he
psychometer, who needs an object physically connected with the past in
order to bring it all into life again around him, and the
crystal-gazer who can sometimes direct his less certain astral
telescope to some historic scene of long ago, may both derive the
greatest enjoyment from the exercise of their respective gifts, even
though they may not always understand exactly how their results are
produced, and may not have them fully under control under all
circumstances.

In many cases of the lower manifestations of these powers we find that
they are exercised unconsciously; many a crystal-gazer watches scenes
from the past without being able to distinguish them from visions of
the present, and many a vaguely-psychic person finds pictures
constantly arising before his eyes without ever realizing that he is
in effect psychometrizing the various objects around him as he happens
to touch them or stand near them.

An interesting variant of this class of psychics is the man who is
able to psychometrize persons only, and not inanimate objects as is
more usual. In most cases this faculty shows itself erratically, so
that such a psychic will, when introduced to a stranger, often see in
a flash some prominent event in that stranger's earlier life, but on
other similar occasions will receive no special impression. More
rarely we meet with someone who gets detailed visions of the past life
of everyone whom he encounters. Perhaps one of the best examples of
this class was the German writer Zschokke, who describes in his
autobiography this extraordinary power of which he found himself
possessed. He says:--

"It has happened to me occasionally at the first meeting with a total
stranger, when I have been listening in silence to his conversation,
that his past life up to the present moment, with many minute
circumstances belonging to one or other particular scene in it, has
come across me like a dream, but distinctly, entirely involuntarily
and unsought, occupying in duration a few minutes.

"For a long time I was disposed to consider these fleeting visions as
a trick of the fancy--the more so as my dream-vision displayed to me
the dress and movements of the actors, the appearance of the room, the
furniture, and other accidents of the scene; till on one occasion, in
a gamesome mood, I narrated to my family the secret history of a
sempstress who had just before quitted the room. I had never seen the
person before. Nevertheless the