it have appeared in almost every nation, but it
has always been commonest among mountaineers and men of lonely life. With
us in England it is often spoken of as if it were the exclusive appanage
of the Celtic race, but in reality it has appeared among similarly
situated peoples the world over, it is stated, for example, to be very
common among the Westphalian peasantry.

"Sometimes the second-sight consists of a picture clearly foreshowing some
coming event; more frequently, perhaps, the glimpse of the future is given
in some symbolical appearance. It is noteworthy that the events foreseen
are invariably unpleasant ones--death being the commonest of all; I do not
recollect a single instance in which the second-sight has shown anything
which was not of the most gloomy nature. It has a ghastly symbolism of
its own--a symbolism of shrouds and corpse-candles, and other funeral
horrors. In some cases it appears to be to a certain extent dependent upon
locality, for it is stated that inhabitants of the Isle of Skye who
possess the faculty often lose it when they leave the island, even though
it be only to cross to the mainland. The gift of such sight is sometimes
hereditary in a family for generations, but this is not an invariable
rule, for it often appears sporadically in one member of a family
otherwise free from its lugubrious influence.

"There may be still some people who deny the possibility of prevision, but
such denial simply shows their ignorance of the evidence on the subject.
The large number of authenticated cases leave no room for doubt as to the
fact, but many of them are of such a nature as to render a reasonable
explanation by no means easy to find. It is evident that the Ego possesses
a certain amount of previsional faculty, and if the events foreseen were
always of great importance, one might suppose that an extraordinary
stimulus had enabled him for that occasion only to make a clear impression
of what he saw upon his lower personality. No doubt that is the
explanation of many of the cases in which death or grave disaster is
foreseen, but there are a large number of instances on record to which it
does not seem to apply, since the events foretold are frequently trivial
and unimportant."

In the following chapter I shall present to your consideration some very
remarkable cases of future-time clairvoyance, prevision, or second-sight;
some of these are historical cases, and all are vouched for by the best
a