ΔΕΤΤΕΡΟΣΚΟΠΙΑ;
OR,
A BRIEF DISCOURSE
CONCERNING THE
SECOND SIGHT,
Commonly so Called.

Many have undertaken to treat of the nature and operation of Spirits; as also of the various manners of divination among the Gentiles, (and but too much used among Christians,) likewise of the perturbation and deception of the fancy, caused by melancholy; and very many speak in ordinary discourses of this called the Second Sight, and the consequences of it, but none that I know handle it in titulo.

That such representations are made to the eyes of men and women, is to me out of all doubt, and that effects follow answerable thereto, as little questionable. But I have found so many doubt the matter of fact; which I take to be the reason that so little has been written of it, that I think it necessary to say something briefly, that may put the existency of it beyond all scruple. If I should insert all the clear instances that I have had of this matter, it would be tedious and unnecessary, therefore I will content myself, and I hope will satisfy the reader, with four or five instances, as follows.

The first instance is by a servant of my own, who had the trust of my barn, and nightly lay in the same. One day he told me he would not any longer lie there, because nightly he had seen a dead corps in his winding sheets straighted beside him, particularly at the south side of the barn. About an half year thereafter, a young man that had formerly been my servant, fell dangerously sick, and expecting death, would needs be carried near my house; and shortly thereafter he died, and was laid up a night before he was buried in the same individual barn and place that was foretold; and immediately the servant that foretold this came to me and minded me of the prediction, which was clearly out of my mind till he spoke of it.

The second instance is after this manner. I was resolved to pay a visit to an English gentleman, Sir William Sacheverill, who had a commission from the English Court of Admiralty, to give his best trial to find out gold or money, or any other thing of note, in one of the ships of the Spanish armada, that was blown up in the bay of Topper-Mory, in the Sound of Mull. And having condescended upon the number of men that were to go with me, one of the number was a handsome boy that waited upon my own person; and, about an hour before I made sail, a woman, that was also one of my own servants, spoke to one of the seamen, and bade him dissuade me to take that boy along with me, or if I did, I should not bring him back alive; the seaman answered, he had not confidence to tell me such unwarrantable trifles. I took my voyage, and sailed the length of Topper-Mory; and having stayed two or three nights with that liberal and ingenuous gentleman, who himself had collected many observations of the Second Sight in the Isle of Man, and compared his notes and mine together, I then took leave of him. In the mean time, my boy grew sick of a vehement bloody flux,—the winds turn'd cross, that I could neither sail nor row,—the boy died with me the eleventh night from his decumbiture,—the next morning the wind made fair, and the seaman to whom the matter was foretold, related the whole story when he saw it verified. I carried the boy's corps aboard with me, and after my arrival, and his burial, I called suddenly for the woman, and asked at her what warrant she had to foretell the boy's death; she said, that she had no other warrant but that she saw, two days before I took my voyage, the boy walking with me in the fields, sewed up in his winding sheets from top to toe, and that she had never seen this in others, but she found that they shortly thereafter died; and therefore concluded that he would die too, and that shortly.

The third instance was thus. Duncan Campbell, brother-german to Archibald Campbell of Invera, a gentleman of singular piety and considerable knowledge, especially in Divinity, told me a strange thing of himself. That he was at a time in Kintyre, having then some employment there, and one morning walking in the fields, he saw a dozen of men carrying a bier, and knew them all but one, and when he looked again, all was vanished. The very next day, the same company came the same way, carrying a bier, and he going to meet them, found that they were but eleven in number, and that himself was the twelfth, though he did not notice it before; and it is to be observed, that this gentleman never saw any thing of this kind before or after, till his dying day. Moreover, that he was of such solid judgment and devote conversation, that his report deserves an unquestionable credit.

The fourth instance I had, to my great grief, from one John M'Donald, a servant of Lauchlan M'Lean of Coll, who was then newly returned from Holland, having the charge of a captain. This gentleman came one afternoon abroad to his past-time in the fields, and this John M'Donald meets him, and saw his clothes shining like the skins of fishes, and his periwig all wet, though indeed the day was very fair; whereupon he told privately, even then, to one of Coll's gentlemen, that he feared he should be drowned. This gentleman was Charles M'Lean, who gave me account of it. The event followed about a year thereafter, for the Laird of Coll was drowned in the water of Lochy in Lochaber. I examined both Charles M'Lean and John M'Donald, and found, that the prediction was as he told me; and the said M'Donald could produce no other warrant, than that he found such signs frequently before to forgo the like events. This man indeed was known to have many visions of this kind, but he was none of the strictest life.

The fifth instance is strange, and yet of certain truth, and known to the whole inhabitants of the Island of Eigg, lying in the latitude of 56 degrees 20 minutes; and longitude 14 degrees. There was a tenant in this island, a native, that was a follower of the Captain of Clanrannold, that lived in a town called Kildonan, the year of God eighty-five, who told publicly to the whole inhabitants, upon the Lord's day, after divine service, performed by Father O'Rain, then priest of that place, that they should all flit out of that Isle, and plant themselves some where else; because that people of strange and different habits, and arms, were to come to the Isle, and to use all acts of hostility, as killing, burning, tirling, and deforcing of women; finally, to discharge all that the hands of an enemy could do; but what they were, or whence they came, he could not tell. At the first there was no regard had to his words; but frequently thereafter, he begged of them to notice what he said, otherwise they should repent it, when they could not help it; which took such an impression upon some of his near acquaintance, as that severals of them transported themselves and their families, even then; some to the Isle of Cannay, some to the Isle of Rum. Fourteen days before the enemy came thither, under the command of one Major Ferguson and Captain Pottinger, whilst there was no word of their coming, or any fear of them conceived. In the month of June 1689, this man fell sick, and Father O'Rain came to see him, in order to give him the benefit of absolution and extreme unction, attended with several inhabitants of the Isle, who, in the first place, narrowly questioned him before his friends, and begged of him to recant his former folly and his vain prediction; to whom he answered, that they should find very shortly the truth of what he had spoken, and so he died. And within 14 or 15 days thereafter, I was eye witness (being then prisoner with Captain Pottinger), to the truth of what he did foretel; and being before-hand well instructed of all that he said, I did admire to see it particularly verified, especially that of the different habits and arms, some being clad with red coats, some with white coats and grenadier caps, some armed with sword and pike, and some with sword and musket. Though I could give many more proofs, as unquestionable as these, yet I think what is said, is sufficient to prove the being of such a thing as the same in hand; and I cannot but wonder, that men of knowledge and experience should be so shy to believe that there may be visions of this kind administered by good or bad angels; there being nothing more certain, than that good angels suggested visions to the prophets of the Lord, before the coming of Christ in the flesh, and particularly to the apostle St John, after the ascension of our Lord; likewise that evil angels presented visions, as well as audible voices, to the 450 false prophets of Ahab; the 400 prophets of the Groves, is as little to be doubted; it being as easy, if not easier, to work upon the sight, as well as upon the hearing. We know but too well, that necromancers and magicians themselves, have not only seen the shapes and forms of things, but likewise have allowed others to see the same, who had no skill of their art. A precedent for which, is the Witch of Endor.

I remember, about 23 years ago, there was an old woman in my parish, in the Isle of Teree, whom I heard was accustomed to give responses, and likewise averred, that she had died and been in heaven, but allowed to come back again. And because she could not come to church, I was at the pains to give her a visit, attended with two or three of the most intelligent of my parish. I questioned her first whether she said she was in heaven; and she freely confessed she was, and that she had seen Jesus Christ, but not God the Father, or the Holy Ghost; that she was kindly entertained with meat and drink, and that she had seen her daughter there, who died about a year before;—that her daughter told her, though she was allowed to go there, that she behooved to come back and serve out her prentiship on earth, but would shortly be called for, and remain there for ever. She could very hardly be put out of this opinion, till I enquired more narrowly of her children, if she fell at any time in a syncope; which they told me she did, and continued for a whole night, so that they thought that she was truly dead; and this is the time she alleged she was in heaven. The devil took an advantage in the ecstasy to present to her fancy a map of heaven, as if it had been a rich earthly kingdom, abounding with meat, drink, gold, and silver. By the blessing of God, I prevailed with her to be persuaded that this was but a vision presented to her fancy by the devil, the father of lies; and that she might deprehend the falsehood of it from this one head, that she imagined her body was there, as well as her soul, and that she did eat and drink, and was warmed, while, as her own children, and the neighbours that watched her, did see, and did handle her body several times that night, so that it could not be with her in heaven. I did further examine her what warrant she had for the responses she gave, which were found very often true, even in future contingent events. She freely confessed, that her father upon his death-bed, taught her a charm, compiled of barbarous words, and some unintelligible terms, which had the virtue, when repeated, to present, some few hours after the proposition of a question, the answer of the same in live images before her eyes, or upon the wall; but the images were not tractable, which she found by putting too her hand, but could find nothing. I do not think fit to insert the charm, knowing that severals might be inclined to make an unwarrantable trial of it. This poor woman was got reclaimed, and was taught fully the danger and vanity of her practice, and died peaceably about a year after, in extreme old age.