nt door open, I could see
the door plainly from where I was, our bedroom door being always kept
open. I was astonished but not afraid when, immediately after the door
opened, two men entered bearing a coffin which they carried upstairs,
right into the room where I was, and laid it down on the hearth-rug by
the side of the bed, and then went away shutting the front door after
them. I was of course somewhat troubled over the matter, and mentioned
it to my husband when having breakfast the following morning. He
insisted that I had been dreaming, and I did not again let the matter
trouble my mind. A week that day my husband died very suddenly. I was
engaged in one of the rooms upstairs the evening afterwards, when a
knock came to the door, which was answered by my mother, and I did not
take any notice until I heard the footsteps of those coming up the
stairs, when I looked out, and lo! I beheld the two men whom I had seen
but a week previously carry and put the coffin in exactly the same place
that they had done on their previous visit. I cannot describe to you my
feelings, but from that time until the present I am convinced that, call
them what you like--apparitions, ghosts, or forewarnings--they are a
reality."

_Profitable Premonitions._

There are, however, cases in which a premonition has been useful to
those who have received timely warning of disaster. The ill-fated
_Pegasus_, that went down carrying with it the well-known Rev. J.
Morell Mackenzie, an uncle of the well-known physician, who preserves a
portrait of the distinguished divine among his heirlooms, is associated
with a premonition which saved the life of a lady and her cousin, the
wives of two Church of England ministers. They had intended to sail in
the _Pegasus_ on Wednesday, but a mysterious and unaccountable
impression compelled one of the ladies to insist that they should leave
on the Saturday. They had just time to get on board, and so escaped
going by the _Pegasus_ which sailed on the following Wednesday and
was wrecked, only two on board being saved.

Like to this story, in so far as it records her avoidance of an accident
by the warning of a dream, but fortunately not resembling it in its more
ghostly detail, is the story told in Mrs. Sidgwick's paper on the
Evidence for Premonitions, on the authority of Mrs. Raey, of 99, Holland
Road, Kensington. She dreamed that she was driving from Mortlake to
Roehampton. She was upset in her carriage close