Wherefore, O Ruler of the World, impart This heightened sorrow to the human heart; Through fearful omens led by thy decree, Impending griefs and slaughter to foresee *.

It has been an opinion countenanced in the preceding chapters, that the human mind is not naturally endowed with any power of foreknowing or presaging future events, however it may occasionally have been inspired with prophetic apprehensions by the immediate impulse of God's Spirit. It may be proper, therefore, to consider now what may be alledged in favour of the second sight, which has often been maintained to prevail in the Highlands of Scotland, as this inquiry is intimately connected with the subject of our present discussion; and since if it can be admitted that such faculty does really exist, it may be judged unreasonable to dispute the existence also of a prophetic power of the mind operating in dreams.

* Lucan's Pharsalia, L. ii.

That full scope may be allowed for the examination of this subject, I shall set down the result of the inquiries which were made by Dr. Johnson in his celebrated Tour with Mr. Boswell to the Highlands, accompanied with his reflections which are philosophical and just, and which it would be an injury to give in any other words than his own.

"The second sight," says this great writer, "is an impression made either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived, and seen as if they were present; a man on a journey for from home falls from his horse, another who is perhaps at work about the house sees him bleeding on the ground, commonly with a landscape of the place where the accident befalls him; another seer driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing m the sunshine, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or funeral procession, and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows them, he relates the names, if he knows them not, he can describe the dresses. Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen, of things future I know not that there is any rule for determining the time between the sight and the event.

"This receptive faculty, for power it cannot be called, is neither voluntary nor constant, the appearances have no dependance upon choice, they cannot be summoned, detained, or recalled, the impression is sudden, and the effect often painful.

"By the term second sight seems to be meant a mode of seeing superadded to that which nature generally bestows.

"I do not find it to be true, as it if reported, that to the second sight nothing is presented but phantoms of evil; good seems to have the same proportion in these visionary scenes, as it obtains in real life. Almost all remarkable events have evil for their basis, and are either miseries incurred, or miseries escaped. Our sense is so much stronger of what we suffer, than of what we enjoy, that the ideas of pain predominate in almost every mind. What is recollection but a revival of vexations, is history but a record of wars, treasons, and calamities? Death, which is considered as the greatest evil, happens to all, the greatest good be it what it will is the lot but of a part.

"That they should often see death is to be expected, because death is an event frequent and important, but they see likewise more pleasing incidents. A gentleman told me that when he had once gone far from his own island, one of his labouring servants predicted his return, and described the livery of his attendant which he had never worn at home.

and which had been without any previous design occasionally given him.

"It is the common talk of the Lowland Scots, that the notion of the second sight is wearing away with other superstitions, and that its reality is no longer supposed but by the grossest people. How far its prevalence was extended, or what ground it has lost, I know not. The islanders of all degrees, whether of rank or understanding, universally admit it, except the ministers, who universally deny it in consequence of a system against conviction: one of them honestly told me that he came to Sky with a resolution not to believe it.

"Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur: this faculty of seeing things out of sight is local and commonly useless, it is a breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason, or perceptible benefit; it is ascribed only to a people very little enlightened, and among them, for the most part, to the mean and ignorant.

"To the confidence of these objections it may be replied, that by presuming to determine what is fit and what is beneficial, they presuppose more knowledge of the universal system than man has attained; and, therefore, depend upon principles too complicated and extensive for our comprehension, and that there can be no security in the consequence when the premises are not understood; that the second sight is only wonderful because it is rare, for considered m itself, it involves no more difficulty than dreams, or perhaps than the regular exercise of the cogitative faculty; that a general opinion of communicative impulses, or visionary representations, has prevailed in all ages and all nations; that particular instances have been given with such evidence as neither Bacon nor Boyle has been able to resist; that sudden impressions, which the event has verified, have been felt by more than own or publish them; that the second sight of the Hebrides implies only the local frequency of a power which is no where totally unknown, and that where we are unable to decide by antecedent reason, we roust be content to yield to the force of testimony.

"By pretension to second sight no profit was ever sought or gained, it is an involuntary affection in which neither hope nor fear are known to have any part, those who profess to feel it do not boast of it as a privilege, nor are considered by others as advantageously distinguished; they have no temptation to feign, and their hearers have no motive to encourage the imposture,

"To talk with any of these seers is not easy, there is one living in Sky with whom we would gladly have conversed, but he was very gross and ignorant, and knew no English. The proportion in these countries of the poor to the rich is such, that if we suppose the quality to be accidental, it can very rarely happen to a man of education, and yet on such men it has sometimes fallen. There is now a second sighted gentleman in the Highlands, who complains of the terrors to which he is exposed.

The foresight of the seers is not always prescience, they are impressed with presages of which the event only shews them the meaning, they tell what they have seen to others who are at that time not more knowing than themselves, but may become at last very adequate witnesses by comparing the narrative with its verification.

"To collect sufficient testimonies for the satisfaction of the public or of ourselves, would have required more time than we could bestow. There is against it the seeming analogy of things confusedly seen and little understood, and for it the indistinct cry of national persuasion, which may be perhaps resolved at last into prejudice and tradition. I never, could advance my curiosity to conviction, but came away at last only willing to believe *."

* Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands, Murphy's edit. vol. viii p. 343 - 347.

From this account no satisfactory conclusion can, I think, be drawn subversive of the opinion maintained in these disquisitions, that the human mind is not naturally endowed with any prophetic powers.

It is possible, indeed, that it may experience gloomy presages which are the result of the conviction of the uncertainty of human affairs, or the effect of apprehension and moral feelings. The faculty claimed in the Highlands is peculiar to countries where knowledge and true philosophy have not yet diffused their full light, nor religion put to flight these gloomy superstitions which are apt to linger in retired and secluded scenes, amidst vallies soon overspread with the shades of evening, and where the vapory mists float incessantly on "the mountains' brow."