An account

I am not and never have been shortsighted, but just the contrary. Nor do I remember to have made a mistake of identity except on one occasion, and that in the case of a person I had seen only once. [Here the behaviour of the phantasm is very unlike that of a stranger who found himself mistaken for someone else. The case is of course weakened by Mr. Dutton's knowledge of his friend's serious illness, which makes it more likely than it would otherwise be that the hallucination was purely subjective (Vol. I., p. 509). But the fact of his friend's mind having been distinctly occupied with him (possibly even telepathically clairvoyant of him) is a point on the other side.] Mr. Arthur Ireland, of the School House, South Witham, near Grantham, wrote to us on January 5, 1884 : — (296) About 14 years ago, about 3 o'clock one summer's afternoon, I was passing in front of Trinity Church, Upper King Street, Leicester, when I saw on the opposite side of the street a very old playmate, whom, having left the town to learn some business, I had for some time lost sight of. I thought it odd he took no notice of me ; and while following him with my eyes, deliberating whether I should accost him or not, I called after him by name, and was somewhat surprised at not being able to follow him any further, or to say into which house he had gone, for I felt persuaded he had gone into one. The next week I was informed of his somewhat sudden death at Burton-on-Trent, at about the time I felt certain he was passing in front of me. What struck me most at the time was that he should take no notice of me, and that he should go along so noiselessly^ and disappear so suddenly, but that it was E. P. I had seen I never for one moment doubted. I have always looked upon this as a hallucination, but why it should have occurred at that particular time, and to me, I could never make out.