(116) " Towards morning of the 10th January, 1885, I was conscious of a young woman standing by my bedside clad in a grey dressing-gown, holding in her arms, towards me, a child. The woman was weeping bitterly, and said, ' Oh! Mrs. Saunders, I am in such trouble.' I instantly recognised her as Mrs. C. R. Seymour, and was about to interrogate her as to her trouble, when I was awakened by my husband asking me what was the matter, as I seemed so distressed. I told him I had had such a sad dream about poor Fanny Goodall (maiden name of Mrs. C. R. S.), but it really was to me more than a dream - so much so, that after rising I communicated it to the governess, Miss Monkman, also to the nurse and servant. I decided to send to her mother, Mrs. Goodall, to inquire if she had received any tidings of her daughter, who was resident in New Zealand with her husband and two children, but as on after consideration I felt I might cause her alarm, I altered my intention. This dream or vision made so deep and lasting an impression that I constantly alluded to it to members of our household, until circumstances occasioned my calling on Mrs. Goodall about the beginning of this month, March, 1885, when I made particular inquiries for her daughter; and on being assured that she was well, according to letters by the most recent mail, I ventured to express my gratification, giving, as my reason for such, a narration of the ' vision ' that had not even then ceased to haunt me; which elicited from Mrs. Goodall and both of her daughters, who were present, fervent hopes that all was well with Mrs. Seymour.1

"On March 12th I again called on Mrs. Goodall, who on receiving me, with much emotion said, ' Oh, have you heard the bad news of Fanny? 1 have thought so much of what you told me; her dear little Dottie has gone. I will read you her letters,' both of which, although coming by different mails, had only been received within the past 24 hours. I should mention that, although I have felt very interested in and thought much of Mrs. C. R. S. before and since her departure from this country, yet I have never corresponded with her; but I now learn that she invariably mentioned me in her home correspondence, and felt much indebted to me for some trifling kindness I had been able to show her in the past. I am able to fix the date of my vision from circumstances which I need not here relate. "Bessie Saunders".

The force of the coincidence seems not much affected one way or the other by the following addition: -

' In reply to your question, I have had distressing dreams relating to death at intervals, which have not corresponded with reality; but those you are already cognisant of [viz., this one and another which corresponded with reality2] are the only ones which impressed themselves sufficiently to induce me to take steps to discover if they did correspond with the reality, although I may have mentioned their purport casually at the time".

1 This has been completely confirmed by letters from Mrs. Goodall and her two daughters.

2 In this second ease (as to which we again have Mr. Saunders's testimony to the fact that the dream was described before the reality was known) the dream was that a friend alighted from a hearse, and entered clad in deep mourning; and it fell on the night on which that friend's mother, whom she was attending, unexpectedly died.

Mr. Latimer H. Saunders writes: -

"March 18th, 1885.

"I clearly remember on or about the 10th of January, 1885, early morning, suddenly awaking, and finding my wife leaning forward in bed. I asked her, ' What was the matter? ' She seemed agitated, and replied to the following effect: 'Oh, I have had such a horrid dream! Fanny Goodall was standing here at my side, quite close, holding out the child in such distress, but I could not tell what she wanted; it was so real, I could have touched her, but you awoke me.' Before rising, my wife repeated the incident in detail. Late on March 12th, she told me the sequel.

"Fortunately, I can safely fix the date as being the morning of either the 9th, 10th, or nth of January, as during that month these were, owing to circumstances, the only possible occasions on which the incident, as related, could have occurred, while my mental impression, independently arrived at, strongly points to the 10th as the day.

" Latimer H. Saunders".

Miss E. A. Monkman, in a letter to Mrs. Saunders (dated 16, Castle-dine Road, Anerley, 16th March, 1885), of which I have seen a copy, gives exactly similar testimony as to Mrs. Saunders's description of her dream at the time, and adds that it must have been on the 9th or 10th of the month. And on March 20th, a servant in the house, unprompted (as Mrs. Saunders assures us), dictated the following statement: -

"I remember Saturday morning, the 10th of January last. The mistress came into the kitchen to speak about the flue. After doing so she told me of such a bad dream she had had of Mrs. Seymour, of New Zealand, coming to her bedside with her little child in her arms. Mrs. Seymour was crying so bitterly, and imploring her for help. - E. Dawson".

The following is an extract from a letter received from Mrs. Seymour by Mrs. Goodall, dated January 15th, 1885.

"I do not know how to write it, mother. Dottie is dead; a week ago this very Thursday evening she was taken ill, and on Saturday at 10 minutes to 10 in the evening she died".

[Allowing for longitude, the dream must have preceded the death by a few hours].

[Cases 117, 118, 119, 120, 121 are omitted].

The next two cases are from Mrs. Freese, of Granite Lodge, Chisle-hurst. The occurrence of several such experiences to the same person is in itself a point of interest, provided that that person's recollection as to their having been of an exceptionally vivid and disturbing character can be relied on.

[The first of these, 122, is omitted].

"March, 1884.

(123) "In September, 1881, I had another curious dream, so vivid that I seemed to see it.

"My two boys of 18 and 16 were staying in the Black Forest, under the care of a Dr. Fresenius. I must say here that I always supposed the boys would go everywhere together, and I never should have supposed that in that lonely country, so new to them, they would be out after dark. My husband and I were staying at St. Leonards, and on Saturday night I woke at about 12 o'clock (rather before, as I heard it strike), having just seen vividly a dark night on a mountain, and my eldest boy lying on his back at the bottom of some steep place, his eyes wide open and saying, ' Good-bye, mother and father, I shall never see you again.' I woke with a feeling of anxiety, and the next morning when I told it to my husband, though we both agreed it was absurd to be anxious, yet we would write and tell the boys we hoped they would never go out alone after dark. To my surprise my eldest boy, to whom I wrote the dream, wrote back expressing his great astonishment, for on that Saturday night he was coming home over the mountains, past 11 o'clock; it was pitch dark, and he slipped and fell down some 12 feet or so, and landed on his back, looking up to the sky. However, he was not much hurt and soon picked himself up and got home all right.

He did not say what thoughts passed through his mind as he fell. "Octavia Freese".

In answer to inquiries, Mrs. Freese adds: -

" Before my son wrote about his fall in the Black Forest, I related my dream to my husband, and as he seemed a little moved by it, I wrote an account of it to my boy, saying his father did not wish them to be out after dark alone. I had not told my boy when it was, deeming that immaterial, but when in his letter, received days after, he said, 'Was it Saturday night? because then so-and-so.' I remembered what I should not otherwise have noted, that it was Saturday night; for on the Sunday morning my husband, being much worried about some business matter, elected. to spend the morning with me in the fields instead of going to church, and as much to divert his mind as anything I related to him my dream of the night before".

Mrs. Freese sent us the letter from her son, which contained the following passage: -

"With regard to your dream: did you dream it on September 3rd? if so it was on that night, coming home rather late, that I fell down a precipice of 8 feet, or perhaps more, in the dark, and might have broken my neck, but didn't. However, I don't think you will find me walking about after dark more than I can help, as the roads are very dark, and the fogs in the village awful. "FRED E. Freese".

[September 3rd, 1881, was a Saturday].

Mr. Freese writes: -

" March 17th, 1884.

" Mrs. Freese has read to me the paper she has sent you, and I feel bound to say that both the dreams she refers to concerning myself [i.e., No. 122], and our eldest son I well remember, and noted them at the time she described them, together with the circumstances that strangely accompanied them. "J. W. Freese".

In answer to the question whether he noted them in writing, Mr. Freese replies that he did not. "It struck me at the time as very remarkable, but life was then with me too busy to leave time to dwell upon the subject".

7. In the foregoing examples the elements with which the dreamer may be supposed to have invested the telepathic impression have been few and simple. We now come to cases where definitely new elements have been introduced, and the impression which corresponds with reality acts as the germ of a quite imaginary dream-picture. [The first two, 124,

125, are omitted].

In the next case, a definite scene is depicted, suggestive of death and appropriate to the person who had actually died; but everything beyond the true impression of the death is supplied by the dreamer. The narrator is Mrs. Herbert Bolland (nee Cary, granddaughter of the translator of Dante), of 7, Cranbury Terrace, Southampton. The experience was quite unique in her life, and exemplifies - what will be suggested by other cases - a possible effect of illness in heightening the percipient faculty.

"July, 1884.