a 
59 
experience which will serve the purposes of my argument as well 
as any other. The state can be induced in various ways: by 
passes of the hand over the eyes of the patient ; by his fixing his 
eyes upon a leaden disk, with a piece of copper in the middle ; or 
even in some cases by the patient taking the hand of another 
person, and inducing the state by an act of volition on his own 
part. This is the case with Mr. J. C. Fletcher, the somnambule 
to whom I paid a visit last summer. I went there without notice 
or previous appointment, and on_his passing into a state of trance, 
questioned him on various matters relating to myself. I give one 
instance only. I asked him to go to where my boys were at 
school. I was of course particular not to mention the name of the 
school—Eton. ‘The general description he gave of them, the house 
and the room they were in, was accurate ; but of course it always 
occurs to one that one general description is like another, and for 
this reason, as a test, it is better to choose some locality that 
possesses some definite feature of a peculiar character. The Upper 
School at Eton fulfils this condition. It is entirely without furni- 
ture, beyond some fixed desks and benches, and has only one 
feature to distinguish it from any other large well-proportioned 
room. Accordingly, when he was describing the external appearance 
of the buildings there, and among others, one that resembled -the 
Upper School, I—carefully abstaining from using the word Upper 
School, which might suggest the locality to one who had heard of 
the name—asked him to go into the building, and tell me what he 
saw there. He described it as a very long room, wainscoted with 
oak. I then said, Do you see anything else in it? He replied, I 
see a row of busts round the room, and the tops of heads are 
covered with dust. This was the feature which I wished to see 
whether he would notice or not; the peculiarity of the Upper 
_ School at Eton being the row of busts of distinguished men who 
have been educated there, placed round the room. 
WHAT IS THE EXPLANATION ? 
Of course I am well aware that many people deny the existence 
of the phenomena of what is sometimes called clairvoyance ; but it 
