716. But apart from this information, acquired perhaps on the border-land between two states, apparitions do sometimes imply a perception of more definitely terrene events, such as the moral crises (as marriage, grave quarrels, or impending crimes) of friends left behind on earth. I quote in 716 A a specimen of this class, - a case of impressive warning, in which the phantom was seen by two persons, one of whom had already had a less evidential experience.

A word as to the light thrown on each other by these two successive experiences of the same percipient. The latter experience, as will have been seen, is strongly evidential. The nature of the warning given is such that the case would hardly have been communicated to us, even for anonymous publication, except under a grave sense of its importance. The former experience lacks, by its nature, coincidental proof. The daughter knew of her father's death; she hoped, although uncertainly, that all was well with him; and the vision announcing his bliss might thus have been the creation of her own mind. It was a "vision of consolation" of a frequent type - a type excluded from our evidential reckonings. Yet I can hardly suppose that of the two visions thus similar the one was really due to spiritual agency and the other was not. I regard each as corroborating and lending weight to the other.

I add in 716 B another case of similar type, the message in which, while felt by the percipient to be convincing and satisfactory, was held too private to be communicated in detail. It is plain that just in the cases where the message is most intimately veracious, the greatest difficulty is likely to be felt as to making it known to strangers.

I have already given a case (in 714) where a departed spirit seems to show a sympathetic anticipation of a marriage some time before it is contemplated. In another case, given in 716 C, the percipient, Mrs. V., describes a vision of a mother's form suspended, as it were, in a church where her son is undergoing the rite of confirmation. That vision, indeed, might have been purely subjective, as Mrs. V. was familiar with the departed mother's aspect; though value is given to it by the fact that Mrs. V. has had other experiences which included evidential coincidences.

717. From these instances of knowledge shown by the departed of events which seem wholly terrene, I pass to knowledge of events which seem in some sense more nearly concerned with the spirit-world. We have, as already hinted, a considerable group of cases where a spirit seems to be aware of the impending death of a survivor. In some few of those cases the foreknowledge is entirely inexplicable by any such foresight as we mortals can imagine. But those cases I shall not cite here; deferring them until the whole question of the limits of spiritual precognition comes to be discussed in a later chapter. In the cases to which I shall now allude the degree of foresight seems not greater than that of ordinary spectators, except in the case to be first given, where, though the family did not foresee the death, a physician might, for aught we know, have been able to anticipate it. However explained, the case is one of the best-attested, and in itself one of the most remarkable, that we possess.

The account, which I quote from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. vi. p. 17, was sent in 1887 to the American Society for Psychical Research by Mr. F. G., of Boston. Professor Royce and Dr. Hodgson vouch for the high character and good position of the informants; and it will be seen that, besides the percipient himself, his father and brother are first-hand witnesses as regards the most important point, - the effect produced by a certain symbolic item in the phantom's aspect. Mr. G. writes:-

January 11th, 1888.

Sir, - Replying to the recently published request of your Society for actual occurrences of psychical phenomena, I respectfully submit the following remark-able occurrence to the consideration of your distinguished Society, with the assurance that the event made a more powerful impression on my mind than the combined incidents of my whole life. I have never mentioned it outside of my family and a few intimate friends, knowing well that few would believe it, or else ascribe it to some disordered state of my mind at the time; but I well know I never was in better health or possessed a clearer head and mind than at the time it occurred.

In 1867 my only sister, a young lady of eighteen years, died suddenly of cholera in St. Louis, Mo. My attachment for her was very strong, and the blow a severe one to me. A year or so after her death the writer became a commercial traveller, and it was in 1876, while on one of my Western trips, that the event occurred.

I had "drummed" the city of St. Joseph, Mo., and had gone to my room at the Pacific House to send in my orders, which were unusually large ones, so that I was in a very happy frame of mind indeed. My thoughts, of course, were about these orders, knowing how pleased my house would be at my success. I had not been thinking of my late sister, or in any manner reflecting on the past. The hour was high noon, and the sun was shining cheerfully into my room. While busily smoking a cigar and writing out my orders, I suddenly became conscious that some one was sitting on my left, with one arm resting on the table. Quick as a flash I turned and distinctly saw the form of my dead sister, and for a brief second or so looked her squarely in the face; and so sure was I that it was she, that I sprang forward in delight, calling her by name, and, as I did so, the apparition instantly vanished. Naturally I was startled and dumbfounded, almost doubting my senses; but the cigar in my mouth, and pen in hand, with the ink still moist on my letter, I satisfied myself I had not been dreaming and was wide awake. I was near enough to touch her, had it been a physical possibility, and noted her features, expression, and details of dress, etc. She appeared as if alive.