400 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



balance of meaning in the warnings ; if fewer, it would 

 appear that warning dreams were to some slight degree 

 to be interpreted by the rule of contraries ; but if 

 about the proper average number of ill-omened voyages 

 turned out unfortunately, it would follow that warning 

 dreams had no significance or value whatever : and this 

 is precisely the result I should expect. 



Similar reasoning, and perhaps a similar method, 

 might be applied to cases where the death of a person 

 has been seemingly communicated to a friend or 

 relative at a distance, whether in a dream or vision, 

 or in some other way at the very instant of its 

 occurrence. It is not, however, by any means so clear 

 that in such instances we may not have to deal with 

 phenomena admitting of physical interpretation. This 

 is suggested, in fact, by the application of considera- 

 tions resembling those which lead to the rejection of 

 the belief in dreams giving warning against dangers. 

 Dreams of death may indeed be sufficiently common, 

 and but little stress could be laid, therefore, on the 

 fulfilment of several or even of many such dreams. 

 But visions of the absent are not common phenomena. 

 That state of the health which occasions the appear- 

 ance of visions is unusual ; and if some of the stories 

 of death- warnings are to be believed, visions of the 

 absent have appeared to persons in good health. But 

 setting aside the question of health, visions are unusual 

 phenomena. Hence, if any considerable proportion of 

 those narratives be true, which relate how a person has 

 at the moment of his death appeared in a vision to 



