frequently observed in the Highlands of Scotland and the Western Isles, especially Skye; also on the Danish coasts and islands. It is also met with in connection with other somnambulic manifestations-as, for instance, among the "convulsionairs" of the Cevennes, the wizards of Lapland, in the Mauritius, and on the African coast. Second-sight is occasionally hereditary.

The phenomena are these:-At the moment of the sight, which takes place suddenly and irregularly, either by day or night, the seer becomes immoveable and rigid, often with open eyes; he neither sees nor hears anything of that which is going on around him outwardly, but foretells future and distant things; it is as if a portion of far-off space and time were placed before him as a perfect and living picture: for instance, deaths, the arrival of persons who may be hundreds of miles distant, events occurring at other places, battles by land or sea. The language used in second-sight is often symbolic, and experience alone may be able to unravel its meaning. The vision is often absurd, like a fantastic dream; as in one case where the seer saw himself, though from behind, and only recognised himself when he had put his coat on backwards. The power of second-sight may be transferred to another person, through the hands or feet; it is even, in some cases, infectious, so that persons at a distance occasionally see the same vision. Even little children have this power, which is shown by their screaming when an ordinary seer sees a funeral; and it has been maintained that animals possess the same gift, either transferred to them, or arising naturally. If the seer removes to another part of the world, he loses the power, but regains it when he returns. Second-sight differs from dreams and somnambulism so far as that the seer retains the most perfect remembrance of that which he has seen, and that the visions themselves occur in a perfectly wakeful state. It differs from common ghost-seeing, as the seer is perfectly master of his senses, and does not fall into those convulsions and rigidity which are produced by the former; and lastly, it has nothing in common with_the_religious visions of the 17th century, of Pordage, Brandeg, Jeane Leade, &c., as it is not of a religious character. Occasionally voices are heard,—called by the Scotch taish;

or events are announced by the organ of smell,—as, for instance, a dinner in the future! During the last century, second-sight is said to have become less common in the Scottish isles; but, according to Bendsen (Kieser's Archiv, 8 Bd. 3 S.), it is still very common in Denmark, where it is distinguished by a great peculiarity; as a future secondsight is predicted and described, in which the revelations are to be made.

The so-called corpse-seeing which some persons possess, by which they foretell the decease of certain persons, and Doubles," both belong to this class, in which the seer either perceives himself, or where different persons are seen together when the originals are far away. The act of seeing one's "double" is falsely believed, by the people, to denote an approaching death. The following are peculiarities belonging to "second-sight." The seer is involuntarily seized by the "sight," and the visions, and pictures, and the symbolical language, are, in all cases, very similar in character. If the second-sight takes place in the morning, it will be fulfilled within a few hours; if at noon, in the same day; if in the evening, probably during the night; and should candles have been lighted, though fulfilled at night, yet possibly not for months or years, according to the time of night in which the vision has been seen. The explanations are given as follows, by Werner:-grave-clothes wrapped round a person predict death; if only covering half the body, not for upwards of six months; but if the cloth covers more, death will follow in a few hours. A skull placed upon a man's breast predicts a dangerous illness; cross-bones under the head, a mortal one. If a woman stands at the left hand of a man, she will become his wife; if many are seen, the one who is nearest him is intended. A spark of fire, seen on the arm of any person, represents the death of his child. It is impossible to prevent the fulfilment of the "second-sight," by any precautions that may be taken; no attempts to prevent it have ever met with success, and it seems as if, in these visions, all such objects were tacitly taken into consideration; the bare fact as it will, not as it might happen, is seen.

Werner produces well-authenticated instances of second

sight, which have arisen spasmodically, and also in the magnetic somnambulism. The following are specimens :

Dorothea Schmidt, of Göz, near Brandenburg, suffered, when eighteen years of age, from hysterical fits, in which the "second-sight" gradually manifested itself, and at length arrived at such a state of perfection that, up to her 27th year, she predicted almost every death that took place in Göz. The vision generally took place at night, between eleven and twelve. She awoke in great terror, and always was impelled to go into the open air, where she saw the funeral, after which she felt relieved and went to bed. (In this case, evidently a clairvoyant sleep-walker.) At first, she could see, from the place where she lived, the house from which the funeral proceeded; but later, when she removed to the opposite end of the village, and could only see the church and church-yard, she was unable to state in which family the death would occur, although she knew the sex of the person, and whether it was a child or a grown-up person. If it was a child, a figure of a man carried a small shining coffin under his arm. Before she understood the nature of these appearances, she endeavoured, for the purpose of discovering whether the procession was formed of living persons, to meet it; but an irrepressible terror came over her the nearer it approached, and an inner power compelled her to turn aside, although if any one else happened to be in the path of the procession it invariably gave way to them. She saw in this way that it carefully avoided the watchman when at a distance from him. She once saw a man who stood beside her, also at a funeral. She only sees this class of visions, though referring to all the inhabitants of the village, as well as her own relations. In 1837 she was still living, and in the full possession of her faculties and health. Among other remarkable circumstances she saw the coffin of a suicide without the usual radiance; when her second son died she overcame the terrible impulse to go out, as she was unwilling to see the funeral of her child, whose decease she had foretold. The following day she says that his head was surrounded by a glory which increased during the two hours preceding his death. Many years ago, Bagghesen, a shepherd of Lindholme, in Funen, had

the gift of second-sight. Very early, for several mornings following, he saw a man, whom he could not recognise, as his back was turned towards him, fall into a deep piece of water near his house. A few days afterwards, as he was going out very early to his work, his foot slipped on the edge, and he was drowned.

In the parish of Riesum, in Funen, lived a celebrated seer, Wilmsen. He once saw, near Nordriesum, a large funeral procession, in which it appeared to him that the coffin separated into two parts, and that each half was carried by four bearers. He was unable to explain this, but a short time afterwards, two persons were buried at the same time, and at the particular spot the two coffins swerved to the roadsides on account of a large puddle. (Kieser, Archiv, 8. Bd. 3. S.)

Paul Bredersen, in Bramstadt, saw a funeral, in which he perceived himself sitting, with his neighbour Christian, in a carriage drawn by two white horses. From this, he ex

pected the death of Christian's mother; but he could not understand the white horses, as none of that colour were to be found in the village. In three weeks time the old woman died, and the neighbour's bay horses were harnessed to the carriage. The procession was already in motion, when one of the horses fell, and was not able to go any further. In great haste a messenger was sent to the nearest village, where it happened that the only horses to be procured were white ones.

In 1821 there was a seer in Niebüll who had many singular visions. He was a glazier, and at one time was engaged in putting in some panes of glass for a person of the name of Welfen. In the room where he was working he saw Welfen's daughter, a girl of eighteen years of age, lying on a bier; and in returning home he met her funeral. The father heard of this, but did not believe it, and laid some wagers that his prediction would prove false. The seer then added that a certain number of carriages would follow, and that there would be a strong wind, as in carrying out the coffin a quantity of wood shavings were blown about. Lastly, he said that the coffin would be let down so unevenly that they would be obliged to draw it up again. After a short time all this came to pass exactly as he had said.

A Madame Brand was second-sighted, but only at the death of the prebendaries of the Bern Minster, when she always saw a procession going towards the church.

A Hanoverian knight was walking in the royal gardens, and saw a funeral approaching from the castle; at the same time he heard all the bells ringing. Much surprised, the knight immediately went to the castle, and inquired who was being buried: every one laughed at him. Six days afterwards the news was received that King George of the Hanoverian family had died on that day and at the very moment when the knight had seen the procession.

Somewhat similar was Swedenborg's vision of the fire at Stockholm, at the moment of his arrival in Gotenburg from England. Many other examples having remarkable resemblance to magnetic clairvoyance may be met with in Werner's "Guardian Angels;" Kieser's "Archiv für den thierisehen Magnetismus ;" Martin's "Description of the Western Islands of Scotland," London, 1716; Jung Stilling's "Theorie der Geisterkunde;" "A Journey in the Western Islands of Scotland," by Samuel Johnson; Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with S. Johnson," by S. Boswell, 1785; "Pinkant's Works;" Horst's "Deuteroskopie."

"The

The most frequent and best known were visions and phenomena like those of the somnambulic state, which manifest themselves in various diseases. Philosophers never saw anything uncommon in them, and medical history records somnambulic phenomena even through the misty ages of the past. Aristotle considered soothsaying among persons of melancholy temperaments as a common circumstance; and Cicero speaks of the divinations of madness and insanity and other diseases under the influence of which people are accustomed to predict events. At the same time he makes the remark that possibly this may be ascribed to the use of peculiar drugs,-cardiacis atque phreniticis,-for that soothsaying belonged rather to a sick than a healthy body. Plutarch mentions many varieties of prophetic mania, and Pliny speaks in the same terms of catalepsy. I have already brought forward the older medieval writers, among whom Aretaus and Galen state that soothsaying belongs especially to inflammatory and chronic diseases. The following have