428 B. In the following case (quoted from the Journal S.P.R., vol. vii. p. 100) there seems to have been on the part of the agent, Mrs. Manning, a spontaneous revival of memory of long past and forgotten scenes, such as often occurs in crystal visions, but rarely in ordinary life. Mrs. Manning writes to Professor James as follows: -

105 Winter Street, Portland, Maine, October 28th [1894].

Dear Sir, - At the request of Colonel Woodhull, I send you the following statement, which I hope may be of use to you.

When I was a child at my home in Rochester, N. Y., my elder sister had almost entire care of me. At night, after putting me in bed, she would sit beside me for a few moments until I fell asleep. Frequently I would wake up, and finding myself alone and in the dark, of which I was much afraid, I would call out to her; she would come and soothe me to sleep again. In 1875, I was living at Fort Hartsuff, Nebraska, a military post, the station of my husband. Our nearest railway station was Grand Island, on the Union Pacific Railroad, 75 miles away. My sister then lived at Omaha, about 300 miles east of Grand Island. Our mail reached us by buckboard from Grand Island every Wednesday and Saturday. One night in November, I awoke from a dreamless sleep, wide awake, and yet to my own consciousness the little child of years ago, in my own room in the old home; the sister had gone, and I was alone in the darkness. I sat up in bed, and called with all my voice, "Jessie! Jessie!" - my sister's name. This aroused my husband, who spoke to me. I seemed to come gradually to realisation of my surroundings, and with difficulty adjusted myself to the present. In that moment I seemed to live again in the childhood days and home. I cannot express too strongly the feeling of actuality I had.

For days after this the strange impression was with me, and I could recall many little incidents and scenes of child-life that I had entirely forgotten.

I wrote to my sister the next day, and told her of the strange experience of the night before. In a few days I received a letter from her, the date the same as mine, and having passed mine on the way, in which she said that such a strange thing had happened the night before; that she had been awakened by my voice calling her name twice; that the impression was so strong that her husband went to the door to see if it could possibly be I. No one else had called her; she had not been dreaming of me. She distinctly recognised my voice. Mary M. Clarkson Manning.

Captain Manning writes: -

Portland, Me., October 29th, 1894.

I distinctly recall the circumstances as related above by my wife.

W. C. Manning (Captain 23rd Infantry, U.S. Army).

Mrs. Manning's sister and brother-in-law give their testimony as follows: -

Detroit, Mich., November 1st, 1894.

The statement made by my sister is as I remember the experience. That it made a deep impression upon us both is evidenced by each writing of it to the other on the day following its occurrence. The impression made was so forcible, it has never been forgotten. Jessie Clarkson Thrall.

Detroit, Mich., November 1st, 1894.

The within statement of a curious coincidence might have been forgotten by me during the past twenty years, had the facts not been recalled to my memory from time to time as they have by the principal actors in it. I have always regarded it as a strange coincidence, but nothing more.

I heard no call, but went to the door to satisfy my wife that her sister was not in the hall. George Thrall.

In reply to Dr. Hodgson's inquiries, Mrs. Manning informed him that the original letters referred to had been destroyed long ago, and that neither she herself nor her sister had ever had any similar experience.

428 C. From Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 225. The narrator of the following case is the late Rev. P. H. Newnham, of whose telepathic rapport with his wife we had such striking experimental proof (see vol. ii. 849 A), and who described himself as "an utter sceptic, in the true sense of the word".

In March 1854, I was up at Oxford, keeping my last term, in lodgings. I was subject to violent neuralgic headaches, which always culminated in sleep. One evening, about 8 p.m., I had an unusually violent one; when it became unendurable, about 9 p.m., I went into my bedroom, and flung myself, without undressing, on the bed, and soon fell asleep.

I then had a singularly clear and vivid dream, all the incidents of which are still as clear to my memory as ever. I dreamed that I was stopping with the family of the lady who subsequently became my wife. All the younger ones had gone to bed, and I stopped chatting to the father and mother, standing up by the fireplace. Presently I bade them good-night, took my candle, and went off to bed. On arriving in the hall, I perceived that my fiancée had been detained downstairs, and was only then near the top of the staircase. I rushed upstairs, overtook her on the top step, and passed my two arms round her waist, under her arms, from behind. Although I was carrying my candle in my left hand, when I ran upstairs, this did not, in my dream, interfere with this gesture.

On this I woke, and a clock in the house struck ten almost immediately afterwards. So strong was the impression of the dream that I wrote a detailed account of it next morning to my fiancie.

Crossing my letter, not in answer to it, I received a letter from the lady in question: "Were you thinking about me, very specially, last night, just about ten o'clock ? For, as I was going upstairs to bed, I distinctly heard your footsteps on the stairs, and felt you put your arms round my waist".

The letters in question are now destroyed, but we verified the statement made therein some years later, when we read over our old letters, previous to their destruction, and we found that our personal recollections had not varied in the least degree therefrom. The above narratives may therefore be accepted as absolutely accurate. P. H. Newnham.

Asked if his wife has ever had any other hallucinations, Mr. Newnham replied, "No, Mrs N. never had any fancy of either myself or any one else being present on any other occasion".

The following is Mrs. Newnham's account: -

June 9th, 1884.

I remember distinctly the circumstance which my husband has described as corresponding with his dream. I was on my way up to bed, as usual, about ten o'clock, and on reaching the first landing I heard distinctly the footsteps of the gentleman to whom I was engaged, quickly mounting the stairs after me, and then I as plainly felt him put his arms round my waist. So strong an impression did this make upon me that I wrote the very next morning to the gentleman, asking if he had been particularly thinking of me at ten o'clock the night before, and to my astonishment I received (at the same time that my letter would reach him) a letter from him describing his dream, in almost the same words that I had used in describing my impression of his presence.

M. Newnham.

It is unfortunate that the actual letters cannot be put in evidence. But Mr. Newnham's distinct statement that the letters were examined, and the coincidence verified, some years after the occurrence, strongly confirms his own and his wife's recollections of the original incident.