"This being, the size of a child two or three years old, was human only in its face, from which shone two large dark eyes; I remarked also the expression of the mouth, which indicated suffering; as to the rest of the body, it was so painful to look upon, so different from the rounded forms and fresh rosiness of childhood, that I woke in anguish, my heart beating violently.

"In the morning I told my mother of this dream. She regarded it as a nightmare caused by my condition at the time; and we welcomed without apprehension the arrival of my third little daughter, a fine child of;* dark complexion, well-formed, and showing every sign of strong health.

"When a few weeks had passed, I observed that this child's physiognomy, especially when it was on the point of crying, bore a strong likeness to the child of my dream. It had also the same large dark eyes; but very gentle in expression, and filled, as it grew older, with a deep but indefinable sadness. I communicated my apprehension to my sister." (A letter from this lady herself, concerned with philanthropic and literary work lies before me, dated 13th April, 1894. She says "I affirm the perfect exactitude of this narrative. My sister told me her dream, I was witness of her apprehensions during the brief existence of her third little daughter, and she said to me textually the words mentioned in her narrative, at the end of her child's life.") "We observed the child's development with the anxious attention that every mother will understand.

"She was very easy to rear, without faults of temper, and incredibly precocious in all ways, in her senses, memory, intelligence and affectionate sensibility.

"1 brought her up thus to the age of two and a half. Then she was taken from me by a terrible malady, granular kidney, {la granulie) following upon measles, and finally causing meningitis, after causing extreme irritation for weeks. The poor child was seriously ill for three months and a half. During the last week of her painful existence she was reduced to a state of extreme emaciation, and showing her sadly to my sister, I said to her with absolute truth, 'Alas! there is the child of my dream, exactly as she appeared to me the night before she was born!'

"It will be observed here that the premonition represented neither a child with normal resemblance to its parents, nor a child suffering from any disease which heredity or maternal suggestion could have caused, but a child in a condition into which it actually fell some two years later, as the result of zymotic disease."

We should like to give more examples of this most interesting class of dream, but doubtless we have given enough to enable the reader to form his own opinion, as to the credibility of the cases cited.

What theory he forms depends on his individuality. "We know the existence of the infinite, and we are ignorant of its nature, because, like us, it has dimension, but, unlike us, it has no limits."

Could we but try to make our theories fit our facts, instead of making our facts fit our theories, as is the usual way with man, we might find our thoughts in less hopeless tangle.

Sir William Crookes, F.R.S., who thoroughly investigated the phenomena of all branches of spiritualism in a scientific manner, says, " I prefer to enter upon the inquiry with no preconceived notions whatever as to what can or cannot be, but with all my senses alert and ready to convey information to the brain; believing, as I do, that we have by no means exhausted all human knowledge or fathomed the depths of all the physical forces". If men of less science were as open - minded as this brilliant scientist they would perhaps come nearer truth.

The simplest peasant who observes a truth And from a fact deduces principle, Adds solid treasures to the public wealth. The theorist, who dreams a rainbow dream, And calls hypothesis philosophy, At best is but a paper financier, Who palms his specious promises for gold. Facts are the basis of philosophy; Philosophy the harmony of facts Seen in their right relation.

THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED.