739 C. The next case, which I quote from Phantasms of the Living, vol. i. p. 444, was received towards the end of 1882 from Mr. J. G. Keulemans, who has already been mentioned in 662 A.

In December 1880 Mr. Keulemans was living, he tells us, with his family in Paris. The outbreak of an epidemic of small-pox caused him to remove three of his children, including a favourite little boy of five, to London, whence he received, in the course of the ensuing month, several letters giving an excellent account of their health.

On the 24th of January 1881, at half-past seven in the morning, I was suddenly awoke by hearing his voice, as I fancied, very near me. I saw a bright, opaque, white mass before my eyes, and in the centre of this light I saw the face of my little darling, his eyes bright, his mouth smiling. The apparition, accompanied by the sound of his voice, was too short and too sudden to be called a dream: it was too clear, too decided, to be called an effect of imagination. So distinctly did I hear his voice that I looked round the room to see whether he was actually there. The sound I heard was that of extreme delight, such as only a happy child can utter. I thought it was the moment he woke up in London, happy and thinking of me. I said to myself, "Thank God, little Isidore is happy as always".

Mr. Keulemans describes the ensuing day as one of peculiar brightness and cheerfulness. He took a long walk with a friend, with whom he dined; and was afterwards playing a game of billiards, when he again saw the apparition of his child. This made him seriously uneasy, and in spite of having received within three days the assurance of the child's perfect health, he expressed to his wife a conviction that he was dead. Next day a letter arrived saying that the child was ill; but the father was convinced that this was only an attempt to break the news; and, in fact, the child had died, after a few hours' illness, at the exact time of the first apparition.

Mrs. Keulemans says:-

May 29th, 1885.

I remember that, the day when little Isidore died, my husband said that he felt strongly impressed that there was something wrong with the little boy in London. It was in the evening that he asked me whether I had received any news from my mother about Isidore. I replied that no letter had come, and asked him why he wanted to know. He made the same remark as before, but would not further explain himself. I tried to dispel his gloomy forebodings by referring to a letter we had from my mother, stating that Isidore was very happy, and was singing all day long. My husband did not seem pacified. When the letter mentioning his illness came, my husband was very much dejected, and told me that it was no use trying to make a secret of it, as he knew the worst had happened. He said afterwards that he had seen a vision. A. Keulemans.

740 A. The following case is printed in full in the Journal S.P.R., vol. iv. p. 68 (May 1889). I give an abstract only of it here. The narrative comes from a lady known to me. Miss W. begins by describing the death of her father on November 16th, 1862, at about midnight, in the presence of his family. She says:-

The fire (which faced the foot of the bed) gave a steady and subdued light, and there was only one lighted candle in the room. [A few minutes after he died,] while we were looking on, scarcely realising what had occurred, suddenly I and my youngest brother simultaneously whispered, "Look!" and we both beheld distinctly a vaporous luminosity quivering in a circle over my father's head. It was as if the breath itself had become radiant and hovered over the prostrate form. . . . None of the others saw it. ... A night or two after I was lying awake, when all at once I saw above me a light, similar to the one just described, only larger and brighter. [It] did not last more than a brief minute, and then vanished as suddenly as it appeared. I sat up in bed and tried to discover some rational cause for it, but could not. [Details are given, showing that the light was almost certainly hallucinatory].

Miss W.'s brother and sister signed a corroboratory note, stating that they well remembered the mention of the incidents at the time of their occurrence.

This impression has a certain analogy with that of Dr. Wiltse in 713 A. It cannot, of course, be maintained that an experience occurring under such circumstances, in spite of its collective nature, has any evidential force; but though not evidential, it may yet represent a reality, clothed in a symbolism which is obviously derived from tradition.