Part 6 (1/2)
”She then came round a screen near my bedside with two children in her arms and placed them in my arms and put the bedclothes over them, and said: 'Lucy, promise me to take care of them, for their mother is just dead.' I said: 'Yes, mamma.' She repeated: '_Promise_ me to take care of them.' I replied: 'Yes, I promise you,' and added, 'Oh, mamma, stay and speak to me, I am so wretched.' She replied: 'Not yet, my child,' then she seemed to go round the screen again and I remained, feeling the children to be still in my arms and fell asleep. When I awoke there was nothing. Tuesday morning, 7th June, I received the news of my sister-in-law's death. She had given birth to a child three weeks before, which I did not know till after her death.”
Professor Sidgwick says, as the result of an interesting conversation with Miss Dodson, that the children were of the ages corresponding with the ages of the children of her sister-in-law; they seemed to be a little girl and a baby newly born. The only way an ingenious sceptic can get round this case is by supposing that a telepathic impulse from the living brother might conceivably embody itself in the form of his mother. But the idea of a brother in Belgium being able to transmit a telepathic message in the a.s.sumed shape and with the voice of his mother, who had been dead for sixteen years, and also to telepath into existence in London the two little children who were living in his house at Bruges, is rather a clumsy hypothesis. But what other have we?
”Mr Theobald, an Australian, forwards to the Society a paper discovered amongst the effects of his uncle, now dead. The apparition, as will be seen, occurred on October 24th, 1860, and the account is endorsed on 9th November by the percipient's father. Further particulars sent to Mr B---- by the percipient (who is here called Mr D----) are dated November 13th, 1860.
The first account seems to have been sent by the percipient to his father, and by the father to Mr B----”
The percipient had been identified, and confirms, as will be seen, this early narrative, which is as follows:--
”On the evening of Wednesday, October 24th, 1860, having retired to bed about nine o'clock, I had slept, I conclude, about two hours, making it then about eleven o'clock P.M. I was awoke from my sleep by a hand touching my forehead, and the well-known voice of Mrs B---- p.r.o.nouncing my name, E----. I started up and sat in bed, rubbed my eyes, and then saw Mrs B----. From the head to the waist the figure was distinct, clear, and well defined; but from the waist downwards it was all misty, and the lower part transparent. She appeared to be dressed in black silk. Her countenance was grave and rather sad, but not unhappy.
”The words she first uttered were: 'I have left dear John.'
What followed related entirely to myself, and she was permitted by a most kind Providence to speak words of mercy, promise, and comfort, and a.s.surance that what I most wished would come to pa.s.s. She came to me in an hour of bitter mental agony, and was sent as a messenger of mercy....”
Occasionally there is a curious variant, when the phantasm is auditory and not visible. In the case published in ”Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,” vol. iii. p. 90, Mr Wambey heard a phantasmal voice as though in colloquy with his own thought. He was planning a congratulatory letter to a friend, when the words ”What, write to a dead man? write to a dead man?” sounded clearly in his ears. The friend had been dead for some days.
Gurney was much impressed by the unexpectedly large proportion of cases where the percipient informed us that there had been a _compact_ between himself and the deceased person that whichever pa.s.sed away first should try to appear to the other. ”Considering,” he adds, ”what an extremely small number of persons make such a compact, compared with those who do not, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that its existence has a certain efficacy.”
A characteristic case is thus reported by a Mr Bellamy:
”When a girl at school my wife made an agreement with a fellow-pupil, Miss W., that the one of them who died first should, if divinely permitted, appear after her decease to the survivor. In 1874 my wife, who had not seen or heard anything of her former school friend for some years, casually heard of her death. The news reminded her of her former agreement, and then, becoming nervous, she told me of it. I knew of my wife's compact, but I had never seen a photograph of her friend, or heard any description of her.” (Mr Bellamy told Gurney in conversation that his mind had not been in the least dwelling on the compact.)
”A night or two afterwards, as I was sleeping with my wife, a fire brightly burning in my room and a candle alight, I suddenly awoke and saw a lady sitting by the side of the bed where my wife was sleeping soundly. At once I sat up in the bed and gazed so intently that even now I can recall her form and features. Had I the pencil or the brush of a Millais I could transfer to canvas an exact likeness of the ghostly visitant. I remember that I was much struck, as I looked intently at her, with the careful arrangement of her coiffure, every single hair being most carefully brushed down. How long I sat and gazed I cannot say, but directly the apparition ceased to be, I got out of bed to see if any of my wife's garments had by any means optically deluded me. I found nothing in the line of vision but a bare wall. Hallucination on my part I rejected as out of the question, and I doubted not that I had really seen an apparition. Returning to bed, I lay till my wife some hours after awoke, and then I gave her an account of her friend's appearance. I described her colour, form, etc., all of which exactly tallied with my wife's recollection of Miss W. Finally I asked, 'But was there any special point to strike one in her appearance?' 'Yes,' my wife promptly replied, 'we girls used to tease her at school for devoting so much time to the arrangement of her hair.' This was the very thing which I have said so much struck me. Such are the simple facts.
”I will only add that till 1874 I had never seen an apparition, and that I have not seen one since.
”ARTHUR BELLAMY.”
The following case, from ”Proceedings,” vol. viii. p. 178, bears a distinct resemblance to the old-fas.h.i.+oned ghost stories. Mrs M., the informant, writes under date 15th December 1891:
”Before relating my experience of having seen a ghost, I should like my readers thoroughly to understand that I had not the slightest idea that the house in which my husband and I were living was haunted, or that the family residing there for many years before us had had any family troubles. The house was delightfully situated [etc.]. The house being partly new and partly old we occupied the old part for our sleeping apartments. There were two staircases leading to them, with a landing and window, adjoining a morning sitting-room. One night on retiring to my bedroom about 11 o'clock, I thought I heard a peculiar moaning sound, and someone sobbing as if in great distress of mind. I listened very attentively, and still it continued; so I raised the gas in my bedroom, and then went to the landing window of which I have spoken, drew the blind aside; and there on the gra.s.s was a very beautiful young girl in kneeling posture before a soldier, in a general's uniform, sobbing and clasping her hands together, entreating for pardon; but alas! he only waved her away from him. So much did I feel for the girl, that without a moment's hesitation I ran down the staircase to the door opening upon the lawn, and begged her to come in and tell me her sorrow. The figures then disappeared!
Not in the least nervous did I feel then;--went again to my bedroom, took a sheet of writing paper and wrote down what I had seen. [Mrs M. has found and sent us this paper. The following words are written in pencil on a half sheet of notepaper:--”March 13th, 1886. Have just seen visions on lawn:--a soldier in general's uniform,--a young lady kneeling to him. 11.40 P.M.”] My husband was away from home when this event occurred, but a lady friend was staying with me, so I went to her bedroom and told her that I had been rather frightened by some noises;--could I stay with her a little while? A few days afterwards I found myself in a very nervous state; but it seemed so strange that I was not frightened at the time.
”It appears the story is only too true. The youngest daughter of this very old proud family had had an illegitimate child; and her parents and relatives would not recognise her again, and she died broken-hearted. The soldier was a near relative (also a connection of my husband's); and it was in vain she tried to gain his--the soldier's--forgiveness. [In a subsequent letter Sir X. Y.'s career is described. He was a distinguished officer.]
”So vivid was my remembrance of the features of the soldier that some months after the occurrence, when I happened to be calling with my husband at a house where there was a portrait of him, I stepped before it and said: 'Why, look! There is the General!' And sure enough it _was_.”
In a subsequent letter Mrs M. writes:
”I did see the figures on the lawn after opening the door leading on to the lawn; and they by no means disappeared instantly, but more like a dissolving view--viz. gradually; and I did not leave the door until they had pa.s.sed away. It was impossible for any real persons to act such a scene.... The General was born and died (in the house where I saw him).... I was not aware that the portrait of the General was in that room (where I saw it); it was the first time I had been in that room. The misfortune to the poor girl happened in 1847 or 1848.”
Mrs M. then mentions that a respectable local tradesman hearing of the incident remarked: ”That is not an uncommon thing to see _her_ about the place, poor soul! She was a badly used girl.”
Mr M. writes as follows under date 23rd December 1891:--
”I have seen my wife's letter in regard to the recognition of Sir X. Y.'s picture at ----. Nothing was said by me to her on the subject; but knowing the portrait to be a remarkably good likeness I proposed calling at the house (which was that of a nephew of Sir X. Y.'s), being anxious to see what effect it would have upon my wife. Immediately on entering the room she almost staggered back, and turned pale, saying--looking hard at the picture--'Why, there's the General!' ... Being a connection of the family I knew all about the people, but my wife was then a stranger, and I had never mentioned such things to her; in fact they had been almost forgotten.”
Here is a case where the phantasm was visible to several persons at the same time. It is given by Mr Charles A. W. Lett, of the Military and Royal Naval Club, Albemarle Street, W.
”December 3rd, 1885.