COINCIDENCES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 403 



interference in these concerns: for example, in an 

 effort to right injustice done.' He thus adopts what, 

 for want of a better word, may be called the super- 

 natural interpretation. But it does not appear from 

 the narrative (assuming it to be true) that the butler 

 was dead at the moment when Erskine saw the vision 

 and heard the words. If this moment preceded the 

 moment of the butler's death, the story falls into the 

 category of those which seem explicable by the theory 

 of brain-waves. I express no opinion. 



I had intended to pass to the consideration of those 

 appearances which have been regarded as ghosts 

 of departed persons, and to the study of some other 

 matters which either are or may be referred to coinci- 

 dences and superstitions. But my space is exhausted. 

 Perhaps I may hereafter have an opportunity of 

 returning to the subject- not to dogmatize upon it, 

 nor to undertake to explain away the difficulties which 

 surround it, but to indicate the considerations which, 

 as it appears to me, should be applied to the investiga- 

 tion of such matters by those who wish to give a 

 reason for the belief that is in them. 



At present I must be content with indicating the 

 general interpretation of coincidences which appear 

 very remarkable, but which nevertheless cannot be 

 reasonably referred to special interpositions of Provi- 

 dence. The fact really is that occasions are continually 

 occurring where coincidences of the sort are possible, 

 though improbable. Now the improbability in any 

 particular case would be a reasonable ground for 



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