SENTIMENT OP FEE-EXISTENCE. 331 



served and authentically recorded, each of these portions of the brain has 

 continued its action for a period of days, or even weeks, and then, relaps- 

 ing into a quiescent state, has been succeeded by the other, thus present- 

 ing in some degree an analogy of what is observed in ordinary cases of 

 insanity, so far as the reciprocating action of the two organs is concerned, 

 but differing in the period of duration of their function ; and thus, if one 

 of them should have undergone deterioration, or have suffered lesion, so 

 that it has been reduced to what might be termed an infantile state, the 

 impressions formerly stored up in it having been for the most part lost, 

 or there being an incapacity in it to make use of them, the patient will 

 alternately exhibit what has been aptly termed child life and mature life. 

 For a few days, or perhaps weeks, he will conduct himself in the ordi- 

 nary manner of an adult, reading, reasoning, and acting, and then, for a 

 similar period, will pass into a condition in which he does not even know 

 his letters, and reasons and acts like a child. These phenomena of al- 

 ternate and double intellection are interesting in the highest degree, and 

 seem to be explicable on no other principle than that which this author 

 suggests. 



But I do not think that the explanation which he offers of the senti- 

 ment of pre-existence is correct. By this term is under- Sentiment of 

 stood that strange impression, which all persons have occa- P re -existence. 

 sionally observed in the course of their lives, that some incident or scene 

 at the moment occurring to them, it may be of quite a trivial nature, 

 has been witnessed by them once before, and is in an instant recognized. 

 Though this opinion that we have seen a present incident once before 

 sometimes occurs in cases where the circumstances are of profound in- 

 terest to us, the experience of most persons assures us that it is more fre- 

 quently in trivial events. Dr. Wigan's view is, that it arises from the 

 almost contemporaneous action of the two hemispheres, and that, under 

 the circumstances, we have a confusion of memory, and are led to be- 

 lieve that there has been an interval of indefinite duration, when, in 

 point of fact, it was an impression in each hemisphere closely coincident 

 in point of time. This explanation turns on the assumption that this 

 sentiment of pre-existence occurs but once. He denies that we ever 

 suppose that we have seen the thing twice before. But I believe that 

 the experience of many individuals assures them that this is not the case, 

 , and that they are under a firm persuasion that they have witnessed the 

 same incidents more than once before, nay, perhaps even many times. 

 The instance which this author furnishes as occurring to himself, in 

 which, on the occasion of attending the funeral of an exalted personage, 

 and at the time of the coffin being deposited in the vault, with the strik- 

 ing solemnities of the occasion there rushed upon his mind the idea that 

 he had been present at this same scene once before, a thing which was, 



