The auditory examples are commoner and clearer. As might be expected, they are specially connected with sounds which occur in an isolated way, such as those of bells and clocks. Thus a lady tells me that more than once, in her student days, when wondering what time it was, she distinctly heard the college clock strike, and then ascertained that the impression had been a delusion. She has also heard an imaginary " Come in," after knocking at a door. Another lady not unfrequently had a similar clock-hallucination when she was afraid of being late in the morning. A gentleman tells me that he has had the hallucination of hearing billiard-balls, when in bed near a billiard-room. That the habit of half-unconsciously looking out for any particular sound has a tendency to produce a phantasm of it is also shown by the experience of domestic servants. I have cases from two members of this class who occasionally, when at their household work, have heard the voice of their mistress calling them in tones as unmistakable as if they were real. And another informant tells me that she distinctly heard her father's voice call to her one morning, "Come, Sissy, it's past 8, you're late," and ascertained that he had said nothing.

No one will doubt that such experiences as these are purely subjective.1

Cases occur, however, where the other explanation seems less clearly excluded. Mr. Charles Ede, of Wonersh Lodge, Guildford, a doctor by profession, who describes himself as a very unlikely person to be "deceived by morbid fancies," sends us the following example. Some ladies who lived about half-a-mile from him had a large alarm-bell outside their house, and one night he seemed distinctly to hear the sound of this bell. He learnt afterwards that there had been an alarm of thieves that night, and that at the very time, 1.30 a.m., when he was startled by the sound, his friends had been on the point of ringing the bell in the hope that it would bring him; but they had not actually rung it. The hallucination may have been due to the subconscious idea of a possible summons in Mr. Ede's mind; and the coincidence may probably have been accidental; but if such a thing as telepathy exists, the probability does not amount to a certainty. Again, a clergyman is awakened at 7.30 one morning by the sound of his name, ascertains that no one has called him, and learns in less than an hour that a friend, for whom he was fulfilling a trust, had unexpectedly died at 7.30 that morning. He has never on any other occasion heard an imaginary voice.

Still, an experience of this sort, coming in sleep, and at the very time when the organism would be, so to speak, preparing itself for the sudden change and the summons to activity which waking involves, must be classed as ambiguous.

1 Some further examples of auditory hallucinations probably due to expectancy may be found in Howells' Cambrian Superstitions (Tipton, 1831), p. 65. See also Sikes's British Goblins, p. 229.

A type of case which often makes a great impression on those who experience it is where the expectation is of someone's arrival. The following auditory specimen is from the Hon. Mrs. Fox Powys.

"July, 1882.

"I was expecting my husband home, and shortly after the time he ought to have arrived (about 10 p.m.) I heard a cab drive up to the door, the bell ring, my husband's voice talking with the cabman, the front door open, and his step come up the stairs. I went to the drawing-room, opened it, and to my astonishment saw no one. I could hardly believe he was not there, the whole thing was so vivid, and the street was particularly quiet at the time. About 20 minutes or so after this my husband really arrived, though nothing sounded to me more real than it did the first time. The train was late, and he had been thinking I might be anxious.

"Amy C. Powys".

In answer to inquiries, Mrs. Powys adds: -

"To me the whole thing was very noisy and real, but no one else can have heard anything, for the bell I heard ring was not answered. It was a quiet street in town, and there was no vehicle of any kind passing at the time; and on finding no one on the landing as I expected, I went at once to the window, and there was nothing to be seen, and no sound to be heard, which would have been the case had the cab been driven off".

Now the hearing of a bell, and the hearing of a carriage driving up, are both known forms of subjective impression, even apart from expectancy, nor is there anything odd in their combination; and if, as I suspect, slight hallucinations of such non-vocal sounds are tolerably common, it is natural to suppose that expectancy might exaggerate them. The recognised voice was, no doubt, a more distinctive feature; but in the percipient's circumstances, and after the other sounds heard, this seems too natural an addition to warrant us in connecting it with the fact that her husband's thoughts happened to be directed to her at the time. And if this case may be dismissed, & fortiori may others of a less prolonged and complicated kind - especially those lacking the distinct timbre-element of bell and voice, and so more easily accounted for as mere misinterpretations of real sounds whose source was not evident.