CHAPTER VI.
Clairvoyance.
It is surprising with what avidity our forefathers, when they perceived some effect arising from an unknown cause, flew to the aid of diablerie and the supernatural for an elucidation of the mystery. Without seeking at once to work out a cause from the known laws of nature and natural phenomena, they stopped all pursuit in the paths of inquiry by at once bringing forward his Satanic Majesty as the cause of everything and every occurrence for the origin of which they could not give an immediate explanation.
We have happily reached an age which is distinguished for its matter of-fact treatment of all that appears mysterious and unusual. Thus we have, by our rigid inquiries into the truth, banished, or almost banished, those dread preventives of progress and civilization—superstition, and belief in the supernatural.
But even at the present day, with all its enlightenment and education, we find the weakness of our ancestors palpably predominating in the minds of the ignorant multitude, and spiritualism and magic looked upon by a certain number of persons as things existing and beyond the ken of men. Scientific inquiry—that broom that has swept away so many superstitions—has done its work well, and it cannot be long before the bigoted believers in the so-called “manifestation” of beings in another and unknown world will be looked upon, even by those whose belief in them is strongest, as the mechanical hanky-panky tricks of clever and astute conjurors, who feed upon the credulity and simplicity of their tools and followers.
Among the many subjects which were classed with the supernatural phenomena arising from the agency of unseen and spiritual powers, clairvoyance, or second sight, ranks conspicuous. It has been asserted, and by no mean authority, that second sight, or the belief in a secondary and unnatural sight, took its origin in the Scottish Highlands and Isles, where it was known by the name of taisch—a spectral or shadowy appearance; but from the time when the Oracle at Delphi was sought by the populace, and when thousands were deluded by the mere mechanical tricks of a clever and crafty priesthood, even to this day, second sight has been looked upon as a spiritual visitation bestowed for some design upon persons who are made the instruments of Providence.
That at times men have had a prescience of what was to come cannot be denied, since murders and murderers have been undoubtedly discovered by means of visions which have been seen of the murderer, and the spot where the murder was committed.
Even Dr. Johnson, in his Journal in the Hebrides, where the belief in second sight prevailed to a great extent, hesitates whether to believe or deny; and he asserts that he “came away at last only willing to believe.” It is not my intention, nor have I the time or space, to enter fully into the subject of second sight of the past, but it is my intention to fully explain second sight, as it is understood now, and the reader will at once see how the old fabric of the superstitious ages melts into the most commonplace, and he will be perhaps vexed and annoyed to think that when witnessing a performance of second sight his mind misgave him, and he really was willing to believe.
The power, when blindfold, to discriminate things unseen, and promiscuously pick from a crowd of persons, and name miscellaneous and out-of-the-way articles, has been performed so cleverly that the greatest surprise and wonder has been created in the minds of even the most intelligent spectators. But like everything else to which the term magic has been and is applied, the wonderful and mysterious are only the simple and the commonplace, and the credulity of the audience leads to the merest trickery, to that marvel and wonder which surrounds a feat of legerdemain or clairvoyance; but, as my readers will have already seen, as soon as second sight is explained, it will cause wonder no more.