'SECOND SIGHT'
The power of seeing things invisible to others is commonly known as
'second sight,' a peculiarity which the ancient Gaels called 'shadow
sight.' The subject has, for many years past, excited popular interest,
and demanded the attention even of our learned men. Dr. Johnson was so
favourably impressed with the notion of 'second sight,' that after,
in the course of his travels, giving the subject full inquiry, he
confessed that he never could 'advance his curiosity to conviction,
but came away at last only willing to believe.' Sir Walter Scott, too,
went so far as to say that 'if force of evidence could authorise us
to believe facts inconsistent with the general laws of nature, enough
might be produced in favour of the existence of "second sight."' When
we recollect how all history and tradition abound in instances of this
belief, oftentimes apparently resting on evidence beyond impeachment,
it is not surprising that it has numbered among its adherents advocates
of most schools of thought. Although, too, of late years the theory
of 'second sight' has not been so widely preached as formerly, yet it
must not be supposed that the stories urged in support of it are less
numerous, or that it has ceased to be regarded as great a mystery as in
days gone by.
In defining 'second sight' as a singular faculty 'of seeing an
otherwise invisible object without any previous means used by the
person that beholds it for that end,' we are at once confronted with
the well-known axiom that 'a man cannot be in two places at once,' a
rule with which it is difficult to reconcile such statements as those
recorded by Pennant of a gentleman of the Hebrides said to have had
the gift of foreseeing visitors in time to get ready for them, or the
anecdote which tells how St. Ambrose fell into a comatose state while
celebrating the mass at Milan, and on his recovery asserted that he had
been present at St. Martin's funeral at Tours, where it was afterwards
declared he had been seen. But it must be remembered that believers in
'second sight' base their faith not so much on metaphysical definitions
as on the evidence of daily experience, it being of immaterial
importance to them how impossible a certain doctrine may seem, provided
it only has the testimony of actual witnesses in its favour. Hence,
in spite of all arguments against the so-called 'second sight,' it is
urged, on the other hand, that visions coinciding with real facts and
events occurring at a distance--oftentimes thousands of miles away--are
beheld by persons possessing this remarkable faculty. Thus Collins, in
his ode on the 'Popular Superstitions of the Highlands,' alludes to
this belief:
To monarchs dear, some hundred miles astray
Oft have they seen Fate give the fatal blow.
The seer, in Sky, shrieked as the blood did flow
When headless Charles warm on the scaffold lay.
Accounts differ largely respecting the faculty of 'second sight.'
Some make it hereditary, and according to an account communicated to
Aubrey from a gentleman at Strathspey, some of the seers acknowledged
the possibility of teaching it. A correspondent of the 'Gentleman's
Magazine'[219] says 'the visions attendant on "second sight" are
not confined to solemn or important events. The future visit of a
mountebank or piper, the arrival of common travellers, or, if possible,
still more trifling matters than these, are foreseen by the seers. Not
only aged men and women have the "second sight," but also children,
horses, and cows. Children endowed with that faculty manifest it by
crying aloud at the very time a corpse appears to a seer. That horses
possess it is likewise plain, from their violent and sudden starting
when their rider, or a seer in company with him, sees a vision of
any kind, by night or by day. It is observable of a horse, that he
will not go forwards towards the apparition but must be led round, at
some distance from the common road; his terror is evident, from his
becoming all over in a profuse sweat, although quite cool a moment
before. Balaam's ass seems to have possessed this power or faculty;
and, perhaps, what we improperly style a startlish horse may be one who
has the gift of the "second sight." That cows have the "second sight"
is proved by the following circumstance. If a woman, whilst milking
a cow, happen to have a vision of that kind, the cow runs away in a
great fright at the same instant, and cannot, for some time, be brought
to stand quietly.' It is further added, that persons who have not long
been gifted with 'second sight,' after seeing a vision without doors,
on coming into a house, and approaching the fire, will immediately
fall into a swoon. All those, too, who have the 'second sight' do not
see these appearances at the same time, but if one having this faculty
designedly touches his fellow seer at the instant that a vision appears
to him, in that case it will be seen by both.
Goethe relates that as he was once riding along a footpath towards
Drusenheim, he saw, 'not with the eyes of his body, but with those of
his spirit, himself on horseback coming towards him, in a dress that
he then did not possess. It was grey, and trimmed with gold. Eight
years afterwards he found himself, quite accidentally, on that spot, on
horseback, and in precisely that attire.'[220]
In 1652 a Scottish lawyer, Sir George Mackenzie, afterwards Lord
Tarbat, when driven to the Highlands by fear of the Government of
Cromwell, made very extensive inquiries concerning this supposed
supernatural faculty, and wrote an elaborate account of its
manifestations to the celebrated Robert Boyle, published in the
correspondence of Samuel Pepys. Aubrey, too, devoted considerable
attention to the subject, and in the year 1683 appeared the treatise
of 'Theophilus Insularum,' with about one hundred cases gathered from
various sources.
It was, however, in Scotland that this belief gained a specially
strong footing. In the year 1799, a traveller writing of the peasants
of Kirkcudbrightshire relates: 'It is common among them to fancy that
they see the wraiths of persons dying which will be visible to one and
not to others present with him. Within these last twenty years it was
hardly possible to meet with any person who had not seen many wraiths
and ghosts in the course of his experience.' Indeed, we are told that
many of the Highlanders gained a lucrative livelihood by enlightening
their neighbours on matters revealed to them through 'second sight;'
and Mr. Jamieson writes: 'Whether this belief was communicated to
the Scotch by the northern nations who so long had possession of it,
I shall not pretend to determine, but traces of the same wonderful
faculty may be found among the Scandinavians.' One of the best
illustrations of this superstition as it prevailed in the Highlands is
that given by Dr. Johnson in his 'Journey to the Hebrides': 'A man on
a journey far from home falls from a horse; another, who is perhaps at
work about the house, sees him bleeding on the ground, commonly with a
landscape of the place where the accident befalls him. Another seer,
driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the
sunshine, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony,
or funeral procession, and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom,
if he knows them, he relates the names; if he knows them not, he can
describe the dresses. Things distant are seen at the instant when they
happen.' 'At the Literary Club,' says Boswell, 'before Johnson came
in, we talked of his "Journey to the Western Islands," and of his
coming away "willing to believe the 'second sight,'" which seemed to
excite some ridicule. I was then so impressed with many of the stories
which I had been told, that I avowed my conviction, saying, "He is
only willing to believe--I do believe; the evidence is enough for me,
though not for his great mind. What will not fill a quart bottle will
fill a pint bottle; I am filled with belief." "Are you?" said George
Colman; "then cork it up."' It is not many years ago since a man lived
at Blackpool who was possessed, as he pretended, by this faculty, and
was visited by persons from all parts anxious to gain information
about absent friends. This belief, it may be added, is not confined
to our own country, curious traces of it being found among savage
tribes. Thus Captain Jonathan Carver obtained from a Cree medicine man
a correct prophesy of the arrival of a canoe with news the following
day at noon; and we are told how, when Mr. Mason Brown was travelling
with the _voyageurs_ on the Coppermine river, he was met by Indians of
the very band he was seeking, these having been despatched by their
medicine-man, who, on being interrogated, affirmed that 'he saw them
coming, and heard them talk on their journey.'
Again, persons gifted with 'second sight' are said not only to know
particular events at a distance precisely at the same moment as they
happen, but also to have a foreknowledge of them before they take
place, for--
As the sun,
Ere it is risen, sometimes paints its image
In the atmosphere, so often do the spirits
Of great events stride on before the events,
And in to-day already walks to-morrow.
Dr. Tylor, in his 'Primitive Culture,' relates the case of a Shetland
lady who affirmed how, some years ago, she and a girl leading her pony
recognised the familiar figure of one Peter Sutherland, whom they knew
to be at the time in Edinburgh. He turned a corner, and they saw him no
more, but next week came the news of his sudden death.
A curious old story illustrative of 'second sight,' of which there
are several versions, is that of 'Booty's Ghost,' an account of which
occurs in Kirby's 'Wonderful and Eccentric Museum' (ii. 247). It was an
action for slander of a deceased husband brought by the widow, and the
following extract, which contains an outline of the strange tale, is
from the journal of Mr. Spinks:
'_Friday, May 15, 1687._--We had the observation of Mr. Booty this day.
Captain Barrisby, Captain Bristowe, Captain Brown, I, and Mr. Ball,
merchant, went on shore in Captain Barnaby's boat to shoot rabbits upon
Stromboli; and when we had done, we called our men together by us, and
about half an hour and fourteen minutes after three in the afternoon,
to our great surprise, we all of us saw two men come running towards
us with such swiftness that no living man could run half so fast as
they did run, when all of us heard Captain Barnaby say, "Lord, bless
me! the foremost is old Booty, my next door neighbour," but he said
he did not know the other that run behind; he was in black clothes,
and the foremost was in grey. Then Captain Barnaby desired all of us
to take an account of the time, and put it down in our pocket-books,
and when we got on board we wrote it in our journals; for we saw them
into the flames of fire, and there was a great noise which greatly
affrighted us all, for we none of us ever saw or heard the like before.
Captain Barnaby said he was certain it was old Booty, which he saw
running over Stromboli and into the flames of hell. It is stated that
Captain Barnaby told his wife, and she told somebody else, and that
it was afterwards told to Mrs. Booty, who arrested Captain Barnaby in
a thousand pound action for what he had said of her husband. Captain
Barnaby gave bail to it, and it came on to a trial in the Court of
King's Bench, and they had Mr. Booty's wearing apparel brought into
Court, and the sexton of the parish, and the people that were with him
when he died; and we swore to our journals, and it came to the same
time within two minutes. Ten of our men swore to the buttons on his
coat, and that they were covered with the same sort of cloth his coat
was made of, and so it proved. The jury asked Mr. Spinks if he knew Mr.
Booty. He answered, "I never saw him till he ran by me on the burning
mountain."'
The Chief Justice from April 1687 to February 1689 was Sir Robert
Wright. His name is not given in the report, but the judge said: 'Lord,
have mercy on me, and grant that I may never see what you have seen.
One, two, or three may be mistaken, but thirty can never be mistaken.'
So the widow lost her suit.[221]
It appears, also, that coming events are mostly forecasted by various
symbolic omens which generally take the form of spectral exhibitions.
Thus, a phantom shroud seen in the morning on a living person is said
to betoken his death in the course of the day; but if seen late in
the evening, no particular time is indicated, further than that it
will take place within the year. If, too, the shroud does not cover
the whole body, the fulfilment of the vision may be expected at some
distant period.
But these kind of omens vary largely in different countries; and, on
the Continent, where much misplaced faith is attached to them, they are
frequently the source of much needless dread.
FOOTNOTES:
[219] 1822, Part ii. pp. 598, 599.
[220] Quoted in Mrs. Crowe's _Night Side of Nature_, 1854, p. 181.
[221] See _Notes and Queries_, 1st S. iii. 170.