COINCIDENCES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 401 



some friend at a distance, we must recognize the possi- 

 bility, at least, that under certain conditions mind may 

 act on mind independently of distance. The a priori 

 objections to this belief are, indeed, very serious, but 

 a priori reasoning does not amount to demonstration. 

 We do not know that even when under ordinary 

 circumstances we think of an absent friend, his mind 

 may not respond in some degree to our thoughts, or 

 else that our thoughts may not be a response to 

 thoughts in his mind. It is certain that such a law of 

 thought might exist and remain undetected it would 

 indeed be scarcely detectible. At any rate, we know 

 too little respecting the mind to be certain that no 

 such law exists. If it existed, then it is quite con- 

 ceivable that the action of the mind in the hour of 

 death might raise a vision in the mind of another. 



I shall venture to quote here an old but well- 

 authenticated story, as given by Mr. Owen in his 

 Debatable Land between this World and the Next, 

 leaving to my readers the inquiry whether probabilities 

 are more in favour of the theory that (1) the story is 

 untrue, or (2) the event related was only a remarkable 

 coincidence between a certain event and a certain 

 cerebral phenomenon, in reality no way associated with 

 it, or (3) that there was a real association physically 

 explicable, or (4) that the event was supernatural. 

 Lord Erskine related to Lady Morgan herself a 

 perfect sceptic (I wish, all the same, that the story 

 came direct from Erskine) the following personal 

 narrative : ' On arriving at Edinburgh one morning, 



D D 



