Apply this curious theory (which has probably not been urged for many years) to the incident just cited, and see how loosely it fits. What was there about three persons, one a stranger coming to Dickens after he had finished a reading from his own works, to "excite" or "astonish" him, make his brain whirl and bring about a hallucination of memory, an illusion of having dreamed it all before? It was the most commonplace event to him. Besides, as in most such cases, he had the distinct recollection of his thoughts about the dream after waking, thoughts inextricably interwoven with the acts performed while dressing! Besides, a pseudo-presentiment should tally with the event as a reflection does with the object, but in the dream Miss Napier introduced herself, while in reality she was introduced by another.
[1] By permission of The Century Co.
[2] From Pan's Garden, by Algernon Blackwood—Permission of the Macmillan Company.
[3] From Ten-Minute Stories, published by E. P. Dutton & Co.
[4] By permission of The Century Co.
[5] By permission of the author of War Letters of the Living Dead Man and Mitchell Kennerley.
[6] From Karma (Boni & Liveright).
[7] From "In the Midst of Life" (Boni & Liveright).
[8] Referring to this photo elsewhere, he wrote:—"This at least is not a case which telepathy can explain. Nor can the hypothesis of fraud hold water. It was by the merest accident that I asked the photographer to see if the spirit would give his name. No one in England, so far as I have been able to ascertain, knew that any Piet Botha ever existed.