§ 3. We come now to cases where the agent's mind was in a more or less disturbed state. [Case 97 omitted].

The evidential force of the following case is not easy to estimate, without knowing how frequent dreams of conflagration are; but this particular dreamer, at any rate, can recall no similar experience, and has never in his life made a written note of a dream except on this occasion. Mr. D. B. W. Sladen, of 26, Campden Grove, Kensington, W., writes: -

"January 4th, 1886. (98) "In December, 1881, we were living at 6, George Street (East), Melbourne, Victoria. My father resided then, as he does now, at Philli-more Lodge, Kensington, W. In those days I always went to bed about midnight. I awoke suddenly, tremendously startled by a dream that my father's house was on fire. The dream impressed me so vividly that I felt convinced that a fire had actually happened there, and, striking a light, I walked across the room to the dressing-table, on which my diary lay (I used generally to jot down the events of the day just before turning in), and made a brief entry of it there and then, first looking at my watch in order to be able to set down the time, which I found to be 1 a.m. I had, therefore, been in bed less than an hour, which of itself seems to add an extraordinary feature to the case (I refer to my sinking to sleep, dreaming, and waking up, as after a long sleep, in so short a space of time). The entry in my diary is, as it was likely to be when standing out of bed, very brief: 'At night I dreamt that the kitchen in my father's house was on fire.

I awoke and found that it was I a.m.' I kept my diary in a plain-paper book; and the entry comes below what I did up to midnight on December 22nd. What I further still remember distinctly of the vision is this - that in it, the servants' bedrooms (which are really at the top of my father's house, while the kitchen, etc., are at the bottom) were adjoining the kitchen suite, all on one floor, and that the smoke and blaze seemed general. Further, I remember distinctly, though I just made a bare entry in my diary and hurried back to bed, that two of my father's maids, named Coombes and Caroline respectively, were the only persons except myself present in the vision, and that I seemed to have no impulses and no power of moving, but was merely a spectator; nor did the idea of any risk to myself form part of the impression.

" Six or seven weeks afterwards (mail contract between London and Melbourne is 42 days) I received a letter from my father, dated December 22nd, 1881. He wrote, ' We had a fire on Sunday evening while we were at church. Coombes went with a wax-taper to tidy her room, and, I suppose, blew it out and put it down with sparks. Very soon after she left, a ring at the bell that the attic was on fire put Caroline on her mettle, while the other lost her head. She dashed it out with water before the window-frame was burnt through, and subdued it. Fifteen pounds will repair the damage - two chests of drawers much burnt, wearing apparel, etc. I gave her a sovereign for her pluck, as the roof would have been on fire in another five minutes'.

"Now I wish to draw your attention to what has attracted my attention most. The Sunday before December 22nd, 1881, was December 18th. I had the communication, therefore, in my sleep, not on the actual day of the fire, but on the day on which my father wrote the letter. At Kensington, where my father was writing, Australian letters have to be posted in the branch offices about 5 p.m. My dream was at 1 a.m. Time in Victoria is 9½ hours ahead of English time. When I was having the communication, therefore, it was about 3.30 p.m. in Kensington. Now with the mail going out at 5 p.m., 3.30 would have been a very natural - I think I may say a most natural time for my father to be finishing a letter to me. [Mr. Sladen, sen., confirms this.] I, therefore, had my magnetic communication when he was at once focussing his mind on me, and focussing his mind on the fire, in order to tell me about it.

"I have asked my wife, and she remembers perfectly my waking her up, and telling her that I had dreamt that my father's house was on fire, and was so convinced of its betokening an actual occurrence that I should make a note of it in my diary there and then.

" Douglas B. W. Sladen".

[Mr. Sladen has kindly allowed me to inspect the diary and letter].

In the next example the correspondence is of a more distinct kind. Mrs. Walsh, of the Priory, Lincoln, writes: -

"February, 1884.

(99) "The gentleman who teaches music in my house tells me that if anything sad or terrible happens to anyone he loves, he always has an intimation of it.

"I am very fond of him, and I know he looks on me as a very true old friend, and one of my sons, now in India, is the dearest friend he has.

"I went out one morning about 9 o'clock, carrying books for the library, and, being very busy, took the short way to town. On some flags in a very steep part of the road some boys had made a slide. Both my feet flew away at the same moment that the back of my head resounded on the flags. A policeman picked me up, saw I was hurt, and rang at the Nurses' Home close by, to get me looked to. My head was cut, and while they were washing the blood away, I was worrying myself that I should be ill, and how should I manage my school till the end of the term. I told no one in my house but my daughter, and no one but the policeman had seen me fall. I asked my daughter to tell no one. I had a miserable nervous feeling, but I pretended to her it was nothing. The next morning after a sleepless night, I could not get up. It was my habit to sit in the drawing-room while the music lessons were given, so my daughter went in to tell Mr. - that I had had a bad night, and was not yet up. He said, ' I had a wretched night, too, and all through a most vivid dream.' What was it? ' she asked. ' I dreamed I was walking by the Nurses' Home, and I came on a slide, both my feet slipped, and I fell on the back of my head.

I was helped to the Home, and while my head was being bathed I was worrying myself how I should manage my lessons till the end of the term, and the worrying feeling would not go.' "

The percipient, Mr. T. J. Hoare, writes: -

"12, St. Nicholas Square, Lincoln.

"March 3rd, 1884.

"I shall be very pleased to relate the account of a dream, as described by Mrs. Walsh most accurately, which took place on a Tuesday evening early in November, 1882. The dream consisted of this: I supposed I was going down the Greystone Stairs, when I had a fall at the first flight, was picked up, and helped by a policeman to the Nurses' Institute, about 20 yards from the imaginary fall, being there attended by a nurse. I was much perplexed as to how I should manage to finish my work during the term. This was followed the next morning by a severe headache in the region of the imaginary blow.

"On seeing Miss Walsh the following morning, I was told by her that Mrs. Walsh was unwell, but not the cause. I replied I too felt unwell and accounted for it through the dream. Mrs. Walsh related to me the same evening her own adventure, which in every detail exactly coincided with my dream as happening to myself. I in no way knew of Mrs. Walsh's mishap till the evening after, when told by herself.

"In another instance, whilst staying in Devonshire, I received an impression, or felt a conviction, that something had happened to Mrs. Walsh. I think I wanted to write, so confident was I of something having taken place, but desisted because I had left Lincoln through an outbreak of small-pox in the house next my rooms, only the previous week, so was unwilling to correspond. On my return here, I found out that both my day [i.e., the day of the impression] and the accident - a fall - were true.

"In many other instances have I received similar experiences, and so confident have I been always of their accuracy that I have written to the persons and places, and always received confirmation of my impressions. . I have had, I think, 10 or 12 impressions. They are quite unlike fits of low spirits and indigestion, and I can easily distinguish them from such, as in every case I have been most conscious of outside action.

"T. J. Hoare".

In conversation Mr. Hoare stated that he undoubtedly had a positive pain at the back of his head, as if from a blow, on the day following this experience.

[Cases 100 and 101 here omitted].