Part 3 (2/2)

she replied, 'I had just the same experience. I woke up at 2.15, feeling sure the calf of my leg was bleeding, and my hand seemed to feel it when I put it there. I turned on the light in alarm, noticing the time, and wondered if I should be able to get up to thee, or whether I should have to wake the housekeeper. Thou wast in the dream out of which I woke, examining the place.'

”Though I did not note the hour, two o'clock is about the time I should have guessed it to be; and the impression on my mind was vivid and terrible, knowing how dangerous such an accident would be.”

The foregoing is thus corroborated by the lady:

”I felt twinges of pain in my leg off and on in my sleep without being entirely roused till about 2.15 A.M. Then, or just before, I dreamt or had a vivid impression that a vein had burst, and that my husband, who was sleeping in another room up another flight of stairs, was there and called my attention to it. I thought it felt wet, and trickling down the leg as if bleeding, pa.s.sed my hand down, and at first thought it seemed wet; but on gaining fuller consciousness found it all right, and that it was not more painful than often when I got out and stood on it. Thought over the contingency of its actually bursting, and whether I could so bandage it in that case as to make it safe to go up to my husband's room, and thought I could do so.

”Looking at my watch, found it about 2.20.”

As to dreams in which a death occurs there is a vast ma.s.s of testimony.

The late Dr Hodgson, on 19th July 1897, received the following letter:--

”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 Co. 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.”

On the evening of the same day a telegram was received announcing the unexpected death of Mrs Morse at 9.15 on the evening of Friday, 16th July.

A prominent Chicago journalist, Mr F. B. Wilkie, reported that his wife asked him one morning in October 1885, while still engaged in dressing, and before either of them had left their sleeping-room, if he knew anyone named Edsale or Esdale. A negative reply was given and then a ”Why do you ask?” She replied: ”During the night I dreamt that I was on the lake-sh.o.r.e and found a coffin there, with the name of Edsale or Esdale on it, and I am confident that someone of that name has recently been drowned there.” On opening the morning paper the first item that attracted his attention was the report of the mysterious disappearance from his home in Hyde Park of a young man named Esdale. A few days afterwards the body of a young man was found on the lake-sh.o.r.e.

This case was carefully investigated and authenticated by Dr Hodgson, and bears some unusual features.

Of dreams that may be reasonably regarded as telepathic the following is a striking example. It is contributed to ”Phantasms of the Living” by a Mrs Hilton--a lady engaged in active work, and not in any respect a ”visionary.”

”234 Burdett Road, E.

”April 10th, 1883.

”The dream which I am about to relate occurred about two years ago. I seemed to be walking in a country road, with high gra.s.sy banks on either side. Suddenly I heard the tramp of many feet.

Feeling a strange sense of fear I called out: 'Who are these people coming?' A voice above me replied: 'A procession of the dead.' I then found myself on the bank, looking into the road where the people were walking five or six abreast. Hundreds of them pa.s.sed by me--neither looking aside nor looking at each other. They were people of all conditions and in all ranks of life. I saw no children amongst them. I watched the long line of people go away into the far distance, but I felt no special interest in any of them, until I saw a middle-aged Friend, dressed as a gentleman farmer. I pointed to him and called out: 'Who is that, please?' He turned round and called out in a loud voice: 'I am John M., of Chelmsford.' Then my dream ended. Next day when my husband returned from the office he told me that John M., of Chelmsford, had died the previous day.

”I may add that I only knew the Friend in question by sight and cannot recollect ever speaking to him.

”MARIE HILTON.”

About a year later Mrs Hilton experienced a dream of a similar kind, again coincident with the death of an acquaintance seen in the phantom procession. It is worth noting ”remarks Mr Gurney,” that these dreams--for all their _bizarrerie_--seem to belong to a known type.

In another category of phenomena belong precognitive dreams in which certain events, especially deaths, are foretold. Mr Alfred Cooper, of 9 Henrietta Street, Cavendish Square, W., states, and his statement is attested by the d.u.c.h.ess of Hamilton, that:

”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 professionally. After I had finished seeing him we went into the drawing-room where the d.u.c.h.ess was, and the Duke said to me: 'Oh, Cooper, how is the Earl?'

”The d.u.c.h.ess said: 'What Earl?' and on my answering: 'Lord L----,' she replied, 'That is very odd. I have had a most extraordinary 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.'

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