§ 4. The next case illustrates the class of dreams (D). I am aware that the very mention of this class is apt to raise a prejudice against our whole inquiry. I shall explain later why it is extremely difficult to draw conclusive evidence of telepathy from dreams, and why we mark off the whole class of dreams, which are simply remembered as such, from the cases on which we rest our argument; but I shall also hope to show that dreams, though needing to be treated with the greatest caution, have a necessary and instructive place in the conspectus of telepathic phenomena.

1 Cf. case 70.

As to the evidential force of the present case, it will be enough to point out that the percipient states the experience to have been unique in his life; and that the violence of the effect produced, leading to the very unusual entry in the diary, puts the vision outside the common run of dreams which may justly be held to afford almost limitless scope for accidental coincidences. The narrative is from Mr. Frederick Wingfield, of Belle Isle en Terre, Cotes du Nord, France.

"20th December, 1883.

(23) "I give you my most solemn assurance that what I am about to relate is the exact account of what occurred. I may remark that I am so little liable to the imputation of being easily impressed with a sense of the supernatural1 that I have been accused, and with reason, of being unduly sceptical upon matters which lay beyond my powers of explanation.

" On the night of Thursday, the 25th of March, 1880, I retired to bed after reading till late, as is my habit. I dreamed that I was lying on my sofa reading, when, on looking up, I saw distinctly the figure of my brother, Richard Wingfield-Baker, sitting on the chair before me. I dreamed that I spoke to him, but that he simply bent his head in reply, rose and left the room. When I awoke, I found myself standing with one foot on the ground by my bedside, and the other on the bed, trying to speak and to pronounce my brother's name. So strong was the impression as to the reality of his presence and so vivid the whole scene as dreamt, that I left my bedroom to search for my brother in the sitting-room, I examined the chair where I had seen him seated, I returned to bed, tried to fall asleep in the hope of a repetition of the appearance, but my mind was too excited, too painfully disturbed, as I recalled what I had dreamed. I must have, however, fallen asleep towards the morning, but when I awoke, the impression of my dream was as vivid as ever - and, I may add, is to this very hour equally strong and clear.

My sense of impending evil was so strong that I at once made a note in my memorandum book of this 'appearance,' and added the words, 'God forbid'.

"Three days afterwards I received the news that my brother, Richard Wingfield-Baker, had died on Thursday evening, the 25th of March, 1880, at 8.30 p.m., from the effects of the terrible injuries received in a fall while hunting with the Blackmore Vale hounds.

" I will only add that I had been living in this town some 12 months; that I had not had any recent communication with my brother; that I knew him to be in good health, and that he was a perfect horseman. I did not at once communicate this dream to any intimate friend - there was unluckily none here at that very moment - but I did relate the story after the receipt of the news of my brother's death, and showed the entry in my memorandum book. As evidence, of course, this is worthless; but I give you my word of honour that the circumstances I have related are the positive truth. "Fred Wingfield".

"February 4th, 1884. "I must explain my silence by the excuse that I could not procure till to-day a letter from my friend the Prince de Lucinge-Faucigny, in which he mentions the fact of my having related to him the particulars of my dream on the 25th of March, 1880. He came from Paris to stay a few days with me early in April, and saw the entry in my note-book, which I now enclose for your inspection. You will observe the initials R. B. W. B., and a curious story is attached to these letters. During that sleepless night I naturally dwelt upon the incident, and recalled the circumstances connected with the apparition. Though I distinctly recognised my brother's features, the idea flashed upon me that the figure bore some slight resemblance to my most intimate and valued friend, Colonel Bigge, and in my dread of impending evil to one to whom I am so much attached, I wrote the four initials, R. B. for Richard Baker, and W. B. for William Bigge. When the tidings of my brother's death reached me I again looked at the entry, and saw with astonishment that the four letters stood for my brother's full name, Richard Baker Wingfield-Baker, though I had always spoken of him as Richard Baker in common with the rest of my family.

The figure I saw was that of my brother; and in my anxious state of mind I worried myself into the belief that possibly it might be that of my old friend, as a resemblance did exist in the fashion of their beards. I can give you no further explanations, nor can I produce further testimony in support of my assertions. "Fred. Wingfield".

1 This expression cannot be excluded, when the words of our informants are quoted. We, ourselves, of course, regard all these occurrences as strictly natural.

With this letter, Mr. Wingfield sent me the note-book, in which among a number of business memoranda, notes of books, etc, I find the entry-"Appearance - Thursday night, 25th of March, 1880. R. B. W. B. God forbid! "

The following letter was enclosed: -

"Coat-an-nos, 2 fevrier, 1884.

"Mon cher ami, - Je n'ai aucun effort de memoire a faire pour me rappeler le fait dont vous me parlez, car j'en ai conserve un souvenir tres net et tres precis.

"Je me souviens parfaitement que le dimanche, 4 avril, 1880, etant arrive de Paris le matin meme pour passer ici quelques jours, j'ai ete dejeuner avec vous. Je me souviens aussi parfaitement que je vous ai trouve fort emu de la douloureuse nouvelle qui vous etait parvenue quelques jours1 auparavant, de la mort de l'un des messieurs vos freres. Je me rappelle aussi comme si le fait s'etait passe hier, tant j'en ai ete frappe, que quelques jours avant d'apprendre la triste nouvelle, vous aviez un soir, etant deja couche, vu, ou cru voir, mais en tous cas tres distinctement, votre frere, celui dont vous veniez d'apprendre la mort subite, tout pres de votre lit, et que, dans las conviction ou vous etiez que c'etait bien lui que vous perceviez, vous vous etiez leve et lui aviez addresse la parole, et qu'a ce moment vous aviez cesse de le voir comme s'il s'etait evanoui ainsi qu'un spectre. Je me souviens encore que, sous l'impression de l'emotion bien naturelle qui avait ete la suite de cet evenement, vous l'aviez inscrit dans un petit carnet ou vous avez l'habitude d'ecrire les faits saillants de votre tres paisible existence, et que vous m'avez fait voir ce carnet.

Cette apparition, cette vision, ou ce songe, comme vous voudrez l'appeler, est inscrit, si j'ai bon souvenir, a la date du 24 ou du 25 fevrier,1 et ce n'est que deux ou trois jours apres que vous avez recu la nouvelle officielle de la mort de votre frdre.

"J'ai ete d'autant moins surpris de ce que vous me disiez alors, et j'en ai aussi conserve un souvenir d'autant plus net et precis, comme je vous le disais en commencant, que j'ai dans ma famille des faits similaires auxquels je crois absolument.

1 The words "quelques jours auparavant," coupled with the fact that the number of the day is right, suggest that fevrier is a mere slip of the pen for mars..

"Des faits semblables arrivent, croyez-le bien, bien plus souvent qu'on ne le croit generalement; seulement on ne veut pas toujours les dire, parceque l'on se mefie de soi ou des autres.

"Au revoir, cher ami, a bientot, je l'espere, et croyez bien a l'expression des plus sinceres sentiments de votre tout devouc.

"Faucigny, Prince Lucinge".

In answer to inquiries, Mr.. Wingfield adds: -

" I have never had any other startling dream of the same nature, nor any dream from which I woke with the same sense of reality and distress, and of which the effect continued long after I was well awake. Nor have I upon any other occasion had a hallucination of the senses".

The Times obituary for March 30th, 1880, records the death of Mr. R. B. Wingfield-Baker, of Orsett Hall, Essex, as having taken place on the 25th. The Essex Independent gives the same date, adding that Mr. Baker breathed his last about 9 o'clock.

It will be seen here that the impression followed the death by a few hours - a feature which will frequently recur. The fact, of course, slightly detracts from the evidential force of a case, as compared with the completely simultaneous coincidences; inasmuch as the odds against the accidental occurrence of a unique impression of someone's presence within a few hours of his death, enormous as they are, are less enormous than the odds against a similar accidental occurrence within five minutes of the death. But the deferment of the impression, though to this slight extent affecting a case as an item of telepathic evidence, is not in itself any obstacleto the telepathic explanation. We may recall that in some of the experimental cases the impression was never a piece of conscious experience at all; while in others the latency and gradual emergencies of the idea was a very noticeable feature (pp. 47, 50-57). This justifies us in presuming that an impression which ultimately takes a sensory form may fail in the first instance to reach the threshold of attention.

It may be unable to compete, at the moment, with the vivid sensory impressions, and the crowd of ideas and images, that belong to normal seasons of waking life; and it may thus remain latent till darkness and quiet give a chance for its development. This view seems at any rate supported by the fact that it is usually at night that the delayed impression - if such it be - emerges into the percipient's consciousness. It is supported also by analogies which recognised psychology supplies. I may refer to the extraordinary exaltation of memory sometimes observed in hypnotic and hystero-epileptic "subjects"; or even to the vivid revival, in ordinary dreaming, of impressions which have hardly affected the waking consciousness.

Mr. Wingfield's vision had another unusual feature besides the violence of its effect on him. It represented a single figure, without detail or incident. It was, so to speak, the dream of an apparition; and in this respect bears a closer affinity to "borderland " and waking cases than to dreams in general. It will be worth while to quote here one dream-case of a more ordinary type so far as its content is concerned, but resembling the last in its unusual and distressing vividness. The supposed agent in this instance experienced nothing more than a brief sense of danger and excitement, which, however, may have been sufficiently intense during the moments that it lasted. The account is from Mrs. West, of Hildegarde, Furness Road, Eastbourne.

"1883.