ed to me very perfect, as
sometimes dreams will. But, in a few days after, as soon as a letter
could reach me, I received one by the post from my father; upon the
receipt of which I was a little surprised, and concluded something
extraordinary must have happened, as it was but a little before I had
had a letter from my friends, and all were well: but, upon opening it, I
was still more surprised; for my father addressed me as though I was
dead, desiring me, if alive, or whose ever hands the letter might fall
into, to write immediately. But, if the letter found me living, they
concluded I should not live long, and gave this as a reason for their
fears--That on such a night (naming it), after they were in bed, my
father asleep and my mother awake, she heard somebody try to open the
fore door, but finding it fast, he went to the back door, which he
opened, and came in, and went directly through the room up stairs, and
she perfectly knew it to be my step, come to her bed-side, and spoke to
her these words, 'Mother, I am going a long journey, and am come to bid
you good-bye,' upon which she answered in a fright, '_O! dear son, thee
art dead!_' (which were the very circumstances and words of _my_ dream);
but she heard nothing more, she saw nothing (neither did I in my dream,
as it was all dark). Upon this she awoke my father, and told him what
had passed, but he endeavoured to appease her, persuading her it was
only a dream; but she insisted on it, it was no dream, for that she was
as perfectly awake as ever, and had not had the least inclination to
sleep since she had been in bed (from which I am apt to think it was at
the _very same instant_ with my dream, though the distance between us
was about one hundred miles, but of this I cannot speak positively).
This affair happened whilst I was at the academy at Ottery, in the
county of Devon, and I believe in the year 1754; and at this distance
every circumstance is very fresh in my mind. I have since had frequent
opportunities of talking over the affair with my mother, and the whole
circumstance was as fresh upon her mind as it was upon mine. I have
often thought that her sensation as to this matter was stronger than
mine; and, what some may think strange, I cannot remember any thing
remarkable happened thereon; and that this is only a plain simple
narrative of matter of fact."

The above relation must convince credulous people how necessary it is,
not to place implicit confidenc