436 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Nov. 28, 1884. 



' Did this really happen or did I dream it ? ' " He cites a 

 remarkable case of a lady known to him who seemed 

 entirely unable to distinguish between her dreaming and 

 •waking experiences. But the "sentiment of preexistence " 

 is more precise than any mere dream recollections, and is 

 always directly associated with some actual scene and 

 with a series of events actually in progress when it is 

 momentarily excited. 



, 1 will take as an illustration of this remarkable mental 

 phenomenon the last occasion when it presented itself in my 

 own experience : — 



I was watching for the first time in my life one of 

 those remarkable political processions with which Americans 

 amuse themselves as the time for a presidential election 

 draws near. Before me were passing a number of men and 

 boya on horseback, bearing torches, and occasionally giving 

 vent to that singular noise — something between a .squeak 

 and a catcall — which does duty in America for a hurrah. 

 I was rather wearied with the noise and turmoil, and had 

 ceased to pay attention to the proceedings. Suddenly a 

 band of men forming what they call in America a "shot- 

 gun brigade," came along, and as they passed my house 

 (which my American kinsfolk, who have strong political 

 sympathies, had illuminated), they fired several volleys, 

 which roused me from my reverie. Suddenly it appeared 

 to me that at some remote time — thousands of years ago — 

 all that was then passing had been experienced before. The 

 same procession in every detail had passed before me, lit up 

 by the same glow from an illuminated house behind ; my 

 wife and children had at that remote time stood beside me 

 as they stood beside me now. Persons whose acquaintance 

 I had only made a few weeks before were there then — 

 thousands of years ago — even as nnm : and stranger still, if 

 the matter be thought of a little, I had had the same views 

 about the events in progress and the persons standing by 

 me, then as at the moment of time when this sentiment of 

 pre-existence took possession of my mind. 



No one who has ever seen an American procession, espe- 

 cially in the Far West, will for a moment imagine that I 

 Was deceived by the remembrance of some procession I had 

 seen in England, for there is no resemblance — especially in 

 the matter of that most objectionable " shot-gun brigade," 

 at the thought of which my ears still tingle. Then I have 

 seen no torchlight procession since I was a boy, and when 

 I watched such a procession as a boy I had not, to the best 

 of my recollection, au American lady — my wife — beside 

 me, nor children of my own around me, nor assuredly was 

 a boy of mine disporting himself, as on this occasion, with 

 an American torch (quite unlike our English ones). Yet, 

 again, I rather enjoyed the noise and confusion of the 

 English procession, being but a boy myself, and therefore 

 necessarily in the savage stage of existence. I certainly 

 had not then the idea which filled my mind at the moment 

 when "the sentiment of preexistence ' came upon me, that 

 all such demonstrations — all waving of lights, and yelling 

 of\shouts, and beating of drums, and firing of guns — are fit 

 Only for people passing through the savage stage of their 

 I existence, whether as individuals or as a nation. Yet 

 everything belonging to the scene before me, and everything 

 belonging to my own conscious individuality at the moment, 

 was presented as part of an experience belonging to an 

 indefinitely remote past, 

 i •! rl know of no explanation of this sentiment of pre- 

 ■ existence which has the least semblance of fitness to 

 account for the phenomena but that which Dr. Wigan has 

 advanced. He notes first, what I believe is in the expe- 

 rience of all, that " the delusion occurs only when the 

 mind has been exhausted by excitement, or is from in- 

 disposition or any other cause languid. The persuasion of 



the scene being a repetition, comes on when tlie attention 

 has been roused by some accidental circumstance, and we 

 become as the phrase is ' wide awake.' " " I believe the 

 explanation to be this," he proceeds : " only one brain has 

 been used in the immediately preceding part of the scene, 

 — the other brain has been asleep, or in an analogous state 

 nearly approaching it. When the attention of both brains 

 is roused to the topic, there is the same vague consciousness 

 that the ideas have passed through the mind before, which 

 takes place on reperusing the page we had read while 

 thinking on some other subject. The ideas Itave passed 

 through the mind before, and as there was not sufficient 

 consciousness to fix them in the memory without a renewal, 

 we have no means of knowing the length of time that had 

 elapsed between the faint impression received by the single 

 brain, and the distinct impression received by the double 

 brain. It may seem to have been many years." In my 

 own case it invariably seems to exceed enormously the 

 whole of my past life. 



Dr. Wigan gives an example in his own experience 

 which is akin in some respects to the one I have just 

 cited, especially in being inconsistent with all explana- 

 tions which have been advanced respecting this interesting 

 mental phenomenon, and so far as I can see, with ary con- 

 ceivable explanation, other than that which regards the 

 phenomenon as depending on the duality of the brain. 

 He was present at the funeral of the Princess Charlotte, 

 an occasion of so remarkable a kind (if we consider the 

 circumstances attending that Princess's death, and the 

 feelings excited by the event) that assuredly none will 

 suppose he had ever had a similar experience: — "I had 

 been standing four hours," he says, "and on taking my 

 place by the side of the coffin, in St. George's Chapel, was 

 only prevented from fainting by the interest of the scene. 

 All that our truncated ceremonies could bestow of pomp 

 was there, and the exquisite music produced a sort of 

 hallucination. Suddenly, after the pathetic ' Miserere ' 

 of Mozart, the music ceased, and there was an absolute 

 silence. The coffin, which was placed on a kind of altar 

 covered with black cloth (united to the black cloth which 

 covered the pavement), sank down so slowly through the 

 floor, that it was only in measuring its progress by some 

 brilliant object beyond it that any motion could be per- 

 ceived. I had fallen into a sort of torpid reverie, when I 

 was recalled to consciousness by a paroxysm of violent 

 grief on the part of the bereaved husband, as his eye 

 suddenly caught the coffin sinking into its black grave, 

 formed by the inverted covering of the altar. In an instant 

 I felt not merely an impression, but a conviction, that I 

 had seen the whole scene before on some former occasion, 

 and had heard even the very words addressed to myself by 

 Sir Greorge Nay lor." 



(To he eontinned.) 



RAMBLES WITH A HAMMER. 



By W. Jerome Harrison, F.G.S. 



GEOLOGY OF CRICCIETH AND PWLLHELI (continued). 



III. 



THE CAMBRIAN FOE MATION.— Strata of Cam- 

 brian ace— the first rocks which yield us evidences of 

 life in the form of fossils — occur in the east and in the west 

 of our district. In the west of Carnarvonshire the lowest 

 Cambrian beds there exposed — the Lingula Flags — form 

 the promontory which extends southward of Abersoch and 

 Llanengan. Taking the mail-car from PwUheli to the 



