An account

You are quite right in supposing the hallucination of my brother to be the only instance in my experience. In another letter, Mr. Carroll says : — As to the apparition of my brother in Northamptonshire, at a place and window where he had never before been, — I think I said the room was very light indeed, the night very dark. Even had I looked out of the window I could not have seen him. With my head turned from the window, I distinctly saw his face. I was affected and surprised. It seemed like a slight shock of electricity. I had not recovered from the effects when the second surprise came, the reality — my brother. I did not mention the subject to him then, being rather flattered at his astonishment at my cool demeanour. The coolness was caused by the apparition first of him. The window my brother came to was at the back of the house. He found my window out only by accident, or, as he said, he thought it was my window. [Mr. Carroll is a clear-headed and careful witness. He is quite positive as to this being his only experience of a hallucination. In conversation, he stated that there were no mirrors in the room, and that the figure was seen not in the direction of the window. He thinks that the interval between the hallucination and his brother's appearance was about a minute.] Here the gradual disappearance, if correctly remembered, is interesting as a feature which is occasionally met with in purely subjective hallucinations (Chap. XII., §§ 2 and 10).^ The next example is a collective case,^ but had better be quoted in the present connection. The narrator is the late Rev. W. Mountford, of Boston, U.S.A., a minister and author of repute. ^^ v.^1 *•< ^ (264) One day, some 15 years ago, I went from the place of my abode to see some friends who resided in the fen districts of Norfolk. They were ■ - f- persons whom I knew, not merely well, but intimately. They were two brothers who had married two sisters. Their houses were a mile and a quarter apart, but standing on the same road, and with only two or three other habitations intervening. The road was a straight, bare, open road, like what is so often to be seen in the fens, and used chiefly and almost exclusively by the occupants of the few farms alongside of it. The house at which I was visiting stood about 10 yards from the edge of the road. The day was fine and clear — a day in March. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon I stood at the window, and looking up the road I said, ' Here is your brother coming.' My host advanced to the window and said, ' Oh