"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which
occurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when
lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a
young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away
his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table,
covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The
president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young
men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to
speak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a
sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India
was dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I
am perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this
conviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The
young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned."[79]
A singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress
Josephine, which may fitly be detailed here.
"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "and it
had early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her
first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards
be greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is
placed beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her
first husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the
Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on
account of his belonging to the nobility; and she herself, who was also
imprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the
fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind,
that while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every
hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to
her fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies
of the bed-chamber,--a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one
of their number."
Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the
prophecy:--
"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long before Napoleon's
elevation to the throne, from the late Countess of Bath and the late
Countess of Ancrum, who were educated in the same convent with
Josephine, and had repeatedly heard her mention the circumstance in
early youth."[80]
The most grave of the errors affecting the details of those occurrences
which have been supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some
inexplicable and supernatural connection with certain circumstances
occurring coincidently with them, has been fully set forth by Lord
Bacon, in the 46th Aphorism of the "Novum Organum," and to this _dictum_
nothing needs to be added.
"The human understanding, when any proposition has been once laid down
(either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it
affords) forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation,
and although most cogent and abundant instances may exist to the
contrary, yet either does not observe, or despises them, or gets rid of
and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious
prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.
It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive
tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was
pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by
an inquiry, "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in
spite of their vows?" All superstition is much the same, whether it be
that of astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the like; in
all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled,
but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more
common.... Besides, even in the absence of that eagerness and want of
thought (which we have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual
error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by
affirmatives than negatives, whereas it ought duly and regularly to be
impartial; nay, in establishing any true axiom, the negative instance is
the most powerful."
* * * * *
We have now briefly examined the principal of those phenomena which it
has been, and in many instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural
interposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain how far they receive
explanation from the known laws of action of the senses and reasoning
faculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion that they mainly
come within the category of those laws.
Of the exceptions to this conclusion, it is unfortunate that the
authority upon which they depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the
details imperfect in many of the most important particulars; and they,
to use the words of Mrs. Crowe, (whose evidence in this respect is of
considerable importance), "as they now stand, can have no scientific
value; they cannot, in short, enter into the region of science at all,
still less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be led
to form, cannot be founded on pure induction. We must confine ourselves
wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we shall
assuredly founder."[81]
We are not aware that this imperfection of details necessarily
appertains to facts of this nature, and we simply require the same care
against error which is expected and is exercised in other departments of
inquiry; and until the instances presented bear evidence of this, we
must entertain doubts, and decline to receive them as facts establishing
such theories as have been endeavoured to be founded upon them.
The great progress of physiology and psychology is almost daily enabling
us to grapple with sensuous phenomena which have hitherto been obscure;
and it is never to be lost sight of in researches into the domains of
the so-called supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of our own
powers is as yet very imperfect and limited.