3io STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



In my own turn I wrote to the Athenczum as follows : 



" As the narrator leaves explanation to others, will you permit 

 me to remark that his experiences very aptly illustrate to my mind a 

 simple and readily explicable case of ' subjective sensation ' ? As 

 such, Dr. Jessopp's ghost is explicable satisfactorily to the physio- 

 logical mind on the idea that an image has been retained and formed 

 in his sight-centres, and has been unconsciously projected forwards 

 from the background of consciousness to assume (to the subject of 

 the illusion) the veritable appearance of a human figure or spectre. 

 The well-known case of Nicolai, the Royal Academician and bookseller 

 of Berlin, is the best known recorded instance of similar visitations ; 

 and Sir David Brewster, in his history of ' Natural Magic/ gives the 

 case of a Mrs. A., who was a ghost-seer of somewhat remarkable kind. 

 Cases such as those illustrated by Dr, Jessopp are by no means un- 

 known in medical practice, and are explicable on the theory of re- 

 version of the ordinary phenomena and routine of sensation. 



" The only point concerning which any dubiety exists concerns 

 the exact origin of the specific images which appear as the result of 

 subjective sensory action. My own idea is that almost invariably 

 the projected image is that of a person we have seen or read about. 

 It is not necessary that we should remember the incident to repro- 

 duce it thus ; for ' unconscious memory' is a notable fact of mental 

 life. In Dr. Jessopp's case there is one fact which seems to weigh 

 materially in favour of the idea that the ' spectre ' which appeared to 

 him in Lord Orford's library was an unconscious reproduction of 

 some mental image or figure about which the Doctor may very likely 

 have concerned himself in the way of antiquarian study. He 

 describes the figure as dressed in the costume of a past age. Does 

 not this fact alone testify to the appropriateness of an antiquary's 

 1 illusion ' being drawn by memory and imagination from the days of 

 old and from the forms of the past ? Mental physiology has not yet 

 sufficiently progressed to enable us to satisfactorily and fully explain 

 the rationale of the mental acts which evolve the spectral illusion, 

 but I would fain add, in conclusion, that such facts of mind as are 

 already within our ken place cases like that of Dr. Jessopp within the 

 pale of a rational explanation ; whilst our best thanks are due to 

 the narrator for his record as an aid to the diffusion of a plain under-* 

 standing of ' ghosts ' on a scientific basis." 



It formed a feature in the discussion of the highest interest to me 

 personally, to find my suggestions corroborated in a succeeding 

 number of the Athenaum by Mr. Walter Rye. This gentlemen 

 said : 



" Dr. A. Wilson's solution, viz. ' that the " spectre "... was 

 an unconscious reproduction of some mental image or figure about 

 which Dr. Jessopp may very likely have concerned himself in the 



