208 MEMOIR OF AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN. 



1849. Now all this taking place at twenty minutes after ten, was 



told to me at a quarter to eleven. When I heard that I was to 

 have such an account given, I only said, ' Tell me all of it, and I 

 will not say one word ; ' and I assure you that during the narration 

 I took the most especial care not to utter one syllable. For 

 instance, when the wine and water and biscuits came up, my 

 wife, perfectly satisfied that it must have been coffee, told me how 

 the girl persisted, and enlarged on it as a failure, giving parallel 

 instances of cases in which the clairvoyants had been right in all 

 things but one. All this I heard without any interruption. Now 

 that the things happened to me as I have described at twenty 

 minutes after ten, and were described to me as above at a 

 quarter to eleven, I could make oath. The curtains I ascertained 

 next day, for I had not noticed them. When my wife came to 

 see the room, she instantly recognised a door, which she had 

 forgotten in her narration. 



All this is no secret. You may tell whom you like, and give 

 my name. What do you make of it ? Will the never-failing 

 doctrine of coincidence explain it ? 



I find that there are people who think that the house in the 

 garden, the number of doors on the landing, the two gentlemen 

 beside myself, and ladies, the red and white curtains, the 

 singularity of the loops, the two so-called pianos, the lady joining 

 myself and one old gentleman apart from the rest, the wine, water, 

 and biscuits, the truth of the whole and the absence of any- 

 thing false, are all things that may reasonably enough arise 

 by coincidence, when the daughter of a poor charwoman 

 (twelve years old 1 ) undertakes to tell a lady all about where 

 her husband is dining, in a house where neither has ever 

 been. 



I have seen other things since, and heard many more ; but 

 this is my chief personal knowledge of the subject. 



Yours very sincerely, 



A. DE MosGAN. 2 



1 She was turned eleven in her twelfth year. 



2 I heard all about the house and furniture, &c. , before the girl 

 told me what was going on. Mr. De Morgan has represented it to 

 Mr. Heald as occurring after, and it is quite possible that I told 

 him in this order. But I never heard of this letter till after his death. 

 S. E. DE M. 



