COINCIDENCES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 399 



record each dream of an impressive nature, imme- 

 diately after its occurrence, and to compare the 

 number of cases in which such dreams are fulfilled 

 with the number in which there is no fulfilment. Let 

 us suppose that a certain class of dreams were selected 

 for this purpose. Thus, let a society be formed, every 

 member of which undertakes that whenever on the 

 night preceding a journey he dreams of misfortune on 

 the route, he will record his dream, with his ideas as 

 to its impressiveness, before starting on his journey. 

 A great number of such cases would soon be collected, 

 and we may be sure that there would be several 

 striking fulfilments, and probably two or three highly 

 remarkable cases of the sort ; but for my own part, I 

 strongly entertain the opinion that the percentage of 

 fulfilments would correspond very closely with the 

 percentage due to the common risks of travelling, with 

 or without premonitory dreams. This could readily 

 be tested, if the members of the society agreed to note 

 every occasion on which they travelled : it would be 

 found, I suspect, that the dreamers gained little by 

 their warnings. Suppose, for instance, that ten thousand 

 journeys of all sorts were undertaken by the members 

 of the society in the course of ten years, and that a 

 hundred of these journeys (one per cent., that is) were 

 unfortunate ; then, if one-tenth of the journeys (a 

 thousand in all) were preceded by warning dreams, I 

 conceive that about ten of these warnings (or one per 

 cent.) would be fulfilled. If more were fulfilled there 

 would appear, so far as the evidence went, to be a 



