650 Mr, F. Gallon [May 13, 



a sight which came whenever it was dark or darkish, in bed or other- 

 wise. It is a flight of pink roses floating in a mass from left to right, 

 and this cloud or mass of roses is presently effaced by a flight of 

 ' sparks ' or gold speckles across them. The sparks totter or vibrate 

 from left to right, but they fly distinctly upwards : they are like tiny 

 blocks, half gold, half black, rather symmetrically placed behind each 

 other, and they are always in a hurry to efface the roses : sometimes 

 they have come at my call, sometimes by surprise, but they are always 

 equally pleasing. What interests me most is that, when a child under 

 nine, the flight of roses was light, slow, soft, close to my eyes, roses so 

 large and brilliant and palpable that I tried to touch them : the scent 

 was overpowering, the petals perfect, with leaves peeping here and 

 there, texture and motion all natural. They would stay a long time 

 before the sparks came, and they occupied a large area in black space. 

 Then the sparks came slowly flying, and generally, not always, effaced 

 the roses at once, and every effort to retain the roses failed. Since an 

 early age the flight of roses has annually grown smaller, swifter, and 

 farther off, till by the time I was grown up my vision had become a 

 speck, so instantaneous that I had hardly time to realise that it was 

 there before the fading sparks showed that it was past. This is how 

 they still come. The pleasure of them is past, and it always depresses 

 me to speak of them, though I do not now, as I did when a child, 

 connect the vision with any elevated spiritual state. But when I read 

 Tennyson's ' Holy Grail,' I wondered whether anybody else had had 

 my vision, — ' Rose-red, with beatings in it.' I may add, I was a 

 London child who never was in the country but once, and I 

 connect no particular flowers with that visit. I may almost say 

 that I had never seen a rose, certainly not a quantity of them 

 together." 



A common form of vision is a phantasmagoria, o the appearancQ 

 of a crowd of phantoms, sometimes hurrying past like men in a street. 

 It is occasionally seen in broad daylight, much more often in the 

 dark ; it may be at the instant of putting out the candle, but it 

 generally comes on when the person is in bed, preparing to sleep, but 

 by no means yet asleep. I know no less than three men, eminent 

 in the scientific world, who have these phantasmagoria in one form or 

 another. A near relative of my own had them in a marked degree. 

 8he was eminently sane, and of such good constitution that her 

 faculties were hardly impaired until near her death at ninety. 

 She frequently described them to me. It gave her amusement 

 during an idle hour to watch these faces, for their expression was 

 always pleasing, though never strikingly beautiful. No two faces 

 were ever alike, and no face ever resembled that of any acquaint- 

 ance. When she was not well the faces usually came nearer 

 to her, sometimes almost suffocatingly close. She never mistook 

 them for reality, although they were very distinct. This is quite 

 a typical case, similar in most respects to many others that I have. 

 A notable proportion of sane persons have had not only visions 



