§ 4. We may now pass to a group of these cases in which the primary element of the emotional impression is a sense of being wanted - an impulse to go somewhere or do something.

The first example is from the Rev. E. D. Banister, of Whitechapel Vicarage, Preston.

" November 12th, 1885.

(79) "My father on the day of his death had gone out of the house about 2.30 p.m., to have his usual afternoon stroll in the garden and fields. He had not been absent more than 7 or 8 minutes when, as I was talking to my wife and sister, I was seized with a very urgent desire to go to him. (The conversation related to a visit which we proposed to pay that afternoon to a neighbour, and no allusion was made to my father.) The feeling that I ought to go and see him came upon me with irresistible force. I insisted upon all in the house going out to find my father. I was remonstrated with - my very anxiety seeming so unreasonable. My father's afternoon stroll was a regular habit of life in fine weather, and I had no reason to give why on that particular occasion I must insist on his being found. Search was made, and it was my sad lot to find him dead in the field, in a place which, according to the route he ordinarily adopted, he would have reached about 7 or 8 minutes after leaving the house.

"My idea is that when he felt the stroke of death coming upon him he earnestly desired to see me, and that, by the operation of certain psychical laws, the desire was communicated to me.

" E. D. Banister".

In reply to inquiries Mr. Banister adds: -

"In reply to your letter I have to state: -

"1i. Vivid impressions of the kind I have related are utterly unknown to me; the one related is unique in my experience.

"2. There was not the least cause for anxiety owing to the absence of my father. It only seemed a short time since he had gone out of the room, and on this account my urgency was deemed unreasonable.

"3. The date was January 9th, 1883".

We have confirmed this date by the obituary notice in the Preston Chronicle.

Mr. Banister's wife and sister supply the following corroboration: -

"We have seen the statement which Mr. Banister has forwarded to the Psychical Research Society, relating to the strong impression by which he was irresistibly urged in search of his father on the afternoon of January 9th, 1883, and we are able to confirm all details given in that statement. "Mary Banister.

"Agnes Banister".

In conversation Mr. Banister informed me that his father was a remarkably hale old man, and there had never been the slightest anxiety about his being out alone: He further mentioned that the compulsion seemed to come to him "from outside".

The following instance is from Mrs. C, of II, Upper Hamilton Terrace, N.W.

"December 17th, 1883.

(80) "On December 2nd, 1877, I was at church. My children wished to remain to a christening. I said, 'I cannot, somebody seems calling me; something is the matter.' I returned home to find nothing; but next morning two telegrams summoned me to the death-bed of my husband, from whom I had had a cheerful letter on the Saturday, and who left me in excellent spirits the Thursday before. I only arrived in time to see him die".

The following is the sons' corroboration: -

" We remember, perfectly, our mother leaving the church, saying she felt she was wanted, someone was calling her. The next day our father died, December 3rd, 1877. "George C.

" John A. C." In answer to inquiries, Mrs. C. says: -

" February 19th, 1884.

(1) "I cannot say that the experience of some one calling me was unique. I have often had strong impressions of things occurring, and such things have happened, but not having set down the dates, I could not be sufficiently certain to satisfy myself.1

(2) " My husband wrote me a cheerful letter on the Friday, November 30th, and on the Saturday, December 1st, only mentioning that he was a little bilious, but that he was going to Leicester that afternoon. He was, however, so much worse that afternoon that he went to bed. In the night he was found by a gentleman to be out of bed, and unable to get in, and he mistook the gentleman for me. All Sunday he was dying, and my friends could not telegraph, and there was no train. On Monday I received two telegrams, early in the morning. As soon as I read your letter my sons both said they remembered the circumstance quite well and signed the enclosed. George was 10 years old, John 12 years".

1 One of these cases [No. 204, omitted here], however, seems to have been quite precise.

Asked whether she would have been certain to stay for the christening under ordinary circumstances, Mrs. C. replied in the affirmative; and that the boys were disappointed. She is without any theory on these matters; and simply reports an undoubted experience.

The following case is very similar. The narrator is Mr. A. Skirving, foreman at Winchester Cathedral.

"Cathedral Yard, Winchester.

"January 31st, 1884.