It remains to note some more recent instances reported by persons well known and specially qualified to judge of their truthfulness and value.
The first case which I will present is embodied in a report “On the Evidence of Clairvoyance,” by Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, wife of Prof. Sidgwick, formerly president of the Society for Psychical Research. It was furnished by Dr. Elliott Coues of Washington, D. C., where the incident occurred, and was afterward investigated by Mr. F. W. H. Myers, secretary of the society. Both the persons participating in the incident were well known to Prof. Coues, and were both persons of prominence, one, Mrs. C., being well known as a writer and lecturer, and the other, designated as Mrs. B., was well known for her rare psychic faculties and her absolute integrity.
The incidents of the case are simple and unimportant, but they have a special value on account of their clearness, freedom from the possibility of external suggestion, and the well known ability and integrity of the reporter. The following are the points in the case:—
In Washington, D. C., January 14, 1889, between 2 and 3 o’clock P. M., Mrs. C., having been engaged in writing in the Congressional Library, left the building at 2:40 o’clock, and one or two minutes later was at her residence, in Delaware Avenue, carrying her papers in her hand. In ascending the steps leading from the street to the front yard she stumbled and fell. She was not hurt, but “picked herself up” and went into the house.
About the same hour, certainly between 2 and 3 o’clock, Mrs. B., sitting sewing in her room a mile and a half away, sees the occurrence in all its details. The ladies are friends. They had met the day previous, but not since. The vision is wholly a surprise to Mrs. B. Nevertheless, it is so vivid that she at once sits down and writes to Mrs. C., describing minutely the occurrence, which letter Mrs. C. receives the next morning with much surprise. The following is an extract from the letter:—
“I was sitting in my room sewing this afternoon about 2 o’clock, when what should I see but your own dear self—but heavens! in what a position! You were falling up the front steps in the yard.
“You had on your black skirt and velvet waist, your little straw bonnet, and in your hand were some papers. When you fell, your hat went in one direction and your papers in another. You very quickly put on your bonnet, picked up your papers, and lost no time in getting into the house. You did not appear to be hurt, but looked somewhat mortified. It was all so plain to me that I had ten notions to one to dress myself and come over and see if it were true, but finally concluded that a sober, industrious woman like yourself would not be stumbling around at that rate, and thought I’d best not go on a wild-goose chase.
“Now, what do you think of such a vision as that? Is there any possible truth in it? I feel almost ready to scream with laughter whenever I think of it; you did look too funny spreading yourself out in the front yard. ‘Great was the fall thereof.’ I can distinctly call to mind the house in which you live, but for the life of me I cannot tell whether there are any steps from the sidewalk into the yard, as I saw them, or not.”
In answer to Mr. Myers’ letter of inquiry to Mrs. C., she says that the incident was described exactly—the dress as correctly as she could have described it herself. There were two steps from the sidewalk to the yard, and it was on the top one of these two steps that Mrs. C. stumbled. The manner of the fall, the behavior of the bonnet and papers, and her own sensations were all correctly described.
The next case—also embodied in the same report and examined in the same careful manner by Mr. Myers—was the exhibition of clairvoyant powers by a woman called Jane, the wife of a pitman in the County of Durham, in England. She received no fees and was averse to being experimented with for fear of being ridiculed or called a witch by her associates.