on finding the piece, thought of his mother, and the leading idea in his mind was transferred to hers, which at such a moment would for obvious reasons be specially receptive of an impression from him, whose image would be one of the first in her waking thoughts. Many more striking cases are on record: the special value of this is in its commonplace character. Had the dream been not of a trifle picked up by a child, but of a friend suddenly stricken with a mortal illness, the image might have been taken for his "ghost" quitting the body, as some people fancy, before or after death, to go on some special errand.

Closely resembling this is another case well known to me. I had as a guest in my residence in Jamaica a lady of unusual intelligence, who was very intimate with and much attached to Mrs. Beecher Stowe. They frequently corresponded. She had a dream in which Mrs. Stowe seemed to be occupied, singularly enough, in digging the ground, and she inquired if there was any foundation for this. From the reply, she learned that Mrs. Stowe had been shortly before in Scotland on a visit to the Duke of Argyll, and had been asked to plant a tree as a memorial of her visit on leaving. Here, as in the former case, it is probable that besides the general sympathy between the parties concernedfrom blood-relationship in the one case, from friendship in the other-there was some special thought, on Mrs. Stowe's part, of the friend who dreamed of her act, connected in time either with the actual handling of the spade or with the remembrance of her strange occupation. Few people would suppose such a coincidence to be purely accidental, unless from the apparent impossibility of accounting for it otherwise.

This mysterious influence manifests itself in a form not very dissimilar when one person dreams of that of which another is also dreaming of which there are many well-authenticated instances, though I myself have none to relate. Or, again, two persons may at about the same time dream of the same transaction in which the two are mutually concerned.

A young married lady related to me the following remarkable experience of this kind Shortly after her marriage she had accompanied her husband to India. It was toward the end of the Mutiny, and

she was separated from him-he being about forty miles away, and, as she believed, in great personal danger. For the first time in her young life she was left alone. One night, on retiring to rest, feeling far from well, depressed too by the sense of loneliness and by anxiety on her husband's account, she "could not help crying," and fell, as she thought, into a troubled sleep, in which she dreamed or fancied that an elderly gentleman who had shown them much kindness on their first arrival in India, but who was then residing at a considerable distance, entered her room, and approaching the bed, said, "My dear child, I know well what you are suffering, and, believe me, I feel deeply for you;" and that he stooped down and kissed her. Though quite aware, she said, that it was merely a vision, she felt greatly consoled. The Mutiny ended, she was with her husband in Calcutta at an evening party, at which she met their friend. He expressed his pleasure at seeing her again after a long interval. "It is not so long," she replied, "since I saw you ;" and she described the vision With expressions of the utmost astonishment, he declared that he himself had had a similar vision, or rather dream. "I dreamed that I saw you crying, and tried to console you, and kissed you.

Comparing this case with the simpler previous one, it seems most probable that the first telepathic effect was that produced by the lady's emotion upon the mind of her friend. Through his tender regard for her, this excited such sympathy as to enable him, in a dream, to see her as she lay weeping, and the desire to console her developed itself, in his sleeping thoughts, into a seeming reality. Then her mind was in turn acted upon by his. She became conscious of the ideas with which his mind was possessed, so vividly that in her case also they were developed into seeming reality. She was very susceptible to influences of this kind. She had in earlier life had a still more remarkable vision, which shall be mentioned in its proper place.

Another instance of sympathy, or telepathy, which has been recently related to me, has much resemblance to this, but is in some of its features uncommon, so far as I know, even among strange visions. Two young men, brothers, one being an

a

officer in the British army, and the other well-known and highly imaginative popular writer, were sleeping in the same room. The officer, my informant, was roused by moaning cries from his companion, as of extreme terror and distress. Shouting loudly to awake him, he asked, "What was the matter?" To this question his brother, when fully awakened, would give no answer; he declared that he could not then tell the cause of his distress. While wondering at this, my informant himself began to fancy that there was something in the room. Gradually, in the gloom, half-way between the foot of his brother's bed and the opposite wall, there developed itself a dusky figure of forbidding aspect. "What is that?" he exclaimed, but his brother said he saw nothing. After a while, to solve the mystery, he rose from his bed and approached the figure, which disappeared as he did

80.

The next morning the dreamer explained that he had seen standing at the foot of his bed a figure which filled him with intense horror. "It was the devil."

It is very remarkable that in this instauce it was not until after the dreamer had ceased to believe in the spectre as a reality, and not until after the image had so far faded away that when awake he saw nothing, that the telepathic impression made upon the mind of his companion gradually gathered strength enough to develop itself as a fearful shape. The case is, as far as I know, unique, and is certainly uncommon. Not unfrequently we "tremble at the vision that's gone by, the dread of vanished shadows;" but seldom can it happen that after the shadows have vanished, though the dread of then remains, they reappear before an other's waking eyes. The laws which govern these phenomena are but little understood; but we need not doubt that they are laws of wide operation. A few centuries ago it would have been regarded as bordering on heresy to doubt that the dark and hateful spectre was actually Satan himself. It would not have been remembered that the arch-deceiver would best serve his own ends by appearing as an angel of light.

It seems to me to be beyond reasonable doubt that some one general law of sympathetic or telepathic action is at work in all the above simple instances, as well as in others more complex, to be mentioned

hereafter. Nothing in nature is really abnormal. It is most probable that a power to influence the minds of others, with a susceptibility to be influenced by other minds, exists in human beings universally, in a greater or less degree. Το the hypothesis, abstractedly considered, that mind can act on mind directly—that is, not only through no known medium, but without any medium whatever-I see no valid objection. The action of mind on body, and that of body on mind, is far more mysterious than any action of mind on mind. For it is comparatively easy to understand that things of the same kind can affect one another directly. Yet to many persons mysteries with which they are familiar seem to be no mysteries at all they wonder only at that which is unusual, and marvel at telepathic phenomena as savages at an eclipse.

That the influence of mind on mind is ordinarily imperceptible, does not prove that it cannot be universal. These are well-ascertained material influences which are of universal operation, yet are too feeble to be felt; and in some cases these, even if more powerful, would still be ordinarily unfelt, because they act in many directions at once, and tend therefore to neutralize one another. That matter has weight has always been known; but never till within the last few centuries could it have been suspected that, gravitation being universal, every human body must exert an influence upon,-for it has an attraction for,-every other human body, however distant ;-an influence which would in certain cases be felt if the mass of the earth and the inertia of matter were very greatly less than they are.

In electricity also we have an all-pervading force of which we are ordinarily unconscious, violent and startling as are its occasional effects. So in the region of mind we may have effects rare and strange as are the slow-moving fireball, or the lightning-flash from an unclouded sky. Under peculiar and rarely occurring conditions, as yet but imperfectly known, certain mental influences predominate, and mind perceptibly acts on mind.

The great diversity of the forms under which a telepathic influence manifests itself furnishes but slight reason for supposing that all cannot obey one and the same law. For we know that matter may act on matter most variously. As various

ly, too, may matter act on body, or body on mind,-matter on matter directly, whether as mass on mass or as atom on atom, or indirectly through the earth, the atmosphere, the ether; and through the body on the mind, through our senses of touch, of taste and smell, of hearing, or of sight, in ways wonderful and incomprehensible. The telepathic influence, like the material, may require time to develop itself so far as to produce a sensible effect; it may, within wide limits, be more or less intense; it may need for its manifestation very peculiar conditions. Like the influence of gravity between small masses on the earth's surface, it may be far too faint to be perceptible.

There are some very striking exceptions, but, as a general rule, the sympathies of mind with mind are experienced in the solitude, darkness, and silence of night, with freedom from external excitement, and most frequently during sleep; in short, under the same conditions as are favorable to the revival of impressions made during our hours of wakeful activity. These more ordinary impressions may be, and commonly are, forgotten, and it might be supposed that they had been wholly obliterated, while, in fact, they have simply faded, and become too faint to be distinguishable. In the hours of repose some of thein return to us in our dreams, though why these rather than others it is generally impossible for us to say. They may have been latent for hours, or even for years, and yet through some mysterious laws of association suddenly obtrude themselves. Did they cross the current of our thoughts by day, we should know that they belonged not to our actual world, that they had no place among the realities by which we were surrounded; but when that outer world has faded from before us, the intruders all alike seem real, however incongruous they may be, and however faint and evanescent.

There are, however, in some cases impressions far more vivid,-hallucinations or day-dreams, so intense as to compel a belief in their reality even when the mind is fully awake to the influence of external things. Thus it is recorded that several links in the chain of evidence for a murder were supplied by a young girl, who stated that she had seen the victim hanging in an outhouse, but who added that she also saw the face of the devil looking on from

above a neighboring wall; and under cross-examination persisted in declaring that this was as true as all the rest of her

evidence. The judge wisely held that this strange delusion was not sufficient to discredit the rest of her testimony. Wisely; for it was horror produced by the ghastly reality, combined with a sense of the wickedness of the crime, which caused the hallucination. So with telepathic impressions--influences of mind on mind. They may be so faint as to be perceived only during a dream, or immediately after waking, especially in a darkened room, or they may be able to withstand the full light of day. It is quite possible that they may be faint in an extreme degree-as faint comparatively as are the lights and shadows cast by the moon in the daytime. Though moonlight is many thousand times more feeble than sunlight, being at brightest but as the size of the lunar disk to rather more than that of the starry dome in which she hangs, yet we know that to the exquisitely sensitive human eye those soft rays can show the landscape almost as distinctly as it is seen by day, and give it a peculiar beauty. By the blaze of sunshine that picture is not obliterated; it still is there, with all its soft lights and deep shadows, though unseen.

So may a multitude of telepathie impressions remain forever unperceived, a few of the strongest only, under special and as yet unknown conditions, emerging from the crowd and making themselves known. But then, which is most important,-another cause begins to operate, and deepens the impression of reality. No sooner is that impression conveyed than the mind begins to develop it, and through the principle of the association of ideas to add to it fresh features, and to clothe it with appropriate surroundings; just as, in cases not telepathic, we may recognize the figure of a friend at a distance, while his dress and his features are undistinguishable, but the mind supplies these from memory. First, the telepathic image, entering the mind apparently from without, brings with it the impression of an actual and visible presence. mind swiftly completes the picture, and paints it so vividly upon the orb of sight itself that the figure will sometimes be discernible even when one is asleep no longer. I have had more than one personal experience of this. To give one only.

Then the

In my youth I saw a pantomime, in which were exhibited slack and tight rope dancing, tumbling, balancing, and various other feats of skill. Among these the performance of the clown was conspicuous. Holding the right foot in the left hand, he used the loop thus formed as a skipping-rope, through which he leaped backward and forward very rapidly. The next morning, just before waking, I had a confused dream of this scene in which the skipping clown was again prominent. The whole picture faded gradually as I became more and more conscious of my actual surroundings; but I found that on closing my eyes it was faintly reproduced, and that on reopening them the place occupied by the clown, whitish on a dark ground when the eyes were closed, appeared against a white bed-curtain as a pale purple spot, indistinct, but evidently in motion, like a pulsating heart. In this case lively impressions upon the mind and eye, after remaining dormant for inany hours, assumed during a dream the appearance of reality, though the nerves of the eye were so feebly excited that a palecolored spot only could endure the test of faint daylight. Had the room been darker, though not in total darkness, the moving figure would have been nearly as distinct when the eyes were open as when they were closed. Thus it is easy to see that one person dreaming of another, and gradually waking in partial darkness, on seeing the other's image still before his eyes, might not unnaturally suppose that his "ghost" had appeared," a visitant from another world,"-probably to announce his recent decease!

It is quite possible, however, that impressions upon the mind and upon the nerves of sight, very far fainter than those which produced the purple spot just mentioned, might suffice to convey the fullest conviction of the actual presence of one whose image appeared in a dream; for the last objects which the dreamer beheld before falling asleep were his bedchamber and its contents. He dreams of these, and also of the figure of his friend, which seems to be in the midst of them; and he will, in consequence, assert most positively on the following morning that "he was not asleep," he distinctly saw the figure standing beside his bed,"-" he could not be mistaken."

Some persons rarely dream, and their

dreams, when they do occur, are merely a jumble of scenes and events, recent or remote, of a most commonplace character. Impressions formed during the day have not reproduced themselves in dreams in one instance in ten thousand. Telepathic impressions will, in almost every case, be far fainter originally; and if of these not one in a million is so developed and intensified as to become perceptible, one need not therefore doubt the reality of the rest. A scene beheld telepathically has been one out of a multitude of such sketched on the brain, as it were, with invisible inks of various kinds, and superimposed one on the other, of which that one only has been exposed to such chemical action as to develop it; or as one of a multitude of voices heard afar off, and speaking in different tongues, of which one only, perhaps the name of a friend, is caught by the listener. The mind, like a stretched wire, vibrates but feebly except in response to that one among many tones with which it is at the time in unison.

For this kind of unison, this predisposition to receive or to impart telepathic influences, various causes may be assigned, some with much certainty. From the numerous cases recorded in "The Phantasms of the Living," it is evident that bloodrelationship is frequently a predisposing cause. So, as might be anticipated, are strong affection and close intimacy, as between husband and wife or familiar friends. In a word, whatever produces sympathy not telepathic, predisposes to these more mysterious sympathies also. So, again, there may be a telepathic response if the thought of one person is intently fixed upon another; or, still more markedly, if the thoughts of them both are mutual and simultaneous-i.e., A's thoughts on B, and B's on A, at the same time. Such, in all probability, was the case in which, as above recorded, a mother dreamed of that which her child had just before found.

In the very striking case now to be recorded, more than one of these causes of strong telepathic sympathy were at work, and the effect produced by their combined operation was of unusual power. The wiiter of the following account is wel! known to me, and permits the publication of her letter, excepting only the names. She had previously related to me much of her story, in the presence of her husband.

He

"On the night of the 13th of March, 1879, I was going to a dinner party at Admiral -'s. While dressing for the same, through the doorway of my room which led into my husband's dressing room, I distinctly saw a white hand wave to and fro twice. I went into the room, and found no one was there, or had been there, as the door on the other side was closed; and on inquiring I found no one had been upstairs. While dressing nothing further occurred, but on arriving at Admiral -'s a strange feeling of sadness came over me. I could eat no dinner; nor afterward, when we had some music, could I sing well. All the time I felt some one, or something, was near me. We went home, and about eleven o'clock, or perhaps half past, I commenced undressing. I distinctly felt some one touching my hair, as if they, or he, or she, were undoing it. I was very frightened, and told my husband I felt so. laughed at me. When saying my prayers, on praying as I always did for the recovery of a sick friend, instead of as usual asking God to make him well, all I could say was, O God, put him out of his misery.' I got into bed, and something lay beside me. I told my husband, who, though he laughed at me, pitied my nervousness, and took me into his arms; but still whatever was there remained by me, and a voice, the voice of my friend, distinctly said, Good-by, Sis' (which he used to call me). Whether I fell asleep then or not I don't know, but I distinctly felt a kiss on my cheek, and I saw my friend, who told me he had left me some money, but that he wanted it to be left differently, but had had no time to alter it.' A livid line was across his face. I woke crying. About (I think) five days after, a letter was brought to me with a deep black border. I felt what it meant. It was to tell me of the death of my friend who

had passed away at half-past ten P.M.. March the 13th. The letter proceeded to tell me he had left me some money, but that the writer (his brother) was too ill and upset to give me any further particulars, or tell me of any messages he had sent me, only that his brother had died murmuring my name.'''

It appears that it was the dying man's wish to alter his will, and leave the money to one of her children, his godson, rather than to herself, "as he thought people might misconstrue his motives" and she adds, "His brother ended his letter by saying,If ever woman was loved on earth, my unhappy brother loved you; and if we ever meet it can never be as strangers, but as brother and sister.'"9 Further on she writes, "I did not know this, but suspected it before his death.' Here there was mutual affection-on one side of unusual strength. Each, moreover, habitually thought of the other, the dying man the more continuously and intently of the two, until at length the object of his devotion seemed to hear his voice, and

even, reading his thoughts, became aware of his special wish concerning her and her child.

It is important to notice here the gradual development of the telepathic impressions. The beckoning hand, but whose she knew not; the depression of spirits, wherefore she knew not; the some one or something near, but what she knew not, were all antecedent to, or commenced some time before, the death of her friend. His influence upon her deepened by degrees, until, after his death, he seemed to be seen by her, to speak to her, to make known to her his last wishes. It may seem strange that his communications should have related to money matters. But it appears that on his death-bed, desiring greatly to alter his will, he had sent for a solicitor, who, however, did not arrive in time. Thus for some hours uncertainty and anxiety on this account must have been intimately blended, in the mind of the dying man, with his thoughts of her on whom his affections were fixed. Had not these last and most vivid impressions been preceded by others less distinct yet evidently produced by the same mysterious influence, there would have been room for the supposition, to which some persons so fondly cling, that after his death his "spirit," leaving the body, had paid a visit to his friend.

The instances of telepathic sympathy hitherto mentioned have been all of that simpler kind in which only two persons are concerned. But there are phenomena more subtle and complex than these. There are cases in which three or even more persons are concerned, one or more of them forming the medium (but not in the professional sense of that much-abused word) through which telepathic influences are conveyed. Thus, something concerning A-the image of A and a knowledge of what he is doing or suffering-may be telepathically communicated to the mind of B, but too faintly to be perceived by him; and yet a third person, C, of peculiar susceptibility, may, through sympathy with B, become conscious of that influence which by B is unfelt.

To mention only one or two of the instances of this, which have been related to me by one or other of the parties immediately concerned. The same lady who described to me her having been visited and consoled, as she fancied, by a friend