.”
These are the circumstances as I recall them. I remembered the
remark of old Artaphernes that dreams are often the result of a train
of thought started by conversation or reading or the incidents of the
working time; but I could recall nothing, nor could either of my friends
cite any circumstance that ever they had read, had ever heard by tale
or history, in which they could trace the origin of this remarkable
dream.
I am, my dear Sir, very truly yours,
Henry Armitt Brown.
P.S. I may add that these friends of mine were personally unknown
to each other. The first one in New York dreamed that he was the
foremost who reached the scene, the other that he was one of the num-
ber who followed; both of which points coincided exactly with my
own dream.
It would appear from the postscript that the correspondence be-
tween the several dreams was more exact than one would suppose from
the main narrative; that Mr. Brown recognized the other dreamers in
his own dream, and that they were situated as each respectively
located himself.
It is unfortunate that the compound incident was not recorded at
once and that the stories of the two friends were not written out by
themselves. It is impossible for the reader to be sure that time had
not made the three dreams coincide in memory more closely than they
did in fact. On the other hand, Mr. Brown was a brilliant man and a
lawyer, and it seems unlikely that the main facts of coincidence which
impressed him at the time should have undergone much alteration in
his memory.
Of course the special feature of this incident which makes it note-
worthy is the coincidence of material in the three dreams, rather than
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the content of the dreams, which might perhaps be explained on the
Freudian principles or in some other way. All the ingenuity in the
world applied to explain the content of the dreams will not explain
away the complex coincidence in their details coupled with close tem-
poral coincidence between two of them, and perhaps all three. Once
establish that such astounding coincidence existed, and to try to ac-
count for all three of the dreams solely on the basis of experience and
“ complexes ” individual to the respective dreamers, would be to dis-
credit the whole psychoanalytic theory. The compiler considers that
the 'testimony to dreams which in their particulars coincided with
events still in the future has accumulated to an extent which precludes
intelligent question of their genuineness and priority and immunity
from the doctrine of chance. To trace these dreams to merely ide-
ational and emotional reactions from past experiences utterly fails to
solve the great problem, which is that of the coincidences between the
particulars of the dream and the details of the events which directly
followed. And if the attempt is made to force this type of dreams into
the Freudian or any other mold, it is the mold that is in danger of dis-
ruption, for it is a great deal more certain that coincidental dreams do
rarely occur, complexly coincidental to a degree which makes the doc-
trine of chance ridiculous, than that psychoanalysis of dreams is not
sometimes perniciously ingenious. No one contends that the great
mass of dreams are normal as to their origin ; the sole contention is that
some dreams are in one way or another, one degree or another, super-
normal. The Freudian or any other interpretation of dreams may be
true in general, and yet some dreams, like other forms of psychical
experience, transcend the general category. But the dream theorists
ought to face all the facts, which they have not hitherto boldly done.
A GREAT LAWYER TALKS WITH AN APPARITION 1
(LORD CHANCELLOR ERSKINE; GUARANTOR, LADY
SYDNEY OWENSON MORGAN)
Thomas Erskine, Baron (1750-1823), has been pronounced “ prob-
ably the greatest forensic orator that Britain has produced.” The
extraordinary speech made when trying his first case brought him, it is
said, thirty retainers that very day. By his defense of Lord George
Gordon in 1781 he destroyed the doctrine of constructive treason.
xThe Book of the Boudoir, by Lady Morgan (London, 1829), I, 123*25.
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Neither as a member of Parliament nor as Lord Chancellor was
his success equal to that as an advocate, wherein it was almost
unparalleled.
Lady Morgan (1777 P-1859) was an Irish “novelist and miscel-
laneous describer and critic, one of the most vivid and hotly-discussed
literary personages of her generation.” The Wild Irish Girl , a patri-
otic novel, made her reputation, but her best work of fiction was O'Don-
nel. She wrote a study of France under the restoration of 1817, and a
study of Italy , which Lord Byron praised for the accuracy of its pic-
tures of Italian life. She also produced the Life and Times of Salvator
Rosa. The Book of the Boudoir consists of reminiscences and reflec-
tions. She seems to have been conscientious and careful in regard
to facts.
It is at second-hand that we get the Erskine story, but Lady Mor-
gan tells us she heard it from his lips, the Saturday after George
(afterward the Fourth) was made Regent, in the year 1811, that Lord
Erskine and the Duchess of Gordon were calling on her, and that it
was told after the Duchess had told a story of second-sight in her own
family. Lady Morgan does not appear herself to be credulous, as she
says that the Duchess’s tale “ amused, if it did not convert me.”
When I was a young man I had been for some time absent from
Scotland. On the morning of my arrival in Edinburgh, as I was com-
ing out from a bookshop, I met our old family butler. He looked
greatly changed, pale, wan and shadowy. “ Eh, old boy ! ” I said,
“what brings you here?” He replied: “To meet your honor and to
solicit your interference with my lord to recover a sum due to me,
which the steward at the last settlement did not pay.”
Struck by his looks and manner, I bade him follow me to the book-
seller’s shop into which I stepped back, but when I turned round to
speak to him he had vanished. I remembered that his wife carried on
some little trade in the Old Town, and I remembered the house. Having
made it out I found the old woman in widow’s mourning. Her husband
had been dead some months, and had told her on his deathbed that my
father’s steward had wronged him of some money, but that when Master
Tom returned he would see her righted. This I promised to do, and
shortly after fulfilled my promise. The impression of this on me was
indelible.
The special thing to note is not that Erskine thought he saw and
talked with a man who proved to have died months before, but that he
thus learned an evidential fact, and the very one which had been on the
man’s mind while dying. Had plain John Smith told this story we
could have answered him : “ My dear fellow, you think that you had
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never heard that the butler was dead, but you did and subconsciously
remembered it ; you think that you had never been told that the steward
defrauded the butler, but you did and subconsciously remembered that;
you think that you saw and heard an apparition, but really your own
brain produced this hallucination as a mechanism to make you do your
duty.” But, somehow, it seems more difficult to say this to one of the
most brilliant lawyers that England ever produced.
SOME OF THE TESTS WHICH CONVINCED A
DISTINGUISHED LAWYER 1
(EDWARD MARSHALL HALL)
Sir Edward Marshall Hall, K.C. (1858-1927), graduated from
Rugby and Cambridge, became a barrister of the Inner Temple in
1883, and steadily rose until he was regarded as one of the leading
figures of the British bar of which none, probably, surpassed him in
reputation for acuteness and ability. Here is a statement from
his pen:
One Sunday, about thirty years ago, I was at my sister’s house at
Hampton and Miss K. Wingfield was there, and, as it happened, had
been giving an exhibition of her powers as an automatic writer. She
was a great personal friend of my sister’s, and was at the time staying
in the house. My sister took me on one side, and implored me to test
those messages for myself. . . . What to ask I did not know ; but, put-
ting my hand in my breast pocket, searching for a piece of paper on
which to write something, I pulled out a letter which I had received at
my chambers in the Temple the preceding day.
As if inspired, an idea came to me. I folded up the letter in its
envelope — writing, stamp, and postmark inside — and then placed the
whole in another envelope, which I sealed with a seal I always carried.
There was no writing on the outside of the envelope so sealed, and I
handed it to my sister to hand to Miss Wingfield, with the spoken ques-
tion : “ Ask her where is the writer of the letter contained in that enve-
lope? ” Please note, sex is not mentioned, and my sister did not know
who was the writer. After considerable delay the automatic writing
brought this message : “ The writer of that letter is dead ! ”
1 Introduction by Sir Edward Marshall Hall to Guidance from Beyond, composed
of automatic writings by Miss K. Wingfield. She is presumably the same Miss K.
Wingfield with whom there were held experiments for telepathy in 1886 and earlier
(Phantasms of the Living, I, 34; II, 663).
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Wishing to clinch it, I asked another question : “ When and where
did the writer die?
Again the answer came back : “ He died yesterday in South Af-
rica ! ” I had mentioned no sex, and given no indication of locality,
and the answer, though curious, seemed ridiculous. . . .
My sister asked if I wished to put any more questions, and I said,
“ No.” I never told her any of the facts till some weeks later, and I
went away, returning to London on that evening.
To say that I was puzzled is to put it mildly. This letter, which I
had received on the Saturday preceding the Sunday on which I asked
the question, was written by my brother in South Africa some three
weeks prior to the date of its receipt. I had not told my sister of this
letter, and she could not know of its existence.
The third succeeding Saturday afterwards I received a letter (dated
the Saturday immediately preceding the Sunday on which I had asked
the question at Hampton) from Archdeacon Gaul, in which he writes:
“ I littre thought when I wrote you last mail that I should have to tell
you that your brother was found dead in his bed this morning.”
Of course I could relate many other instances and experiences that
have occurred since, but for me this was enough. I was, and am, con-
vinced that there is an existence beyond so-called death, and that there
are means of communication between them and us.
If the phenomenon I have related can be explained by any natural
process, I am ready to consider it, but until I am convinced otherwise,
I shall continue to believe and believe steadfastly, that the message of
my brother’s death was conveyed to me in mercy, by some influence
outside this life.
PREMONITION OR ASTOUNDING COINCIDENCE
(JAMES OTIS)
Graduate from Harvard, a classical scholar, author of a work on
Latin prosody which was adopted as a textbook by Harvard, a lawyer
of high rank, James Otis (1725-1783) attained fame as a Revolution-
ary orator, particularly by his great oration in Faneuil Hall before
Governor Hutchinson, against the “ writs of assistance ” or British
claim to a right to search anywhere for smuggled goods, on a general
warrant. This speech, five hours long, was delivered with electrifying
effect in 1761 and, according to John Adams, “ then and there the
child Independence was born.” Other influential speeches and writings
followed until, in 1769, he was struck a blow on the head by a custom-
house officer. He lived fourteen years longer, but was subject to
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periods of derangement, and his public work was put nearly to an end,
although he argued a case in court, but with less than his former fire,
six weeks before his death.
I discovered among papers left by Dr. Hodgson the following
manuscript statement:
On August 3, 1895, 1 spent the evening at the house of Mrs. Horace
Lamb, in Milton. While at dinner Mrs. Lamb told me of a strange
experience which happened in her husband’s family, an account of
which, she said, was written on a piece of paper that was pasted on the
back of a picture hanging in another room. After dinner we examined
this picture and found the following statement written on the piece of
paper which was stuck to the back :
“ James Otis, the great lawyer and statesman in the revolutionary
struggle, brought this engraving of America, weeping over her
worthies, into mother’s Aunt Maxwell’s, with whom she lived in State
Street, the day he left Boston for Andover, and pinned it on the wall
of the parlor, saying, * Don’t take this down, for the next news you hear
of me will be that I am killed by lightning.’ That proved true, as six
weeks after this, on Friday afternoon, May 23, 1783, he was struck by
a flash while standing at Mr. Osgood’s door, where he lived in Andover.”
Mr. Lamb told me that he believed that this statement was written
by his aunt, Miss Jane Lamb, daughter of Mrs. Thomas Lamb, and
niece of Mrs. Maxwell. Mrs. Lamb was told of the circumstances by
her mother, who was present when James Otis is said to have pinned the
picture on the wall. There is nothing special about the engraving
except that it is a patriotic picture and James Otis took an active part
in the Revolutionary War.
R. Hodgson.
The chief biography of Otis is that of William Tudor, from which
we make these pertinent extracts : 1
The day after his return to Andover, he exhibited some marks of
agitation. He took a hatchet in the morning and went to a copse of
pines standing on a rising ground a few yards from the house, and
passed all the forenoon in trimming away the lower branches of the
wood. When Mr. Osgood came to call him to dinner, he said with great
earnestness, “ Osgood, if I die while I am at your house, I charge you
to have me buried under these trees,” and then he added, with a little
touch of humor that shone forth like a bright gleam in a tempestuous
sky, “ You know my grave would overlook all your field, and I could
have an eye upon the boys and see if they minded their work.” [He had
boarded with Mr. Osgood’s family for about two years.] . . .
i Pages 483-86.
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Six weeks after his return, on Friday afternoon, the 23rd day of
May, 1783, a heavy cloud suddenly arose, and the greater part of the
family were collected in one of the rooms to wait till the shower should
have past. Otis, with his cane in one hand, stood against the post of
the door which opened from this apartment into the front entry. He
was in the act of telling the assembled group a story, when an explosion
took place which seemed to shake the solid earth, — and he fell without
a struggle, or a word, instantaneously dead, into the arms of Mr.
Osgood, who, seeing him falling, sprang forward to receive him. This
flash of lightning was the first that came from the cloud, and was not
followed by any others that were remarkable. There were seven or
eight persons in the room, but no other was injured. No mark of any
kind could be found on Otis, nor was there the slightest change or
convulsion in his features.
It is a singular coincidence that he often expressed a wish for such
a fate. He told his sister, Mrs. Warren, after his reason was impaired,
“ My dear sister, I hope when God Almighty, in his righteous provi-
dence, shall take me out of time into eternity, that it will be by a flash
of lightning,” and this idea he often repeated.
Of course there is now no way of rigidly examining the story that
Otis made a definite prophecy that the next time Mrs. Maxwell heard
from him he would be dead from lightning. But it articulates per-
fectly with the account in the biographies. He was in Boston six weeks
before his death. He was accustomed to wish that he might die by
lightning, and this alone couples with the event to constitute a remark-
able coincidence, for a man has not a chance in many thousands of
meeting his death that way. It is difficult to suppose that what he
actually said to Mrs. Maxwell was no more than to express his custom-
ary wish, since that would have no significance in connection with
leaving the picture hanging, while if he prophesied that the next news
of him would be his death, by lightning or any other means, there would
be a melancholy interest about the picture which was fastened on the
wall as his last act in that house. Then, too, we find by his remark to
Osgood regarding his place of burial that his thoughts were dwelling
on the subject of his death the day after his return from Boston and
Mrs. Maxwell’s house.
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EXACT PREVISION OF A PECULIAR DEATH SCENE 1
(DR. ALFRED COOPER AND THE DUCHESS OF HAMILTON)
It was the Duchess who had the vision, and Dr. Cooper who wit-
nessed its fulfilment. Alfred Cooper, M.D., member of Council of the
Royal College of Surgeons, was, in 1902 (the last date to which I have
traced him), surgeon and consulting surgeon to several London hos-
pitals, had been Surgeon-in-Ordinary to the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and
Gotha, was the husband of a daughter of the Earl of Fife and several
other important or interesting things.
The following was written by Dr. Cooper and attested by the
Duchess :
A fortnight before the death of the late Earl of L , in 1882,
I called upon the Duke of Hamilton, in Hill Street, to see him profes-
sionally. After I had finished seeing him we went into the drawing-
room, where the Duchess was, and the Duke said to me, “ Oh, Cooper ;
how is the Earl? ”
The Duchess said, “What Earl?” and on my answering, “Lord
L ,” she replied, “ That is very odd. I have had a most extraordi-
nary vision. I went to bed, but after being in bed a short time, I was
not exactly asleep, but thought I saw a scene as if from a play before
me. The actors in it were Lord L , in a chair, as if in a fit, with a
man standing over him with a red beard. He was by the side of a bath,
over which bath a red lamp was distinctly shown.”
I then said, “ I am attending Lord L at present ; there is very
little the matter with him; he is not going to die; he will be all right
very soon.”
Well, he got better for a week and was nearly well, but at the end
of six or seven days after this I was called to see him suddenly. He had
inflammation of both lungs.
I called in Sir William Jenner,2 but in six days he was a dead man.
There were two male nurses attending on him; one had been taken ill.
But when I saw the other the dream of the Duchess was exactly repre-
sented. He was standing near a bath over the Earl and, strange to
say, his beard was red. There was the bath with the red lamp over it.
It is rather rare to find a bath with a red lamp over it, and this brought
the story to my mind.
The vision seen by the Duchess was told two weeks before the death
of Lord L . It is a most remarkable thing.
This account, written in 1888, has been revised by the [late] Duke
1 Proceedings S. P. R., XI, 505-6.
2 The distinguished pathological anatomist and physician, 1815-1898.
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of Manchester, father of the Duchess of Hamilton, who heard the vision
from his daughter on the morning after she had seen it.
(Signed) Mary Hamilton,
Alfred Cooper.
Her Grace had been reading and had just blown out the candle.
Her Grace has had many dreams which have come true years after.
Alfred Cooper.
[The Duchess only knew Lord L by sight, and had not heard
that he was ill. She knew she was not asleep, for she opened her eyes to
get rid of the vision and, shutting them, saw the same thing again.]
Mr. Myers adds : “ An independent and concordant account has
been given to me orally by a gentleman to whom the Duchess related
the dream on the morning after its occurrence.”
HYPNOSIS BY TELEPATHY 1
(DR. JAMES ESDAILE)
Dr. Esdaile was for many years, toward the middle of the nineteenth
century, Presidency Surgeon of a large government hospital in Cal-
cutta. He was one of the English pioneers who did the most for the
scientific study of hypnotism up to the time of Edmund Gurney nearly
thirty years later, the other two being Elliotson and Braid. The work
of Esdaile, says Gurney,2 “ is now recognized as one of the most impor-
tant contributions ever made to the rapidly-growing science of hyp-
notism.” His principal works were entitled Mesmerism in India and Its
Practical Appreciation to Surgery and Medicine (1846), and Natural
and Mesmeric Clairvoyance xeith the Practical Application of Mesmer-
ism in Surgery and Medicine (1852).
Here is his account of some remarkable and significant
experiments.*
I had been looking for a blind man on whom to test the imagination
theory, and one at last presented himself. This man became so sus-
ceptible that, by making him the object of my attention, I could en-
trance him in whatever occupation he was engaged, and at any distance
within the hospital enclosure. . . . My first attempt to influence the
blind man was made by gazing at him silently over a wall, while he was
engaged in the act of eating his solitary dinner, at the distance of
1 Phantasms of the Living, I, 88.
2 Ibid., I. 13.
8 Natural and Mesmeric Clairvoyance, 227-28.
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twenty yards. He gradually ceased to eat, and in a quarter of an hour
was profoundly entranced and cataleptic. This was repeated at the
most untimely hours, when he could not possibly know of my being in
his neighborhood, and always with like results.
MONITION OF A DEATH 1
(MARTIN LUTHER HOLBROOK)
The following letter was sent by Dr. Holbrook (1831-1902), author
of medical books and long editor of the Herald of Health , to Dr. Hodg-
son, at 10:35 a. m., July 17, 1897 :
Dear Hodgson: — Five minutes ago Mr. J. F. Morse, who has all
his life had dreams which were more or less verified later, came to my
room and said : “ I believe my wife died last night, for I had a dream
of a most remarkable nature which indicates it. I shall be able to let
you know soon, for I shall get word at my office when I reach there. I
will then send you word.” His wife is in a country place in Delaware
County, Pa. She is ill, but he had no idea she would not live for
months, as the enclosed letter of July 15th will show, but she was ill
and would be likely to decline slowly and gradually.
I will get this off or in the mail before I hear any more.
Mr. Morse in his appearance looks like one who had just lost a
dear friend and is in a state of great mental depression with tears in
his eyes. . . .
M. L. Holbrook.
Completed at 10:46.
Therefore we have proof both in Dr. Holbrook’s statement and in
the postmark, that the letter was written Saturday morning, July 17.
It proved that his wife died at 9 :15 the evening of the dream and testi-
mony from several sources, printed in the Journal of the S. P. R.,
makes it quite certain that Mr. Morse had no news of the death until
he reached the sanitarium in Pennsylvania the next day after the
dream. A letter written by Mr. Morse to Dr. Holbrook only two days
previous to the dream says : “ I am pleased to inform you that Dr.
Hurd consented to take my wife. She reached there yesterday with
her sister and will stay there until improved, perhaps for many
months.” It seems certain, then, that he had no anticipation of her
early death.
i Journal S. P. R., VIII, 135.
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The dream was that he was “ dressed in mourning and taking a long
journey on the cars.”
When Mr. Morse took his wife’s body to Ohio for burial on the
19th, he was met by a brother of hers (Mr. McKinney), who said: “ I
knew Carrie was dead.” “How is that?” I replied. He answered:
“ A few nights ago I had a very vivid dream which startled me. I saw
her gliding out of my room into the hall, and as she passed through the
door she turned and looked at me and said, ‘ Don’t you know me,
Wil? ’ ” Neither did he know how sick the woman was. It apparently
was not learned whether or not Mr. McKinney’s dream occurred on
the same night with the death.
FULFILLED PREDICTIONS
(AUGUSTE AMBROISE LlEBEAULT)
Dr. Liebeault (1823-1904) took his M.D. degree at the University
of Strasburg, became interested at college in mental therapy and
began to employ hypnotism, first in a small town where he practiced,
and from 1864 in Nancy. He opened a free dispensary and had a
large clientele, mostly composed of the poor; but his methods were
generally frowned upon by his profession. In 1866 he produced his
first book, Le Sommeil et les etats analogues , which, for all its value,
fell flat. But in 1882 his remarkable cures caused Dr. Bernheim, pro-
fessor of medicine in the university, to become his pupil in hypnotism;
he was converted, and began to employ the same methods in the Nancy
hospital. The commanding position of Bernheim soon won other
prominent men to make researches in hypnotism. Says Dr. Tuckey:
“ It is to the genius of Liebeault as well as to his enthusiasm and
singleness of heart that we owe the full recognition of the part played
by suggestion, verbal or otherwise, in psychical research, as well as in
the cure of disease.” He was a Corresponding Member of the S. P. R.
F. W. H. Myers quotes from Dr. Li6beault’s notebook:1
M. S. de Ch. came to consult me today at 4 p. m. (January 8, 1886)
for a slight nervous ailment. M. de Ch. is much preoccupied by a law-
suit, and by the incident I proceed to recount.
On the 26th of December, 1879, while walking in Paris, he saw
“ Mme. Lenormand, Necromancer,” written on a door. Urged by
1 Proceedings S. P. R., XI, 528-29.
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thoughtless curiosity he entered the house, and was shown into rather
a dark room. Mme. Lenormand came to him and placed him at a table.
She went out and returned, and then looking at the palm of one of his
hands, said: “ You will lose your father in a year from this day. You
will soon be a soldier (he was nineteen years old), but not for long.
You will marry young, have two children and die at twenty-six.” M.
de Ch. confided this astounding prophecy to some of his friends, but
did not take it seriously. However, as his father died after a short
illness on December 27, 1880, precisely a year from the interview, he
became less incredulous. And when he became a soldier, for seven
months only, married, had two children, and was approaching his
twenty-sixth birthday, he became thoroughly alarmed, and thought he
had only a few days to live. This was why he came to consult me,
hoping I might enable him to avoid his fate. For, as the first four
events had taken place, he thought that the last would. On this and the
following days I tried to send M. de Ch. into profound sleep in order
to dissipate the impression that he would die on the 4th of February,
his birthday. Mme. Lenormand had not named a date, but he was so
agitated that I could not induce even the slightest sleep.
However, as it was absolutely necessary to get rid of his conviction,
lest it should fulfil itself by self-suggestion, I changed my tactics and
proposed that he should consult one of my somnambulists, an old man
of seventy or so, nicknamed “ the prophet,” because he had exactly
foretold his own cure of articular rheumatism of four years’ standing,
and the cure of his daughter, the cure of the latter resulting from his
suggestion. M. de Ch. accepted my proposal eagerly. When put into
rapport with the somnambulist his first question was, “ When shall I
die? ” The sleeper, suspecting the state of the case, replied after a
pause, “ You will die . . . you will die in forty -one years.” The effect
was marvelous ; the young man recovered his spirits, and when the 4th
of February passed he thought himself safe.
I had forgotten all this when, at the beginning of October, I received
an invitation to the funeral of my unfortunate patient, who had died
on September 30, 1886, in his twenty-seventh year, as Mme. Lenormand
had foretold. To prevent the supposition that the whole affair was an
illusion on my part, I kept this letter of invitation, as well as the record
made at the time of de Ch.’s visit to me. I have since learnt that the
unfortunate man had been under treatment for biliary calculi and died
of peritonitis caused by an internal rupture.
Mr. Myers, although he enters this case, remarks that it is one
“ hard to regard as more than a series of strange coincidences,” and
that Dr. Liebeault is “ not himself responsible for more than the fact
that the young man believed he was to die in a certain year.”
I think that Mr. Myers understates the case. Dr. Liebeault was
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also witness for the fact that the young man was in a state of alarm,
and “ responsible for ” reasoning that he would not have been in that
state if the predictions had not been fulfilled. There could hardly have
been an illusion, for instance, that his father died on December 27,
1880, and it appears that the young man did not claim that this pre-
diction was exactly fulfilled, since he reported it as one day out. This
makes it appear that his memory did not play tricks. Dr. Liebeault is
also responsible as witness of the fact that the young man did not
claim that the prediction was that he should die on his “ twenty-sixth
birthday,” but that he should die when twenty-six years old, and in
popular language one is twenty-six until he reaches his twenty-seventh
birthday. It was merely his interpretation that he would die on his
birthday. A man would know, when approaching the supposedly fatal
day, how many children he then had, surely. And he did die in the
predicted year, and not of fear but of specific disease resulting from
rupture. At any rate, after his examination of the case, probably
more thorough than the notebook jottings would indicate, Dr. Lieb-
eault, with all his enormous knowledge of the vagaries of human minds,
was impressed by it.
But, granting that occult knowledge of the future was displayed by
the woman, it does not follow that she derived it from the lines of the
young man’s hand. I myself remember a woman with whom I often
experimented, and who displayed flickering psychic powers in several
directions. Once she undertook to read my palm, as she supposed. She
seemed to be succeeding beyond the limits of chance, but when, as they
soon did, her eyes left my hand and looked dreamily away at nothing in
particular, she did exactly as well.
A DEATH ANNOUNCED IN AUTOMATIC WRITING AT
ABOUT THE MOMENT IT OCCURRED AT ONE
HUNDRED AND FORTY MILES DISTANCE 1
(DR. A. A. LIfiBEAULT)
Dr. Li4beault cured a young woman, Mile. B., of an ailment, and
the production of hypnosis in her suggested to her relatives that she
might become a medium. She began to experiment with herself and in
two months became “ a remarkable writing medium,” testifies the Doc-
tor. “ I have myself seen her rapidly writing page after page of what
1 Human Personality, II, 169-170.
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NOTED WITNESSES
she called ‘ messages,’ — all in well-chosen language with no erasures, —
while at the same time she maintained conversation with the people near
her. An odd thing was that she had no knowledge whatever of what
she was writing.” Dr. Liebeault continues :
One day, — it was, I think, February 7, 1868, about 8 a. m., when
just about to seat herself at table for breakfast, she felt a kind of need,
an impulse which prompted her to write; — it was what she called a
trance , — and she rushed off at once to her large note-book, where she
wrote in pencil, with feverish haste, certain undecipherable words. She
wrote the same words again and again on the pages which followed,
and at last, as her agitation diminished, it was possible to read that a
person called Marguerite was thus announcing her death. The family
at once assumed that a young lady of that name, a friend of Mile. B.’s
» and her companion and colleague in the Coblentz High School, must
have just expired. They all came immediately to me, Mile. B. among
them, and we decided to verify the announcement of death that very
day. Mile. B. wrote to a young English lady who was also a teacher
in that same school. She gave some other reasons for writing; taking
care not to reveal the true motive of the letter. By return of post we
received an answer in English, of which they copied for me the essential
part. I found this answer in a portfolio hardly a fortnight ago, and
have mislaid it again. It expressed the surprise of the English lady at
the receipt of Mile. B.’s unexpected and apparently motiveless letter.
But at the same time the English correspondent made haste to an-
nounce to Mile. B. that their common friend, Marguerite, had died on
February 7, at about 8 a. m. Moreover, the letter contained a little
square piece of printed paper; — the announcement of death sent round
to friends.
I need not say that I examined the envelope, and that the letter
appeared to me to have veritably come from Coblentz. Yet I have
since felt a certain regret. In the interests of science I ought to have
asked the G. family to allow me to go with them to the telegraph office
to inquire whether they had received a telegram early on February 7.
Science should feel no shame; truth does not dread exposure. My
proof of the fact is ultimately a moral one: the honor of the G. family,
— which has always appeared to me to be absolutely above suspicion.
A. A. Liebeault.
Upon these last sentences Gurney remarks that, apart from the
improbability that the whole family would join in a conspiracy to
deceive their friend, the nature of the answer received from Coblentz
shows that the writer of it cannot have been aware that any telegraphic
announcement had been sent. And it is in itself unlikely that the
authorities of the school would have felt it necessary instantly to com-
municate the news to Mile. B.
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Myers also says that while formerly of the opinion that this was
“ an example of a spontaneous telepathic impulse proceeding directly
from a dying person, I now regard it as more probably due to the
action of the spirit after bodily death.”
APPARITION OF A MAN AT THE MOMENT OF HIS DEATH
IN A DISTANT COUNTRY 1
(DR. AUGUSTE NELATON AND OTHER PROMINENT PERSONS)
Auguste Nelaton (1807-1873) was a French surgeon of very high
reputation, connected with several hospitals in Paris and professor of
clinical surgery, member of the Academy of Medicine and Academy of
Sciences, surgeon of Napoleon III., etc. He heard the story at first
hand and sent it to the French Academy of Sciences, while several
hardly less distinguished persons were earlier on the scene.
Flammarion does not say where he found this record, but it is so
explicit and detailed, and gives so many names of prominent persons,
that it is hardly possible to doubt its authenticity.
On March 17, 1863, at Paris, in an apartment on the first floor,
number 26 in Rue Pasquier, back of the Madelaine, the Baroness de
BoisRve gave a dinner to a number of persons, among whom were Gen.
Fleury, Equerry in Ordinary to Napoleon III, M. Devienne, First
President of the Supreme Court of Appeals, and M. Delesvaux, Presi-
dent of the Civil Tribunal of the Seine. During the repast there was
special discussion of the expedition sent to Mexico the previous year.
The son of the baroness, Honor6 de Boisl&ve, a lieutenant of light cav-
alry, was with the expedition, and his mother did not fail to inquire of
Gen. Fleury if he had news concerning it.
He had none. No news — good news. The dinner ended in good
spirits, the diners remained at the table until 9 p. m. At that moment,
Mme. de Boislfeve arose and went alone to the salon to serve the coffee.
She had hardly entered when a terrible cry alarmed the guests. They
dashed out of the room and found the baroness in a dead faint, lying on
the carpet.
On being restored to consciousness, she told them an extraordinary
story. While crossing the threshold of the salon she had seen, at the
other end of the room, her son Honore standing in his uniform, but
without arms and without cap. The face of the officer was of a spectral
1 Flammarion’8 Autour de la Mort, 180-81.
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NOTED WITNESSES
pallor, his left eye was changed to a hideous opening, blood was trick-
ling down his cheek and upon the embroidery of his coat-collar. The
terror of the poor woman had been so great that she thought she was
dying. They endeavored to reassure her, explaining that she had ex-
perienced a mere hallucination, a waking dream, but since she found
herself extremely weak, they urgently summoned the family physician,
the illustrious Nelaton. He was told of the strange adventure, admin-
istered calming drugs and withdrew. The next day the baroness was
physically restored, but her mind was still affected by what had oc-
curred. Every day she sent to the War Office to see if news had
arrived.
At the end of a week, it was officially announced that on the 17th of
March, 1863, at ten minutes of three in the afternoon, in the storming
of Puebla, Honore de Boisl&ve was shot dead by a Mexican bullet that
entered his left eye and passed through his head. Making allowance
for the meridional difference, the hour of his death corresponded ex-
actly with that of his apparition in the salon of Rue Pasquier.
Dr. N41aton imparted to the Academy of Sciences a precise written
statement of the affair, wholly drawn up by the hand of First President
Devienne and signed by all the guests at the famous dinner.
If the above narrative had not been true, there were the Baroness
or her family, three officials of the government and courts and a dis-
tinguished surgeon, or their families, to contradict them, as well as the
archivist of the Academy of Sciences.
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APPARITION SEEN ON SEPARATE OCCASIONS BY THREE
PERSONS 1
(GEN. SIR ARTHUR BECHER)
April 11, 1884.
General Sir A. Becher, who held a high appointment on the Staff in
India, went, accompanied by his son and A. D. C., to the Hill Station
of Kussowlie, about March, 1867, to examine a house he had secured
for his family to reside in during the approaching hot season. They
both slept in the house that night. During the night the General
awoke suddenly and saw the figure of a native woman standing near his
bed, and close to an open door which led into a bathroom. He called
out, “ Who are you? ” and jumped out of bed, when the figure retreated
into the bathroom, and in following it the General found the outer door
locked and the figure had disappeared.
He went to bed again, and in the morning he wrote in pencil on a
door-post, “ Saw a ghost,” but did not mention the circumstance to
his wife.
A few days after, the General and his family took possession of
the house for the season, and Lady Becher used the room the General
had slept in for her dressing-room. About 7 p. m. on the first evening
of their arrival, Lady Becher was dressing for dinner, and on going to
a wardrobe (near the bathroom door) to take out a dress, she saw,
standing close by and within the bathroom, a native woman, and, for
the moment thinking it was her own ayah , asked her “ what she wanted,”
as Lady Becher never allowed a servant in her room while dressing.
The figure then disappeared by the same door as on the former occa-
sion, which, as before, was found locked! Lady Becher was not much
alarmed, but felt that something unusual had occurred, and at dinner
mentioned the event to the General and his son. That same night their
youngest son, a boy about eight years of age, was sleeping in the same
room as his father and mother, his bed facing an open door leading into
the dressing-room and bathroom, before mentioned, and in the middle
of the night the boy started up in his bed in a frightened attitude and
called out, “ What do you w’ant, ayah? What do you want? ” in Hin-
dustani, evidently seeing a female figure in the dressing-room near his
bed. His mother quieted him and he fell asleep, and the figure was not
1 Human Personality, II, 3S1-S3; originally in Proceedings S. P. R., Ill, 110.
79
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NOTED WITNESSES
seen by us on that occasion, nor was it ever again seen, though we lived
for months in the house. But it confirmed our feeling that the same
woman had appeared to us all three, and on inquiry from other occu-
pants we learned that it was a frequent apparition on the first night or
so of the house being occupied.
A native Hill, or Cashmere woman, very fair and handsome, had
been murdered some years before in a hut a few yards below the house,
and immediately under the door leading into the bath and dressing-
room, through which, on all three occasions, the figure had entered and
disappeared. My son, sleeping in another side of the house, pever
saw it.
I could give the names of some other subsequent occupants who
have told us much the same story.
Subsequently Sir Arthur Becher writes :
Winchester, May 14, 1884.
I write to say Lady Becher does not desire to write anything more
personally on the subject of the “ Ghost Story ” I before detailed, as
she says my account of it was given in connection with and entirely in
accordance with her recollections of the circumstances. The woman
appeared to me in the night, and in the ordinary light of a room with-
out any blinds or shutters.
In answer to inquiries, he further tells us that the bathroom door
was locked on the inside; that the rooms were on the ground floor; but
that there was no exit but by the doors referred to. Also that the
child had certainly not heard of the ghost before he saw it.
TELEPATHIC IMPRESSION TAKES THE FORM OF A
COMPOUND HALLUCINATION 1
(GENERAL BULLER)
Gen. Rt. Hon. Sir Redvers Buller (1839-1908), with a flock of
titles after his name, served in China, 1860; Red River Expedition,
1870; Ashantee War, 1874; Kaffir War, 1878; Zulu War, 1878-79,
where he received the V. C., etc.; as Chief-of-Staff in the Boer War,
1881 ; in Egypt, etc., 1881-83, awarded more medals and titles ; as
Major-General in the Soudan War, with added honors, 1884 on; as
Quartermaster-General, 1887 ; Under-Secretary for Ireland, 1887 ; and
1 Evening Standard (London), March 22, 1919.
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as one of the leading generals in the War in South Africa, 1899-1900.
He was one of the most distinguished military men of his time.
Under this title the Evening Standard of March 22 gives the
following :
Lady Ritchie’s ghost story reminds Lady Redvers Buller of an
incident in the life of her husband, Sir Redvers Buller. Some time after
the Franco-German War of 1870, she writes to the Spectator , Sir Red-
vers left England to visit the battlefields, and on arriving at the town
of gave directions that his letters should not be forwarded, and
started on his tour of inspection. After he had been away some days,
he awoke suddenly one night, thinking he saw Lord Wolseley, and that
he heard him say : “ I wonder where that fellow Buller is. I can’t think
why he has not answered my letter.” This so impressed him that he
returned at once to the town of , where he found a letter await-
ing him from Lord Wolseley, saying that he must return to London
immediately, as an expedition against the Ashantees was imminent.1
COMPOUND HALLUCINATIONS, POSSIBLY FROM
TELEPATHY 2
(JOHN CHARLES FREMONT, AND MRS. FREMONT)
General J. C. Fremont (1813-1890) was instructor of mathematics
in the United States Navy, 1833-35, and between 1837 and 1846 he
made the explorations for which he first became famous, winning the
popular title of the “ Pathfinder.” He explored the country between
the Missouri River and Canada, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Salt
Lake region, the Sierra Nevadas, and penetrated to the Pacific near
the mouth of the Columbia River. He assisted in the conquest of
California, and became its military governor, and then its first United
States Senator. The King of Prussia and the Royal Geographical
Society in London gave him gold medals. In 1853 he found a new
route to the Pacific. In 1856 he was the first candidate of the Repub-
lican party for the Presidency. At the outbreak of the Civil War he
was appointed a major-general, but his military career was short. In
1864 radical Republicans again nominated him for the Presidency, but
Lincoln swept all before him. Later he became active in promoting
the building of a trans-continental railway.
1 For Gen. Campbell, see p. 185 note.
2 Journal S. P. R., April, 1891.
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Mrs. Fremont was a daughter of the famous Missouri Senator,
Thomas H. Benton, who perhaps in his day ranked next after Webster,
Clay and Calhoun. Senator Benton was much opposed to his
daughter’s marrying Fremont, and when a friend heard him fuming:
“ I’ll give him — I’ll give him — ” the friend suggested, “ You’d better
give him Jessie.” It is said that the slang phrase, “ Give him Jessie,”
which spread as far as Maine, where I used to hear it in my boyhood,
thus originated.
Elizabeth Benton Fr4mont, a daughter of the General, wrote of the
incident in her Recollections (69-72), but it is far better to go back to
the first-hand account of the person who had the experience, Mrs.
Fremont.1 This must be somewhat abridged.
We could not look to hear from Mr. Fr&nont on the unoccupied
line of country he was exploring that winter of 1853-54: he must first
reach the close at San Francisco, and our first news must come by the
Isthmus route of Panama; at the earliest, midsummer. But in mid-
winter, without any reason, I became possessed by the conviction that
he was starving; nor could any effort reason this away. No such im-
pression had ever come to me before, although more than once dreadful
suffering, and even deaths from starvation had befallen his other expe-
ditions. This time it came upon me as a fact I could not turn from.
It fairly haunted me for nearly two weeks, until, young and absolutely
healthy as I was, it made a physical effect on me. Sleep and appetite
were broken up, and in spite of my father’s and my own efforts to dissi-
pate it by reasoning, by added open-air life, nothing dulled my sense
of increasing suffering from hunger to Mr. Fremont and his party.
This weight of fear was lifted from me as suddenly as it had come.
My house was near that of my father, and the younger part of his
family when returning from parties often came to me for the remainder
of the night that the elders might not have their sleep broken. In this
way one of my sisters, and a cousin, came to me after a wedding ball at
General Jessup’s. The drive home was long and over rough frozen
streets, and it was nearly one o’clock when they came in — glad enough
of the bright room and big wood fire waiting them. As girls do, they
took off their ball dresses and made themselves comfortable with loose
woolen gowns and letting down their hair, while I, only too pleased
just then to have an excuse for staying up with others, made them tea
as we talked over the evening and the bride.
The fire was getting low and I went into the adjoining dressing-
room to bring in more wood. It was an old-fashioned big fireplace, and
the sticks were too large to grasp with the hand ; as I half-knelt, balanc-
ing the long sticks on my left arm, a hand rested slightly on my left
1 In Wide Awake, December, 1888. See also Journal S. P. R., April, 1891.
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shoulder, and Mr. Fremont’s voice, pleased and laughing, whispered
my name. There was no sound beyond the quick-whispered name — no
presence, only the touch — that was all. But I knew (as one knows in
dreams) that it was Mr. Fr4mont, gay, and intending to startle my
sister whose ready scream always freshly amused him.
Silently I went back into the girls’ room with the wood, but before
I could speak my sister, looking up to take a stick from me, gave a
great cry and fell in a heap on the rug.
“ What have you seen? ” called out our cousin, Mary Benton.
I had not yet spoken ; this was all in a flash together. When I
said it was Mr. Fr4mont — that he touched my shoulder for me to
“ keep still and let him scare Susy ” — then the poor child screamed
again and again. We crushed her ball dress over her head to keep the
sound from the neighbors, but it was difficult to quiet her.
The girls had been distressed by my fixed idea of danger to Mr.
Fr&nont and knew how out of condition it had made me. Their first
thought now was that my mind had broken down. They soon realized
this was not so, as we discussed the strange fact of my knowing — and
so surely that peace came back to me — that whatever he had had to
bear was over; that he was now safe and light of heart; and that in
some way he himself had told me so. We talked long, and the girls
were too excited for sleep, though the unreliable^ little French clock
chimed three. But a blessed rest had fallen on me and I went off to “ a
sleep that sank into my soul,” deep and dreamless, from which I did not
wake until ten the next day, when my eyes opened to see my father sit-
ting by my bedside. He had been guarding my sleep a long time — in
fact the whole household were protecting it as the crisis of a fever. . . .
With sleep and appetite strength soon returned, but the true
** good-medicine ” was my absolute certainty of safety for Mr.
Fr6mont. . . .
We all talked it over with friends, often. There was no way to
verify what Mr. Fremont’s part had been during those two weeks. We
must wait until, his journey over, by summer at the earliest, he should
reach San Francisco, and then the only mail was nearly a month, via
the Isthmus.
But in early April there came to Washington, overland, a Mormon
elder, named Babitt, from the settlement of Parowan, in (now) South
Utah. Mr. Babitt brought us letters from Mr. Fremont written at
Parowan, and added many details of personal intelligence. . . .
Now the fact was verified that there had been a starving time; that
it had lasted through January into the next month ; that the last fort-
night had been desperately, almost fatally exhausting — quite so to
[one man]. This fortnight was the period during which I knew of
their starving.
The relief came to them when they got into Parowan — the evening
of the sixth of February — when I was made to know that also, that
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NOTED WITNESSES
same night. Every family took in some of the men, putting them into
warm rooms and clean, comfortable beds, and kind-faced women gave
them reviving food and pitying words. Mr. Fremont’s letters could
not say enough of the gentle, patient care of these kind women. And
of his own “ great relief of mind.”
After this we heard no more until the twenty-fifth of May, when he
telegraphed from New York as his steamer got in from Aspinwall, and
by set of sun he was again at home.
Soon he was told by my father of what I have been telling you here.
His lawyer-habit of mind had made him minutely verify what we three
women had to tell, but there was a point beyond — the point of time.
As nearly as we could settle it, two a. m. was the hour I had the
flash of information that all was well again. The girls had stayed out
later than usual, as it was an assembly of family friends for a marriage
festivity, and the long rough drive over frozen mud of the old Wash-
ington streets was necessarily slow. Our old coachman objected to
being out after twelve and we saw with a little quake that it was nearly
one when they came in. After that came the undressing, the leisurely '
hair-brushing, the long gossip over the evening as they took their tea ;
and this brought it to about two o’clock. Time did not enter much
into our former easy-going Southern lives, and we were three young
women amused, comfortable — and what did it matter an hour more
or less ?
Next morning, when the baggage came, the journal of that time
was taken out and we read the entry for the night of their arrival at
Parowan, the bringing up of the journal to the latest waking hour
being a fixed habit. We read: “ Parowan , February 6th, llh. 30m.
p. m.” and the brief record of the arrival, their safety and comfort,
and the goodness of everyone to them. He had been around to each
of his party for a thankful good-night, and had seen them each in
warm beds; he wrote of the contrast to the bad days just past and of
his own quiet room with its fire of logs and “ the big white bed ” waiting
him, to which he must go now, for he was “ fatigued ” and it was near
midnight. Then there followed the wish that I could know of this
comfort and of his mind at ease.
And, at that moment, I did know. For the difference of longitude
makes Washington two hours and twenty-three minutes later than
Parowan, so that llh. 30m. p. m. there would be in Washington lh.
53m. a. m. — “ about ” two o’clock ! . . .
Jessie Benton Fremont.
Dr. Hodgson undertook to see if this account could be corroborated,
and succeeded very well. Mrs. Fremont responded to queries, by a
letter from Los Angeles, February 12, 1889, saying:
Susy heard no voice, saw no form, but instantly knew on seeing me
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that I had seen Mr. Fremont. Mary only saw that I “ had seen some-
thing ”■ — enough to startle her from her usual balanced repose of mind.
But I both heard the voice, though but in the uttering my name; felt
the light touch on my shoulder and knew I was to make no warning, for
he wanted to make Susy scream. She was but eight years old when he
married into the family and was always a pet playmate. Her shrill,
prolonged scream was his delight, and he never lost a chance to startle
her. She was a sound-nerved, healthy young thing, just twenty — un-
married, and about equally dividing her life between her piano and her
horse, on which she rode hours daily. This sister died in 1874.
Another sister [Mrs. E. Benton Jones], then at my father’s, knew of
it at once.
It was quite the only time I ever knew, or in any way was impressed
with the danger to Mr. Fremont ; though he had had other experiences
of prolonged starvation, and often of deadly danger in other ways. I
was in my usual good health — unusual health always and at that age,
only thirty ; my nerves were unshaken. . . .
Then a letter came from Mrs. Mary Benton Warren, the only other
living witness actually in the room at the time. She wrote from Muir,
Kentucky, on April 3, 1889.
I have your note of inquiry concerning the correctness of the
account, given recently by Mrs. General Fremont in the Wide Awake.
I have seen the account to which you refer, and also had a letter from
Mrs. Fr4mont on the subject.
I can answer without hesitation that the version given by her of
the incident is a true and correct one. I was a guest in Mrs. Fremont’s
house at the time, and an eye-witness to all that she has so correctly
stated, under the head of “ A Modern Ghost Story,” in the Wide
Awake.
M. Benton Warren.
The other sister, Mrs. Elizabeth Benton Jones, wrote from Paris,
March 31, 1889, testifying to Mrs. Fremont’s great fear and depression
until her sudden relief consequent to the “ vision.” She also remarks :
My father himself, at different times, had that realizing sense of
another’s presence, though, while a man of fine sensibilities, he was not
what would be called an imaginative man.
General Fr4mont himself wrote a statement, dated July 15, 1889.
After describing the reasons for the expedition, and the earlier part of
the journey, he continues :
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But, entering the mountain region of the Colorado waters beyond,
the game suddenly failed, and on that side there was deep snow, though
outside of drifts only some four feet on the level in small valleys and
bottoms among the hills. It proved that in this region the valleys
were barren, only the mountains fertile. We had to keep to these for
what grass or game was to be had. It became difficult for the animals
to find enough to keep up their strength, and of the few that remained
serviceable the best were kept for the hunters, who had to cover wide
tracts in search of game. The rest of the party were on foot. Shortly,
the men grew weak upon scanty fare, hard work by day and guard by
night, and hunger soon lengthened into starvation. This made prog-
ress slow, and when we issued from the mountains into the valley of the
Colorado River the broken line of our half-starved men, straggling
across the naked desert of the great valley, did not much resemble the
well-equipped party of hardy men which had left the Missouri a few
months back. All were now existing on mule meat. We crossed the
river at the head of one of the great cafions, and were soon again in-
volved among the snowfields of the mountains. There remained now
only the bed of the Wahsatch ranges to cross. Here, for the first and
only time in much traveling through the inhospitable lands, I fairly
gave out. Going up a long mountain slope, I was breaking my way
through the snow a little way ahead of the party, when suddenly my
strength gave out. All power of motion left me; I could not move a
foot. The mountain slope was naked, but it just happened that near
by was a good thick grove of aspens, and across a neighboring ravine
the yellow grass showed above the snow on a south hillside. Saying to
Godey, as he came up, that I would camp there, I sat down in the snow,
and waited. After a few moments, strength enough came back, and no
one noticed what had happened. The next day we came upon a good
camping ground, when I made a halt and disencumbered the party of
everything not absolutely necessary. Here I had good observations,
and was able to tell my men that we were only fifty miles in air line from
the Mormon town of Parowan, in the great basin. This certainty of
near relief nerved them up to effort, and in a few days more we forced
our way across the last ridges of the Wahsatch Mountains.
With the exception of one man who could not hold out, and died
from starvation just as we came out of the mountains, I had brought
my people safely through. It had been a narrow chance. . . .
The next day we reached Parowan. We were received there by all
the people with genuine hospitality, and everything a generous kindness
could suggest was done for our comfort. Good quarters in the town
were provided for all, and fresh clothing, good food, and the luxury of
a real bed, made recent hardships seem like a bad dream.
That night I made in my notebook the entry of which Mrs. Fremont
speaks. I had some work with the stars which was of special interest
to me, and I sat up by my campfire far into the night, dreaming of
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home, thinking how happy Mrs. Fr&nont would be if only she could
know that I was safe. I knew that at home the uncertain nature of my
journey was well understood, and that there was constant anxiety to
know how it had fared with me.
My work over, I returned to my quarters in the town, only a few
hundred yards away. The warm, bright room and big white bed, with
all their suggestions of shelter and relief from danger, fell in with what
I had been thinking, and made the picture of home rise up like a real
thing before me, and when, as was my habit at the close of a day’s work,
I took up my journal, I put there the wish that had possession of my
mind — that Mrs. Fremont could only know that all danger was past
and that it was well with me.
John C. Feemont.
Even though we leave Susy and her screams quite out of account,
we have a very pretty case remaining, however we explain it. Mrs.
Fremont’s depression might be explained by the very natural fears of a
woman whose husband was engaged in a possibly dangerous expedition,
though she picked out exactly the period of the expedition for her fears
when there was an actual corresponding state of privation and danger.
But why did the fears, so afflicting to her health and spirits, so sud-
denly leave her, while it was still winter in the mountains? And why
did the hour and moment of the cessation of these fears coincide with
the hour and moment when the explorer was occupied with thoughts of
home and writing his wish that his wife might know that he was safe?
Many a reader will be disposed to answer the question “ Why ? ”
with the facile answer “ telepathy.” But that word is a key which
does not turn in this lock with perfect ease. There are cases where one
person thinks a particular thing under extraordinary circumstances,
and precisely that thought, or a hallucination of precisely that nature,
occurs to another person at a distance. But in this case General Fre-
mont thinks a wish that his wife knew he wras safe, and his wife seems to
feel a hand upon her shoulder, seems to hear his voice pronounce her
name, and somehow gets the impression that he proposes to play a trick
on her sister Susy. If exact coincidence between the thought of the
supposed “ sender ” and that of the supposed “ recipient ” is a support
to the theory of telepathy as applied to one case, then wide discrepancy
between the coincident thoughts of two persons in another case should
be an argument against the theory of telepathy as applied to that.
There should be some limit to the handicap which, by way of courtesy,
the spiritistic hypothesis allows to the telepathic.
If there are spirits, and if they have a certain access to human
thoughts, and if the limitations of space are little felt by them, then
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the spiritistic theory would have an easier time than telepathy with the
facts in this case. A friendly intermediary might convey the assurance
that the Pathfinder wanted conveyed to his wife, and in doing so employ
such devices as an intelligent personal agent could think up and were
within its grasp. The touch, the hallucination of a voice resembling
that of the absent husband, the sense of gaiety, and even the very char-
acteristic trait of liking to startle Susy, might all be the result of the
friendly messenger’s attempts to implant in Mrs. Fremont’s mind a
fixed assurance that somebody was safe and happy, and that this some-
body was in very truth her husband. This is said merely as a matter
of dialectics.
COINCIDENTAL DREAM OF HIS MOTHER’S DEATH 1
(GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI)
The famous revolutionary patriot of Italy, General Garibaldi
(1807-1882), had a life of conflict with alternating success and defeat.
Obliged to flee because of revolutionary activities in 1834, he fought in
the army of Uruguay. In 1848 he served in Italy’s defense against
Austria, and commanded the forces against France and Austria in
1849. Defeated, he fled to the United States, and supported himself
as a candlemaker in New York. In 1859 he by force of arms became
Dictator of Sicily, and then captured Naples, but the next year Sicily
was annexed to Italy and he retired to private life. Again in 1866 he
struggled for Italy but was defeated. He fought for Prussia in 1870.
In 1875 he was elected to the Italian Parliament, and took a radical
Republican attitude.
The noted English historian, Trevelyan, tells the story briefly.
[At the age of 46] he was visited by a strange dream — of the women
of Nice bearing his mother to the grave — which, he declares, came to
him on the very day when she died far off on the other side of the world
of water. [He was then on a vessel in the ocean.]
In a note Trevelyan tells us that we must see:
Guerzoni, I, 398, 399 for Garibaldi’s own account. Also Basso,
his devoted friend and secretary, who met him in New York and re-
mained with him for twenty years, and who was with him on board the
1 Garibaldi and the Thousand, by George M. Trevelyan (1909), 17-18.
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Carmen [where he had the dream] told the Marios of the extraordinary
effect this dream produced on Garibaldi, Mario , Supp., 120. It was
dreamt on March 19, 1852.
DREAMS CONNECTED WITH THE GRANT FAMILY
The New York Sun of December 16, 1902, and other papers of the
same or near date, had the following item:
East Orange, N. J., Dec. 15. Mrs. Mary Grant Cramer, a sister
of Gen. U. S. Grant, who lives with her sister, Mrs. Virginia Grant
Corbin, at 70 Lenox Avenue, East Orange, says the death of Mrs.
Grant was foretold to her in a dream on December 6.
“ The dream was exceedingly vivid,” said Mrs. Cramer. “ I thought
that Mrs. Grant came to my bedside and, placing her hand on my
shoulder, said impressively: ‘ Mary, I have come to talk with you and
to say good-by, because I am not going to be with you much longer.’ ”
Mrs. Cramer told her dream at the breakfast table the next morn-
ing and to her astonishment a friend of the family, Mrs. Katherine
Lawrence, who was visiting them at the time, said that she, too, had had
a singular dream. Mrs. Lawrence said that she dreamed that she, Mrs.
Cramer and Mrs. Corbin stood in the portal of Grant’s tomb on River-
side Drive, New York, and that there appeared to be a large crowd of
persons outside awaiting the arrival of a cavalcade of some kind.
Dr. Hodgson wrote to Mrs. Cramer, but it was not until April 23,
1903, that she replied, from Hotel Hygeia, in New York City. After
apologies for her delay, Mrs. Cramer continued :
As to my dream in November, it was as follows: One morning at
the breakfast table I said, “ Last night I dreamed that Julia (Mrs.
Grant) came toward me and, bending till her head was close to mine,
she said in a low, impressive tone, * I will not be here long.’ ” Mrs.
Lawrence sat opposite to me, and as I glanced from my sister to her, I
noticed a look of astonishment on her face, and she proceeded to say,
“ I dreamed last night that we were at your brother’s tomb and there
was a great crowd of people there. Mrs. Corbin pressed through, push-
ing with her hands, and called to us, ‘ Come on.’ ”
That is all there was of the dreams. I had not been thinking about
Mrs. Grant shortly before and cannot tell why I dreamed about her.
In a few instances, I have had a premonition of coming events.
Yours respectfully,
Mary Grant Cramer.
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It would not be surprising if the first version of the dreams as given
to the reporter were the more correct. At least at that time she could
give the date of them, but the following spring she names that errone-
ously. At least, the reporter’s version was widely circulated, and there
does not seem to have been issued any correction of it, which other
reporters would have been exceedingly eager to get hold of, had it
been made.
No particular interpretation of the dreams is here pressed, and
they are included only because they come under the title of this series.
If the editor of the Springfield Republican was right in saying, in the
issue of December 18, that Mrs. Grant “ had been in a failing physical
condition,” it is not very strange that two friends should have had
dreams which expressly or inferentially indicated her death. If he is
right in saying that this failing condition had continued “ a long time,”
the coincidence is more impressive than if she had been suddenly taken
ill. He is certainly correct in remarking that the coincidence of an
eight days’ interval was much less striking than if the death had taken
place a few hours later. A son of Mrs. Cramer (Mr. J. Grant Cramer)
was unable, in 1919, to say whether or not Mrs. Grant’s death had, in
fact, been anticipated, and we have not been able to learn. But if it
had seemed imminent, Mrs. Cramer would hardly have said that she
“ had not been thinking about her shortly before.” The particular of
Mrs. Grant seeming to bend over the bed of Mrs. Cramer rather arrests
attention, and makes one wonder whether it was not a vision rather
than a dream. It would be interesting to know how many persons
dream of themselves as being in bed. The compiler cannot remember
ever having done so.
The dreams yield easily to a normal explanation, though the easy
and plausible solution may not, in fact, be the true one. If, as Mrs.
Cramer seemed to imply, she had had veridical premonitions before
these, had they been stated, they would have supported the view that
the latest dream contained a supernormal element.
THE VOICES THAT DELIVERED FRANCE
(JEANNE D’ARC)
Considerable finical ingenuity has been expended by various writers
in the effort to minimize the forces actuating the career of the Maid of
Orleans (about 1411-1431), one of the most extraordinary in human
history. “ It was no uncommon occurrence for damsels to accompany
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their lovers to war,” we read, therefore, “ to the imagination of the
time there was nothing strange in such a mode of deliverance,” although
such a motive for going to war was utterly lacking in Jeanne’s case,
and no damsel who accompanied her lover to war had ever accomplished
a deliverance ! “ Her whole attention became engrossed with her coun-
try’s wrongs ” and “ the result was that, owing to a peculiarity of her
nervous constitution, her own thoughts and hopes seemed to take an
audible voice,” although there is not the slightest evidence that she had
a nervous constitution but rather the contrary, nor any evidence that
she was more concerned about France, before the voices began, than a
thousand other girls. The facts are imagined by the writer to support
the theory. Finally, “ by a remarkable stroke of good luck, Jeanne
succeeded in entering Orleans on April 29, 1429,” whereas if there was
ever a victory which was conceived, led, inspired and dominated in its
decisive features by one personality it was that which raised the seige
of Orleans and drove the English beyond the Loire.
Were it not historical fact, but the invention of a story writer, it
would all seem the wildest extravaganza. What psychologist who now
finds it so easy to account for Jeanne d’Arc, were he transplanted back
to December, 1428, when she was yet in her father’s cottage, given all
the particulars then in existence, a peasant girl of seventeen, utterly
ignorant of reading and writing, living in a village 200 miles from a city
undergoing a siege and 400 from the court of the Dauphin ;* given
also the facts that nearly a half of France was in the hands of the
English, who were still continuing their encroachments, that the
Dauphin had been disinherited by his own mother in favor of Henry V.
of England, and that he was making scarcely an effort in his own
behalf ; and given that this unlettered country girl dreamed of making
her way to the Dauphin, persuading him that she was divinely ap-
pointed to conquer the foes with whom he was then ready to come to
almost any terms they would grant, and to make him king — what
psychologist, I ask, would then have thought it quite supposable that,
since “ she possessed a nature strongly sympathetic, and it was
kindled to ardent patriotism by the sad condition of her country,” and
since she was of a “ nervous constitution ” and imagined she heard
voices, she would actually realize her dreams, transform rough swash-
bucklers into loyal knights so convinced of her mission as to guard her
hundreds of miles through a perilous country to the Dauphin, gain
1 It is almost impossible in these days of railroads, automobiles and paved high-
ways, to realize what such distances meant in the fifteenth century, especially to
villagers, most of whom never went many miles from their homes, unless compelled
to serve in war.
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audience with that skeptical prince who at first refused to see her,
convince him and the court and the church that there was something
unearthly about her, be made titular head of the army and actually to
a large extent dominate its generals, achieve an utterly unlikely vic-
tory and other military successes by strategy and tactics of her own,
and stand beside Charles in the Cathedral of Rheims while there was
placed upon his head the crown which, but for her, he probably never
would have worn?
I have already intimated that there is not the slightest evidence
that Jeanne d’Arc was a hysteric or even “ of a nervous constitution.”
In fact, as Andrew Lang has pointed out,1 the evidence we have is quite
to the contrary. She showed extraordinary physical vigor and endur-
ance, there is in the records no whisper of ill-health until the terrible
and prolonged strain of her imprisonment and trial which would have
affected the health of a Hercules. The marvelous sagacity and shrewd-
ness of her answers to her learned inquisitors hour after hour, day after
day, proved the robustness and sanity of her intellect, if anything could
do so. She was not disposed to melancholy, but rather to humor,
which manifested itself repeatedly even when she faced her judges.
And she was remarkably free from the customary superstitions of the
people among whom she was bred, such as the belief in fairies.
It happens that we have more first-hand data about her than about
most celebrities of her period, incomparably more than we have about
Shakespeare who was born a century and a half later, in the records
of her trial and other documents. First of all her own testimony, and
no one seems to doubt that she told the absolute truth as she understood
it. Many of her statements were supported by the responsible testi-
mony of others, or by irrefutable contemporaneous written materials.
Jeanne was accustomed to refer to her guides only under the term
“ the voices,” although in her trial she admitted having had visions of
bodily forms whom, it appears, she was told were, or more likely she
interpreted to be, Sts. Michael, Catherine and Margaret. Except for
the brief period of agony when she first realized that she was not to be
imprisoned but burned, she always claimed that she was led aright,
and that the information the voices gave her proved true. In her
confusion of mind resulting from misinterpreting an utterance of the
voices, she said that they had deceived her. Erasmus, in the same cen-
tury, remarked that if ever put to torture he certainly would recant,
that he had not the courage to be a martyr. The difference between
him and Jeanne was that though torture made her sign a recantation
1 Proceedings S. P. R., XI, 199.
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which she imperfectly understood when it was read to her, she recanted
the recantation and went resolutely to the stake.
There seems to be no doubt that when on the way to the Dauphin in
Chinon, she entered a church and after she left it declared that the
voices told her to use a sword which would be found hidden under the
altar of it, for the declaration was recorded before the sword was
sought. The sword was in fact found where she said it would be, and it
is difficult to suppose that she had any normal information about it.
There seems to be little doubt that Charles tested her by disguising
himself and having another man dressed in royal garments, and that
she, at first puzzled, rejected the pretender and found the right man.
She expressly declared at her trial that she knew the Dauphin by means
of her voices, although it is open to doubt whether there were not be-
traying signs on the part of Charles or the company.
The proof is satisfactory, too, that she told Charles something that
he regarded as an astonishing proof of her occult powers, and it is said
that she divined and satisfied his doubts about the legitimacy of his
birth. If this was the subject of her communication to him, the fact
would explain her statement in court that if made to tell what it was
she would not tell the truth.
We may discount the story that she predicted the death of an inso-
lent soldier before night and its occurring by accident, and that of her
fulfilled prophecy that she would be wounded under her right shoulder
at Orleans, since they did not come out at her trial but in the testimony
at her Rehabilitation twenty years later. But they are scarcely harder
to believe than that of the sword under the altar, and Pasquerel, her
confessor, may well have been telling the sober truth. We have her
own testimony that she made several predictions, each one of which
was as impossible to infer beforehand. She claimed to have predicted
in April, 1450j that she would be taken prisoner before midsummer, and
her declaration that she foresaw at the beginning of her military career
that she “ should last but one year or a little more ” was corroborated
by the Due d’Alencon, who said that he had heard her say so several
times. On the fifth day of her trial she asserted that “ before seven
years were gone, the English would lose a dearer gage than Orleans,”
and that she knew it by revelation. This was recorded in 1429, and
the loss of Paris by the English in 1436 was not a bad fulfilment. The
two greatest predictions, of raising the siege of Orleans, and of crown-
ing the Dauphin at Rheims, both by her efforts, were certainly made
by her, both were at the time most unlikely, and both were certainly
accomplished. She unquestionably expected when she started for
Chinon that she would become a war-leader, although at first fright-
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ened and incredulous, because the voices persisted in telling her she
should be. What notion could seem more preposterous? Yet she did
become a general, transformed the morale of the French army as truly
as Sheridan did that of the beaten Federal one at Cedar Creek, person-
ally directed assaults and the planting of cannon, and had her military
genius endorsed by reputed experts of her own time and ours. During
her appointed year, about everything she directed succeeded, and when
the generals evaded her orders they usually had cause to regret it.
When Orleans had been saved and the Dauphin crowned she felt
that her work was done and wanted to go home, but was persuaded not
to do so, and thus apparently brought upon herself the subsequent
comparative lack of success and the capture which she herself pre-
dicted. She disobeyed the voices when she jumped from the tower in
her desire to escape from prison. She testified that she was forgiven
and was told that Compiegne, then under seige by the English, would
be relieved before Martinmas (November 11). It was relieved on
October 26.
During her trial she testified in answer to questions, that her voices
told her “ to bear all cheerfully ; be not vexed with thy martyrdom,
thence shalt thou come at last into the kingdom of Paradise.” There is
no doubt that she spoke these words, as they were 6et down in French
and Latin in the records of the court, which exist today, and the words
seem to us fearfully significant, but their meaning was hidden from her,
for she explained that she supposed the pains of prison were meant.
It is also certain that on March 1 she was asked in court whether her
voices had promised that she should be liberated and that she answered,
“ Ask me in three months and I will tell you.” What did she mean by
these words? She certainly did not consciously mean that she was to
be liberated by death, for she did not know until later that death was
to be her doom. It looks as though the voices may have dictated the
utterance, for her liberation by burning at the stake came on May 30,
almost exactly three months after she spoke that prophetic sentence.
Putting aside all that is doubtful, there remains a series of astound-
ing facts, part of which are vindicated by irrefutable documents and
by competent and responsible witnesses, and a part of which today rest
solely on the word of one who as fully deserves her canonization as a
saint as anyone who ever walked the earth. If she was a hysteric, it is
a pity that the formula by which such a hysteria may be induced could
not be learned by others, so that they too could become superwomen.
If she was insane, it was an insanity which gave her ability, without
instruction, to wage war so as to amaze trained leaders, to tutor princes
and dominate military councils, to be a match for the combined learning
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and practiced skill of a throng of ecclesiastical lawyers for several ter-
rible weeks. If she was a fanatic, it was a fanaticism which is the glory
of France and has filled the world with memorials in her honor.
MONITION OF A DEATH 1
(ALVARO OBREG6N)
The name of General Obregon is very familiar to American readers
as that of a revolutionary military leader, afterwards President of the
Republic of Mexico.
The following extract is from an article in the Saturday Evening
Post of November 6, 1920, by Dr. E. J. Dillon, entitled “ Alvaro
Obrego; The Man and His Policy.”
Obregon once had a curious experience which to minds more akin to
the metaphysical temperament might have served as a point of depart-
ure for speculation of a mystical order, but in his case led merely to a
note of interrogation mentally addressed to scientists. It turned upon
the death of his mother, who was worshiped by her numerous children
not only for the generosity with which she was wont to sacrifice herself
for their good but also for the sweetness and firmness with which she
faced her trials and hid them from those whom they would have grieved
and might have dispirited. Toward Alvaro in particular she displayed
a warmth of affection which he still loves to recall. It was to him, when
he was nineteen years old and penniless, that she confided the care of
his sisters, for she had a presentiment, or rather the firm conviction,
that he would one day rise to a high position in the social scale.
Well, he and his brother were employed far from the town where
Senora Obregon dwelt, on a hacienda, working twelve hours daily, earn-
ing a mere pittance and improving their minds in their leisure hours at
night by reading aloud to each other. Unfortunately, the only books
available — those of the landed proprietor — were almost exclusively
novels, and mostly poor ones. One night after Alvaro had gone to
sleep his brother woke him up and said :
“ I have terrible news for you. Mother is dead.”
“Whatever do you mean?” rejoined Alvaro. “Have you been
dreaming? ”
“ No, nor sleeping, either. Wide awake, I have just seen her as I
see you. She lay on the bed a corpse, rigid and bloodless, her face
drawn and her skin like parchment. I actually saw her.”
1 Journal A. S. P. R., February, 1921.
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Alvaro argued against the possibility of such an apparition, set it
down to a hallucination, and after a time induced his brother to go
back to bed.
Soon afterward, however, a knock was heard at the door, and the
brother returned with an account of a second apparition and protest-
ing that he could not sleep.
“ Well,” rejoined Alvaro, “ I have to be up betimes in the morning
and at my work, so I cannot afford to do without sleep in order to keep
you company. You are ill.”
He then woke up the housekeeper and asked for some medicine to
calm his brother’s nerves and, having obtained it, he went to bed, slept
soundly and rose next morning as usual. Two days passed after that,
during which he forgot the incident completely. But during the night
of the second day he heard the clatter of a horse’s hoofs afar off, and
suddenly the episode revived in his memory. Gradually the sound grew
louder, and then stopped. He felt certain that it bore a direct relation
to himself and his mother. The horseman entered the house. He was
a messenger with the tidings of the death of Senora Obregon, who had
expired at the exact moment of the first apparition.
On reading this account at second-hand by Dr. Dillon, I desired to
see how much, if any, he had exaggerated the account in retelling it,
so wrote to the President of Mexico, asking him to relate the exact
facts. This is his reply, as translated by Mr. Frank Hyslop, a brother
of the late Dr. J. H. Hyslop. It was dated from Mexico City,
December 15, 1920.
Mr. Walter F. Prince, . . .
My Dear Sir :
I have the pleasure of replying to your courteous letter received
November 10, being myself greatly pleased at the interest you have
shown in the incident referred to by Dr. E. J. Dillon in an article to
which you refer of which the following is the correct version :
In 1897, my brother Alexander and I were working on a ranch
called “ Three Brothers ” and distant about 75 kilometers from the
place where my mother and brothers resided. The ranch was entirety
isolated, without telegraph or telephone connections and not even a
regular postal service, since the mail arrived only about once a week.
Our mother was in delicate health, but that was the extent of our
knowledge in this respect, as we had no means of keeping ourselves in-
formed in regard to the course of her infirmity, owing to the lack of
means of communication above mentioned.
My brother and I were accustomed, after supper, to entertain our-
selves by reading some book ; one of us would read and the other listen.
On the night of August 27, 1897, at the close of our reading, we
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retired and had been at rest approximately an hour when I was awak-
ened by Alexander, who, under great excitement, said to me : “ I have
just seen my mother; she is dead and placed on a table.” I told him
that it was a dream like any other and that he ought to quiet down and
go to sleep again. He replied that it had not been an ordinary dream,
but that the vision had been very vivid. I succeeded, however, in con-
vincing him and inducing him to go back to bed. Only a short time had
passed when I was again awakened — this time more rudely — by Alex-
ander, who in a state of great excitement told me that he could not
banish the dream, because scarcely had he retired and closed his eyes
when that picture returned to take possession of him. This time I be-
came alarmed, believing that Alexander was suffering from some mental
disturbance, but afterward I became reassured by his conversation, now
more composed, which satisfied me that my alarm was unfounded.
Then I urged him to return to bed and not disturb me with the dream
any more, taking the precaution to go to another part of the house so
as not to be intruded upon, in order that I might take my repose which
was very necessary, because I had been working all day and had to work
the following day. And in order to assure myself of his quietude, I
made an old servant who lived at the ranch give him some medicine to
quiet his nerves. The rest of the night passed without incident,
although Alexander could not get the dream off his mind. The follow-
ing day passed without anything abnormal occurring. At night, as
was our custom, we spent some time in reading. In the midst of our
reading — it was I who was reading — Alexander interrupted me and
called my attention to the distinct sound of a horse at gallop on the
road leading to the ranch, saying to me : “ Here comes a messenger and
he is connected with what happened last night.”
Suspending our reading we remained listening to that horse, con-
tinually drawing nearer to the ranch. Finally the traveler arrived,
dismounted and handed to us a telegram which had been received for us
at a village some 30 kilometers from the ranch. In that telegram our
older brothers informed us that our mother had died the previous night.
The preceding is a detailed account of the facts which attracted
your interest in the article by Dr. Dillon (permitting me to observe
that no superstition has ever been entertained by me). At the time
of the occurrence related, my brother Alexander was 21 years old and
I was 17.
Trusting that the preceding account will satisfy your desires, I
remain.
Your sincere and obedient servant,
A. Obregon.
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PREMONITION OF HIS OWN DEATH 1
(JAMES EDWARD OGLETHORPE, GUARANTOR)
General Oglethorpe (1696-1785) was aide-de-camp of Prince
Eugene when but eighteen years old, and served with distinction in the
campaign against the Turks which lasted until he was twenty-one. He
entered Parliament and paid much attention to the amelioration of the
condition of poor debtors in prisons ; and it was for the sake of the
insolvent and of persons persecuted for conscience’s sake on the Conti-
nent that in 1733 he founded the colony of Georgia, now one of the
United States. He became major-general in 1745 and general in 1765.
Oglethorpe was certainly convinced of the truth of the following
story, for he knew the man who found the diary containing a record of
the premonitory dream or vision and heard him confirm the story to
Pope.2 We get the tale at third-hand, to be sure, but the links appear
sound. If any man of his century could be trusted to take notes on the
spot and report with minute accuracy, it was Boswell.
The subject of ghosts being introduced, Johnson repeated what he
had told me of a friend of his, an honest man and a man of sense, having
asserted to him that he had seen an apparition. Goldsmith [1728-
1774] told us he was assured by his brother, the Reverend Mr. Gold-
smith, that he also had seen one. General Oglethorpe told us that
Prendergast, an officer in the Duke of Marlborough’s army, had men-
tioned to many of his friends that he should die on a particular day ;
that upon that day a battle took place with the French ; that after it
was over, and Prendergast was still alive, his brother officers, while they
were yet in the field, jestingly asked him where was his prophecy now.
Prendergast gravely answered, “ I shall die, notwithstanding what you
see.” Soon afterwards there came a shot from a French battery, to
which the orders for a cessation of arms had not yet reached, and he
was killed upon the spot. Colonel Cecil, who took possession of his
effects, found in his pocketbook the following solemn entry: [Here the
date] “Dreamt or Sir John Friend meets me.” [Here
the very day on which he was killed was mentioned.]
Prendergast had been connected with Sir John Friend, who was
executed for high treason. General Oglethorpe said he was with
Colonel Cecil when Pope came and inquired into the truth of this story,
which made a great noise at the time, and was then confirmed by the
Colonel.
1 Boswell’s Life of Johnson, III, 40-41.
2 Probably Alexander Pope (1688-1744). the poet.
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TELEPATHY FROM THE LIVING— AND FROM THE
DEAD? 1
(GEORGE EDWARD PICKETT)
Major-General Pickett (1810-1875) was a graduate of West
Point and served with distinction in the Mexican War. His fame is
chiefly in connection with the charge of 15,000 Confederate troops
upon the Federal center on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
He led them across an open field more than a mile wide, while more than
a hundred cannon centered its fire upon them. The result was that his
command was almost annihilated, but the charge was the boldest and
most spectacular act of the Confederate army during the Civil War.
Mrs. Pickett supplies us the facts, saying that before the battle
of Gaines Mill, General Pickett sent her a letter, containing these
words :
“ All last night the spirit of my dear mother seemed to hover above
me. When she was living, and I used to feel that way, I always, as sure
as fate, received from her a letter written at the very time that I had
the sensation of her presence. I wonder if, up there, she is watching
over me, trying to send me some message — some warning. I wish I
knew.” This was on the 26th of June, 1862. The next morning he was
shot through the shoulder, and incapacitated for three months.
MONITION OF A DEATH 2
(EARL ROBERTS)
Frederick Sleigh Roberts (1832-1912) was one of the most dis-
tinguished military men of the nineteenth century. As a young man he
served in the most important battles of the Indian Mutiny of 1857,
later in the Abyssinian and other expeditions, rose in rank until
Commander-in-Chief in India during the eighties and early nineties, then
served as Commander of the Forces in Ireland, in 1899-1900, had the
chief command in the Boer War, and finally, 1901, became the
Commander-in-Chief of all the British forces. He was created a Baron
in 1892, a Viscount in 1901, and in the same year Earl of Kandahar,
etc. He was P.C., K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., V.C., D.C.L.,
LL.D. (all of which decorative combinations of letters the curious can
probably find explained in a dictionary). He probably could not have
1 Wartime Story of General Pickett, by his wife.
2 Forty-one Years in India, by Lord Roberts, I, 30.
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NOTED WITNESSES
told how many medals and thanks of Parliament and the Government
of India he had received without looking himself up in “ Who’s Who,”
and he deserved them all. He witnesses to the following incident.
My father [General Sir Abraham Roberts, G.C.B.] . . . was then
close on seventy, and though apparently active as ever, he was far from
well, consequently the doctors strongly urged him not to risk another
hot weather in India. It was accordingly settled that he should return
to England without delay.
Shortly before his departure, an incident occurred which I will
relate for the benefit of psychological students ; they may, perhaps, be
able to explain it, I never could. My father had some time before issued
invitations to a dance, which was to take place in two days’ time — on
Monday, October 17, 1853. On the Saturday morning he appeared
disturbed and unhappy, and during breakfast he was silent and de-
spondent— very different from his usual bright and cheery self. On
my questioning him as to the cause, he told me he had had an unpleas-
ant dream — one which he had dreamt several times before, and which
had always been followed by the death of a near relation. As the day
advanced, in spite of my efforts to cheer him, he became more and more
depressed, and even said he should like to put off the dance. I dis-
suaded him from taking this step for the time being; but that night he
had the same dream again, and the next morning he insisted on the
dance being postponed. It seemed to me rather absurd to have to dis-
appoint our friends because of a dream; there was, however, nothing
for it but to carry out my father’s wishes, and intimation was accord-
, ingly sent to the invited guests. The following morning the post
brought news of the sudden death of the half-sister at Lahore, with
whom I had stayed on my way to Peshawar.
It is not expressly said on what day the woman died, but as the same
book incidentally mentions that the mail-carts from Calcutta to Pesh-
awar often traveled at the speed of twelve miles an hour, as the dream
first occurred on the night of October 14-15, and the news of the death
coming a distance of about 230 miles reached Peshawar on the morning
of October 17, it seems probable that the dream and the death occurred
on the same night.
HOW DID HE KNOW THE CHILD WAS NOT DEAD? 1
(JAMES WILLCOCKS, GUARANTOR)
General Sir James Willcocks (1857-. . . .), D.S.O., K.C.M.G., etc.,
served in the Afghan (1879-80) and Soudan (1885) campaigns and in
1 Article by Gen. Willcocks in (London) Evening News of January 28, 1926.
Quoted by Mr. Harry Price in Journal A. S. P. R., April, 1926, pp. 234-235.
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various military expeditions in the East, also in the Boer War in
Africa (1898), was decorated for services on the Niger, commanded
the Northern Army of India (1910-1914), and led the Indian Army-
Corps in the World War.
When traveling in India was not the comparatively easy matter :t
is today, a relative of mine who had been able to render material help
to a Brahmin during the mutiny was marching with his wife and infant
to a hill station in the Himalayas. The child was very ill and they were
using every endeavor to reach the cool.
When they were still thirty miles from the nearest foothills the girl
died. There was no medical attendance to be had, but not far away
dwelt the Brahmin whom the officer had befriended. A Hindu bearer
who had served for long with him sought out the saintly man, and he
at once agreed to come and see the infant.
After much persuasion the disconsolate mother allowed him to re-
move the sheet under which lay the body. The Brahmin repeated one
of his many incantations, relaid the sheet, and said, “ Do not bury this
body before six hours have elapsed and then departed.
Within that time the mother, who had never left the spot, saw the
sheet moving, and suddenly the child turned and tried to rise. It was
not dead. But for the Brahmin it would have been buried alive.
This was told me by the father himself, and I knew the old Hindu
well, though to any question of mine his only answer was the equivalent
of “ God is the Master.”
PREMONITIONS VERIFIED BY PROMINENT NAVAL
OFFICERS 1
(COMMANDER REINOLD, CAPTAIN “ ESMOND,” STAFF
OFFICER “ KNOX ”)
The Rev. M. A. Mayfield, then and long a member of the S. P. R.
Council, in November, 1915, reported a number of seeming premoni-
tions on the part of the wife of Lieutenant-Commander George H. Pow-
nall, R. N. In August, 1914, at Malta, where she and her husband,
who was in command of the Submarine Flotilla, had been three years,
R. E. Knox (pseudonym), of Admiral Carden’s staff, remarked in her
presence: “Anyhow we (the Admiral and his staff) shall not leave
Malta, for the Admiral has just received an extension of his appoint-
ment.” The war had then begun.
1 Summary of evidence in Proceedings S. P. R., XXIX, 350-370.
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A few mornings later Mrs. Pownall said she had dreamed in the
night that Admiral Carden was to have command of a fleet at sea, but
-nowhere .near England. The fact is corroborated by a signed state-
ment of Knox, $nd also the fact that he had then regarded it very
• improbable that the Admiral would leave the Malta Dockyard, of which
he was superintendent. A signed statement by Captain L. T. Esmond
(pseudonym) still further establishes both facts. Nevertheless, five
weeks later Admiral Carden was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the
Mediterranean Fleet, then at the Dardanelles.
Some time before September 7 the question whether the submarines
would be sent to the Dardanelles was discussed, and the opinion of the
naval officers was decidedly that they would remain for the defense of
Malta. Nevertheless, Mrs. Pownall steadily maintained that the flotilla
would be sent to the Dardanelles, and that her husband would go with
it. This fact also is confirmed by a signed statement of Mr. Knox, who
says that “ we all considered this (the sending of the submarines to the
Dardanelles) most improbable,” and Captain Esmond also corrobo-
rates. Again she was right.
On September 7 Mrs. Pownall saw, as she had often seen, her hus-
band pass across the harbor in his skiff ; but this time she said to herself
(no other proof than her word) : “ He is going to the Admiral to
receive orders for the dispatch of the submarines to the Dardanelles.”
And it was so, and the submarines left the next day.
On parting with her husband, she was absolutely certain she would
never see him again, and from then on always felt peculiarly depressed
on Sundays, mentioning this fact in letters to him many times. He
was wounded on Sunday morning, April 25, 1915, after landing at
Gallipoli, and died the same forenoon.
On the afternoon of April 25, 1915, Captain Esmond personally
delivered to Mrs. Pownall a letter written by her husband. He had
shortly before written that the landing would not take place for some
little time, and this late letter said nothing about naval affairs except
that he was going aboard a transport, which would not necessarily
imply even duties in connection with troops. But while she was read-
ing, an overpowering conviction came upon her that the landing had
been made and her husband killed. As soon after reading as Captain
Esmond had finished a nap, she told him her conviction, and he entirely
discredited it, saying that he did not think the landing would take place
for a day or two, and that when it did it was most unlikely that Lieu-
tenant-Commander Pownall would have anything to do with it. But
her conviction was unshaken. We have not only Mrs. Pownall’s word
for this, but Captain Esmond’s detailed statement. And she was right.
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as we have seen. It was not until April 28, three days later, that Es-
mond received a telegram from Knox announcing Pownall’s death, and
sent it by the wife of the Admiral Superintendent to Mrs. Pownall.
Other reasons are stated why it was very improbable that Pownall
should have been with a landing party.
Incidentally, we note the fact that early on the evening of the day
when Pownall died, his wife, alone in the house, heard what seemed to be
footsteps on the floor beneath, and that no matter which of two floors
she was on. After going down-stairs to search thrice, she went out and
induced a friend, Mme. Davie, to spend the evening with her. Without
having been told of Pownall’s death or the footsteps, Mme. Davie also
heard the footsteps and twice made a search.
Passing several minor incidents of a seemingly premonitory order,
we come to Mrs. Pownall’s prediction of an air raid upon London. At
about 7:15 p. m. of October 12, 1915, she made a memorandum: “I
feel that there will be a Zep. raid tonight or tomorrow at 9:45 p. m.”
A Zeppelin raid did occur on the next evening, at 9:40 by her watch,
which she regulated every morning and which would lose about five
minutes a day. A daughter of the Reverend Mr. Bayfield, Miss Cyrille,
had known Mrs. Pownall intimately for years, was told by her a few
hours before the raid, “ I feel that something is going to happen,” and
afterward, “We are all in it.” While the bombs were dropping she
told Miss Bayfield what she had written, took her to her home, went to
her room, and “ immediately brought back ” and showed Miss Bayfield
the memorandum. (Of course it would have been better to take Miss
Bayfield to her room to see the memorandum, but few intelligent people
think of such minute though important precautions.) The last previ-
ous raid had occurred on September 8, more than a month previously.
On November 12, ten days before Mr. Bayfield wrote his account,
Mrs. Pownall, while looking over the morning paper, had it come into
her mind that a British submarine had been lost and that she would
find something about it in the paper, but there was nothing. At
luncheon she said to Miss Bayfield and Commander B. E. Reinold:
“ Did I dream it or did I see in yesterday’s or today’s paper that a
British submarine had been lost? Was it in any paper?” Both an-
swered in the negative. Shortly after noon a poster was seen, announc-
ing “ British Submarine Lost,” and the news did not appear in the
papers until that afternoon. Signed statements by Commander Rein-
old (who was not afraid of having his true name given) and Miss Bay-
field fully corroborate what took place at the luncheon.
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A STATESMAN CLAIRVOYANT 1
(ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR)
Earl Balfour (1848-. . . .)» educated at Eton and Cambridge, M.A.
of Cambridge, LL.D. of Edinburgh, St. Andrews, Cambridge, Dublin
and Glasgow Universities, D.C.L. of Oxford, was a member of Parlia-
ment for many years, several times leader of the House, and occupied
in turn several positions in the Cabinet, culminating in his becoming
Prime Minister, 1903-05. He has also been rector of several universi-
ties in succession, and president of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, etc. His books are Defence of Philosophic
Doubt , The Foundations of Belief , and Essays and Addresses.
I lent the (crystal) ball to Miss Balfour, who only then saw, I
think, an old-fashioned piece of furniture (in it). Her brother (Mr.
Arthur Balfour) laughed at her and took the ball into his study, when
he returned looking perplexed. He admitted that he had seen (in it) a
person whom he knew, under a lamp. This was about 5 p. m. on a Sun-
day at St. Andrew’s. He would find out on Tuesday, he said, whether
he had seen right or wrong. Miss Balfour told me this.
On Tuesday, Mr. Balfour met, at a dance in Edinburgh, a lady —
Miss Grant. “ On Sunday, at five o’clock,” he said, “ you were seated
under a standard lamp, making tea. A man in blue serge was beside
you; his back was towards me. I saw the tip of his moustache. You
wore a dress (described) that I have never seen you wearing.” “ Were
the blinds up? ” asked the lady.
“ I don’t know ; I was at St. Andrew’s,” said Mr. Balfour.
The lady said the facts were correct, and she and Mr. Balfour wrote
out and signed a report of the incident.
Not long afterwards Mr. Balfour lunched with me. We spoke of
Miss X (Miss Goodrich-Freer) and her experiments on the links before
luncheon. Afterwards, in my study, Mr. Balfour, who was smoking,
gazed into a glass bowl of water. He saw (in it) as much of a house as
you see from the hall. The arrangement, as to flooring, doors, win-
dows, and staircase, was of a kind unknown to us. A white Persian cat
in the picture walked down the stairs. The picture lasted long, and I
1 Andrew Lang, in his Introduction to Crystal Gazing.
104
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made several changes in the lighting of the room. When I drew down
the blind the picture remained, but the large window opposite the front
door in the crystal picture of the house disappeared. I happened later
to meet Miss Goodrich-Freer, whom Mr. Balfour had never seen in his
life, and told her what he had beheld.
“ My house, my Persian cat ! ” said the lady.
I had never been in this house, but visited it on my return to town.
Mr. Balfour’s description of what he saw in the picture was absolutely
correct, but the Persian cat was out. His existence, however, is amply
attested.
DANGER FROM DYNAMITE AVERTED BY MYSTERIOUS
IMPRESSIONS 1
(JEAN ANTOINE ERNEST CONSTANS)
This noted French politician (1833-1913), with the acquiescence of
his wife there present, told to the equally noted astronomer, Camille
Flammarion and a company of persons, a striking incident of what
seemed a monition experienced by Mme. Constans.
M. Constans, Minister of the Interior, President of the Council of
Ministers, while dining together with his wife with me at my observa-
tory of Juvisy told the following incident of their experience:
“ It was in 1889, the period of the conflict with General Boulanger
and his adherents, regarding the revision of the French constitution.
One morning, a book was delivered to him in his mail. Being in haste to
go to a meeting of the Council, he threw it upon the table, asking Mme.
Constans to see what it was, and departed. Mme. Constans, then
having her hair dressed by her maid, took the book on her knees and
began to open it. She thought it was a missal sent by a cousin. But,
three hours previously, she had felt, she said, ‘ some horrors ’ [quelques
horreurs ] which caused her to be prudent. When she had opened the
book very carefully, she thought she perceived ‘ a filthiness ’ [wn£
salete], She immediately gave all to the chambermaid, saying: ‘Take
that into the antechamber ; it is something infamous.’ The woman had
hardly gone when Mme. Constans, hair in disorder, half undressed,
hurried to the doorway and cried: * Do not open it, do not touch it! ’
(Why?)
“ She sent for M. Cassel, Director of Public Safety, and requested
him to examine the object, which seemed mysterious. M. Cassel, in
i Flammarion ’8 La Mori et son Mystere: Avant la mort, 81-82. Translation by
W. F. P.
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NOTED WITNESSES
handling the book, saw certain small whitish particles fall on the table.
He lit them and they took fire. Perceiving the danger, he took the box
under his arm and went to the laboratory of M. Girard in the Pre-
fecture. At the end of an hour, M. Cassel returned and told Mme.
Constans that the book contained dynamite in quantity sufficient to
blow up the building in which the Minister lived. Mme. Constans fell
fainting, and was ill for eight days.”
Professor Flammarion adds :
Some days after this narration, my friend Girard, director of the
laboratory of the Prefecture of police, confirmed to me his special
analysis of the load of dynamite.
The reader is quite well able to imagine that Mme. Constans had
subconscious perception of some sign left by the process of preparing
the book for the reception of dynamite [by hollowing out the in-
terior?]. But it must have been subconscious only, if there was any
normal perception, since no one seems to have discovered any indica-
tion which explained the secret of her conviction. And if “ the hor-
rors ” experienced three hours earlier had anything to do with it, then
she had a premonition before any data were present to her senses.
Another example of Mme. Constans’s monitions is given by Prof.
Flammarion.
A PREVISION 1
(CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW)
Mr. C. M. Depew (1834-1928), A.B. and LL.D. of Yale, was con-
nected with the New York Central Railroad, as counsel, vice-president
and president, twenty-three years, filled several state offices, and was
United States Senator twelve years. He was an important figure at
many Republican national conventions, and himself received ninety-nine
votes for the presidential nomination in 1888. He has been one of the
most distinguished orators and after-dinner speakers in America, and
in spite of the multitudes of good dinners, lived to the age of nearly
ninety-four.
The following account appeared shortly after the New York Re-
publican convention which nominated Roosevelt for Governor, and is
supposed to represent the story told by Mr. Depew.
1 Philadelphia Press, October 16, 1898.
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It happened that Mr. Depew was called upon to deliver three im-
portant addresses in less than two weeks. He had been asked by
Colonel Roosevelt to make the speech placing Roosevelt in nomination
as candidate for Governor. He had been invited to speak for the State
upon New York Day at Omaha, and he had been cordially asked to
speak before the Hamilton Club when he was in Chicago on his way
back from Omaha.
It seemed to him that all three of these occasions offered excellent
opportunity for him to say those things which were uppermost in his
mind respecting the inevitable expansion of the influence of the United
States. Nevertheless, it was difficult even for so experienced an orator
to plan speeches that were to be so near together, whose central thought
was to be the same, which should nevertheless differ in treatment and
phraseology. This difficulty puzzled him somewhat.
On the Saturday afternoon, before the Republican Convention was
to meet, Mr. Depcw went to the Country Club, at Ardsley-on-the-
Hudson, which is his temporary home, and after luncheon he went out
upon the piazza, from which a beautiful vista across the Hudson can
be obtained.
He sat there lazily, intent only upon the scenery, which was espe-
cially agreeable to a man who had been for a week in the thick of the
most exciting business undertakings. Bye and bye the vista seemed to
pass away. He saw as vividly as though the scene were real and in
the convention hall in Saratoga. He saw the delegates stroll in. He
looked at the presiding officer, whose name he did not know, as he
called the convention to order.
He heard that temporary chairman’s speech, he saw the various
details of preliminary organization, and all of the work of the conven-
tion was as vivid and distinct as though he were a part of it at the
moment. Then, at last he saw Mr. Quigg make the motion for the
nomination of candidates and heard the brief comment with which Mr.
Quigg accompanied that motion.
He did not, it is true, know that as a matter of fact Mr. Quigg was
to make that motion ; nevertheless, he saw him do it. He said to him-
self, Your time is come for your speech placing Roosevelt in nomina-
tion.” He saw himself arise, address the Chair, and heard himself
deliver the speech and felt the glow of satisfaction at its reception,
which is the highest reward of eloquence.
After that, the convention hall, the voices of the orators, the faces
of the delegates faded away as in a dream, and Mr. Depew again saw
the vista of the Hudson and the distant mountains across the stream.
He got up, went to his room and wrote out with his own hand the
speech, exactly as he afterward in fact delivered it.
The address which the delegates heard was the address which, by
that singular preoccupancy of the mind, Mr. Depew composed on that
dreamy Saturday afternoon. Afterward, at the convention, he was
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amazed to discover that the picture which he saw with his mind’s eye
was perfectly reproduced to his physical eye and ear in the convention,
even to the words of the chairman and the manner and the motion of
Mr. Quigg.
Mr. Depew speaks of this as a strange mental phenomenon. He
does not attempt to explain it. In other times, he has composed
speeches or the general outline of one, in a single flash of inspiration,
but he never before saw and heard himself deliver an address in the
manner of the experience of that September afternoon.
After the Saratoga convention, Mr. Depew found himself puzzled
as to the way in which he should speak what was in his mind at Omaha.
The central thought, he knew, must be like that which he uttered at
Saratoga.
Suddenly the whole treatment came to him, although not the phrase-
ology, as was the case with the Roosevelt speech. Again, he went to
his room and wrote out the Omaha address. The Hamilton Club ad-
dress was dictated late on the Saturday evening before he started for
Omaha.
A little while before dictation began, Mr. Depew had no idea of the
manner in which he should treat the subject he had in mind. Two hours
before he met the stenographer, the speech was outlined. Like a good
workman, he knew where his tools were and how to use them, for he
speedily had the few statistics that he needed at hand, and then, pacing
the floor, he dictated the speech precisely as the enthusiastic members
of the Hamilton Club heard it.
Mr. Depew’s ability, as witnessed in the last two of the three inci-
dents given above, to have, especially at a time of stress, sudden illu-
minations by which the perplexing matter of how to vary the speeches
was solved suddenly or quickly, even “ the whole treatment ” seeming
to emerge at a leap from the depths, differs in degree, not in kind, from
the experiences of everyone. A large part of our hardest thinking
consists merely in narrowly watching for the thoughts which seem to
rush of their own volition into the mental arena and seizing the fittest
before they as suddenly vanish. Of course there are few with whom the
process of subliminal elaboration reaches so nearly finished a product
before it is presented to view, as in the case of Mr. Depew, and probably
it happens to him only when his mind is burdened by an impending
responsibility of composition for which he has hardly time. Nor would
it have happened to him, but for his lifelong habit of consciously com-
posing addresses which has stored up subconscious facility.
But the incident relating to the convention speech contains elements
of a different character. Not only the structure and the very language
of the speech came to Mr. Depew in a constant stream, but it was to
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the accompaniment of a visual hallucination so powerful that it obliter-
ated all sense of the beautiful landscape that lay spread out before him
and which he had just been admiring. Nor did he simply seem to be in
the convention hall, but the scene which he visualized was, unless the
narrative which we have read be false, the one which he actually saw
when he entered that hall in fact, a few days later: the temporary
chairman was unexpectedly the same, the man who moved that the
candidates be presented was the same and his manner and words the
same, in short the whole scene of his vision was reproduced.
But no one would be so foolish as to believe this on the basis of a
newspaper story. So thought Prof. W. R. Newbold, dean of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania. He therefore inquired of Mr. Depew whether,
and to what extent, the story was true.
The dean’s letter 1 was explicit, asking in substance if the news-
paper story was (1) a lie, (2) substantially correct, (3) or correct
only in part. Mr. Depew’s reply was short, but sufficiently explicit.
It was dated November 19, 1898, and aside from the merely formal
parts, simply says this :
The story is substantially true as written.
Yours very truly,
Chauncey M. Depew.
There are familiar formulae, easily learned by any bright schoolboy,
for explaining any such incident, especially when the subject is plain
John Doe. Somehow, it does not seem quite so simple to apply them to
Chauncey M. Depew, yet why not? He had a mental picture of a con-
vention, knowing from experience how conventions look; when he got
to the hall he recalled the waking dream and had a feeling of familiarity
come over him, assisted by a chance resemblance, it may be. And there
you are ! But Mr. Depew testifies that the scene was identical with the
vision, that the same unknown man was in the chair, that Mr. Quigg,
of whose intentions he had no previous notice, actually did and spoke
as in the vision, etc. The very fact that he was familiar with the aspect
of conventions should have made him proof against confounding mere
resemblance and identity. Mr. Depew is quoted as saying that he was
“ amazed,” and endorses the report. One may be as willing as the next
man to reduce this incident to the commonplace, and yet hesitate to
step up to a fairly brainy and forceful gentleman who has told a com-
plicated incident and declared that he was amazed by it, and to inform
1 The letter is given in full in Journal A. S. P. R., March, 1918.
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him that the facts are essentially otherwise than he has reported them,
and that there was nothing in the world for him to be amazed about.1
PREMONITION WHICH SAVED A LIFE 2 *
(LEWIS FIELDS LINN AND MRS. LINN)
Lewis Fields Linn, M.D. (1795-1843), was a Missouri physician of
reputation, and member of the United States Senate toward the end of
his life, of enough distinction to find a place in the “ Biographical
Dictionary ” of the Encyclopedia Britannica . The incident to be re-
lated probably left no doubt in his mind that genuine premonitions do
sometimes occur, requiring the exercise of a supernormal faculty.
The story was told Robert Dale Owen (a more discerning and crit-
ical writer than some people think, even though his methods did not
reach the standards of the best psychic research of our day) by Mrs.
Linn herself, and by him recorded, shortly before the publication of his
book. It is therefore essentially a first-hand account. It is orientated
as to time, place and occasion as thoroughly as at that period would
have been thought worth while, and the names of persons aware of the
facts involved are given. Senator Wright (1795-1847), afterwards
Governor of New York, and a prominent statesman of the period, was
1 In this connection, what I wrote in the Journal A. S. P. R. for June, 1918, may
have sufficient interest to quote :
“ If Chauncey Depew were on the yonder shore and a certain Dean of a great
University [Professor Newbold] had what purported to be a message from him,
saying 4 Fifteen years ago I had a vision of an apparently predictive character, which
was reported in the newspapers; you wrote me asking if the report was correct, and
I replied that it was substantially so ; and if the Dean of whom I wot stated that he
had no recollection of either such an incident as the reported vision or of writing
to Mr. Depew about it, and, furthermore, if as is often the case, it were not now pos-
sible to find confirmatory evidence of either statement, they would be set down as
false beyond question. Nay, would not the Dean, himself, scout the preposterous
assertions with disgust? We correct our memories by those of other living men, but
never doubt our mnemonic infallibility as opposed to a cohort of 4 spirits.'
44 The Dean did absolutely forget that the incident of the vision had been re-
ported. He forgot absolutely, that anything uncanny had ever happened to Dr.
Depew. He forgot absolutely, that he ever wrote to the oratorical railroad potentate.
He absolutely forgot that he sent a copy of his letter and the original of the reply
which he received to this Society. But Depew still lives, and the files of the Society
are intact.
44 The moral ought to be obvious to all bright boys and girls. Don't be so ever-
lastingly cocksure of your memory just when you are so situated that the files can't
be shown to you, and when others stoutly contradict the purported spirits on the
ground that they themselves do not remember the facts asserted, allow just a wee
margin for the errancy of embodied and mundane spirits."
2 Footfalls o?i the Boundary of Another World, by Robert Dale Owen (Philadel-
phia, 1860), 455-58.
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one who witnessed Mrs. Linn’s strange and seemingly causeless appre-
hension, and it was he who took her to the scene of disaster and learned
the sequel on the following morning. General Macomb sat next to Mrs.
Linn and also tried to reassure her; General Jones was with her hus-
band until about half an hour before the accident ; Dr. Sewell was
summoned to the home at once after it. All their names are given, and
it is not likely that all four had died during the nineteen years which
had elapsed. It was not Mrs. Linn’s fault that the investigator did not
interview such as were still living.
In discharge of his [Senator Linn’s] Congressional duties, he was
residing with his family in Washington, during the spring and summer
of 1840, the last year of Mr. Van Buren’s administration.
One day during the month of May of that year, Dr. and Mrs. Linn
received an invitation to a large and formal dinner-party, given by a
public functionary, and to which the most prominent members of the
Administration party, including the President himself and our present
Chief Magistrate, Mr. Buchanan, were invited guests. Dr. Linn was
very anxious to be present; but, when the day came, finding himself
suffering from an attack of indigestion, he begged his wife to bear his
apology in person, and make one of the dinner-party, leaving him at
home. To this she somewhat reluctantly consented. She was accom-
panied to the door of their host by a friend, General Jones, who prom-
ised to return and remain with Dr. Linn during the evening.
At table Mrs. Linn sat next to General Macomb, who had conducted
her to dinner; and immediately opposite to her sat Silas Wright, Sena-
tor from New York, the most intimate friend of her husband, and a man
by whose death, shortly after, the country sustained an irreparable loss.
Even during the early part of the dinner, Mrs. Linn felt very un-
easy about her husband. She tried to reason herself out of this, as she
knew that his indisposition was not at all serious ; but in vain. She
mentioned her uneasiness to General Macomb; but he reminded her of
what she herself had previously told him, — that General Jones had
promised to remain with Dr. Linn, and that, in the very unlikely con-
tingency of any sudden illness, he would be sure to apprize her of it.
Notwithstanding these representations, as dinner drew toward a close
this unaccountable uneasiness increased to such an uncontrollable im-
pulse to return home, that, as she expressed it to me, she felt that she
could not sit there a moment longer. Her sudden pallor was noticed by
Senator Wright, and excited his alarm. “ I am sure you are ill, Mrs.
Linn,” he said; “ what is the matter? ” She replied that she was quite
well, but that she must return to her husband. Mr. Wright sought, as
General Macomb had done, to calm her fears; but she replied to him,
“ If you wish to do me a favor for which I shall be grateful while I
live, make some excuse to our host, so that we can leave the table.”
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Seeing her so greatly excited, he complied with her request, though they
were then but serving the dessert; and he and Mrs. Wright accom-
panied Mrs. Linn home.
As they were taking leave of her at the door of her lodgings, Sena-
tor Wright said, “ I shall call tomorrow morning, and have a good
laugh with the doctor and yourself over your panic apprehensions.”
As Mrs. Linn passed hastily up-stairs, she met the landlady.
“ How is Dr. Linn? ” she anxiously asked. “ Very well, I believe,” was
the reply ; “ he took a bath more than an hour ago, and I dare say is
sound asleep by this time. General Jones said he was doing extremely
well.”
“ The General is with him, is he not? ”
“ I believe not. I think I saw him pass out about half an hour ago.”
In a measure reassured, Mrs. Linn hastened to her husband’s bed-
chamber, the door of which was closed. As she opened it, a dense smoke
burst upon her, in such stifling quantity that she staggered and fell
on the threshold. Recovering herself after a few seconds, she rushed
into the room. The bolster was on fire, and the feathers burned with a
bright glow and a suffocating odor. She threw herself upon the bed ;
but the fire, half smothered till that moment, was fanned by the draught
from the open door, and, kindling into sudden flame, caught her light
dress, which was in a blaze on the instant. At the same moment her eye
fell on the large bath-tub that had been used by her husband. She
sprang into it, extinguishing her burning dress ; then, returning to the
bed, she caught up the pillow and a sheet that was on fire, scorching her
arms in so doing, and plunged both into the water. Finally, exerting
her utmost strength, she drew from the bed her insensible husband. It
was then only that she called to the people of the house for aid.
Dr. Sewell was instantly summoned. But it was full half an hour
before the sufferer gave any signs whatever of returning animation.
He did not leave his bed for nearly a week; and it was three months
before he entirely recovered from the effects of this accident.
“ How fortunate it was,” said Dr. Sewell to Mrs. Linn, “ that you
arrived at the very moment you did ! Five minutes more, — nay, three
minutes, ^ — and, in all human probability, you would have never seen
your husband alive again.”
Mr. Wright called, as he promised, the next morning. “ Well, Mrs.
Linn,” said he, smiling, “ you have found out by this time how foolish
that strange presentiment of yours was.”
“ Come up-stairs,” she replied. And she led him to his friend,
scarcely yet able to speak ; and then she showed him the remains of the
half-consumed bolster and partially-burned bed-linen.
Whether the sight changed his opinion on the subject of presenti-
ments I cannot tell; but he turned pale as a corpse (Mrs. Linn said),
and did not utter a word.
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I had all the above particulars from Mrs. Linn herself,1 together
with the permission to publish them in illustration of the subject I am
treating, attested by date and names.
THE DAEMON OF AN AMERICAN STATESMAN 2
(JOSIAH QUINCY)
Son of a Revolutionary statesman of the same name, Josiah Quincy
(1772-1864) graduated at Harvard, practiced law in Boston, was
State Senator six years, United States Senator eight years, speaker of
the Massachusetts Assembly two years, Mayor of Boston six years,
and president of Harvard College sixteen years. As judge of the Bos-
ton municipal court in 1832, he first laid down the rule that the publi-
cation of the truth with good intentions, and for a justifiable motive,
was not libelous. He was a leader of the Federalists in Congress, an
able debater, fought his political opponents fiercely, was hated and
lampooned by them, and made his last public speech in defense of the
Union at the age of ninety-one.
Edward Everett Hale tells us :
It is interesting now to know, what I did not know till after his
death, that this gallant leader of men believed that he was directed, in
important crises, by his own “ Daemon,” quite as Socrates believed. In
the choice of his wife, which proved indeed to have been made in heaven,
he knew he was so led. And in after life, he ascribed some measures of
importance and success to his prompt obedience to the wise Daemon’s
directions.
MEDIUMISTIC COMMUNICATIONS 3
(CARL SCHURZ)
Carl Schurz (1829-1906), educated at the University of Bonn,
LL.D. of Harvard, University of Missouri and Columbia, participated
in the 1848 revolutionary movement in Germany and fled to save his
life. Coming to the United States in 1852 he rapidly rose in politics
1 In Washington, on the 4th of July, 1859.
2 E. E. Hale’s James Russell Lowell and His Friends, 18.
3 McClure’ 8 Magazine, April, 1908. Also in the volume of Schurz’s Memoirs.
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and was Minister to Spain in 1861, resigning to enter the war, in which
he gained a good standing as a brigadier and major-general. After
several years as newspaper editor he was United States Senator six
years, Secretary of the Interior under President Hayes, then became
editor of the New York Evening Post. He was impatient of party
rule, and was a leader in civil service reform. The most notable of his
books were Life of Henry Clay, a book of his speeches, and one dealing
with his own reminiscences. He was an extraordinarily useful citizen,
but roused violent opposition, and some of Nast’s most violent cartoons
were directed against him.
On the way to Washington, something strange happened to me
which may be of interest to the speculative psychologist. In Philadel-
phia I had supper at the house of my intimate friend, Mr. Tiedemann,
son of the eminent professor of medicine at the University of Heidel-
berg, and brother of Colonel Tiedemann, one of whose aides-de-camp I
had been during the siege of the Fortress of Rastatt, in 1849. Mrs.
Tiedemann was a sister of Friedrick Hecker, the famous revolutionary
leader in Germany, who in this country did distinguished service as a
Union officer. The Tiedemanns had lost two sons in our army, one in
Kansas, and the other, a darling boy, in the Shenandoah Valley. The
mother, a lady of bright mind and a lively imagination, happened to
become acquainted with a circle of spiritualists, and received “ mes-
sages ” from her two sons, which were of the ordinary sort, but which
moved her so much that she became a believer. The Doctor, too,
although belonging to a school of philosophy which looked down upon
such things with a certain disdain, could not restrain a sentimental
interest in the pretended communication from her lost boys, and per-
mitted spiritualistic experiment to be made in his family. This was
done with much zest. On the evening of which I speak it was resolved
to have a stance. One of the daughters, an uncommonly beautiful, in-
telligent, and high-spirited girl of about fifteen, had shown remarkable
qualities as a “ writing medium.” When the circle was formed around
the table, hands touching, a shiver seemed to pass over her, her fingers
began to twitch, she grasped a pencil held out to her, and, as if obeying
an irresistible impulse, she wrote in a jerking way upon a piece of paper
placed before her the “ messages ” given her by the “ spirits ” who were
present. So it happened that evening. The names of various deceased
persons known to the family were announced, but they had nothing to
say except that they “ lived in a higher sphere,” and were “ happy,”
were “ often with us,” and “ wished us all to be happy,” etc.
Finally I was asked by one of the family if I could not take part in
the proceeding by calling for some spirit in whom I took an interest.
I consented, and called for the spirit of Schiller. For a minute or two
the hand of the girl remained quiet; then she wrote that the spirit of
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Schiller had come and asked what I wished of him. I answered that I
wished him by way of identification, to quote a verse or two from one
of his works. Then the girl wrote in German the following:
Ich hore rauschende Music, das Schloss ist
Von Lichtern hell. Wer sind die Frohlichen?
We were all struck with astonishment; the sound of the language
was much like Schiller’s works, but none of us remembered for a mo-
ment in which of Schiller’s works the lines might be found. At last it
occurred to me that they might be in the last act of “ Wallenstein’s
Tod.” The volume was brought out, and, true enough, there they
were. I asked myself, “ Can it be that this girl, who, although very
intelligent, has never been given to much reading, should have read so
serious a work as Wallenstein’s Death; and, if she has, that those verses
did have meaning only in connection with what precedes and follows
them, should have stuck in her memory?” I asked her, when the
seance was over, what she knew about the Wallenstein tragedy, and
she, an entirely truthful child, answered that she had never read a line
of it.
But something still stranger was in store for me. Schiller’s spirit
would say no more, and I called for the spirit of Abraham Lincoln.
After several minutes had elapsed, the girl wrote that Abraham Lin-
coln’s spirit was present. I asked whether he knew for what purpose
President Johnson had summoned me to Washington. The answer
came: “He wants you to make an important journey for him.” I
asked where that journey would take me. Answer: “ He will tell you
tomorrow.” I asked, further, whether I should undertake that journey.
Answer: “ Yes, do not fail.” (I may add, by the way, that at the time
I had not the slightest anticipation as to what President Johnson’s in-
tention with regard to me was ; the most plausible supposition I enter-
tained was that he wished to discuss with me the points urged in my
letter.)
Having disposed of this matter, I asked whether the spirit of Lin-
coln had anything more to say to me. The answer came: “Yes, you
will be a senator of the United States.” This struck me as so fanciful
that I could hardly suppress a laugh; but I asked further: “From
what State?” Answer: “From Missouri.” This was more provok-
ingly mysterious still ; but there the conversation ceased. Hardly any-
thing could have been more improbable at that time than that I should
be a Senator of the United States from the State of Missouri. My
domicile was in Wisconsin, and I was then thinking of returning there.
I had never thought of removing from Wisconsin to Missouri, and there
was not the slightest prospect of my ever doing so. But — to forestall
my narrative — two years later I was surprised by an entirely unsought
and unexpected business proposition which took me to St. Louis, and
in January, 1869, the Legislature of Missouri elected me a Senator of
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the United States. I then remembered the prophecy made to me at the
spirit-seance in the house of my friend Tiedemann in Philadelphia
which, during the intervening years, I had never thought of. I should
hardly have trusted my memory with regard to it, had it not been
verified by friends who witnessed the occurrence.
SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA IN THE FAMILY OF A UNITED
STATES SENATOR
(NATHANIEL P. TALLMADGE)
Nathaniel P. Tallmadge (1795-1864), United States Senator from
1883 to 1844, governor of the territory of Wisconsin, 1844-6, etc.,
wrote a letter to the Spiritual Telegraph, and his letter is copied in
Modem American Spiritualism, by Emma Hardinge, New York,
1870, (page 263).
Fond-du-Lac, Wisconsin.
Messrs. Partridge and Brittan:
You have no doubt seen in the public papers the melancholy fate
of our friend Hon. John B. Macy, by the burning of the steamer
“ Niagara ” near Port Washington, on Lake Michigan. He, with sev-
eral others, was precipitated from the small boat into the water, whilst
it was being let down at the stern of the steamer. . . . Mr. Macy was
drowned on the 24th instant, about four o’clock p. m. On the morning
of the next day, and before any rumor of his fate could possibly have
reached us, my daughter saw shadows flitting across her room, which
she mentioned to the family as a presage of bad news. Mr. Macy, who
had been our near neighbor, had started for Lake Superior, and was
not expected home for several days.
In the night, after the family had retired to rest, my daughter dis-
covered a bright light in the sitting-room opening into hers, and the
same shadow, which she had indistinctly noticed in the morning, now
appeared in the shape and exact semblance of Mr. Macy. She informed
her mother of the apparition, immediately adding, under impression,
“ Mr. Macy is drowned.” Another daughter, who is also a medium,
sleeping in a different part of the house, saw the same light and the
shadowy form of Mr. Macy as he appeared to her sister, upon which
she was influenced to write “ Niagara — drowned by the upsetting of the
small boat.” The next day, and for the first time, the news of the
catastrophe, and the manner of Mr. Macy’s death, reached our
village. . . .
Yours very truly,
N. P. Tallmadge.
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COINCIDENTAL COMPOUND SENSORY HALLUCINATION 1
(PHILIP MEADOWS TAYLOR)
Colonel Taylor (1808-1876) was long in the service of the Nizam,
one of the great princes of Southern India, and for some years during
the minority of a Rajah was the very successful administrator of the
principality of Shorapore. His knowledge of the languages, people,
laws and history of Southern India has seldom been equalled. He was
judge, engineer, artist, writer and administrator. For thirteen years
he was also correspondent for the (London) Times, and he was author
of several novels, as Confessions of a Thug, Ralph Darnell, and of a
Student's Manual of the History of India.
This determination [to live unmarried] was the result of a very
curious and strange incident that befell me during one of my marches
to Hyderabad. I have never forgotten it, and it returns to this day
to my memory with a strangely vivid effect that I can neither repel nor
explain. I purposely withhold the date of the year. In my very early
life, I had been deeply and devotedly attached to one in England, and
only relinquished the hope of some day winning her when the terrible
order came out that no furlough to Europe would be granted. One
evening I was at the village of Dewas Kudea, after a very long after-
noon and evening march from Muktul, and I lay down very weary ; but
the barking of village dogs, and the baying of jackals, and over-fatigue
and heat, prevented sleep, and I was wide awake and restless. Sud-
denly, for my tent door was wide open, I saw the face and figure so
familiar to me, but looking older, and with a sad and troubled expres-
sion ; the dress was white, and seemed covered with a profusion of lace,
and glistened in the bright moonlight. The arms were stretched out,
and a low plaintive cry of “ Do not let me go ; do not let me go ! ”
reached me. I sprang forward, but the figure receded, growing fainter
and fainter till I could see it no longer, but the low sad tones still
sounded. I had run barefooted across the open space, where my tents
were pitched, very much to the astonishment of the sentry on guard,
but I returned to my tent without speaking to him.
I wrote to my father, I wished to know whether there was any hope
for me. He wrote back to me these words : “ Too late, my dear son —
on the very day of the vision you describe to me, A. was married.”
Miss Taylor, who edited her father’s Life, testified that she had
often heard her father mention the incident, and that he always told
it as in the book.2
1 Story of My Life, by Meadows Taylor (1877), II, 32-33.
2 Phantasms of the Limng, II, 579.
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A COMPLEXLY COINCIDING DREAM 1
(SIR JOHN CROWE)
Sir John Crowe, British Consul-General for Norway, returned from
a journey with his son, and was astonished when his daughter told him
a dream she had the night before, which pictured a peculiar peril which
he had incurred, at the very hour of the dream. This was in the winter
of 1872-3.
The daughter tells the story in 1883, and it is corroborated by her
brother.
My father and brother were on a journey during the winter. I was
expecting them home, without knowing the exact day of their return.
The date, to the best of my recollection, was the winter of 1871-72.
I had gone to bed at my usual time, about 11 p. m. Some time in the
night I had a vivid dream, which made a great impression on me. I
dreamt I was looking out of a window, when I saw father driving in a
Spids sledge, followed in another by my brother. They had to pass a
cross-road, on which another traveler was driving very fast, also in a
sledge with one horse. Father seemed to drive on without observing the
other fellow, who would without fail have driven over father if he had
not made his horse rear, so that I saw my father drive under the hoofs
of the horse. Every moment I expected the horse would fall down and
crush him. I called out, “ Father ! father ! ” and woke in a great fright.
The next morning my father and brother returned. I said to him, “ I
am so glad to see you arrive quite safely, as I had such a dreadful
dream about you last night.” My brother said, “ You could not have
been in greater fright about him than I was,” and then he related to me
what had happened, which tallied exactly with my dream. My brother
in his fright, when he saw the feet of the horse over father’s head, called
out, “ Oh ! father, father ! ”
I have never had any other dream of this kind, nor do I remember
ever to have had another dream of an accident happening to any one in
whom I was interested. I often dream of people, and when this happens
I generally expect to receive a letter from them, or to hear of them in
the course of the next day. I dreamt of Mrs. G. Bidder the night
before I received her letter asking me for an account of this dream ;
and I told Mr. West, before we went down to breakfast, that I should
have a letter that day from her. I had no other reason to expect a
letter from her, nor had I received one for some time, I should think
some years, previously.
Hilda West.
1 From Human Personality, I, 394-5; also in Phantasms of the Living, I, 202.
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Mrs. West’s father, Sir John Crowe, late Consul-General for Nor-
way, is since dead; but her brother, Mr. Septimus Crowe, of Librola,
Mary’s Hill Road, Shortlands, sends us the following confirmation :
“ I remember vividly, on my return once with my father from a trip
to the north of Norway in the winter time, my sister meeting us at the
hall door as we entered, and exclaiming how pleased she was to see us,
and that we were safe, as she said at once to me that she had had such
an unpleasant dream the evening before. I said, ‘ What was it? ’ She
then minutely explained to me the dream, as she related it to you, and
which is in accordance with the facts. It naturally astonished my
father and myself a good deal, that she so vividly in her sleep saw
exactly what happened, and I should say, too, she dreamt it at the very
time it happened, about 11 :30 p. m.
“ Septimus Chowe.”
The wife of G. Bidder, Q.C., also sent in the story as she recollected
its being told by Mr. Septimus Crowe at her table, and her story agrees,
except as she makes it the horse of the Consul-General, instead of that
of the stranger, that rears. One who repeats a story, not being herself
one of the eye-witnesses, seldom remembers every particular correctly.
It is extremely unlikely that the tallying of the dream with the
accident could have been merely a fortuitous coincidence. The parallels
are too many and exact, even though we admit that some other non-
coinciding details may have faded from memory. The memories of
both dreamer and her brother that all were at the time amazed at the
exactitude of the dream could hardly have been illusory.
(a) A peril, (b) to the father, (c) from a horse, (d) rearing so that
his hoofs were over the father’s head, (e) the horse being that of
another man, (f) coming on a cross-road, (g) the incident certainly
occurring on the same night with the dream, and, according to the
brother (though we may have doubts of this, considering that Mrs.
West does not say so), at the same hour.
“ HEARS ” HIS DAUGHTER-IN-LAW UTTER A SENTENCE
WHICH SHE ACTUALLY UTTERS AT THREE
HUNDRED MILES DISTANCE 1
(JOHN DRUMMOND HAY)
The man who had this experience, the Right Hon. Sir John Drum-
mond Hay, K.C.B., G.C., M.G., was for many years Her Majesty’s
1 Journal S. P. R., I, Vol. 40; also Human Personality, I, 396.
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Minister to Morocco. This is his statement, witnessed by members of
his family who remembered the occurrence.
September 16, 1889.
In the year 1879 my son Robert Drummond Hay resided at Mogo-
dor with his family, where he was at that time Consul. It was in the
month of February. I had lately received good accounts of my son
and his family; I was also in perfect health. About 1 a. m. (I forget
the exact day in February), whilst sleeping soundly [at Tangier], I
was woke by hearing distinctly the voice of my daughter-in-law, who
was with her husband at Mogodor, saying in a clear, but distressed
tone of voice, “ Oh, I wish papa only knew that Robert is ill.” There
was a night lamp in the room. I sat up and listened, looking around
the room, but there was no one except my wife, sleeping quietly in bed.
I listened for some seconds, expecting to hear footsteps outside, but
complete stillness prevailed, so I lay down again, thanking God that
the voice which woke me was an hallucination. I had hardly closed my
eyes when I heard the same voice and words, upon which I woke Lady
Drummond Hay, and told her what had occurred, and got up and went
into my Study, adjoining the bed-room, and noted it in my diary. Next
morning I related what had happened to my daughter, saying that,
though I did not believe in dreams, I felt anxious for tidings from
Mogodor. That port, as you will see in the map, is about 300 miles
south of Tangier. A few days after this incident a letter arrived from
my daughter-in-law, Mrs. R. Drummond Hay, telling us that my son
was seriously ill with typhoid fever and mentioning the night during
which he had been delirious. Much struck by the coincidence that it
was the same night I had heard her voice, I wrote to tell her what had
happened. She replied, the following post, that in her distress at
seeing her husband so dangerously ill, and from being alone in a distant
land, she had made use of the precise words which had startled me from
sleep, and had repeated them. As it may be of interest for you to
receive a corroboration of what I have related from the persons I have
mentioned, who happen to be with me at this date, they also sign to
affirm the accuracy of all I have related.
When I resigned, in 1886, I destroyed, unfortunately, a number of
my diaries and amongst them that of 1879, or I should have been able
to state the day, and might have sent you the leaf on which I noted
the incident.
(Signed) J. H. Drummond Hay,
Annette Drummond Hay,
Euphemia Drummond Hay,
Alice Drummond Hay.
It is exceedingly difficult to suppose that there can be any essential
error in this statement of facts. Sir Drummond Hay’s account is clear
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and precise, and witnessed by three members of his family who remem-
ber the event. He noted the occurrence the same night, and the entry
remained in his diary until three years before the final statement was
made. Before she knew of his experience, his daughter-in-law wrote of
his son’s illness, and mentioned that very night as the one when he was
delirious (and when she would probably have been most anxious).
Then Sir Drummond told her the whole story, and she wrote that the
words were actually uttered by her that night. Furthermore, she
uttered them twice, corresponding with the number of times he seemed
to hear them. And finally, he recognized the voice as that of his
daughter-in-law.
Now, as it will not be contended that any hyperesthesia would be
capable of bridging 300 miles, and as it would be ridiculous to suppose
that so complex a coincidence could be mere chance, unless the whole
family lied or had coinciding insane memories, we have here a super-
normal fact.1
1/
PREMONITION OF A FIRE 2
(SUSAN B. ANTHONY)
Miss Anthony (1820-1906) reached womanhood at about the time
when clergymen and newspapers of Boston were expressing shocked
feelings because some women proposed so indelicate a thing as helping
to raise funds for the completion of Bunker Hill Monument. Women
today perhaps owe their present status of rights by law and privilege
1 There are many parallel recorded incidents. The compiler’s wife heard my
foster-daughter’s voice calling my first name “ Walter,” which she had never before
heard her do, since her customary title for me was “ papa,” at the hour when the
latter, separated by two hundred miles, saw an apparition of my mother, and, emo-
tionally spoke the name by which she knew my mother would call me. (See The
Psychic in the House, pp. 50-61.) Mr. Walter , of San Bernardino, California,
was awakened by the voice of his wife, then 100 miles distant, uttering his name, and
heard it again after awake. He rose and looked at the clock. It was afterward
learned that under circumstances approaching those in the Hay incident, his wife at
precisely that time, their son lying very ill, went out on the veranda, stretched her
arms in the direction of the town where her husband was, and called his name,
“ Walter,” twice. I personally got the written statements of both, and they are now
in the unpublished archives of the A. S. P. R. Charlotte Bronte had probably heard
of a similar incident when she wrote of Rochester exclaiming in agonized tones,
“ Jane 1 Jane,” and of Jane Eyre, at a great distance, hearing his voice calling her
name. Indeed, she is said to have remarked, when the incident was commented
upon in her hearing: 41 But it really happened.”
2 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences.
Edited by Theodore Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch, II, 364.
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NOTED WITNESSES
by social usage more to her than to any other person. At first her
efforts centered on temperance, then upon abolition of slavery, and
finally upon woman suffrage. Her life exhibited enormous industry,
persistent energy and unflinching courage. Accustomed in the decade
following the Civil War to be ridiculed generally by the press, long
before her death she had come to be well-nigh universally honored and
esteemed.
The guarantor of the incident is Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, for
many years an intimate friend and colleague of Miss Anthony. Mrs.
Stanton wrote in her diary:
In a few days we are expecting Miss Anthony to make us a visit.
She has had a very remarkable dream. The physician ordered her
from Philadelphia to Atlantic City for her health. While in the latter
place, she had a very vivid dream one night. She thought she was being
burnt alive in one of the hotels, and when she arose in the morning, told
her niece what she had dreamed. “ We must pack at once and go back
to Philadelphia,” she said. This was done, and the next day the hotel
in which they had been, ten other hotels and miles of the boardwalk,
were destroyed by fire.
There have been instances where, for example, but one person in a
hotel, and he in a distant part of it, was seized with an overpowering
impression of a fire, which at that time had actually only just begun,
and these have been explained as instances of hyperesthesia in the sense
of smell. But it will hardly be held that one could smell a fire hours
before it started.
MONITION BY A “ VOICE ” 1
(MARY ASHTON LIVERMORE; GUARANTOR, MINOT
JUDSON SAVAGE)
Mrs. Livermore (1821-1905) was agent of the United States Sani-
tary Commission in the Civil War, and afterwards became famous as a
lecturer in America and abroad. She was active in the woman suffrage
and temperance issues. Among her books were Pen Pictures and
Thirty Years Too Late.
The Rev. M. J. Savage (1841-1918), D.D., of Harvard, was one
of the leading Unitarian clergymen of his land and time, his principal
1 Life Beyond Death, by M. J. Savage, 284.
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churches being Church of the Unity, Boston, and Church of the Mes-
siah, New York. He was author of many books, including several on
psychic research.
He testifies :
Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, famous for her devoted services during
the War, and one of the greatest woman speakers that the world has
ever known, told me how her life was saved during her travels in the
West, on a certain occasion, by her hearing and instantly obeying a
voice. She did not know where it came from, but she leaped as the voice
ordered her to, from one side of a car to the other, and instantly the
side where she had been sitting was crushed in and utterly demolished.
THE DAEMON OF SOCRATES
(SOCRATES)
This great Greek, whose sayings and acts are known to us mainly
through Plato, his still greater disciple, and Xenophon, who also came
under his influence, was born somewhere about 470 b. c., and died of
poison, by judicial sentence, in 399 b. c. Few men ever lived whose
mere talk — for he wrote nothing — set up so powerful an influence on
human thought. He founded no school of philosophy; his work was
to teach men to abandon time-worn cant and prepossession, to examine
the foundations of their beliefs and to think logically. Grotesque in
countenance and dress, almost certain to enmesh in the net of his dia-
lectic anyone who dared to answer his questions, he nevertheless thrilled
and swayed many of the most intellectual men of his day.
It is well known that he believed himself to be guided by a demon.
I need not remind my learned reader that this term, in the Greek, did
not mean what the English word “ demon ” means. Besides signifying
a god or goddess, it was used to denote the soul of a man of the golden
age and, later, the spirit of any dead man. Just in what sense Socrates
himself used the word does not plainly appear. We only know from
Plato and from Xenophon that he frequently used the term in refer-
ence to a sign which he had been accustomed from an early age very
frequently to receive, which guided him in his conduct and which he
never disobeyed, and from Plato that the sign was in the form of a
voice.1 This voice was heard only when he was on the point of doing or
1 This is the declaration attributed to Socrates by Plato: “ I am moved by a cer-
tain divine and spiritual influence, which also Miletus, through mockery, has set out
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NOTED WITNESSES
saying something which he ought not do or say. When at last he was
on trial for his life, on the false charge of impiety, it surprised him that
when he was about to prepare a speech in his defense he heard it direct-
ing him not to do so. Throughout the trial, when he spoke out boldly
and unconciliatingly, exasperating his judges, it was silent in approval.
In his last speech, after sentence had been passed, he said:
“ There has happened to me, O my judges, a wonderful thing. For
that accustomed divine intimation in time past came to me very many
times, and met me on slight occasion, if I were about to act in some
way not aright ; but now this fate w’hich ye behold has come upon me, —
this which a man might deem, and which is considered, the very worst
of ills. Yet neither when I left my home this morning was I checked by
that accustomed sign; nor when I came up hither to the judgment-
hall, nor at any point in my speech as I spoke. And yet in other
speeches of mine the sign has often stopped me in the midst. But now
it has not hindered me in any deed or word of mine connected with this
present business. What, then, do I suppose to be the reason thereof?
I will tell you. I think it is that what has happened to me has been a
good thing; and we must have been mistaken when we supposed that
death was an evil. Herein is a strong proof to me of this; for that
accustomed sign would assuredly have checked me, had I been about to
do aught that was evil.”
This we find in Plato’s Apology, and in his Theages 1 we have an
alleged example of the intervention of the “ dam on.”
Timarchus was sitting at supper with Socrates, and rose to go out
to a plot of assassination, to which plot only one other man was privy.
“ What say you, Socrates ? ” said Timarchus, “ do you continue drink-
ing ; I must go out somewhither, but will return in a little, if so I may.”
And the voice came to me ; and I said, “ By no means rise from table ;
for the accustomed divine sign has come to me.” And he stayed. And
after a time again he got up to go, and said, “ I must be gone, Socra-
tes.” And the sign came to me again; and again I made him stay.
And the third time, determining that I should not see, he rose and said
naught to me, when my mind was turned elsewhere; and thus he went
forth, and was gone, and did that which was to be his doom.
in the indictment. This began with me from childhood, being a kind of a voice,
which, when present, always diverts me from what I am about to do, but never
urges me on. But this duty, as I said, has been enjoined on me by the Deity, by
oracles, by dreams, and by every mode by which any other divine decree has ever
enjoined anything for man to do.”
1 It is not certain that Plato wrote the latter work, but the incident is so moder-
ate, whereas invented incidents of a psychic character were usually of a more extreme
and startling character, that I am inclined to credit it.
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Of course it is quite impossible now to gauge the evidential value of
this latter incident. It is quite possible to hold that the “ demon ” was
really intimations rising from the subconscious of a man of extraordi-
nary intellectual brilliancy, though such intimations in the cases of
most men would have been in the direction of taking precautions to
save their lives instead of disregarding such precautions.
EVIDENTIAL QUASI- AUDITORY-AND-TACTUAL
EXPERIENCE
(ELIZABETH CADY STANTON)
Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) was daughter of Daniel
C. Cady, a judge of the New York Supreme Court; wife of Henry B.
Stanton, lawyer, anti-slavery orator and senator ; but of far more note
herself than either of these. She and Susan B. Anthony were probably
the two most prominent leaders of the movement for woman suffrage
and reform of laws relating to women. She called the first Woman’s
Rights Convention in 1848, and for twenty-eight years was president
of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association. For many years she
was active as a speaker and writer.
The psychic incident of her own experience which has been pre-
served is the more impressive because she was not partial to such mat-
ters. Only in her diary, parts of which were published by her daughter
long after her death, did she refer to this “ one of my psychic experi-
ences:” In her autobiographic reminiscences there is not a trace
of them.
In her Diary,1 under date of October 7, 1890, we find this entry
written in London:
At a dinner given the other night by Mrs. Charles McLaren, I met
many interesting people. . . . Another guest was Henry Lucy, who
has made himself famous as “ Toby, M.P.,” of Punch. . . . After he
had given us some good stories, Hattie thought it her turn to con-
tribute to the general entertainment, so related one of my psychic
experiences, which appeared to particularly interest Mr. Lucy, who
put some questions about the rather hair-raising occurrence.
Mrs. Blatch adds an explanatory note:
In his diary published in the Comhill Magazine , Sir Henry gives
this account of Mrs. Stanton’s experience: “Some years ago she was
1 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, as Revealed in Her Letters, Diary and Reminiscences.
Edited by Theodore Stanton and Harriet Stanton Blatch, II, 267-288.
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NOTED WITNESSES
at Washington, at a time when Congress was sitting. On applying for
a room at a hotel she had been accustomed to frequent, she was told the
house was full. After some hesitation the clerk, observing her distress,
undertook, if she would wait half an hour, that a room, not the best in
the house, but all that was possible, should be got ready for her. It
was a small, plainly furnished room on the sixth story. It had to serve,
and she was disposed to make the best of it. She went to bed early and
slept soundly till she was awakened by the sensation of a hand touching
her face, and a voice cried, with piteous accent, “ Oh, Mother !
Mother ! ” She was profoundly startled, but argued with herself that
it was only a dream. She determined to go to sleep again, and suc-
ceeded. Again she was awakened with the hand nervously stroking her
face and the blood-curdling cry, “ Oh, Mother ! Mother ! ” It was no
use trying to sleep. She got up, half dressed, lit a candle, got a book,
and sat in the armchair till daybreak, nothing further happening. As
soon as she heard the servants moving she rang the bell, and the
chambermaid came in with startled look. To her the visitor related
her experiences. “Yes, marm,” said the chambermaid, “I told them
they ought not to have put you in the room. He was only carried out
an hour before you came.” “ Who was carried out? ” said the lady.
“ Why, the young man who has been lying here for a fortnight in
delirium tremens and died. He was stretching out his hands, feeling
for something, and crying in heartbreaking voice, ‘ Oh, Mother !
Mother!’” [It was I who related the story, much to my mother’s
discomfort. She told me afterwards there were “ sufficient isms at-
tached to her name without adding spiritism or the like.” Mr. Lucy
did not connect the story apparently with her, and erred in substitut-
ing Washington for Springfield, Illinois, where the occurrence really
transpired. — H. S. B.]
It is not immediately evident what Mrs. Blatch means by saying
that “ Sir Henry did not connect the story apparently with her,” but
presumably in his published diary he did not give Mrs. Stanton’s name
as that of the woman who had the experience. But both Mrs. Stanton
in her diary and Mrs. Blatch in her note testify that she was the woman.
Moreover, Mrs. Stanton states that her daughter told the story in the
presence of Sir Henry, and the daughter, by correcting two errors of
memory on his part, indicates that otherwise he remembered it, as it
was told in Mrs. Stanton’s presence, correctly.1
1 Mrs. Stanton writes at another time in her diary (II, 361) : “ Adelaide Johnson
has just dined with us and told us of a haunted house in which she lives, staying
bravely alone there at night, seeing visions and hearing strange sounds. ... I do not
ridicule these stories, for in my own life I have had several marvelous experiences.
. . . But I attribute all these strange phenomena to [ parturiunt monies] some
natural laws which we do not understand, and may never understand [nascilur
ridiculus mus].”
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APPARITION OF THE DEAD TWO YEARS BEFORE THE
DEATH OF THE PERCIPIENT 1
(FRANCES E. WILLARD, GUARANTOR)
Miss Willard (1839-1898) graduated from Northwestern Female
College, and thereafter taught for sixteen years, finally becoming
president of the Woman’s College of Northwestern University. She is
said to have been the first woman ever to hold such a position. She
then entered the Temperance crusade. In this her personal and official
influence grew until, in 1877, she became president of the National
Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and so she remained the rest of
her life. Together with Miss Anna Gordon, within three years she had
succeeded by travel and voice in organizing in every State and Terri-
tory, and in speaking in every town of 10,000 population. Then she
succeeded in throwing the weight of the Union into politics, on the side
of the Prohibition party. It was preeminently by her efforts that the
World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was formed. She was
a great organizer of “ movements,” and deviser of demonstrations, on
a grand scale. Her influence over masses of women was colossal, and
her restless energy prematurely wore her out. She was the author of a
number of books, and editor of the organ of the W. C. T. U.
The incident concerns a sister of Frances E. Willard (1839-1898),
the founder of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, who per-
sonally wrote and sent it to the Religio-Philosophical Journal. The
following documents have been in the possession of the A. S. P. R. for
many years.
Office of Religio-Philosophical Journal,
Chicago, July 6, 1888.
Richard Hodgson, Esq.,
5 Boylston Place, Boston, Mass.
Dear Hodgson: — The enclosed, which I publish in next week’s
Journal, was sent me by Miss Frances E. Willard, President of the
W. C. T. U., who took it down with her own hand from the mouth of
the mother of the young woman.
If it is of any value to you, you could get particulars, that is names,
of Miss W. at Evanston, 111.
Yours truly,
John C. Bundy.
The following correspondence resulted, begun on one side by Dr.
1 Journal A. S. P. R., August, 1921.
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Hodgson and closed, years after, by the compiler, writing in Dr.
Hyslop’s name.
Lake Bluff, Aug. 26, 1885.
Four years ago, a few weeks before Miss Milner left Waukegan
for California for her health (having had a cough for about
a year), she went up-stairs to her own room between ten and eleven in
the morning of a beautiful sunny day. She did not go about much,
being weak, and would not have gone up-stairs, save that the day was
fine. She sat down in her chair and was busy winding her watch, or
else looking over a book (she having gone up-stairs for one of these
purposes, which one is not now remembered). As she sat there at work
looking down, she saw a shadow of something that attracted her atten-
tion, and she thought someone had come in. She looked up, and there,
at a distance of about four feet, stood Mary Willard, her former class-
mate and friend. She was about four feet distant from Miss Milner;
was dressed in a cream white or light salmon-colored, soft, beautiful
dress. She was dressed just as she was when Miss Milner knew her, as
to style and general appearance, her hair combed low on her forehead
as the custom was. Miss Milner saw her shoes, even ; and said she did
not look sick, but she made the same impression that she did when a
schoolgirl, so bright and cheery, and came to school with something
pleasant to tell. She remained about ten minutes, and Miss Milner said
she smiled and looked exceedingly pleasant; that they communicated,
but not by words, and she never told what they communicated. Miss
Milner thought, “ How will she go away? ” So she watched carefully
and Mary “ dimmed out ” while she looked — faded from sight without
moving from where she stood. After that Miss Milner never seemed to
expect to get well. She always spoke of the occurrence as “ when I saw
Mary,” but was exceedingly reticent about the whole subject, never
naming it to any one except her mother and another friend.
Curiously, Miss Frances E. Willard did not think to set down the
fact that Mary, whose apparition was seen by Miss Milner, was dead.
She had in fact died in 1862, about nineteen years before.
In the handwriting of Dr. Hodgson is this attestation :
The original account of JMiss Willard has been sent by me. It in-
cluded the following corroboration by Mrs. Milner. R. H.
And on the same sheet is the attestation of the mother of the per-
cipient, Mrs. Milner.
This is a correct statement.
(Signed) S. S. Milner.
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The next document in the series is a brief note from Mr. Bundy to
Dr. Hodgson:
Chicago, July 7, 1888.
Dear Mr. H. : — I wrote Frank Willard to know if the girl died after
the incident sent you yesterday. I enclose her reply. B.
Woman’s National Christian Temperance Union Headquarters,
161 La Salle St., Chicago,
President’s Office, Evanston, 111., July 6, 1888.
Dear Brother:
The friend, Belle Milner, died about two years after the incident. I
know not if she had ever another similar experience, but think not; it
was entirely out of her line.
Hoping to see you ere long, I am ever yours sincerely,
Frances E. Willard.
Woman’s National Christian Temperance Union,
President’s Office, July 12, 1888.
Mr. Richard Hodgson,
Dear Sir: — Your note to Miss Willard comes during her absence
at the Lake Bluff Convocation and we are not forwarding her letters,
as she is very much preoccupied there.
I have often heard Miss WTillard refer to the experience of her
friend, Miss Milner, and as I have the original copy of her account I
send it to you with the request that you return it after looking it over.
I presume it is printed verbatim in Col. Bundy’s paper, although we
have not yet seen it. You will notice the article states that Miss
Milner never gave any clue as to what conversation passed between
herself and Mary Willard. Mrs. Milner’s signature on the back of
Miss Willard’s manuscript will answer your question in regard to the
mother’s corroboration. The incident as related by Miss Willard con-
tains all that she knows in regard to it.
Yours truly,
Anna Gordon.
Much later, a letter was sent to Miss Gordon, successor of Miss
Willard as President of the Woman’s National Christian Temperance
Union, inquiring if Miss Mary Willard was a sister of Frances. She
replied June 10, 1919.
I have your favor of May 17, which has been held for my return
from Washington, D. C. I recall that Miss Willard had an acquaint-
ance by the name of Belle Milner, and I think she was a classmate of
Miss Willard’s sister, Mary E. Willard. If it is true that I often heard
Miss Willard tell the incident Miss Milner relates, I do not at this time
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NOTED WITNESSES
recall it, but I feel quite sure the Mary Willard referred to must be
the sister of Frances E. Willard.
Yours very truly,
Anna C. Gordon.
It is a common criticism that an occult story grows in memory with
a lapse of time. Incidentally this last letter of Miss Gordon illustrates
what the compiler has found to be the rule, that, on the contrary, with
the person of good mind and culture such a story, like incidents of a
different character, generally loses in detail and color, rather than adds
to the complexity or vividness. In the case of Miss Gordon, thirty-one
years seem to have obliterated, if not the incident itself, at least the
fact that she had frequently heard Miss Frances E. Willard refer to it.
Miss Frances E. Willard herself, had she not taken down the facts from
the lips of Mrs. Milner, but waited ten years before she told the story,
would probably have set down a comparatively laconic and colorless
version. As it was, she failed to indicate two important facts, viz., that
the apparition was of a person deceased, and that the percipient herself
died within two years.
The circumstance of seeing the (apparent) shadow of the figure
before the figure itself is duplicated in the Doris Case. Here, also, the
percipient was caused to look up by observing a shadow.1
1 See Proceedings of A. S. P. R., Vol. X, page 1043n.
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POETS AND PLAYWRIGHTS
SEES APPARITION OF HIS AUNT, THE NIGHT SHE DIED 1
(ERNST MORITZ ARNDT)
Arndt (1769-1860) was an eminent German scholar, poet and
patriot. A book by him on serfdom so affected Gustavus Adolphus IV.
of Sweden that he abolished the evil. While professor of history in the
University of Greifswald he published a challenge to his country to free
itself from the domination of France, and had to flee to save himself
from Napoleon’s vengeance. In various lands he continued to pour out
his appeals in prose and songs. After the peace, while professor at
the University of Bonn, he was arrested by the Prussian government
in consequence of his demands for political reform. For twenty years
he wrote in retirement, was then reinstated, sympathized with the
revolutionary outbreak of 1848, and after many storms, died popular
throughout Germany.
Arndt describes how, in the winter of 1811, when staying in a
friend’s house, he was sitting up working one night, after a fatiguing
day, and was half asleep in his chair — “ when lo ! my dear old Aunt
Sophia, my second mother, stood before me with a kind smile, holding
on each arm a little boy. They were children whom I dearly loved.
She held them out to me with a gesture which seemed to say, ‘ Take the
children to your care.* ” The next day at noon, while Arndt was sit-
ting talking with his friends, “ the carriage of my brother William
drove up with a letter, saying, ‘ Brother, come back at once in the
carriage ; we must cross the water to Buchholz tomorrow, and bury our
dear old Aunt Sophia, who died last night.’ ”
A PSYCHOMETRICAL EXPERIMENT IMPRESSES THE
SKEPTICAL POET 2
(ROBERT BROWNING)
Robert Browning (1812-1889), one of the greatest English poets
1 Schriften fur und an seine Lieben Deutschen, by E. M. Arndt (1845), III, 524-5.
The summary is that found in Phantasms of the Living, II, 475.
2 From report by the Literary Committee of the S. P. R., entitled “ A Theory of
Apparitions,” in Proceedings S. P. R., II, 130-31. Edmund Gumey and F. W. H.
Myers were the secretaries of the committee.
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NOTED WITNESSES
of the nineteenth century, differed from Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
his wife, in his opposition to and contempt for Spiritualism. He ridi-
culed the popular displays of credulity by depicting the character
“ Sludge,” a medium. He was not inclined to credit incidents purport-
ing to be supernormal. Nevertheless, he had a few experiences of
his own.
Let us quote first a case (originally cited by Mr. Knowles, in a let-
ter to the Spectator of January 30, 1869) which closely resembles
some of our published experiments :
Mr. Robert Browning tells me that when he was in Florence some
years since, an Italian nobleman (a Count Giunasi, of Ravenna), visit-
ing at Florence, was brought to his house without previous introduc-
tion, by an intimate friend. The Count professed to have great
mesmeric or clairvoyant faculties, and declared, in reply to Mr.
Browning’s avowed skepticism, that he would undertake to convince
him, somehow or other, of his powers. He then asked Mr. Browning
whether he had anything about him then and there which he could hand
to him, and which was fn any way a relic or memento. This, Mr.
Browning thought, was, perhaps, because he habitually wore no sort of
trinket or ornament, not even a watch-guard, and might therefore turn
out to be a safe challenge. But it so happened that, by a curious acci-
dent, he was then wearing under his coat-sleeves some gold wrist-studs
to his shirt, which he had quite recently taken into wear, in the absence
(by mistake of a sempstress) of his ordinary wrist-buttons. He had
never before worn them in Florence or elsewhere, and had found them
in some old drawer, where they had lain forgotten for years. One of
these studs he took out and handed to the Count, who held it in his
hand awhile, looking earnestly in Mr. Browning’s face, and then he
said, as if much impressed, “ C'e qualche cosa che mi grida nell'
orecchio, * Uccisione, uccisione! ’ (There is something here which cries
out in my ear, ‘ Murder, murder! ’)”
“ And truly,” says Mr. Browning, “ those very studs were taken
from the dead body of a great-uncle of mine, who was violently killed
on his estate in St. Kitts, nearly eighty years ago. These, with a gold
watch and other personal objects of value, were produced in a court
of justice, as proofs that robbery had not been the purpose of the
slaughter, which was effected by his own slaves. They were then
transmitted to my grandfather, who had his initials engraved on them,
and wore them all his life. They were taken out of the night-gown in
which he died and given to me, not my father. I may add that I tried
to get Count Giunasi to use his clairvoyance on this termination of
ownership, also ; and that he nearly hit upon something like the fact,
mentioning a bed in a room, but he failed in attempting to describe the
room — situation of the bed with respect to windows and door. The
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occurrence of my great-uncle’s murder was known only to myself, of all
men in Florence, as certainly was also my possession of the studs.”
Mr. Browning, in a letter to us, dated the 21st of July, 1883,
affirms that the account is “ correct in every particular ” — adding,
“ My own explanation of the matter has been that the shrewd Italian
felt his way by the involuntary help of my own eyes and face. The
guess, however attained to, was a good one.” We think that in this
conjectural explanation the illustrious author of Sordello has done
imperfect justice to his own power of concealing his thoughts; and
we fancy that his involuntary transparency of expression would not
have enabled the wily Italian to “ feel his way ” to murder. But, of
course, such cases are more complete when agent and percipient are at
a distance which excludes involuntary hints.
APPARITIONAL EXPERIENCES
(ALICE AND PHOEBE CARY)
Alice Cary (1820-1871) was an American writer of poetry and
prose which won great popularity in her own country and to a consid-
erable extent in Great Britain. Her novels and the once widely-read
Clovemook Papers are now little known, but many of her poems are
found in anthologies. Phoebe Cary (1824-1871), sister of Alice, was
also a poet, whose verses attained some degree of popularity. She
wrote much less than Alice, but no poem by the latter is now so familiar
as Phoebe’s hymn beginning “ One sweetly solemn thought.”
An incident involving the family of Alice and Phoebe Cary is to be
found in a sketch of the latter by her niece Ada Carnahan, published
in the Ladies' Repository for July, 1871.
In the autumn of 1832 a new house was built for the family, it was
completed, it stood full in view from the old house, in a few days they
would be in possession. Then occurred a strange incident which I do
not attempt to explain. I will tell it as it was told to me, and honestly
believed by each member of the family. It was late in the afternoon, a
sudden thunder-shower which had brought Robert Cary (the father)
in from the field had driven every one under shelter, but the storm was
over and the sun shining when one looking across the hollow saw a
woman with a child in her arms standing in the open door of the new
house, and called the attention of the others by asking how Rhoda and
Lucy came to be over there and how the door of the new house came to
be open. Rhoda was the third daughter, fifteen years of age, and Lucy
a child of two. But even as they were talking, Rhoda joined them and
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the child Lucy was found to be playing within. By this time all the
household were out gazing at the apparition, which at last was seen to
walk back into the house and disappear. Robert Cary started out to
see what it was. Keeping the house in sight and seeing no one leave it,
he found the door open, but found nothing more. Diligent search up-
stairs and down, on the clean floor or soft soil without, discovered no
footprints or other signs of human presence. Within the first year of
their occupancy of this new house, Rhoda and Lucy died within a few
weeks of each other, carried off by a virulent fever.
Alice Cary witnessed of this apparition to Robert Dale Owen, who
embodied it in his Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World.1
When the fact is added that the child Lucy has been seen to flit
about the old farmhouse (the last time a few years ago, when a boy
who had been guarded from a knowledge of the story came running with
a white, scared face, saying: “ There’s a little girl up-stairs in a red
dress ”) it will be seen that the belief of Alice and Phoebe Cary in the
supernatural began before modern Spiritualism was talked of.
HIS GRANDFATHER’S ‘‘GIFT OF PROPHECY”2
(JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE)
It would be ridiculous to explain who Goethe (1749-1832) was —
the greatest of German poets, and one of the greatest of all time. The
veriest dabbler in literature knows something of the immortal Faust .
But it is difficult for us to realize what a furor was caused by the
novel Werther , which quickly ran, like an epidemic, around the world,
so that a sea of tears was shed, and ultra-romantic young men shot
themselves, holding Werther to their breasts. Goethe wrote a great
quantity of literature of many kinds, which was the greatest intellec-
tual stimulus in his age and country, one of the greatest in the world,
and is powerful to this day.
Speaking of his grandfather, Johann Wolfgang Textor, Goethe
says:
However, that which raised the veneration in which we held this
worthy old gentleman to the highest point, was the conviction that he
1 The story cannot be found in the first edition of Owen’s book named, but may
have been inserted in a later edition.
2 Toward the close of the first book of Dichtung und Wahrheit, by Goethe, or
Parke Godwin’s translation of 1846, entitled Autobiography of Goethe: Truth and
Poetry, 27-29. The above translation, however, is mostly that of the late Carl F.
Schmitt, who called attention to the passage.
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possessed the gift of prophecy, especially with respect to things which
concerned himself and his destiny. Although he did not express him-
self definitely and in detail to anyone except grandmother, yet we all
knew that he _was informed of coming events by significant dreams.
Thus, for example, while he was yet among the junior aldermen he
stated to his wife that he would become a councillor to the magistrate
when the next vacancy occurred. And when one of the councillors
actually died of a paralytic stroke soon after, he ordered, on the day
of nomination and election, that everything in his house should be
privily arranged for the reception of guests and congratulators, and
the decisive golden ball was really drawn for him. The simple dream
which informed him of this he confided to his wife, as follows: He had
seen himself in the customary council meeting where everything went
according to the established order. Suddenly the now dead councillor
had arisen from his seat, descended the steps, and, indicating in the
most gracious manner that he should take his seat, had thereupon
gone out of the door.
A similar thing happened when the mayor died. In such cases that 1
position was filled without delay because it was feared that the Em-
peror might exercise his ancient prerogative of appointing the mayor.
On this occasion an extraordinary session for the next morning was
announced at midnight by the courthouse messenger. As the light in
his lantern was about to go out, he begged for a candle-stump in order
to continue his way. “ Give him a whole one,” said grandfather, “ he
has all this trouble on account of me.” The assertion was justified by
what jollowed. He~actually became mayor, wherewith also occurred
the notable circumstance that, although his proxy at the ballotting
had to draw the third and last ball, the two silver ones came out first,
and so the golden one remained at the bottom of the pouch.
The remaining dreams with which we became acquainted were also
entirely prosaic, simple, and without any trace of the fantastic or won-
derful. Furthermore, I remember rummaging as a boy among his
papers and diaries and found among his notes referring to gardening,
entries such as “ Last night there came to me . . . and said . . .” —
name and revelation being written in cipher. Or in a similar manner,
“ Last night I saw . . . ” — the remainder again in cipher with the
exceptions of conjunctions and other words from which nothing could
be made out.
It is also worthy of notice that persons who otherwise showed no
trace of having any presentiment, gained for the moment, when in his
presence, the ability to become aware of cases of sickness or death at
distant places through sensory impressions. But this gift was not in-
herited by any of his children or grandchildren, who on the contrary
were mostly robust persons, given to enjoyment and concerned only
with material things.
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Why was Goethe more interested in psychic claims than most able
thinkers of his period, so interested that he supplied the urge which
caused Jung-Stilling to write Theorje der Geis ter-Kunde. , one of the
earliest approaches toward a really scientific collection and discussion
of psychic incidents? Probably it was because of that naivete of
human nature which induces great as well as little men, as a rule, to
ignore even the most evidential and best attested facts of this order so
long as they only glance at them in books or yawn at the casual ac-
quaintance’s recital of them, but to begin to wonder and cogitate as
soon as they happen in their own families, tin his boyhood Goethe knew
I of his grandfather’s strangely fulfilled predictions, and several times in
\ his lifetime he himself had odd experiences which made him “ furiously
to think.” ^
A PREDICTIVE VISION
(GOETHE)
Here the great German writer tells an incident of his own experi-
ence, which may be found in Wahrheit und Dichtung, Part Three, chap-
ter 11. The translation is that of the late Carl F. Schmitt, of Wilkes-
Barre, Pa., who remarks that at the time Goethe was about twenty-two
years of age and had just said farewell to Fredericka Brion, with whom
he was in love, at Sesenheim in Alsace.
I now rode on horseback over the footpath to Drusenheim, when
one of the strangest experiences befell me. Not with the eyes of the
body, but with those of the spirit, I saw myself on horseback coming
toward me on the same path dressed in a suit such as I had never worn,
pale-gray with some gold. As soon as I had shaken myself out of this
reverie the form vanished. It is strange, however, that I found myself
returning on the same path eight years afterward to visit Fredericka
once more and that I then wore the suit I had dreamt of, and this not
by design but by chance.
Be this as it may, the strange phantasm had a calming influence on
my feelings in those moments following the parting.
, It is to be noted that Goethe was in a different stratum or state of
■ consciousness than his usual one when he had this vision, and had to
) “ shake ” himself out of it. That is to say, he had the “ mediumistic ”
temperament, and it is likely that if he had cultivated periods of pass-
ivity he would have had other experiences of the general sort to relate.
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TELEPATHY OR ASTOUNDING COINCIDENCE
(OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES)
Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), as everyone knows, was
one of the most distinguished men of letters in America in a past gen-
eration, poet, novelist, essayist. It is more to the present purpose
that he was also a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard, with experience
in the hospitals of Paris, and was for forty-four years professor of
anatomy and physiology, at first at Dartmouth College, but the greater
part of the time at the Massachusetts Medical School in Boston. He
was distinguished as an anatomist, and was the first, it is said, to estab-
lish the infectiousness of puerperal fever.
Dr. Holmes tells the story in Over the Tea Cups , writing it in
March, 1888, as the introduction informs us.
I relate a singular coincidence which very lately occurred in my
experience. ... I will first copy the memorandum made at the time:
“ Remarkable coincidence. On Monday, April 18, being at table
from 6:30 p. m. to 7 :30, with and [the two ladies of
my household], I told them of the case of * trial of battel ’ offered by
Abraham Thornton in 1817. I mentioned his throwing down his glove,
which was not taken up by the brother of his victim, and so he had to
be let off, for the old law was still in force. I mentioned that Abraham
Thornton was said to have come to this country, ‘ and I added he may
be living near us for aught that I know.’ I rose from the table and
found an English letter waiting for me, left while I sat at dinner. I
copy the first portion of this letter.
“ * 20 Alfred Place West (Near Museum),
“ ‘ South Kensington, London, S. W.,
“ ‘ April 7, 1887.
“ * Dr. O. W. Holmes, — Dear Sir : In traveling the other day I met
with a reprint of the very interesting case of Thornton for murder,
1817. The prisoner pleaded successfully the old Wager of Battel. I
thought you would like to read the account, and send it with this. . . .
— Yours faithfully,
“ * Fred. Rathbone.’ ”
Mr. Rathbone is a well-known dealer in old Wedgwood and
eighteenth-century art. As a friend of my hospitable entertainer, M.
Willett, he had shown me many attentions in England, but I was not
expecting any communication from him ; and when, fresh from my con-
versation, I found this letter just arrived by mail and left while I was
at table, and on breaking the seal read what I had a few moments before
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been telling, I was greatly surprised, and immediately made a note of
the occurrence, as given above.
I had long been familiar with all the details of this celebrated case,
but had not referred to it, so far as I can remember, for months or
years. I know of no train of thought which led me to speak of it on
that particular day. I had never alluded to it before in that company,
nor had I ever spoken of it with Mr. Rathbone. . . .
The case I have given is, I am confident, absolutely free from every
source of error. I do not remember that Mr. Rathbone had communi-
cated with me since he sent me a plentiful supply of mistletoe a year
ago last Christmas. The account I received from him was cut out of
The Sporting Times of March 5, 1887. My own knowledge of the
case came from Kirby’s Wonderful Museum , a work presented to me
at least thirty years ago. I had not looked at the account, spoken of
it, nor thought of it for a long time, when it came to me by a kind of
spontaneous generation, as it seemed, having no connection with any
previous train of thought that I was aware of. I consider the evidence
of entire independence, apart from possible “ telepathic ” causation,
completely waterproof, air-tight, incombustible, and unassailable.
A “ HAUNTED ” HOUSE 1
(STEPHEN PHILLIPS)
Stephen Phillips (1868-1915), British poet and dramatist, was
born near Oxford, England, was six years an actor, then a teacher of
history, and finally an author. From 1912 he edited the Poetry Rextiew.
He wrote Christ in Hades and other volumes of poems, besides blank-
verse plays, of which Paolo and Francesca is reckoned the best.
The following, though proximately found as a cable-message to an
American newspaper, purports to be, and stylistically impresses one
as probably being, the poet’s own language. It appears that Phillips
had recently leased a house in Egham, near Windsor.
m
I went there for peace and quiet, and yet, although many people
knew my purpose, nobody had the pluck to tell me that the place had
the reputation of being haunted. We found it out pretty quickly our-
selves, my household and I. No sooner had we been installed in the
place than the uncanniest noises conceivable beset us. There were
knockings and rappings, footfalls, soft and loud; hasty, stealthy hur-
ryings and scurryings and sounds as of a human creature being chased
1 New York Herald, July 24, 1904.
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and caught and then strangled or choked. Doors banged and were
opened and closed unaccountably as if by unseen hands. I would be
sitting quietly in the study writing when the door would open sound-
lessly. That in itself is enough in the dead of night to a man with his
imagination aflame. It was susceptible of explanation, however. “ It
is only a bit of a draught,” I would say to myself, as I held my breath
and watched, but draughts do not turn door handles, and on my life
the handle would turn as the door opened, and there was no hand
visible.
This happened repeatedly. All the household heard sounds and
experienced the same sensations.
My little daughter reported having seen a little old man creeping
about the house, but there was no such person to be found. . . .
According to common report and local tradition, an old farmer
strangled a child fifty years ago in the vicinity of our house at Egham.
This tradition I learned, mind you, after and not before our
experiences.
If there really is a ghost on the prowl it explains a lot.
Needless to say, we threw up our lease of the residence and got out
of it like a shot. The servants left so precipitately that they did not
even take their boxes, so you may imagine how scared they were. The
house has not had another tenant since, and I learned that before my
advent it rarely, if ever, was occupied.
As a man of reasonable intellect I am open to accept any feasible
explanation of our experiences. Indeed, as the house continues “ To
let ” and is still reported to be haunted, I should be quite glad if some
respectable body such as the Psychical Research Society would en-
deavor to clear the matter up.
A POET’S VISUAL HALLUCINATIONS 1
(PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY)
Shelley (1792-1822) has been called “ the supreme poet of the new
era which, beginning with the French Revolution, remains continuous
into our own day.” 2 In spite of his defects, more noticeable in the long
poems, in the lyrics, such as his Ode to a Skylark, “ the rapture, the
music and the emotion are in exquisite balance, and the work has often
as much of delicate simplicity as of fragile and flower-like perfection.”
1 Shelley Memorials, edited by Lady Shelley (Boston, 1859), 207-8.
2 The quoted sentences are by W. M. Rosetti in Encyclopedia Britannica (13th
Edition).
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The Shelleys, in the spring of 1822, took up residence on the shore
of the Bay of Spezzia.
One night, loud cries were heard issuing from the saloon. The Wil-
liamses rushed out of their room in alarm ; Mrs. Shelley also endeavored
to reach the spot but fainted at the door. Entering the saloon the
Williamses found Shelley staring horribly into the air and evidently in
a trance. They waked him, and he related that a figure wrapped in a
mantle came to his bedside, and beckoned him. He must have risen in
his sleep, for he followed the imaginary figure into the saloon, when it
lifted the hood of its mantle, ejaculated “ Siete sodis fatto? ” [Are you
satisfied] and vanished.
Again, on May 6, one evening, he was looking from his terrace down
at the surf, cried out,
recovered after some time and declared that he saw, as plainly as
he then saw me, a naked child (Allegra, who had recently died1) rise
from the sea and clasp its hands as in joy smiling at him.
Lady Shelley does not hint that she ascribes any significance to
these incidents. Nor, I think, have we on record any opinion of Shel-
ley’s regarding them, although they produced a profound effect upon
his emotions. The psychoanalyst may find a symbol of some complex
in the “ nightmare,” and imagination plus sympathy with Byron may
have painted a picture of Allegra on the surf, or, on the other hand,
the sea may have furnished the “ crystal ” for a scryer’s vision. But
it is a fact that not long after the vision or fearfully vivid dream of
the beckoning figure in that house by the Bay of Spezzia, and only two
months after the vivid impression of seeing a joyous child (who had
recently died) rising from the sea, Shelley was drowned in that
same bay.
DAEMON OF AN ITALIAN POET
(TORQUATO TASSO)
Dante, Petrarch, Ariosto and Tasso (1544-1595) are reckoned the
four leading poets of the Italian language. Tasso was famous at the
age of eight for his intellectual precocity. His greatest work was
Gerusalemme Liberato (Jerusalem Delivered), and it ran through
1 Daughter of Lord Byron.
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seven editions within six months, although its author derived not one
centesimo of profit from it. It has been translated into many lan-
guages, and is regarded as one of the great epical works of post-
classical ages.
Tasso is a person around whom suspicion darkly gathers, for he
was “ subject to delusions ” and kept in an asylum for seven years.
But there is constructive insanity as there is constructive crime. As
the record goes, John Bunyan, and many another upright man, was a
criminal. Lombroso not only would have agreed with Porcius Festus
that St. Paul was mad, but with him the very fact of genius raised the
presumption of insanity. Whether Tasso was insane at one period, or
only “ different,” I doubt if it can now be certainly determined. As
reported, some of his visions and other experiences do have a patho-
logical appearance. He became a pronounced neurasthenic and quite
likely a paranoiac. But he seems to have retained a keen ability to rea-
son. And if insanity ever confers, per se , clairvoyant or previsionary
powers, it is well that we should ascertain the fact, which would be a
supernormal one, for all that. The two might, at all events, coexist.
One passage in Milman’s biography of Tasso 1 is worth transfer-
ring. He is relying on the authority, and in part quoting, from Manso,
Tasso’s friend, host and biographer.
Tasso had other still stranger associates, and took part in conver-
sation of a yet abstruser and more mysterious nature. Here at least it
was, in the old gloomy hall of the Castle Bisaccio, with the split pine-
logs blazing gloriously on the hearth, that after reviewing events of the
day’s sport, and partaking of the Marquis’s pleasant wine, and listen-
ing perhaps for a while to the merry song and music, as they wheeled
themselves round to the fire to enjoy a more private conversation,
Tasso would affirm that he had continued communings with a spirit.
It was not, he was sure, an evil spirit, as it conversed with him fre-
quently on religious subjects, and urged and persuaded him to piety
and devotion ; further, it often named the holiest names, and everyone
knows that fiends could not do this, and that in the Inferno of the
Divine Comedia the holiest name is never mentioned, in accordance with
this opinion, and it reverenced the Cross, and the relics of the saints,
and which was still more, it gave consolation and comfort, and left him
cheered and strengthened, when it departed, contrary to the practice
of all evil spirits.
“ I, on the contrary, affirmed,” says Manso, “ that, nevertheless, it
could not be an angel because, although he was a Christian, and a
virtuous man, these favors of angelic appearances are not granted to
1 London, 1850, Vol. II, pages 203 ff.
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persons of ordinary goodness, but to the perfect, and the saintly,1 so
that it would be arrogance to believe that this spirit was an angel, as
it would be unjust to conclude it a demon. Wherefore, since it is
neither angel, nor demon, while there is no other kind of spirits, it fol-
lows of necessity that this was no real spirit, but rather a delusion of
the imaginative faculty, really represented to him, as to many others,
especially if of disordered vision, as he was.” In fact Manso endeav-
ored to convince his guest that the appearance was, in Dr. Dendy’s
expression, “ an intensive idea.”
Tasso defended the reality of his spiritual friend by observing that
he always reappeared in the same form, such a form as he described in
the commencement of his dialogue, The Ambassador , which, if he was
to have such a visitor, was by no means unwelcome for him to assume,
and certainly more correct than the perpetual ballet, and pleasanter
than the old woman in the red cloak, or the grinning scull, or the gen-
tleman in brown, or the noisy crowd of Nicolai, or any other of the
numerous spectral intruders, whose repeated appearance under the
same aspect rather invalidates this argument of Tasso, and exhausted
the patience of those who had to witness them.
Tasso, moreover, maintained that if the sights and voices of which
he was conscious, were mere fantastic imaginations, they would not
transcend his own knowledge, since the imagination can only recall the
same fantasms, or the same realities, which the memory has stored away
in its cells from actual observation.2 He, on the contrary, in the fre-
quent and protracted discourses which he had held with this spirit, had
repeatedly learned from him things which he had never heard or read or
known before ; whence he concludes that these visions were not the mere
creations of fancy, but true and real apparitions of the spirit, which
whatever the reason, chose to show himself visibly.
Thereupon Tasso said he would convince Manso, “ turned his gaze
toward one of the windows, and kept it fixed there a considerable time,”
then announced the presence of the spirit and held a very interesting
and profound conversation with it. Tasso was surprised that his host
could not see the spirit as well as himself, and the biographer concludes
from the failure of the latter to do so, it was mere “ imagination.”
Without knowing what the things unknown to Tasso were, which the
“ spirit ” told him, whether truths or objective facts, or what was their
nature, it is of course impossible to come to any decision on this case.
But, considering the achievements of Socrates and Tasso and Josiah
Quincy, it looks as though even an imaginary “ daemon ” might be in
some respects a good thing to have around.
1 Quod erat demonstrandum, but was not.
2 Exactly the argument of modem psychic research.
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EXTRAORDINARY AUDITORY HALLUCINATION 1
(BAYARD TAYLOR)
Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) published a volume of verse when only
nineteen years old. He then spent two years traveling on foot in
Europe, and the result was his book. Views Afoot. In 1847 he pub-
lished Rhymes of Travel. He was with Commodore Perry’s expedition
to Japan. In 1878 he became American minister to Germany and died
in Berlin the same year. His writings were formerly much read and
some of his poems are still to be found in the anthologies. He tried his
hand also at fiction.
Originally, Mr. Taylor related the following incident in the New
York Mercury.
It was, perhaps, an hour past midnight, along the foothills of the
Nevadas, when, as I lay with open eyes gazing into the eternal beauty
of night, I became conscious of a deep, murmuring sound, like that of a
rising wind. I looked at the trees ; every branch was unmoved — yet the
sound was increased, until the air of the lonely dell seemed to vibrate
with its burden. A strange feeling of awe and expectancy took pos-
session of me. Not a dead leaf stirred on the boughs ; while the mighty
sound — choral hymn, sung by ten thousand voices — swept down over
the hills, and rolled away like retreating thunder over the plain. It was
no longer the roar of the wind. As in the wandering prelude of an
organ melody, note trod upon note with slow, majestic footsteps, until
they gathered to a theme, and then came in the words, simultaneously
chanted by an immeasurable host: Vivant terrestrial The air was
filled with the tremendous sound, which seemed to sweep near the sur-
face of the earth, in powerful waves, without echo or reverberation.
Suddenly, far overhead, in the depths of the sky, rang a single,
clear, piercing voice of unnatural sweetness. Beyond the reach of
human organs, or any human instrument, its keen alto pierced the
firmament like a straight white line of electric fire. As it shot down-
ward, gathering in force, the vast terrestrial chorus gradually dis-
persed into silence, and only that one unearthly sound remained. It
vibrated slowly into the fragment of a melody, unlike any which had
ever reached my ears — long undulating cry of victory and of joy;
while the words “ Vivat Coelum! ” were repeated more and more faintly,
as the voice slowly withdrew, like a fading beam of sunset, into the
abysses of the stars. Then all was silent. I was undeniably awake at
the time, and could recall neither fact, reflection, nor fancy of a nature
1 To be found in Seers of the Ages, by Dr. J. M. Peebles (New York, 1869), 225-6.
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to suggest the sounds. . . . How does the faculty of the brain act, so
far beyond our conscious knowledge, as to astound us with the most
unexpected images? Why should it speak in the Latin tongue? How
did it compose music — which would be as impossible for me as to write
a Sanskrit poem?
THE PSYCHIC STATES OF A GREAT POET 1
(ALFRED TENNYSON)
Lord Tennyson (1809-1892), one of the greatest poets of the nine-
teenth century, was a Cambridge University graduate. He began to
write when a small boy, and his reputation was established when he was
twenty-four. His poetry is too familiar to need naming or description.
It may not be generally known that he was accustomed to pass into
an ecstatic state and had a formula for inducing it. He says in a letter
written in 1874:
I have never had any revelation through anaesthetics, but a kind of
waking trance (this for want of a better term) I have frequently had,
quite up from boyhood, when I have been all alone. This has often
come upon me through repeating my own name to myself silently till,
all at once, as it were, out of the intensity of the consciousness of the
individuality, the individuality itself seemed to dissolve and fade away
into boundless being; and this is not a composed state, but the clearest
of the clearest, the surest of the surest, utterly beyond words, where
death was an almost laughable impossibility, the loss of personality
(if so it were), seeming no extinction, but the only true life. I am
ashamed of my feeble description. Have I not said the state was
utterly beyond words?
GROUP CENTERING AROUND THE DEATH OF HORACE
TRAUBEL 2
(HORACE TRAUBEL)
Horace Traubel (1858-1919) was the Boswell of Walt Whitman.
He studied the latter as minutely as Samuel Johnson was studied by
the Scotch laird, and as a result produced the Diary of several vol-
umes. He was also author of a number of volumes of poems of the
1 Studies in Psychic Science, by Hudson Tuttle (1889), 161.
2 Journal A. S. P. R., February, 1921.
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Whitman type, which some of his own disciples regard as nearly equal
to those of his master. He was the founder of the well-known Contem-
porary Club of Philadelphia.
On November 4, 1919, I wrote Mrs. Flora MacD. Denison as
follows :
A gentleman present at the obsequies of the late Horace Traubel
stated to me that a lady, who was the hostess of Mr. Traubel at the
time of his death, related a narrative, as a part of the funeral cere-
monies, of Mr. Traubel’s having seen an apparition of Walt Whitman,
and of another person, if I understood rightly, having been present
and seen the same.
It is very possible that the story has reached me in a distorted way,
but I would very much like to know what, if any, truth there is in it,
and to have the narrative in full, if you would be so kind.
Mrs. Denison replied November 9, 1919, from Bon Echo, Ontario.
Her remarks show commendable caution, appreciation of the impor-
tance of making immediate records and of adhering to them in any
subsequent report.
I was pleased to get your letter and would at once comply with your
request and relate the story of the psychic phenomena which took place
during the last week in the life of Horace Traubel, but the notes which
I took at the time of the happenings are all at the Big House and I am
in a cottage some distance away. I am, however, going to write a story
of the last days of Horace Traubel and relate what occurred and pub-
lish it in the Sunset of Bon Echo, a little magazine published once in a
while for the Whitman Club. I will send you a copy some time next
spring or if you really wish it sooner I could send you typed copy as
soon as I get it in shape. Professor Hyslop may remember me as the
author of Mary MelviUe, and whom he met at the home of Dr. Garrett
in Toronto, seventeen or eighteen years ago. If I can find a first copy
of The Sunset I will send it to Dr. Hyslop. I do not trust to my mem-
ory when writing psychic phenomena because I find one cannot depend
on oneself and will unconsciously color, forget or vary the story with
one’s mood, so as each succeeding incident occurred with Horace (who,
by the way, was not an enthusiastic believer in psychical research) I
wrote it down almost immediately. I see no reason for withholding the
story from the public, as it was Mrs. Traubel herself who requested me
to tell it at Horace’s funeral ceremony in New York.
On May 17, 1920, Mrs. Denison sent the April-May issue of a
magazine entitled The Sunset of Bon Echo, together with a letter in
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which she says, “ I have given the story without any coloring
whatever.”
An article in the magazine entitled, “ Horace Traubel,” by Flora
MacDonald (Mrs. Denison) gives an account of Mr. Traubel’s last
days, which were spent at Bon Echo, Mrs. Denison being his hostess.
One of the incidents was the dedication of what was known as The
Rock, a bluff some two miles in length and three or four hundred feet
high at its highest elevation, to the memory of Walt Whitman. It
appears that a crag somewhere on the rock presents the appearance of
an “ Egyptian head,” but there is no intimation of any resemblance to
the bewhiskered and un-Egyptian head of Walt Whitman himself, and
any theory that his profile played a part, by way of suggestion, in the
incidents to be narrated would seem to be far fetched.
The pertinent extracts from the article follow :
Frank Bain talked of going on the 29th. All day on August 28th
Horace was very low spirited. Anne’s illness and the going of the Bains
was too much for him. Mildred was with him a good deal and we de-
cided not to leave him a minute. He had been brought in from the
veranda but absolutely radiant. “ Look, Look, Flora ; quick, quick,
he is going.” “ What, where, Horace, I do not see any one.”
“ Why, just over the rock Walt appeared, head and shoulders and
hat on in a golden glory — brilliant and splendid. He reassured me —
beckoned to me, and spoke to me. I heard his voice but did not under-
stand all he said, only * Come on.’ ” Frank Bain soon came and he
repeated the story to him. All the rest of the evening Horace was
uplifted and happy. So often Horace would say, “ Do not despise me
for my weakness,” but now he was quite confident, even jocular, as I
handed him a drink. “ The Lord may be able to make better water,
but I don’t believe he ever did.” . . .
On the night of September 3, Horace was very low. I stayed for a
few hours with him, once his eyes rolled, I thought he was dying, but he
just wanted me to turn him. As I did he listened and seemed to hear
something. Then he said, “ I hear Walt’s voice, he is talking to me.”
I said, “ What does he say.” He said, “ Walt says come on, come on.”
After a time he said, “ Flora, I see them all about me, Bob and Bucke
and Walt and the rest.” Then he laughed and told me the story about
Ingersoll writing to Walt, “ May the Lord love you, but not too soon.”
To Anne he said jokingly, even though too weak to hold the glass,
“ Home, sweet Home.”
I telegraphed for Nathan Mendelssohn, hoping against hope that
Horace could be moved. He arrived September 4. On September 6 I
stayed with Horace while Anne had dinner and went for a walk with
Nathan. He had great difficulty breathing. He said, “ Flora, I wish
to God I was dead.” I said, “ Yes, Horace, you want to give up your
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body, but that won’t make you dead.” He laughed. “No, I won’t be
dead even when I am dead.” Then a hard breath and he said, “ Flora,
what does it all mean?” “I do not know.” He said, “But, Flora,
what is to become of me? ” I said, “ Why, Horace, you are all right
here with your friends and Anne.” “ Yes, yes, but why is it so hard
to die.” I spoke of Walt’s waiting for him and he said, “ Yes, yes.”
September 6, Nathan left Horace sinking, Anne constantly by his
side. “ You’re triumphant, Horace, you’ve affected the ages, no re-
grets, Horace, no regrets.” Anne asked for Col. Cosgrave to come in
and he took the seat by his side.
At 11 :30 Anne came into my room just next to theirs and asked me
to go out on the north veranda. The moon was partly clouded and old
Walt was in the shadow, but the sky was bright back of it. The water
was black and still, reflecting the darker rock. Near the end a point of
water rippled and Anne said, “Do you see a white boat?” I saw
something white and I looked intently to make sure, two distinct lights
appeared in either end of the phantom boat. Anne said, “ Yes, he’s
aboard, even his lips no longer respond to the moistened cloth I hold
to them.”
We came south along the east veranda and, looking up into the sky,
a huge eagle was circling round and round. I referred to Ingersoll
calling Whitman an eagle soaring above the theological chic-a-dees and
sparrows. Anne did not seem sure of its being an eagle, but it screamed
its eagle scream and flew away into the bright moonlight. Col. Cos-
grave had been with Horace in the afternoon and had seen Walt on the
opposite side of the bed and felt his presence. Then Walt passed
through the bed and touched the Colonel’s hand, which was in his
pocket. The contact was like an electric shock. Horace was also
aware of Walt’s visible presence, and said so. There was no gloom
about the house. No one seemed depressed. A feeling of triumph, of
pride and of exultation permeated the atmosphere.
It was obviously desirable to get a first-hand statement from Col.
Cosgrave and accordingly a letter was addressed to him requesting
such statement as he cared to make. His reply, written from 209 Bal-
moral Ave., Toronto, was received about June 1, 1920.
Mr. Walter F. Prince, . . .
With reference to your communication of May 25, in connection
with the psychical occurrences connected with the passing of Horace
Traubel I hereby state as follows:
During the months of August and September, 1919, I was in close
touch with Mr. Horace Traubel, well known for his numerous writings
and spiritual plane of thought ; previous to that time I had not known
him personally, nor had I a deep knowledge of the works and ideals of
Whitman, this I state to show that my mind, conscious or subconscious,
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NOTED WITNESSES
had been engrossed in their works or beliefs, in addition, my long service
in France with the Canadian forces, practically continually in the
advanced lines from January, 1915, to the Armistice, had, naturally,
made me familiar with the presence of death and the atmosphere around
the dying, though imbuing me with natural reverence, created no un-
usual tension or emotional excitement such as is common to those un-
familiar with death, this is also stated to indicate that I was in a
normal condition when the occurrence took place to which Mrs. Deni-
son alludes, and I beg to corroborate in toto the statements made by
her in reference to myself. Briefly, it was as follows : During the three
nights previous to the passing of Horace Traubel, I had remained at
his bedside, throughout the latter hours of darkness, momentarily ex-
pecting the end, my thoughts at all times were very clear and spiritual,
owing to the quietude of the surroundings, the close touch of nature and
the peculiar clean magnetism that seemed to surround this remarkable
selfless man, who had given his whole life to the service of humanity, I
had felt this curious spirituality surrounding but few great people, and
never with ordinary beings.
During this long watch, Horace Traubel, who was suffering from
paralysis and debility, was without visible pain, and semi-conscious,
unable to articulate owing to paralysis of the tongue. His eyes, how-
ever, which were remarkably brilliant and expressive, gave us the clue
to the majority of his needs. On the last night, about 3 a. m., he grew
perceptibly weaker, breathing almost without visible movement, eyes
closed and seemingly comatose, he stirred restlessly after a long period,
and his eyes opened, staring towards the further side of the bed, his
lips moved, endeavoring to speak, I moved his head back, thinking he
needed more air, but again it moved away, and his eyes remained riv-
etted on a point some three feet above the bed, my eyes were at last
drawn irresistibly to the same point in the darkness, as there was but
a small shaded night lamp behind a curtain on the further side of the
room. Slowly the point at which we were both looking grew gradually
brighter, a light haze appeared, spread until it assumed bodily form,
and took the likeness of Walt Whitman, standing upright beside the
bed, a rough tweed jacket on, an old felt hat upon his head and his
right hand in his pocket, similar to a number of his portraits, he was
gazing down at Traubel, a kindly, reassuring smile upon his face, he
nodded twice as though reassuringly, the features quite distinct for at
least a full minute, then gradually faded from sight. My eyes turned
back to Traubel, who remained staring for almost another minute,
when he also turned away, his features remarkably clear of the strained
expression they had worn all evening, and he did not move again until
his death, two hours later. I reported the occurrence to Mrs. Denison,
who entered the facts in her diary at once, as she had records of several
other psychic phenomena to date. I am thoroughly corivinced of the
exactness of the above statements, and did not regard it as extraordi-
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nary, owing to the fact that I had experienced similar phenomena at
crucial moments during heavy casualties in France.
[Signed] Lt.-Col. L. Moore Cosgrave,
Late Can. Forces.
Thereupon, June 8, I wrote to Mrs. Denison, calling to her atten-
tion that Col. Cosgrave’s letter said nothing about Traubel’s having
himself said that he saw Walt Whitman, and nothing of the apparition
passing through the bed and touching the Colonel’s hand with the sen-
sation of an “ electric shock.” I asked how she explained the discrep-
ancies. She sent my letter on to Col. Cosgrave, who on June 21 wrote
me again, supplying the facts he had inadventently omitted from his
first letter.
With reference to my last communication re the events connected
with the appearance of Walt Whitman during the last days of Horace
Traubel at Bon Echo, I have received a letter from Mrs. Denison, to-
gether with your enclosure of the 8th inst., and I hereby beg to add my
confirmation of the facts stated re the close of the incident when Walt
Whitman appeared to me. Unfortunately, I have mislaid my notes re
the occurrence until recently and I find that the facts are as related by
Mrs. Denison, in amplification of my previous letter.
Walt Whitman, towards the end of his appearance, while Horace
and I were gazing at him, moved closer to Horace from the further side
of the bed, as Horace from weakness was forced to allow his head to
roll back to a frontal position, and said, “ There is Walt.” At the same
moment, Walt passed apparently through the bed towards me, and
appeared to touch my hand, as though in farewell, I distinctly felt it, as
though I had touched a low electric charge, he then smiled at Horace,
and passed from sight. This occurred on September 6, two days before
Traubel’s death, which were [passed] in a coma, and paralysis, he
being unable to articulate, though his eyes were full of unspoken mes-
sages, and he was apparently seeing many other things which we could
not vision. Trusting that this will clear up the matter, I remain. . . .
[Signed] L. Moose Cosgrave.
The exhibits close with the extract from Mrs. Denison’s diary
contained in her letter of June 15.
I copy from the notes taken by me on September 6.
“ Colonel Cosgrave had been with him in the afternoon and had seen
Walt on the opposite side of the bed and pass through the bed and
placed his hand on his which was in his pocket and felt his presence like
an electric shock. Walt also was seen by Horace and he said so to the
Colonel and afterwards to me. — ” I am sending your letter on to Colo-
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NOTED WITNESSES
nel Cosgrave — I could not trust my memory because one so soon for-
gets, colors, adds to or takes from — not intentionally, but just be-
cause our minds are mixed with facts and imagination.
[Signed] Flora MacD. Denison.
To some it may at first appear as incomprehensible, and furnishing
an insuperable difficulty that Col. Cosgrave should have omitted from
his narrative sent the Society two of the most important particulars of
the incident asserted to have occurred. And indeed it would have been
suspicious if, after the lapse of nine months, a second narrative had for
the first time included those particulars, without any original con-
temporaneous record to support them. This would indeed have ap-
peared to be a case of those “ accretions ” of which we hear so much.
There is no question that types of mind exist which are liable to these
accretions, glosses and remodelings with the lapse of time and in the
course of successive retellings. But, as I have before had occasion to
observe and illustrate, there is another type of mind, of a scrutinizing
and critical character, somewhat averse to the rehearsal of uncanny
events, which seems subject to the opposite liability. Probably often
for the very reason that there is something about the event not quite
pleasing because of its “ occult ” character, the vividness more or less
rapidly fades from memory and important particulars slip from view
at the moment of narration, though still latent in consciousness. This
fact is strikingly and even strangely illustrated in Cosgrave’s first
statement, which places the apparition incident on the last night of
Traubel’s life, whereas his second makes it two days earlier. But for
three extraneous facts, this singular discrepancy would quite destroy
the credit of his testimony. These facts are: (1) Mrs. Denison set
down in her diary Cosgrave’s testimony on September 6, when the
incident really occurred, (2) Cosgrave made notes by which he re-
freshed his memory and corrected his odd error as to the date, (3) Mrs.
Cosgrave says that Traubel told her on September 6 that he had seen
Whitman.
A VERIDICAL APPARITION LEADS TO THE WRITING OF
A FAMOUS PLAY
(DAVID BELASCO)
Everyone knows about this eminent dramatist and theatrical pro-
ducer, born in 1859 and still active. He is now owner and manager of
Belasco Theatre in New York City. Among the many successful plays
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of his own composition, “ The Return of Peter Grimm ” takes high
rank, and in it David Warfield, in the character of Grimm, both as
flesh and as spirit, gained a part of his fame.
In a booklet issued by Belasco, with the same title as this play, he
makes the following statement:
My mother convinced me that the dead come back by coming to
me at the time of her death. One night, after a long, exhausting re-
hearsal, I went to bed, worn out, in my Newport home, and fell at once
into a deep sleep. Almost immediately, however, I was awakened and
attempted to rise, but could not, and was then greatly startled to see
my dear mother (whom I knew to be in San Francisco) standing close
by me. As I strove to speak and to sit up she smiled at me a loving,
reassuring smile, spoke my name — the name she called me in my boy-
hood— “ Davy, Davy, Davy,” then, leaning down, seemed to kiss me ;
then drew away a little and said : “ Do not grieve. All is well and I am
happy;” then moved toward the door and vanished.
The next day I related the incident to my family and expressed the
conviction that my mother was dead. A few hours later (I was still
directing rehearsals of “ Zoza ”) I went to luncheon during a recess,
with a member of my staff, who handed me some letters and telegrams
which he had brought from the box-office of the theatre. Among them
was a telegram telling me that my darling mother had died the night
before, at about the time I had seen her in my room. Later I learned
that just before she died she roused herself, smiled, and three times
murmured, “ Davy, Davy, Davy.”
I am aware that such experiences as this are, by some, explained on
a theory of what they call “ thought transference,” but such explana-
tion, to me, is totally inadequate. I am sure that I did see her. And
other experiences of a kindred nature served to confirm my knowledge
that what we call supernatural is, after all, at most but supernormal.
Then, after long brooding on the subject, I determined to write a play*
in terms of what I conceive to be actuality, dealing with the return
of the dead.
DEFINITE PREMONITION BY VISUAL HALLUCINATION
(BEN JONSON; WILLIAM DRUMMOND, GUARANTOR)
Although, largely because of his less stilted diction and far more
vivid humanistic realism, Shakespeare's star has obscured that of his
contemporary Jonson (1573-1637), yet the latter in his lifetime be-
came regarded as the literary master of the language, particularly as
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NOTED WITNESSES
a writer of plays and other verse. His tragedies were Cataline and
Sejanus, and among his comedies were Every Man in His Humour,
V olpone and The Alchemist . He was a man of learning and of great
industry. He left on record a tribute of his admiration for Shake-
speare (and I do not mean Bacon).
William Drummond (1585-1649), M.A. of Edinburgh University,
was a leading Scotch poet of his period, a linguist, familiar with Latin,
Greek, Italian, Spanish, French and Hebrew, whose work is still ad-
mired. “ The Cypress Grove is one of the noblest prose poems in litera-
ture,” says Professor Thomas Gilray, who adds, “ His sonnets are still
ranked immediately after Shakespeare, Milton and Wordsworth.” 1
Jonson paid Drummond a visit of at least a fortnight, and the
record of their conversations was long lost but was discovered and pub-
lished in 1832. It is from this that the following incident is taken.
At that tyme the pest was in London; he [Jonson] being in the
country with old Cambden, he saw in a vision his eldest son, then a
child and at London, appear unto him with the mark of a bloodie cross
in his forehead, as if it had been cutted with a sword, at which amazed
he prayed unto God, and in the morning he came to Mr. Cambden’s
chamber to tell him ; who persuaded him it was but an apprehension of
his fantasie, at which he should not be disjected; in the mean tyme come
then letters from his wife of the death of that boy in plague. He ap-
peared to him (he said) of a manly shape, and of that grouth that he
thinks he shall be at the resurrection.
AN OUTBURST OF TALENT
(VICTORIEN SARDOU)
No dramatist of France during the latter half of the nineteenth
century was more popular and successful than Sardou (1831-1908).
His plays were many, and some were written specially for and acted in
by Mile. D4jazet, Sarah Bernhardt and Sir Henry Irving.
I have not traced the original place of the following utterance,
found in Light for April 11, 1885, but there is no reason for doubting
its accuracy. Sardou had many experiences which he believed due to
discarnate intelligences.
Sardou, the most famous of French dramatists after Victor Hugo,
1 Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition.
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is a Spiritualist, and believes that he writes his plays under spirit guid-
ance. This may be a delusion, but what can be said of the following
account of the production of an exquisite engraving of Moliere’s house
on copper? “ Seated one day at my table,” he says, “ I fell into a
reverie. Unconsciously I took up the graver, and impelled by secret
influence, let my hand follow its own direction over that plate. The
engraving you see is the result of several hours of purely mechanical
toil. I could not of my own will make such a picture to save my life.”
Whatever the explanation, this seems to be in the same class with
the production of extraordinary literature through Mrs. Curran, who
had never in thirty-three years shown any literary talent whatever;
with the development by the hand of Miss Marian Spore, a dentist who
had never normally shown signs of artistic talent, of painting of
sufficient excellence to win the commendation of the conservative Pro-
fessor Dow, former head of the art department of Teacher’s College,
Columbia University; with the singularly impressive organ improvisa-
tion by an actor friend of mine, Mr. Jay Wellington, who tells me that
he had practically no knowledge of playing, and that the phenomenon
began with his mysteriously and inwardly impelled purchase of a par-
ticular instrument; and with the almost faultless drawing of exquisite
conventionalized flowers and foliage many years ago by a young
woman who could do such work only during a single season, samples of
whose drawings, given by her sister, Mrs. Helen A. Perry, through me
to the A. S. P. R., are still in the archives of that Society. In these
and several other cases known to me of the same class, though not all
striking in the same degree, the subjects of the apparently suddenly
created or singularly heightened powers all had either accompanying
“ messages ” or strong inward convictions that their gifts were of
occult origin. This fact is, of course, not determinative, but the
unanimity is interesting and is in itself not entirely without weight.
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RECURRENT SYMBOLICAL PREMONITORY DREAM 1
(WILLIAM FREND DE MORGAN)
William De Morgan (1838-1916) was for the most of his life known
as an artist in the making of pottery, and a discoverer and reviver of
processes in that art. But his fame today mostly rests on his novels,
the first of which was written at the age of sixty-seven. However, he
had the gift of fluent and graphic writing when young. During the
last years of his life he wrote Joseph Vance, Alice-for-Short, Somehow
Good, and four other stories, most of them of more than usual length.
It will be remembered that De Morgan had noticed that a particular
type of dream came to him with unfailing regularity before a death
took place in his family — a dream of his early home in Camden Street,
entirely unremarkable save that throughout his life its recurrence
proved the inevitable precursor of some bereavement. One night he
dreamed it with extreme vividness, but no ill-tidings followed, and he
had forgotten the occurrence when, some weeks later, he learnt that,
at the date when he had been visited by the dream, his brother Edward
had been killed by a fall from his horse in South Africa. On another
occasion the dream came to him indistinctly, and, after a similar lapse
of time, he heard of the death in Africa of the infant son of that same
brother.
RECIPROCAL AUDITORY HALLUCINATION 2
(WILLIAM AND EVELYN DE MORGAN)
On another occasion an incident happened which seemed full of
ominous import. Evelyn, walking along Kensington High Street one
afternoon, when nearly opposite the station, distinctly heard her hus-
band’s voice call “ Yoicks a word by which they were in the habit
1 William De Morgan and His Wife, by A. M. W. Stirling (Henry Holt & Co.,
N Y 1922) 355
2 William De Morgan and His Wife, by A. M. W. Stirling (Henry Holt & Co.,
N. Y., 1922), 354-55.
154
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of hailing each other. She turned round, startled, expecting to see
him ; but he was nowhere in sight. Yet so vivid was the impression that,
although she had an engagement in the opposite direction, she returned
home, feeling perturbed lest anything had happened to him. He, how-
ever, was not in the house ; but later in the afternoon he appeared, like-
wise looking distressed and anxious. “ I want to know,” he questioned
at once, “ were you in the neighborhood of High Street Station this
afternoon?” “Yes,” she replied, full of curiosity, “why do you
ask?” “Because I was bicycling past the station, and I distinctly
heard you call ‘ Yoicks ! ’ I got off my bicycle and looked for you
everywhere, but I could not see you.” “ What time was that? ” asked
Evelyn. “ Six o’clock.” “ And 1 went past the station at four, and
heard you call ! ” she replied. As an instance of possible telepathy the
episode was curious ; in its absence of sequel it remained pointless.
THE NOVELIST HEARS RAPS 1
(WILLIAM DE MORGAN)
While living in Cheyne Row, the De Morgans had for many years a
young servant who exhibited peculiar mediumistic powers, and who was
much in request at their experiments in this connection. Anxious to
avoid all possible chance of trickery, William once jestingly begged the
“ spirits ” to transfer the rapping from the table at which they were
seated to a cupboard on the other side of the room. This promptly
took place, all subsequent raps sounding loudly from that isolated
article of furniture. It may be added that the servant-girl in question
died of consumption at the age of twenty-seven, and for three years
before her death all mediumship deserted her ; although she was on one
occasion offered ten pounds by a visitor to exhibit her former powers,
she was entirely unable to do so.
PREVISIONARY DREAM 2
(CHARLES DICKENS)
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was, of course, in the front ranks of
novelists of every period and nation. Despite all the criticisms to
which his works are justly liable, the fact remains that few persons
1 William D» Morgan and His Wife, by A. M. W. Stirling (Heniy Holt & Co.,
N. Y. 1922) 108.
2 Forster’s Life of Charles Dickens (London, 1874), III, 484-85.
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NOTED WITNESSES
escape, at some period of their lives, passing under the spell of his
imaginative genius, and that no writer of English fiction has created
so many characters which stand as types of human characteristics.
More people, probably, read Pickwick Papers every year now than read
it, ninety years ago, when it first took England by storm, and David
Copperfield remains one of the monuments of English literature.
On May 30, 1863, Dickens wrote:
Here is a curious case at first-hand. On Thursday night in last
week, being at my office here, I dreamed that I saw a lady in a red
shawl with her back toward me (whom I supposed to be E.). On her
turning round I found that I didn’t know her, and she said, “ I am Miss
Napier.” All the time I was dressing next morning I thought: What a
preposterous thing to have so very distinct a dream about nothing!
and why Miss Napier? for I never heard of any Miss Napier. That
same Friday night, I read. After the reading, came into my retiring-
room, Mary Boyle and her brother, and the lady in the red shawl, whom
they present as “ Miss Napier.” These are all the circumstances
exactly told.
I can imagine the late Professor Royce 1 saying, thirty years ago —
for I much doubt if he would have said it twenty years later — , “ In
certain people, under certain exciting circumstances, there occur what
I shall henceforth call pseudo-presentiments, i. e., more or less in-
stantaneous hallucinations of memory, which make it seem to one that
something which now excites or astonishes him has been prefigured in
a recent dream, or in the form of some other warning ,2 although this
seemingly is wholly unfounded, and although the supposed prophecy
really succeeds its own fulfilment.”
Apply this curious theory (which has probably not been urged for
many years) to the incident just cited, and see how loosely it fits.
What was there about three persons, one a stranger, coming to Dick-
ens after he had finished a reading from his own works, to “ excite ” or
“ astonish ” him, make his brain whirl and bring about a hallucination
of memory, an illusion of having dreamed it all before? It was the
most commonplace event to him. Besides, as in most such cases, he
had the distinct recollection of his thoughts about the dream on waking,
thoughts inextricably interwoven with the acts performed while dress-
ing ! Again, a “ pseudo-presentiment ” should tally with the event as
a reflection does with the object, but in the dream Miss Napier intro-
duced herself, yet in reality was introduced by another.
1 See Proceedings of the first A. S. P. R., March, 1889, p. 366.
2 Type as in the original.
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A SINGULAR COINCIDENCE
(CHARLES DICKENS)
The story is told, with extraordinary accessories, elsewhere, but I
give only what is stated on the authority of the authorized biographer.1
Dickens published a ghost-story in the 125th number of All the
Year Round, which before its publication both Mr. Layard and myself
saw at Gadshill, and identified as one related to Lord Lytton. It was
published in September, and in a day or two led to what Dickens will
relate. “ The artist himself who is the hero of that story (to Lord
Lytton, 15th of September, 1861) has sent me in black and white his
own account of the whole experience, so very original, so very extraor-
dinary, so very far beyond the version I have published, that all other
like stories turn pale before it . . . but conceive this — the portrait-
painter has been engaged to write it elsewhere for a story for next
Christmas, and not unnaturally supposed, when he saw himself antici-
pated in All the Year Round, that there had been treachery at his
printers. ‘ In particular,’ says he, ‘ how else was it possible that the
date, the 13th of September, could have been got at? For I never told
the date, until I wrote it.’ Now my story has no date, but seeing, when
I looked over the proof, the great importance of having a date, I [C.
D.] wrote in, unconsciously, the exact date on the margin of the
proof.” 2
HOW DID KNOWLEDGE OF THE DOG’S DISASTER
REACH HIM?
(SIR RIDER HAGGARD)
Henry Rider Haggard (1856- ) is well known as the author
of King Solomon's Mines, Allen Quarterman, She, Jess, and some
twenty other novels, some of which have had an immense sale.
His story was first printed in the (London) Times and afterward,
with fuller corroborative material, in Proceedings S. P. R. (XXXIII,
219-231).
Ditchingham, July 16, [1904].
Perhaps you will think with me that the following circumstances
are worthy of record, if only for their scientific interest. It is princi-
1 Forster’s Life of Dickens, III, 483-4.
2 For Alexander Dumas, see page 33 note.
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pally because of this interest that, as such stories should not be told
anonymously, after some hesitation I have made up my mind to publish
them over my own name, although I am well aware that by so doing I
may expose myself to a certain amount of ridicule and disbelief.
On the night of Saturday, July 9, I went to bed about 12:80, and
suffered from what I took to be a nightmare. I was awakened by my
wife’s voice calling to me from her own bed upon the other side of the
room. As I awoke, the nightmare itself, which had been long and vivid,
faded from my brain. All I could remember of it was a sense of awful
oppression and of desperate and terrified struggling for life such as the
act of drowning would probably involve. But between the time that I
heard my wife’s voice and the time that my consciousness answered to
it, or so it seemed to me, I had another dream. I dreamed that a black
retriever dog, a most amiable and intelligent beast named Bob, which
was the property of my eldest daughter, was lying on its side among
brushwood, or rough growth of some sort, by water. My own person-
ality in some mysterious way seemed to me to be arising from the body
of the dog, which I knew quite surely to be Bob and no other, so much
so that my head was against its head, which was lifted up at an un-
natural angle. In my vision the dog was trying to speak to me in
words, and, failing, transmitted to my mind in an undefined fashion the
knowledge that it was dying. Then everything vanished, and I woke
to hear my wife asking me why on earth I was making those horrible
and weird noises. I replied that I had had a nightmare about a fearful
struggle, and that I had dreamed that old Bob was in a dreadful way,
and was trying to talk to me and to tell me about it. Finally, seeing
that it was still quite dark, I asked what the time was. She said she
did not know, and shortly afterwards I went to sleep again and was
disturbed no more.
On the Sunday morning Mrs. Rider Haggard told the tale at break-
fast, and I repeated my story in a few words. This I need not do here,
as the annexed statements set out what occurred quite clearly.
Thinking that the whole thing was nothing more than a disagree-
able dream, I made no inquiries about the dog and never learned even
that it was missing until that Sunday night, when my little girl, who
was in the habit of feeding it, told me so. At breakfast time, I may
add, nobody knew that it was gone, as it had been seen late on the
previous evening. Then I remembered my dream, and the following
day inquiries were set on foot.
To be brief, on the morning of Thursday, the 14th, my servant,
Charles Bedingfield, and I discovered the body of the dog floating in
the Wavenay against a weir about a mile and a quarter away. The
two certificates of the veterinary surgeon, Mr. Mullane, are enclosed
herewith. They sufficiently describe its condition.
On Friday, the 15th, I was going into Bungay to offer a reward
for the discovery of the persons who were supposed to have destroyed
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the dog in the fashion suggested in Mr. Mullane’s first certificate, when
at the level crossing of the Bungay road I was hailed by two plate-
layers, who are named respectively George Arterton and Harry Alger.
These men informed me that the dog had been killed by a train, and
took me on a trolley down to a certain open-work bridge which crosses
the water between Ditchingham and Bungay, where they showed me
evidence of its death. This is the sum of their evidence:
It appears that about seven o’clock upon the Monday morning,
very shortly after the first train had passed, in the course of his duties
Harry Alger was on the bridge, where he found a dog’s collar torn off
and broken by the engine (since produced and positively identified as
that worn by Bob), coagulated blood, and bits of flesh, of which rem-
nants he cleaned the rails. On search also I personally found portions
of black hair from the coat of a dog. On the Monday afternoon and
subsequently his mate saw the body of the dog floating in the water
beneath the bridge, whence it drifted down to the weir, it having risen
with the natural expansion of gases, such as, in this hot weather, might
be expected to occur within about forty hours of death. It would seem
that the animal must have been killed by an excursion train that left
Ditchingham at 10:25 on Saturday night, returning empty from
Harleston a little after eleven. This was the last train which ran that
night. No trains run on Sunday, and it is practically certain that it
cannot have been killed on the Monday morning, for then the blood
would have been still fluid. Also, men who were working around when
the 6:30 train passed must have seen the dog on the line (they were
questioned by Alger at the time and had seen nothing), and the engine-
driver in broad daylight would also have witnessed and made a report
of the accident, of which in a dark night he would probably know
nothing. Further, if it was living, the dog would almost certainly have
come home during Sunday, and its body would not have risen so
quickly from the bottom of the river, or presented the appearance it
did on Thursday morrting. From traces left upon the piers of the
bridge it appears that the animal was knocked or carried along some
yards by the train and fell into the brink of the water where reeds
grow. Here, if it were still living, — and, although the veterinary
thinks that death was practically instantaneous, its life may perhaps
have lingered for a few minutes, — it must have suffocated and sunk,
undergoing, I imagine, much the same sensations as I did in my dream,
and in very similar surroundings to those that I saw therein — namely,
amongst a scrubby growth at the edge of water.
Both in a judicial and a private capacity I have been accustomed
all my life to the investigation of evidence, and, if we may put aside
our familiar friend, “ the long arm of coincidence,” which in this case
would surely be strained to dislocation, I confess that that available
upon this matter forces me to the following conclusions:
The dog Bob, between whom and myself there existed a mutual
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attachment, either at the moment of his death, if his existence can con-
ceivably have been prolonged till after one in the morning, or, as seems
more probable, about three hours after that event, did succeed in calling
my attention to its actual or recent plight by placing whatever portion
of my being is capable of receiving such impulses when enchained by
sleep, into its own terrible position. That subsequently, as that chain
of sleep was being broken by the voice of mv wife calling me back to a
normal condition of our human existence, with some last despairing
effort, while that indefinable part of me was being slowly withdrawn
from it (it will be remembered that in my dream I seemed to rise from
the dog), it spoke to me, first trying to make use of my own tongue,
and, failing therein, by some subtle means of communication whereof
I have no knowledge, telling me that it was dying, for I saw no blood
or wounds which would suggest this to my mind.
I recognize, further, that, if its dissolution took place at the
moment when I dreamt, this communication must have been a form of
that telepathy which is now very generally acknowledged to occur
between human beings from time to time and under special circum-
stances, but which I have never heard of as occurring between a human
being and one of the lower animals. If, on the other hand, that dissolu-
tion happened, as I believe, over three hours previously — what am I to
say? Then it would seem that it must have been some non-bodily but
surviving part of the life or of the spirit of the dog which, so soon as
my deep sleep gave it an opportunity, reproduced those things in my
mind, as they had already occurred, I presume, to advise me of the
manner of its end or to bid me farewell.
Sir Rider Haggard adds that if the dog was killed at 6 :30 Monday
morning the dream was a foreshadowing, but that the evidence is over-
whelming against that supposition.
Added statements: (1) That by Mrs. Haggard, to the effect that
she woke her husband, and he told her of a dream “ that Bob was trying
to talk to him and explain that he needed help.” (2) Those of two of
the Haggard children, a lady relative, and his secretary, that he told
of his dream at the breakfast table. (3) Three by the veterinary sur-
geon who examined the dog’s body, testifying to the triple fracture of
the dog’s skull and other injuries, and to his belief that it must have
been killed instantly. (4) That of linemen who found the dried blood
upon the track, and gives several reasons why it must have been the
train of 10:25 p. m. Saturday which struck the animal (the principal
being that there were no Sunday trains and the blood was already dried
when he found it Monday morning a half hour after the 6 :30 train had
passed). (5) That of the groom who, with his master, found the dog’s
body, and identified it.
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There can be no doubt about the facts ; now note the corre-
spondences.
The Dream
That the dog Boh
Was dying
On Saturday night
“ Among brushwood, or rough
growth of some sort
By water."
The Facts
The dog Boh
Died
On Saturday night
The marks of blood on the piles
showed that the dog had fal-
len from the bridge among
the reeds.
These reeds grow in deepish
water.
The dream, however, was several hours after the fact. Yet it could
hardly have been a case of deferred telepathy from the dog, for if it had
not been asleep — if it had seen the train a second before hit — it would
have jumped off the rails, and it seems impossible that the dog could
have lived, or at least been capable of mental effort after the smashing
of its skull. Surely no human being would have been wandering in a
dark night on the open timber-work bridge over a river where the dog
was struck; so that it is incredible that a mental message came from
a person.
If the reader thinks it likely that only chance coincidences are in-
volved, very well. If not, and one is not prepared to accept telepathy
from some other dog or perhaps cat or mosquito that happened to be
looking on, then there apparently remain only intangible sources to
consider, the spirit of the dog, or spirit of some other being that wit-
nessed the canine tragedy, or a reverberation of the Cosmic Conscious-
ness (which last would mean in anthromorphic language that God told
Sir Rider his dog was dead).
CONSCIOUS OF SPIRIT GUIDANCE 1
(MRS. NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE; JULIAN HAWTHORNE,
GUARANTOR)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) and Herman Melville are today
by some critics regarded as the greatest of American novelists. Mrs.
Hawthorne, Sophia, daughter of Dr. Nathaniel Peabody, belonged to
1 Hawthorne and His Circle, by Julian Hawthorne, 76.
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an intellectual family. One of her sisters married the great educator
Horace Mann. Another, Elizabeth, knew ten languages, followed Mar-
garet Fuller as teacher in Bronson A. Alcott’s school, and wrote many
books. Julian Hawthorne (1846-....) was author of a number of
novels, one of which, Garth , appeared serially in Harper's Magazine.
Speaking of his mother, Julian says: “ My mother always affirmed
that she was conscious of her mother’s presence with her on momentous
occasions during the remainder of her life, that is, following her
mother’s death.”
Of course this statement as it stands has no evidential value. But
it is an interesting fact that such a woman, surrounded by such an in-
tellectual circle, thought that she had warrant for this conviction.
THE SIBYL’S PREDICTIONS FULFILLED 1
(ARSfeNE HOUSSAYE)
This French novelist and poet (1815-1896) was very versatile,
being the author of art criticism, literary criticism, satire, fiction,
poetry and drama. The great tragedienne Rachel caused him to be
made administrator of the Theatre Fra^ais, which he continued to be
for ten years. He then became inspector-general of works of art.
The story vouched by this eminent author concerned his own sister,
who had fled before the Prussian invasion of France in 1870, and was
living in a town bordering on the ocean.
One day, a sailing-trip on the ocean was proposed, but all of a
sudden my sister cried : “ No, I don’t want to go on the sea.” They
demanded the reason: she recounted that once in Toulon, as she was
going aboard a boat, an Italian fortune-teller had advised her to remain
on the shore : “ Dear lady, the sea will he bad for you.” My sister gave
a hundred sous to the Italian woman and passed on ; but hardly were
they on the sea when a gust of wind threw her into the depths, from
which her companions rescued her. The next day, the fortune-teller
came to the hotel of the sub-prefecture. My sister went to her, al-
though advised not to receive her. The old sibyl looked into her eyes
and predicted that the sea would be her doom.
That was why she did not wish to take refuge in England where one
1 Houssaye’s Confessions, Tome IV, p. 425. Translation by W. F. P.
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of her friends was awaiting her. Instead of a trip on the sea, they took
one on solid land.
It was on October 10 that the prefect, his wife, his very young
daughter, two nieces and my sister went gaily to Penmarch Point, that
promontory which bristles with cyclopean rocks. Penmarch means
Horse’s Head, for the Britons employ language picturesque as
Chateaubriand. The sea, all abysses and whirlpools, roared in the
commotion of the tempest, and under the Horse’s Head was the very
mouth of hell. Upon the point Teul-an-Ifern, then, the prefect led
these five women, young and beautiful, to witness the terrifying spec-
tacle of the sea in fury. They were all laughing when they reached
the rock, as if in a box at the opera. While they seated themselves
here and there, the prefect smoked a cigar at a little distance from
them, in the doorway of the studio of a marine painter. The ladies
called to him to come and see the wonderful sight of the sea battling
with the rocks. They had no fear, for the assaults of the billows
stopped short a considerable distance below them.
The hour of departure had sounded, but my sister, charmed with
the terrible beauty of the spectacle, asked five minutes of grace. All of
a sudden a tremendous wave, one of those terrible waves that dart like
a bolt of lightning, launched itself, scaled the rock and swept the five
horror-stricken women into the sea.
The prefect, white-faced, stared at the agitated surface of the
ocean, that flung a parasol in his direction. One only cry he heard:
“ Mother ! ” He dashed forward as if to battle with the waves, but
already the billow had descended, carrying its harvest. And then —
nothing more, nothing but the sea, which grew calmer and which
chanted De Profundia, its bouquet of women in its bosom.
The jealous ocean guarded my sister in its depths, without casting
her upon the shore. Nothing appeared, neither her slim body, nor her
hair loosened by the waves, nor her parasol, nor her fan ; nothing was
left of her but her cry, “ Mother ! ”
SUPERNORMALLY CONSCIOUS OF THE DEATH OF
ANOTHER WOMAN; PREMONITION OF
HER OWN DEATH
(VICTOR HUGO, GUARANTOR)
Victor Hugo (1802-1885), novelist, dramatist, poet, is perhaps as
great a name as any in French literature, and Lea Miaerablea is by
many regarded the finest novel ever written. He was not a witness of
the incident which is to be related, but it is introduced because he was
willing to guarantee the veracity of the woman who was the witness,
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because he knew her so well that her testimony convinced him.. This
is how he tells the story.1
On the 27th of last November, an old lady named Mme. Guerin,
aged sixty-six years, and living at No. 34 of Rue Fosses-du-Temple,
on the fourth story, was ill of a malady which did not appear to be
serious, and which the doctor called indigestion. It was 5 a. m. Her
daughter, a widow named Mme. Guerard, who lived with her, had risen
early, had lit her lamp, and was at work, sitting in the chimney corner
near her mother’s bed. “ There, now ! ” she said, “ Mme. Lanne ought
to be back from the country.” (This Mme. Lanne was an old woman
who kept the grocery on the corner of Rue Saint Louis and Rue Saint
Claude.) “ I shall have to go and see her today,” added Mme. Guerard.
“ It will do no good,” said her mother. “ Why so ? ” “ Because she
has been dead for an hour!” “Bah, mother! what are you saying?
Are you dreaming? ” “No, I am wide awake and I have not slept
through the night, and as it struck four o’clock I saw Mme. Lanne pass,
and she said to me: “ / am going; are you coming? ”
The daughter believed that her mother had dreamed. Daylight
came; she went to see Mme. Lanne. But this woman had died in the
night, at 4 a. m. The evening of the same day, Mme. Guerin was taken
with a hemorrhage from the mouth. The doctor who was summoned
said : “ She will not last more than twenty-four hours.” In fact, the
next day at noon, she had another hemorrhage, and died.
I have known Mme. Guerin, and I rely on the case of Mme. Guerard,
a pious and upright woman, who never told a falsehood in her life.
(Signed) Victor Hugo.
A PERSISTING APPARITION
(FREDERICK MARRYAT; GUARANTOR, FLORENCE MARRYAT)
Captain Frederick Marryat (1792-1848) was the greatest English
writer of novels of nautical adventure. As a midshipman he was in
more than fifty naval engagements. He gained renown as a commander
in the Burmese War of 1824-26. A great deal of special study went
into making his twenty-four novels accurate historically and otherwise.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Florence Marryat (Mrs. Lean, 1837-1899) in her biography of the
Captain, gives the story as she heard it from her father, who had the
experience toward the end of his life.
1 Victor Hugo’s C hoses Vues; date, December 5, 1846.
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The last fifteen years of my father’s life were passed on his own
estate at Langham, in Norfolk, and amongst his country friends were
Sir Charles and Lady Townshend, of Raynham Hall. At the time I
speak of, the title and property had lately changed hands, and the new
baronet had repapered, painted, and furnished the Hall throughout,
and come down with his wife and a large party of friends to take pos-
session. But to their annoyance, soon after their arrival, rumors
arose that the house was haunted, and their guests began, one and all
(like those in the parable), to make excuses to go home again. It was
all on account of a Brown Lady, whose portrait hung in one of the bed-
rooms, and in which she was represented as wearing a brown satin dress
with yellow trimmings, and a ruff around her throat — a very harmless,
innocent-looking young woman. But they all declared they had seen
her walking about the house — some in the corridor, some in their bed-
rooms, others in the lower premises, and neither guests nor servants
would remain in the Hall. The baronet was naturally very much an-
noyed about it, and confided his trouble to my father, and my father
was indignant at the trick he believed had been played upon him. There
was a great deal of smuggling and poaching in Norfolk at that period,
as he knew well, being a magistrate of the county, and he felt sure that
some of these depredators were trying to frighten the Townshends
away from the Hall again. So he asked his friends to let him stay with
them and sleep in the haunted chamber, and he felt sure he could rid
them of the nuisance. They accepted his offer, and he took possession
of the room in which the portrait of the apparition hung, and in which
she had been often seen, and slept each night with a loaded revolver
under his pillow. For two days, however, he saw nothing, and the third
was to be the limit of his stay. On the third night, however, two young
men (nephews of the baronet) knocked at his door as he was undressing
to go to bed, and asked him to step over to their room (which was at
the other end of the corridor), and give them his opinion of a new gun
just arrived from London. My father was in his shirt and trousers,
but as the hour was late, and everybody had retired to rest except
themselves, he prepared to accompany them as he was. As they were
leaving the room, he caught up his revolver, “ in case we meet the
Brown Lady,” he said, laughing. When the inspection of the gun was
over, the young men in the same spirit declared they would accompany
my father back again, “ in case you meet the Brown Lady,” they re-
peated, laughing also. The three gentlemen therefore returned in
company.
The corridor was long and dark, for the lights had been extin-
guished, but as they reached the middle of it, they saw the glimmer of
a lamp coming towards them from the other end. “ One of the ladies
going to visit the nurseries,” whispered the young Townshends to my
father. Now, the bed-room doors in that corridor faced each other,
and each room had a double door with a space between, as is the case
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in many old-fashioned country houses. My father (as I have said) was
in a shirt and trousers only, and his native modesty made him feel un-
comfortable, so he slipped within one of the outer doors (his friends
following his example), in order to conceal himself until the lady should
have passed by. I have heard him describe how he watched her ap-
proaching nearer and nearer, through the chink of the door, until, as
she was close enough for him to distinguish the colors and style of her
costume, he recognized the figure as the facsimile of the portrait of
“ The Brown Lady.” He had his finger on the trigger of his revolver,
and was about to demand it to stop and give the reason for its presence
there, when the figure halted of its own accord before the door behind
which he stood, and, holding the lighted lamp she carried to her
features, deliberately grinned at him. This act so infuriated my
father, who was anything but lamb-like in disposition, that he sprang
into the corridor with a bound, and discharged the revolver right in
her face. The figure instantly disappeared — the figure at which for
the space of several minutes three men had been looking together — and
the bullet passed through the outer door of the room on the opposite
side of the corridor and lodged in the panel of the inner door. My
father never attempted again to interfere with the Brown Lady, and I
have heard that she haunts the premises to this day. That she did so
at the time there is no shadow of doubt.
Sir Charles Townshend, proprietor of Raynham Hall, told Miss
Lucia C. Stone that “ I cannot but believe, for she [the Brown Lady]
ushered me into my room last night.” Miss Stone also reported that
Colonel Loftus, a cousin of Sir Charles, saw the apparition while stay-
ing at the Hall. According to the Rev. W. P. M. M’Lean, rector of
West Raynham, the apparition was seen as late as 1903.
Take the story as told bv Miss Marryat. It is at second-hand, and
may well contain incorrect details, but it is difficult to suppose that in
the main it is not as her father told it to her.1
“ A DOUBLE OF THE LIVING ” 2
(SIR GILBERT PARKER, SIR HENRY BANNERMAN, SIR
ARTHUR HAYTER)
The following story, taken from Flammarion, I hesitated to use,
because there was no reference to the incident in the Journal of the
S. P. R., although it was said to have happened in London. But since
1 Miss Marryat wrote an earlier account of this incident which was published in
Harper’s Weekly, December 24, 1870. In that she gives more details, but there are
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the article of May 14, containing the purported statements of Sir Gil-
bert Parker, was not only not contradicted, but was supported in a
newspaper on May 17 by Sir Arthur Hayter, who appealed to Sir
Henry Bannerman as a third witness, and no echo of any denial reached
M. Flammarion, it at length dawned upon me that the silence of the
Jonmal must be of the sort that spelled consent, or that at any rate it
implied that nothing had transpired to warrant contradiction.
Sir Gilbert Parker (1862-. . . . ) is, of course, the popular novelist,
author of The Seats of the Mighty , The Battle of the Strong , The Lane
That Had No Turning , and several more “ The’s.” He was born in
Canada and educated at Trinity College, Toronto, of which he is hon-
orary D.C.L., being also F.R.S.C. He took up residence in England,
and in 1900 was elected a member of Parliament.
The Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, P.C., M.A., LL.D.,
D.L., J.P., M.P. (1836-1908), was educated at Glasgow University and
Cambridge, and was constantly in Parliament from 1868, leader of the
Liberals in the House of Commons for some years from 1899, and filled
many offices, including Secretary to Admiralty, Chief Secretary for
Ireland, Secretary for the State of War, and finally becoming Prime
Minister in 1905.
The Rt. Hon. Sir Arthur Divett Hayter (1835-. . . . ), educated at
Oxford, P.C., M.A., J.P., D.L., M.P., served a number of years in the
army, then entered Parliament, was a Lord of the Treasury and after-
wards Financial Secretary at the War Office.
So far for the witnesses. The man whose “ double ” was seen was
Frederick Came Rasch, J.P., D.L., M.P. (1847-. . . .), a Cambridge
man who had served in the army and was then in Parliament.
Flammarion assures us that the following statement appeared in
the English newspaper Empire of May 14, 1905.®
no substantial discrepancies. In one account she speaks of there being “ a brace ” of
pistols under her father’s pillow, in the other of “ a revolver.” In one she has the
event “ a week ” after he began to sleep in the house, in the other she says it was
“ on the third night.” Perhaps other persons conversant with the facts had in the
interval between the two versions called her attention to errors; at all events they
are of little importance.
In connection with the first account, Miss Marryat wrote: “While I preserve all
the detail of these stories, I carefully hide the names of persons and places, lest by
negligence in this respect I should wound the feelings of survivors.” Hence she calls
the house “ Burnham Green,” and its occupants “ Sir Harry and Lady Bell,” explain-
ing that “ these are not the real names.” And she calls the apparition, “ The Lady of
Burnham Green.” In the later account she substitutes the true name of the house,
Raynham Hall, and the real names of the occupants, Sir Charles and Lady Towns-
hend. And she now reveals that the apparition was really called “ The Brown Lady.”
2 Le Mart et son Myslere: Autour de la Mort, by Flammarion (Paris, 1921),
54-6. Translation by W. F. P.
8 Not having access to this paper, and retranslating from Flammarion’s transla-
tion, of course my wording will somewhat vary from the original one.
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Some time before the Easter parliamentary recess, Major Sir
Carne Rasch had an attack of influenza, which brought about a dis-
ordered state of his nervous system. His condition became so grave
as to prevent attendance in the House of Commons, despite his desire
to support the Government at the evening sitting immediately preced-
ing the vacation, and which might be of serious consequence. It was
then that his friend Sir Gilbert Parker was astonished and grieved to
see him near his accustomed seat. This is how Sir Gilbert expresses it.
“ I wished to participate in the debate. My eyes fell on Sir Carne
Rasch, seated near close to his habitual place. As I knew that he had
been ill, I made him a friendly gesture and said, ‘ I hope you are better.’
But he gave me no sign of response, which surprised me much. His
countenance was very pale. He was seated, quietly supported by one
hand; his face was impassible and severe. I pondered a moment what
I had better do; when I looked in his direction again he had disap-
peared. I was sorry and immediately began to search for him, hoping
to find him in the lobby. But Rasch was not there, and no one had
seen him.”
Of course Sir Gilbert meant that no one whom he questioned had
seen him. But it appears that he was not the only one to perceive the
figure. M. Flammarion says :
In the Daily News of May 17, Sir Arthur Hayter added his testi-
mony to that of Sir Gilbert Parker. He declared that he also had seen
Sir Carne Rasch, and that, moreover, he had called the attention of Sir
Henry Bannerman to his presence.
This member of Parliament [Sir Carne Rasch] was not a little
surprised at receiving, soon after, the felicitations of his two friends,
who congratulated him on not being dead; he appalled all his family
by telling them the story of his apparition. He himself did not doubt
that he had really gone in spirit to the House, for he had been very
anxious to be present at a debate which particularly interested him.
This double was very real ; two, three witnesses saw it.
The question arises whether it was not a case of mistaken identity.
But this is a very different case from thinking one has seen a casual
acquaintance in a street when it was really some one resembling him.
The number of persons entitled to sit on the benches of the House of
Commons is limited to 670, whereas on the streets one meets unlimited
thousands. A member of Parliament meeting the same men day after
day, naturally becomes more or less familiar with their faces, whereas
in promiscuous crowds one sees, in the course of time, hosts of people
whom he never saw before and will never see again.
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Then, too, the figure identified as Sir Came Rasch was sitting close
to or near (one cannot be sure from the French translation just what
the English word of Sir Gilbert Parker was) his habitual seat. An
American might ask, “ Why not in his seat? ” if he thinks of the desks
of members of our House of Representatives. But then he remembers
that members of the House of Commons do not have individual desks,
or desks at all, but sit on long benches, several to a bench, in a par-
ticular order when all are present. But often only a part are present,
perhaps only one or two, in which case the member does not feel
obliged to sit exactly in the spot which would be his if the bench were
full. The figure identified as that of Sir Carne Rasch was sitting near
or close to what would be his precise seat if the bench were fully occu-
pied, that is, where one would expect to see him. Finally, he was not a
member casually known to Sir Gilbert, but a friend. It is therefore, all
things considered, not in the least likely that anyone else of the House
of Commons should have seated himself where Rasch would be expected
to be, and be identified by three men as Rasch. If there was such
another person, who sat there and in the least resembled Rasch, why
did he not come forward or some one else declare the fact, after the
newspaper statements were printed? Besides, we must not forget that
the figure rather unexpectedly disappeared, and Sir Gilbert, hurrying
into the vestibule, could neither find it again nor find anyone there who
had seen Rasch. If the figure was an apparition of the living, we
hardly have to explain why only three persons saw it, as it should be
well known that as a rule, when an apparition is seen by members of a
company present, the majority are not capable of seeing it.
APPARITION AL EXPERIENCES
(ELIA W. PEATTIE)
Mrs. Elia W. Peattie, of North Carolina, was important enough, as
long ago as 1893, to have her portrait and biographical sketch in “ this
rosary of nineteenth century achievement,” as Miss Frances E. Willard
and Mrs. Mary A. Livermore called their book, A Woman of the Cen-
tury. In the last Who’s Who in America , she is shown to have had a
long career as journalist, literary critic and story writer. She is
author of about fifteen books.
The lady whose name is replaced by the pseudonym “ Hester
Carey ” also appears, portrait and biographical sketch, in A Woman
of the Century. The documents which follow tell more of her. The
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NOTED WITNESSES
name “ Mrs. McKenzie ” is also a pseudonym. The true names appear
in the documents, which have not hitherto been published.
The following is the pertinent part of a letter by Mrs. Elizabeth
Higgins, of Chicago, dated March 2, 1906:
A friend has told me of a phantasm which may interest you, and she
has no objection to my telling it. She is Elia W. Peattie, a name
which is, no doubt, familiar to you, one of our best known western
novelists and quite a regular contributor to your Boston publications.
The Youth' 8 Companion and The Atlantic. Mrs. Peattie had a friend,
Hester Carey, once a brilliant writer ; but . . . [causes here assigned]
changed her from a charming woman into a hopeless wreck. She was
confined to the insane asylum at Elgin. In her lucid hours she longed
for intellectual companionship, and she would send most piteous letters
to Mrs. Peattie to visit her. Mrs. Peattie made the pilgrimage to Elgin
frequently, until she felt it an experience too harrowing for her endur-
ance. Then Mrs. Carey’s mother, Mrs. McKenzie (who was in her
grave for two years), appeared twice to Mrs. Peattie.
Mrs. Peattie, a staunch, high-church Episcopalian, is the most
normal minded woman I have ever known ; and, while of a sensitive
nature, she enjoys most robust health. When she could see a phantasm
in broad daylight, I feel it was something.
Of course, I give you Mrs. Carey’s name in confidence. The un-
happy woman is now dead ; but, for the sake of her family, her identity
must not be disclosed. She was for years a contributor to McClure's
Magazine, the author of a successful novel, and was known as “ The
Poetess of .” After the second phantasm of Mrs. McKenzie,
Mrs. Peattie secured Mrs. Carey’s release from the asylum ; she brought
her to her own home and kept her in the traces for three whole months,
about to the time of her death, I believe. Mrs. McKenzie never ap-
peared again.
Very sincerely yours,
Elizabeth Higgins.
The present editor wrote to Mrs. Peattie in Dr. Hyslop’s name,
being then his assistant, to see what she remembered of her experiences.
This is her reply, written in New York and dated May 9, 1919.
Your letter of inquiry concerning my curious experience with the
mother of my friend Hester Carey should have been answered before
this, and I beg your pardon for the delay.
Briefly, the experience was this: Mrs. McKenzie, an Irish gentle-
woman, was a prized friend of mine, and her son and daughter, Edward
McKenzie and Hester Carey, were among my most prized friends. Mrs.
Carey, like her brother, suffered a mental breakdown — both were ex-
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tremely talented, restless and unsatisfied — and was placed in the insane
asylum at Elgin, Illinois. Mrs. McKenzie was then dead. Mrs. Carey
had begged me to take her from the insane asylum, but her husband
objected. The physician in charge had written me, however, at Mrs.
Carey’s request, no doubt, saying that she had reached a stage where
deterioration would follow if she were not taken away from her sur-
roundings. I wanted to take her out, but hesitated when I knew it
might bring fresh suffering on her family. So, being much troubled
about the matter, I was one day walking along the street at noon, on
my way to do my marketing, when someone came up behind me. I did
not hear this person, but I thought some one was there trying to over-
take me — some neighbor — so I turned and saw standing before me for
an appreciable moment, dear Mrs. McKenzie with supplication in her
pleasant eyes. It was only for a second, as one might see an eidolon.
I regarded it as subjective merely, though I never had had any such
experience, and went on. Still I did not go to get Hester from the
asylum. I do not now remember how many days passed, but only a few,
when I sat working late at night in my library. I had finished at the
typewriter and was sitting before the fire for a moment before going to
bed when some one entered the room from the hall. I supposed it was
my sister who had come to see why I worked so late, and spoke to her.
I think I said : “ So you’ve come to see what I’m doing.” There was no
answer and I turned, and there again, with much more anguish and
supplication on her face, stood Mrs. McKenzie again. She moved this
time — stepped toward me a little. I arose as I naturally would at any
time if she entered the room, and she was gone. I took poor Hester out
of the asylum then. But it all ended disastrously. However, she had
her chance and that, I suppose, was what her mother wanted her
to have.
I do not know whether I believe this was a visitation or not, or only
my own impulses and distressed affections working within me. I think
the thing happened, anyway. No other such experience has come to
me, though I have the deepest of reasons now for wishing I might see
one who was the center of my life and who has gone. Sometimes — often
— I feel a sense of beautiful happiness and a response to my desire for
communion, but it is mental merely. There is no visible figure to assure
me of the presence of the dear child I have lost.
I have long been interested in your conscientious and scrupulous in-
quiry into evidences of continued life, and I hope it has brought you at
least comparative satisfaction.
Faithfully,
Elia W. Peattie.
If, as it is quite permissible to suggest, the apparition of Hester
Carey’s mother was a reflex from her own emotions — say her twinges
of conscience in regard to her neglect of her friend, she would be still
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NOTED WITNESSES
more likely to undergo another visual hallucination when her emotions
were touched more keenly, as by the death of her own child. Of course
this is no absolute criterion, as, for instance, the state of health may be
different at one period than at another. Still it is noteworthy that
Mrs. Peattie never at any other time, before or since, saw another
apparition.
From my study of cases, I do not think that the phenomenon of
seeing an apparition has any recognizable relation to states of health,
in most cases of sane people uninfluenced by drugs of any kind.
“MYSTERIOUS DISTURBANCE” AT ABBOTSFORD1
(SIR WALTER SCOTT)
Scott (1771-1832) was, of course, the most popular poet of the
English language at the period when The Lay of the Last Minstrel and
Marmion appeared, and the greatest novelist of his time, whose work
is steeped in the history and legendary lore of Scotland. He is still
eagerly read by those who can stand his fainting heroines and the book-
ish orations of his characters. Abbotsford, the house of the disturb-
ance, was a castle-like structure built by Scott at immense cost and
the cause of his bankruptcy and finally of his death, since he broke
down in the midst of herculean literary labors for the purpose of
paying his debts.
The following is from a letter by Scott to Daniel Terry, April
30,1818:
. . . The exposed state of my house has led to a mysterious dis-
turbance. The night before last we were awakened by a violent noise,
like drawing heavy boards along the new part of the house. I fancied
something had fallen, and thought no more about it. This was about
two in the morning. Last night, at the same witching hour, the very
same noise occurred. Mrs. Scott, as you know, is rather timbersome;
so up I got, with Beardie’s broadsword under my arm —
Bolt upright
And ready to fight.
But nothing was out of order, neither can I discover what occasioned
the disturbance.
[Mr. Lockhart adds:] On the morning that Mr. Terry received the
1 Life of Sir Walter Scott, by J. B. Lockhart.
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foregoing letter, in London, Mr. William Erskine was breakfasting
with him and the chief subject of their conversation was the sudden
death of George Bullock, which had occurred on the same night, and, as
nearly as they could ascertain, at the very hour when Scott was roused
from his sleep by the “ mysterious disturbance ” here described. This
coincidence, when Scott received Erskine’s minute detail of what had
happened in Tenterdon Street (that is, the death of Bullock, who had
charge of furnishing the new rooms at Abbottsford), made a much
stronger impression on his mind than might be gathered from the tone
of an ensuing communication.
It should be stated that Bullock besides being, of course, familiar
with the interior of Abbotsford, had made himself much liked by the
whole household. Scott wrote again to Terry, saying:
Were you not struck with the fantastical coincidence of our noc-
turnal disturbances at Abbottsford, with the melancholy event that
followed? I protest to you, the noise resembled half a dozen men hard
at work, putting up boards and furniture; and nothing can be more
certain than that there was nobody on the premises at the time. With
a few additional touches, the story would figure in Glanville or Aubrey’s
collection. In the meantime, you may set it down with poor Dubisson’s
warnings, as a remarkable coincidence coming under your own
observation.1
“ INSPIRATIONAL ” INCEPTION OF A GREAT NOVEL
(HARRIET BEECHER STOWE)
The Rev. Lyman Beecher and his children constituted the most
extraordinary single household that America has produced. The
Adams family surpasses the Beecher one in that members of four suc-
cessive generations rose to fame. Henry Ward Beecher was the
greatest pulpit orator of his time. Several brothers and sisters were
prominent, but Harriet (1812-1896), wife of Prof. Calvin E. Stowe,
wrote Uucle Tom's Cabin, which was translated into twenty languages,
reached a sale of two and a half million of copies, and affected the
course of American history. She wrote many other novels, of which
perhaps Old Town Folks and The Pearl of Orr's Island stand the wear
of time the best.
1 For Frank R. Stockton, see p. 184 note.
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The story of the inception of Uncle Tom's Cabin is told by C. E.
Stowe and L. B. Stowe, on pages 144-45 of their biography of Harriet
Beecher Stowe.
Mrs. Stowe was seated in her pew in the college church at Bruns-
wick during the communion service. . . . Suddenly, like the unrolling
of a picture scroll, the scene of the death of Uncle Tom seemed to pass
before her. At the same time, the words of Jesus were sounding in her
ears : “ Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my
brethren, ye have done it unto me.” It seemed as if the crucified, but
now risen and glorified Christ, were speaking to her through the poor
black man, cut and bleeding under the blows of the slave whip. She
was affected so strongly that she could scarcely keep from weeping
aloud.
That Sunday afternoon she went to her room, locked the door, and
wrote out, substantially as it appears in the published editions, the
chapter called “ The Death of Uncle Tom.” ... It seemed to her as
though what she wrote was blown through her mind as with the rushing
of a mighty wind.
The writing of this chapter of Uncle Tom's Cabin has many
analogies in authorship, ranging from the inditing of fiction, philo-
sophical or ethical matter, poetry, etc., without conscious participation
in the composition, to the same with some conscious effort, and yet such
facility that it seems as though in the main the material gushed up
from a concealed spring. At one extreme are the works of Patience
Worth , which displays genius and knowledge apparently never pos-
sessed by the automatist. At a large remove are the sheaf of remark-
able poems which Stephen Crane wrote with such strange facility, and
which ceased to come as suddenly as they had begun, and Kubla Khan,
which came to Coleridge in his sleep.
A NARRATIVE OF EVIDENTIAL PSYCHOMETRY
(JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE)
This noted writer of stories for boys (1827-1916) was the author
of Cud jo' 8 Cave, Jack Hazard's Fortunes, and about forty other vol-
umes, many of which were widely read. They included three volumes
of his poetry. He was also editor of Our Young Folks and other
periodicals.
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What follows is selected from an account sent by him to Dr. Hyslop
and printed in the Journal A. S. P. R. for November, 1909.
One of my intimate friends of those years was Benjamin P. Shil-
laber, who had gained a reputation as a general humorist by his say-
ings of “ Mrs. Partington.” 1 He was then editing the Carpet Bag , a
weekly paper, mildly comic, to which I was a contributor. He was also
interested in the mysterious communications, and we often discussed
them when we met. One day in his office he spoke to me of a friend
whose wife was developing some extraordinary mediumistic traits. This
friend was Alonzo E. Newton, editor of the Pathfinder Railroad Guide,
whose office was in the same building with the Carpet Bag. I eagerly
accepted the offer of an introduction. We found Mr. Newton correct-
ing proofs at his desk, and after a little talk about the manifestations
in his house, he invited me to call and witness them for myself. This
was in October, 1852.
I called one evening, and made acquaintance with Mrs. Newton, in
their modest home. She was petite in person, of a singularly trustful
and sympathetic nature, generously impulsive, and, like her husband,
earnestly religious. They were both members of the Edwards Congre-
gational Church, although Mr. Newton was even then penning his re-
markable letter to the Church on “ The Ministry of Angels Realized,”
giving their own private, personal experience, and adducing Scriptural
authority for the new, or rather renewed, faith; — a letter which both
signed, and which, when printed, created a considerable stir among the
members of the body to which it was addressed, and led finally to the
signers’ withdrawal from a commission that had long been the habit of
their lives, and was still dear to them. This was the first of a long
series of able writings on the same and kindred topics by which Mr.
Newton became well known to the spiritualists of America. His wife’s
mediumship was as different as possible from that which produced the
rappings and other more material manifestations. When, as we sat
together that first evening, the “ influence,” as it was called, came upon
her, her eyes closed, her features assumed a rapt expression, she drew
two or three deep breaths, in what seemed a condition of semi-trance
(although she never at such times lost consciousness) and began to
speak. The subject was their troubled relations with the Church, re-
garding which some invisible friend was giving them comfort and coun-
cil. Not invisible to her, however, for to her inward eyes the room was
full of spiritual beings, some as real to her as if they had appeared in
the flesh. The first communicant gave way to others, and some really
beautiful and inspiring things were spoken on the subject of spirit ex-
1 B. P. Shillaber (1814-1890) edited the Pathfinder and, with Charles G. Halpine,
The Carpet Bag, and at a later period, the Saturday Evening Gazette. He wrote
Rhymes with Reasons and Without, Life Sayings of Mrs. Partington, Partingtonian
Patchwork, etc.
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istence and the belief in it, — of all which I recall little but the ease and
readiness of the language, quite different from the medium’s ordinary
speech. At length she turned to me and said in a changed voice, after
a pause, — “ Your father is here.” I asked some questions, hoping for
a test, but got none, although the answers were such as my father might
have given, and her description of him was consistent with my recollec-
tion of his form and features, after a lapse of eight or nine years.
Whether these visions had any actuality, or existed in the seer’s too
weird imagination, I had no means of knowing, but I was convinced
of the purity of her intentions, and of her husband’s absolute faith
in her.
My visits to the house became frequent after this, and I had the
satisfaction of witnessing, and even in assisting in, the development of
new phases of her mediumship. She was the first person I ever knew
who had the psychometric faculty. I found her wonderfully accurate
in reading the characters of persons wholly unknown to her if some-
thing belonging to them, a lock of hair, or their handwriting, was
placed between her palms or on her forehead. It might be enclosed in
a blank envelope; for it was not necessary for her to see it, or even to
know what it was. Once I tried the experiment of enclosing letters from
three different correspondents in separate blank envelopes, shuffling
them together, so that I myself should not know one from the other,
and afterwards taking them from my pocket at random, one at a time,
and giving them to her to “ psychometrize ” — a newly coined word that
was called into Active service in those days. From two of these, she
received only a confused impression, perhaps in consequence of their
juxtaposition for an hour or more in my pocket; but of the third she
said, “ The magnetism of this is strong enough to overcome anything !
The writer is a man, and in force and energy a perfect steam engine ! ”
She then went on to describe with marvelous discrimination one of my
intimate friends, Charles Graham Halpine, poet and journalist, later
well known as the writer of the “ Private Miles O’Reilly ” Adventures
and Letters, and Adjutant General in our Civil War. It was a note
from him that was in the envelope.
Psychometry of this kind may be only a faculty of the mind, and
have nothing to do necessarily with departed spirits, but that it was not
so in her case I had what seemed ample evidence. Ofter in reading char-
acters in this way she would have visions of spirits that were giving her
impressions, and sometimes describe the departed friends or relatives of
the writers of the letters. Once I placed on her forehead a letter from
my sister, Mrs. Fidelia Phelps, of Lockport, N. Y. After holding it
there for a moment, she said, “How many sisters have you?” I re-
plied, “ Four.” “ This letter,” she went on, “ was written by one of
them.” I asked, “ Which one? ” After some hesitation, she replied,
“ Not the one who wrote the letter you gave me the other day ” (which
was a letter from my oldest sister, living in Illinois), “ nor the youngest.
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Some one says, ‘ second, second;’ is it your second sister? ” “ Go on
and describe her,” I said ; and she continued : “ She has black hair —
dark eyes — there is something peculiar about them — she has some
trouble in her eyes.” After much more, which was perfectly accurate,
as to the personal appearance and character of my second sister, she
said that a child, a boy about twelve years old, was present, who called
the writer of the letter “ Mother.” That seemed the only positive
error, while everything else that had been said was correct, some of it
even surprisingly correct. I remarked, “ My sister never had such a
child.” The medium seemed troubled for a few moments, then replied,
“ He insists that he is the son of the sister who wrote this letter, and
that he had been several years in the spirit world. Your father and
other relatives are here with him.”
Before I slept that night I wrote to my sister, relating the circum-
stances of the interview, even to the last apparent error ; and in a few
days received from her this explanation. She had had, about twelve
years before, a son that died at birth, an event of which I, an absent
young brother, had, naturally enough, not been informed.
That many of Mrs. Newton’s visions were merely pictures presented
to her mind or created by her own imagination, was quite certain. She
herself was aware of the distinction, but insisted that the pictures were
“ impressions ” given to her by spirit visitants, and that her own con-
scious volition had nothing to do with them. They were generally sym-
bolic of some truth or some lesson to be conveyed, and were often
highly poetic, even prophetic. When in writing the novel Martin Mer-
rivale , I endowed the blind girl Alice with this faculty of pictorial
vision, it was no fictitious fancy, but a psychological reality, attributed
to the fictitious character.
In the latter part of June, 1853, I had planned a trip to the White
Mountains in company with Dr. Harris, a dentist of Worcester. Hav-
ing received from him what I supposed was a final letter on the subject,
I handed it to Mrs. Newton. She passed into her usual state of semi-
trance, and said presently, — “ You will not take that trip with Dr.
Harris.”
To my remark that the arrangements were made, and could not
well be changed, she answered emphatically:
“ You will not take the trip with him. They say so. They do not
explain why. But — ” she gave a shudder — “ I see a strange thing ! ”
It was some seconds before she added — “ A horrible thing! a man hang-
ing by the neck.”
I asked what that had to do with it. “ I don’t know,” she replied,
“ but it is somehow in the way of your taking the trip.” And she re-
peated very positively, “ You will not go to the mountains with Dr.
Harris.”
As some of her visions seemed to have no special significance, 1
concluded that this was one of them, but I was impressed by it, as it
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threatened an interruption of my plans. Two or three days after-
wards I saw in the Boston Post this item :
“ Dr. Post, a dentist of Willimantic, Conn., has committed suicide
by hanging himself to a bedpost.” The coincidence of the words
“ Boston Post,” “ Dr. Post,” and “ bedpost,” served to fix the item in
my mind, although I was far from connecting it with Mrs. Newton’s
vision. The date of the suicide was not given, and I did not afterwards
take the trouble to ascertain it, which seems now unaccountable negli-
gence on my part, for upon that depends the question whether the vision
was altogether prophetic, or merely, in the ordinary sense, clairvoyant.
My impression had always been that the vision was received before the
incident took place; and I am aware how immensely the interest of the
incident would be enhanced if this point could be established. It may
seem strange that I did not make careful investigations of such matters
to their minutest details ; but they had become too common in my ex-
perience to be considered worth taking trouble about, and I had no
thought of ever making use of them in the future.
It was still some days after the item appeared in the Post, that I
received a letter from Dr. Harris, saying: “ I find I shall not be able
to take the White Mountains trip with you, for the reason that my
assistant there, whom I expected to leave in charge of the office during
my absence, has been called to Willimantic, to take the place of Dr.
Post, who lately committed suicide.”
We did not make the trip. Whether the suicide antedated the
vision or not, the prediction of a circumstance concerning me, that
came to pass in this roundabout way, was sufficiently curious.
Some of the best of Mrs. Newton’s perceptions had a prophetic
character, unless we are to regard them as extraordinary coincidences;
and they continued of not infrequent occurrence during many years.
She now became a public medium, but she was always ready, even too
ready, to “ sit ” for her friends, and for others whom her husband’s
reputation as a writer brought to the house ; and I was more than once
present when she gave astonishing “ tests ” to persons she had never
seen before. I will give one more instance of her vaticinal faculty,
although it belongs to a period later than those I have described.
Being present one evening when she was “ under the influence,” she
saw around my head something like a halo of the saint. I questioned
the appropriateness of this ; when she proceeded : “ It is not a halo ; it
is more like a planetary ring — one of the rings thrown off from the sun
in the formation of the planets.” After a pause, she continued: “ Now
it is no longer a ring, but it all breaks up and comes together in a
single mass ; and there is another ring forming.” So she described the
evolution of four or five rings, one after another, each in turn condens-
ing into a planet. There were certainly four, but she was not quite
sure of the fifth. To my question as to the meaning of it all, she
replied :
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“ Your mind is the sun, and they are a series of books you are to
write, all connected, belonging to one system. The first will be written
very soon, and the others will follow.” I had not in mind the writing of
any such books, or of any book at all, at that time. But, very soon
after, I was called upon, most unexpectedly, to write a serial story for
Our Young Folks (a magazine that I was then editing) which satisfied
readers and publishers so well that I followed it with a sequel, and that
with another and so on, until I had written for Our Young Folks and
St. Nicholas five serial stories, each complete in itself, but all having
“ Jack Hazzard ” for the principal character. The apparent verifica-
tion of the prophecy may, of course, have been merely coincidental;
but it was a pleasing fancy that the ring, in each case, corresponded
with the serial publication running through the year, and that the
“ planet ” was the volume into which the twelve numbers were duly
gathered at the end.
Is there, then, a wisdom of the spirit, or are there invisible beings
surrounding and prompting us, that “ can look into the seeds of time
and say what grain is good? ” Or is it all illusion? . . .
Question the mysterious agency behind all the diverse forms of
what are called spiritualism, who or what it is, and the answer never
comes “ Magnetism,” “ Thought-transference,” “ Subliminal conscious-
ness,” nor anything of that sort, but always and invariably, “ We are
spirits.” If aught else, why does it not sometimes say so? Why will
it not listen to argument, and admit that it has hitherto mistaken its
own identity?
A CLERGYMAN’S WORK AIDED BY TELEPATHY
(“ IAN MACLAREN ”)
The Rev. John Watson (1850-1907) was graduated and became
M.A. from Edinburgh University and received D.D. from St. Andrews
and Yale. He was long Minister of Sefton Park Presbyterian Church
in Liverpool, England. He wrote several religious books. But it is as
a writer of Scotch dialect stories, under the nom de plume Ian Mac-
laren, that he became famous. Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush , Kate
Carnegie, A Doctor of the Old School and The Days of Auld Lang
Syne are among those most widely read.
Dr. Watson was the subject of many experiences of the type usually
regarded, and by him regarded, as telepathic. He called the power
which he seemed to have to become conscious of events taking place at
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NOTED WITNESSES
a distance “ Christian Telepathy,” because of his belief that it sprang
from the fellowship existing among the brotherhood that is centered in
Christ. And this would be very well if it could be shown that only
members of that brotherhood ever have similar experiences. His nar-
rative is found in The Sunday Magazine , London, August issue of 1897.
During the course of my ministry, and especially of recent years, I
have been moved to certain actions for which there seemed no reason,
and which I only performed under the influence of a sudden impulse.
As often as I yielded to this inward guidance, and before the issue was
determined, my mind had a sense of relief and satisfaction, and in all
distinct and important cases my course was in the end most fully justi-
fied. With the afterlook one is most thankful that on certain occasions
he was not disobedient to the touch of the unseen, and only bitterly
regrets that on other occasions he was callous and wilful or was over-
come by shame and timidity. What seem just and temperate inferences
from 6uch experiences will be indicated after they have been described,
and it only remains for me to assure my readers that they are selected
from carefully treasured memories, and will be given in as full and
accurate detail as may be possible in circumstances which involve other
people and one’s own private life.
It was my privilege, before I came to Sefton Park Church, to serve
as colleague with a venerable minister to whom I was sincerely attached
and who showed me much kindness. We both felt the separation keenly
and kept up a constant correspondence, while this good and affection-
ate man followed my work with spiritual interest and constant prayer.
When news came one day that he was dangerously ill it was natural
that his friend should be gravely concerned, and as the days of anxiety
grew that the matter should take firm hold of the mind. It was a great
relief to learn, towards the end of a week, that the sickness had abated,
and when, on Sunday morning, a letter came with strong and final
assurance of recovery the strain was quite relaxed, and I did my duty
at morning service with a light heart. During the afternoon my satis-
faction began to fail, and I grew uneasy till, by evening service, the
letter of the morning counted for nothing. After returning home my
mind was torn with anxiety and became most miserable, fearing that
this good man was still in danger and, it might be, near unto death.
Gradually the conviction deepened and took hold of me that he was
dying and that I would never see him again, till at last it was laid on
me that if I hoped to receive his blessing I must make haste, and by-
and-by that I had better go at once. It did not seem as if I had now
any choice, and I certainly had no longer any doubt, so, having writ-
ten to break two engagements for Monday, I left at midnight for Glas-
gow. As one whirled through the darkness it certainly did occur to
him that he had done an unusual thing, for here was a fairly busy man
leaving his work and going a long night’s journey to visit a sick friend,
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of whose well-being he had been assured on good authority. By every
evidence which could tell on another person he was acting foolishly, and
yet he was obeying an almost irresistible impulse. The day broke as
we climbed the ascent beyond Moffat, and I was now only concerned
lest time should be lost on the way. On arrival I drove rapidly to the
well-known house, and was in no way astonished that the servant, who
opened the door, should be weeping bitterly, for the fact that word had
come from that very house that all was going well did not now weigh
one grain against my own inward knowledge.
“ He had a relapse yesterday afternoon, and he is . . . dying
now.” No one in the room seemed surprised that I should have come,
although they had not sent for me, and I held my reverend father’s
hand till he fell asleep in about twenty minutes. He was beyond speech
when I came, but, as we believed, recognized me and was content. My
night’s journey was a pious act, for which I thanked God and my abso-
lute conviction is that I was guided to its performance by spiritual
influence.
Some years ago I was at work one forenoon in my study, and was
very busy, when my mind became distracted and I could not think out
my sermon. It was as if a side stream had rushed into a river, confus-
ing and discoloring the water; and at last, when the confusion was
over and the water was clear, I was conscious of a new subject. Some
short time before a brother minister, whom I knew well and greatly re-
spected, had suffered some dissension in his congregation and had
received our sincere sympathy. He had not, however, been in my mind
that day, but now I found myself unable to think of anything else. My
imagination began to work in the case till I seemed, in the midst of the
circumstances, as if I were the sufferer. Very soon a suggestion arose
and grew into a commandment, that I should offer to take a day’s duty
for my brother. At this point I pulled myself together and resisted
what seemed a vagrant notion. “ Was such a thing ever heard of —
that for no reason save a vague sympathy one should leave his own
pulpit and undertake another’s work, who had not asked him and might
not want him? ” So one turned to his manuscript to complete a broken
sentence, but could only write “ Dear A. B.” Nothing remained but to
submit to this mysterious dictation and compose a letter as best one
could, till the question of date arose. There I paused and waited, when
an exact day came up before my mind, and so I concluded the letter.
It was, however, too absurd to send ; and so, having rid myself of this
irrelevancy, I threw the letter into the fire and set to work again ; but
all day I was haunted by the idea that my brother needed my help. In
the evening a letter came from him, written that very forenoon, explain-
ing that it would be a great service to him and his people if I could
preach some Sunday soon in his church, and that, owing to certain cir-
cumstances, the service would be doubled if I could come on such and
such a day ; and it was my date ! My course was perfectly plain, and I
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NOTED WITNESSES
at once accepted his invitation under a distinct sense of a special call,
and my only regret was that I had not posted my first letter.
One afternoon, to take my third instance, I made up my list of sick
visits and started to overtake them. After completing the first, and
while going along a main road, I felt a strong impulse to turn down a
side street and call on a family living in it. The impulse grew so urgent
that it could not be resisted, and I rang the bell, considering on the
doorstep what reason I should give for an unexpected call. When the
door opened it turned out that strangers now occupied the house, and
that my family had gone to another address, which was in the same
street but could not be given. This was enough, it might appear, to
turn one from aimless visiting, but still the pressure continued as if a
hand were drawing one and I set out to discover their new house, till I
had disturbed four families with vain inquiries. Then the remembrance
of my unmade and imperative calls came upon me, and I abandoned my
fruitless quest with some sense of shame. Had a busy clergyman not
enough to do without such a wild-goose chase? — and one grudged the
time he had lost.
Next morning the head of that household I had yesterday sought in
vain came into my study with such evident sorrow on his face that one
hastened to meet him with anxious inquiries. “ Yes, we are in great
trouble; yesterday our little one (a young baby) took very ill and died
in the afternoon. My wife was utterly overcome by the shock, and we
would have sent for you at the time, but had no messenger. I wish you
had been there — if you had only known ! ”
“ And the time? ”
“ About half-past three.”
So I had known, but had been too impatient.
Many other cases have occurred when it has been laid on me to call
at a certain house, where there seemed so little reason that I used to
invent excuses, and where I found some one especially needing advice
and comfort, or I called and had no courage to lead up to the matter,
so that the call was of no avail and afterwards some one has asked
whether I knew, for she had waited for a word. Nor do I remember
any case where, being inwardly moved to go after this fashion, it ap-
peared in the end that I had been fooled.
The experiences of Dr. Watson, whose veracity was beyond ques-
tion, seemed to offer a rich mine, and certain English Psychical Re-
searchers asked to be permitted to bring a little more of the ore to light,
and so to test it that none could doubt its quality. But this was the
reply, evidently written by the distinguished writer’s secretary or min-
isterial assistant:
18, Sefton Drive, Liverpool: 18. 10. ’97.
Dear Sir:
In reply to your letter of the 16th inst., I am directed by Mr. Wat-
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son to say that he has not the time to enter into the cases you mention
and furthermore that as many of them occurred in his pastoral work
he is thereby precluded from giving names and particulars.
Yours faithfully,
W. R. Colville.
“ Many other cases,” similar to the three which Dr. Watson related
occurred in his experience, it appears, and, so far as is known, these
perished with him. He believed that his God had given him many
proofs of His providence which would appeal to man with peculiar
force, but they were too sacred to be made use of, except three, and
these must not be more particularly inquired into. What harm could
have resulted to the memory of the “ venerable minister ” had his sons
and daughters, or other surviving kindred, given their corroborating
recollections of the unexpected visit, does not appear. Why the minis-
terial friend should have been unwilling to state simply that he well
remembered that Dr. Watson told him at the time about the letter that
he wrote and threw into the fire, is not evident, especially as his name
would have been concealed if he was a sensitive plant. There is nothing
disgraceful in having suffered the loss of a child, so why could not the
father and mother have been interrogated as to their recollections of
the third incident? Cornelius was for a time included in “ the pastoral
work ” of St. Peter, but the latter was, fortunately, neither too busy
nor too squeamish to tell of his case of “ Christian telepathy ” which
concerned the Roman centurion. Do clergymen consider that the New
Testament would have been improved had the various witnesses to
supernormal phenomena refused to give names or other data which
enabled anyone at the time to test their statements if he so desired?
Only recently a distinguished American clergyman so far forgot himself
as to refer in public to what he believed were visitations of his deceased
wife. Encouraged to give the facts in full to the American Society for
Psychical Research, and thus permit them to be of the greatest benefit,
he expressed his regret that, although he entertained a hearty respect
for the work of the Society, he “ could not bring himself ” to accede to
its desire, since he shrank from exposing such sacred incidents to pub-
licity. And promptly thereafter he accorded a long interview to a
reporter, added much striking and valuable matter which filled two
columns and went all over the United States ! It is strange that so
many are not unwilling to tell their experiences to the newspapers,
which send them forth for their sensational character, but become
sensitive and reticent the moment that an intelligent use is to be made
of them for the benefit of science.
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THE “ GHOST ” OF LEW TRENCHARD 1
(SABINE BARING-GOULD)
Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was B.A. and M.A. of Cambridge and
became a clergyman of the Church of England. He inherited a famous
old manor-house, “ Lew Trenchard,” with 3,000 acres of land. He was
an exceedingly prolific writer, the list of his publications in Who's Who
running to nearly eighty titles. These consisted of sermons and other
religious books, history, mythology and legendary lore, fiction, fairy
tales, poetry, etc. If he took any interest in psychical research, he
gave no token of the fact, either by joining the S. P. R. or contributing
anything to its publications.
My mother has often told me how she heard the steps at night, as
though proceeding from high-heeled shoes, walking slowly along the
corridor; and, thinking it might be my father coming to bed, she has
opened the door to admit him, but on looking out she has seen the light
through the windows illuminating the gallery down which she heard the
measured tread, but could discern no person. On one occasion she fol-
lowed these steps. They led into a room at the western extremity,
which is now the boudoir, but [she] saw no one.
My sister frequently expressed her desire to hear the steps of the
spectral lady, and was disappointed though she sat up on purpose.
One summer night, however, she was sitting in her room, with window
and door open, writing a letter, and thinking of anything but the Old
Madam, when she heard steps along the corridor. At the moment she
thought it must be my father, and she rose, took up her candle and
went to the door to speak to him, as she supposed he would scold her
for sitting up so late. To her surprise she saw no one, but the steps
passed by her, and went on into the lumber-room, now the boudoir.
Being a resolute and courageous young lady, she followed the sound
into the room, but could see no one. She also opened the only other
door beyond her own and which gave admittance to one of the servant’s
apartments, to ascertain if the noise could have proceeded thence; but
found the two maids fast asleep.2
1 Early Reminiscences, by S. Baring-Gould. 158 ff.
2 In the Journal A. S. P. R., February, 1919, are letters by the noted writer of
stories, Frank R. Stockton (1834-1902) and his sister Louise Stockton, also a profes-
184
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Rats — that is my explanation of the tread along the gallery.
Barbara [a daughter of the writer], now Mrs. L. F. Barnard, used
to say as a child that she often saw a lady in blue, who would visit the
nursery, stoop over her, look at her, and sometimes sit beside her bed.
When Diana [another daughter], now Mrs. H. M. Batten, was
dangerously ill, we had a trained nurse to attend her. One night the
nurse had dozed off, when a tap came at the door, and a female voice
said : “ It is time for her to have her medicine.” The nurse started up,
ran to the door and opened it. No one was there, and my wife had not
gone to warn the nurse. Another servant, doubtless.
When little Beatrice was ill cutting teeth and with whooping-cough,
I did not think that the nurse-girl was sufficiently alert to attend to
her, and so advised my wife to go into the bed-room, and sleep with
Beatrice. I was then in the room in which Old Madam died, above the
drawing-room. I was awoke about the middle of the night by my wife,
who came in and said : “ I cannot sleep, I hear people tramping, carry-
ing something down the stairs.” I sat up and argued with her. It was
a windy night, and the noise might be caused by the gale. As I was
speaking there came three strokes as if made by a clenched fist against
the partition between the bed-room and the dressing-room.
“ It is only the starting of the timber,” said I, and I induced my
wife to go back to her bed.
Next day, so little did we think that Beatrice was in a serious con-
dition, that we went off to make a call in Launceston. On our return I
was sitting in the drawing-room, and my wife had fetched the child, who
was dressed, and took her down to the library. I heard a cry, and ran
in and found that the child had died on her mother’s knees. Her coffin
sional writer, respecting mysterious sounds heard in the residence of the latter. Miss
Stockton testified : “ They were always heard in the room above the one in which we
happened to be sitting, and consisted of an apparently firm, yet not noisy footstep,
such a sound as might be made by a man wearing slippers. It was distinct and regu-
lar, but not ‘ aggressive.’ Then, very often would oome a sudden noise as if the
ghost had kicked his slipper off, and all would be quiet. He would also go up and
down stairs, but he much preferred the level floor.” Frank Stockton spent several
weeks in the house and heard nothing, but they were discussed in his presence, and
his wife heard them a few times. A Dr. Allen went to the house twice to hear the
“ ghost,” but was not successful. “ His wife was more fortunate, but she simply
heard the footsteps.” Miss Stockton says that she always “ doubted a supernatural
origin for these noises,” but “ the footsteps were certainly very curious, and we were
never able to detect their origin.”
If the impression that the sound was above whatever particular room the auditors
happened to be in was not an illusory one, the case is certainly “ very curious.” But
the account is too brief and too lacking in information in regard to investigation to
allow the formation of an opinion.
See Proceedings S. P. R., V, 476-485, for a careful account by the British general,
J. D. Campbell, of rapping and other phenomena witnessed by himself and others
in his house, occurring during a period of twenty months, and beginning about five
weeks after his wife’s death. These consisted of raps, rattling sounds, loud crashes
on the wall of the house, bell-ringing, etc. A child visitor who had never seen Mrs.
Campbell nor any likeness of her twice saw an apparition strongly suggesting her,
especially in regard to the clothing worn.
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was carried down the staircase, as my wife had heard on the night
before her death.
In 1918, the last year of the war, my youngest daughter, Mrs.
Calmady-Hamlyn, with her two children and a couple of nurses, came
to live with me at Lew, as her husband was in Palestine and Syria.
Both nurses gave notice. They had been frightened by seeing a female
form at night walking in the nursery, and stooping over the beds of the
children. After that she engaged a superior Swiss nurse, who saw
nothing — not being able to hear the tales of the revenant told by the
other domestics. . . .
In 1877, a friend of mine, Mr. Keeling, a solicitor at Colchester,
was staying with me at Lew. He was sitting one evening in the settle,
and I in the arm-chair opposite him, in the hall. It was night and late.
All at once we heard a sound as of steps issuing from the door into
what is now the ballroom, behind the settle, walking the length of the
hall, with a dragging sound as of a trailing silk or satin dress. We
both heard it. Keeling sprang to his feet and exclaimed : “ Good God !
what is that? ” I remained standing, for I also had risen, and thinking
that possibly a drift of rain had swept the window, I ran to the door,
opened it and looked out at the pavement before the window; it was
perfectly dry.
Mr. Baring-Gould, after telling his sister’s experience, ejaculates —
I suspect as an after-thought in defense of his reputation — “ Rats —
that is my explanation of the steps along the gallery.”
The “ rats,” it should be observed, took the same course when the
sister followed them as when the mother followed the sounds, that is,
along the corridor (“ gallery,” or hallway, as we say in America), and
then into (or, ex hypothesi, under) the lumber-room. In passing, I re-
mark that unless capering about in one spot that holds something of
interest to them, the rats of my acquaintance, unless they are proceed-
ing noiselessly, scamper fast, and if they are bound for a particular
destination it is rather hard to keep up with them. However that may
be, the larger species of mus known to science, whether distinguished as
decumanus, rattus , or alexandrinus, are not characterized by a “ meas-
ured tread ” resembling that of a human being in “ high-heeled shoes.”
It would require great susceptibility to experience, by auto-suggestion,
an illusion so far from the exciting cause. It is quite possible that
some people are capable of sufficient susceptibility, but if the sister was
one of these, it is very odd that she heard nothing of the kind but once,
in spite of her perseverance, and then experienced the illusion so pro-
foundly. Possibly it was not one rat which on that night was seized by
a desire to visit a long-deserted part of the house, but a small army,
walking in goose-step !
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It is to be noticed that Mr. Baring-Gould does not suggest rats for
the night when his wife heard “ people tramping, carrying something
down-stairs,” the night preceding the day when his girl died, after
which her coffin was carried down those stairs. Nor does he suggest
rats for the night when he himself, together with the solicitor, “ heard
a sound as of steps . . . walking the length of the hall, with a drag-
ging sound as of a trailing silk or satin dress.” He wisely ran to see
if rain sweeping the window could have caused the illusion of footsteps
originating from a particular door and proceeding the length of the
hall, etc., but found it a fair night, and has no more to say. Well, if
rats and wind and rain did not cause the sound of walking the length
of a hall which he heard, probably, all things considered, none of these
caused the similar phenomenon as experienced separately by his mother
and sister.
We may put aside the testimony of the little girl, as very likely
based on dreams caused by the gossip she had heard. And, much less
confidently, we may discount the apparitional experiences of the two
maids who left in alarm, very possibly due to the same cause, although
Mr. Baring-Gould seems to have no knowledge that they had actually
heard about Old Madam (I do not quote the stories of apparitions
supposed to represent her, told by several persons outside of the fam-
ily). The fact that the Swiss nurse heard no gossip may account for
her seeing no apparition, or it may as well be that she did not have the
“ psychic ” capacity to see one had she heard the whole story of the
“ haunting.”
Although Mr. Baring-Gould suggests explanations for most of the
experiences of others in connection with Lew Trenchard, he does not
appear to think of any plausible explanation for experiences which
he shared.1
APPARITION OF PERSON SEEN AT THE TIME OF
HIS DEATH 2
(SABINE BARING-GOULD, GUARANTOR)
On January 3, 1840, at night, my mother was sitting reading her
Bible in the dining-room at Bratton, when, looking up, she saw, on the
further side of the table, the form of her brother, Henry, who was in
1 Mr. Baring-Gould relates several other psychic incidents for which there is
not space.
-Early Reminiscences, by S. Baring-Gould (London, no date, but after 1911), 24.
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NOTED WITNESSES
the Navy serving in the South Atlantic. She looked steadily at him,
and there was a kindly expression in his face ; but presently the appari-
tion faded. She has told me that she realized at once what this meant,
and she made an entry in pencil on a fly-leaf at the end of the Bible.
“ Saw Henry, January 3, 1840.” It was not till over a month that the
news reached Exeter that he had died on that very day off Ascension.
His brother, Commander Francis Godolphin Bond, died at sea near St.
Helena, July 16, 1840. I never heard my mother say that she had seen
an apparition of this brother.
If anyone suspected, as Professor Royce afterwards theorized re-
garding such cases generally, that when Mrs. Baring-Gould heard of
her brother’s death she experienced a sudden illusion that she had seen
his apparition on the day it occurred, there was the entry which she
made in her Bible at the time to answer him.
WHAT THE WRITER’S FATHER HEARD AND SAW 1
(SABINE BARING-GOULD, GUARANTOR)
Again it is Mr. Baring-Gould, the writer, who is telling us, this time
what he heard from his father’s lips the morning after the latter had
his experience. It is another incident of the Lew Trenchard house.
One night [1851] my father was startled. He had left the smoking-
room, so as to go to bed. This smoking-room was on the ground floor.
To his astonishment he heard a heavy step proceeding to the great
staircase and ascend it, step by step, leisurely. He saw the green baize
door at the head of the stairs swing open, and heard the step pass along
the gallery beyond.
No man could be less superstitious and more unimaginative than
my father. He told us his experience next morning at breakfast and
added that he could in no way explain what he had seen and heard.
AN UNUSUAL PSYCHIC STATE 2
(EDWARD WILLIAM BOK)
Mr. Bok (1863-. . . . ) came from Holland to America when a small
boy. He was successively with Henry Holt & Co. and Charles Scrib-
ner’s Sons, editor of The Brooklyn Magazine, and head of the Bok
1 Early Reminiscences, by S. Baring-Gould, 205-06.
2 Twice Thirty, by E. W. Bok (N. Y., 1925), 297-8.
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Syndicate Press. Then he became editor of The Ladies' Home Journal ,
and so continued for thirty years, making it one of the most successful
publications in America. He is author of a number of books, of which
The Americanization of Edward Bok and Twice Thirty are probably
the best known.
I was at a large luncheon of publishers and editors at my father-in-
law’s house. (Cyrus H. Curtis, publisher Saturday Evening Post and
other periodicals, is my father-in-law.) An editor sitting at my right
leaned over to a publisher sitting at my left and suggested that the
latter explain to me a question of editorial ethics which they had dis-
cussed previous to the luncheon and upon which they had failed to
agree.
The publisher began his story, when suddenly there appeared before
me as plainly as if she were in the flesh my wife’s mother, who had
passed away two years before. It was just such a gathering as she
would have enjoyed, and, radiant in smiles, she began a series of ques-
tions to which I gave answer, and began describing her state of won-
derful happiness. The next thing I knew I felt a hand on my shoulders
and I heard: “ Well, how about it? ” and I discovered editor and pub-
lisher looking at me.
I experienced the severest mental reaction as I readjusted myself
to my surroundings, and I could only stammer, “ How about it? How
about what ? ” I recalled then that I had been supposed to have listened
to the question under argument. I felt sensibly dazed at the sudden
transmigration of self that had occurred, and need hardly add that my
friends were so with what they called my “ preoccupation.”
I apologized and pleaded a period of abstraction.
“ You just didn’t seem to be here,” said the editor.
That was true. I had not been there. But where had I been? I
learned afterward that the publisher’s explanation lasted fully five
minutes !
PREMONITORY DREAM OF HIS BROTHER’S DEATH 1
(** MARK TWAIN ”)
Samuel Langhome Clemens (1835-1910) was perhaps the greatest
humorist of the latter part of the nineteenth century, author of Inno-
cents Abroad , Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Tramp Abroad, The
Prince and the Pauper, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Joan of Arc,
and many other books. But he had plenty of capacity for serious
reflection, and as early as 1880 wrote an article on what he called
1 Mark Twain, by Albert Bigelow Paine, I, 131, 137-139.
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“ mental telegraphy,” recounting what he regarded as telepathic ex-
periences of his own. From about 1886 to 1903 he was a member of
the S. P. R. I should not pick him as a critical observer and reporter
of a sitting for physical or any other kind of mediumship. But that
he could ever forget the essentials of an experience which affected his
personal life so deeply as the following, is not likely. At any rate, this
is his solemn testimony given to his biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine.
Henry Clemens was about twenty at this time, a handsome, attrac-
tive boy of whom his brother was lavishly fond and proud. He did go
on the next trip and continued to go regularly after that, as third clerk
in line of promotion. It was a bright spot in those hard days with
Brown to have Henry along. The boys spent a good deal of their
leisure with the other pilot, George Ealer, who “ was as kind-hearted as
Brown wasn’t,” and quoted Shakespeare and Goldsmith, and played
the flute to his fascinated and inspiring audience. These were things
worth while. The young steersman could not guess that the shadow
of a long sorrow was even then stretching across the path ahead.
Yet in due time he received a warning, a remarkable and impressive
warning, though of a kind seldom heeded. One night, when the Penn-
sylvania lay in St. Louis, he slept at his sister’s house and had this
vivid dream:
He saw Henry, a corpse, lying in a metallic burial case in the
sitting-room, supported on two chairs. On his breast lay a bouquet of
flowers, white, with a single crimson bloom in the center.
When he awoke, it was morning, but the dream was so vivid that he
believed it real. Perhaps something of the old hypnotic condition was
upon him, but he rose and dressed, thinking he would go in and look at
his dead brother. Instead, he went out on the street in the early morn-
ing and had walked to the middle of the block before it suddenly flashed
upon him that it was only a dream. He bounded back, rushed to the
sitting-room, and felt a great trembling revulsion of joy when he found
it really empty. He told Pamela the dream, then put it out of his
mind as quickly as he could. . . .
Brown swore that he would leave the boat at New Orleans if Sam
Clemens remained on it, and Captain Klinefelter told Brown to go.
Then when another pilot could not be obtained to fill his place, the
captain offered to let Clemens himself run the daylight watches, thus
showing his confidence in the knowledge of the young steersman, who
had been only a little more than a year at the wheel. But Clemens
himself had less confidence and advised the captain to keep Brown back
to St. Louis. He would follow up the river by another boat and resume
his place as steersman when Brown was gone. Without knowing it he
may have saved his life by the decision.
It is doubtful if he remembered his recent disturbing dream, though
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some foreboding would seem to have clung over him the night before the
Pennsylvania sailed. Henry liked to join in the night watches on the
levee when he had finished his duties, and the brothers often walked the
round chatting together. On this particular night the elder spoke of
disaster on the river. Finally he said :
“ In case of accident, whatever you do, don’t lose your head — the
passengers will do that. Rush for the hurricane deck and to the life-
boat, and obey the mate’s orders. When the boat is launched, help the
women and children into it. Don’t get in yourself. The river is only a
mile wide. You can swim ashore easily enough.”
It was good manly advice but it yielded a long harvest of sorrow.
Captain Klinefelter obtained his steersman a pass on the A. T.
Lacey , which left two days behind the Pennsylvania. This was pleas-
ant, for Bart Bowen had become captain of that boat. The Lacey
touched at Greenville, Mississippi, and a voice from the landing
shouted :
“ The Pennsylvania is blown up just below Memphis, at Ship
Island ! One hundred and fifty lives lost ! ”
Nothing further could be learned there, but that evening at Napo-
leon a Memphis extra reported some of the particulars. Henry Clem-
en’s name was mentioned as one of those who had escaped injury. Still
farther up the river they got a later extra. Henry was again men-
tioned; this time as being scalded beyond recovery. By the time they
reached Memphis they knew most of the details: At six o’clock that
warm mid-June morning, while loading wood from a large flat-boat
sixty miles below Memphis, four out of eight of the Pennsylvania's
boilers had suddenly exploded with fearful results. All the forward
end of the boat had been blown out. Many persons had been killed
outright ; many more had been scalded and crippled and would die. It
was one of those hopeless, wholesale steamboat slaughters which for
more than a generation had made the Mississippi a river of death
and tears.
. . . He saw the boy taken to the dead room, then the long strain
of grief, the days and nights without sleep, the ghastly realization of
the end overcame him. A citizen of Memphis took him away in a kind
of daze and gave him a bed in his house, where he fell into stupor of
fatigue and surrender. It was many hours before he woke; when he
did, at last, he dressed and went to where Henry lay. The coffins pro-
vided for the dead were of unpainted wood, but the youth and striking
face of Henry Clemens had aroused a special interest. The ladies of
Memphis had made up a fund of sixty dollars and bought for him a
metallic case. Samuel Clemens, entering, saw his brother lying exactly
as he had seen him in his dream, lacking only the bouquet of white
flowers with its crimson center — a detail made complete while he stood
there, for at that moment an elderly lady came in with a large white
bouquet and in the center of it was a single red rose.
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THE “ COLD CURRENT OF AIR ” 1
(** MARK TWAIN ”)
“ Poor little Jean,” 2 3 he said ; “ but for her it is so good to go.”
In his own story of it he wrote:
“ From my windows I saw the hearse and the carriages wind along
the road and gradually grow vague and spectral in the falling snow,
and presently disappear. Jean was gone out of my life, and would not
come back any more. The cousin she had played with when they were
babies together — he and her beloved old Katie — were conducting her
to distant childhood home, where she will lie by her mother’s side once
more, in the Company of Susie and Langdon.”
He did not come down to dinner, and when I [Paine] went up after-
ward I found him curiously agitated. He said :
“ For one who does not believe in spirits I have had a most peculiar
experience. I went in to the bath-room just now and closed the door.
You know how warm it always is in there, and there are no draughts.
All at once I felt a cold current of air about me. I thought the door
must be open ; but it was closed. I said, ‘ Jean, is this you, trying to let
me know you have found the others P ’ Then the air was gone.”
I saw that the incident had made a very great impression upon him ;
but I don’t remember that he ever mentioned it afterward.
Jean was found dead in the bath-tub, whether in the same bath-
room or not is not stated.
THE “ NECROMANCY ” OF THE COUNT DE FOIX 8
(JEAN FROISSART)
Sir John Froissart (1338-1410?) was the famous author of the
Chronicle », which “ present a vivid and faithful drawing of the things
done in the fourteenth century. No more graphic account exists of
any age.” 4 Born in France, at the age of eighteen he went to England,
provided with a letter of introduction to Queen Philippa, and she was
his patroness for years until her death. For a time Froissart was
secretary to King John of France. But much of his life he spent
1 Paine’s Mark Twain, III, 1550-51.
2 This was a daughter of Mark Twain.
3 Chronicles, by Sir John Froissart.
4 Sir Walter Besant in Encyclopedia Britannica.
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sojourning in various countries of Europe, consorting with persons of
high birth, prominent warriors and the like, and taking down their
statements of important events witnessed by them. He was given to
prepossessions and prejudices in regard to persons, hence he is not to
be relied upon when the question is of motives, but there is no ques-
tion that he tried faithfully to record objective facts and personal
testimonies.
A fact I am about to relate will astonish my readers, if they con-
sider and pay attention to it. It was told me in the castle of the Count
de Foix at Orthes, and by the same person who had informed me of the
battle of Aljubarrota, and the event of that day. I will therefore nar-
rate it ; for, ever since the squire related it to me, I have much thought
on it, and shall do so as long as I live. It is a fact, as the squire assured
me, that the Count de Foix was informed, the day of the battle of
Aljubarrota, of everything that had there happened, the same as I
have related it, which surprised me exceedingly how this could pos-
sibly have been.
The whole days of Sunday, Monday, and the following Tuesday he
was in the castle of Orthes, and made such poor and melancholy meals
that not one word could be drawn from him; nor would he during that
time quit his chambers, nor speak to knight or squire, however nearly
they were related by blood, unless they had sent for him; and it also
happened that he even sent for some to whom he never opened his lips
during these three days. On the Tuesday, in the evening, he called his
brother Arnold William, and said to him in a low voice, “ Our people
have had a desperate battle, which has vexed me very much, for it had
happened to them just as I had foretold it at their departure.” Arnold
William, who was a wise man and a prudent knight, well acquainted
with the temper of his brother, was silent. The count, anxious to cheer
up his courage, for he had too long nurtured in his breast this sad news,
added: “ By , Sir Arnold, it is just as I have told you, and very
soon we shall have news of it. Never has the county of Bearne suffered
so severely for three hundred years past, as it has now at this battle
in Portugal.” Many knights and squires who were present and heard
these words of the count were afraid to speak, but commented within
themselves on them.
Within ten days the truth was known from those who had been in
the battle, and they first told the count and all who wished to hear them
everything relative to their disputes with the Castilians and the event
of the battle of Aljubarrota. “ Holy Mary ! ” said I to the squire,
“ how was it possible for the count to know, or even guess at it, on the
morrow after it happened? ” “ By my faith,” replied he, “ he knew it
well enough as it appeared afterward.” “ Is he a wizard, then ? ” said
I, “ or has he messengers that ride on the winds, for he must have some
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secret art.” Upon this the squire began to laugh, and said, “ In truth
he must have known it by necromancy. We in this country, indeed, are
ignorant how he manages, but we have our suspicions.”
EVIDENTIAL EXPERIMENTS WITH THE OUIJA BOARD 1
(MARIETTA HOLLEY)
Miss Holley (. . . P-1926) was, according to Who's Who in Amer-
ica, a “ writer of poems, essays and stories,” but her fame is owing to
her stories of a humorous character. Her first book, My Opinions and
Betsy Bobbett's, which made a rapid success in the United States,
Canada and England, was probably unsurpassed by anything she af-
terwards wrote. But Samantha at the Centennial, My Wayward
Partner, Sweet Cicely, books dealing with “ Samantha ” in various
other places, etc., had a large circulation, and “ Josiah Allen’s Wife ”
became almost a household expression.
Although her genius was for whimsical humor, which she managed
so as to propagate her moral and social ideas, she was quite capable
of expressing herself in serious language. In the article from which
we quote, after alleging that she had always been of a questioning
mind regarding allegations of psychic phenomena, and had attended
only one professional stance in her life, and was repelled by that, she
goes on:
What proof I have had of communication between this world and
the next, or with some supernatural power — and I believe I have had
proof — has come to me in my own home, in quiet hours when I was
alone or with a few friends.
I have been told by automatic writing and the ouija board of things
that I afterward found to be true, things that had not as yet taken
place, so I could not see how my subconscious mind or the great uni-
versal mind could have known about them.
For instance, in my own home with no one present but two friends,
one of whom had the gift of writing automatically, I had a proof or so
it seemed to me, of something that is not explainable by any law we
understand now, something entirely separate from the world of matter.
There were many things written during the evening, purporting to
come from absent friends; and — I suppose, recognizing my usual un-
1 “ What is Behind Ouija,” an article by Miss Holley in New York World Maga-
zine, June 27, 1920.
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believing spirit and my desire to have some proof I could depend upon —
I was told:
“ We will give you a proof tomorrow.” ,
After that a great many other things were written on different sub-
jects, and though I was interested in the promise at the time, it passed
out of my mind as many of the other words did.
The next day was full of household cares and pleasures, and in the
afternoon I went out for my usual drive. The memory of what had
been promised me had entirely left my mind. I had not thought of it
during the day.
On reaching home in the late afternoon I went up into my study,
and almost as soon as I entered the room I was attracted by a singular
sound, one that I had never heard before. It was like the tinkling of
innumerable raps on tiny bells. Silvery, melodious, they seemed to fill
the room. I stood wondering, for nothing like it had ever met my
ears before.
Of course my first thought was to find some natural reason for it,
and as one of the windows in my study opened onto a tin roof, and the
sounds had a faint resemblance to fine hail falling on metal, I lifted
the window.
It was a clear sunny day, and no sound came from the outside.
Shutting the window again, the air all about me seemed full and alive
with the fairylike sounds. And all at once it came into my mind what
I had been told the evening before.
“ We will give you a proof tomorrow.”
I could not help believing that this was the proof. I went down
into the conservatory, and the sounds followed me there, but after a
time they gradually grew fainter and fainter, and finally died away.
Now, I cannot see how my objective or subjective mind could pos-
sibly have done this ; and I am sure no machinery, however complicated,
could have filled the air with the melodious, silvery tinkling of the
myriads and myriads of bells.
But I state the facts just as they occurred, and if any one can give
a reasonable explanation on material grounds I will be only too
grateful.
I remember another instance that seemed quite wonderful to me.
We had a friend who was very ill with a disease that seemed to baffle
the doctors’ knowledge. He had terrible hemorrhages, attended with
almost unbearable agony. He had been to a hospital and had several
different doctors, all of whom seemed to be unable to locate the cause
of his disease.
One evening my sister wished me to write on the ouija board and
ask how this sick friend was, and what was the cause of his illness. So I
and a friend who was present sat down and asked ouija. For reply
ouija wrote a queer medical term that none of us had ever heard of.
I said that ouija must be in a trifling mood, for I didn’t believe
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there was any such word, and my sister and friend both agreed with me,
but said it would do no harm to look in the encyclopedia and see if
there was such a term. So we did, and found it, one of its definitions
being:
“ A tumor of the brain, often causing hemorrhages.”
And what was most striking, after the patient’s death, which oc-
curred shortly, a post-mortem examination showed that ouija had been
right. It was the same kind of a tumor of the brain that had been
reported to us. . . .
Another thing that happened in my home I have never been able to
account for by any natural law we understand at present. It happened
one afternoon when my sister was alone in the house. She was lying on
her bed, when she heard a loud rapping in the bathroom, which was
nearly opposite her room. She said to herself : “ I am not going to be
frightened, for there is some natural cause for it.” And just as she
thought this, there came a thundering knock on the headboard of her
bed. She said it seemed louder than any hand could possibly make.
That evening we asked automatically what was the explanation of
those sounds, and we were answered:
“ It was a warning to you, and to A., and to S.” — giving my two
sisters’ names.
The next time we went to the postoffice we received a letter telling
us of the death of our brother in Phoenix, Arizona.
One summer day Rev. Dr. F and his wife were visiting me, and
in the afternoon she proposed that we should write on the ouija board.
For some reason we did not seem to have much success with it, and she
said to me:
“ You and the Doctor try it.”
So we sat down, and it soon began to write. After a while the
Doctor asked it:
“ What is my son doing today ? ” The young man was at a med-
ical college.
Ouija answered: “ He is taking care of his wife,” or words to that
effect,
“ His wife ! ” exclaimed Dr. F . “ He hasn’t a wife.”
But ouija insisted that he had a wife. And sure enough, though it
was entirely unknown to his friends and relatives, in some way ouija
had got possession of the fact that was hidden from the world. He had
a wife at that time, though it was not until later that the marriage was
announced.
There was a young lad present that day, the only child of a doctor
in a neighboring town, who had passed on some time before. He was a
bright young lad, and was very much interested. While he was looking
on, ouija suddenly changed the subject and wrote again and again:
“ Come to me ! Come to me ! Come to me ! Come to Heaven !
Come to me ! ”
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We did not know what meaning to attach to the request so strangely
made and repeated.
A few weeks later this young boy, who had been so tenderly loved
by his father, was drowned.
A CASE OF ALLEGED TELEKINESIS 1
(HENRY HOLT)
This eminent publisher and author (1840-1926) was A.B. of Yale,
LL.B. of Columbia and LL.D. of the University of Vermont. Begin-
ning the publishing business with G. P. Putnam in 1865, he founded
the well-known firm of Henry Holt & Co., in 1873. He wrote a number
of books, of which that on psychic research, entitled On the Cosmic
Relations , is probably the best known and most valuable. Garrulities
of an Octogenarian is a delightful autobiographic work. Another book
on psychic research by him, it is expected will soon appear. In 1914
he started a magazine, The Unpopular Review , which, its title after-
wards changed to The Unpartizan Review , lasted some years, and of
this he was the editor.
In the winter of 1856-7 or the spring of 1857, on a Sunday after-
noon, I was one of a dozen or so of the pupils of General Russell’s
school in New Haven who were loafing in one of the recitation rooms,
when one of them said to P :
“ Ghost, show us the spirits ! ”
The boy addressed was a delicate-looking chap of medium height,
some sixteen or seventeen years old, whose gentle and truthful nature
had made him a favorite with us all — to a greater degree perhaps than
any other boy in the school. The subject once opened, there was a
quite general talk about raps being heard about his bed, and similar
stories. It was news to me. I had previously supposed that his nick-
name of “ Ghost ” was the result of his comparatively shadowy appear-
ance, but I was to learn better.
He objected to giving the exhibition because, he said, it tired him
so ; but at last he was persuaded.
There were some music stands in the room, probably two or three,
over which we did our fluting and fiddling. Certainly they contained
no hidden batteries and connections. Each consisted of a wooden slab
some two inches thick, and some fifteen by eighteen in width and length,
resting on the floor; then from this a stick some two by three, rising to
1 Cosmic Relations, I, 94-7.
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the height required by the average player; and on top of the stick, an
inclined piece about the size of the base, but much thinner, serving as
a desk for the music. The whole thing was made, probably, of white
pine, and unpainted.
P stood before one of these stands, placing his fingers and
thumbs lightly on the desk, which sloped with the top away from him.
Soon, he said : “ If there are any spirits present, will they please tip the
stand? ” No response. After several repetitions of the question, the
stand tipped gently toward him. Now, as the desk sloped away from
him, its tipping toward him by his muscular force was absolutely
impossible.1
After a time the stand would tip in response to all sorts of ques-
tions, and spell words in response to letters as the alphabet was re-
peated. Later knowledge leads me to believe that these tippings were in
response to P ’s unconscious volition.
Soon P *8 arm began to jerk convulsively, so that his hands
ceased their permanent contact with the stand, and began to tap it with
increasing frequency and strength. Soon the stand ceased to fall back
into its natural position of standing on the floor, but even in the inter-
vals between the tappings, while his hands did not touch it, remained
tipping toward him, not rising and falling as his hands rose and fell,
but tipped permanently. The force produced this suspension without
contact — literally was telekinesis.
The jerkings increased in frequency and violence to a rapid tattoo
of his fingers on the stand, the distance away from it between the beats
increasing to nearly or quite a foot, and the stand steadily tipping more
and more toward him until, probably, the top had passed the center of
gravity, and yet it did not fall toward him or back toward its natural
position, but was virtually held in what all previous knowledge would
have declared an impossible position.
Then he said : “ Try to pull it down,” and the strongest boy among
us on one side of the base, and I, who was perhaps the heaviest, on the
other, tried to turn the base back to the floor. We could not. We
spread ourselves on the floor, throwing our hands and the weight of our
bodies over the raised bottom of the stand, but we could only sway it a
little, while his hands continued playing their tattoo — both hands
irregularly , not systematically relieving each other so as to exercise a
1 Note by Dr. Hyslop. See Journal A. S. P. R., July, 1910.
Inquiry of Mr. Holt, in regard to the manner in which the boy held his fingers
on the music stand, results in the following reply: “The boy held his fingers about
the center of the surface of the music stand, not touching the top at ail. Of course
I would have thought less of the matter if he had touched the top, but even then the
performance would have been remarkable.”
This view was implied in the story, but was specifically stated. We might sup-
pose that the boy had a special hook under his finger-nails for tipping the stand, but
this theory would not account for the permanent tipping reported. We should have
to suppose him capable of balancing it by his peculiar methods. The probabilities
would not be very great that this could be done in that manner.
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continuous pressure, but leaving the stand, at intervals of perhaps a
quarter of a second each, alternately with and without contact with
him. The contest between the muscular force of the strong boys at the
base, and P ’s mysterious force at the desk, continued for a minute
or two, until the base of the structure was broken off or the nails drawn
»ut, and P sank into a chair exhausted. The frail fellow had put
forth more force of some kind than the muscular force of two boys, each
of much more than his weight and many times his muscular strength.
We were out of breath and tired, too. I don’t remember whether P
held the upper part suspended in the air, or whether a mysterious cir-
cuit with the earth was broken when we broke off the base.
Fatigue like P ’s is generally mentioned as following experiences
like his, and the other manifestations of telekinesis. There are a few
instances, however, where apparently no fatigue is experienced.
I remember realizing at the time that his force could not be elec-
trical, as it acted through wood.
There was no cabinet, no subdued light, no machinery but a com-
monplace piece of furniture familiar to all of us, no money paid for
the show, nothing but an honest and kindly boy sacrificing himself for
the entertainment of his mates.
The broken stand remained there as evidence that we had not been
hypnotized, and I seem to remember some inconvenience from being
unable to use it before it was mended.
Now if I have not told those things exactly as they occurred, I never
told any other concatenation of as many things exactly as they oc-
curred. The fact of his putting forth more of his mysterious force than
we did of our muscular force, is as indubitable as any fact in my experi-
ence. The manifestation was so simple and coherent that not only was
room for error conspicuously lacking at the time, but room for failure
or distortion of memory has been conspicuously lacking since.
A decade ago, Podmore would probably have urged against this
testimony that it has no confirmation; that the parties were all boys;
that the only witness was convicted during his youth of writing verses,
and has since written fiction ; that the testimony is nearly sixty years
after the event, and that it was given when the witness was presumably
in his dotage. Regarding the last objection I am not entitled to an
opinion, and the others are all facts. The other witnesses of P ’s
phenomena I have entirely lost sight of, and indeed forgotten who they
were, except the boy who helped me break the stand. He was a Spanish-
American, and went back to his own people.
For anybody, however, who, in spite of all that, is rash enough to
accept the testimony, telekinesis is proved.
If I doubt that occurrence, I must doubt every other experience
I ever had. My certainty regarding these phenomena cannot be
increased.
Truly a remarkable and convincing case if Mr. Holt actually re-
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membered and told all the details of any significance, and if every detail
in the pictures which sixty years left in his memory was exactly accu-
rate.1 But I think that for readers, Mr. Holt reported cases of mental
phenomena more convincing than this of apparent telekinesis. I myself
have in memory very vivid pictures of the seemingly amazing feats of
Mattie Lee Price (if I remember her name correctly), the “Georgia
Magnet,*’ which I saw when a very young man. But I distrust them,
for the reason that I did not then know how to see such things — did not
at all know what to look for — and I have not, therefore, the least
reason for assurance that apparently unimportant but really determi-
native details remain in those pictures.
I think that Mr. Podmore’s doubts would have rested on some such
basis as the following. Provided that the sunshine did not rest on that
music stand, and provided that in the first part of the performance the
spectators were not allowed to come nearer than five or six feet from
the stand, all that is described up to the attempt to bring it to the floor
could have been done with P ’s hands, and a black thread passed .
around the music stand. The alternation of touching and withdrawing
the hands would be easy. (Mr. Holt only thinks it “ probable ” that
the top passed the center of gravity.) I have seen a small jointed
figure made by fine threads to dance, walk, sit in a chair and stand on
its head, and the threads could not be seen although I was not more
than six feet from them in a slightly shaded room. I have seen similar
tricks by a street vender on the sidewalk of New York, and only the
sharpest inspection revealed the thread. P may have gone into
another room on some pretext before the performance, to get this
thread, or he might have carried one in his pocket.
The last act looks very much like a feat that anyone can perform,
on the mechanical principles explained by Sir Oliver Lodge, Dr. Hyslop
and others, in the case of Mrs. Abbott, the first “ Georgia Magnet.” 2
The boys grasping the base had the short leverage, P the long
leverage, which gave him a great mechanical advantage. Let one per-
son press a finger or two of each hand, alternating from one hand to
the other if he pleases, against the top of a chair with a tall back, and
he can defeat one, two or three persons struggling by grasping the
1 There is one clear indication in the narrative that Mr. Holt did not remember
all the details useful for a judgment. For he says that when the base of the stand
was broken off he could not remember whether or not P “ held the upper part
suspended in the air.” Then he could not remember whether or not, just previous to
the break, the boy was actually grasping the top of the stand, for he could not have
supposed that the upper part flew into his hand at the moment of the fracture. Yet,
but for this remark, we would have been left with the picture of his hands merely
tapping the stand.
2 Proceedings 8. P. R., XI, 219-24.
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rungs below the seat to bring all four legs upon the floor, and the rungs
may be twisted out or the chair broken. Of course he must shift his
thrust to meet every changing angle of force presented, as the persons
on the floor labor, unconsciously partly against each other. The per-
sons struggling on the floor will be very disadvantageous^ placed to
observe exactly what he is doing, and may get the impression, quite
unwarranted, that the shifting hands are sometimes removed at the
same time. The person standing will very likely be a bit fatigued at
the end, as P was.
I do not declare that this was not a case of real telekinesis. But I
admit it into this collection in order to have one illustration of the fact
that a case of physical phenomena is complex compared with most
mental ones, and may so easily operate on lines of sensory illusion, or
the insufficient knowledge of mechanical principles which most literary
men share, that they need to be subjected to the careful scrutiny of
special knowledge and experience before full reliance is placed in them.
PREDICTIVE DREAM 1
(MARY HOWITT)
Mrs. Howitt (1798-1883) was as able a writer as her husband
William, and helped him in the production of a number of the books
attributed to him, probably more than the title-pages disclose. They
were both from Quaker families.
On the night of the 12th of March, 1853, she says, I dreamed that
I received a letter from my eldest son. In my dream I eagerly broke
open the seal, and saw a closely-written sheet of paper; but my eye
caught only these words, in the middle of the first page, written larger
than the rest, and underdrawn : My father is very iU. The utmost dis-
tress seized me, and I suddenly woke to find it only a dream; yet the
painful impression of reality was so vivid that it was long before I
could compose myself. The first thing I did, the next morning, was to
commence a letter to my husband, relating this distressing dream. Six
days afterward, on the 18th, an Australian mail came in and brought
me a letter, — the only letter I received by that mail, and not from any
of my family, but from a gentleman in Australia with whom we were
acquainted. This letter was addressed on the outside, Immediate; and,
with a trembling hand, I opened it ; and, true enough, the first words I
1 Appendix to Ennemoeer’s History of Magic, translated by Howitt, II.
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saw and those written larger than the rest, in the middle of the paper,
and underdrawn, were, Mr. Howitt is very ill. The context of these
terrible words was, however, “ If you hear that Mr. Howitt is very ill ,
let this assure you that he is better; but the only emphatic words were
those which I saw in my dream, and these, nevertheless, slightly vary-
ing, as, from some cause or other, all such mental impressions, spirit-
revelations, or occult dark sayings, generally do, from the truth or type
which they seem to reflect.
Note the parallels :
Dream
1. Receives a letter announcing
her husband’s illness.
2. And containing the words
[“ My father] is very ill.”
3. These words written larger
than the rest.
4. In the middle of the page.
5. And underscored.
Actuality
1. Receives a letter announcing
her husband’s illness.
2. And containing the words
[“ Mr. Howitt] is very ill.”
3. These words written larger
than the rest.
4. In the middle of the page.
5. And underscored.
In addition, the letter was received only six days after the dream,
therefore was on its way to Mrs. Howitt from Australia at the time of
the dream.
On the other hand, the letter was not from her son, as dreamed, and
consequently did not say “ My father,” and the impression of danger
received by her was erroneous. The fact that she noted the divergences
gives us assurance that she accurately states the parallels. Her ex-
perience was in 1853, and her account was printed in 1854.
A PREVISIONARY DREAM 1
(WILLIAM HOWITT)
Howitt (1795-1879) was an immensely productive writer of books
on various subjects, poetry, history, description of places, Action,
literature for the young, etc., some sixty volumes in all. The Desola-
tion of Eyam and Other Poems, The Literature and Romance of
Northern Europe, The Ruined Abbeys of the Border, Madam Dorring-
ton of the Dene, and The Boys' Birthday Book are samples of his versa-
tility. His wife, however, shared in the writing of a number of the
books. He also wrote a History of the Supernatural in two volumes.
1 Appendix to Ennemoser’s History of Magic, translated by Howitt, II.
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Some weeks ago, while yet at sea, I had a dream of being at my
brother’s at Melbourne, and found his house on a hill at the farther end
of the town, next to the open forest. His garden sloped a little way
down the hill to some brick buildings below ; and there were greenhouses
on the right hand by the wall, as you looked down the hill from the
house. As I looked out from the windows in my dream, I saw a wood
of dusky-foliaged trees, having a somewhat segregated appearance in
their heads ; that is, their heads did not make that dense mass like our
woods. “ There,” I said, addressing some one in my dream, “ I see
your native forest of eucalyptus ! ” This dream I told to my sons, and
to two of my fellow-passengers, at the time; and, on landing, as we
walked over the meadows, long before we reached the town, I saw this
very wood. “ There,” I said, “ is the very wood of my dream. We
shall see my brother’s house there ! ” And so we did. It stands exactly
as I saw it, only looking newer; but there, over the wall of the garden,
is the wood, precisely as I saw it, and now see it as I sit at the dining-
room window writing. When I look on this scene, I seem to look into
my dream.
Robert Dale Owen says that unless we suppose that Mr. Howitt had
received from his brother a minute description, “ how are we to explain
this dream by the theory of past memories revived? ” 1 Of course we
cannot in that case. And it is rather difficult to suppose that his
brother would or could have described in a letter to him the place so
minutely that he would have been able not only to recognize the whole
outlook from the windows but also to recognize the wood while on the
way and to say where the house would he found to stand. Mr. Howitt
was an intelligent and honest man, and supposed his readers would give
him credit for common-sense, so does not say that he remembers of no
such letter any more than he found it necessary categorically to affirm
that he had never seen the house before.
THE WIFE OF NAPOLEON’S GENERAL SEES HIS APPARI-
TION AFTER HE FELL FROM THE WINDOW
AND BEFORE HIS DEATH 2
(DUCHESSE D'ABRANTfeS — MME. LAURE PERMON JUNOT)
General Andoche Junot, Due d’Abrant&s (1771-1813), was a native
of Bussy-le-Grand, France. He was Napoleon’s secretary at the seige
1 Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World, bv R. D. Owen (Philadelphia,
1860). 171.
2 Flammarion’s La Mart et son M ysterie : Autour de la Mart, 129-30. Translated
by W. F. P.
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of Toulon, his aide-de-camp in Italy, receiving a wound in the head
from which he never fully recovered, and which disposed him to rash-
ness. As a brigadier-general in Egypt he distinguished himself.
Afterwards commandant of Paris, then promoted to be general of a
division, he again distinguished himself at Austerlitz. He headed the
army of invasion in Portugal, from which Wellesley drove him. He
afterwards served in the campaigns in Spain and Russia. Several times
he was put by Napoleon in administrative positions, but in them mani-
fested an erratic and extravagant nature. While governor of Illyria
he threw himself from a window in a fit of insanity.
Duchess d’Abrant&s, the witness in this case (1784-1838), was prob-
ably more responsible for her husband’s financial extravagances and
indulgence in display than he was himself. Napoleon gave her 100,000
francs when she married Gen. Junot, and a like sum, with a house, when
her first child was born. After her husband’s death Napoleon forbade
her to return to Paris, but she ignored the order, opened her house and
attracted to it most of the celebrities of the period. After the empire
fell, her fortune gone, she devoted herself to literature, and her fiction,
memoirs and various articles had a large vogue. This is her statement :
It was in the night of July 22-23 [1813]. I was sleeping badly, as
one sleeps when feverish, when I was seized by a sensation at once en-
tirely unknown to me and afflicting.
I roused, and I distinctly saw, near my bed, Junot clothed in the
same gray suit which he wore the day of his departure for Illyria, look-
ing at me with a sweet and melancholy expression. I screamed loudly,
which woke Blanche (my head chambermaid; she is still living) and
Mme. Thomieres, who immediately threw herself out of bed and came
to me, asking what was the trouble. Alas ! I still continued to see that
terrifying apparition, for the face of Junot was pale and profoundly
sad; it seemed as though already we must be separated here below!
But the most fearful thing for me was to see the apparition w’alk
around my bed and yet — O God ! one of his legs was broken. In short,
I was seeing, by intense revelation, the condition in which Junot actu-
ally was, whereas no news of the accident had or could have reached
me, for it happened at that moment. Later, my brother hesitated long
before he told me the truth, for he feared for my life, considering my
situation at the time.
“Light my chamber!” I cried in my constantly-increasing fright.
“ Give me all the air you can, especially all the light you can ! ” and
my eye followed the apparition continually visible, which now came
near me and now retired to a shadowy corner of the room while sig-
nalling to me to go to it. The sight made me believe, at certain mo-
ments, that I was dying, and there broke from my chest a long, hollow
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cry that seemed like an appeal to Death. It was not until toward
morning that the apparition slowly faded, and became like an almost
invisible mist. I do not explain this phenomenon ; I only relate it as it
took place.
When, on July 30, Albert, on his return to Secheron, told Mme.
Thomifcres about the terrible catastrophe which had preceded the death
of the Duke, she was unable to repress a cry of astonishment, and she
related to him what had happened to me.
Even to this day I am not able to banish the conviction that there
was present a direct relation between two souls, bound by so many ties
that they formed but one soul. I believe this and believe it resolutely.
The mysteries of Providence are too profound for our eyes to fathom
them.
We need not put any valuation on the Duchess’s theory, except as
it witnesses to the extent she had pondered over her remarkable experi-
ence. It is too much to ask, that in her period she should have thought
of getting the signed testimonies of witnesses; one at least, the maid
Blanche, and very likely others, were living when her Memoires were
published. But she names several of them, making it certain that they
or their surviving relatives and intimates would be interrogated by
readers curious to know more particulars. Even if we assume that the
Duchess was so lacking in heart and taste as to invent such a tale con-
nected with the tragedy of her husband’s death, she maintained too
large a household and lived too much in the glare of publicity to have
done so without the sequence of denials ringing through France.
General Junot, after several reverses of fortune, including loss of
Napoleon’s favor, threw himself from a window, breaking his leg, and
died a few days later, on July 29, 1813.
APPARITION OF A DYING MAN(?) 1
(ANDREW LANG)
One of the most versatile and entertaining writers of the nineteenth
century was Andrew Lang (1844-1912). He was the author of some
forty-seven books: tales, poetry, translations and discussions of clas-
sical literature, criticism of modern literature, folk-lore, his own pecu-
liar brand of psychic research, etc. While he had a light touch and
playful humor, his judgments were usually acute and his fertile sug-
1 Article “ Apparitions,” by Andrew Lang, in Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition.
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gestions always worthy of consideration. He was much interested in
psychic research and collected many cases for the S. P. R., besides
contributing many articles to its publications. His early education
was at Edinburgh Academy, St. Andrew’s University and Oxford
University.
The writer once met, as he believed, a well-known and learned mem-
ber of an English University [Professor Conington], who was really
dying at a place more than 100 miles distant from that in which he was
seen. Supposing, for the sake of argument, that the writer did not
mistake some other individual for the extremely noticeable person whom
he seemed to see, the coincidence between the subjective impression and
the death of the learned professor is, to say the least, curious.
In answer to inquiries, Mr. Lang wrote, on January 30, 1886:
Savile Club.
It was when I was living in St. Giles that I saw the real or sham
J. C. I was under the lamp in Oriel Lane, about 9 at night, in winter,
and I certainly had a very good view of him. I believe this to have been
on a Thursday, but it may have been a Friday. I think it was on the
Saturday that Scott Holland did not come to a breakfast party, and
sent a note that Conington was dangerously ill. I said, “ He can’t
have been very ill on Thursday (or yesterday, I can’t be sure which),
for I met him near Corpus.”
I am constantly failing to recognize people. Conington, however,
was not easily mistaken, and I know no one in Oxford who was at all
like him. Whoever he was, he was in cap and gown.
Mr. Lang informed the S. P. R. that he never had a hallucination
at any other time.
Professor Conington died on Saturday, so that Mr. Lang’s experi-
ence was either on the evening previous or on the evening before that.
It was proved that Conington knew himself to be dying on Thursday.
The question, of course, is whether it was an apparition or a re-
sembling man that was seen. Against the latter supposition are the
facts that the person wore an Oxford cap and gown, and that Professor
Conington was an “ extremely noticeable person ” unlike any other
Oxford man so far as Lang knew. Even if an illusion, as Mr. Gurney
remarks,1 “ it is surely not more difficult to suppose that a mind which
is telepathically affected can project its sensory delusion on some real
figure which bears a general resemblance to the agent, than that it can
project it in vacancy,” and that supposition would account for the
extraordinary coincidence.
1 Phantasms of the Living, II, 62-3.
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REPEATED APPEARANCES OF AN APPARITION BEFORE
A GROUP OF DISASTERS ON A SHIP
(GEORGE LITTLE)
The author of a book which went through at least fourteen editions
and which is to this day, while far inferior to the great masterpiece of
Herman Melville, Moby Dick , one of the most fascinating narratives of
life at sea extant, perhaps deserves admission into the charmed circle
of the “ noted.” I cannot do better than copy the introduction by Dr.
I. W. Heysinger, A.M., to the extracts furnished by him to the J oumal
of the A. S. P. R., Vol. V, which extracts have been verified.
I will simply add that Mr. Little was not inclined to believe the
general run of sailors’ superstitions, examples of which he instances in
other parts of the book, calling them by that name.
It is narrated at length in the autobiography of George Little, a
sailor from boyhood, and “ for many years captain in the Merchant
Service out of the port of Baltimore, but now entirely blind.” The
book, entitled Life on the Ocean; or , Twenty Years at Sea, was first
published in 1843, and my extracts below are from the fourteenth edi-
tion, published by Clark, Austin & Smith, in New York, in the
year 1852.
The number of editions shows the importance and popularity of the
book, which in fact carries conviction of its truthfulness all through,
and is far superior in fact and experience to any book on like subjects
with which I am acquainted, Dana’s Three Years Before the Mast, for
example. This work was compiled by the author from his own diaries
and log-books, and dates and localities are verified throughout. The
author became a sincere Christian long before the book was written.
The events narrated in connection with apparitional phenomena
relate to his experience as m*te of a brig which sailed from Baltimore,
March 11, 1817, for a short voyage to the West Indies. The crew con-
sisted of ten men and a boy; the captain he describes as what sailors
sometimes call “ an odd kind of a Christian.” His predominant trait
was indolence; consequently he was not much of a disciplinarian; and
yet, when roused (and this could only be done by some flagrant act of
disobedience), he was a perfect lion. Usually, however, he was good-
tempered, mild, and easy, — constantly depending on his officers to
carry on the details of the vessel.
They beat down against a light head-wind, and came to an anchor
at 8 p. m. in the outer roads of Annapolis, distant one mile and a half
from the nearest shore; the two boats, the author says (all that be-
longed to the brig), were stowed on deck; the night was moonlight,
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perfectly clear and cloudless. He says, also, that voyages to the West
Indies ordinarily do not elicit much interest, but he narrates this for
the reason that there were circumstances connected with this particular
one which, to many, may savor strongly of superstition ; “ neverthe-
less,” he concludes, “ they did transpire, and, to me, were perfectly un-
accountable. Take the following as one among the more prominent.”
I now proceed to quote, from his book, the narrative in question.
“ At 8 p. m., the anchor watch was set, and after the usual orders
were given by the pilot, we all turned in. About midnight I was aroused
from a sound sleep by hearing a voice calling upon Captain C to
come immediately on deck. It proceeded from the sailor who had the
watch. A second call was given more earnestly than the first, begging
Captain C , for God’s sake, to come on deck, as there was a woman
dressed in black, who had inquired for him.
“ Believing the sailor to be half drunk — as was generally the case
at that period, when vessels left port — I drove him away ; but he per-
sisted in his importunities for Captain C to make his appearance.
By this time we all roused up, and proceeded on deck, the sailor point-
ing out the place where he had seen and talked with the woman. After
the most diligent search, however, no trace or sign of the supernatural
being was found, and bestowing a severe reprimand on the seaman, we
once more turned into our berths.
“ About 2 a. m. we were again roused by another sailor, for the same
purpose; this was a perfectly sober man, a resident of Baltimore, with
a family. He gave us the same account as the former; said he could
not be mistaken, for he saw the woman plainly, and heard her inquire
for Captain C . The crew, being now all huddled together on the
forecastle, corroborated his testimony. The most scrutinizing search
was again made, but without effect. There could be no deception prac-
tised on us by the seaman, because the boats were on deck in their
places, and the first sailor, who had called on Captain C , had no
intercourse previously with the remainder of the crew.
“ I was determined to know if there were any grounds for the truth
of this alarming sight to the seamen ; so I walked the deck during the
remainder of the night, but saw nothing. The next morning the wind
was fair, and we commenced to get under way ; but the sailors came aft
in a body, and begged Captain C to give them their discharge ; that
they would give back their month’s advance, and their clothes and bed-
ding to boot — stating that they could not go out in the vessel, as they
well knew that she would never get back again. This was ridiculed by
Captain C , and they became very importunate in their demand.
The naturally easy temper of the skipper became much roused ; and, as
Jack saw (to use an old saying, * If you tread on a worm he will turn ’)
that he was not to be played with, they walked sullenly forward, manned
the windlass, hove up the anchor, and, in a few minutes, the brig was
under a cloud of canvas, standing down the Chesapeake Bay. We had
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a fine run down, discharged the pilot on the thirteenth of March, and
stood to sea.
“ The second day after leaving the land, it blowing fresh, and being
in the Gulf Stream, the brig became very laborsome, straining so much
that we were obliged to keep one pump constantly going; before night
the top-gallant masts, yards, rigging, etc., were all sent down on deck
and secured. It blew a strong gale, and every sail was furled except
the main and fore-topmast-stay-sails. At 6 p. m., the rain fell in tor-
rents, and heavy, black clouds rolled up from the northwest, with fre-
quent claps of thunder and sharp flashes of lightning. Between the
hours of 6 and 8, in the last dog-watch, the supernatural being again
appeared to the two men who first saw her while at anchor, they now
having the watch on deck, and the lookout forward. I had charge of
the watch myself at this time, but as the night was intensely dark,
nothing could be seen, except at intervals, by the flashes of lightning;
so that it was not surprising, as I was standing aft, that I did not see
this unearthly figure. It was, however, a source of the greatest alarm,
and I could perceive, notwithstanding Captain C affected great
unconcern, he nevertheless could not sleep, any more than the crew.
The gale increased, and the sea rose to a tremendous height; we ex-
pected every moment, from the appearance of the weather, a shift of
the wind. At midnight, precisely, the solemn visitor was again seen on
the forecastle, but, as before, neither Captain C nor myself were
permitted to behold it. In about twenty minutes after this appearance,
the wind shifted suddenly to the northwest, and it blew a perfect tor-
nado. The brig was thrown nearly on her beam-ends. Being pressed
by the two stay-sails, the axes were got in readiness to cut away the
mast; but before this was executed, the stay-sail sheets gave way, and
the violence of the wind blew the sails away from the bolt-ropes. . . .
In this disaster we lost all of our spars, boats, and caboose-house; for-
tunately, the caboose, being well secured to the deck, was saved, and no
lives were lost. ... At 4 a. m. the sky was perfectly clear; the moon
shone brightly, and the sea became flowing and regular, presenting a
very different scene from that which was exhibited at midnight. Once
more the crew became comparatively cheerful, and when the morning
light broke forth, the gale had moderated. Double-reef topsails were
set, and we steered away to the southward.
“ Nothing material transpired during the remainder of the passage.
The weather was unusually fine, and yet, by no threat or importunity,
could any sailor be induced to go aloft in the night.”
The vessel reached Martinique, its destination, but it may be
imagined that many serious conversations were held among the crew,
with descriptions of the strange visitant. The crew, in fact, concerted
a plan to effect their escape when land was reached.
From Martinique the vessel proceeded to Guadaloupe, where the
cargo was sold, and a return cargo of sugar was taken in. The yellow
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fever and dysentery prevailed at Guadaloupe, and during the loading
the author says :
“ At length, however, the fatal disease made its appearance among
our crew, in connection with the dreaded reappearance of our super-
natural visitor. It was reported by two of the crew that, on the night
previous to the fatal malady having gotten among us, she was again
seen on the forecastle.”
Six of those on the vessel, including the author, were seized with
yellow fever, but with one exception, all recovered. The port in fact
became a “ great charnel-house,” and every effort was made to get
away, and on April 13, four weeks and five days after the first appear-
ance of the apparition, the brig was towed out of the harbor, and began
its voyage home, which it did not reach until May 4, when the vessel
was made fast to the wharf at Baltimore.
The sequel, as narrated by the author, Captain Little, is as follows :
“ Thus ended one of the most unpleasant, and, at the same time, the
most extraordinary voyage that I ever made. But in reference to the
voyage, the most inexplicable coincidence yet remains to be related.
When we sailed from Baltimore, the wife of Captain C resided in
Nantucket; on our return he found a letter awaiting him, conveying
the sorrowful information that his wife was dead. Comparing the
period of her demise with that of the first appearance of the lady in
black, while lying in Annapolis Roads, the time exactly corresponded.
With these relative facts, then, I shall leave the reader to form his
own opinion as to the possibility, or probability of supernatural
appearances.” 1
1 Pliny the younger (circa 61-C.113), the celebrated Roman advocate, senator and
writer, left as his main bequest to posterity his graceful and informing Letters.
Letter 27 of Book VII tells several psychic incidents which he has heard and believes
to be true. One relates to a fine old house in Athens with a bad reputation, and
hence rented cheaply, since there were sometimes heard therein advancing Bounds as
of clanking iron and, when they seemed quite near, some saw the apparition of an
old man with fetters on his legs and chains on his arms. The philosopher Atheno-
dorus [probably Athenodorus Cananites, circa 74 b. oa. d. 7, a friend of Cicero], when
he came to Athens, took the house expressly on account of its reputation of being
haunted, heard the sounds, saw the figure and followed it to a spot in the courtyard
where it disappeared. Digging disclosed there the bones of a man with chains
on them.
No rational person would think of citing this case as evidence, except of the fact
that phenomena of the “ haunted house ” species have been known for ages. And, in
the light of well attested analogous modem cases, there is no particular reason for
being suspicious of this one. Some one has satirically remarked on the fact that
more ghosts wore and clanked chains in former ages than appear to do so now. But
if “ ghosts ” shadow forth, so to speak, what they were familiar with in life, there is
nothing in this fact to wax sarcastic about, for it is a historical fact that far more
living men formerly wore chains than is the case in modem times.
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“ A CURIOUS BUT TRUE TALE ” 1
(HENRY W. LUCY)
Sir Henry W. Lucy (1845-1924) was a celebrated English journal-
ist and humorist, who for many years contributed regular articles
founded on his observations from the press galleries of Parliament.
Many Americans will remember the series entitled “ From Behind the
Speaker’s Chair,” which ran in the Strand Magazine for many years
beginning with the early eighties. Similar articles appeared in the
(London) Daily Telegraph with the general title “Under the Clock;
By One of the Hands.*’ But perhaps that series gained the most repute
which for years ran in Punch, purporting to be from “ Toby, M.P.”
These sketches were collected from time to time and published in book
form. Sir Henry also wrote a novel, now forgotten, and a book of
autobiographical character entitled Sixty Years in the Wilderness.
Sir Henry met Charles Dickens but once, and then exchanged but
a sentence or so with him. This was when Dickens presided at a City
dinner, in 1870, the last year of his life. “ There I saw him for the
last time.”
In uncanny fashion it was the last time but one. Thereby hangs a
curious but true tale. Thirty years ago I sought and found oppor-
tunity of testing the genuineness of table-turning, a practice at the
time much in vogue. With three other persons, equally honest in search
of the truth, we sat down and joined outstretched hands on a small
table.
Presently it began to move, and there followed the customary cate-
chism as to the identity of the spirit who honored us with his (or her)
company. This was tried in succession by my three companions, who,
reciting the alphabet in accordance with the formula, asked the visitor
to “ rap once ” when a desired letter was reached.
The table gyrated with great vigor, but the alphabet was, in each
case, exhausted without the desired spiritual acquiescence in a particu-
lar letter helping to spell a word. My turn coming round, I renewed
the effort. When I came to the letter C the rim of the table prodded
me in the chest with evidently joyous assent. Similar token was forth-
coming when I got to the letter H ; and so on until Charles Dickens was
spelt out.
Then followed a quite friendly conversation, in the course of which
the great novelist, four years dead, bade me call on his son Charles, at
the time editor of Household Words, whom, he assured me, I should find
in a friendly mood.
1 Sixty Years in the Wilderness, by Sir H. W. Lucy (London, 1890, 2d ed.), 89-90.
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NOTED WITNESSES
My companions several times attempted to join in the conversation,
but Charles Dickens would have nothing to do with them, severely ig-
noring their existence. Whenever I spoke the table throbbed with
exuberance.
What puzzled me at the time, as seeming altogether incongruous,
was the way my interlocutor mis-spelled his words. W ritten down, they
were playfully ungrammatical. When, a year or two later, I came to
read Forster’s Life of Dickens , I found that in the privacy of com-
munication with his most intimate friend, “ Boz ” used occasionally to
write in that way. For example, inviting Forster to dine with him at
Jack Straw’s Castle, Hampstead Heath, he wrote: “I knows a good
’ouse where we can have a red-hot chop for dinner and a glass of
good wine.”
This is perhaps the most striking point of the episode. Practical
persons explain the vagaries of conversation through the medium of
table-turning by averring that, unconsciously, the inquirer supplies the
answer received. As I had at the time never heard of Dickens’ humor-
ous disregard for spelling and grammar when writing to Forster, I
certainly could not have been responsible for that singular phase of
the communications.
That is the story, told as simply as possible. I was so much struck
with the incident that on the next day I found my way down to the
office of Household Words , and sent in my card to the editor. My
name being absolutely unknown to him, as it was to all outside a narrow
circle, I expected my temerity would be properly rewarded by a mes-
sage that the great man was engaged. On the contrary, I was promptly
ushered into the presence of Charles Dickens, Jr., who received me in
friendliest fashion, and straightway commissioned me to write an
article for Household Words.
It was accepted, and I received a prodigiously handsome cheque —
the first earned in that field of labor.
It may be surmised that the spelling and bad grammar were sup-
plied by one of the three other persons whose hands were on the table —
one who was acquainted with Dickens’s habit. It is considerably
against this theory, although it does not quite disprove it, that the
others apparently wanted to get some attention themselves and that
Lucy was convinced of their entire honesty. Certainly if it was the
thought, conscious or subconscious, of one of these persons that young
Lucy, then out of a job, would find it to his advantage to meet Charles
Dickens, junior, that person was a good guesser.
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A SERIES OF PREMONITIONS
(LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON, GUARANTOR)
When but nineteen years old, Miss Chandler (1835-1908), after-
wards married to the Boston journalist, William U. Moulton, wrote
This, That and the Other , a book which hit the popular taste of the
time. Thereafter her pen was prolific in the production of books and
journalism. Five volumes of tales for children, two of narrative
sketches entitled Some Women's Hearts and Miss Eyre from Boston,
books on travel and social subjects, and two volumes of poetry entitled
Swallow-Flights and In the Garden of Dreams, were produced by her.
Some critics regarded her sonnets as among the finest ever produced in
America.
The selection which we here make from Miss Moulton’s “ four
strange and true stories,” printed in the Arena, concerns a cousin of
hers. But the cousin visited Mrs. Moulton after coming East in con-
sequence of what she regarded as spiritual direction, told her why she
had come and put her on watch for developments. So Mrs. Moulton
was in a sense and degree a witness to the facts.1
1 It happens that there is in existence a good test of Mre. Moulton’s memory for
details. I have in my possession a letter written by her to Lady Rayleigh, sister of
Earl Balfour and Mrs. Sidgwick. It is undated as to year, but must have been writ-
ten in one of the eighties. It reads:
“ 46, Connaught Square, July 14 —
“ Dear Lady Rayleigh :
“ I have not forgotten my promise to write out for you the story my friend told
me — but I fancy the Psychical Society knows of it, as I wrote it several years ago for
the Arena — when the details were more clearly in my memory — but as to the main
facts I am perfectly sure. My friend, Mr. Whitin, was asked to go to a stance, at
the house of a friend some miles away from his own home. He went, taking with
him his brother. Neither of them had ever seen the medium before — and there is no
probability that she had ever heard of them. Almost at the beginning of the stance
she tried to attract the attention of my friend’s brother — ‘ Your best friend,’ she said,
4 is suffering. He is far away — out West. He is bleeding frightfully, and is very
weak.’ She said a few sentences more; but as Mr. Whitin did not believe in spiri-
tualism he made no response whatever, and she turned her attention to some one
else. But just before the stance closed, she turned back to Mr. Whitin. 1 Ah,* she
said, “ your friend is dead, now. He died while I have been talking.’ And, sure
enough, what she said we confirmed, later. The great friend of Mr. Whitin was
living on a ranch, in the far West.. Some cattle thieves drove off some of his cattle,
and he pursued them. He got a terrible wound in his knee, and he bound it up, and
struggled on toward a place where he knew he could be cared for. That was the
position of things at the beginning of the stance, but before its close the bandage had
slipped off — the poor fellow was too far gone to replace it — and before he could reach
his destination, he had bled to death. In spite of this, my friend does not believe in
spiritual manifestations — why not, I can hardly imagine.
“ It was a pleasure to meet you, at Lady Wynford’s — and I regretted that you did
not find time to renew it for me, when you kindly left your card.
44 Yours very sincerely,
“ Louise Chandler Moulton.”
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NOTED WITNESSES
Mj second story of spiritual communication concerns a relative of
my own, a cousin, born like myself in Connecticut, who was married
and settled in the West. Her mother, who had in her lifetime been a
firm believer in spiritualism, had been dead for some years; and ever
since her death my cousin had believed in her constant presence and
influence, and had arranged her life according to what she believed to
be her mother’s guidance. I do not remember the precise date, but it
must have been about eighteen years ago when she was urgently en-
treated by her mother to change all her plans for the summer and go
to far-off Connecticut. “ Ask your husband to let you go,” said the
influence ; “ tell him how important you feel that it is, and beg him not
to answer hastily, but to take time to consider it.”
That evening my cousin made her request. I am not certain
whether her husband believes that the compelling influences by which
his wife is so often moved are really of spiritual origin, but at any rate
he knows how significant they are to her. So when she asked if she
might take their three children and go East, and at the same time en-
treated him not to answer hastily, he listened in silence. A few days
later he said to her : “ I have been thinking of what you proposed the
other night; and if you feel so earnestly about it, I don’t like to say no.
But I can’t have the family all broken up. You may take the youngest
boy ” (a little fellow of three) “ and leave the others with me.”
Accordingly, my cousin made her preparations for leaving home.
All this time she had had no intimation whatever as to the special reason
for which her journey was to be made; but when she was leaving the
house, her housekeeper said to her : “ I do hope, ma’am, you won’t be
gone all summer. It will be lonesome here without you.” And my
cousin answered, “ Oh, no, my father will be dead and buried, and I shall
be back here before the middle of July.”
She assured me that these words were as unexpected to herself as to
her listener. Until she heard them with her own ears, she did not at all
know what she was saying.
She came to Connecticut, and went at once to see her father, who
seemed to her as well as when she had seen him three years before, and
as well as a man of his age was at all likely to be. That night she was
sitting in her own room, and she said to herself, “ I really don't see
what I was sent on here for — father seems as well as ever to me.” And
instantly the answer came, “ Yes, he seems so, now. He won’t be taken
I have compared the account given in this letter with that written for the Arena
some years before when, as Mrs. Moulton remarks, the details were more clearly in
her memory. And while the words attributed to the medium are not literally the
same, their meaning, and all the other details, without exception, are essentially
identical. So far from exaggerating the original story, in the letter she omitted the
important fact that when news of the death came a calculation of the difference
between Western and Eastern time was made.
From the evidence furnished by this letter as to the integrity of Mrs. Moulton’s
mental processes, I am inclined to accept her story about her cousin as essentially
correct.
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sick till June, when you are visiting Mrs. , and then he’ll never
get better.”
Soon after that she came to Boston, to pass a few days with me;
and during her visit she said to me: “ You have often wished for some
test as to the genuineness of spiritual impressions. I will put one in
your keeping.” Then she told me this story, precisely as I have here
related it, and added, “ Now, you know why I came East, when I didn’t
mean to, and what I have been told ; and you can see for yourself what
the next developments are.”
Early in June she went to make the visit to Mrs. . She had
been there but two or three days when the person with whom her father
boarded arrived, and asked to see her.
“ Your father’s been taken sick,” said this woman, “ and he’s a very
sick man. I’d like to have you move him. He’s got relations enough,
and I don’t feel like having him sick and maybe die in my house.”
My cousin immediately went with her to her father, summoning a
skilful physician to her aid. “Can I move him?” she asked, after a
thorough examination had been made. “ Yes,” was the answer, “ I
don’t think it will hurt him to be moved today; but you must make
haste about it. He’s a very sick man, and he’ll be worse before he is
better.”
The patient was moved, thereupon, to the house of a widowed sister,
and his daughter watched faithfully beside him. When a fortnight had
passed, her aunt said to her one morning : “ You ought to get out and
take the air. It does your father no good for you to shut yourself up
so closely.”
“ I can’t go out today,” was the instant answer, “ for it is the last
day of my father’s life;” and again, my cousin assures me, she had no
least idea of what was coming until she herself heard the spoken words.
Her aunt went into the sick man’s room, and presently returned, say-
ing, “ I don’t see any change in your father, or anything that looks as
if this was going to be his last day.” “ No,” said my cousin, “ he will
not die till nearly four o’clock this afternoon,” and again these words
were as unexpected to her, until she heard them, as to her aunt.
It was from twenty minutes to a quarter of four, that afternoon,
when the sick man breathed his last; and it was July 12 when, after a
brief sojourn at some seaside place, my cousin again entered the doors
of her Western home.
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NOTED WITNESSES
APPARENTLY PROPHETIC DREAMS 1
(CHARLES FULTON OURSLER)
Mr. Fulton Oursler (1893- . . . .), after some years as a reporter
and critic of drama and music, etc., was for two years editor-in-chief
of the Metropolitan Magazine , also of the MacFadden publications of
New York City. Since then he has been a successful writer of novels,
plays and short stories. During 1924-26 he issued Behold This
Dreamer, Sandalwood and Stepchild of the Moon. He is acquainted
with various species of trickery, has exposed and explained mediumistic
frauds, and seems naturally to be of a skeptical bent of mind. A few
years ago an amusing incident occurred: Mr. Oursler thought he was
in the process of demonstrating that the present editor was credulous
in regard to a case of supposed spirit photographs, while the latter
thought he was leading Mr. Oursler on to reveal his own credulity, and
both were mistaken.
In the process of time Mr. Oursler became profoundly impressed by
the coincidences between details of certain dreams of his and those of
events occurring within twenty-four subsequent hours. He had not
taken pains to record these at the time, and I urged him to do so.
The next such dream was on the night of June 16, 1923, and he wrote
me as follows on the 18th :
My dear Doctor:
I am herewith sending you an account of a dream which I had, and
which seems to me to possess a very considerable scientific importance.
I may say in this connection that this dream is one of a long succession
of such occurrences, so that I have come to believe in my own mind that
there is something outside of my consciousness which is interested in my
behalf — something cognizant of events yet to be — and, furthermore, I
am satisfied through just such trivialities as these may appear that
there is nothing trivial in the world and that chance does not exist.
With this perhaps flamboyant and bombastic prelude, I will tell the
story of my dream.
On Saturday night, June 16, 1 dreamed that I saw in my apartment
Mrs. Oursler, my wife, running toward me in an almost nude condition,
with her hands uplifted. She was evidently inarticulate. I looked
around wonderingly and saw that the entire apartment was covered
with blood. The floors were wet with it, and the walls were stained
with it. I said, “ Look at all this blood.” She replied, “ Isn’t the
smell terrible? ”
1 Journal A. S. P. R., January, 1925, 11-14.
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I saw then immediately on my right a strip of blue serge cloth and
two hands reach down and sweep away some of the wet blood from
the serge.
That was all of the dream.
On waking Sunday morning, I told this dream to my family, and
we all commented upon it.
At eight o’clock Sunday evening I was at my desk, reading manu-
scripts, while Mrs. Oursler was dressing in her bed-room. As I looked
up from my desk, I saw her in the doorway, almost nude, with her hands
lifted. She was trying to tell me something but her excitement was too
great. She pointed outside, and I rushed into the street to find that
my Airedale terrier had been run over by an automobile. He was
bleeding profusely, and when I brought him into the house, the floors
and walls of the hallway and bath-room were literally soaked with
blood. Mrs. Oursler, through her tears, said to me, “ Doesn’t the
blood smell terrible? ”
I sent for our family physician, and when he came and knelt down
beside the dog, his blue serge suit became spattered with some of the
blood and his hands swept it away, just as I had dreamed.
There is an important point to be added here. Ten minutes before
this accident occurred, the dog was tied to a post. Mrs. Oursler went
to the window and told my daughter to release him and let him run free.
If this account is of any value to you, I shall be glad to have Mrs.
Oursler sign it, as well as my children, and have it attested by a
notary public.
I can assure you that no detail has been added to give it dramatic
value. The incident happened exactly as I related it to you.
Fulton Oursler.
Let us list the parallelisms.
The Dream
Wife appeared before him almost
nude.
( Deviation . Ran to him.)
With hands uplifted.
Evidently inarticulate.
(Hiatus here.)
Floors and walls profusely stained
with blood.
Mr. O. said : “ Look at all this
blood.”
Mrs. O. said : “ Isn’t the smell
terrible? ”
(Hiatus here.)
The Event
Wife appeared before him almost
nude.
(Stood in doorway.)
With hands uplifted.
Too excited to speak.
Mr. O. ran into street and
brought dog into house.
Floors and walls profusely stained
with blood.
(Hiatus here.)
Mrs. O. said: “Doesn’t the blood
smell terrible? ”
Physician came and knelt by the
dog.
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NOTED WITNESSES
A strip of blue serge cloth ap- Physician wore blue serge suit.
peared.
Blood on the serge cloth. Blood on the serge cloth.
Blood swept away. Blood swept away.
By two hands. By physician’s two hands.
This is to certify that on Sunday, June seventeenth, nineteen
twenty-three, my husband, Mr. Fulton Oursler, related to me a dream
he had had the night preceding. My recollection of his description of
this dream is exactly the same as he has stated it in his letter addressed
to Doctor Prince. At the time this dream was literally fulfilled, I had
no recollection of the dream, and it was not until it was all over that
I remarked to him: “ This is your dream come true.”
(Signed) Rose K. Oursler.
Former Evidences of Prophetic Dreams
When I was three years old, I dreamed of a burglar getting into the
house. He was a wooden-legged man with a sandy beard, shining blue
eyes, and ragged cap. The next morning there was a rap at our
kitchen door. When I opened it, this man was standing there. He
was the exact counterpart of the figure I had seen in my dream. He
was begging. I had never seen him before.
A year later, I dreamed of falling down a sewer with a wooden
covering, about three miles from our home, being almost drowned. The
next morning my nurse took me to my aunt’s home on a visit. On our
return we crossed the wooden sewer bridge of which I had dreamed.
One of the rafters collapsed and I fell into the sewer and was barely
rescued from drowning.
Some years ago I dreamed of a dog lying dead in the street. It
was a black terrier with brown spots. I heard a voice say, “ When you
see this dead dog .” There was nothing ominous in the voice, but
it was emphatic. That morning on my way to the office I saw this
dead dog exactly as I had dreamed it, lying on the corner of Forty-
second Street and Sixth Avenue. I remembered the dream instantly
and said to myself, “ I wonder what will happen, if anything? ” Two
hours later I received a telephone message which completely altered my
professional career and greatly changed all my life.
It may be of point to notice that all these prophecies were fulfilled
within twenty-four hours of the dream. I have attached so much per-
sonal significance to these dreams that I recently, on dreaming that my
boy was injured, kept him indoors for twenty-four hours under the
firm conviction that had he gone out of doors, he would have been hurt.
Fulton Oursler.
A striking particular of the coincidences between the dreams and
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the following events, is the fact that, in Mr. Oursler’s case, the apparent
fulfilment always comes within twenty-four hours. Any glimpse of a
law or rule attaching to these obscure phenomena in the case of their
subject is most important.
PERHAPS TELEPATHY 1
(ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE AND “ MARK TWAIN ”)
Mr. Paine (1861-. . . .) was the literary executor and biographer
of Samuel L. Clemens, doing a large part of his work in the latter
capacity during the humorist’s lifetime. He is also author of Mark
Twain's Letters , Boy's Life of Mark Twain , A Short Life of Mark
Twain , Joan of Arc — Maid of France, Thomas Nast — His Life and
His Pictures, and many other books.
This is Mr. Paine’s language:
I am reminded of two more or less related incidents of this period.
Clemens was, one morning, dictating something about his Christian
Union article concerning Mrs. Clemens’s government of children, pub-
lished in 1885. I had discovered no copy of it among the materials,
and was wishing very much that he could see one. Somewhat later, as
he was walking down Fifth Avenue, the thought of this article and his
desire for it suddenly entered his mind. Reaching the corner of Forty-
second Street, he stopped a moment to let a jam of vehicles pass. As
he did so a stranger crossed the street, noticed him, and came dodging
his way through the blockade and thrust some clippings into his hand.
“ Mr. Clemens,” he said, “ you don’t know me, but here is something
you may wish to have. I have been saving them for more than twenty
years, and this morning it occurred to me to send them to you. I was
going to mail them from my office, but now I will give them to you,”
and with a word or two he disappeared. The clippings were from the
Christian Union of 1885 and were the much-desired article. Clemens
regarded it as a remarkable case of mental telepathy.
“ Or, if it wasn’t that,” he said, “ it was a most remarkable
coincidence.”
The other circumstance has been thought amusing. I had gone to
Redding for a few days, and while there, one afternoon about five
o’clock, fell over a coal-scuttle and scarified myself a good deal between
the ankle and the knee. I mention the hour because it seems important.
Next morning I received a note, prompted by Mr. Clemens, in which
he said:
1 Paine's Mark Twain, III, 1410.
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NOTED WITNESSES
“ Tell Paine I am sorry he fell and skinned his shin at five o’clock
yesterday afternoon.”
I was naturally astonished, and immediately wrote:
“ I did fall and skin my shin at five o’clock yesterday afternoon, but
how did you find it out? ”
I followed the letter in person next day, and learned at the same
hour on the same afternoon Clemens himself had fallen up the front
6teps and, as he said, peeled off from his “ starboard shin a ribbon of
skin three inches long.” The disaster was still uppermost in his mind
at the time of writing, and the suggestion of my own mishap had flashed
out for no particular reason.
It was an odd coincidence that Mr. Clemens and Mr. Paine had the
same sort of an accident at the same hour, but amid the innumerable
details of two human lives coincidences sometimes occur and should be
expected to occur, though they seem “ odd ” when they do occur. But
it is something added to such a coincidence which makes this incident
stand out, and that is the fact that Mr. Clemens “ flashed out for no
particular reason ” the suggestion that his friend had undergone the
same accident at the same time, without any knowledge on his part that
this was actually the case.
THE GYPSY ASTOUNDS THE PROFESSOR 1
(WILLIAM LYON PHELPS)
Professor Phelps (1865-. . . .), A.B. of Yale, A.M. and Ph.D. of
Harvard, Litt.D. of Brown and Colgate, has been teacher of English
literature, in the capacities of instructor, assistant professor and pro-
fessor, for thirty-six years, and the present editor can testify from
experience that he has been a popular and inspiring one. Among the
latest of his many books on literature are The Advance of the English
Novel , The Advance of English Poetry, Some Makers of American
Literature and Human Nature in the Bible. His style is chatty and
breezy, the farthest possible from the dry-as-dust pedantical. He
seems to have talked or corresponded with an extraordinary number
of interesting people.
Referring to Augustus Thomas, the playwright, Professor
Phelps says:
i As 1 Like It, by W. L. Phelps (N. Y., 1923), 1st Series, 99.
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His dramatic masterpiece, The Witching Hour, was a natural
product of his interest in the occult; and the pages dealing with that
marvellous person, Washington Irving Bishop, who, like D. D. Home,
did many things that have never been explained, are full of challenge.
I was particularly impressed by Bishop’s finding a word that Mr.
Thomas had selected in a book ; for precisely the same thing happened
to me, and I have no solution and no theory. I was sitting in a hotel
in Mentone, watching with skeptical amusement the tricks of a pair of
traveling adventurers, when suddenly the gypsy-looking man turned to
me and informed the audience that if I would select a word in a big
book I was holding, his wife would find it immediately. She was on the
other side of the room. I opened the book slightly, so that no one
could see the pages, and then I placed my finger on a very common
word, and closed the volume. The man made passes at his wife; she
advanced across the room, like a somnambulist, took the book from my
hands, turned instantly to the page, and placed her finger on the right
word. I haven’t got over it yet.
April 18, 1923, Professor Phelps wrote me:
I am quoting the thing exactly as it occurred. You may use it with
my name or in any way you like. I have no objection whatever to being
quoted. The date and place of the occurrence were Mentone, France,
in 1912, March 9.
THE GHOST OF CHAMOUNIX 1
(JOHN RUSKIN; GUARANTOR, W. J. STILLMAN)
Ruskin (1819-1900) was a bookworm at five, wrote largely before
he was twelve and showed his lifelong bent in an essay on the strata of
mountains and the color of the sea, printed when he was fifteen. His
course at Oxford was interrupted by travel, and he did not take his
degree until he was twenty-five. He had already published the first
volume of his most extensive work, Modern Painters. His printed work
runs to thirty volumes. He is one of the greatest masters of English
prose, and his thinking on social and political problems as well as art,
have had vast influence. He was long professor of Fine Art at Ox-
ford, and had a string of honorary degrees.
W. J. Stillman spent one summer with Ruskin in Switzerland and
makes this declaration:
1 The Autobiography of a Journalist, by W. J. Stillman (1901), I, 313-14.
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NOTED WITNESSES
Connected with him [a mountain guide] was a story which Ruskin
told me of a locality in the valley of Chamounix, of which the guides
had told him, haunted by a ghost which could be seen only by children.
It was a figure of a woman who raked the dead leaves, and when she
looked up at them the children said they only saw a skull in place of a
face. Ruskin sent to a neighboring valley for a child who could know
nothing of the legend, and went with him to a locality which the ghost
was reported to haunt. Arrived there, he said to the boy, “ What a
lonely place! There is nobody here but ourselves.” “Yes, there is,”
said the child, “ there is a woman there raking the leaves,” pointing in
a certain direction. “ Let us go nearer to her,” said Ruskin, and they
walked that way, when the boy stopped and said that he did not want
to go nearer, for the woman looked up, and he said that she had no
eyes in her head, “ only holes.”
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCES
(WILLIAM SHARP)
William Sharp (1855-1905) was a Scot, educated at Glasgow
University, traveled extensively, lived much in Italy and France. He
wrote several volumes of poetry, biographies of Rosetti, Shelley, Heine
and Browning, several books of fiction, also literary essays and antholo-
gies. There was one remarkable division of his works and aspect of his
authorship which is well set forth by the following paragraph.1
One of the curiosities of modern literature is seen in the case of
Professor William Sharp. That portion of his work written under his
own name, although of high quality, was curiously lacking in the won-
derful elements of poetic imagination which flowed into it when he
wrote his Celtic romances under the pen-name of “ Fiona Macleod.”
For a long time, “ Fiona Macleod ” was believed to be another writer —
a mysterious woman the secret of whose identity was jealously pre-
served. Even now when the secret has been revealed there are those
who will not be convinced; so wide is the difference between the two
styles that it seems to them incredible that one mind could have
achieved both. It is as though Pope or Southey should have produced
work in the manner of Keats or Shelley. Some have traced a psychic
element in the phenomenon, for William Sharp is said to have had some
remarkable spiritual experiences.
1 From Light, August 15, 1918.
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His wife, herself a talented writer, tells us of the peculiar states
which he frequently experienced : 1
I remember from early days how he would speak of the momentary
curious “ dazzle in the brain ” which preceded the falling away of all
material things and preluded some inner vision of Great Beauty, or
Great Presences, or of some symbolic import — that would pass as
rapidly as it came. I have been beside him when he has been in trance
and I have felt the room throb with heightened vibration. I regret now
that I never wrote down such experiences at the time. They were not
infrequent, and formed a definite feature in our life. There are, how-
ever, two or three dream-visions belonging to his last summer that I
recollect. Two he had noted down in brief sentences for future use.
One was :
“ The Lily of the World, and its dark concave, dark with excess of
light, and the stars falling like slow rain.”
The other is headed “ Elemental Symbolism,” “ I saw Self of Life,
symbolized all about me as a limitless, fathomless and lonely sea. I took
a handful and threw it into the gray silence of ocean air, and it re-
turned at once as a swift and potent flame, a red fire crested with blown
sunrise, rushing from between the lips of sky and sea to the sound as of
innumerable trumpets.” 2
One morning he told me that during sleep he had visited a city of
psychic mechanism. In a huge building he had seen this silent mechan-
ism at work ; he had watched a force plunge into molten metal and pro-
duce a shaped vessel therefrom. He could see nothing that indicated
by what power the machinery was driven. He asked his guide for
explanation and he was led along passages to a small room with many
apertures in the walls, like speaking-tubes. In the center was a table,
on a chair sat a man with his arm on the table, his head in his hand.
Pointing to him the guide said, “ His thought is the motive power.”
In another dream he visited a land where there was no more war,
where all men and women were equal ; where humans, birds and beasts
were no longer at enmity, or preyed on one another. And he was told
that the young men of the land had to serve two years as missionaries
to those who lived at the uttermost boundaries. “ To what end? ” he
asked. “ To cast out fear, our last enemy.” The dream is too long to
quote in its entirety, for it spread over two nights, but one thing im-
pressed him greatly. In the house of his host he was struck by the
beauty of a framed painting that seemed to vibrate with rich color.
“ Who painted that? ” he asked. His host smiled, “ We have long
1 William Sharp (Fiona Macleod): A Memoir, compiled by his wife, Elizabeth A.
Sharp. 425.
2 This is very similar to the visual imagery which passes through Mrs. Curran’s
mind while “ Patience Worth ” is dictating her poetry. See The Case of Patience
Worth: a Critical Studu of Certain Unusual Phenomena, by W. F. Prince, 321-331.
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ceased to use brushes and paints. That is a thought projected from
the artist’s brain, and its duration will be proportionate with its truth.”
Once again he saw in waking vision those Divine Forges he had
sought in childhood. On the verge of the Great Immensity that is
beyond the confines of space, he saw Great Spirits of Fire standing at
flaming anvils. And they lifted up the flames and moulded them on
the anvils into shapes and semblances of men, and the Great Spirits
took these flaming shapes and cast them forth into space, so that they
should become the souls of men.
He was, as Mrs. Mona Caird has truly said of him, “ almost en-
cumbered by the infinity of his perceptions ; by the thronging interests,
intuitions, glimpses of wonders, beauties and mysteries which made life
for him a pageant and a splendour such as is only disclosed to the soul
that has to bear the torment and the revelations of genius. . . .”
He was accustomed to call the strange realm into which he seemed
to enter “ the Green Life.”
Mrs. Sharp thus tells of his last day: 1
On the morning of the 12th — a day of wild storm, wind, thunder
and rain — he recognized that nothing could avail. With characteristic
swiftness he turned his eager mind from the life that was closing to the
life of greater possibilities that he knew awaited him. About 3 o’clock,
with his devoted friend Alec Hood by his side, he suddenly leant for-
ward with shining eyes and exclaimed in a tone of joyous recognition,
“ Oh, the beautiful ‘ Green Life ’ again ! ” and the next moment sank
back in my arms with the contented sigh, “ Ah, all is well.”
I include these brief descriptions of William Sharp’s peculiar ec-
static states, because he, an educated man and a genius, thoroughly
believed in them, and because I do not feel quite certain that we have
explained them when we ejaculate: “ Imagination! ”
PREMONITIONS
(WILLIAM THOMAS STEAD)
Mr. Stead (1849-1912) became assistant editor of the Pall Mall
Gazette in 1880, and succeeded John Morley as editor when the latter
entered Parliament, and introduced “ interview ” journalism into
England. In consequence of articles attacking social vice he was in
jail three months, and his connection with the paper ceased, in 1889.
1 William Sharp: A Memoir, 419
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He then founded Review of Reviews , in 1890, started a series of cheap
reprints of standard literature, and from 1893 to 1897 conducted also
the spiritistic magazine Borderland. He was radical in his views on
many subjects, and wrote with vehemence and courage, wielding much
influence and exciting much opposition. Later came his “Julia’s
Bureau ” for getting spirit messages. Of his several books, If Christ
Came to Chicago was the best known. He was drowned in the sinking
of the Titanic.
He recites 1 that on January 1, 1880, his mind was so vividly im-
pressed that he would during the year take a journalistic position in
London, for which then there appeared to be no prospect, that he told
a friend about it. He was then in the ninth year as editor of the
Darlington Northern Echo. But he received a call to be assistant
editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, and took the position in September of
the same year.
My second premonition [he says in Real Ghost Stories ] was equally
as clear as my first and without any suggestion from outward circum-
stances. It was in October, 1883. My wife and I were spending a
brief holiday in the Isle of Wight, and I remember that the great troop-
ers which had just brought back Lord Wolseley’s army from the first
Egyptian campaign, were lying in the Solent when we crossed. One
morning, about noon, we were walking in the drizzling rain round St.
Catherine’s Point. It was a miserable day, the ground slippery and the
footpath here and there rather difficult to follow. Just as we were at
about the ugliest part of our climb I felt distinctly, as it were, a voice
within myself saying: “You will have to look sharp and make ready,
because by a certain date (which, as near as I can recollect, was 16th of
March of the next year), you will have sole charge of the Pall Mali
Gazette .” I was just a little startled and rather awed, because, as Mr.
Morley was then in full command and there was no expectation on his
part of abandoning the post, the inference which I immediately drew
was that he was going to die. So firmly was this impressed upon my
mind that for two hours I did not speak about it to my wife. We took
shelter for a time from the rain, but afterwards, on going home, I
spoke, not without reluctance, on the subject that filled me with sad-
ness, and said to my wife : “ Something has happened to me which has
made a great impression upon my mind. When we were beside St.
Catherine’s lighthouse I got into my head that Mr. Morley was going
to die.”
“ Nonsense,” said she, “ what made you think that? ”
“ Only this,” said I, “ that I received an intimation as clear and
unmistakable as that which I had when I was going to leave Darlington,
1 My Father, by Estelle W. Stead (London, 1913), 88-91.
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that I had to look sharp and prepare for taking the sole charge of the
Pall Mall Gazette , on March 16th next. That is all, and I do not see
how that is likely to happen unless Mr. Morley is going to die.”
“ Nonsense,” said my wife, “ he is not going to die. He is going to
get into Parliament; that is what is going to happen.”
“ Well,” said I, “ that may be. Whether he dies or whether he gets
into Parliament the one thing certain to me is that I shall have sole
charge of the Pall Mall Gazette next year, and I am so convinced of
this that when we return to London I shall make all my plans on the
basis of that certainty.”
He was so certain of the premonition that he told Mr. Morley, Mr.
Milner and others about it, and when Mr. Morley afterwards consulted
him about some proposed changes in the terms of his engagement, which
would come into effect in May, he declined to discuss the matter on the
ground that as he himself would then be editor, and Morley in Parlia-
ment, there was no use in it.
It appears not to have been a case where the prediction could con-
tribute to its own fulfilment. It was the death of a certain member of
Parliament on February 24 which opened the way for Mr. Morley’s
election, whereupon Mr. Stead stepped into his shoes, very shortly
before the date predicted.
AN APPARITION SEEN, HEARD AND FELT
(MRS. T. B. STENHOUSE)
Mrs. T. B. Stenhouse was for more than twenty years the wife of a
Mormon missionary and elder. Both she and her husband deserted the
Mormon faith, and in 1874 she published a book, entitled Tell It All,
which attained considerable note. It is in this book that the following
narrative is found, whose lengthy introduction I condense into short
compass.
The Stenhouses were living in Salt Lake City. A certain Carrie
Grant, a friend of Mrs. Stenhouse, was in failing health. Mrs. Sten-
house had asked her husband if there was any truth in the rumors of
his attachment to Carrie, and he said there was not, but afterwards
she learned from Carrie that this was not exactly true, but said to spare
the wife’s feelings.
Mrs. Stenhouse was with Carrie much, and one day the latter con-
fessed her love for Mr. Stenhouse and added: “ You know that we have
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been taught that polygamy is absolutely necessary to salvation, and if
I were to die without being sealed to some man I could not possibly
enter the celestial kingdom. My friends wish me to be sealed to one of
the authorities of the Church, but I cannot bear the idea of being sealed
to a man whom I do not love. I love your husband, and I want you to
promise that I shall be sealed to him. . . .When I am gone will you
kneel by your husband’s side in the Endowment House, and be married
to him for me? ”
Mrs. Stenhouse promised to carry out the request of her friend, at
the same time telling her that her husband was expecting to marry
Belinda Pratt (in consequence of the pressure brought upon him by the
Church authorities to become a polygamist). Carrie was disturbed by
the news of the projected marriage to another woman and hoped that
she should be “ sealed to eternity ” to Mr. Stenhouse first, as she wanted
to be the “ second.” In due time she died. And now we give the story
in Mrs. Stenhouse’s words :
The following evening I went around again to the house to gaze
once more at the form of my dear friend. She was lying in her coffin,
dressed for the grave, and I looked at her long and tenderly as she
rested sleeping there. . . .
I was musing sadly over these things as I returned home that
evening, resolved that nothing on my part should be left undone which
might insure her future happiness, and I presume that in my mind her
death, and the promise which I had made, were the all-absorbing
thought. Certain it is that a little incident occurred to me, which
produced a vivid impression upon my mind, then and for a long time
after. I believed that I was visited by my departed friend.
Now, I was not naturally superstitious, and I would not, on any
account, have the reader think that I was a believer in the absurdities
and delusions of modern Spiritualism. At the time of which I speak, I
knew absolutely nothing of the “ manifestations ” and “ communica-
tions ” received at stances — I had, in fact, been so isolated, and was so
ignorant of doings of the world in general, that I had never even heard
of such things. I certainly did not believe that apparitions of the dead
returned to trouble us with communications of any kind; but, never-
theless, I was that night convinced that Carrie’s spirit stood beside me,
and spoke to me, just as in life she might herself have done. Even now,
after the lapse of several years, I hardly know what to think of the
matter, for it made such a powerful impression on my mind. Probably
it was all a dream — a vivid and lifelike dream, but nothing more. The
reader will remember that at the time I was in a very delicate condition
of health, my mind was quite unsettled with trouble and anxiety, and
for some time past my thoughts had been constantly fixed upon poor
Carrie and her sad fate. These circumstances combined might per-
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haps have shaped my ideas and raised up before me that strange vision.
To me, however, at the time, it had all the force of reality ; and while I
leave it to the reader’s common-sense to determine what really were the
facts of the case, I think I should not be justified in altogether omitting
an incident so singular, which, at such a critical period of my life, so
strongly affected me.
I was sitting alone in my room, and reading, when suddenly I felt
as if someone had opened the door and entered, and I looked round to
see who it was. I felt a “ Presence,” if I may so speak, but I saw no
one. So, thinking that I was nervous, and resolved to control my feel-
ings, I took up my book again and tried to interest myself in it. A few
minutes elapsed, and then I was startled again, for I felt sure that
someone was leaning over me, and I seemed almost to hear them breathe.
Quite certain now that the events of the preceding day had unsettled
my mind, I laid aside my book and prepared to retire for the night.
But still I could not get rid of that feeling which we all experience when
someone is near us whom we cannot see but of whose presence we are in-
stinctively aware. After disrobing, I lay down and began to read until
I was sleepy ; I then turned down the light, without entirely extinguish-
ing it, when, immediately after, the “ Presence ” seemed to stand beside
my bed, and I lost all power over myself. I was not, I believed, asleep,
but at the same time I did not seem to be perfectly awake. I plainly
saw Carrie leaning over me. “ Is that you, Carrie? ” I said. “ Yes,”
she answered, or seemed to answer, “ I want something from you.”
Then, pointing to a gold ring upon my finger — not my wedding ring,
though it was a wedding ring — she said : “ I want you to give me that
ring.” “You shall have it,” I answered; and she then bent over me
and kissed my cheek. I distinctly felt the coldness of her lips as she
touched me; and in another instant she was gone. I was wide awake
and trembling, and covered with a cold perspiration, for I felt certain
that Carrie’s spirit had been with me, and now that she had spoken to
me I felt that the “ Presence ” in the room was gone.
I could sleep no more, although all fear had left me, and I lay awake
for hours thinking over the matter and trying to explain it away. In
the morning, I persuaded myself that it was all a dream or the effects
of a disturbed imagination; but as I had promised — whether dreaming
or awake it mattered little — to give her the ring, I resolved to keep my
word and put it on her finger secretly as she lay in her coffin. With
that intention I went to the house, some time before the funeral was
appointed to take place, but, as there was constantly some one in the
room, I felt ashamed to carry out my purpose, lest they should think
me silly to do such a thing.
As the time approached when they would carry her to the grave, I
became so troubled about the ring that I could not rest, so I went into
another room where one of Brigham Young’s wives, and a plural wife
of Carrie’s father, were talking together ; and I told them of my dream ;
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for so I called the vision of my dead friend, although it seemed to me
reality. They urged me to lose no time, but to go instantly and put the
ring on the finger of the corpse. “ If you do not,” they said, “ you will
never feel happy ; she will never rest, but will be sure to come back to
reproach you.” So I went and did as they said. Without any one
noticing me, I stood beside the casket, and raised the beautiful hand
which looked so pure and wax-like, but oh, so cold! and I placed the
ring on the wedding finger, and then covered it with the other hand.
Then, again, beside the dead body of my friend, I vowed to be faithful
to the promise that I had made to her ; and after that I felt at peace.
It is hardly necessary to suggest the alternative possibilities in this
case, as Mrs. Stenhouse took them fully into consideration from the
first. The speaking and tangible apparition, or whatever it was, had to
force the barriers of a robust and questioning mind. Such a person’s
“ must have been a dream ” is no more trustworthy in itself than a
credulous person’s “ must have been a spirit.” Besides, the lady was
evidently somewhat ashamed of having had such an experience, as not
being quite the thing, and while she feels that it is important and should
be reported, it is only between the lines that we read that she really
believes that her friend’s spirit actually appeared to, addressed and
touched her. The experience classifies with that of the Rev. Dr. Mor-
gan (see page 291), who had no doubt that he was awake, and that the
experience was valid. However, we quote this narrative only to put it
on record in this place.
EVIDENCE THROUGH PRIVATE MEDIUMS 1
(WILLIAM JAMES STILLMAN)
This American painter and journalist (1828-1901) studied art
under Frederick E. Church, joined Kossuth’s ill-starred revolutionar}'
movement, studied art with Yvon in Paris, painted in the Adirondack
region, edited the Crayon in New York City, lived several years in Cam-
bridge, Mass., joined Ruskin to make pictures in the Alps, lived again
in France, became American Consul in Rome and afterwards in Crete,
edited Scribner's magazine a short time, and from 1875 to 1898 was
the (London) Times correspondent successively from Herzegovina,
Athens and Rome. He wrote The Cretan Insurrection of 1866-1868,
On the Track of Ulysses, his own Autobiography, and several other
books (1901).
1 Autobiography oj a Journalist, by W. J. Stillman.
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First Mr. Stillman tells us of his failure to get satisfactory evidence
by several years of investigating through professional mediums. His
conviction of “ the unreliability as well as the utter want of essential
importance in the physical manifestations and the invariable inconse-
quence and silliness of the intellectual results,” gives his testimony to
phenomena, of which he was wholly convinced, the more weight.
The most remarkable of the subjects of this character with whom I
became acquainted, which was during the later years of this study, was
Mrs. H. K. Brown,1 the wife of our ablest sculptor of that day. Mrs.
Brown was, apart from the peculiar powers she possessed, one of the
most remarkable women I have ever known, both morally and intel-
lectually, and the peculiar mental powers she manifested were well
known to all the large and thoughtful circle of friends which gathered
round her. No physical “ manifestation ” took place in her presence,
and we never “ sat ” as a “ circle,” but her telepathic and thought-
reading powers in ordinary social intercourse were most surprising.
She answered readily any questions proposed in the minds of her in-
terlocutors, often even before they were completely formed, and she
possessed the power attributed to Zschokke, of reading, or seeing, past
events in the lives of those who were placed en rapport with her. Bry-
ant, the poet, assured me that she had recounted to him events in his
past life not known to any living person except himself, and I had,
myself, the evidence that in her presence there was nothing in my past
life beyond her perception. On simple contact with a letter from an
unknown person she gave me the most remarkable analysis of the char-
acter of the writer, and though this evidence is always open to criti-
cism, the disclosures she made were sometimes surprising. I gave her
one day a letter of Ruskin without disclosing the authorship, and in
the course of a long analysis she said that the writer was not married,
to which I replied that in this she was mistaken, and she rejoined,
“ Then he ought not to be.” At that time Mr. and Mrs. Ruskin were,
so far as I knew, living together, and no rumor of their incompatibility
had come about.
Mrs. Brown explained the possession of her occult powers by a voice
in the manner of Socrates’s daemon, which, she said, was always present
with her, and which she recognized as entirely foreign to her. She re-
peated what she heard, word for word as the words came, hesitating
and sometimes leaving a sentence incomplete, not hearing the sequence.
When she asked who was speaking to her, she received only the reply,
“ We are spirit,” and no indication of personality was ever offered.
On one occasion, when Mr. and Mrs. Brown were on a fishing trip into
1 Henry Kirke Brown ( 1814-1886) was the sculptor of the statues of General Scott
in Washington, Washington in Union Square, New York City, Lincoln in Union
Square, New York City, and of several eminent Americans in Statuary Hall of the
national Capitol.
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the wild parts of New York State, and, returning, were on their way to
the railway station, the wheel of their wagon broke and they had to go
to a blacksmith on the road to have it repaired. She said to her hus-
band that they would lose the train, to which the voice replied that they
would be in time, for the train was late and they would arrive with a
minute to spare. And in fact as they drew up at the station the train
came in sight and they had a minute to spare. There were many such
instances in which Mrs. Brown showed to the circle of her acquaint-
ances, which was large and included many of the most intellectual minds
of the artistic and literary world whose center was New York, the
possession of powers “ not dreamed of in our philosophy,” but, as she
carefully avoided notoriety, they never came under public notice. Her
husband implicitly and always followed the directions given her
through her demon.
The whole chapter from which the above is taken, giving other inci-
dents, is well worth reading. At the close of it Mr. Stillman cautiously
sums up, and thinks that on the whole the evidence favors communica-
tion from discarnate intelligences.
VERIDICAL DEATH-BED VISIONS 1
(RENfi WARCOLLIER)
M. Warcollier is a present-day worker in the field of experimental
telepathy, and his book, La Telepathie, is a standard one. This is his
testimony :
My uncle, M. Paul Durocq, left Paris in 1893 for a trip to America,
with my aunt and other members of the family. While they were at
Venezuela my uncle was seized with yellow fever, and he died at Caracas
on June 24, 1894.
Just before his death, and while surrounded by all his family, he
had a prolonged delirium, during which he called out the names of cer-
tain friends left in France, and whom he seemed to see. “ Well, well,
you, too , and you , you as well ! ”
Although struck by this incident, nobody attached any extraordi-
nary importance to these words at the time they were uttered, but they
acquired later an exceptional importance when the family found, on
their return to Paris, the funeral invitation cards of the persons named
by my uncle before his death, and who had died before him. It is only
1 Barrett’s Death-Bed Visions, 22-24 ; originally found in the magazine,
Psychica, 1921.
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recently that I have been able to collect the testimony of the only two
survivors of this event, my cousins Germaine and Maurice Durocq.
Germaine Durocq writes, as follows :
You ask me details of the death of my poor father. I well remember
him as he lay dying, though it is many years ago. The thing which
probably interests you is that he told us of having seen some persons in
heaven and of having spoken to them at some length. We were much
astonished on returning to France to find the funeral cards of those
same persons whom he had seen when dying. Maurice, who was older
than I was, could give you more details on this subject.
Maurice Durocq writes :
Concerning what you ask me with regard to the death of my father,
which occurred a good many years ago, I recall that a few moments
before his death my father called the name of one of his old companions
— M. Etcheverry — with whom he had not kept up any connection, even
by correspondence, for a long time past, crying out, “ Ah ! you, too,” or
some similar phrase. It was only on returning home to Paris that we
found the funeral card of this gentleman. Perhaps my father may
have mentioned other names as well, but I do not remember.
The noted American clergyman, Dr. Minot J. Savage, reported a
similar case which occurred in a family which he knew. It was about a
little girl who, while dying, exclaimed, “ Why, papa, I am going to take
Jennie with me,” stretched out her arms and added, “ Oh, Jennie, I’m
so glad you are here,” the fact being that her playmate Jennie, whose
illness had been concealed from her so successfully that she the same
day had selected two photographs to be given her, had died the same
day. The incident may be found in Hyslop’s Psychical Research and
the Resurrection, pf. 88.
Another closely similar case is related by Frances Power Cobbe, in
her book, The Peak in Darien , and still another, said by Dean Plumptre
to relate to “ the mother of one of the foremost thinkers and theolo-
gians of our time,” may be found in Barrett’s Death-bed Visions, p. 26.
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A COINCIDENTAL EXPERIENCE 1
(LILIAN WHITING)
Miss Whiting began her career as literary editor of the Boston
Traveler , and was for several years editor of the Boston Budget. She
has written nearly or quite thirty volumes, on subjects literary, bio-
graphical, topographical, psychical, ethical, including a book of grace-
ful verses, From Dreamland Sent. She spends part of every year in
Boston and part abroad, usually in Florence, Italy.
Miss Whiting has had many psychical experiences, some of them of
impressive evidential character. The one which follows should be con-
sidered on the background of Miss Whiting’s specially intimate rela-
tions with Kate Field, which led to her writing After Her Death and
Kate Field — A Record. We learn that when a girl she adored Miss
Field for her literary work, and afterwards had fifteen years of close
friendship with her.
It was a June morning in Paris. For two weeks preceding I had
been so strangely sad, so desolate and distraught that the days were a
problem to me. And why? I could not imagine. Some three weeks
previous I had fared forth on that first voyage to foreign lands which
always prefigures itself in life as an experience that can never be re-
peated. Other visits may be as happy, or happier ; but there is a thrill
in one’s first glimpse of Europe that — as Mr. Stoddard sings of that
indescribable sensation that “ follows youth with flying feet ” — is one
that “ never comes again,” whatever better and finer things, perchance,
may come. The voyage had been an ideal one, full, to me, of a curious
uplift of feeling that suddenly changed, the day we landed, to a sad-
ness and desolation inexpressible, and for which no adequate cause
could be even faintly conjectured. No letters or cablegram of depress-
ing nature had reached me ; and still, on landing at Liverpool after the
happy voyage on the good steamer “ Pavonia,” I was absolutely unable
to fulfil a previously arranged programme of proceeding to London by
a detour to Stratford-on-Avon and Oxford, with leisurely loitering, and
could only take the first train to the great metropolis, trusting that its
rush of life might exorcise the strange spell that was flung over me.
This swift change of feeling from exhilaration of spirits to an un-
utterable desolation was initiated by an experience for which I can
suggest no explanation ; but the occurrence was one which leaves an
impress that will forever stand as a crisis hour in life. It was this.
On our last night on shipboard we had enjoyed the usual merry
1 After Her Death (Boston, 1901), 13 ff., 37 ff. The night experience is also briefly
told in The v Who Understand (355 f.).
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time of the “ Captain’s dinner ” with its gala and laughter, and had
retired with the happy anticipations of landing at Liverpool in the
early morning. I had been asleep for some hours when, suddenly, as if
by an electric shock, I found myself standing on the floor of my state-
room with the quiver of a current of electricity pervading me from head
to feet as if I grasped a strongly charged battery. I turned on the
electric light and looked at my watch. It was nearly four in the morn-
ing. The words I had just heard — not with the outer ear, but with
some inner sense — vibrated in the air. For I had seemed to see stand-
ing, I knew not where, three forms, which, by the same inexplicable
inner sense, I knew were in the ethereal, not the natural, world; I
seemed, too, to know that one of these had but just entered that world,
and I heard her say, in tones of mingled joy, amazement, incredulity,
and triumph, “ Is this all? It is all over! ”
Then I said to myself : “ Some one I know has just died, — some one
whose death will make the greatest difference to me.” Yet, strangely,
I did not think of her , — in whose presence or absence the entire world
always changed to me, — she with whom I constantly lived in thought,
whether we were together or whether half the world stretched its space
between us. If this were a creation of Action and not a narration of
actual fact, I should record that my first thought was of her; that I
recognized it was her voice that thrilled through my dreams, and
startled me, with a force that fairly shot me from a sound slumber to
find myself standing, — it would be a more rhythmic sequence; but this
is not an imaginative tale: it is the record of an actual experience. I
did not think of her, and it could almost be added that it was the only
moment since I had known the happiness of meeting her that she was
not in my thoughts. Almost at once, too, I again fell into a deep sleep,
which was incongruous with the startled shock, and slept so soundly
that the pretty stewardess was quite discouraged in her attempts to
induce me to rise at the necessary hour for leaving the ship. But on
awakening in the morning that dread desolation, unanalyzed and un-
accountable, settled down over me. Had I been shipwrecked and left
alone on an island in the sea, I could not have been more — and I fancy
I should have been less — desolate. For it is invariably true that when
all of the visible fails us, the invisible is potent to protect and comfort.
It was in vain that I attempted to combat this apparently idle depres-
sion. It could not be reasoned away; but, as I said, it was so over-
powering that I abandoned perforce the anticipated tour to the home
and haunts of the bard of Avon, and the visit to classic Oxford, which
had been one of the most prized anticipations, and went directly to
London.
Still, the sense of unutterable desolation persisted, and the six weeks
planned for London were reduced to six days, when, in a kind of des-
perate attempt to break the spell, I departed for Paris. . . .
As I have said, I had long had a girl’s dreams of her as an enchant-
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ing figure out in a gay, glad world yet unrevealed to me. It was as
vague and unreal as the ethereal world can seem to anyone here amid
the things of sense. When, at last, I came within the charmed circle of
her life, she became to me the magnetic center. So that when, on that
June day in Paris, as the sunny radiance of the morning flooded the
Champs £lvs4es with balm and bloom and radiant energy, I learned
from a cablegram that she had already been for more than two weeks
in the life beyond; that her death had occurred the very day that I
landed at Liverpool and had been given that thrilling vision of my last
night on the steamer; when I realized that her death occurred on that
far away island in the Pacific where there is no cable communication,
and that it had taken the two weeks for the tidings to reach the United
States, — in that first moment of blind, bewildering agony there was
little of conscious reflection or thought. . . .*
Reading time backward, like the Chaldeans, many things began to
grow clear. The voice and the vision that thrilled me like a strong
current of electricity, in that last night on the “ Pavonia,” were now
explained. It was she whom I had seen as she entered the unknown
world ; it was her voice that I had heard in that tone of mingled amaze-
ment, incredulity, and exaltation. There was to me a solemn impres-
siveness in this which seemed, in that moment of supremest pain, to say,
“ Be still, and know that I am God.”
On this day there began for me a summer of either very curious \
coincidences, or of convincing spiritual realities in daily experience. . . .
I went alone to my room. I called on her to come. “ I, too,” I
said, “ am a spirit, though still dwelling in the physical world. Come
to me ; come and tell me what this means ! ” I implored her. In a few
moments that same mysterious thrill, which I can only describe as like
contact with an electric current, ran through me. I seemed to perceive
that she came and stood by me, one hand resting lightly on my shoul-
der. I saw nothing visible; I felt nothing tangible; I heard nothing
audible ; and still, in some way, I seemed to actually know that she stood
by me, — that her hand was on me, and that she answered in these words :
“ It was the only possible solution.” Each word fell upon my mind |
distinctly, yet far apart, and as if it were a great effort to impress each j
one. Though there was no audible sound, yet no spoken words were
ever more distinct. There seemed to me no room to doubt that this was
telepathic communion.
Miss Whiting, several days later, searched the London newspapers
and could find no notice of her friend’s death. Consequently she began
to hope that the cablegram was a blunder, and her hostess was of that
opinion. But :
1 Kate Field’s death in Honolulu, and Lilian Whiting’s experience on the vessel
approaching Liverpool, were on May 19, 1896, (The y Who Understand, 35).
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I was suddenly conscious of her presence: she stood before me and
though, as before, I saw nothing visible, yet I was as conscious of her
form, of the expression of her countenance, even of her dress, as I could
have been of any friend who had come in. And again distinctly her
words, though not audible, fell on my inner sense.
“ It is true,” ran the words, calling me by name ; “ it is true, and
you must believe it.”
The next day Miss Whiting called on her friend to tell her how the
gulf of silence between them could be bridged.
“ It rests with you rather than with me,” was the reply. No words
were audible ; no form was visible ; but this sentence sank upon my mind
with the absolute and unmistakable reality that would attend any reply
made to a very serious question.
This time the words were not quite so far apart, and it seemed
easier for her to speak and for me to receive them than before.1
But we are now getting into the region where auto-suggestion looms
up as a very plausible possibility, as distinguished by the indisputably
evidential fact that on the day of the death of the most adored friend
came the remarkably vivid and pertinent dream or vision followed by a
period of depression appropriate to the loss of such a friend, and the
more remarkable in that Miss Whiting is one of the most cheerful and
buoyant persons whom we have known. It should be added, however,
that she is fully aware of the possibilities of and the argument for sug-
gestion, and discussed these in the chapter “ In Two Worlds.” She
remarks :
This perpetual consciousness of her, however, did not produce any
perpetual consciousness of her presence. When that recognition came
it was as distinct as that of the entrance of any visitor, besides being
far more vivid and impressive. Scrutinizing these mental conditions
the conviction grew that if her presence was merely a matter of imagi-
nation on my part, I should imagine it more frequently, and for longer
periods of time. But it seemed to be a distinct event outside myself
when I perceived her presence, and as if it were by some law as natural
as that which governs our meetings in this world. It seemed, too, that
1 The widow of a Yale professor had often tried to obtain automatic writing, but
without success. Although I am absolutely incapable of anything of the kind my-
self, I have started many, always selecting the persons with care and giving them
rules in order that no mental mischief may result. The lady began to write in about
five minutes after my experiment with her began. The sentence last quoted, pur-
porting to be from Kate Field, reminds me of one claiming to be from the Yale
professor: “ We do not leave you; you leave us.”
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she was learning how to reach me, as my spirit was endeavoring to learn
how to recognize her, and that on both sides this was a spiritual ex-
periment in which we were both gaining increased facility.
A PERSISTENT APPARITION 1
(HENRY WIKOFF)
Henry Wikoff (1813-1884*) was a Philadelphian who may almost
be called a professional globe-trotter and consorter with prominent
people. He was a lawyer who never practised. Attached to the United
States legation at London in 1837, and employed by Lord Palmerston
as secret agent at Paris in 1855, “ no man ever had a brighter diplo-
matic career before him, and no one ever threw it away more lightly.”
His first ramble over Europe was in company of Edwin Forrest, the
tragedian. He “ had the reputation of being better acquainted with
important unwritten history than any other man of his day.” He was
the author of several books.
In April of this year (1834*) I had the misfortune to lose a cousin
of the same name as myself by a sad accident. He was thrown from
a favorite horse when out for his daily ride, and brought home insen-
sible. I happened to pass his house when a carriage slowly drew up to
the door, and on inquiry found to my great distress what had occurred.
Physicians were immediately summoned, but, with the exception of a
broken rib, no external damage could be detected. All efforts to restore
him to consciousness proved unavailing, and, after lying for some hours
in a comatose state, he expired. He was but twenty-five, an only son,
and adored by his family. I was walking up and down the room with
his father scarcely an hour before the funeral, when I discovered that
no portrait of him existed, which was an additional grief to his afflicted
relatives. I hastened instantly to a well-known artist, who on hearing
the circumstances accompanied me back to the house, took a sketch in
pencil and then made a cast of the face, from which he executed an
admirable likeness.
I mention these painful incidents as they lead me to speak of a
singular occurrence that has never faded from my recollection. I
should mention that, though I lived on the most amicable footing with
my lamented cousin, we were never associates in the familiar sense.
He was of a somewhat reserved and unsympathetic disposition, as I
thought, and, whilst we always met with pleasure, we never courted each
other’s society. I state this to explain that, though I was greatly
shocked at his affecting death, I was not plunged in the deep affliction a
1 Wikoff’s Reminiscences of an Idler (New York, 1880), 69 ff.
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more intimate companionship would have entailed. With this prelude
I will go on to relate that, on the night of the funeral, I sat down after
midnight in my bedroom to write his obituary, as was then the custom.
I had been at work for some half an hour, when, on looking up, I
observed to my amazement my buried cousin standing within three or
four feet of the table where I was sitting. I was convinced on the in-
stant that it was a mere delusion ; but what perplexed me was that it did
not proceed from the “ heat-oppressed brain,” for I was perfectly calm,
my brow cool, and my pulse regular. The figure was clothed in white
drapery, so that I could discern nothing of the person save the height,
which was exact. The face was distinctly visible, but differing from his
habitual cold and almost cynical expression, for the countenance was
benignant and sad. After rubbing my eyes, and smiling at the absurd-
ity of such a phenomenon, I began to write again, anticipating that the
vision would gradually disappear. When I looked up after a time, I
found it still standing in the same spot. I then rose and went to the
window, which I raised, and gazed up and down the deserted streets for
some ten minutes, thinking the cool temperature would subdue my evi-
dently disordered fancy. On turning round, my eyes again encountered
the pallid apparition, which I contemplated steadily, wondering, mean-
while, at the singular condition of my mind that could conjure up a
phantom when in my normal state, my body in perfect health, and my
reason undisturbed by any emotion of a poignant character.
Thoroughly satisfied that I was the victim of my imagination, and
recalling the familiar adage of Qui vult decipi, decipiatur, I repaired a
second time to the window, where I remained for some time, till quite
chilled by the night air. The experiment was useless, for the spectre
stood its ground; and now, feeling too disturbed to continue writing, I
took up my lamp, crossed the room, and placed it on a table adjoining
my bed. Before lying down, and believing, and indeed hoping, that by
this time my unwelcome guest had departed, I looked again, and dis-
covered that the ghost, as I almost began to fancy it was, had turned
round, and was regarding me with just the same expression it had from
the first. “ Well,” I exclaimed aloud, “ this is too droll ; but I won’t
give it up ;” and I grasped my book when in bed, as was my habit, and
went on reading for some time without raising my eyes. Whenever I
did, however, they invariably encountered the calm gaze of the shadow.
At last I extinguished the light, expecting that might dispel the illu-
sion ; but no, it was visible as before. Finally, I pulled the counterpane
over my head, when, to my relief, I saw it no more, and so went to sleep.
In the morning, I reflected on the strange incident of the previous
night, and marveled whether “ my eyes were the fools of the other senses
or worth all the rest.” I hesitated to speak of it then, from dread of
ridicule, but I do not know why I should not speak of it now, to show
that a hallucination is possible even under conditions apparently un-
favorable— with the mind well poised, and the nerves under complete
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control. I did not then, nor ever after, believe that I had really beheld
a spirit from the other world ; but it was certainly unaccountable that,
self-possessed as I was, I should be compelled to struggle firmly for
some two hours to overpower a fantasy, and then fail.
It was singular, too, that when my back was turned I saw nothing
of the figure, nor yet when my eyes were closed. Methinks a mere fig-
ment of the brain ought to have been visible in either case. Since that
period I have lost relatives and friends nearer than the one in question,
and causing me deep affliction, but no such result followed.
This experience is noteworthy for the very reasons assigned by
Mr. Wikoff, and others. The apparition was the only one he ever saw,
and yet was that of a relative not sufficiently prized by him to affect
his emotions as did the death of others. He was calm enough to ex-
amine his own state, to test by changing his own location and in other
ways, and finally to pull the counterpane over his head and go to sleep.
The apparition appeared but a few feet from him. It did not have the
expression which characterized the cousin while living, so seemingly was
not an objectified memory; moreover, it was not dressed in the gar-
ments familiar when he was living, but a “ white drapery.” It did not
appear before his eyes when he stared in another direction, but main-
tained its place as a real person would, although, when Wikoff lay down
on his bed, it turned around, again as a real person would do. For
two hours it persisted, in spite of all his efforts to banish it. He did
not believe it “ a spirit from the other world ” and yet it did not act
as a “ mere figment of the brain ” would be expected to act.
AN EMINENT NATIONAL EDUCATOR DISCOVERS HIMSELF
TO BE A PSYCHIC
(JOHANN HEINRICH DANIEL ZSCHOKKE)
This very versatile man Zschokke (1771-1848) was born in Magde-
burg, but spent most of his life as an educator, public administrative
officer, and writer, in Switzerland. His voluminous writings, which
long commanded much influence, embraced history, fiction, ethics, etc.
“ Zschokke was not a great original writer, but he secured for himself
an eminent place in the literature of his time by his enthusiasm for
modern ideas in politics and religion, by the sound, practical judgment
displayed in his works, and by the energy and lucidity of his style.” —
Encyclopedia Britannica.
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His selected works in forty volumes were issued in 1824-28; and a
thirty-five-volume edition in 1851-54.
The following statement from his own pen, may be found in his
autobiographical work, Selbstschau, I, 227, but the translation is taken
from the Religio-PhUosophical Journal, December 13, 1890.
It has happened to me sometimes, on my first meeting with
strangers, as I listened silently to their discourse, that their former life,
with many trifling circumstances therewith connected, or frequently
some particular scene in that life, has passed quite involuntarily, and,
as it were, dreamlike, yet perfectly distinct before me. During this
time, I usually feel so entirely absorbed in the contemplation of the
stranger’s life, that at last I no longer see clearly the face of the un-
known wherein I undesignedly look, nor distinctly hear the voices of
the speakers, which before served, in some measure, as a commentary
to the text of their features. For a long time I held such visions as
delusions of the fancy, and the more so as they showed me even the
dress and motions of the actors, rooms, furniture and other accessories.
By way of a test, I once, in a familiar family circle at Kirchburg,
related the secret history of a seamstress who had just left the room
and the house. I had never seen her before in my life. People were
astonished and laughed, but were not to be persuaded that I did not
previously know the relations of which I spoke, for that I had uttered
was the literal truth. On my part, I was no less astonished that my
dream pictures were confirmed by the reality. I became more attentive
to the subject of my vision, that I might thereby obtain confirmation
or refutation of it. It was invariably ratified, not without consterna-
tion on their part.
“ What demon inspires you ? Must I again believe in possession ? ”
exclaimed the spiritual Johann Von Riga, when in the first hour of our
acquaintance I related his past life to him. We speculated long on the
enigma, but even his penetration could not solve it.
I myself had less confidence than any one in this mental jugglery.
As often as I revealed my visionary gifts to any new person, I regularly
expected to hear the answer — “ It was not so.” I felt a secret shudder
when my auditors replied that it was true, or when their astonishment
betrayed my accuracy before I spoke. Instead of many, I will mention
one example, which preeminently astonished me.
One fair day, in the city of Waldshut, I entered the Vine Inn, in
company with two young student foresters. We were tired rambling
through the woods. We supped with a numerous company at the table
d'hote, where the guests were making very merry with the peculiarities
and eccentricities of the Swiss, with Mesmer’s magnetism, Lavater’s
physiognomy, etc. One of my companions, whose national pride was
wounded by their mockery, begged me to make some reply, particularly
to a handsome young man who sat opposite to me, and allowed himself
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extraordinary license. This man’s former life was, at that moment,
presented to my mind. I turned to him and asked whether he would
answer me candidly if I related to him some of the most sacred passages
of his life, I knowing as little of him personally as he did of me? That
would be going a little farther I thought than Lavater did with his
physiognomy. He promised, if I were correct in my information, to
admit it frankly. I then related what my vision had shown me, and the
whole company were made acquainted with the private history of the
young merchant; his school years, his youthful errors, and lastly, with
a fault committed in reference to the strong box of his principal. I
described to him the uninhabited room with whitened walls, where, to
the right of the brown door, on a table, stood a black money box, etc.
A dead silence prevailed during the whole narrative, which I alone
occasionally interrupted by inquiring whether I spoke the truth? The
startled young man confirmed every particular, and even, what I had
scarcely expected, the last mentioned. Touched by his candor, I shook
hands with him over the table and said no more. He asked my name,
which I gave him, and we remained together talking till past midnight.
He is probably yet living.
I can well explain to myself how a person of lively imagination may
form, as in a romance, a correct picture of the actions and passions of
another person, of a certain character, under certain circumstances.
But whence came those trifling accessories which in no wise concerned
me, with whom I neither had, nor desired to have, any connection? Or
was the whole matter a constantly recurring accident? Or had my
auditor, perhaps, when I related the particulars of his former life, very
different views to give of the whole, although in his first surprise, and
misled by resemblances, he had mistaken them for the same? And yet,
impelled by this very doubt, I had given myself trouble to speak of the
most insignificant things which my waking dream had revealed to me.
I shall not say another word on this singular gift of vision, of which I
cannot say that it was ever of the slightest service. It manifested
itself rarely, quite independently of my will, and several times in favor
of persons whom I cared little to look through. Neither am I the only
person in possession of this power. On an excursion I once made with
two of my sons, I met with an old Tyrolese who carried oranges and
lemons about the country, in a house of public entertainment, in Lower
Hanenstein, one of the passes of the Jura. He fixed his eyes on me for
some time, then mingled in the conversation, and said that he knew me,
though he knew me not; and went on to relate what I had done and
striven to do in former times, to the consternation of the country people
present, and the great admiration of my children, who were diverted to
find another person gifted like their father. How the old lemon mer-
chant came by his knowledge he could not explain, either to me or to
himself : he seemed, nevertheless, to value himself somewhat upon his
mysterious wisdom.
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It required moral courage for Zschokke, a man in the possession of
an extraordinary reputation for learning and wisdom, and at a period
when fewer of the intelligentsia had respect for what we now call
psychic research, to give this testimony. That he was speaking hon-
estly we can hardly doubt. He gives the name of a man of reputation,
whom his powers had amazed, tells in what inn another such feat had
been performed, and the whole account would soon have been discred-
ited had not people who had long known him heard of his psychic gifts.
TESTIMONY FOR DOWSING
(ZSCHOKKE)
My connection with mining operations brought me acquainted with
many persons in whom I was much interested. The operations them-
selves were unimportant, for the interior of the Jura is mostly poor in
metals, but an alabaster quarry which I discovered brought me into a
friendly correspondence with the venerable Prince Primate, Karl von
Dalberg, and my search after salt and coal to the acquaintance of a
young Rhabdomantin of twenty years old, who was sent to me by the
well-known geologist, Dr. Ebel, of Zurich. In almost every canton of
Switzerland are found persons endowed with the mysterious natural
gifts of discovering, by a peculiar sensation, the existence of subter-
ranean waters, metals or fossils. I have known many of them, and often
put their marvelous talent to the test. One of these was the abbot of
the convent of St. Urban, in the canton of Lucerne, a man of learning
and science; and another a young woman, who excelled all I have ever
known. I carried her and her companion with me through several dis-
tricts entirely unknown to her, but with the geological formation of
which, and the position of its salt and sweet waters, I was quite famil-
iar, and I never once found her deceived. The results of the most care-
ful observation have compelled me at length to renounce the obstinate
suspicion and incredulity I at first felt on this subject, and have pre-
sented me with a new phase of nature, although one still involved in
enigmatical obscurity.
Even Howitt regarded Zschokke as superstitious as regards his
belief in rhabdomancy, or dowsing. But, since his time, such men as
Sir William Barrett, as the result of tests, have been brought to the
conclusion that there is a valid foundation for it.1
1 See The Divining-Rod: An Experimental and Psychological Investigation, by
Barrett and Besterman (London, 1926).
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ARTISTS, SCULPTORS, ACTORS, COMPOSERS
AND MUSICIANS
TELEPATHY OR AMAZING COINCIDENCE 1
(EVELYN DE MORGAN)
Mrs. William De Morgan (1854 P-1919) in her girlhood shocked her
aristocratic family by her proclivity for art, as her Uncle Roddam
Spencer-Stanhope had already disgraced it. There was no saving her,
however, and she became a skilful executor of paintings in the pre-
Raphaelite style, many of which are in art galleries and private
collections.
On one occasion Mrs. Pickering [Evelyn’s mother] was anxious to
give a present to her brother, Sir Walter Spencer-Stanhope, and com-
missioned Evelyn to paint a large picture for this purpose, the subject
to be chosen by its future recipient. Sir Walter, however, declared
himself unable to think of anything suitable, and finally, as Evelyn sat
drawing in her studio in London one evening, it flashed across her that
she would like to paint a picture from the text, “ Mercy and Truth have
met together , Righteousness and Peace have hissed each other.” So
clearly did she visualize the design that she drew it forthwith.
The following morning brought a letter from her uncle in York-
shire : “ I have at last thought of a subject I should like painted,” he
wrote ; and to her astonishment he suggested the text for which she had
drawn the cartoon apparently at the very hour at which he was writing
to her !
THE ARTIIST ALSO A PSYCHIC 2
(ALFRED PEARSE)
Captain Alfred Pearse (....?-....) is an English artist, author
and inventor who has captured twenty-five prizes for drawing and
painting, including a First Prize for figure subjects in black and white
at the International Exhibition of 1884. For a number of years he
1 William De Morgan and His Wife, by A. M. W. Stirling (Henry Holt & Co.,
N. Y„ 1922), 353.
2 International Psychic Gazette, September, 1924.
243
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was special artist for the Pictorial World. He painted a number of
pictures for the present King and Queen, and was the designer of royal
costumes for ceremonial use; also made one hundred Victoria Cross
pictures for the Government, etc. Oleographed reproductions of pic-
tures by him are said to be common in English homes.
The following account is the result of a special interview with
Mr. Pearse.
A young lady in spirit once came to ask me to tell her sweetheart
that she was dead. When I went to him he said, “ It is nonsense ; I
have just had a letter from her.” But he went to her house and found
she had died at the very time she came to me.
I will tell you of another curious experience. A doctor was attend-
ing my wounded foot in London when I came back from France. What
was known as “ the Belgian murder ” occurred at the time. A woman
was killed and her body thrown over a railing, in Russell Square, in a
sack. When I looked at her picture in the Daily Mirror I saw nothing
but a man’s face, which I drew and took to the doctor. Nobody knew
anything then of the murderer. The doctor said to me, “ This is
Spiritualism; you must not dabble in that; a friend of mine has just
died through dabbling in Spiritualism.” I thought no more about it.
About three o’clock next morning the spirit of a lady appeared to me.
She had a beautiful oval face, with fair hair and was standing by my
bed in a black dress. She said, “ I want you to understand that I did
not die through dabbling in Spiritualism; I died from ,” and she
told me the true cause of her death. I went off to the doctor and told
him what had occurred. He said, “ Why, you have absolutely de-
scribed the woman, but her hair was not fair, it was white.” He ad-
mitted that her own diagnosis of her trouble was correct. “ Then why
should you say she died from dabbling in Spiritualism? ” I asked. He
simply shrugged his shoulders, and had no more to say. It had worried
the spirit that he had told a lie about her, and therefore her early
morning visit to me. The murderer was not discovered for some time,
but when he was, it was seen at once that the drawing I had given to
the doctor was undoubtedly of him. The doctor admitted it was so,
and he has the sketch still, as he said he would like to keep it.
Mrs. St. John Montagu lately had an article on crystal-gazing in
a Sunday paper. I could sketch for her the things she sees in the
crystal, just as I drew those of Mr. Von Bourg in the Merstham Tun-
nel affair. I also made a sketch in connection with the Foxwell murder.
Von Bourg had clairvoyantlv seen an opening in the bank of the
Thames where he said the murdered man’s body passed, and it turned
over so that he could see the face, with a terrible wound in the fore-
head. The editor of the Strand Magazine, who lived near the place,
said to me there was no such opening. After the body was found,
however, he asked me to go and sketch the spot. I engaged a boatman
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and said, “ Do you know where Mr. Foxwell’s body was found ? ” He
said, “ I was the man who brought it out. It would not have appeared
until the fifth day, but we brought it up on the fourth by dropping a
sack of coal at the spot.” And there was an opening in the bank into
which the river flowed at high tide. The swirl of the water caused by
the mill lade joining the river had turned the murdered man’s body
over, as described in Von Bourg’s vision, and so enabled him to see and
describe the face.
The spirit of my own father once appeared to me at seven in the
morning while I was dressing. He stood at my bed-room door in full
daylight. He had then been dead about two years. He said, “ So and
so is dead,” naming some one, but I did not catch the name. I thought
it must be my sister. I told my wife to look, but the figure had van-
ished. She said, “ What is the matter? ” I said, “ Father has ap-
peared at the door, and said some one has died; I am afraid it is
Annie.” We telegraphed to her address, but everything was all right,
and my wife said, “ You are always imagining these things.” But next
morning I received a letter from Australia, saying that my uncle, who
used to be called my father’s twin soul, as they had always been so fond
of each other, had died. My father had apparently wished to break
the news to me.
About four o’clock one morning the spirit of a thin man came to
me and said, “ I want you to comfort my brother.” I had never seen
the man before, and could not make out who the brother might be, but
I later received an impression that he might be a man I knew. I wrote
to this man asking if he was in any trouble and if I could help him.
After three days I heard from him, 6aying that he had only just
received my letter, owing to a mistake in the address. He said, “ With
it a letter has come from my sister, saying my brother died early on
the morning you wrote; but there is no connection between the two.”
Two or three days later he called and said, “ Tell me who you saw.”
I described the man of my vision. He said, “ Yes, that was my brother ;
what did he say? ” I told him and said, “ You ought to be very pleased
to think your brother’s last thoughts were of you.” Then he said, “ I
must believe it, for you have absolutely described him.” He was an
anti-Spiritualist before that. I have since illustrated some of his
books.
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A TELEPATHIC IMPRESSION OF AN UNUSUAL
CHARACTER 1
(ARTHUR SEVERN)
Arthur Severn, still living, son of a friend of Keats, husband of
a ward and cousin of Ruskin, recollections of whom he is now prepar-
ing, is an English artist of reputation, whose paintings have been ex-
hibited in Paris and at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute
in London.
While it was Mrs. Severn who had the telepathic experience, Mr.
Severn was the “ agent ” therein, and gives his signed testimony. The
statements were obtained by John Ruskin. Mrs. Severn says:
I woke up with a start, feeling I had had a hard blow on my mouth,
and with a distinct sense that I had been cut, and was bleeding under
my upper lip, and seized my pocket-handkerchief, and held it (in a
little pushed lump) to the part, as I sat up in bed, and after a few
seconds, when I removed it, I was astonished not to see any blood, and
only then realized it was impossible anything could have struck me
there, as I lay fast asleep in bed, and so I thought it was only a dream !
— but I looked at my watch, and saw it was seven, and finding Arthur
(my husband) was not in the room, I concluded (rightly) that he must
have gone out on the lake for an early sail, as it was so fine.
I then fell asleep. At breakfast (half-past nine), Arthur came in
rather late, and I noticed he rather purposely sat farther away from
me than usual, and every now and then put his pocket-handkerchief
furtively up to his lip, in the very way I had done. I said, “ Arthur,
why are you doing that? ” and added a little anxiously, “ I know you
have hurt yourself! but I’ll tell you why afterwards.” He said, “ Well,
when I was sailing, a sudden squall came, throwing the tiller suddenly
round, and it struck me a bad blow in the mouth, under the upper lip,
and it has been bleeding a good deal and won’t stop.” I then said,
“ Have you any idea what o’clock it was when it happened? ” and he
answered, “ It must have been about seven.”
I then told him what had happened to me , much to hit surprise, and
all who were with us at breakfast.
It happened here about three years ago at Brantwood, to me.
Joan R. Severn.
In reply to inquiries Mrs. Severn writes:
1 Phantasms oj the Living, I, 188-89.
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There was no doubt about my starting up in bed wide awake, as I
stuffed my pocket-handkerchief into my mouth, and held it pressed
under my upper lip for some time before removing it to “ see the
blood,” — and was much surprised that there was none. Some little
time afterwards I fell asleep again. I believe that when I got up, an
hour afterwards, the impression was still vividly in my mind, and that
as I was dressing I did look under my lip to see if there was any mark.
Mr. Severn’s account, dated November 15, 1883, is as follows:
Early one summer morning, I got up intending to go and sail on
the lake ; whether my wife heard me going out of the room I don’t know ;
she probably did, and in a half-dreamy state knew where I was going.
When I got down to the water I found it calm, like a mirror, and
remember thinking it quite a shame to disturb the wonderful reflections
of the opposite shore. However, I soon got afloat, and as there was no
wind, contented myself with pulling up my sails to dry, and putting
my boat in order. Soon some slight air came, and I was able to sail
about a mile below Brant wood, then the wind dropped, and I was left
becalmed for half-an-hour or so, when, on looking up to the head of the
lake, I saw a dark blue line on the water. At first I couldn’t make it
out, but soon saw that it must be small waves caused by a strong wind
coming. I got my boat as ready as I could, in the short time, to re-
ceive this gust, but somehow or other she was taken aback, and seemed
to spin round when the wind struck her, and in getting out of the way
of the boom I got my head in the way of the tiller, which also swung
round and gave me a nasty blow in the mouth, cutting my lip rather
badly, and having become loose in the rudder it came out and went
overboard. With my mouth bleeding, the mainsheet more or less round
my neck, and the tiller gone, and the boat in confusion, I could not help
smiling to think how suddenly I had been humbled almost to a wreck,
just when I thought I was going to be so clever! However, I soon
managed to get my tiller, and, with plenty of wind, tacked back to
Brantwood, and, making my boat snug in the harbor, walked up to the
house anxious, of course, to hide as much as possible what had happened
to my mouth, and, getting another handkerchief, walked into the break-
fast-room, and managed to sav something about having been out early.
In an instant my wife said, “ You don’t mean to say you have hurt your
mouth? ” or words to that effect. I then explained what had happened,
and was surprised to see some extra interest on her face, and still more
surprised when she told me she had started out of her sleep thinking she
had received a blow in the mouth ! and that it was a few minutes past
seven o’clock, and wondered if my accident had happened at the same
time ; but as I had no watch with me I couldn’t tell, though, on compar-
ing notes, it certainly looked as if it had been about the same time.
Arthur Severn.
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“ GRIPPED BY PAINFUL FOREBODINGS ” ABOUT A CHILD
THEN UNDERGOING AN OPERATION 1
(JAN STYKA)
The writer of the following letter is said by Flammarion to be “ a
celebrated Polish painter.” It was written November 2, 1920.
Dear Master and Friend:
Here is the occurrence of which I spoke to you. It was in 1912.
We had left, my son Tadee and I, for Mentone, in order to go to Gorbio
to visit the sanatorium. When we got to Mentone we did not find the
automobile there which ran to and from Gorbio. We were obliged to
go into a confectioner’s shop, and to take something to eat there, that
we might be privileged to use the telephone to ask to have the auto-
mobile sent for us. While we were waiting for it, drinking chocolate,
I was suddenly gripped and tortured by most painful forebodings about
my grandson Casper, who at that time was seven years old. At that
moment I realized just what it meant, — this relationship of parents
and grandparents to their grandchildren. I thought of my wife’s
father, who was also named Casper. And, sad at heart, I began to
weep hot tears ; my son, astonished, asked me what was the matter. I
told him that I was thinking of my grandchild, and that I did not un-
derstand why I was so affected. Well, twenty days afterward I learned,
through a letter from my daughter, that at this very moment when I
was so overwhelmed, on a Sunday and at the same hour, little Casper
had undergone, in Krakow, the operation of trepanning, and had been
in danger of dying. The mystery of my emotion was thus explained.
Was that not a telepathic phenomenon which confirms the tentative
theory which you put forward?
Jan Styka.
APPARITION OF A WOMAN COINCIDES WITH THE
MOMENT OF HER DEATH
(HARRIET HOSMER)
This, the first prominent American woman sculptor (1830-1908)
early manifested her genius by modeling the forms of horses and other
animals in a clay pit near her home. After studying art in Boston, she
went to Italy with Charlotte Cushman and became a pupil of Gibson.
1 Death and Its Mystery; At the Time oj Death, by Flammarion, 230-31.
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Her ideal heads, Daphne and Medusa, were exhibited in Boston when
she was but twenty-two years old. She produced in her lifetime many
remarkable pieces of sculpture, a number of which are in St. Louis,
where she lived much of her time. Among her patrons were the Prince
of Wales (afterward Edward V.), the church authorities in Rome, and
Earl Brownlow.
Lydia Maria Child wrote an account of Miss Hosmer’s singular
experience, which the latter pronounced correct, and it was printed in
the Atlantic Monthly for May, 1862. According to Miss Hosmer’s
later statement, the experience occurred in about 1866 or 1857. A
briefer account, corrected in minor details and signed by her own hand,
is found in Phantasms of the Living }
An Italian girl named Rosa was in my employ for some time, but
was finally obliged to return home to her sister on account of confirmed
ill-health. When I took my customary exercise on horseback I fre-
quently called to see her. On one of these occasions I called about 6
o’clock p. m., and found her brighter than I had seen her for some time
past. I had long relinquished hopes of her recovery, but there was
nothing in her appearance that gave me the impression of immediate
danger. I left her with the expectation of calling to see her again
many times. She expressed a wish to have a bottle of a certain kind of
wine, which I promised to bring her myself next morning.
During the remainder of the evening I do not recollect that Rosa
was in my thoughts after I parted from her. I retired to rest in good
health and in a quiet frame of mind. But I woke from a sound sleep
with an oppressive feeling that someone was in the room. I reflected
that no one could get in except my maid, who had the key of one of the
two doors of my room — both of which doors were locked. I was able
dimly to distinguish the furniture in the room. My bed was in the
middle of the room with a screen round the foot of it. Thinking some-
one might be behind the screen I said, “ Who’s there? ” but got no
answer. Just then the clock in the adjoining room struck five; and at
that moment I saw the figure of Rosa standing by my bedside; and in
some way, though I could not venture to say it was through the medium
of speech, the impression was conveyed to me from her of these words :
“ Adesso son felice, son contenta .” And with that the figure vanished.
At the breakfast table I said to the friend who shared the apartment
with me, “Rosa is dead.” “What do you mean by that?” she in-
quired ; “ you told me she seemed better than common when you called
to see her yesterday.” I related the occurrence of the morning, and
told her I bad a strong impression Rosa was dead. She laughed, and
said I had dreamed it all. I assured her I was thoroughly awake. She
continued to jest on the subject, and slightly annoyed me by her per-
il, 448-40.
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sistence in believing it a dream, when I was perfectly sure of having
been wide awake. To settle the question I summoned a messenger, and
sent him to inquire how Rosa did. He returned with the answer that
she died that morning at five o’clock.
I was living at the Via Babuino at the time.
The earlier account, at the time approved by Miss Hosmer, con-
tains this passage : “ I heard in the apartments below familiar noises of
servants opening windows and doors. An old clock, with ringing vibra-
tions, proclaimed the hour. I counted one, two, three, four, five, and
resolved to rise immediately. As I raised my head from the pillow,
Rosa looked inside the curtain and smiled at me. I was simply sur-
prised, etc.” This implies that she was fully awake before she saw
the vision.
THE PERSISTENT DREAM OF A STATUE
(HIRAM POWERS)
Hiram Powers (1805-1873) was one of the greatest of the earlier
American sculptors. His own country being yet largely unready for
his work, he made his home in Florence, Italy, from 1837 until his
death. His statue of Eve was pronounced by Thorwaldsen, greatest
of Danish sculptors, a masterpiece. The Greek Slave is the most
widely known of his works, and many marble replicas of it are in
existence.
Some curious facts were set down by Mr. Powers, in correspondence
with his cousin, Hon. Thomas E. Powers, of Woodstock, Vt. The lat-
ter printed extracts from the letters in the Woodstock Standard, in
July, 1873. The first passage is from a letter dated December
31, *1849.
Little did I dream that the day would come when I should be here
in Italy, a sculptor; but I used to dream of a white figure standing
upon a pillar over the river near your father’s house, which I longed
to get near to but could not for the water — it was too deep to wade
through. This dream haunted me for years afterwards in Ohio, and it
ceased when I first began to model in clay. It was a female figure and
naked, but it did not seem alive. At that time I had never seen nor
heard of anything in the way of sculpture.
Later, on January 8, 1851, he wrote:
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I had not heard until Mr. Reed told me that my “ Slave ” had been
in Woodstock. This almost verifies an often repeated dream of mine
in all respects but one. It was this: I used to see in my sleep, when a
child, a white female figure across the river, just below your father’s
house; it stood upon a pillar or pedestal, was naked, and to my eyes
very beautiful ; but the water was between me and it, too deep to ford.
I had a strong desire to see it nearer, but was always prevented by the
river, which was always high. This dream ceased years after when I
began to model. Altogether, one may conclude that this — the dream —
was not entirely a phantom. At that time I had no wakeful thoughts
of sculpture, nor had I ever seen anything likely to excite such a dream.
Viewed from whatever angle, this dream is worth thinking about.
Reduce the whole incident to its lowest possible terms, and consider
that the dream fulfilled itself by helping to turn the dreamer toward his
true vocation, yet we must inquire, “ How did it come about and so
persistently recur, — that dream of a nude female figure, that did not
seem alive, on some kind of a pedestal — before he had ever seen sculp-
ture or had his waking attention called to the subject of sculpture?
Was there an influence external to himself directing him toward his
destined career, or was it his own subliminal consciousness, singularly
sagacious and prescient ? ”
COINCIDENTAL WAKING EXPERIENCES 1
(CHARLES MATHEWS AND ANNE JACKSON)
Charles Mathews (1776-1835) was one of the greatest comedians
which England has produced. He had marvelous powers of mimicry,
and did not need to make any changes in his attire in order to produce
the appearance of an entire change of personality. Anne Jackson, an
actress, became his second wife in 1803, and after his death she wrote
an interesting biography of him.
It seems that his first wife early in 1802 was ill, and one day when
Miss Jackson was calling, summoned her husband and asked the two to
marry after her own decease, causing much embarrassment to both.
The wife did not die until May, several months later, and then Miss
Jackson, who had no intention of marrying Mr. Mathews (or so she
says) for some time maintained very formal relations with him.
At the close of the summer a very remarkable instance occurred of a
1 Life and Correspondence of Charles Mathews, bv Mrs. Mathews (1880), 91-92,
94-95.
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coincidence of dreams, befalling Mr. Mathews and myself, a circum-
stance which I am induced to relate, since it was attested by witnesses
who severally and apart were informed of it, before the dreamers had
power to communicate with each other, or their mutual friends. Mr.
Mathews’s account of his impressions was as follows: He had gone to
rest, after a very late night’s performance at the theatre, finding him-
self too fatigued to sit up to his usual hour to read; but after he was
in bed he discovered — as will happen when persons attempt to sleep
before their accustomed time — that to close his eyes was an impossi-
bility. He had no light, nor the means of getting one, all the family
being in bed; but the night was not absolutely dark — it was only too
dark for the purpose of reading; indeed, every object was visible. Still
he endeavored to go to sleep, but his eyes refused to close, and in this
state of restlessness he remained, when suddenly a slight rustling, as if
of a hasty approach or something, induced him to turn his head to that
side of the bed whence the noise seemed to proceed ; and there he clearly
beheld the figure of his late wife, “ in her habit as she lived,” who, smil-
ing sweetly upon him, put forth her hand as if to take his, as she bent
forward. This was all he could relate; for, in shrinking from the con-
tact with the figure he beheld, he threw himself out of bed upon the
floor, where (the fall having alarmed his landlord) he was found in one
of those dreadful fits to which I have alluded. On his recovery from it
he related the cause of the accident, and the whole of the following day
he remained extremely ill, and unable to quit his room.
There is nothing surprising in all this ; for, admitting it not to be a
dream, but one of those cases called nightmare, so frequently experi-
enced (when the sufferer always believes himself under real influences),
it was not a case to excite astonishment. The circumstance which
rendered it remarkable, was that at the exact hour when this scene was
taking place at a remote distance, a vision of the same kind caused me
to be discovered precisely in the same situation. The same sleepless
effect, the same cause of terror, had occasioned me to seize the bell-
rope, in order to summon the people of the house, which, giving way at
the moment, I fell with it in my hand upon the ground. My impressions
of this visitation (as I persisted it was) were exactly similar to those
of Mr. Mathews. The parties with whom we resided at the time were
perfect strangers to each other, and living widely apart, and they re-
counted severally to those about them the extraordinary dream, for
such I must call it, though my entire belief will never be shakell that I
was as perfectly awake as at this moment. These persons repeated the
story to many, before they were requested to meet and compare ac-
counts; there could consequently be no doubt of the facts, and the
circumstance became a matter of much general interest amongst all
those who knew us.
Mrs. Mathews thoroughly realized that the experience occurring
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to either of the two who remembered the incident at the bedside was
easily to be accounted for. It was the close resemblance in the imagery
of the two visions, the fact that both fell out of bed, the fact that these
things happened on the same night and at the same hour, and the
certainty both felt that they were awake throughout, which attracts
attention.
VERIDICAL CRYSTAL VISIONS 1
(JOSEPH BARNBY)
Sir Joseph Barnby (1838-1896) was educated at the Royal Acad-
emy of Music, became a noted church organist of London, and, in addi-
tion to other positions, was conductor of the Albert Hall Choral
Society for twenty-five years, succeeding Gounod. He composed the
oratorio Rebekah, many anthems and other church services, and two
hundred and forty-six hymn tunes, many of them of high excellence.
His work is to be found in most hymnals of the present time. He also
composed part songs, including the popular “ Sweet and Low.”
This is the testimony of Sir Joseph Barnby, given November, 1892.
I was invited by Lord and Lady Radnor to the wedding of their
daughter, Lady Wilma Bouverie, which took place August 15, 1889.
I was met at Salisbury by Lord and Lady Radnor and driven to
Longford Castle. In the course of the drive, Lady Radnor said to me :
“ We have a young lady staying with us in whom, I think, you will be
much interested. She possesses the faculty of seeing visions, and is
otherwise closely connected with the spiritual world. Only last night
she was looking in her crystal and described a room which she saw
therein, as a kind of London dining-room. [The room described was
not in London, but at L., and Miss A. particularly remarked that the
floor was in large squares of black and white marble — as it is in the big
hall at L., where family prayers are said. — H. M. Radnor.] With a
little laugh, she added, * And the family are evidently at prayers, the
servants are kneeling at the chairs round the room, and the prayers are
being read by a tall and distinguished-looking gentleman with a very
handsome, long grey beard.’ With another little laugh, she continued:
‘ A lady just behind him rises from her knees and speaks to him. He
puts her aside with a wave of the hand, and continues his reading.’ The
young lady here gave a careful description of the lady who had risen
from her knees.”
1 Human Personality, by F. W. H. Myers, Vol. I, pp. 590-91.
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Lady Radnor then said : “ From the description given I cannot help
thinking that the two principal personages described are Lord and
Lady L., but I shall ask Lord L. this evening, as they are coming by a
later train, and I should like you to be present when the answer
is given.”
That same evening, after dinner, I was talking to Lord L. when
Lady Radnor came up to him and said : “ I want to ask you a question.
I am afraid you will think it a very silly one, but in any case I hope
you will not ask me why I have put the question.” To this Lord L.
courteously assented. She then said: “ Were you at home last night? ”
He replied, “ Yes.” She said : “ Were you having family prayers at
such a time last evening? ” With a slight look of surprise he replied,
“ Yes, we were.” She then said: “ During the course of the prayers did
Lady L. rise from her knees and speak to you, and did you put her
aside with a wave of the hand? ” Much astonished, Lord L. answered:
“ Yes, that was so, but may I inquire why you have asked this ques-
tion?” To which Lady Radnor answered: “You promised you
wouldn’t ask me that ! ”
One more incident in connection with the extraordinary powers of
this young lady remains to be noted. Whilst looking in her crystal
during one of the days I spent at Longford, she described, amongst a
number of things unnecessary to mention, a room which appeared to
her to be a bed-room. She appeared to be viewing the room from just
out side the open door, for she said : “ If there be a bed in the room it
must be behind the door on the left ;” in any case the room was a long
one and the end of it was occupied bv a large window which formed the
entire end of the room. She added : “ There is a lady in the room, dry-
ing her hands on a towel.” She described the lady as tall, dark,
slightly foreign in appearance and with rather “ an air ” about her.
This described with such astonishing accuracy my wife, and the room
she was then occupying at a hotel at Eastbourne, that I was impelled
to ask for particulars as to dress, etc. She stated that the dress was
of serge, with a good deal of braid on the bodice and a strip of braid
down one side of the skirt. This threw me off the scent, as before I had
started for Longford my wife had expressed regret that she had not a
serge dress with her. My astonishment, therefore, was great on re-
turning to Eastbourne to find my wife wearing a serge dress exactly
answering to the description given above. The sequel to this incident
comes some sixteen months later on, when my wife and I attended a
performance given by the Magpie Minstrels (a society of musical
amateurs) at Princes’ Hall, Piccadilly. We arrived early, and after
placing my wife in a seat I moved about the room, speaking to friends
here and there. In the course of ten minutes or so. Lady Radnor and
Miss A. entered the room. During the greetings which ensued, Miss A.
called my attention to a standing figure, saying: “You will remember
my seeing a lady in her bedroom while looking at my crystal ; that is the
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lady I saw.” That was my wife! I only need add that she had never
seen my wife.
Joseph Baenby.
The first of the above incidents was corroborated independently by
Lady Radnor and Miss A. herself (See Human Personality). A curi-
ous point, not at first mentioned by Sir Joseph Barnby, is that Miss A.
when the vision began to appear did not at once understand that pray-
ers were going on, and exclaimed : “ Here are a number of people
coming into the room. Why, they're smelling their chairs! ”
The second incident was corroborated by Lady Barnby from mem-
ory and from her diary.
PREDICTION, TELEPATHY AND PREVISION 1
(CHARLES CAMILLE SAINT-SAfiNS)
Saint-Saens (1835-1921) wrote his first symphony at sixteen and
it was successful. He was a great pianist, also organist nineteen years
of the Madelaine in Paris. Two operas did not succeed, but then came
Samson et DalUa, which is his masterpiece. Other operas were written
by him, also a large number of compositions for organ, piano and
orchestra, which show “ consummate mastery, if not genius.” He was
also distinguished as a musical critic and produced several books.
Among his honors were LL.D. from Cambridge, Mus.D. from Oxford,
and the Grand Cross Legion d’Honneur.
Saint-Saens wrote to his friend Flammarion the astronomer, rather
vigorously combating the notion of there being a soul or a God. But
his incredulous habit of mind did not prevent his having psychic experi-
ences. The first incident which he cites may be one, really, of remark-
able coincidence.
When, for the first time, I made application as a candidate for the
Acad4mie des Beaux-Arts, I was not nominated. This rather provoked
me, and I told myself mentally, looking at the Egyptian lions that
adorn, in such bizarre fashion, the fa£ade of the Institute : “ I shall
present myself again when the lions turn around Some time after-
ward the lions were turned!
Professor Flammarion did not think it likely that the wholly un-
i Death and Its Mystery; At the Time oj Death, by Flammarion, 30-31.
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expected event of the lion’s being turned to face the other way was
mere coincidence. So he argues from the case:
You are the most delightful of friends, the mightiest of musicians,
the glory of the Institute, one of the profound thinkers of our era, but
you are not logical. How could any collection whatsoever of chemical
molecules beneath your skull have been able to “ secrete ” this bizarre
premonition? An idea cannot be produced by a material mechanism.
Your mind saw an aspect of the future, without suspecting it.
But Saint-Saens testifies to other experiences of a psychic nature,
of which he has no doubt.
I, personally, have known cases of telepathy, of prescience of
future. I will cite some of them for you :
In the far-off days when I lived in the upper part of the Faubourg
Saint-Honore, I worked hard. When I was up to my ears in work, I
suddenly thought of a lady of my acquaintance. Some moments after-
ward— the time it would take to pass through the courtyard and go
up the stairs — some one rang: it was the lady of whom I had thought.
The first few times I believed it chance; but the twentieth time! This
phenomenon lasted several years.
In my youth, a painter, a friend of mine, showed me a picture he
intended to submit for the annual Exposition. He had not yet ex-
hibited his work, and did not know whether the picture would be
accepted. Looking at it, I saw it in the first room of the Palais de
l’Industrie, in a certain place at the top of the stairs. On the day the
Salon opened I went there, and saw the picture placed as I had foreseen.
If Saint-Saens could get momentary possession of a time-periscope
so as to see exactly where a picture would hang, both as to room and
precise place in the room, there seems to be no reason why he might not
peek through it and see the reversed lions.
WHY WAS SCHUMANN “ OBSESSED ” TO COMPOSE A
“ FUNERAL FANTASY ”? 1
(ROBERT SCHUMANN)
Schumann (1810-1856) was a native of Saxony, and became one of
the leading musical critics and composers of his time. He was for sev-
eral years professor of composition in the conservatory of music
1 Avant la Mort, by Flamraarion, 109-10. Translated by W. F. P.
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founded by Mendelssohn in Leipzig, and from 1850 to 1853 he was
musical director at Diisseldorf. He composed an opera, four sym-
phonies, five overtures, other large choral and orchestral works, a large
number of songs and piano compositions, etc. His position and sig-
nificance in the history of German music are very important.
Schumann, in the year 1838, wrote to Clara Wieck, whom he was to
marry two years afterward, who herself attained fame as a pianist, and
who survived him forty years :
“ I must tell you a presentiment I have had ; it haunted me from the
24th to the 27th of March, during which I was absorbed in my new
compositions.
“ There was a certain passage which obsessed me, and some one
seemed to be repeating to me from the depths of his heart: Ach Gott
(O, my God!) While composing I visualized funereal things, coffins,
sorrowing faces. . . . When I had finished, I sought for a title. The
only one which came to my mind was Leichenphantasie (Funeral Fan-
tasy). Is this not extraordinary? I was so overcome that the tears
came to my eyes; I truly did not know why; it was impossible to dis-
cover any cause for this sadness. Then came Therfese’s letter, and all
was clear. Her sister-in-law had notified her that her [the sister-in-
law’s] brother had just died.”
Schumann gave the title Nachtstucke (Nocturne) to that suite
which originally he had wished to call Leichenphantasie.
A COINCIDENCE WHICH PUZZLED THE SINGER 1
(DAVID SCULL BISPHAM)
This, one of the greatest of American barytone singers (1857-
1921), made his debut as the Due de Longueville in The Basoche, at
the Royal English Opera in London, and thereafter was with the Royal
Opera at Covent Garden, and the Metropolitan Opera Company of
New York, singing principal roles in German, French, Italian and
English. He was one of the founders of the Society of American Sing-
ers, producing classical opera comique in English. Many phonograph
records have been made of his songs, such as “ Ring Out, Wild Bells,”
and “ Danny Deever,” as well as opera selections.
In the spring of 1890, Bispham, then already thirty-three years
old, was known only as a church and concert singer; he had not learned
1 A Quaker Singer's Recollections, by David Bispham (N. Y., 1920), 80-81.
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a single part in opera, and had hardly turned his attention in that
direction. Then, while in London, “ an even stranger thing [than an
apparently psychic incident just related] took place for which I have
always been at a loss to account.”
I had been in London but a few months, was quite unknown to the
public, and it is altogether unlikely that I should have been heard of by
the old phrenologist to whose quaint little book-shop I was taken one
evening somewhat against my will, but I am glad to have had an experi-
ence which has always remained a mystery to me.
We dived into a narrow street off Oxford Street, near the British
Museum in Dickens land, and climbed a stairway littered with books,
as was the passage from the front door. The old man, for all the world
like the figure standing upon the top of the library ladder in the well-
known picture called “ The Book Worm,” led us up-stairs. His bald
pate was covered with a black skullcap; his long broadcloth frock coat
was so shiny that he could have seen himself in it, if he could have
looked into his own back as well as he did into other people’s brains.
He was a gentle old soul, spoke quietly, confidentially, and almost af-
fectionately to each of those who had sought him out, as they sat about
the center table under the gaslight in his little parlor over the shop.
He walked about among us, quietly placing his hands upon the
head of each as he passed. When he had given each person a some-
what intimate review of his nature, he said that we were all surrounded
by the spirits of those whom he called our guardians. Every other per-
son in the room accepted his descriptions of relations or friends who
had passed on, except myself, for I was unable to recognize the pres-
ence he minutely described as being my guide at the time. He said he
saw an elderly, clean-shaven man with gray hair, dressed in a beautiful
garment of red brocade with large puffed sleeves over a lighter colored
vest of satin, with a sword by his side and around his neck a heavy gold
chain from which depended a great jeweled locket. I assured the old
phrenologist there was no such person among my ancestors. My fore-
fathers were, as I well knew, such as Michelangelo declared his to be,
“ Simple persons who wore no gold on their garments.” Standing with
his eyes lifted ceilingward and gazing into vacancy, the old man per-
sisted that he knew nothing about that and could only tell me what
he saw.
I thought no more of the matter for a year and a half. Then, upon
the occasion of my first professional appearance at the Royal English
Opera in Shaftesbury Avenue in the opera comique by Messager en-
titled “ The Basoche,” I, as the Due de Longueville, found myself,
though I had for years worn a beard from which I tried hard not to
part, clean-shaven at last, and bewigged and costumed with sword and
chain and locket — every detail of the dress that the old phrenologist
had described. Let who will explain this; I cannot.
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To be sure, there was a certain amount of probability that, should
Bispham become an opera singer, he would sometime have a role in
which he would wear some such costume. But he had then only begun
to think of opera, his attention was not on the role of the Due de
Longueville, and the “ phrenologist,” he declares, was not at all likely
to have heard even that he was a singer. It is certainly a remarkable
coincidence, if the description given by the old man of the “ guide ”
corresponded so closely to the portrait of Bispham as the Due (shown
in connection with the quoted passage) that this should have been the
very first operatic part which was assigned to him. To be sure, the
“ phrenologist ” thought he was describing a “ guide,” but that might
have been only his guess to account for the mental picture which pre-
sented itself.
“ PLANCHETTE AND PROPHECY ” 1
' i
(DAVID S. BISPHAM)
After a six months’ run of The Basoche, Bispham returned to con-
cert singing. He was invited by theatre managers to go into light
opera, but could not seem to find a part which suited him. It was
while in this quandary that, in March, 1892, Baron Waleen, a Swede
interested in psychical matters, dined at his house in London, bringing
with him a planchette, and some tentative experiments were made. A
few evenings later Bispham dined with Waleen and his friend Baron
Rudbeck, who, although not a spiritist, was supposed to have some
psychic power. “ Under Rudbeck’s hand, planchette began at once to
write rapidly and distinctly.”
I was not touching the machine, nor had I propounded any ques-
tions to it ; yet it soon wrote in large letters, “ Opera, by all means.”
Neither of my companions knew to what this referred or saw any con-
nection in it with anything that had gone before, until I explained.
“ It is an answer to a question I was about to ask,” I told them : “ Shall
I continue in concert or make further endeavor toward opera? ” Here
was a direct answer to my unspoken thought.
Needless to say, we three were interested, and grew excited as
planchette went on to reply without hesitation to every query I put to
it. Rudbeck’s right hand was resting upon it, his left hand covering
his eyes, which he opened only when the instrument stopped. My first
1 A Quaker Singer’s Recollections, 110-116.
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spoken question was, “ What operas shall I study? ” Let me here re-
mind the reader that at this time I had no operatic repertory, “ The
Basoche ” being the only opera I had ever learned. Planchette replied,
“ The operas of Verdi and Wagner.” I realized instantly that the
operas of the two composers named contained remarkably fine barytone
parts. But, excepting the romance to the Evening Star from “ Tann-
hauser,” I knew not a note of any of them.
The next question I propounded to planchette was, “ Which of
these operas shall I study ? ” The answer was, “ Ai’da,” “ Tannhauser,”
“ Tristan und Isolde,” “ and Meistersinger.” We sat amazed. I was
pleased as well, for no better parts exist than are to be found in these
works, and my next question followed almost as a matter of course,
“ What parts shall I study? ” There was a surprise for me at the end
of the answer, which was “ Amonasro, Wolfram, Kurwenal, and —
Beckmesser.”
This last disclosure puzzled me. I had heard “ Die Meistersinger ”
sung more than once at Bayreuth, as well as in other places, and had
laughed at Beckmesser, all the time so loving Hans Sachs that I was
then trying to learn the noble music of that role, deeming Beckmesser
too high, too unvocal, and too difficult for me to consider. I rather
fancied myself as a vocalist, and therefore deliberately put away all
thought of Beckmesser. Now I was bidden to study it !
I could not account for it, but went on to ask my final question,
“ When shall I be engaged? ” To this the reply was, “ In a couple of
months you will know.” After this, try as we would, no single word
came from planchette, whose board I had not touched during the
experiments.
I was so impressed by what had taken place that the next day I
secured an accompanist and began work on the part of Beckmesser, the
length and difficulty of which were appalling to me. This labor was
varied by study of the much easier roles of Amonasro and Wolfram,
while Kurwenal, so much shorter and more sympathetic, sank into my
mind more readily than any of the others. For two months I worked
like a slave on these, accepting, besides, an engagement to prepare the
part of Alberich in the entire first scene of “ The Rheingold ” and the
part of Wotan in the first scene of “ The Valkyrie.” These I worked
up with Carl Armbruster, one of Wagner’s assistant conductors at
Bayreuth.
The concert where he sang the two parts just mentioned took place
May 22. Sir Augustus Harris, impressario of the opera at Covent
Garden, was present.
As the company walked about the lawn after the affair, I observed
among the guests the familiar face of Sir Augustus Harris, the im-
pressario of the opera at Covent Garden, to whom I had been instru-
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mental not long before in suggesting that the universal use of the
Italian language should be discontinued in opera.
The next morning I had a message from my manager, Daniel
Mayer, to say that he had received from Harris a note asking if I
knew the part of Beckmesser; as, if I did, I was to come at once to
Covent Garden to rehearse it for performance with Jean de Reszke,
Madame Albani, and Jean Lassalle, the barytone.
As I read I thought I should die of excitement, for now was the
prophecy come true. “ In a couple of months you will know,” it said,
and at that time I had been asked to do the least likely and most
difficult of the parts I had been working on.
Bispham accepted and rehearsed Beckmesser, but owing to De
Reszke’s illness there was a postponement. Then, to his astonishment,
Harris said to him:
“ I have just had a letter from the German barytone who is here
with the company from Hamburg to say that he has a bad cold and
cannot sing the part of Kurwenal tomorrow night. I wonder if you
know that part? ”
I was standing on the stage of Covent Garden where the trap is that
in the old version of “ Faust ” opened and let Mephistopheles through
into another region. When Harris asked me the question I felt as if I
should sink into the depths, such a failing was there of my heart at
being asked to do the second one of the characters which planchette
had advised me to study.
Without a single rehearsal, Bispham was able to carry the role of
Kurwenal, opening June 26, 1892, with Alvary, “ the greatest Tristan
of his time.”
I may say without boasting, for it is merely a matter of record, that
for a number of years I had no rival in the part of Kurwenal, nor in
the part of Beckmesser. When this latter was finally produced I per-
formed it so as to insure me the part, which, much as I enjoyed per-
forming it, was so strenuous that had I not been blessed with what my
mother called “ the voice of a bull of Bashan ” I should never have been
able to live through it and the many other parts which immediately
began to crowd upon me.
When people say to me, “ What but foolishness did any one ever
get out of planchette or any other so-called spiritistic advice? ” I tell
them the story just narrated. My action in taking the advice I re-
ceived— whence it came, I know not — resulted at the time indicated in
my being fully prepared for what I was asked to do. In accepting this
counsel and being ready with the parts I had been told to learn, I was
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undoubtedly enabled to accept the responsibilities whose execution
straightway resulted in the foundation of my operatic career. . . .
It is to be remembered that I had been advised to pay particular
attention to the operas of Verdi and Wagner, that I had been told to
study the roles of Amonasro, Wolfram, Kurwenal, and Beckmesser;
that a “ couple of months ” later I was actually engaged to sing Beck-
messer, and that, upon the postponement of that part, I did in reality
perform the role of Kurwenal.
Now occurred another curious thing. One day as I was leaving
Covent Garden after a rehearsal, I was accosted by Castelmary, the
regisseur of the company, and asked whether I knew the part of
Amonasro well enough to take it that evening in the place of Victor
Maurel, who had notified the management of his sudden indisposition.
The state of internal panic that ensued — for the prophecy had now
come true for the third time — left me outwardly calm and I accepted
the responsibility. . . . [Maurel, however, recovered sufficiently to
sing.] Though I did not perform it, the part was offered to me, the
third of the four characters I had been advised to study, and I was
ready to sing it.
An examination of Mr. Bispham’s musical career shows that of the
four parts which “ planchette ” counseled him to study, two — Beck-
messer and Kurwenal, not from his will, but from invitations of im-
presarios and popular approval — became principal roles with him for
years, in which he had no peer; the third, Wolfram, he sang season
after season in London and afterward in America; and the fourth,
Amonasro, he was unexpectedly called upon to assume, within a few
months after being told by planchette to prepare it, although he does
not seem actually ever to have appeared in it.
THE PRIMA DONNA SEES THE COMPOSER AS HE
IS DYING 1
(GALLI-MARIfi)
Mme. Galli-Mari6 was the creator of the character Carmen in
Bizet’s opera of that name, his masterpiece. She first sang in that
part at the Opera Comique in Paris, March 3, 1875. He died just
three months later, June 3. Of course the composer and the singer
during the three months and earlier became familiarly acquainted. It
was on the evening of June 2 that she had her experience. Bizet was
1 Autour de la Mori, by Flammarion, 224-25.
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ill only a few hours before his death, and there wras no known reason for
anxiety about him while the opera was going on that night.
The incident was generally reported in the French newspapers, and
differently told, but M. Flammarion is satisfied that the essential facts
as set forth in VEclair for September 24, 1875, are authentic.
Mme. Galli-Marie was on the stage on a certain evening in June
[June 2]. Suddenly she ceased to sing. She had felt in her side a
shooting pain, like the blow of a hammer in her heart. She regained
possession of herself, and finished the act ; but on reaching her dressing-
room said to those about her: “ Some misfortune has happened to our
Bizet. As the blow seemed to strike me, I saw his face in front of me,
for just a second. . . . My God ! My God ! How pale he was ! ”
They hurried to make inquiry. Bizet had just died.
But he could not have just died unless news was not brought until
some time past midnight. Probably the real news was that he had been
stricken with the heart malady and was dying.
FINDING OF THE LOST WILL 1
(TITO SCHIPA)
Tito Schipa (1890-. . . .) was born in Lecce, Italy, his voice was
trained for five years by the maestro Gerunda, he then made his d6but
at Milan in Traviata, and at once achieved success. After singing in
many cities of Spain and South America he was engaged, in 1919, by
the Chicago Opera Company as its leading lyric tenor. His principal
roles have been in i Somnambula, Barber of Seville, Lakme, Traviata,
Lucia and Tosco.
Under his signature Mr. Schipa tells two psychical experiences of
his own. Once, when a boy, he saw the apparition of a woman with
Spanish veil and fan. Months after he visited his uncle in Parma,
where he had never previously been. Glancing through a photograph
album he came upon one of his uncle’s lately-deceased wife, taken in
Spain at the time of her marriage, and exclaimed to his mother that
this was the lady he saw. It proved to be his uncle’s wife whom, as
well as whose portrait, he had never seen, and it was also ascertained
that the apparition appeared on the night of her death. Mr. Schipa
also tells how he exposed a very clever spiritistic imposture. The re-
1 Philadelphia Public Ledger, February 12, 1928.
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maining incident we now present. The ingenuity shown at the close of
the story, in trying to account for the facts, indicates that the nar-
rator has a critical, rationalizing tendency.
Still more interesting was another incident which happened in my
early days of opera singing and shortly after my career had started.
It was at Vercelli, where I made my d4but in Traviata. The little inn,
a very old one, where I stopped seemed steeped in gloom, which extended
from the manager through the entire personnel. It developed that the
man’s father had died and left no will; at least none which could be
found. For generations that inn had been inherited by the eldest son,
whose early life was spent in preparation for its future management.
Owing to absence of a will, the then eldest son in charge would lose it,
as the place must be sold and the proceeds divided among the dead
man’s heirs.
This eldest son proved a nice fellow, telling me with frank honesty
and thinking I might have scruples, that his place was crowded and the
sole room he could give me was the one in which his father had died.
Having no foolish fears in the matter, I promptly took it, sleeping
soundly the night through.
The second night proved less fortunate. Tossing restlessly for
hours, at last I fell asleep, though it seemed to me only briefly, when I
was awakened by a whirring noise as of some big bird circling just
above my head. Thinking probably a bat had flown in through the
open window, I got up, lit a candle and made search. No bat was there.
Sleeping from then on, I was again aroused in the half-dawn by
repetition of the whirring noise just above my head. Only partially
awake, I struggled against sleep until startled by spoken words.
Sounding husky, and uttering the words singly, as if with strong effort,
the voice said: “ Look-on-left-wall.” The last word was almost inaud-
ible. Whether I had dreamed this or really heard it I felt uncertain.
But I got up and looked in the dim light. The left wall looked exactly
like any other wall, wainscoted to the ceiling with wood panels, against
which hung an old oil painting.
Smiling to myself at what seemed a freak of imagination, I climbed
into bed. Presently three sharp knocks against the wooden wainscot-
ing of the left wall decided me that a bat was blindly seeking freedom.
Then I began to search more thoroughly, for I was tired of having my
peace wrecked.
Perhaps the bird had been caught behind the old painting, was my
next thought. Dragging a tall table across the floor, I climbed up on
it, taking down the picture, which proved to be the martyrdom of St.
Sebastian, gloomy and cruel, showing the bleeding wounds and piercing
arrows. I placed the face of the picture against the wall. Before I
climbed back to hang it up, and in the daylight which had meanwhile
grown stronger, the gleam of a white paper caught my eyes. It was
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neatly folded and stuck at the back of the picture between a wooden
stretcher and the canvas. Pulling the paper out, I took it to a window
to investigate. It was the lost will, leaving the inn to the writer’s
eldest son.
Frankly speaking, a cold sweat covered me. The will dropped from
my hands. The voice speaking must have been that of the dead ! Then
reason began to assert itself. Possibly, my mind filled with the story
of the will, I had dreamed those words, or, half awake, had fancied
them. As for the whirring noise and knockings, they might, after all,
have been made by a bat now flown.
Then, too, I considered the situation along another line. As a
singer I was keenly sensitive in my response to surrounding influences,
often reading the thoughts of those about me, much as the antenna of
a radio receives sounds. Why might not that same sensitive response
to the hidden paper have inspired me, driven on by a half-dream, to the
finding of the will? At any rate, there it was.
RUBINSTEIN’S DEATH COMPACT 1
(ANTON RUBINSTEIN; GUARANTOR, LILLIAN NICHIA)
Lillian Nichia, a pupil of Rubinstein, the great pianist and com-
poser (1829-1894), tells this story.
One wild, blustery night I found myself at dinner with Rubinstein,
the weather being terrific even for St. Petersburg. The winds were
howling round the house, and Rubinstein, who liked to ask questions,
inquired of me what they represented to my mind. I replied, “ The
moaning of lost souls.” From this a theological discussion followed.
“ There may be a future,” he said.
“ There is a future,” I cried, “ a great and beautiful future; if I die
first, I shall come to you and prove this.”
He turned to me with great solemnity.
“ Good, Liloscha, that is a bargain ; and I will come to you.”
Six years later in Paris I woke one night with a cry of agony and
despair ringing in my ears, such as I hope may never be duplicated in
my lifetime. Rubinstein’s face was close to mine, a countenance dis-
torted by every phase of fear, despair, agony, remorse and anger. I
started up, turned on all the lights, and stood for a moment shaking in
every limb, till I put fear from me and decided it was merely a dream.
I had for the moment completely forgotten our compact. News is
1 Harper’s Magazine, December, 1912.
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always late in Paris, and it was Le Petit Journal, published in the after-
noon, that had the first account of his sudden death.
Four years later, Teresa Carreno, who had just come from Russia,
and was touring America — I had met her in St. Petersburg frequently
at Rubinstein’s dinner-table — told me that Rubinstein died with a cry
of agony impossible of description. I knew then that even in death
Rubinstein had kept, as he always did, his word.
Here again we are at liberty to accept the testimony regarding the
remarkable and complex coincidence, and to disregard what is really
an expression of opinion in the last sentence. Whether Rubinstein re-
membered his compact in his dying hour, or the impression upon his
far-away pupil was automatically produced by some obscure telepathic
process, the dying man having in his mind no conscious thought of his
promise, or some intervening tertium quid produced the impression,
could never be determined by this incident alone.
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CLERGYMEN, THEOLOGIANS AND
EVANGELIST
TESTIMONY TO PSYCHICAL EXPERIENCES BY A
MODERN APOSTLE
(WILLIAM BOOTH)
This famous religious organizer and leader (1829-1912) rivalled
St. Paul and John Wesley in his tireless energy and glowing zeal. He
was the founder and for thirty-four years the General of the Salvation
Army, which has spread to nearly all lands, and, besides its purely
evangelistic work, maintains a host of institutions for the help and
improvement of the destitute and submerged classes.
In the War Cry , November 27, 1897, under the heading, “ Com-
munion with the Departed,” General Booth testified:
Through all my history my personal intercourse with the spirit
world has been but limited. I have not been favored with many visions,
and yet I have a spiritual communion with the departed saints that is
not without both satisfaction and service, and especially of late the
memories of those with whom my heart has had the choicest communion
in the past, if not the very beings themselves, have come in upon me as
I sat at my desk or lay wakeful in the night-season. Among these, one
form, true to her mission, comes more frequently than all besides, assur-
ing me of her continued partnership in my struggle for the temporal
and eternal salvation of the multitudes — and that is my blessed and
beautiful wife.1
A COMPANY OF EMIGRANTS SAVED BY A DREAM 1
(HORACE BUSHNELL, GUARANTOR)
This distinguished American clergyman and author (1802-1876)
graduated from Yale, studied law and edited the Journal of Commerce,
but at twenty-nine entered the ministry and became pastor of North
1 It is not evidence, but it is interesting, that the noted London clergyman Joseph
Parker used to pray that his wife’s spirit should accompany him to his pulpit (See
Widow’s Mite, by I. K. Funk, 144), and that Samuel Johnson would more cautiously
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Congregational Church in Hartford, Conn., where he remained for
twenty-four years. This was his last parish. He helped found the
University of California and was invited to be its president. He wrote
about a dozen books, mostly theological. Old modes of expression did
not satisfy him, he was tried for heresy but acquitted. His literary
style has been much admired.
I will instance, first of all, a case not so clearly religious, but ex-
plicable in no way by the mere causalities of nature. As I sat by the
fire, one stormy November night, in a hotel parlor, in the Napa Valley
of California, there came in a most venerable and benignant looking
person, with his wife, taking their seats in the circle. The stranger, as
I afterwards learned, was Captain Yonnt, a man who came over into
California, as a trapper, more than forty years ago. Here he has
lived, apart from the great world and its questions, acquiring an im-
mense landed estate, and becoming a kind of acknowledged patriarch
in the country. His tall manly person and his gracious paternal look,
as totally unsophisticated in the expression, as jf he had never heard
of a philosophic doubt or question in his life, marked him as the true
patriarch. The conversation turned, I know not how, on spiritism and
the modern necromancy, and he discovered an inclination to believe in
the reported mysteries. His wife, a much younger and apparently
Christian person, intimated that probably he was predisposed to this
kind of faith, by a peculiar experience of his own, and evidently desired
that he might be drawn out bv some intelligent discussion of his queries.
At my request he gave the story. About six or seven years pre-
vious, in a mid-winter’s night, he had a dream, in which he saw what
appeared to be a company of emigrants, arrested by the snows of the
mountains, and perishing rapidly by cold and hunger. He noted the
very cast of the scenery, marked by a huge perpendicular front of white
rock cliff ; he saw the men cutting off what appeared to be tree-tops,
rising out of deep gullies of snow ; he distinguished the very features of
the persons and the look of their particular distress. He woke, pro-
foundly impressed with the distinctness and apparent reality of his
dream. At length he fell asleep and dreamed exactly the same dream
again. In the morning he could not expel it from his mind. Falling in
shortly with an old hunter comrade, he told him the story, and was
only the more deeply impressed by his recognizing, without hesitation,
the scenery of the dream. This comrade came over the Sierra, by the
Carson Valley Pass, and declared that a spot in the pass answered
exactly to his description. By this the unsophisticated patriarch was
petition, “ If thou hast ordained the souls of the dead to minister to the living, and
appointed my departed wife to have care of me, grant that I may enjoy the good
effects of her attention and ministration, whether exercised by appearance, dreams or
in any other manner” ( Johnsonian Miscellanies, I, 11).
1 Bushnell’s Natural and Supernatural, 475-6 (Scribner’s, 1859).
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decided. He immediately collected a company of men, mules and
blankets, and all necessary provisions. The neighbors were laughing
in the meantime at his credulity. “No matter,” said he, “ I am able
to do this, and I will, for I verily believe that the fact is according to
my dream.” The men were sent into the mountains, one hundred and
fifty miles distant, directly to the Carson Valley Pass. And there they
found the company in exactly the condition of the dream, and brought
in the remnant alive.
A gentleman present said, “ You need have no doubt of this ; for we
in California all know the facts, and the names of the families brought
in, who now look upon our venerable friend as a kind of saviour.”
These names he gave and the place where they reside, and I found
afterwards that the California people were ready everywhere to second
his testimony ! 1
MONITION OF HIS SON’S DEATH
(JOSEPH BUCKMINSTER)
The Rev. Dr. Buckminster (1761-1812) graduated from Yale and
spent three additional years there as Berkeley Scholar. He was a tutor
at Yale for several years, and then became pastor of North Congrega-
tional Church, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, following Ezra Stiles,
who had become president of Yale, as his predecessor, Samuel Langdon,
1 Rev. Thomas Marques (1753-1827) was a pioneer American Presbyterian clergy-
man. He had a place in Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit, IV, 84. He began
to study for the ministry at the age of thirty-six. Here is the story which one of
his contemporaries says, “ he often related.”
“ During the period that he was thus employed in study his family were often
driven to great straits in procuring means of support; and upon his infrequent and
brief visits at home he was on the alert in providing for their wants. He often
related the following incident, not as miraculous but as an instance of God’s special
providence in his behalf. On reaching home one evening, he found his family desti-
tute of food except some small vegetables of which they made a light and unsatis-
factory meal. Earnest were their prayers around the evening altar, that Jacob’s God
would provide for their wants. But no light came to their minds, and they lay down
to unquiet rest. In his broken sleep, Mr. Marques dreamed of a hunting excursion,
and saw in a ravine near his farm, where he had often procured game before, three
deer, all of which, by a hunter’s stratagem, he secured. So strong was the impression
on his mind, that he arose, and at early dawn was on his way to the ravine, equipped
as a hunter. As was the dream, so was the fact. The three deer were there in size
and position, just as he saw them in sleep; and by his skill he secured them all as
food for his family, and returned to school, joyful in the good providence of God.”
If Mr. Marquee found the deer in the very spot where he saw them in the dream,
and they were of the same respective sizes, and the same number, and he was able to
kill them all, exactly as dreamed (of course we cannot be certain of all these par-
ticulars, but there must have been an extraordinary amount of coincidence involved
or Marques would not have repeated the story frequently), whence did the informa-
tion come? Was it telepathy from the deer (for we shall not be satisfied to ascribe
it to an abstract “ Providence ”) or a group of astonishing chance coincidences?
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had become president of Harvard. He continued pastor until his
death, an encumbency of thirty-three years. He was D.D. from the
College of New Jersey, now Princeton University. Daniel Webster at-
tended his church for several years and was attached to him.
The Rev. Joseph S. Buckminster (1784-1812) son of the preceding,
was important enough to find a place in the Schaff-Herzog Encyclo-
pedia of Religious Knowledge, which states that he graduated at Har-
vard, became pastor of Brattle Street Church, Boston, and lecturer on
Biblical criticism at Harvard, was “ a forerunner of the Unitarian
movement,” and “ one of the founders of the literary reputation of
Boston.” Sprague’s Annals (Unitarian volume) has a long sketch of
his short career, containing extended tributes by Edward Everett, John
G. Palfrey and other notables. Everett says that for a combination
of intellect, learning, eloquence, judgment and other qualities he never
saw the equal of J. S. Buckminster, and that if he had lived he would
have become the greatest in his profession in America. His works, in
two volumes, were printed in 1839.
The following incident was taken down from the lips of Mrs. Joseph
Buckminster, by his daughter who reports it.1
On Tuesday evening, June 9, he (the son) expired. . . . When his
[Dr. Buckminster’s] wife entered his chamber the next morning he said
to her, with perfect composure, “ My son Joseph is dead.” Mrs.
Buckminster, supposing that he had slept and dreamed that his son was
dead, although no news of his illness had reached him, assured him that
it was a dream. “ No,” he replied, “ I have not slept nor dreamed ; he
is dead ! ” This incident is related as received from the lips of her to
whom the words were spoken, and there can be no shadow of a doubt
of their truth. . . .
Dr. Joseph Buckminster was living at Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
where he had been for many years pastor of a church. On the 1st or
2nd of June, 1812, he left Portsmouth, intending to travel for his
health. He reached Reedsborough [misprinted as “ Peedsborough ” in
Phantasms of the Living~\, a little village, on the 9th of June, and died
there the following morning. The Rev. J. S. Buckminster (the son)
was living at Boston in delicate health. He was taken suddenly ill on
June 3, and died on June 9, twenty-four hours before the death of his
father. Dr. Buckminster must have been aware of his son’s delicate
state of health, but no one seems to have expected his death to occur
when it did. There is no mention of letters being sent to warn Dr.
Buckminster, nor do the family seem to have been aware of the son’s
illness until after the father’s death. Indeed, Dr. Buckminster had
1 Memories of the Rev. Joseph Buckminster, DD., and of His Son, the Rev. J. S.
Buckminster, by Eliza Buckminster Lee (Boston, 1851), 464, 476-77.
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intended to visit his son and daughter at Boston, on his return from
the expedition which was cut short by his own death.
I have found another, and substantially agreeing, account of the
incident, also by Mrs. Lee,1 which adds several particulars. Dr. Buck-
minster had reached Marlboro, Vermont, by the evening of June 9.
“ My brother at Boston was at this moment dying after a short and
severe illness [begun after his father’s departure], but my father was
wholly ignorant of the fact.” It appears, also, that while the health
of the son was “ delicate,” he was regarded as in good health for him
when the journey began, so that there seems to have been no grounds
for apprehension.
TELEPATHIC(P) EXPERIENCE OF A GREAT CHURCH
LEADER 2
(JOHN CALVIN; GUARANTOR, THEODORE BEZA)
Having been a student of both law and Roman Catholic theology,
Calvin (1509-1564), as early as his twenty-fourth year, was already
reputed for his learning and was the head of the Reformation movement
in France. Four years later he took up residence in Geneva and wa9
identified with that city, where he helped to establish a theocratic gov-
ernment, the rest of his life. His system of church polity spread
through Switzerland and into France and Scotland. In his celebrated
Institutes he outlined a system of theology which for three centuries
dominated a large part of Protestantism, and against which Methodism
in particular was a revolt. Historically, Calvin ranks with Augustine
as a theologian. He was a man of immense learning, intellect and
industry.
Theodore Beza (1519-1605) was of French birth, became professor
of Greek, first in Lausanne, then in Calvin’s academy in Geneva. He
was Calvin’s supporter, and succeeded him as teacher of theology and
leader of the Calvinist party.
It is Beza who relates the following incident :
It affords us satisfaction to mention in this place a circumstance
which deserves to be stated. On the 19th of December [1562], which
was the Sabbath, the north wind having been unusually high for two
1 Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit (1859), ii.
2 Life of John Calvin, by Theodore Beza (Philadelphia, 1836), 77.
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days, Calvin (although confined to bed by the gout) said, in the hear-
ing of a number of friends, “ I know not indeed what it means. I
thought I heard last night a very loud sound of drums used in war, and
I could not divest myself of the opinion that it was reality. I entreat
you to pray, for some event of very great moment is undoubtedly
taking place.” On this very day, the battle of Dreux, distinguished for
its great cruelty, was fought, the news of which reached Geneva a few
days after.
It could not have been unusual for Calvin to hear the wind blow.
And even though we should concede, what would be a matter of mere
conjecture, that the beating of war drums was an auditory illusion, it
would not annul the fact that the illusion and oracular utterances of
Calvin were vindicated by the news which several days later arrived.
Nor will it be claimed in this instance that it was a case of auditory
hyperesthesia, since Dreux is more than 300 miles from Geneva.
But was not the fighting at Dreux simply the most conspicuous
event that happened to be taking place that day, and could not some
event as striking and of as much moment to Calvin and his friends have
been found almost any day, somewhere in the world? We are forced in
honesty to answer, No. Calvin was deeply interested in the affairs of
the Huguenots in France, and through his letters and particularly
through his able emissary, Beza himself, had exerted much influence
among them and in their behalf. Now the battle fought in Dreux on
the day of Calvin’s utterance (and, considering the mental make-up of
Beza and the fact that he was Calvin’s most intimate associate, we can
hardly doubt the essential correctness of the account) was the first
great battle of the religious wars of France, wherein the Huguenots
suffered a great defeat, and their leader, Conde, was taken prisoner.
The slaughter on both sides, in this battle, was very great. So it was
no ordinary event that took place on the day that Calvin bade his
friends to pray, but one of very unusual character, and one which
deeply concerned the group in that chamber, since it seemed to indicate
the downfall of the Protestant cause in France.
SEES HIS FUTURE WIFE IN A DREAM 1
(ROBERT COLLYER, GUARANTOR)
Robert Collyer was a noted Unitarian clergyman, born in England,
pastor of Unity Church in Chicago, 1860-79, and thereafter for many
years pastor of the Church of the Messiah, New York City. He was
1 Religious Magatine and Monthly Review, August, 1872.
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author of Nature and Life, The Life That Now Is, Things New and
Old, etc. Although originally a blacksmith and untrained in schools,
he was remarkable for the purity and beauty of his literary style.
This incident is taken from a sermon delivered by Mr. Collyer, and
finds place expressly because a man so eminent and conservative knew
the original narrator well, vouched for his intelligence and trust-
worthiness and was convinced by his account.
I have a friend, a man of great intelligence, who told me that when
he was in the middle of the Pacific on a voyage, he saw a face in a
dream, and it was borne in upon him that this was the face of his wife.
He went through many adventures after that, was away about seven
years, came back, went home, went to a quarterly Quaker meeting in
Bucks County, Penn., and there saw, in a Quaker bonnet, for the first
time with his human eyes, that face he had seen in his dream. The
maiden became his wife, and I never saw a happier pair on earth, or a
sweeter home of children, and I have no doubt of the perfect truth of
the story.
AN APPARITION BY AUDIBLE VOICE GIVES PROOF 1
(RUSSELL HERMAN CONWELL)
The Rev. Russell H. Conwell (1842-1925) was one of the most
noted American clergyman of the last half century. LL.B. of Albany
Law School, D.D. and LL.D. of Temple University, he was the pastor
of the Baptist Temple in Philadelphia from 1891, founder and presi-
dent of Temple University in the same city from 1888, founder of two
hospitals, author of a number of biographies and other books. He
was very popular as a lecturer, and one particular lecture was deliv-
ered by him nearly 6,000 times. In lecturing alone, he earned about a
million and a half dollars, all of which was devoted to the education of
poor young men. He probably would never have credited any “ psy-
chical ” stories outside of the Bible but for his own experiences, and is
chary of coming to any logical conclusion regarding these. He felt no
interest, apparently, in psychic research as such, and when I asked him
questions at the time that the newspapers told the story of his peculiar
experience, he politely declined to answer them, though acknowledging
that the account which had been printed was essentially correct.
The form of the story which follows is as Dr. Conwell told it to
1 American Magazine, July, 1921.
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Bruce Barton, and there can be no doubt that it is correct. Mr. Bar-
ton is A.B. of Amherst College, Litt.D. of Juniata College, formerly
an editor, and is a conscientious, original and forceful writer of books
and articles on religious and other subjects.
Mr. Barton: A physician told me once of seeing a dying man lift
himself on his elbow, and his face was transfigured, as though he caught
a glimpse of another world. Have you ever seen that happen, Doctor
Conwell — a sort of exaltation?
Doctor Conwell: It would be no exaggeration to say that I have
seen it literally hundreds of times. We too often do death an injustice
in our thought.
We think of the suffering and pain of a last illness as the accom-
paniment of death. But the suffering is not death. Death is the kindly
visitor who comes to end the suffering, to lift the burden, to break the
chains. And no one who has stood often by the bedside can doubt that
for an instant before the end the soul does hover hesitant between two
worlds. I could tell you scores of instances — very impressive, very
solemn instances. ( After a pause.) I wonder whether you will under-
stand me if I tell you a very personal incident. There is so much loose
thinking and talking on the subject of our relations with the other
world ... so much spiritualistic rubbish . . . one hesitates lest he
be misunderstood. And yet I speak only what I myself have seen. . . .
I do not presume to draw conclusions.
Some years ago I had a dream that recurred every morning just
before I awoke. It seemed to me that the figure of Mrs. Conwell ap-
peared each morning and sat smiling at the foot of my bed. I said
nothing about it to anyone; it must be, I thought, a delusion of age.
Yet the figure was as real as life, smiling, and asking questions and
answering my own.
One morning I said, or seemed to myself to say, “ I know you aren’t
really there.”
“ Oh, but I am ! ” she replied.
“But how can I be sure?” I persisted. “Are you willing that I
should test you? ”
She nodded, still smiling.
“ All right,” I said, “ to-morrow I will ask you a question. Will
you be ready for it? ”
She nodded again and, with another smile, disappeared. The next
morning she was there again.
“ I see you have come,” I said. “ Are you still willing? ”
She smiled and nodded, seeming to enjoy it all immensely.
“ Tell me, then, where is my army discharge paper? ” I had not
seen it for years, and to the best of my knowledge was utterly ignorant
of its whereabouts.
In a voice that seemed as distinct as though she had uttered the
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words aloud, she answered, “ Why, it is in the black japanned box
behind the books in your library.”
I got out of bed and went into the library. There, after some
search, I found the box, hidden away behind a row of books ; and in it,
under a varied collection of documents, was the discharge paper.
Again the next morning she appeared, with a little smile of
triumph, as if to say, “ You see it was there, just as I told you; now
will you believe? ” But I was not satisfied, of course. I asked her if I
might make another test, and with the same happy smile, as though the
game entertained her greatly, she promised again.
That morning at breakfast I spoke to one of the maids, who had
lived with us for fourteen years.
“ Mary, you remember the gold fountain pen that Mrs. Conwell
gave me years ago. I want you to take it off my desk today and hide
it. And you are not to tell me or anyone else where you hide it. Do
you understand? ”
Again the next morning the figure appeared, and we seemed to joke
about it all for a little while. Finally I said :
“ Do you know where Mary hid my pen? ”
“ Of course I do.”
“ Can you tell me the place? ”
“ Get out of bed and come with me,” she answered laughingly.
I rose and, seeming to hold her hand, was led to one of the closets
in my room. The top shelf of the closet had been built into a little
closet with a door which covered only a part of the closet front. She
motioned me to it, and I took a chair and climbed up. I ran my hand
over the shelf this way, and that, but without encountering the pen. I
felt then that the whole thing must have been a delusion, and turned to
step down from the chair.
But she was still in the doorway and pointed again to the shelf,
shaking her head emphatically, as if to say, “ It is there ! Look again ;
you will find it.”
I did look again. I stretched my hand far in behind the door on
either side, and this time, to my amazement, I found the pen.
I told that simple incident some weeks later in private conversation
to a friend. He told it to another friend. And so, somewhat to my
embarrassment, it came back to me one morning on the front page of
the morning newspaper. Since it has been published once, I feel no
reticence in repeating it . . . only a certain reluctance lest some read-
ers should force into it an interpretation which I myself do not pretend
to give.
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A DYING VISION OF THE THIRD CENTURY 1
(THASCIUS CAECILIUS CYPRIANUS)
Cyprian ( circa 200-254 a. d.), one of the “ Ante-Nicene Fathers,”
was a patrician, wealthy, highly educated, and for a time taught
rhetoric at Carthage. He debated with Christians, but became a Chris-
tian himself, and at length Bishop of Carthage. He had a clear mind,
and his writings are prolific with information regarding early church
history and ecclesiastical law. In the course of a persecution in the
reign of Valerian, he was arrested and beheaded. His is one of the
most illustrious names of primitive Christianity.
When one of our colleagues and fellow priests, wearied out with
infirmity, and anxious about the present approach of death, prayed for
a respite to himself ; there stood by him as he prayed, and when he was
now at the point of death, a youth, venerable in honor and majesty,
lofty in stature and shining in aspect, and on whom, as he stood by him,
the human glance could scarcely look with fleshly eyes, except that he
who was about to depart from the world could already behold such a
one. And he, not without a certain indignation of mind and voice,
rebuked him, and said, “ You fear to suffer, you do not wish to depart ;
what shall I do to you ? ” It was the word of one rebuking and warn-
ing, one who, when men are anxious about persecution, and indifferent
concerning their summons, consents not to their present desire, but
consults for the future. Our dying brother and colleague heard what
he was to say to others. For he who heard when he was dying, heard
for the very purpose that he might tell it; he heard not for himself,
but for us.
THE “ DAEMON ” OF AN EARLY BISHOP 2
(ST. GREGORY)
Gregory, known as Thaumaturgus (wonder worker), born about
213, died about 270 a. d., the son of noble and wealthy Greek
parents. He was on the way, when about twenty years old, to Berytus
to complete his training in civil law, when he met Origen, next to Augus-
tine the greatest theologian of the early church, at C«sarea, and
there became his pupil and convert. He was for thirty years bishop of
1 On the Mortality, by Cyprian, section 19.
2 Panegyric Address to Origen, by Gregory Thaumaturgus.
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his native city of Neocsesarea in Pontus, and is reckoned among the
Ante-Nicene Fathers of the Church. It was when he left the school of
Origen, at the probable age of about twenty-five, that Gregory delivered
the Panegyric in the presence of his master, from which the following
excerpts are taken. This oration contains the earliest Christian auto-
biographical account extant.
If I may seek to discourse of aught beyond this and in particular,
of any of those beings who are not seen, but yet are more godlike, and
who have a special care for men, it shall be addressed to that being who,
by some momentous decision, had me allotted to him from my boyhood
to rule, and rear, and train, — I mean that holy angel of God who led
me from my youth . . . that angel, I say, who still at this present time
sustains, and instructs, and conducts me; and who, in addition to all
these other benefits has brought me into connection with this man
[Origen], which, in truth, is the most important of all the services
done me.
Gregory goes on to give details of his life up to the time that he
reached Csesarea. He gives some, but expressly says that he has not
time to recount all of his reasons for thinking that he was led there in
order to meet Origen, then continues :
Wherefore it was not that soldier, but a certain divine companion
and beneficent conductor and guardian, ever leading us in safety
through the whole of this present life, as through a long journey, that
carried us past other places, and Berytus in especial, which city at that
time we seemed most bent on reaching, and brought us hither and set-
tled us here, disposing and directing all things, until by any means he
might bind us in a connection with this man [Origen] who was to be the
author of the greater part of our blessings. And he who came in such
wise, that divine angel, gave over this charge to him, and did, if I may
so speak, perchance take his rest here, not indeed under the pressure
of labor or exhaustion of any kind (for the generation of those divine
ministers knows no weariness) but as having committed us to the hand
of man who would fully discharge the whole work of care and guardian-
ship within his power.
It is evident that Gregory intends to express his conviction that he
was led by a discamate intelligence. He is not as clear as Socrates
was in his statement, but apparently means much the same thing. Of
course his concept of an “ angel ” was not that of medieval and modern
art, a monstrosity with wings attached to its shoulder-blades. Nor did
“ divine ” ( divinus ) necessarily mean anything more than super-
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excellent or admirable. Gregory did not attempt to declare what was
the precise nature of his guide; he probably did not know, for, again
referring to him he says “ that being, whosoever he is, who has been the
wonderful guide of our childhood, who in all other matters has been in
time past my beneficent tutor and guardian.’*
APPARITION OF PERSON SEEN COINCIDENTLY WITH
HIS DEATH 1
(ALEXANDER VIETS GRISWOLD)
Alexander Viets Griswold (1766-1843) was an Episcopalian clergy-
man who became prominent as a pastor of churches, and in 1811 was
consecrated Bishop of the then Eastern Diocese, composed of all the
New England States save Connecticut. He was D.D. from Brown
University and the College of New Jersey.
The following was sent to the S. P. R. by a physician of Providence,
R. I., on August 28, 1884. The Mr. Collins referred to, it was ascer-
tained, died July 4, 1807, which fixes the date of the Bishop’s
experience.
I have been for many years a practitioner of medicine in this city ;
my birthplace was the town of Bristol, some fifteen miles distant, where
I resided for more than thirty years, and for the greater part of that
time was a next-door neighbor of Right Rev. A. V. Griswold, Bishop
of the Eastern Diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and who
died some forty years ago. He was, as all churchmen in this country
know, greatly esteemed for his talents and piety.
For what follows the Bishop himself was my informant. He told it
to others, and I heard it frequently spoken of by different members of
the family.
One afternoon, while standing at his desk writing in his study, a
door opened 2 from an adjoining room, and Mr. Collins, his son-in-law,
entered, and passed slowly through the room and out of another door;
the Bishop said he had not been thinking or talking of Mr. Collins, and
had not heard from him for some time. He knew that he could not be
within a thousand miles of him, and yet he had distinctly seen him pass
through the room. This of itself was a very remarkable occurrence,
but what follows renders it still more so.
1 Phantasms oj the Living, II, 543.
2 Probably it is not to be understood that the door really opened but that this
was a hallucination.
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When the mail from Charleston arrived, some three or four days
after (there were no telegraphs or railroads at that time), a letter was
received announcing the death of Mr. Collins, on the very day and hour
when the Bishop saw him apparently pass through his study.
The good Bishop (who was no believer in ghosts, necromancy, or
anything of the sort) said it was a most remarkable and singular cir-
cumstance, the coincidence rendering it still more remarkable, and he
could not account for it, but supposed it must be some sort of a hal-
lucination ; for, as he was standing at a high desk, he could hardly have
been dreaming.
John J. deWolf, M.D.
The incident is at second-hand and was old when Dr. deWolf wrote
his letter, but in view of various statements therein there is little reason
to doubt that it is true in its essence.
POSSIBLE TELEPATHY OR CLAIRVOYANCE
(NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS, INVESTIGATOR OF THE FACTS)
The Rev. N. D. Hillis (1858- . . . . ), A.B. and A.M. of Lake Forest
University, D.D. of Northwestern University, L.H.D. of Western Re-
serve University, was pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, N. Y.,
• from 1899 to 1924, and is now its pastor emeritus. He followed Dr.
Lyman Abbott, the successor of Henry Ward Beecher. His books and
articles have been many.
He reported this case to Dr. Isaac K. Funk, the eminent editor and
publisher, and the letter was turned over to Dr. Hyslop and published
by him.1
Brooklyn, N. Y., May 10, 1907.
My Dear Dr. Funk :
I have just had a rather extraordinary experience, in which I think
you will be interested. One of the leading members of Plymouth Church
has a son who occasionally drinks. His mother, a woman of fifty-five,
has been much disturbed about the son, a young man of twenty-five or
twenty-eight. Last January I knew that the son had gone to another
city, and while there had been drinking, and returned the next day
showing signs of dissipation. Two months passed by, and the experi-
ence was repeated in another city. In April the mother returned home
from the South. When the evening came, she asked her son to come to
1 Journal A. S. P. R., November, 1909.
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her bedroom, and made him sit down beside her, and began by saying,
“ Now I want you to tell me all about what has happened in .
Don’t deceive me. I saw you, in the hotel, I saw you surrounded by
men, and I saw you when you took the first drink.” He then told his
mother what had happened, thinking all the time that some one present
had written his mother. After that chapter had been thoroughly dis-
cussed, she said, “ Now I want you to tell me what happened in (such
and such) a city.” He then discovered that she knew all about this
event. The husband and son had both carefully guarded the secret
from the mother. The father came to me with a full statement of it.
Another experience, in a way, prepared both husband and son for this
strange knowledge. Several years ago the wife wakened her husband
up, saying that her son had just suffered a railroad accident in the
South, and the next day brought a message from him, saying that he
had been injured but that his injuries were slight, and the railroad
accident occurred at the very hour in the night when the mother saw
the event. I have been investigating the matter, and can find no break
in the testimony. How do you account for the experience?
Faithfully yours,
Newell Dwight Hillis.
Dr. Hyslop tried to get a detailed statement from the lady, but
Dr. Hillis replied, June 10, 1907 : “ The lady who had the experience,
and saw her son, etc., is unwilling that I should give out the story. But
for this I would gladly fufill your request.”
The facts being such as they were, it is no wonder that the mother
did not wish the details printed, with the very possible consequence that
the identity of her son would be correctly guessed by some readers.
But Dr. Hillis says that he had investigated the matter, and the result
was that he was convinced. We should bear in mind, also, that the
father was one of the leading members of Plymouth Church. This
being the case and the facts being of such a distressing nature, it is
exceedingly unlikely that there was any deceit in the testimony.
INCIDENTS RELATED BY A NOTED CHURCHMAN
(SAMUEL REYNOLDS HOLE)
The Very Rev. Samuel R. Hole (1819-. . . ?), Dean of Rochester,
England, was not only an effective preacher and popular lecturer, but
likewise the author of fascinating books, composed of reminiscences and
shrewd and witty comments upon men and affairs. He made two lectur-
ing tours in America.
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His The Memories of Dean Hole (London, 1892), contains a re-
markable dream of his own, and one of similar character told him by a
trusted friend. They may be found on pages 200-201. After rehears-
ing the account of a dream and its tragic sequel, told him many years
before, he goes on :
Are these dreams coincidences only, imaginations, sudden recollec-
tions of events which had been long forgotten? They are marvellous,
be this as it may. In a crisis of very severe anxiety, I required infor-
mation which only one man could give me, and he was in his grave. I
saw him distinctly in a vision of the night, and his answer to my ques-
tion told me all I wanted to know ; and when, having obtained the clear-
est proof that what I had heard was true, I communicated the incident
and its results to my solicitor, he told me that he himself had experi-
enced a similar manifestation. A claim was repeated after his father’s
death which had been resisted in his lifetime and retracted by the claim-
ant, but the son was unable to find the letter in which the retractation
was made. He dreamed that his father appeared and told him it was
in the left-hand drawer of a certain desk. Having business in London,
he went up to the offices of his father, an eminent lawyer, but could not
discover the desk, until one of the clerks suggested that it might be
among some old lumber placed in a room up-stairs. There he found
the desk and the letter.
Then, as regards coincidence, are there not events in our lives which
come to us with a strange mysterious significance, a prophetic intima-
tion, sometimes of sorrow and sometimes of success? For example, I
lived a hundred and fifty miles from Rochester. I went there, for the
first time, to preach at the invitation of one who was then unknown to
me, but is now a dear friend. After the sermon I was his guest in the
Precincts. Dean Scott died in the night, almost at the same time in
which he who was to succeed him arrived at the house which adjoins
the Deanery. There was no expectation of his immediate decease, and
no conjecture as to a future appointment, and yet when I heard the
tolling of the cathedral bell, I had a presentiment that Dr. Scott was
dead, and that I should be Dean of Rochester.
Again, Dean Hole in his Then and Now (London, 1902), pages
9-11, together with some opinions of his sets down a seeming pre-
monition and what he considers answers to prayer.
There is an immeasurable difference between ghosts and other ap-
paritions— between that which witnesses declare they saw with their
own eyes when they were wide awake, as Hamlet saw the ghost of his
father and Macbeth saw Banquo, and that which presents itself to us
when we are asleep, or in that condition between waking and sleeping
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which makes the vision so like reality. I do not believe in the former,
and I am fully persuaded in my own mind that the wonderful stories
which we hear are to be accounted for either as exaggerations or as the
result of natural causes which have been misstated or suppressed; but
many of us have had experience of the latter — of those visions of the
night which have seemed so real, and which in some instances have
brought us information as to occurrences before unknown to us, but
subsequently proved to be true.1 . . .
George Benfield, a driver on the Midland Railway living at Derby,
was standing on the footplate oiling his engine, the train being station-
ary, when he slipped and fell on the space between the lines. He heard
the express coming on, and had only just time to lie full length on the
“ six-foot ” when it rushed by, and he escaped unhurt. He returned to
his home in the middle of the night, and as he was going up the stairs,
he heard one of his children, a girl about eight years old, crying and
sobbing. “ Oh father ! ” she said, “ I thought somebody came and told
me that you were going to be killed, and I got out of bed and prayed
that God would not let you die.” Was it only a dream, a coincidence?
George Benfield and some others believed that he owed his life to that
prayer.
Dean Hole is the first person whom we remember to have held that
a man’s testimony respecting a given species of experience is more
credible if he was asleep at the time that he claims to have had it, than
if he was awake. He states that dreams “ in some instances have
brought us information as to occurrences before unknown to us, but
subsequently proved to be true,” but the same is asserted in respect to
waking apparitional experiences, on exactly as satisfactory evidence
in many cases. He accounts for “ the wonderful stories we hear ” in
respect to waking apparitions, and discredits them, on exactly the same
grounds that others account for and discredit his dreams. The fact
is, that with Dean Hole as with many others, the personal equation is
operative. He believes in coincidental dreams because he himself has
experienced them and knows that he is not guilty of “ exaggerations ”
in recounting them, nor can see how “ natural causes ” can explain
them ! He never has had a waking apparition, therefore is inclined to
conjure up guesses as to the inaccuracy and unveracity of those who
have — guesses which he would resent if they were applied to himself.
But the Dean’s testimony is one matter, his opinions or prejudices
another.
1 A reference to his dream, which we have already quoted from Memories, is here
omitted.
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AN EVIDENTIAL APPARITION 1
(BISHOP HUNTINGTON)
Frederick Dan Huntington, S.T.D. (Columbia University and Am-
herst College), LL.D. (Amherst), L.H.D. (Syracuse University), was
born in 1819 and died ita 1904. Graduated from Amherst College and
Harvard Divinity School, he became pastor of one of the important
Unitarian churches of Boston (the South Congregational) and so con-
tinued for many years, during five of which he was a professor and
preacher at Harvard, and, having entered the ministry of the Epis-
copal Church in 1860, was later lecturer at the Episcopal theological
schools in Cambridge, Mass., and New York City. He was editor of
the Unitarian Christian Register, and of two church periodicals in
later years, and the author of a number of books. Rector of Emman-
uel Church, in Boston, 1861-1869, he was in 1869 consecrated first
bishop of Central New York. First among the Unitarians, then among
the Episcopalians, Dr. Huntington was for more than half a century
one of the notable figures in the ecclesiastical life of America.
The direct reporter of the incident from the lips of Bishop Hunt-
ington is also a distinguished Episcopalian clergyman, later reputed to
ascribe most psychic incidents to “ satanic agencies,” but who appears
to have vulnerable spots in his armor.
The Apparitions at “ Elm Valley,” Hadley, Mass.
The fine colonial mansion above mentioned was built about 1750 as
the seat of the family of Phelps, and passed by inheritance to the late
Bishop F. D. Huntington, of Central N. Y., who was born in 1819 and
died in the room where he was born, 1904. He related these incidents
to the narrator.
A small bed-chamber was partitioned off from the huge attic under
the gambrel roof. Whoever sleeps in that room hears the door at the
foot of the attic stairs open and shut, and a soft muffled footstep climbs
the stairs and crosses the attic floor, stopping outside the bed-room
door. The footstep sounds like that of some one in stocking feet or in
moccasins. When the door is opened nothing is to be seen. A small
bed-room is entered by the staircase from the wood-house and is set
apart for the use of one of the “ hired men.” Some years before Bishop
Huntington’s death he had difficulty in retaining men one summer ; and
questioning one of them as to reason for his departure, heard this story.
The man said, “ You are a good master, Bishop, the wages are all I
want and I should like to stay, but I cannot sleep in that room. Last
1 Journal A. S. P. R., January, 1910, p. 49.
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night I went to bed and was going to sleep when I felt some one in the
room. I sat up in bed and saw an old woman short and bent, and
dressed in an old-fashioned way, with a cap and handkerchief crossed
on her breast, moving around changing the position of the furniture
and rearranging things. I thought it was rather cheeky of her, and
started to ask her what she was doing. She came over and stood at the
foot of the bed, looking at me, and I saw that I could see right through
her to the window beyond. Then I put my head under the bed-clothes,
and when I looked again she was gone, and I don’t want to sleep in that
room again.” The Bishop added that the description precisely fitted
an old woman who had been a pensioner of his mother’s when he was a
little boy and who had died in that room about 1825.
THE BISHOP IS IMPRESSED
(THE BISHOP OF LONDON)
The Rt. Hon. and Rt. Rev. Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram,
D.D., the present Bishop of London, prelate, scholar, author, and
noted for his work among the poor, had an experience which was below
the grade of evidentiality for telepathy of some others given in this
volume, but which, nevertheless, impressed him sufficiently for him to
report it.
The incident was found in Isaac K. Funk’s The Psychic Riddle,
pp. 166-67.
The private secretary of the Bishop of London wrote under date of
February 3, 1906: “The bishop desires me to say the enclosed is a
correct account of an experience by him.”
The following is the account enclosed:
“ I was sitting in my room one morning, when I was told that a
woman wanted to see me. I was very busy, and almost said at first:
* Oh, I’m too busy to see anyone this morning,’ but I thought and said,
* No, I have made a rule never to refuse to see anybody, in case it is
some one in trouble.’ So I said, ‘ Let the woman come up-stairs.’ She
came, and the first thing she said to me was this : ‘ I was going to ask
you whether you can find a use in your work for £1,000? ’ I said, ‘ It
is the very thing I have been wondering all the morning how I was to
get.’ I showed her exactly what I was going to spend the £1,000 on,
and the whole scheme was carried out.”
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TESTIMONY TO THE FACT OF PREMONITIONS 1
(JOHN KNOX)
Knox (1505-1575) was a student at the University of Glasgow
who for some reason did not take his degree. He is believed to have
become a secular priest of the Church of Rome and to have been con-
nected with a religious establishment for ten years. The martyrdom
of Wishart made him a Protestant, and as a religious reformer he was
to Scotland much what Luther was to Germany, his conflicts and perils
were similar, and he also was indefatigable in writing and preaching.
I dare not deny, lest I be injurious to the giver, that God hath
revealed unto me secrets unknown to the world ; yea, certain great reve-
lations of mutations and changes where no such things were feared,
nor yet were appearing. Notwithstanding these revelations I did ab-
stain to commit anything to writing, contented only to have obeyed
the charge of Him who commanded me to cry.
MYSTERIOUS GROANING WHICH DEPARTED AT
DEMAND 2
(JOHN LELAND; GUARANTOR, GEORGE NIXON BRIGGS)
The Rev. John Leland (1754-1841) was a Baptist clergyman of
great reputation in his time. He is listed in the “ Condensed Biograph-
ical Dictionary of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th edition. In addi-
tion to his zeal and popularity as a preacher, it was affirmed by the
Virginia statesman and soldier J. S. Barbour that, but for him, the
United States Constitution would not have been adopted at the time it
was, since adoption would have failed without the assent of Virginia,
that State would have yielded to the opposition of Patrick Henry but
for the influence of James Madison, and Madison would not have been
elected to the Virginia Convention but for the political influence of
Leland. It appears that Madison and Leland were to debate on the
very subject of the proposed Constitution, but Madison by a previous
talk with Leland and by his speech converted the latter so that he sup-
ported Madison when he rose in his turn to speak, and used his influence
to elect the future President. The two corresponded for many years.
1 Howitt’s History of the Supernatural, II, 100.
2 Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit, VI, 180-81.
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The guarantor was no less a person than George N. Briggs, LL.D.
(1796-1861), Governor of Massachusetts and jurist, who tells the
story as he heard it from Leland himself, about the year 1838. Mr.
Briggs wrote his 'sketch of Leland in 1857, but he records so many
things besides, uttered in the same interview, that it is proof pre-
sumptive that he wrote them down soon after it took place.
While I was at his house, I inquired of him about a remarkable
noise, which I had, when a boy, heard that he and his family had been
annoyed by, when they lived in Virginia. He gave this account of it:
His family, at the time, consisted of himself, wife, and four children.
One evening, all the family being together, their attention was attracted
by a noise, which very much resembled the faint groans of a person in
pain. It was distinct, and repeated at intervals of a few seconds. It
seemed to be under the sill of the window, and between the clap-boards
and the ceiling. They paid very little attention to it, and in a short
time it ceased. But, afterwards, it returned in the same way — some-
times every night, and sometimes not so frequently, and always in the
same place, and of the same character. It continued for some months.
He said it excited their curiosity, and annoyed them, but they were not
alarmed by it. During its continuance, they had the siding and casing
removed from the place where it appeared to be, but found nothing to
account for it; and the sound continued the same. He consulted his
friends, especially some of his ministerial brethren, about it. I think he
said it was never heard by any except himself and his family ; but it was
heard by them when he was absent from home. Mrs. Leland said that
often, when she was alone with the children, and while they were playing
about the room, and nothing being said, it would come, and they would
leave their play, and gather about her person. They had a place fifty
or sixty rods from the house, by the side of a brook, where the family
did their washing. One day, while she was at that place, it met her
there precisely as it had in the house.
After the noise had been heard at brief intervals for, I think, six or
eight months, they removed their lodgings to quite an opposite and
distant part of the house; but it continued as usual, for some time, in
its old locality. One night, after they had retired, they observed, by
the sound, that it had left the spot from which it had previously pro-
ceeded, and seemed to be advancing, in a direct line, towards their bed,
and was becoming constantly louder and more distinct. At each inter-
val, it advanced towards them, and gathered strength and fulness, until
it entered the room where they were, and approached the bed, and
came along on the front side of the bed, when the groan became deep
and appalling. “ Then,” said he, “ for the first time since it began I
felt the emotion of fear; I turned upon my face, and if I ever prayed
in my life, I prayed then. I asked the Lord to deliver me and my family
from that annoyance, and that, if it were a message from Heaven, it
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might be explained to us, and depart ; that if it were an evil spirit, per-
mitted to disturb and disquiet me and my family, it might be rebuked,
and sent away; or if there was anything for me to do, to make it de-
part, I might be instructed what it was, so that I could do it.” This
exercise restored his tranquility of mind, and he resumed his usual
position in the bed. Then, he said, it uttered a groan too loud and
startling to be imitated by the human voice. The next groan was not
so loud, and it had receded a step or two from the front of the bed, near
his face. It continued to recede in the direction from which it came,
and grew less and less, until it reached its old station, when it died
away to the faintest sound, and entirely and forever ceased.
No explanation was ever found. “ I have given you,” said he, “ a
simple and true history of the facts, and you can form your own opin-
ion. I give none.” His wife confirmed all he said. I think I can say
that I never knew a person less given to the marvelous than Elder
Leland.
PREVISION AL DREAM 1
(GEORGE HERBERT KINSOLVING)
This gentleman, at the time he wrote out his peculiar experience for
Dr. Hodgson, was rector of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany,
Philadelphia. The following year, 1892, he became, and still is, the
Bishop of Texas. He is D.D. and S.T.D., and is the author of two
books. The date of the letter is October 14, 1891.
My dear Sir: — The dream was this. I seemed to be in woods back
of the hotel at Capon Springs, W. Va., when I came across a rattle-
snake, which when killed had two black-looking rattles and a peculiar
projection of bone from the tail, while the skin was unusually light in
color. The impression of the snake was very distinct and vivid before
my mind’s eye when I awoke in the morning, but I did not mention the
dream to anyone, though I was in the act of telling my wife while
dressing, but refrained from so doing because I was in the habit of
taking long walks in the mountains, and I did not wish to make her
nervous by the suggestion of snakes.
After breakfast, I started with my brother along the back of the
great north mountain, and when about twelve miles from the hotel we
decided to go down out of the mountain into the road and return home.
As we started down the side of the mountain I suddenly became vividly
conscious of my dream, to such an extent as to startle me, and to put
x Proceedings 8. P. R.. XI. 495.
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me on the alert. I was walking rapidly, and had gone about thirty
steps, when I came on a snake coiled and ready to strike. My foot was
in the air and had I finished my step I would have trodden upon the
snake. I threw myself to one side and fell heavily on the ground. I
recovered myself at once and killed the snake with the assistance of my
brother, and found it to be the same snake in every particular with the
one I had had in my mind’s eye. The same size, color, and peculiar
mal-formation of the tail.
It is my belief that my dream prevented me from treading on the
snake, but I have no theory on the subject, and get considerably mixed
and muddled when I try to think on the line of such abnormal
experiences.
G. H. Kinsolving.
The brother referred to is the Rev. Arthur B. Kinsolving, a promi-
nent Episcopalian clergyman, formerly rector of Christ’s Church,
Brooklyn, N. Y., but now and for twenty-two years rector of St. Paul’s,
Baltimore. A letter by him, written without any communication about
the incident having been had during the eight months which had elapsed
since it occurred, fully corroborates the story of coming upon the
snake, states that his brother said, even before the reptile was killed,
“ That is strange ! I will tell you something remarkable about that
snake in a moment,” and after the snake was killed he related the dream
and said that it had not come into his mind during the walk until a
moment before he saw the creature, when it occurred to him with such
vividness as to cause him to look carefully where he was walking, also
that the brother at that time said that the peculiarity of the snake’s
tail was as he saw it in his dream.
An unusual feature of this experience is that in addition to having
the dream, Mr. Kinsolving had it come into his mind vividly before he
saw the snake. If right that he was still some thirty steps (approxi-
mately seventy-five feet) from the snake, when the memory of the dream
returned, it does not appear very probable that he could then see the
snake on the mountain path. But, at any rate, the memory that the
dream vividly returned to him at that moment, and also the earlier
mental decision not to tell his wife about it, are bars to any theory that
after he saw the snake he underwent a delusion of having dreamed
about it previously.
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DYING VISION: WHOM DID HE SEE? 1
(PfeRE HYACINTHE)
Charles Jean Marie Augustin Hyacinthe Loyson, better known as
P&re Hyacinthe (1827-1912), was educated at the Seminary St. Sul-
pice, Paris, and was ordained a priest of the Roman Catholic Church
in 1851. He was professor of philosophy for a time and afterwards a
professor of dogmatic theology, and in 1862 became a Carmelite monk
and noted for his eloquent preaching. The freedom of his utterances
were such that he was admonished by the head of his order, and excom-
municated in 1869. He visited the United States, where his addresses
both excited enthusiasm and opposition. In 1877 he organized a
“ Catholic Gallican Church ” which was not legalized until 1883.
From 1884 he lived in Geneva. Pfcre Hyacinthe was a man of great
charm of speech and manners. He wrote a number of books on
religious subjects.
Desirous of causing no trouble, the Father did not wish to have any
one pass the night near him. In spite of his objection Laura remained
awake, outside of his chamber, the door of which she left slightly open.
In the night of the 5th to the 6th, about two o’clock in the morning, she
heard his voice. It was a triumphant cry, like the blast of a trumpet :
“ He is there ! ” Laura sprang to him. The Father was transfigured.
He seized her hands : “ I am overflowing with joy. You understand,
my dear girl ? ” In reality he was radiant, in a state in which she had
never before seen him. He seemed in an ecstasy. The joy of that hour
did not leave him until the end.
The Rev. Dr. William L. Sullivan, who called my attention to this
passage, adds his own statement:
The Laura of the incident is his daughter-in-law, Madame Paul
Loyson, born an American. She told me herself of this incident, of
that tremendous cry in all the old power of his superb voice, “ II est
la! ” and of his appearance when she ran to him, no longer the old man
(in his eighty-sixth year) whom she had left feeble and far gone in the
final weakness, but, as Houtin says, “ rayonnant ” and “ en extase .”
Whom did P£re Hyacinthe see? Why did it produce such a tre-
mendous effect upon him, and what caused the joy which “ did not leave
him until the end ”? We do not know, but he must have had some over-
whelming vision as he was slowly dying, such as constituted a “ psych -
ical ” experience.
'Ibid., Ill, 221.
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RAPS AND BANGS AND SOUNDS RESEMBLING
FOOTSTEPS 1
(MARTIN LUTHER)
Luther (1483-1546) was, of course, one of the most forceful and
significant figures in the history of Western civilization. Peasant,
scholar, monk, consummate pulpit orator, fighter against papal abuses,
finally supreme leader of the German religious reformation, enormously
prolific writer, translator of the Bible into the vernacular of his peo-
ple, he seems like a superman of boldness, energy and industry.
He was a believer in not only the devil, but in devils everywhere
seeking to ensnare men. What was very likely an innocent ordinary
experience of an apparition he interpreted to be the devil, threw his
inkstand, ink and all, at the head of the figure which disappeared, as
it would probably have done, devil or no devil.2 But he does not leave on
record that the figure had horns. If it appeared, as probably it did,
like an ordinary person, Luther was no less convinced that it was the
devil, for did he not know that that personage could take on whatever
form he pleased?
We would not give a rap for his opinions or interpretations about
such things, but so far as he testifies to and describes facts of his ex-
perience he is entitled to be heard.
Here is his testimony, given in his Table Talk:
When, in 1521, on my quitting Worms, I was taken prisoner near
Eisenach, and conducted to my Patmos, the castle of Wartburg, I
dwelt far apart from the world in my chamber, and no one could come
1 History oj the Supernatural, by William Howitt (Philadelphia, 1863), II, pp. 93-4.
2 In Sprague’s Annals of the American Pulpit (1860), VI, 58, there is a curious
story resembling the one relating to Luther. Isaac Backus (1724-1806) was a Bap-
tist clergyman who gained some prominence in his sect, especially as Agent of the
Massachusetts Churches in their struggle to gain exemption under law from taxation
to support the established Church. He wrote a three-volume History of the Baptists.
Says the Rev. Z. Eddy :
“ It need not be disguised that Mr. Backus partook of the spirit of the Mathers
and others, in taking a peculiar interest in what were called ‘ Wonder-working Provi-
dences,’ and in admiration of striking coincidences and extraordinary appearances,
bordering hard on the miraculous. Indeed, he himself related an assault of the
adversary, in his experience, strongly resembling that which Luther relates as made
upon himself, which he returned with his inkstand and all its contents. He was
exhorting to constancy in prayer, and regular seasons of private devotion, notwith-
standing all the wiles and opposition of Satan, and in that connection related the
following case of his own experience: He retired to his closet at the usual season,
and, as he made the attempt to pray, Satan presented himself in bodily form, and
frowned upon him in grim opposition. He turned to another side of his closet, and
the same forbidding form still frowned upon him. He turned to the third, and then
to the fourth, side, and still he had to encounter the same horrible appearance;
‘ and then,’ he added, ‘ I said to myself, I will pray, if I have to pray through you;
and I did pray through (he devil.’ ”
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to me but two youths, sons of noblemen, who waited on me with my
meals twice a day. Among other things, they had brought me a bag of
nuts, which I had put in a chest in my sitting-room. One evening, after
I had retired to my chamber, which adjoined the sitting-room, had put
out the light and got into bed, it seemed to me all at once that the nuts
had put themselves in motion ; and jumping about in the sack, and
knocking violently against each other, came to the side of my bed to
make noises at me. However, this did not harm me, and I went to sleep.
By and by I was wakened up by a great noise on the stairs, which
sounded as though somebody was tumbling down them a hundred bar-
rels, one after another. Yet I knew very well that the door at the
bottom of the stairs was fastened with chains, and that the door itself
was of iron, so that no one could enter. I rose immediately to see what
it was, exclaiming, “ Is it thou? Well, be it so! ” (meaning the devil)
and I recommended myself to our Lord Jesus Christ, and returned to
bed. The wife of John Berblibs came to Eisenach. She suspected
where I was, and insisted upon seeing me ; but the thing was impossible.
To satisfy her, they removed me to another part of the castle, and
allowed her to sleep in the apartment I had occupied. In the night she
heard such an uproar, that she thought there were a thousand devils in
the place (“ Tischreden,” 208).
“ Once,” he says, “ in our monastery at Wittenberg, I distinctly
heard the devil making a noise. I was beginning to read the Psalms,
after having celebrated matins, when, interrupting my studies, the devil
came into my cell, and there made a noise behind the stove, just as
though he was dragging some wooden measure along the floor. As I
found that he was going to begin again, I gathered together my books
and got into bed. . . . Another time in the night, I heard him above
my cell, walking in the cloister, but as I knew it was the devil, I paid
no attention to him, and went to sleep.”
CLERGYMAN BELIEVES THAT HE CONVERSES WITH HIS
DECEASED WIFE 1
(WILLIAM H. MORGAN)
Dr. Morgan (1861-. . . .) is A.B of Hamline University, B.D. of
Drew Theological Seminary, and D.D. of Mt. Union College. He has
been among the prominent clergymen of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, at one time pastor of Calvary, a leading church of New York
City, and afterward occupying the pulpit in the monumental First
1 Mostly from Journal A. S. P. R., November, 1919. Also to be found in Dr.
McComb’s The Future Life in the Light of Modem Inquiry.
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Church of Baltimore. At present he is Superintendent of the Metro-
politan District (New York City) of the Anti-Saloon League.
I knew Dr. Morgan in his early manhood, and met him almost daily
for several years. He was characterized by a vigorous intellect, a big
heart, and athletic masculinity. Already his career had been unusual,
owing to his determination and energy.
The story of his meeting and winning the lady who became his wife
is a romance, which finds no place here. But it is proper to say that
the inspiration for the energy referred to came largely from her ap-
preciation and influence. She was a rare character, in mind and heart.
About twenty years ago she passed away. Already her husband had
come to some theoretical belief in the possibility of spirit communica-
tion, and so great had been her participation in his life that he hoped
that she might be able to give him some sign after her death. And now
follows his own statement, taken literally as he uttered it, January 21,
1919, in the office of the American Society for Psychical Research :
When my wife was dying I said to her, “ You know what I believe
as to the communication between spirits. Will you come? ” She said,
“ I will, if the Good Father will let me.”
Eleven months had passed away and not even a dream about the one
I loved better than my soul. She had left me with four children, and at
no time during that period was there a hint to my soul that she was
interested in us at all. I had fussed over the thing, I had prayed over
the thing, and I had wondered why nothing had come to me.
During our life we had a very extraordinary relation. We were ex-
ceedingly sensitive to each other’s condition, and when she was in diffi-
culty or ill and away from me I almost always knew it. I call it
telepathy myself.
She died in May. The following April I was in the city of Phila-
delphia, in the Bingham House. I went to my room about twelve
o’clock. There was a large chandelier with four or five lights in it in
the center of the room and a push-button right at the head of the bed.
I was lying with my eyes closed, not asleep, — as truly awake as ever in
my life. I was thinking of her. That was all I was doing in those
days. It didn’t seem to come suddenly, it seemed to come naturally,
the room was filled with her presence. I could see, though my eyes
were closed, her form, shadowy, with something that looked like the
mist of the morning about it, and I said, “ Darling, why have you not
come before? ”
She answered, “ The Good Father would not permit me.”
I said, “ I have been so lonesome and so heartbroken that I have
hungered for you. Where did you come from? ”
“ I have been up to see the children.” (They were up near Lake
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Hopatcong.) “They are lovely.” She seemed to be sitting on the
edge of the bed. The vision was so real that I reached up and touched
the button and made an attempt to put my arms about her, as the room
was flooded with light. I saw nothing and felt nothing. I could have
cried. “ What have I done ! What have I done ! O Father, forgive
me, let her come back ! ” That was my prayer.
I do not know how long I waited, praying earnestly and thinking
intensely, when she was in the room again. I could see the smile on her
face. My eyes were still closed. I never moved, never moved a hand
or opened my eyes. I just let my soul do the talking. I was afraid to
move and destroy it. I could see her. I have never lost the vision at
all. I can see her this second ! She came in with a gentle laugh, said,
“ Why did you do that? Don’t you know you can’t see me?” I do not
know how long we talked. I know I never slept a wink that night, and
we talked of our life, of our children, of her father and brother that
had passed on and whom she said she was instructing on the other side.
God knows they needed it. She said that she was instructing them.
That has destroyed my belief in hell as much as in hellfire. I have never
preached hell since. And I have never feared death since. Death to me
is only a little change. That’s all.
That was our conversation, there wasn’t a silly thing, there wasn’t
a trivial thing, nothing but what was of interest to her and me.
Now, here is the climax. She said, “ I have come to you that you
may stop your grieving, for it’s making it impossible for you to do your
work. That must be done.” I went back home, took the first train to
my children, gathered them about me, and told them I had seen and
talked with their mother and that she was watching over us. That had
a powerful effect upon my children.
Once again she came to me, but that seemed more like a half-waking,
half-sleeping dream, just as satisfactory to me as the other. But not
so vivid or evidential.
My little girlie of twelve did not appear to me for a year after her
passing, but she came then in much the same fashion as the mother on
the second occasion.
During that first occasion I could hear the rumble of the noises on
the street but in addition I could hear this voice in my soul, it was real,
like a sounding board. I could hear her little laugh and her voice. She
was there to me tangibly and I felt that I could touch that button and
grab for her. There was nothing different about my emotional state
or my need for her at that time.
[Signed.]
I asked Dr. Morgan what, previous to the vision, he had read or
heard in reference to developed spirits doing missionary work for less
developed ones. His reply was convincingly quick and decided: “I
never heard anything of the kind.” He was asked if he now believed
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that such things are done on the other side. “ I believe it because my
wife said so.” The claim was not only an unfamiliar one, but opposed
to his previous beliefs, and yet, so great was his assurance that a com-
munication had been made to him by his wife and that she could tell
nothing but what was true, that a permanent doctrinal alteration
dated from that moment. If the vision was the work of the “ sublim-
inal,” it was functioning in an odd fashion ! Furthermore, if auto-
suggestion was to bring about a hallucination through extreme emo-
tion, we would expect this to take place soon after the death, whereas
eleven months had elapsed.
People sometimes ask, “ What is the good of spirit communication,
even if it is a fact? ” It is a particularly stupid question to ask, and
perhaps it is as hopeless to reason with such persons as it is with oys-
ters. But did it do no good in this case? By what he felt to be as
absolute a demonstration to him as those experienced by the apostles,
this religious leader was able to more than recover his former vigor in
the business of life, a powerful influence for good was exerted upon his
children, and henceforth a new and tremendous assurance pervaded his
sermons relating to the life which is beyond.
A DYING VISION 1
(BISHOP E. W. PARKER; GUARANTOR, BISHOP WARNE)
Bishop Warne, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the Christian
Advocate of July 11, 1901, relates the closing scenes of the life of
Bishop E. W. Parker, who died in India, June 4, of the same year.
When I saw him last, toward the end of January, the previous night
he had a vision in which the Saviour appeared to him and gave him the
choice of living and suffering or of going to heaven with the Saviour.
In the vision he was carried into what he called the lowest department
of heaven and saw heights and heights of glory above him. Then the
Saviour said to him : “ These are my little ones who have received me
but have not had much teaching; if you will choose to come with me I
will appoint you to teach these little ones.” As the bishop told me of
this vision he said: “ I have an entirely new idea of heaven. I have a
new appointment. I am appointed to continue in service for India and
teach Christ’s little ones. I am so happy ; O, so happy ! ”
This was perhaps not strictly a “ dying vision,” as the Bishop did
1 Journal A. S. P. R., August, 1921.
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not die until some four months after it occurred, but as he was already
stricken with his last illness, it is liable to similar criticism. Whatever
its origin, the “ message ” that he was to teach a particular class of
persons after his death articulates well with what is said in the best
class of purported communications from spirits. And his attaining
“ an entirely new idea of heaven ” is like the experience of many others
who have received in one way or another what they believed to be inti-
mations from the other world, and the change of opinion was in the
same direction.
The vision classifies with that of St. Paul (II Cor. 12:1-4), in
which he was “ caught up even to the third heaven,” except that the
latter “ heard unspeakable words.” Perhaps a similar alternative was
offered Paul, who in another place (Phil. 1:23-24) said: “ But I am in
a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ ;
for it is very far better, yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for
your sake ” (Revised Version). This is conjecture, and yet, since Paul
cannot be suspected of having contemplated suicide, it is not an en-
tirely fanciful one.
“ ABSENT TREATMENT,” BY PRAYER 1
(MATTHEW SIMPSON)
Matthew Simpson (1811-1884) was one of the most eloquent pulpit
orators of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Besides his pastorates, he
was professor of natural science in Allegheny College, afterwards
president of what is now De Pauw University, then editor of the West-
ern Christian Advocate , and finally bishop for about thirty years. He
was an intimate friend of Abraham Lincoln.
Thomas Bowman, the narrator, who also had a part in the incident,
was also a Methodist Episcopal bishop. He said:
I remember once, when there was a conference at Mount Vernon,
Ohio, at which I was present, Bishop Janes was presiding one after-
noon, and after reading a dispatch saying that Bishop Simpson was
dying in Pittsburgh, asked that the conference unite in prayer, that
his life might be saved. We knelt, and Taylor, the great street
preacher, led. After the first few sentences, in which I joined with my
whole heart, my mind seemed to be at ease, and I did not pay much
attention to the rest of the prayer only to notice its beauty. When we
1 Studies in Psychic Science, by Hudson Tuttle (1888), 174-5.
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arose from our knees, I turned to a brother and said, " Bishop Simpson
will not die; I feel it.” He assured me that he had received the same
impression. The word was passed around, and over thirty ministers
present said they had the same feelings. I took my book and made a
note of the hour and circumstance. Several months afterwards, I met
Bishop Simpson, and asked him what he did to recover his health. He
did not know; but the physician had said it was a miracle. He said,
that one afternoon, when at the point of death, the doctor left him,
saying that he should be left alone (by the doctor) for half an hour.
At the end of that time, the doctor returned, and noticed a great
change. He was startled, and asked the family what had been done,
and they replied, nothing at all. That half hour, I find, by making
allowance for difference of localities, was just the time we were praying
for him at Mount Vernon. From that time on he steadily improved,
and has lived to bless the Church and humanity.1
A PSYCHIC IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH 2
(QUINTUS SEPTIMIUS FLORENS TERTULLIAN)
Tertullian (died in first half of the third century a. d.) was u the
xThe Rev. William H. Raper (1793-1852), a clergyman of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, was important enough to find a place in Sprague’s Annals of the
American Pulpit. In volume VII, page 620, we find the following statement, written
by the Rev. Dr. W. P. Strickland, who knew him well. It appears that, in those days
of poor roads and few bridges, Mr. Raper was frequently compelled to swim his
horse across rivers in order to reach a preaching appointment.
“ On one of these swimming excursions he met with a singular accident. His
horse by some means became entangled while swimming and sank, throwing him off.
It was a cold morning, a little before sunrise, and being encumbered with a great
coat and leggins, he found it very difficult to swim, but with great effort succeeded
in catching hold of the limb of a tree which was hanging over the stream, where he
was enabled to rest and keep his head above water. While thus suspended in the
stream, the thought came to him with irresistible force, * My mother is praying for
me, and I shall be saved.’ After thus resting for a moment or two, he made the
effort and got ashore. His horse also had made a safe landing, having the saddle-
bags on his back, also safe. His clothes and books were wet, and himself very much
chilled by the early bath. But, while this was going on with himself in the stream,
his mother, distant some eighty or a hundred miles, awoke that morning suddenly as
from affright, when this thought suddenly rushed upon her, 1 William is in great
danger;’ upon which she sprang from her bed and, falling on her knees, prayed for
some time with great earnestness for her son’s safety, until she felt an assurance that
all was well. When they met and related to each other the facts, the agreement as
to time they found to be exact.”
As related, this was a reciprocal experience, the son being conscious that his
mother was praying for him, and the mother that her son was in danger. It may
well be that the story was not remembered by Dr. Strickland with complete accuracy,
but improbable that the mother was not oppressed by a feeling that her son was in
danger, for otherwise there would have been no story to reach Strickland’s ears, and
no reason for establishing the hour on both sides.
2 Treatise on the Soul, by Tertullian.
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first great writer of Latin Christianity and one of the grandest and
most original characters of the ancient Church.” 1 He was a man of
learning, wrote several books in Greek, as well as those in Latin, and
was at one time a prominent advocate in Rome. Converted to Chris-
tianity, he became a presbyter in Carthage, and later the leader of the
Montanists, who were regarded by the main body of the Church as
schismatics.
He is evidently now speaking from personal knowledge of the woman
to whom he refers.
We have now amongst us a sister whose lot it has been to be
favored with sundry gifts of revelation, which she experiences in the
spirit by ecstatic vision amidst the sacred rites of the Lord’s day in the
church ; she converses with angels, and sometimes even with the Lord ;
she both sees and hears mysterious communications ; some men’s hearts
she understands, and to them who are in need she distributes remedies.
Whether it be in the reading of Scriptures, or in the chanting of
psalms, or in the preaching of sermons, or in the offering up of pray-
ers, in all these religious services matter and opportunity are afforded
her of seeing visions. It may possibly have happened to us, whilst this
sister of ours was rapt in the spirit, that we had discoursed in some
ineffable way about the soul. After the people are dismissed at the
conclusion of the sacred services, she is in the regular habit of reporting
to us whatever things she may have seen in vision (for all her communi-
cations are examined with the most scrupulous care, in order that their
truth may be probed). “ Amongst other things,” says she, “ there has
been shgjmjto me a soul in bodily shape, and a spirit has been in the
habit of appearing to me ; not, however, a void and empty illusion, but
such as would offer itself to be even grasped by the hand, soft and
transparent and of an ethereal color, and in form resembling that of a
human being in every respect.” This was by vision, and for her witness
there was God; and the apostles most assuredly foretold that there
were to be “ spiritual gifts ” in the church.
This woman, in good standing in the Church, had “ visions ” and
received “ communications ” during the religious services, which she
regularly reported to Tertullian and other leaders, who examined her
statements “ with scrupulous care, in order that their truth may be
probed.” So the leaders, to the extent of their knowledge how to deal
with such problems, were psychic researchers. We may fairly presume,
then, that her predictions were watched to see if any or how many were
realized, and that her statements about people were compared with the
facts believed to be inaccessible to her, producing the conviction that
“ some men’s hearts she understands.” We may infer, too, from the
1 Philip Schaff, in Schafj-Hertog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge.
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word “ some ” that it was ascertained that she did not succeed in get-
ting, by telepathy or whatever means, the facts correctly about every
one. It would seem that the leaders were also rather impressed by her
diagnosis of and prescription for maladies, the more so because they
did not know as we do how the problem of the causation of such cures
is complicated by the possibilities of suggestion. Finally, she testified
to the frequent appearance to her (by what would now be technically
called quasi-visual and quasi-tactual hallucination) of a particular
spirit, which, had she lived 1700 years later, she might have called
her “ guide.”
MONITION OF A MISHAP TO A PARTICULAR SON 1
(BISHOP SAMUEL WILBERFORCE)
Samuel Wilberforce (1805-1873) was a son of William Wilber-
force, famous for his leadership in the movement to abolish the British
slave-trade. Samuel graduated from Oxford, and thereafter rapidly
rose in the ministry of the Church of England, until in 1845 he became
bishop of Oxford, and after twenty-four years more was appointed
bishop of Winchester. He was perhaps the most noted prelate of his
church and generation, a prolific writer, a remarkable organizer, elo-
quent, magnetic, and while courageous in controversy, so adroit and
conciliatory that his enemies called him “ Soapy Sam.”
In a letter by Bishop Wilberforce, March 4, 1847, 2 he says, refer-
ring to Herbert :
It is curious that at the time of his accident I was so possessed
with the depressing consciousness of some evil befalling him that I was
quite unable to shake off the impression that something had happened
to him, and noted this down for remembrance.
A note here says : “ This refers to an accident which had happened
to his eldest son Herbert, then at sea. At the moment when it took
place the Bishop was in his library at Cuddeston with three or four of
his clergy writing with him at the same table. He suddenly raised his
hand to his head and exclaimed, ‘ I am certain that something has hap-
pened to one of my sons.* It afterwards transpired that just at that
time his son’s foot was badly crushed by an accident on board his ship.”
It should be observed that the Bishop did not have any impression
1 Proceedings, S. P. R., I, 59.
8 In Ashwell’s Life of Wilberforce, I, 397.
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that a son was dead, as has been the case in so many instances where a
death had really occurred, but only that “ some evil had befallen ” him.
And the Bishop’s letter testifies that he connected it with Herbert, the
particular son who in fact at that time had his foot crushed.
THE CUMzEAN SIBYL 1
(JUSTIN MARTYR?)
It is not at all certain that the extracts below are from the stylus
of the famous apologist of the second century, Justin Martyr (?-114>?).
But they were by some man, perhaps Apollinaris of Laodicea, or Apolli-
naris of Hierapolis, prominent in his time, and their value consists in
giving a picture of mediumship of ancient times, with features which
we recognize today.
And both by many other writers has the Sibyl been mentioned as a
prophetess, and also by Plato in his Phadrus. And Plato seems to me
to have counted prophets divinely inspired when he read her prophecies.
For he saw that what she had long ago predicted was accomplished;
and on this account he expresses in the Dialogue with Meno his wonder
at and admiration of prophets in the following terms : “ Those whom
we now call prophetic persons we should rightly name divine. And not
least would we say that they are divine, and are raised to the prophetic
ecstasy by the inspiration and possession of God, when they correctly
speak of many and important matters, and }ret know nothing of what
they are saying ” — plainly and manifestly referring to the prophecies
of the Sibyl. For, unlike the poets who, after their poems are penned,
gave power to correct and polish, especially in the way of increasing the
accuracy of their verse, she was filled indeed with prophecy at the time
of the inspiration, but as soon as the inspiration ceased, there ceased
also the remembrance of all she had said. And this indeed was the cause
why some, only, and not all, the metres of the verses of the Sibyl were
preserved. . . . And besides all else which they told us as they had
heard it from their fathers, they said also that they who then took down
her prophecies, being illiterate persons, often went quite astray from
the accuracy of the metres ; and this, they said, was the cause of the
want of meter in some of the verses, the prophetess having no remem-
brance of what she had said, after the possession and inspiration ceased,
and the reporters having, through their lack of education, failed to
1 Hortatory Address to the Greeks, by Justin Martyr or some other writer not
later than the third century.
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record the meters with accuracy. And on this account, it is manifest
that Plato had an eye to the prophecies of the Sibyl when he said this
about prophets, for he said, “ When they correctly speak of many and
important matters, and yet know nothing of what they are saying.”
We recognize the state of trance, amnesia of what is said in trance,
the claim to predict which in some cases is made impressive by subse-
quent events, and the urge with a few mediums to present in literary
form, in a very few cases strikingly, and in the “ Patience Worth ” case
astoundingly successful.
PSYCHIC HEALING BY LUTHER 1
(PHILIP MELANCTHON AND SOLOMON GLASSE)
Philip Melancthon (1497-1560), an eminent German religious and
educational reformer, studied at Heidelberg and Tubingen, taking his
doctor’s degree from the latter institution at the age of seventeen. In
another year Erasmus, the greatest scholar of the age, was exclaiming
in wonder at the learning and intellect of Melancthon. Becoming pro-
fessor of Greek at Wittemberg at twenty-one, students flocked to him
in great numbers and, as the historian Planck affirms, “ Wittenberg
became the school of the nation.” He broke from medieval modes of
teaching, and his methods spread throughout the learned world. He
became a disciple and the closest coadjutor of Luther in the religious
reformation, and collaborated with him in the work of translating the
Bible into the language of the German people.
Solomon Glasse (1593-1656) was an eminent German theologian
and Biblical critic, whose Philologia Sacra remains a monument of
hermeneutics. He was a professor first of Oriental languages, then of
theology, at Jena. Then he became a general superintendent of church
and education reforms in the duchy of Gotha.
It is related by Leckendoye, on the authority of Solomon Glasse,
Superintendent-general of Gotha, that Melancthon was recalled from
the verge of death by Luther’s prayers. “ Luther arrived, and found
Philip about to give up the ghost. His eyes were set, his understanding
was almost gone, his speech had failed, and also his hearing; his face
had fallen; he knew no one, and had ceased to take either solids or
liquids. At this spectacle Luther is filled with the utmost consterna-
1 Howitt’s History of the Supernatural , II, 98.
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tion — turning away towards the window, he called most devoutly upon
God. After this, taking the hand of Philip, and well knowing what was
the anxiety of his heart and conscience, he said, ‘ Be of good courage
Philip ; thou shalt not die.’ While he utters these things, Philip begins,
as it were, to revive and to breathe, and gradually recovering his
strength, is at last restored to health.” Melancthon, writing to a
friend, said, “ I should have been a dead man, had I not been recalled
from death by the coming of Luther.” A similar detention in life of
Myconius by Luther’s prayers is recorded; and that six years after-
wards Myconius, being again at the point of death, sent a message to
Luther desiring him this time not to detain him by his prayers.
A PREMONITION OF DANGER 1
(DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY: GUARANTOR, WILLIAM
REVELL MOODY)
The name of D. L. Moody (1837-1899) is very familiar as that of
one of the most famous evangelists of modern times. In company with
Ira D. Sankey as vocalist he held, through a number of years, gigantic
religious meetings in the large cities of the United States, Great Britain
and Ireland, and it is estimated that he addressed altogether fifty mil-
lions of people. He founded the Northfield (Mass.) schools which
still flourish.
William R. Moody, his son, is A.B. of Yale and Litt.D. of Rutgers
College. He has conducted the Northfield schools since the death of
D. L. Moody, whose biography he wrote. The following letter was
written by Dr. Moody to Dr. J. H. Hyslop, April 12, 1911 :
Yesterday in looking through some papers I found a letter dated
March 24, 1909, addressed to my sister, Mrs. A. P. Fitt, of this place,
making inquiry in regard to some important experience in connection
with our father, the late Mr. D. L. Moody. The letter I remember was
referred to me by my sister, and at her request I had consented to reply
to it, and how it was mislaid I do not know. Please accept my apologies
for the tardiness in its acknowledgment.
I could better answer the inquiry if I knew exactly what the nature
of the incident was to which you refer, but it is possible, and even prob-
able, that the incident deals with the occult, and I infer, therefore, that
the experience is one of which you have probably heard, which I have
heard my father describe several times, although he never made refer-
1 Journal A. S. P. R., April, 1918.
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ence to it in public, feeling that it was too sacred an experience and too
open to misunderstanding.
On his first evangelistic mission to Great Britain in the early seven-
ties, he was invited to the city of Liverpool. You will remember that
the prejudice against Americans, especially Yankees, was strong in the
city of Liverpool, and even when Beecher made his famous trip to
England in the interests of the North during the War he had his great-
est difficulty in pleading the cause of the North in the city of Liverpool.
How far this feeling influenced the press against my father I do not
know, but during the earlier part of the meetings the opposition on the
part of the secular press was very strong, and Mr. Moody was made
the object of numerous bitter attacks, his motives being impugned, and
he himself being made the object of all sorts of ridicule. To this he
paid no attention. My mother was not with him at the time, being
with friends for a few days, when suddenly he had come over him a
peculiar sense of fear or nervousness. My father was one of the most
fearless men that I have ever known, and the experience was so new to
him that he began to feel anxiety about his own condition, questioning
whether he might have been overworking, with the result that his mind
was affected. He would frequently cross the street if he heard anyone
coming up behind him, and at night was careful to look under his bed,
examine the closet, and always see that his door was locked. This ex-
perience lasted for several days and left him as suddenly as it had come,
one day while going to the hall where he was preaching. At the close of
his service he was surrounded by the gentlemen who constituted the
committee who had invited him to Liverpool, and on one pretext or
another they detained him for a few minutes until a police officer came
to them and explained that everything was now satisfactory. The
chairman of the committee then explained to my father that they had
learned that day that for a week there had been at large in the city of
Liverpool an escaped lunatic from a neighboring asylum, who was ob-
sessed with the idea that he was commissioned to assassinate my father.
For days he had been trying to get an opportunity to stab him and he
had only just been caught and placed under arrest.
The experience was one that left a deep impression upon my father,
and he felt that it was a distinct interposition of Divine care. For that
very reason he felt it was too sacred to speak of frequently, and as I
have said, he never referred to it in public, although I have heard him
relate the incident on several occasions. If this is the incident regard-
ing which you make inquiry I am very glad to have been able to give it
to you for your records, although I share with my father in the convic-
tion that if it has a scientific value it has also to us a spiritual signifi-
cance, and that it was a case where there was Divine interposition in
behalf of one of God’s servants.
Respectfully yours,
W. R. Moody.
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The above incident belongs to a type of which there are innumer-
able instances alleged. The only advantage that this has over many
others is that Mr. D. L. Moody was not only a man of note, but one of
unquestioned character and sober common-sense. Dr. W. R. Moody’s
standing, also, is such that few will question the accuracy of the
account which he heard from his father’s lips so many times.
The points in the narrative are so obvious that there is no need of
calling attention to them. Referring to the last lines of it, Dr. Moody
will probably agree with us that “ scientific value ” and “ spiritual sig-
nificance ” are not necessarily mutually exclusive terms, but may, if
not must, cohere in the same incident.
A DYING VISION INVOLVING APPARENT RECOGNITIONS 1
(DWIGHT LYMAN MOODY)
On his last day he was heard to exclaim :
“ Earth recedes ; Heaven opens before me.” The first impulse was
to try to arouse him from what appeared to be a dream. “ No, this is
no dream, Will,” he repeated. “ It is beautiful. It is like a trance. If
this is death, it is sweet.”
He then conversed with perfect rationality about what should be
done regarding his work after his death.
Then his face lit up, and he said in a voice of joyful rapture:
u Dwight ! Irene ! I see the children’s faces,” referring to the two little
grandchildren God had taken from his life the past year.
He became unconscious, revived and said : “ What does all this
mean? What are you all doing here? ”
Then, realizing the situation, he went on :
“ This is a strange thing. I have been beyond the gates of death
and to the very portals of Heaven. And here I am back again.”
1 Lije of D. L. Moody, by his son, W. R. Moody, LittX). 1900), 552-3.
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PERSONS OF TITLE,1 FINANCIERS, TEACHERS,
TRAVELERS AND MAGICIANS
A TITLED LADY’S SUPERNORMAL WORK CORROBORATED
BY TITLED PERSONS, A NOTED GENERAL AND AN
EMINENT PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER 2
(LADY HOWARD, LADY VANE, SIR HENRY VANE, GEN.
BULLER, F. W. H. MYERS)
If I identify the automatist correctly, she was Lady Mabel Harriet
Vane, a daughter of the Earl of Antrim, and wife of Henry Charles
Howard, J.P., D.L. Sir Henry R. F. Vane was a baronet, D.L., J.P. ;
and Lady Margaret, his wife, was daughter of Samuel Stewart Glad-
stone, governor of the Bank of England.
See page 80 for biographical data about General Buller, one of
the most distinguished military leaders of England in his period. Dor-
othy E. Howard was his step-daughter.
Frederic W. H. Myers (1843-1901), Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, Honorary Secretary of the S. P. R., 1888-1899, and its
President 1889, probably contributed more genius coupled with enor-
mous industry to Psychic Research than any other man. A thorough
classical scholar, a poet and master of prose style, he became a psy-
chologist of such rank that William James could term him “ the origi-
nal announcer of a theory (of the Subliminal Self) which, in my
opinion, makes an epoch, not only in medical, but in psychological
science,” and declare his belief that “ Frederic Myers will always be
remembered in psychology as the pioneer who staked out a vast tract
of mental wilderness and planted the flag of genuine science upon it.”
Psychical Research in English-speaking lands owes its terminology and
modes of classification more to him than to any other. Among his
books, Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death is the mas-
terpiece. He was co-author with Gurney and Podmore of the very
important Phantasms of the Living.
There is not space for all the evidence reported on Lady Howard’s
work, even for the incidents I select.
1 This term is employed only where the compiler does not happen to know what
greater claim to distinction exists.
2 Myers’ Human Personality, II, 434-440.
304
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Lady Howard testifies that she began to write automatically occa-
sionally when a young girl and got her first evidential “ message ” when
18. Later, in 1885 (her account was written in 1893), certain robbers
were caught at Tebay Station, but the jewels they had stolen were not
found. She was asked where the jewels were, and wrote: “ In the river,
under the bridge at Tebay.” (Corroborated.) Months afterward they
were found in the river “ near the railway bridge.” The automatic
writing was received before a jewel was found by the water-side, leading
to search in the river. The Bullers, the Hon. Edith Cropper and her
husband, etc., were acquainted with the facts, says Lady Howard.
We pass on to the incident vouched for by General Buller and his
step-daughter, under date April 8, 1893.
Lady Mabel Howard was stopping with us this week. She was
writing with her pencil just after arriving. Some one asked: “ Where
is Don?” The pencil immediately answered, “He ns dead.” Lady
Mabel then asked who Don was, and was told that he was a dog. No
one in the room knew that he was dead; but on inquiry the next day, it
was found that it was so. One of the party then asked how many fish
would be caught in the river the next day. The pencil at once wrote
three , which was the number obtained the next day.
A little girl in the house, who attends a school in London, asked
who was her greatest friend at this school. The pencil answered Mary ,
which was again a fact absolutely unknown to Lady Mabel.
Dorothy E. Howard,
Redvers Buller.
Mr. Myers testifies:
I have myself [F. W. H. M.] succeeded in getting two correct an-
swers to questions absolutely beyond Lady Mabel’s knowledge. From
Thornes House I was asked to luncheon at the house of a gentleman
whom I knew only by correspondence, and of whose home and entourage
the rest of the party knew absolutely nothing. On my return I asked,
“ How many people sat down to luncheon? ” The answer was, “ Six,”
which was right. “ What was the name of the gentleman, not my host,
with whom I sat and talked after luncheon?” The pencil wrote MO,
and then began to scrawl. The name was Moultrie. It was impossible
that Lady Mabel should have had any kind of notion that a gentleman
of that name would have been present in a group of which she knew
nothing whatever. But here the impulse to write seemed spent, and a
few further questions were answered by erroneous words or mere
scrawls.
Now comes a narrative written by Lady Vane and endorsed by Sir
Henry, her husband.
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Hutton-in-the-Forest, April 8, 1894.
About a month ago I lost a book, a manuscript one, relating to
this house. I thought I had left it in my writing-table in my sitting-
room, and intended to add a note about some alterations just com-
pleted— but next day the book had vanished. I looked through every
drawer and cupboard in my room and then asked Sir Henry to do the
same, which he did twice. I also made the head housemaid turn every-
thing out of them and helped her to do so — so that four thorough
searches were made; but in vain. We also looked in the gallery and
library (the only other rooms to which the book had been taken), and
could not find it. On March 28 I asked Lady Mabel Howard to write
about it. She wrote, “ It is in the locked cupboard in the bookcase —
hidden behind the books.”
I said, “ Then it must be in the library, because the bookcases are
locked,” and Lady Mabel wrote, “ Not in the library.” I said, “ Then
it must be in the anteroom in the cupboard,” and asked if I should find
it. Lady Mabel wrote, “ No, send Sir Henry.” I asked, “ Will he find
it? ” and she wrote, “ Of course.”
Still thinking it could only be the anteroom or the library — on
account of the locked cupboard and bookcase, I asked, “ Which end
of the room ? ”
Lady Mabel wrote, “ The tapestry end.” I asked, “ Is it on the
window side of the room or on the other? ” and she wrote, “ The other.”
A friend staying in the house looked in the bookcases in the library at
the tapestry end, and in the cupboard in the anteroom (I had met with
an accident and could not go myself) and could not find the book, so
we gave it up.
On April 5 Sir Henry was in my sitting-room and suddenly said,
“ I have an idea ! Lady Mabel meant this room. There is the book-
case and the locked cupboard in it — and the wall outside the door is
covered with tapestry.” I said, “ You have looked in that cupboard
twice, and so have I and the housemaid, and the book is not there — but
look again if you like.” Sir Henry unlocked the door of the cupboard
and took out all the books (there were not more than half-a-dozen) and
put them on the floor. The last he put back into the cupboard was a
scrap-book for newspaper cuttings, and as it was rather dark at
6:30 p. m. he could not see the name on the back and therefore opened
it to see what it was, and the lost manuscript book fell out.
Having searched this very small cupboard four times previously,
either of us would have been ready to swear that this book was not in it.
(Signed) Margaret Vane,
Henry Vane.
The chronological sequences appear from further testimony to
be these:
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Lady Howard saw Lady Vane on February 24, at which time the
book had not been lost.
Some time in March repairs were made in the Vane house, Lady
Vane made an entry in the book, put it down somewhere and it was
lost. At this time and the most of March, Lady Howard was abroad.
Lady Howard next saw Lady Vane, calling upon her, March 26,
“ and the moment I got up-stairs she [Lady Vane] exclaimed: ‘ I want
you to find a book for me that is lost.’ ” No pencil or paper was
forthcoming, so she said, “ Never mind, write when you get home,” but
Lady Howard forgot to do so.
On March 28 they met, Lady Vane made the same request at
luncheon on a race course, and the writing was done on the sandwich
paper. At this time Lady Howard, she herself says, did not know of
the existence of the little cupboard in the middle of a glass book-case,
or of the tapestry in that room.
TELEPATHIC (?) MONITIONS OF A DEATH 1
(SIR LAWRENCE J. JONES, BART.)
Sir Lawrence Jones, Fourth Baronet, is an Eton and Trinity Col-
lege, Cambridge man. He has been a member of the Governing Council
of the S. P. R. for about twenty-three years, and is now president of
the S. P. R.
Cranmer Hall, Fakenham, Norfolk, April 26, 1893.
On August 20, 1884, I was staying at my father-in-law’s house at
Bury St. Edmunds. I had left my father in perfectly good health
about a fortnight before. He was at home at this address. About
August 18 I had had a letter from my mother, saying that my father
was not quite well, and that the doctor had seen him and made very
light of the matter, attributing his indisposition to the extreme heat
of the weather.
I was not in any way anxious on my father’s account, as he was
rather subject to slight bilious attacks.
I should add, though, that I had been spending that day, August
20, at Cambridge, and should have stayed the night there had not a
sort of vague presentiment haunted me that possibly there would be
a letter from home the next morning. My wife, too, had a similar
strong feeling that if I stayed the night at Cambridge I might regret
1 Proceedings S. P. R., XIV, 290-91.
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NOTED WITNESSES
it. In consequence of this feeling I returned to Bury, and that night
woke up suddenly to find myself streaming with perspiration and
calling out: “Something dreadful is happening; I don’t know what.”
The impression of horror remained some time, but at last I fell asleep
till the morning.
My father, Sir Willoughby Jones, died very suddenly of heart dis-
ease about 1 a. m. on August 21. He was not in his room at the
moment, but was carried back to his room and restoratives applied, but
in vain.
My brother Herbert and I were the only two of the family absent
from home at the time. The thoughts of those present (my mother,
brother, and three sisters) no doubt turned most anxiously towards us,
and it is to a telepathic impression from them in their anxiety and
sorrow that I attribute the intimations we received.
Lawrence J. Jones.
Lady Jones writes:
I have a vivid remembrance of the occurrence related above by my
husband. I was sound asleep when he awoke, and seizing me by [the]
wrist exclaimed : “ Such a dreadful thing is happening,” and I had
much difficulty in persuading him that there was nothing wrong.
He went to sleep again, but was much relieved in the morning by
finding a long letter from Sir Willoughby, posted the day before, and
written in good spirits. Having read this and gone to his dressing-
room, however, he soon returned with the telegram summoning him
home at once, and said as he came in : “ My impression in the night
was only too true.”
Evelyn M. Jones.
Mr. Herbert Jones, the other percipient, describes his experience
as follows :
Knebworth Rectory, Stevenage, April 4, 1893.
Recollections of August 20, 1884.
I had spent the day at Harpenden, and returned home about 8 p. m.,
and went to bed about 10 :30.
I woke at 12 o’clock, hearing my name called twice, as I fancied. I
lit my candle, and, seeing nothing, concluded it was a dream — looked at
my watch, and went to sleep again.
I woke again and heard people carrying something down-stairs
from the upper story, just outside my room. I lit my candle, got out
of bed, and waited till the men were outside my door. They seemed to
be carrying something heavy, and came down step by step.
I opened my door, and it was pitch dark. I was puzzled and dumb-
founded. I went to my sitting-room and into the hall, but everything
was dark and quiet. I went back to bed convinced I had been the sport
of another nightmare. It was about 2 a. m. by my watch. At break-
fast next morning on my plate was a telegram telling me to come home.
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This whole story may be nothing, but it was odd that I should have
twice got up in one night, and that during that night and those hours
my father was dying.
H. E. Jones.1
Let us recapitulate. An hour after midnight Sir Willoughby Jones
died. That same night — the hour seems not to have been ascertained,
but it was some time before morning — a son wakes with a feeling of
horror and the definite exclamation : “ Something dreadful is happen-
ing. I don’t know what.” One hour before the impending death an-
other son wakes, thinking he has heard his name called twice, and is
wakened by the significant hallucinatory impression that he hears men
coming slowly down-stairs, carrying something heavy.
Each incident taken by itself would be impressive; taken together
they are vastly less likely to involve mere fortuitous coincidence.
A FULFILLED DREAM PREDICTION 2
(LORD LYTTELTON)
Lord Thomas Lyttelton (1744-1779) was son of the First Baron,
George Lyttelton Lyttelton, an English statesman of distinction. The
son played some part in politics, but was chiefly noted for his wild and
dissolute character, which caused him to be known as “ the wicked Lord
Lyttelton,” while his father was termed “ the good lord.”
The following account was written by Lord Westcote, an uncle of
Lyttelton, after examination of the witnesses.
On Thursday, the 25th of November, 1779, Thomas, Lord Lyttel-
ton, when he came to breakfast, declared to Mrs. Flood, wife of Fred-
erick Flood, Esq., of the kingdom of Ireland, and to the three Miss
Amphletts, who were lodged in his house in Hill Street, London (where
he then also was), that he had had an extraordinary dream the night
before. He said he thought he was in a room which a bird flew into,
which appearance was suddenly changed into that of a woman dressed
in white, who bade him prepare to die. To which he answered, “ I hope
not soon, not in two months.” She replied, “ Yes, in three days.” He
said he did not much regard it, because he could in some measure ac-
count for it ; for that a few days before he had been with Mrs. Dawson
when a robin-red-breast flew into her room.
1 At that time a curate in London.
2 Glimpses oj the Supernatural, by Rev. F. G. Lee, D.CL. (1876), 27 ff.
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NOTED WITNESSES
When he had dressed himself that day to go to the House of Lords,
he said he thought he did not look as if he was likely to die. In the
evening of the following day, being Friday, he told the eldest Miss
Amphlett that she looked melancholy ; but, said he, “ You are foolish
and fearful. I have lived two days, and, God willing, I will live out
the third.”
On the morning of Saturday he told the same ladies that he was
very well, and believed he should bilk the ghost. Some hours afterwards
he went with them, Mr. Fortescue, and Captain Wolseley, to Pitt Place,
at Epsom; withdrew to his bed-chamber soon after eleven o’clock at
night, talked cheerfully to his servant, and particularly inquired of
him what care had been taken to provide good rolls for his breakfast
the next morning, stepped into his bed with his waistcoat on, and as his
servant was pulling it off, put his hand to his side, sunk back and im-
mediately expired without a groan. He ate a good dinner after his
arrival at Pitt Place, took an egg for his supper, and did not seem to
be at all out of order, except that while he was eating his soup at dinner
he had a rising in his throat, a thing which had often happened to him
before, and which obliged him to spit some of it out. His physician,
Dr. Fothergill, told me Lord Lyttelton had in the summer preceding a
bad pain in his side, and he judged that some gut vessel in the part
where he felt the pain gave way, and to that he conjectured his death
was owing. His declaration of his dream and his expressions above
mentioned, consequential thereon, were upon a close inquiry asserted to
me to have been so, by Mrs. Flood, the eldest Miss Amphlett, Captain
Wolseley, and his valet-de-chamber Faulkner, who dressed him on the
Thursday; and the manner of his death was related to me by William
Stuckey, in the presence of Mr. Fortescue and Captain Wolseley,
Stuckey being the servant who attended him in his bed-chamber, and
in whose arms he died.
Westcote.
Lord Lyttelton’s valet made the following statement :
That Lord Lyttelton made his usual preparations for bed; that he
kept every now and then looking for his watch; that when he got into
bed, he ordered his curtains to be closed at the foot. It was not within
a minute or two of twelve by his watch ; he asked to look at mine, and
seemed pleased to find it nearly keep time with his own. His lordship
then put them both to his ear, to satisfy himself if they went. When
it was more than a quarter after twelve by our watches, he said, “ This
mysterious lady is not a true prophetess, I find.” When it was near
the real hour of twelve, he said, “ Come, I’ll wait no longer; get me my
medicine, I’ll take it, and try to sleep.” I just stepped into the
dressing-room to prepare the physic, and had mixed it, when I thought
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I heard my Lord breathing very hard. I ran to him, and found him in
the agonies of death.
Boswell informs us that Samuel Johnson said : “ It is the most
extraordinary occurrence in my days. I heard it from Lord Westcote,
his uncle.”
The question now comes up whether Lord Lyttelton died from auto-
suggestion, but it does not appear likely from the account that his
apprehension was anything of the degree which would make such a
theory plausible. Besides, on that theory he should have died before
midnight by the true time, whereas his death occurred when he sup-
posed that the last moment of danger within the terms of the dream
was already fifteen minutes past.
The evidence is also good that “ the wicked lord’s ” apparition was
seen by his friend Andrews, thirty miles away, on the night he died.
Mr. Plumer Ward recorded the story 1 as he got it, reluctantly told, by
Andrews himself when both were members of Parliament.
SEES FACE OF HIS FATHER AT ABOUT THE HOUR OF A
FATAL APOPLECTIC SEIZURE 2
(PRINCE VICTOR DULEEP SINGH AND LORD CARNARVON)
Prince Singh, who had the experience, was a son of one of the reign-
ing native rulers of India. The Earl of Carnarvon, who corroborated
the incident, was a son of that Earl of Carnarvon who had been Secre-
tary of State for the Colonies, and Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
Highclere Castle, Newbury, November 8, 1894.
On Saturday, October, 1893, I was in Berlin with Lord Carnarvon.
We went to a theatre together and returned before midnight. I went
to bed, leaving, as I always do, a bright light in the room (electric
light). As I lay in bed I found myself looking at an oleograph which
hung on the wall opposite my bed. I saw distinctly the face of my
father, the Maharajah Duleep Singh, looking at me, as it were out of
this picture; not like a portrait of him, but his real head. The head
about filled the picture frame. I continued looking and still saw my
father looking at me with an intent expression. Though not in the
least alarmed, I was so puzzled that I got out of bed to see what the
1 Illustrations of Human Life, by Plumer Ward, I, 165.
* Journal 8. P. R., VI, 368.
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NOTED WITNESSES
picture really was. It was an oleograph commonplace picture of a
girl holding a rose and leaning out of a balcony, an arch forming a
background. The girl’s face was quite small, whereas my father’s head
was the size of life and filled the frame.
I was in no special anxiety about my father at the time, and had
for some years known him to be seriously out of health ; but there had
been no news to alarm me about him.
Next morning (Sunday) I told the incident to Lord Carnarvon.
That evening (Sunday) late, on returning home, Lord Carnarvon
brought two telegrams into my room and handed them to me. I said
at once, “ My father is dead.” That was the fact. He had had an
apoplectic seizure on the Saturday evening at about nine o’clock, from
which he never recovered, but continued unconscious and died on the
Sunday, early in the afternoon. My father had often said to me that
if I was not with him when he died he would try and come to me.
I am not subject to hallucinations, and have only once had any
similar experience, when, as a schoolboy, I fancied I saw the figure of
a dead schoolboy who had died in the room which I slept in with my
brother; but I attach no importance to this.
Victoe Duleep Singh.
Lord Carnarvon writes :
I can confirm Prince V. Duleep Singh’s account. I heard the inci-
dent from him on the Sunday morning. The same evening, at about
12 p. m., he received a telegram notifying him of his father’s sudden
illness and death. We had no knowledge of his father’s illness. He has
never told me of any similar previous occurrence.
Caenaevon.
The S. P. R. ascertained from other sources that the Maharajah
did die on Sunday, October 22, 1893.
Apparently the glass of the picture took the place of the scryer’s
glass ball and the phenomenon was that of crystal gazing. But that
term only implies the outer aspect of a phenomenon and in itself gives
no light upon the question of causation. To be conservative we would
say that telepathy was involved.
AN APPARITION THAT PERFORMS A SYMBOLIC ACT
(THE EARL OF WARWICK)
Francis Richard Charles Guy Greville (1853- . . . .), Earl of War-
wick and Earl Brooke, a scion of one of the most distinguished families
of England, member of the House of Lords, with seat at historic War-
wick Castle, in 1917 published his Memories of Sixty Years, which
records this incident :
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My father, though a very delicate man and much confined to the
castle, never saw an apparition of any kind there, and was decidedly
skeptical.
But once, when away from Warwick and staying in furnished rooms
at St. Leonard’s, he had an experience that affected him considerably.
He had gone to sleep one night rather early, and awakened at midnight
to find a soft, mysterious light in the room. It lit the end of his bed,
where he saw a figure partly draped with a red scarf and holding a
javelin. As my father gazed the figure poised and threw the javelin,
which apparently passed through the wall above my father’s head.
When his valet entered in the morning with hot water he noticed
that the man was looking very perturbed, and asked him what was the
matter. “ Something very sad, my lord,” was the reply. “ The land-
lady’s daughter, a young girl, who sleeps in the room next to this, has
died suddenly in the night.” To me the special interest of this account,
which I had from my father’s lips, lies in his eminently practical nature
and mind. The supernatural had no hold on him.
This is another of the host of cases which show that such experi-
ences are not respecters of persons, for the most skeptical, as well as
the most learned and even scientific, at times have them.
If imaginative although skeptical, it would seem that the history-
haunted chambers of Warwick Castle were well calculated to rouse hal-
lucinations. But no, it was not there but in more commonplace rooms
at St. Leonard’s, where the same night a death was taking place, that
the experience was incurred.
In the light of my large experience in the examination of various
types of human testimony, there is another thing which forcibly im-
presses me. If the Earl who tells this story which he had heard, prob-
ably many times, from the lips of his father, had felt an urge to make
it as attractive or convincing as possible, if he had not been compelled
by his mental make-up to keep to the exact facts as he remembered
them, we should almost certainly read that the wall through which the
javelin seemed to pass was that which separated the father from the
landlady’s daughter. Perhaps, if we could have had the story at first-
hand, that was actually the case, but if so the writer forgot it. But
one with whom, as years pass, an incident of this kind improves, would
have thought that he remembered that this was so.
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NOTED WITNESSES
THE “ MYSTERIOUS FOREBODINGS ” OF A FINANCIER 1
(HENRY CLEWS)
Henry Clews, Ph.D., LL.D. (1840-...?), was one of the most
notable financiers in the history of America. His services as financial
agent of the Government to sell bonds in order to carry on the Civil
War were invaluable. Under President Grant he was United States
fiscal agent with all foreign nations. He was adviser and agent in or-
ganizing a new financial system for Japan, and was decorated by the
Japanese Government. Twice he declined appointment to be Secretary
of the Treasury, also the nomination as Mayor of New York and the
office of Collector of the port of New York. He was also active in
various civic affairs, and issued a volume of his speeches and essays.
In 1885 he published Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street, and in 1908
Fifty Years in Wall Street.
The two firms whose paper I was unable to dispose of were about
the first to fail, and before the maturity of any of the balance of the
paper which I had successfully negotiated both the drawers and en-
dorsers thereon, without a single exception, all collapsed.
The height which Gilroy’s kite attained would have been nowhere in
point of altitude to that which I should have reached had I not had the
good luck to have cleared my decks as I did, in the nick of time.
My safety in this instance was due to my inspiration, to which I
believe myself more indebted than anything else for the privilege of
remaining in Wall Street up to the present date.
I am no spiritualist nor theosophist, but this gift or occasional
visitation of Providence, or whatever people may choose to call it, to
which I am subject at intervals, has enabled me to take “ points ” on
the market in at one ear and dispose of them through the other without
suffering any evil consequences therefrom, and to look upon these kind
friends who usually strew these valuable “ tips ” so lavishly around with
the deepest commiseration. My ability to do this, whatever may be its
source, whether human or divine, has saved me from being financially
shattered at least two or three times annually.
I do not indulge in any table-tipping or dark seances like the elder
Vanderbilt, but this strange, peculiar and admonitory influence clings
to me in times of approaching squalls more tenaciously than at any
ordinary junctures.
I have known others who have had these mysterious forebodings.
1 Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street, by Henry Clews, 79-80.
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but who recklessly disregarded them, and this has been the rock on
which they have split in speculative emergencies.
So it appears that Henry Clews had his daemon, which, as in the
case of Socrates, frequently warned him what not to do.
PREMONITION OF THE QUAKERESS 1
(ISAAC TATEM HOPPER, GUARANTOR)
Isaac T. Hopper (1771-1852) was a noted Quaker merchant of
Philadelphia, later of Boston, who personally sheltered escaping slaves,
and was very zealous for the reform of convicts. An institution for the
latter purpose was founded in New York City by his daughter, Mrs.
Abby H. Gibbons, and named the “ Isaac T. Hopper Home.” He was
distinguished for shrewdness and wit, as well as for his religious and
social activities, and in personal appearance much resembled Napoleon.
Mr. Hopper was convinced that “ psychical ” events do occur. A
very remarkable alleged one is related regarding a friend of his, Arthur
Howell, which he “ vouched for ” — and that probably means that he
knew so much about the facts that he was convinced that they were
true. Then the narrative, compiled by Mrs. Child, not only a well-
known writer of her period, but a conscientious and careful one,
goes on:
A singular case of inward perception likewise occurred in thp ex-
perience of his own mother. In her diary, which is still preserved in
the family, she describes a visit to some of her children in Philadelphia,
and adds : “ Soon after this, the Lord showed me that I should lose a
son. It was often told me, though without sound of words. Nothing
could be more intelligible than this still, small voice. It said : ‘ Thou
wilt lose a son ; and he is a pleasant child.’ ”
Her son James resided with relatives in Philadelphia, and often
went to bathe in the Delaware. On one of these occasions, soon after
the mother’s visit, a friend who went with him sank in the water, and
James lost his own life by efforts to save him. A messenger was sent
to inform his parents, who lived at the distance of eight miles. While
he stayed in the house, reluctant to do his mournful errand, the mother
was seized with sudden dread, and heard the inward voice saying,
“ James is drowned.” She said abruptly to the messenger, “ Thou hast
1 Life oj Isaac T. Hopper, by Lydia Maria Child (Boston, 1853), 262-63.
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NOTED WITNESSES
come to tell me that my son James is drowned. Oh how did it happen? ”
He was much surprised, and asked why she thought so. She could give
no explanation of it, except that it had been suddenly revealed to
her mind.
It might be that the messenger’s manner suggested bad news, but
why should it suggest exactly what had happened and to whom? Nor
must the previous record in the Bible, still in existence when Mrs. Child
took down the story, be forgotten.
TELEPATHICALLY PRODUCED HALLUCINATION OF
BODILY PRESENCE 1
(W. STAINTON MOSES)
Mr. Moses (1839-1892) was M.A. of Oxford, an ordained clergy-
man of the Church of England, and was by occupation a teacher in a
school for boys. He was himself a medium and what he regarded as the
cream of his messages were gathered in his Spirit Teachings (M. A.
Oxon). Other works of his were Direct Writing by Supernormal
Means, Higher Aspects of Spiritualism, Second Sight and Spirit
Identity.
However some may have discounted certain of the recorded experi-
ments of Mr. Moses as hallucinatory or illusionary, it can hardly be
that a sane person would imagine that another person had conversed
with him and verified in detail the results of an experiment, and all those
who knew him seem convinced of his honesty and his sanity.
Says Gurney:
The percipient is our friend, the Rev. W. Stainton Moses, who
believes that he has kept a written memorandum of the incident, but has
been prevented by a long illness, and by pressure of work, from hunting
for it among a large mass of stored-away papers. The agent’s ac-
count was written in February, 1879, and includes a few purely verbal
alterations made in 1883, when Mr. Moses pronounced it correct.
This is what Mr. Moses wrote:
One evening early last year, I resolved to try to appear to Z. ; at
some miles distance. I did not inform him beforehand of the intended
1 Phantasms of the Living, I, 103-04.
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experiment; but retired to rest shortly before midnight with thoughts
intently fixed on Z., with whose room and surroundings, however, I was
quite unacquainted. I soon fell asleep, and awoke next morning uncon-
scious of anything having taken place. On seeing Z. a few days after-
wards, I inquired, “ Did anything happen at your rooms on Saturday
night? ” “ Yes,” he replied, “ a great deal happened. I had been sit-
ting over the fire with M., smoking and chatting. About 12:30 he rose
to leave, and I let him out myself. I returned to the fire to finish my
pipe, when I saw you sitting in the chair just vacated by him. I looked
intently at you, and then took up a newspaper to assure myself I was
not dreaming, but on laying it down I saw you still there. While I
gazed without speaking, you faded away. Though I imagined you
must be fast asleep in bed at that hour, yet you appeared dressed in
your ordinary garments, such as you usually wear every day.” “ Then
my experiment seems to have succeeded,” said I. “ The next time I
come, ask me what I want, as I had fixed on my mind certain questions
I intended to ask you, but I was probably waiting for an invitation
to speak.”
A few weeks later the experiment was repeated with equal success,
I, as before, not informing Z. when it was made. On this occasion he
not only questioned me on the subject which was at that time under
very warm discussion between us, but detained me by the exercise of his
will some time after I had intimated a desire to leave.1 This fact, when
it came to be communicated to me, seemed to account for the violent
and somewhat peculiar headache which marked the morning following
the experiment ; at least I remarked at the time that there was no ap-
parent cause for the unusual headache; and, as on the former occasion,
no recollection remained of the event, or seeming event, of the pre-
ceding night.
Mr. Moses added, on September 27, 1885 :
This account is, as far as my memory serves, exact ; and, without
notes before me, I cannot supplement it.
Mr. Moses tells us that he has never on any other occasion seen the
figure of a living person in a place where it was not.
1 “ It is possible, of course, that this detail as to the prolonging of the interview
has become magnified in memory; or that the second vision partook more of the
nature of a dream than the first.” Gurney.
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NOTED WITNESSES
COINCIDENTAL DREAM 1
(WILLIAM ROMAINE NEWBOLD)
Professor Newbold (1865-1926) was A.B., Ph.D. and LL.D. of
the University of Pennsylvania. He was first lecturer, finally pro-
fessor of philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania from 1889 to
his death, with the exception of one year spent at the University of
Berlin, etc. He was also Dean of the Graduate School from 1896 to
1904. He had an intellect of extraordinary keenness, and it was he
who first unriddled the Roger Bacon cipher, and solved similar prob-
lems which had baffled scholars. Among his printed monographs and
articles a considerable percentage dealt with psychic research.
Professor Newbold’s letter was written to Mr. Myers on August
29, 1900.
Sedgwick, Maine.
This morning my wife and I reached this out-of-the-way nook, some
forty miles by water, though I believe but twenty by land, from Bar
Harbor, and a few hours after our arrival I got the details of a coinci-
dence which I wish to record and send you at once.
My wife’s parents, Rev. and Mrs. Geo. T. Packard, and her brother
Kent, aged thirteen and one-half, have been spending the summer here.
Kent met us on the wharf, and on the way up told me something about
being “ chased by a white horse,” but I paid little attention to him.
After dinner, while his mother and sister and I were talking over the
happenings of the summer, Kent came into the room and said to his
mother something — I did not catch the exact words — as to the dream
he had some time ago about being chased by a white horse. Great
excitement ensued, all began to talk at once. I scented something of
value for the S. P. R., and succeeded in quieting the confusion. Then I
made them tell their stories in due order and took them down in writing.
From the notes which I then made I have written out the following
account. It has been verified by the witnesses.
(1) Mrs. Packard’s recollections. (Kent heard her tell this, but
was not allowed to comment on it.) At home in Boston, not long
before they came down here, Kent one night had a severe nightmare.
He began to scream, thrash about in the bed and strike wildly in all
directions. Mrs. P. tried to soothe him, and finally got him awake. He
said he had dreamed that a white horse was chasing him around a
wharf. He was so excited that he slept but little more that night,
waking and crying out at intervals. Mr. Packard was awakened bv
the noise of the first attack, and Mrs. P. remembers going in and ex-
i Journal S. P. R., X, 22-24.
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plaining to him the cause. She remembers no further details of the
dream.
(2) Ethel Packard Newbold remembers that she was told about the
dream next morning, and that Kent at breakfast kept saying, “ Oh,
that white horse;” with expressive gestures of horror. (N. B. — This
would fix the date as falling between May 28, when E. P. N. went to
Boston, and June 16, when I went there. I heard nothing of this. The
family left Boston June 25.)
(3) Kent is at first sure he had the dream after he came to Sedg-
wick, and that “ Ethel only imagines she remembers it.” After some
reflection he concludes that it was in Boston he had it. He dreamed
that he was on a wharf, walking along. Some people, among them his
mother, had just got out of a row-boat, upon the wharf. He had just
passed them, — heard cries and “ yells ” of “ Look out,” heard foot-
steps, but they were not heavy — very light indeed for a horse. Glanced
over his shoulder and saw a white horse, mouth open, long jaw, about
to bite him, — then he sprang into the water and — woke to find his
mother shaking him.
(4) What happened. Kent’s account. He had just come out of
the baggage-room on the wharf at Sedgwick and was walking along the
end of the wharf. A row-boat came up and the people got out, as hap-
pened in the dream, but his mother was not among them. He passed
them, heard the cries, the footsteps, looked back and saw the white
horse, the open mouth, the long jaw and face, the ears pressed back;
he jumped, not into the water, but into a gangway about ten feet wide,
which ran from the level of the pier to high water mark. About two
hours afterwards he recalled the dream and was much startled when he
recognized the coincidence.
(5) Mr. Packard remembers being awakened by the nightmare, and
is sure it was in Boston, but did not at first remember anything about
the content of the dream. Upon reflection he has a dim memory of the
horse incident.
Kent laid stress upon the points that both in the dream and in fact
the people who got out of the row-boat were among those that called
to him, that the footsteps were light, not heavy, as one would suppose
those of a horse would be, and that the horse’s jaw and head seemed so
long. These items are of course of no evidential value, but the main
facts, — of being chased on a wharf by a white horse, — are, I think,
pretty well established.
I have read this over to the witnesses, and it has been approved bv
them all with the changes indicated [in the original manuscript and
here incorporated]. Kent says he cannot be sure the wharf of his
dream was the same wharf he was on this morning. It was “ just a
wharf, and all wharves are pretty much alike.” And he did not notice
in the dream that the white horse was attached to a buggy. It might
have been, but he did not observe whether it was or not.
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November 13, 1900. On the afternoon of the same day on which
the above was written I saw a young man named Dority, who had been
on the wharf that morning. After chatting with him a while, I asked
him whether he had seen Kent’s narrow escape that morning. He
looked somewhat blank and said, “ What narrow escape? ” “ I heard,”
I said, “ that he was chased by a white horse.” “ Oh, yes,” said he,
“ yes, I saw that. That’s a very vicious horse of Collier’s ; they
shouldn’t allow him on the wharf.” I found he had seen the horse
chase Kent and saw Kent jump into the depressed gangway. A week
later I saw young Dority’s father, who drives the stage from Sedgwick
to Blue Hill. He gave the same account. I said nothing to either of
the Dority’s about the dream.
I regard it as conclusively proved (1) that Kent really was chased
by a white horse on the wharf at Sedgwick, Maine, on August 29, and
(2) that he dreamed prior to June 25 of being chased by a white horse
on a wharf. This coincidence is either due to chance or to supernormal
faculty. Kent’s experience of wharves is limited. In his fourth, fifth,
and sixth year he spent the summer at Castine, Maine, where there is
a wharf like that at Sedgwick. In the summer of 1899 he spent two
weeks at Harpswell, Maine. I do not know whether there is a similar
wharf there or not. His other summers have been spent inland. The
other identifying circumstance which he remembers — the people dis-
embarking from a row-boat, the light footsteps, the long jaw and head,
the jump — are attested by his evidence only. His apparent ability to
discriminate the two memories, and his recognition of discrepancies
between them, inclines me to place more confidence in his recollection
than I usually would give such evidence, and to regard the coincidences
between the dream and the fact as too numerous to be explained by
chance.
A word or two about Kent himself may not be out of place. He is
tall and strong for his age, and very fond of all boyish sports. But he
has always been a precocious child. His mind is as active as his body.
He has a vivid fancy, dreams much and often has nightmares, though
never before one as bad as this. He is singularly truthful. I have
never known him to lie, even in self-defence. I have known him to
invent preposterous yarns in order to mystify his auditors, but in such
cases he always, after enjoying their astonishment for a minute or two,
makes a clean breast of it. In this case the evidence of others, as well
as his own obvious excitement, makes it impossible to suppose that the
whole thing was got up for purposes of mystification.
The dream was previsionary or merely coincidental by chance.
Against the latter theory may be urged the number of coincident de-
tails. But what to my mind is probably very significant is the ex-
tremely emotional character of the dream, its terrific vividness. This
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feature nearly always characterizes those dreams which, on other
accounts, as the complexity of the coinciding details and the closeness
of time, seem unlikely to be coincidental merely by chance.
MONITIONAL DREAM 1
(ROBERT YELVERTON TYRRELL, GUARANTOR)
Professor Tyrrell, Litt.D., LL.D., D.C.L., Fellow of Trinity Col-
lege, Dublin (1844- . . . .), occupied first the chair of Latin and then
of Greek at Trinity College, for many years. He issued many books;
editions of works by Euripides, Cicero, Plautus, Aristophanes, Sopho-
cles, etc., an Anthology of Latin Poetry , Dublin Translations into
Greek and Latin Verse , etc.
His sister thus relates her experience :
February 3, 1886.
I am happy to give you an exact account of the dream which I had
about my brother, Professor of Greek in Trinity College, Dublin. I
cannot fix the exact time ; it was probably two and a half or three and
a half years ago. It was simply a vivid dream; I by no means saw an
exact enactment of what was going on. I dreamed (being at home in
my own house in Killiney, my brother being in his, in Dublin) that I saw
my brother covered with blood, and that I threw my arms round him
and implored him not to die, and that I felt the blood touch me, and saw
it drop on me. I awoke in great distress, and remained awake lest I
should dream it again. In the morning I told my husband I had had a
fearful dream. I did not in the least think it was true, but it was very
real, and it frightened me. In spite of daylight, and companions
around me, I still felt a vague uneasiness, and in order to dispel the
feeling by seeing my brother in perfect health (as I quite expected I
should), I went into Dublin by train, and to his rooms in college to see
him. I found him sitting by the fire, and I asked him if he would come
to us next day and play tennis. He replied, “ that he should not be able
to play tennis for many a day,” and then told me “ he had had an
accident the evening before; he was in the garden with his children, and
one of them had got up on the roof of a small tool-house, which had a
glass window in the roof ; the child was frightened, and my brother went
up the ladder to lift him down ; he put one foot on the window and
reached forward for the child, when the glass broke and my brother’s
leg went through, cutting a vein in the leg; it bled profusely for a
1 Phantasms oj the Living, II, 403-4.
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NOTED WITNESSES
couple of hours before a doctor could be found to bandage it up. This
accident took place early in the evening; I, probably, was not in bed
until after the bleeding had been stopped.
My brother noticed how white I had become while he was telling me
of his accident. I told him my dream, and he agreed with me in think-
ing it a very remarkable coincidence. He evidently had not thought of
me the previous night, or he would have said so. My attachment for
him is, I believe, unusually strong, and my sympathy in all his pursuits
extreme. It is right to mention that in 1879 he had had a much more
serious accident, about which I had no dream.
M. Geraldine J. Bramly.
Mr. Brandy at the same time wrote that he remembered his wife
telling him of the dream in the morning before she learned the cor-
responding facts.
Professor Tyrrell added, above his signature:
I remember the incident communicated to you by my sister, Mrs.
Bramly. The details are accurate. She told me of her dream when she
called on me in college the following morning.
Evidently he winced as he wrote, and he hastened to clear his own
reputation :
I should wish it to be understood that I look on the dream and the
accident as mere coincidence. The accident was slight, but there was
considerable effusion of blood.
R. Y. Tyrrell.
But in answer to inquiries, Mrs. Bramly added:
I am a very restless, uneasy sleeper, and every night dream the
wildest dreams possible. I have never, however, except in this instance,
dreamed of any accident to anyone, or of the death of anyone.
Let us see how the account stands. A woman dreams not that
somebody, but a particular brother, is not just hurt in some fashion
nor does she just have a feeling that something unpleasant has hap-
pened to him, but that he is bleeding profusely; and that brother does
bleed profusely, not a week or two days after or before, but that very
night, a few hours before the dream. The woman is accustomed to
having “ the wildest dreams,” but this one so surpassed her customary
ones in vividness or emotionality or both, that she took a special jour-
ney to Dublin the next day to be certain nothing had happened to him.
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And furthermore, she had never previously dreamed — of course she
meant so far as she remembered — of any accident to anyone or of any-
one’s death. Put it this way: take only the last twenty years of her
life (her brother was then forty-four years old), the only time out of
the 7,300 nights that she remembered dreaming of an accident or death
to anyone , was the night when she dreamed that a particular brother
had met with a bloody accident, and that brother did undergo such an
accident that very night. It may be added that if she ever had had a
dream of an accident which affected her to the point that she made a
journey expressly to assure herself that the person dreamed about
was well and unharmed, she probably would have remembered it.
PECULIAR DEATH-BED INCIDENT 1
(CHARLES JESSE JONES)
Mr. Jones, popularly known as “ Buffalo Jones,” had considerable
repute as a hunter, traveler, lecturer, etc. His daughter, Mrs. Olive
Jones Whitmer, wrote out the incident witnessed by her and two others,
at the time of his death.
The day wore along, and his respiration became lighter. The
pulse, however, was steady and I felt he might live several days, as the
doctor had told me he might. As the hour of three approached, how-
ever, he seemed to sink rapidly, and from two-thirty on he breathed
ever so lightly. Nurse tried to call the doctors, but none were in.
Just on the stroke of three he breathed his last. . . .
Now came the miracle, for such it was to me. I had been giving
him water from a spoon from a glass of water which was on the table
beside his bed. I had laid the spoon aside, as Nurse Marshall had told
me to be careful or the water might strangle him. I had then taken a
soft cloth and wiped his lips and mouth from time to time with water
from the glass. Exactly as the breath left him, we. Nurse Marshall,
Wallace, my housekeeper and I, heard two clear tinkling sounds.
It came from the glass in which there was only a little water, and
before our eyes, the glass split in two parts, a rim about a half inch
from the top breaking from the rest of the glass. I had prayed that if
mamma was there that she tap twice, but I had expected it on the door.
I had been told that two raps were “ yes.” The picture shows very
plainly the line of the break. No one was near the table then, it being
all of two feet from any of us.
1 Journal A. 8. P. R., September, 1924.
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Appended were the affidavits of the nurse, Ella Marshall, and the
housekeeper, Florence Brown Wallace, that they distinctly heard the
two sounds, the first saying that they were “ sharp rings as if a hard
substance had come in contact with a water glass,” and the other that
they were “ two rings on the glass.”
Pictures from photographs showing the glass and the detached rim
entire are to be found in the magazine. I do not know how peculiar
the sudden separation of the edge of a glass tumbler around its entire
circumference from no visible cause may be,1 but the coincidence of the
event with the moment of the death, and the coincidence of the number
of sounds with the two “ raps ” mentally asked by Mrs. Whitmer are
surely very odd.
PREMONITION OF THE DEATH OF A PARTICULAR
PERSON 2
(HENRY MORTON STANLEY, G.C.B.)
This distinguished explorer (1841-1904), born in Wales, emigrated
to the United States at the age of sixteen, was adopted by a New
Orleans merchant named Stanley, and took his name. In 1870, when
Livingstone had not been heard from for two years, the New York
Herald sent him to Africa to search for the explorer, whom he found.
He went again to Africa in 1874, and discovered the course of the
Congo. He again went to Africa for King Leopold of Belgium, 1879-
84, and his work resulted in the founding of the Congo Free State.
Later, at the head of another expedition, he rescued Emin Pasha.
Then he served for some years as a Member of Parliament. He was
the author of How I Found Livingstone, Through the Dark Continent ,
In Darkest Africa, and a number of other books about Africa and his
travels there.
Mr. Stanley was a private of the Confederate Army when the in-
1 Two or three weeks after writing the above, I was seeking a glass tumbler on a
shelf of the pantry of my residence, and found one broken in exactly similar fashion.
The ring was “ about a half inch wide ” and the detachment complete, though it still
rested on the top of the glass. There was no visible cause for the break at that par-
ticular place. A resolute Spiritualist would hold that the event, occurring for the
first time in my life, was intended to prove to me that spirits can break tumblers;
if so, it failed to achieve its purpose. But there were no coincidental features in
my incident.
2 Autobiography oj H. M. Stanley, edited by Dorothy Stanley, Houghton &
Mifflin Co„ 1909, 207-8.
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cident occurred. He had been captured at the battle of Shiloh and
sent to Camp Douglas, near Chicago. Here is his story :
On the next day (April 16), after the morning duties had been
performed, the rations divided, the cooks had departed contented, and
the quarters swept, I proceeded to my nest and reclined alongside of
my friend Wilkes, in a posture that gave me a command of one half of
the building. I made some remarks to him upon the card-playing
groups opposite, when, suddenly, I felt a gentle stroke on the back of
my neck, and, in an instant, I was unconscious. The next moment I
had a vivid view of the village of Tremeirchion, and the grassy slopes
of the hills of Hirradog, and I seemed to be hovering over the rook
woods of Brynbella. I glided to the bed-chamber of my Aunt Mary.
My aunt was in bed, and seemed sick unto death. I took a position by
the side of the bed, and saw myself, with head bent down, listening to
her parting words, which sounded regretful, as though conscience
smote her for not having been so kind as she might have been, or had
wished to be. I heard the boy say, “ I believe you, aunt. It is neither
your fault, nor mine. You were good and kind to me, and I knew you
wished to be kinder; but things were so ordered that you had to be
what you were. I also dearly wished to love you, but I was afraid to
speak of it, lest you would check me, or say something that would
offend me. I feel our parting was in this spirit. There is no need of
regrets. You have done your duty to me, and you had children of your
own, who required all your care. What has happened to me since, was
decreed should happen. Farewell.”
I put forth my hand and felt the clasp of the long thin hands of
the sore-sick woman. I heard a murmur of farewell, and immediately
I woke.
It appeared to me that I had but closed my eyes. I was still in the
same reclining attitude, the groups opposite me were still engaged in
their card games, Wilkes was in the same position. Nothing had
changed.
I asked, “ What has happened? ”
“ What could happen ? ” said he. “ What makes you ask ? It is
but a moment ago you were speaking to me.”
“ Oh, I thought I had been asleep a long time.”
On the next day, the 17th April, 1862, my Aunt Mary died at
Fynnon Bueno! [In Wales.]
I believe that the soul of every human being has its attendant spirit
— a nimble, delicate essence, whose method of action is by a subtle sug-
gestion which it contrives to insinuate into the mind, whether asleep or
awake. We are too gross to be capable of understanding the significa-
tion of the dream, the vision, or the sudden presage, or of divining the
source of the premonition, or its import. We admit that we are liable
to receive a fleeting picture of an act, or a figure, at any moment, but,
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except being struck by certain strange coincidences which happen to
most of us, we seldom make an effort to unravel the mystery. The
swift, darting messenger stamps an image on the mind, and displays a
vision to the sleeper; and if, as sometimes follows, among tricks and
twists of the errant mind, by reflex acts of memory, it happens to be
true representation of what is to happen, we are left to grope hope-
lessly as to the manner and meaning of it, for there is nothing tangible
to lay hold of.
There are many things relating to my existence which are inex-
plicable to me, and probably it is best so; this death-bed scene, pro-
jected on my mind’s screen, across four thousand five hundred miles
of space, is one of these mysteries.
The precise meaning of the passage wherein Sir Henry speculates
on the nature and meaning of such facts is not entirely clear. Does
he, by the word “ spirit,” mean what is usually meant by that term, or
some part of the mind functioning upon the rest as its object, like
Freud’s “psychic censor” though with a different purpose? And the
affirmative employment of the terms “ presage ” and “ premonition ”
does not seem to consist with the expression “ it happens to be a true
representation of what is to happen.” It seems plain that the dis-
tinguished explorer did believe that the death-bed scene was “ pro-
jected on ” his “ mind’s screen, across four thousand five hundred miles
of space.” However, what Stanley thought about the facts is of much
less importance than the facts themselves, as reported by one whose life
was one long drill in observing, appraising and recording facts.
THE OLD GENTLEMAN OF THE ATTIC
(HENRY RIDGELY EVANS)
Henry R. Evans, since 1911 in the editorial division of the Bureau
of Education, Washington, is LL.B. and Litt.D. of the University of
Maryland. He is author of The Spirit World Unmasked , Old and New
Magic, The Napoleon Myth, and a number of other works. The most
important, an exhaustive History of Conjuring and Magic, is soon to
issue. He is of skeptical bent but has at length come to recognize that
there are certain types of supernormal facts.
He wrote me the incident quite informally, on January 14, 1928,
but afterwards consented to its use.
I am enjoying your Psychic in the House, which is certainly a
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painstaking and interesting presentation of a subject that interests
me profoundly. When I was a small boy some similar experiences were
felt in an old Colonial House, located in Georgetown, D. C., which my
father had leased. One day, one of my young sisters said to my
mother: “ O Mother, who is the strange old man who comes in at the
basement door and goes up-stairs to the attic. He has a long white
beard.” My mother chided the little one for her over-zealous imagina-
tion, setting down the remark to “ children’s lies.” But the little girl
persisted in her statement. A short time after the above occurrence
another small sister made the same remark, and my mother was puzzled.
The child declared that she had seen the old man ascending the steps
to the attic. Subsequently my mother paid a social call on a lady
living opposite our home, who incidentally remarked during the con-
versation : “ By the way, Mrs. Evans, who is the old gentleman who is
visiting at your home? ” “ Old gentleman? ” replied my mother, some-
what incredulously. “ Yes,” answered the lady, “ the old gentleman
with the long white beard. I saw him looking out of your attic window
the other day.”
These facts are absolutely true, as I record them. But the inter-
pretation?— ah, that is the question. My mother and father, however,
were convinced of the fact that the figure seen by the children and the
neighbor was an apparition. It is an interesting case, and has re-
mained in my memory for many years. My mother often spoke of it.
In a letter dated February 4, 1928, Mr. Evans added :
I have no objection to your using the story about the “ appari-
tion ” seen in my old home in Georgetown, D. C., and also linking my
name with it. The old mansion is located on the south side of P Street,
Northwest, near Thirty-first Street, in Georgetown, D. C. (now a part
of Washington). It is a handsome old house. It was rented by my
father, Henry C. Evans, and the event I write about occurred in the
year 1871, when I was nine years of age. I recall all the incidents
vividly, as they made a great impression on me.
The facts are of old date and uncorroborated, but they come with
the authority of a man of trained intellect and critical habit, who de-
clares that he distinctly remembers hearing the testimonies at the time
they were originally made because they wrought a deep impression on
him, and that he remembers his mother’s subsequent frequent references
to the facts. The incident closely resembles that of the Blank residence
in Philadelphia, related in Bulletin IX of the Boston Society for
Psychic Research.
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NOTED WITNESSES
LING LOOK AND YAMADEVA 1
(HARRY KELLAR)
Harry Kellar (1849-. . . ?) was one of the most skilful and noted
conjurors of the last generation. At the age of eighteen he was “ busi-
ness manager ” for the famous Davenport Brothers, who posed as spirit
mediums; was then partner with William Fay (who also had worked
with the Davenports and used their trick rope-tie) in a trip through
Mexico and South America; was next associated with Ling Look and
Yamadeva, showing in South America, Africa, Australia and several
countries of Asia; then, with Cunard, he gave entertainments for five
years in Asiatic lands ; finally performing mostly in America. “ Dean ”
was a title of honor conferred upon him by the magical fraternity.
Ling Look, one of the best of contemporary fire performers, was
with Dean Harry Kellar when the latter made his famous trip around
the world in 1877. Look combined fire-eating and sword-swallowing in
a rather startling manner. His best effect was the swallowing of a
red-hot sword. Another thriller consisted in fastening a long sword
to the stock of a musket ; when he had swallowed about half the length
of the blade, he discharged the gun and the recoil drove the sword sud-
denly down his throat to the very hilt. Although Look always ap-
peared in a Chinese make-up, Dean Kellar told me that he thought his
right name was Dave Gueter, and that he was born in Buda Pesth.
Yamadeva,2 a brother of Ling Look, was also with the Kellar Com-
pany, doing cabinet manifestations and rope escapes. Both brothers
died in China during this engagement, and a strange incident occurred
in connection with their deaths. Just before they were to sail from
Shanghai on the P. & O. steamer Khiva for Hong Kong, Yamadeva and
Kellar visited the bowling alley of The Hermitage, a pleasure resort on
the Bubbling Well Road. They were watching a husky sea captain,
who was using a huge ball and making a “ double spare ” at every roll,
when Yamadeva suddenly remarked, “ I can handle one as heavy as
that big loafer can.” Suiting the action to the word, he seized one of
the largest balls and drove it down the alley with all his might; but he
had misjudged his own strength, and he paid for the foolhardy act with
his life, for he had no sooner delivered the ball than he grasped his side
and moaned with pain. He had hardly sufficient strength to get back
to the ship, where he went immediately to bed and died shortly after-
ward. An examination showed that he had ruptured an artery.
1 Miracle Mongers and Their Methods, by Harry Houdini (Dutton & Co.),
pp. 84-7.
2 Elsewhere I found this spelled Yamadura.
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Kellar and Ling Look had much difficulty in persuading the captain
to take the body to Hong Kong, but he finally consented. On the way
down the Yang Tse Kiang River, Look was greatly depressed; but all
at once he became strangely excited, and said that his brother was not
dead, for he had just heard the peculiar whistle with which they had
always called each other. The whistle was several times repeated, and
was heard by all on board. Finally the captain, convinced that some-
thing was wrong, had the lid removed from the coffin, but the body of
Yamadeva gave no indication of life, and all save Ling Look decided
that they must have been mistaken.
Poor Ling Look, however, sobbingly said to Kellar, “ I shall never
leave Hong Kong alive. My brother has called me to join him.” This
prediction was fulfilled, for shortly after their arrival in Hong Kong
he underwent an operation for a liver trouble, and died under the knife.
The brothers were buried in Happy Valley, Hong Kong, in the
year 1877.
All this was related to me at the Marlborough-Blenheim, Atlantic
City, in June, 1908, by Kellar himself, and portions of it were repeated
in 1917 when Dean Kellar sat by me at the Society of American
Magicians’ dinner.
Since Kellar was in general very skeptical regarding the purported
occult, and was impressed by this incident because he was a partici-
pator therein, he probably did not exaggerate the facts. Of course it
is open to conjecture whether the “ whistle ” may not have had some
normal source, and one would suppose that Kellar was just the man to
investigate that theory. At any rate, Yamadeva’s premonitory feeling,
based on the whistle, that he was speedily to die, was justified, nor was
his death from auto-suggestion, since he died of an operation for
liver trouble.
We get the story immediately through Houdini, who says that he
heard it twice, in whole and part, from Kellar’s lips. Since Houdini
was, in general, of the most pronounced skeptical type, I doubt if he,
either, exaggerated, or that anything else than his profound respect for
Kellar would have induced him to put the incident on record. From
Who's Who in America , 1907, I find this: “ Ling Look and Yamadura
died in China, 1877.”
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NOTED WITNESSES
THE CONJUROR SKEPTIC CONVINCED BY THE EXPERI-
ENCE OF HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW 1
(JOHN NEVIL MASKELYNE)
Mr. Maskelyne was a celebrated English conjuror a generation ago,
who was, moreover, almost as bitter in his attacks upon “ Spiritual-
ism ” as Houdini was later. He was the author of several thin books,
among which were Modern Spiritualism and The Fraud of Modem
“ Theosophy ” Exposed.
Egyptian Hall,
October 21, 1881.
Sir, — Having for many years been recognized by the public as an
anti-Spiritualist and exposer of the frauds practised by spirit media,
it may surprise some of your readers to learn that I am a believer in
apparitions. Several similar occurrences to those described by many
of your correspondents have taken place in my own family, and in the
families of near friends and relatives. The most remarkable one hap-
pened to my wife’s mother some years ago. Late one evening, whilst
sitting alone busily occupied with her needle, a strange sensation came
over her, and upon looking up she distinctly saw her aged mother stand-
ing at the end of the room. She rubbed her weary eyes and looked
again, but the specter had vanished. She concluded it was imagination,
and retired to rest, thinking nothing more of the vision, until the next
day brought the news that her mother, at about the same time the ap-
parition had appeared, had fallen down in a fit and expired.
John Nevil Maskelyne.
Mr. Gurney adds :
In answer to our inquiries, Mr. Maskelyne writes that he regrets
not to be able to get this case from his wife’s mother in her own words.
“ She was a little vexed with me,” he says, “ for giving publicity to the
circumstance. I have written it exactly as I have often heard her
relate it.”
“ One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” 2 Probably
Maskelyne would have continued skeptical to all claims of the super-
normal, if his wife’s mother, whom he knew so well and respected so
much, had not told him her experience. So I have known a psycholo-
gist, hitherto obdurate, to “ fall with a dull, sickening thud,” so to
1 Phantasms of the Living, II, 532-33; originally in the (London) Daily Telegraph.
2 1 use this line in its commonly-used sense, not as Shakespeare really meant it.
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speak, when one of his children began to display curious phenomena,
and a physician, especially scornful until he was brought face to face
with phenomena in exactly the same fashion. I am personally ac-
quainted with a man of science who was apparently more impressed by
what happened in his own family than by all the records in all the
books, and with several others suspected of being brought to open-
mindedness chiefly by the experiences which happened to befall their
relatives or themselves. Probably the best way of turning the attention
of learned professional men to this field of inquiry, if it could be
effected, would be to “ develop ” their wives and daughters.
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INDEX OF NAMES
The names printed in italics are connected with matter of subsidiary importance .
The figures are those of pages where relevant matter begins.
Abbott , Mrs. (“ Georgia Magnet ”), 200
Abrantes, Duchess of (Mme. Junot), 203
Anthony, Susan B., 121
Arndt, Ernst Moritz, 131
Athenodorus, 210
Backus , Isaac, 290n
Balfour, Arthur James (Earl), 104
Ballantine, Serjeant William, 57
Bannerman . Sir Henry , 166
Baring-Gould, Sabine, 184, 187, 188
Bamby, Joseph, 253
Barton, Bruce, 273
Becher, Gen. Sir Arthur, 79
Belasco, David, 150
Beza, Theodore, 271
Bispham, David Scull, 257, 259
Bizet, Alexandre C. L., 262
Boisleve, Baroness de, 71
Bok, Edward William, 188
Booth, William, 267
Bowman, Thomas, 295
Bramly, M. Geraldine J., 321
Briggs, George N., 286
Bronte, Charlotte, 121
Brougham, Lord Henry, 59
Brown, Henry Armitt, 61
Brown, Henry Kirke, 230
Brown , Mrs. H. K., 230
vBrowning, Robert, 131
Buckminster, Joseph, 269
Buckminster, Joseph S., 270
Buller, Gen. Sir Redvers, 80, 304
Burbank, Luther, 13
Bushnell, Horace, 267
Butler, James D., 36
Calvin, John, 271
Campbell, Gen. J. D., 185n
Cardan, Jerome, 13
Carnarvon, Lord, 311
“ Carey, Hester,” 169
Cary, Alice, 133
Cary, Phoebe, 133
Child, Lydia Maria, 315
Clemens, Samuel Langhome (“ Mark
Twain”), 189, 192
Clews, Henry, 314
Collyer, Robert, 272
Conington, Professor, 205
Constans, Jean Antoine Ernest, 105
Conwell, Russell Herman, 273
332
Cooper, Alfred, 70
Cooper, Sir Astley, 58
Cosgrave, Major L. Moore, 147
Crawford, Earl of (Lindsay), 14
Crowe, Sir John, 118
Curran, Mrs. Pearl Lenore, 153, 223n,
300
Cyprianus, Thascius Caecilius, 276
Delitzsch, Friedrich, 16
De Morgan, Augustus, 18, 20
De Morgan, Evelyn, 154, 243
De Morgan, William Frend, 154, 155
Denison, Flora MacDonald, 145
Depew, Chauncey Mitchell, 106
Dickens, Charles, 155, 157
Dickens, Charles, Jr., 211
Drummond, William, 151
Dudevant, Madame (Sand), 14n
Dunne, J. W\, 20
Erskine, Thomas (Baron Erskine), 64
Esdaile, James, 71
Evans, Henry Ridgely, 326
Field, Kate, 233
Flammarion, Camille, 255
Foix, Count de, 192
Fremont, Jessie Benton (Mrs. Fre-
mont), 81
Fremont, Gen. John Charles, 81
Froissart, Sir John, 192
Galli-Marie, Mme., 262
Garibaldi, Gen. Giuseppe, 88
Giunasi, Count, 132
Glasse, Solomon, 300
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 134, 136
Goldsmith , Oliver, 98
Gordon , Anna, 129
Grant, Family of Gen., 89
Greenawalt, William E., 22
Gregory, Thaumaturgus, 276
Gregory William, 24
Greville, F. R. C. G. (Eari of War-
wick), 312
Griggs, Mrs. and Miss , 57n
Griswold, Alexander Viets, 278
■ Haggard, Sir Rider, 157
Hale, Edward Everett, 113
Hall, Sir Edward Marshall, 66
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333
Hamilton, Duchess of, 70
Hawthorne, Julian, 157
Hawthorne, Mrs. Nathaniel, 161
Hay, Sir John Drummond, 119
Hayter, Sir Arthur, 166
Hillis, Newell Dwight, 279
Hilprecht, Herman V., 25
Hoibrook, Martin Luther, 72
Hole, Samuel Reynolds, 280
Holley, Marietta, 194
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 137
Holt, Henry, 197
Home, Daniel Dunglas, 15
Hopper, Isaac Tatem, 315
Hoppin, James M., 61
Hosmer, Harriet, 248
Houdini, Harry , 329
Houssaye, Ars&ne, 162
Howard, Lady Mabel, 304
Howitt, Mary, 201
Howitt, William, 202
Hugo, Victor, 163
Huntington, Frederick Dean, 283
Hyacinthe, Pire (Loyson, C. J. M. A.
H.), 289
Hyslop, James Hervey , 46, 198
Jackson, Anne, 251
James, William, 30
Jeanne d’Arc, 90
Jenner, Sir William, 70
Johnson , Samuel, 98, 287n
Jones, Charles Jesse, 323
Jones, Herbert, 308
Jones, Sir Lawrence J., 307
Jonson, Ben, 151
Jung-Stilling, Johann Heinrich, 136
Junot , Gen. Andoche, 203
Junot, Mme. (Duchesse d’Abrantes), 203
Justin, Martyr, 299
Kant, Immanuel , 47
Kellar, Harry, 328
Kinsolving , Arthur B., 288
Kinsolving, George Herbert, 287
Knox, John, 285
Lang, Andrew, 205
Leland, John, 285
Li6beault, Auguste Ambroise, 73, 74
Lindsay, James Ludovic (Crawford), 14
Ling Look, 328
Linn, Lewis Fields, 110
Linnaeus, Carolus, 32
Little, George, 207
Livermore, Mary Ashton, 122
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 40
Loyson, C. J. M. A. H. (Hyacinthe,
Pire), 289
Lucy, Sir Henry W., 125, 211
Luther, Martin, 290, 300
Lyttelton, Lord Thomas, 309
Maclaren, Ian (Watson, John), 179
Manso, 141
Marques, Thomas, 269n
Marryatt, Florence, 164
Marry att, Capt. Frederick, 164
Maskelyne, John Nevil, 330
Mathews, Charles, 251
Maxim, Hudson, 33
Melancthon, Philip, 300
Moody, Dwight Lyman, 301, 303
Moody, William Revell, 301
Morgan, Lady Sydney Owenson, 64
Morgan, William H., 291
Moses, William Stain ton, 316
Moulton, Louise Chandler, 213
xMuir, John, 36
Musset, L. C. Alfred de, 14n
Myers, Frederick W. H., 304
N61aton, Auguste, 77
Newbold, William Romaine, 109, 318
Newton, Alonzo E., 175
Newton, Mrs. Alonzo E., 175
Nichia, Lilian, 265
vObregdn, Gen. Alvaro, 95
Oglethorpe, Gen. James Edward, 98
Otis, James, 67
Oursler, Charles Fulton, 216
Paine, Albert Bigelow, 219
Parker, E. W., 294
Parker, Sir Gilbert, 166
Parker, Joseph, 287
Pearee, Capt. Alfred, 243
Peattie, Elia W., 169
Perry, Sister of Mrs. Helen A., 153
, Phelps, William Lyon, 220
Phillips, Stephen, 138
Pickett, Gen. George Edward, 99
Plato, 123
Pliny, 210n
Powers, Hiram, 250
Price, Mattie Lee, 200
Pumpelly, Raphael, 38
Quincy, Joaiah, 113
Radnor, Lady, 253
Raper, William H, 296n
Rasch, Sir Came, 166
Redmayne, Sir R. A. S., 40
Reinhold, Commander, 101
Roberts, Gen. Sir Abraham, 100
Roberts, Gen. Frederick Sleigh (Earl), 99
Romanes, George John, 41
Rubinstein, Anton G., 265
Ruskin, John, 221
Saint-Saens, Charles Camille, 255
Sand, George (Du dev ant), 14n
Sardou, Victorien, 152
Savage, Minot Judson, 122
Savce, Archibald Henry, 42
Schipa, Tito, 263
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INDEX OF NAMES
Schumann, Robert, 256
Schurz, Gen. Carl, 113
Scott, Sir Walter, 172
Seton, Ernest Thompson, 44
Severn, Arthur, 246
Sharp, Elizabeth A. (Mrs. William), 223
Sharp, William, 222
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 139
Shillaber, Benjamin A., 175
Simpson, Matthew, 295
Singh, Prince Duleep, 311
Smith , George, 16
Socrates, 123
Spore , Flora Marian, 153
^Stanley, Henry Morton, 324
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady, 125
Stead, William Thomas, 224
Stenhouse, Mrs. T. B., 226
Stillman, W. J., 221, 229
Stockton, Frank R., 184n
Stockton, Louise, 184n
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 173
Styka, Jan, 248
Swedenborg, Emanuel, 46, 50, 53, 54, 55
Tallmadge, Nathaniel P., 116
Tasso, Torquato, 140
Taylor, Bayard, 143
Taylor, Col. Philip Meadows, 117
Tennyson, Alfred, 144
Tertullian, Quintus Septimius Florens,
296
Thomas, Augustus, 220
Townshend, Sir Charles, 166
Traubel, Horace, 144
Trowbridge, John Townsend, 174
Twain, Mark (Clemens, S. L.), 189, 192,
219
Tyrrell, Robert Yelverton, 321
Vane, Sir Henry, 304
Vane, Lady Mabel Harriet, 304
Varley, Cromwell F., 55, 57
Warcollier, Rene, 231
Warne, Francis Wesley, 294
Warwick, Earl of (Greville, F. R. C. G.),
312
Watson, John (“Ian Maclaren”), 179
Wellington, Jay, 153
Westcote, Lord, 310
Whitehead, John, 47n
Whiting, Lilian, 233
Whitman, Walt, 144
Wikoff, Henry, 237
Wilberforce, Samuel, 298
Willard, Frances Elizabeth, 127
Willcocks, Gen. Sir James, 100
Wingfield, Miss K., 66
Winningham-Ingram, Arthur Foley, 284
Wright, Silas, 110
Xenophon, 123
Yamadeva (Yamadura?*), 328
Zschokke, Johann Heinrich Daniel, 239,
242
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INDEX OF PHENOMENA
Many of the following titles given to types of phenomena and many of the par-
ticular assignments of cases to them , are very tentative. Where several factors are
involved , the same cases are listed under several titles. A query mark indicates that
the compiler has grave doubts whether the case is properly assigned , and these signs
of doubt might with propriety have been made more numerous.
Apparitions of the Dead or at the
Time of Death — Crawford, 14; Sayce,
42; Brougham, 59; Erekine, 64; Nela-
ton, 77; Becher, 79; Tallmadge, 116*
Willard, 127; Arndt, 131; Shelley, 139;
Traubel, 144; Belasco, 150; Hugo, 163;
Marryatt, 164; Peattie, 169, Baring-
Gould, 187; Junot, 203; Stenhouse,
226; Wikoff, 237; Pearse, 243; Hosmer,
248; Mathews and Jackson, 251; Galli-
Marie, 262; Schipa, 263; Rubinstein,
265; Conwell, 273; Griswold, 278;
Huntington, 283; Singh, 311; Maske-
lyne, 330.
Apparitions Unknown — Cary, 133 ;
Shelley, 139; Little, 207; Ruskin, 221;
Luther, 289; Backus, 289n; Tertullian,
296; Evans, 326
Apparitions of the Living — James, 30;
Romanes, 41; Taylor, 117; Parker,
166; Lang, 205; Moses, 316
Clairvoyance — DeMorgan, 18; Gregory,
24; Seton, 45; Swedenborg, 46; Var-
ley, 55; Balfour, 104; Crowe, 118;
Bamby, 253; Vane, 304
Demons or Guides — Quincy, 113; Soc-
rates, 123; Tasso, 140; Hawthorne,
161 ; St. Gregory, 276
Dowsing — Greenawalt, 22; Zsohokke,
242
Dying Visions — De Morgan, 20; War-
collier, 231; Cyprian, 276; Hyacinthe,
289; Parker, 294; Moody, 303
Haunted Houses — Sayce, 42; Phillips,
138; Baring-Gould, 184; Campbell,
185n; Leland, 285; Evans, 326
Lights — Crawford, 14; Tallmadge, 116
Monitions— Muir, 36; Pumpelly, 38;
Redmayne, 40; Garibaldi, 88; Obre-
g6n, 95; Roberts, 100; ?Constans, 105;
Hay, 119; Livermore, 122; Haggard,
157; Whiting, 233; Styka, 248; Buck-
minster, 269; Hole, 280; Wilberforce,
298; Jones, 307; Earl of Warwick, 312;
Tyrrell, 321
Parallel Dreams — Varley, 57; Brown,
61 ; Grant, 89
Predictions — Seton, 45 ; Swedenborg,
55; Otis, 67; Liebeault, 73; Jeanne
d’Arc, 90; Goethe, 134; Houssaye, 162;
Trowbridge, 177 ; Froissart, 192 ; Moul-
ton, 213; Saint-Saens, 255; Bispham,
259
Premonitions — Maxim, 34; Oglethorpe,
98; Pickett, 99; Reinold, 101; Linn,
110; Anthony, 121; De Morgan, 154;
Hugo, 163; Clemens, 189; Little, 207;
Stead, 224; Schumann, 256; Hole, 280;
Knox, 285; Moody, 301; Lyttelton,
309; Clews, 314; Hopper, 315; Stanley,
324; Look, 329
Previsions, Waking or in Dreams —
Dunne, 20; Cooper, 70; Depew, 106;
Goethe, 136 ; Dickens, 155 ; Howitt,
201; Howitt, 202; Oursler, 216; Saint-
Saens, 255; Bispham, 257; Bushnell,
267; Marques, 269n; Colly er, 272;
Kinsolving, 287; Newbold, 318.
Psychic Healing — ?Simpson, 295; Me-
lancthon, 300
Psychic States — Cardan, 13; Tennyson,
144; Bok, 188; Sharp, 222
Psychometry— Browning, 131 ; Trow-
bridge, 174
Raps, Voices, Etc.— Crawford, 14;
Smith, 16; Linnceus, 32; Hay, 119;
Livermore, 122; Dumas, 33n; Stanton,
125; De Morgan, 155; Scott, 172;
Stockton, 184n; Campbell, 185n;
Baring-Gould, 188; Holley, 196;
Pearse, 243; Schipa, 263; Leland, 285;
Luther, 290; Jones, 307; Look, 329.
Subconscious Reasoning — Hilprecht, 25
Telepathy — Burbank, 13; ?Maxim, 34;
?Muir, 36; Swedenborg, 54, 55; Bul-
335
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INDEX OF PHENOMENA
ler, 80; ?Fremont, 81; Pickett, 99;
Holmes, 137; ?Dickens, 157; Watson,
179; Paine, 219; ?Zschokke, 239; De
Morgan, 243; Severn, 246; Saint-
Saens, 255; Calvin, 271; ?Hillis, 279;
? Winningham-Ingram, 284 ; ?Tertul-
lian, 296
Communications from this Dead —
Swedenborg, 50; Hall, 66; Lidbeault,
75; Schurz, 113; 8tanton, 126; Hugo,
163; Trowbridge, 177; Holley, 194;
Lucy, 211; Moulton, 213; Stillman,
229 ; Whiting, 233 ; Pearse, 243 ; Schipa,
263; Booth, 267; Conwell, 273; Hole,
280; Morgan, 291; Tertullian, 296
Miscellaneous — Cooper, 58; Willcocks,
100; Taylor, 143; Sardou, 152; De
Morgan, 154; Stowe, 173; Clemens,
192; Holt, 197; Phelps, 220; Powere,
250; Justin Martyr, 299; Jones, 323
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