THE PERCEPTION OF THINGS. 119 



mulag. I was expecting every day to hear of the confinement of my wife, 

 and naturally my thoughts for some time haa been more or less with 

 her. She was, by the way, in B , some fifty miles from me. 



** At the time, however, neither she nor the expected event was in my 

 mind ; as I said, I was working out trigonometrical formulae, and I had 

 been working on trigonometry the entire evening. About eleven 

 o'clock, as I sat there buried in sines, cosines, tangents, cotangents, 

 secants, and cosecants, I felt very distinctly upon my left shoulder a 

 touch, and a slight shake, as if somebody had tried to attract my at- 

 tention by other means and had failed. Without rising I turned my 

 head, and there between me and the door stood my wife, dressed exactly 

 as I last saw her, some five weeks before. As I turned she said : ' It 

 is a little Herman ; be has come.' Something more was said, but this 

 is the only sentence i can recall. To make sure that I was not asleep 

 and dreaming, I rose from the chair, pinched myself and walked toward 

 the figure, which disappeared immediately as I rose. I can give no in- 

 formation as to the length of time occupied by this episode, but I know 

 I was awake, in my usual good health. The touch was very distinct, 

 the figure was absolutely perfect, stood about three feet from the door, 

 which was closed, and had not been opened during the evening. The 

 sound of the voice was unmistakable, and I should have recognized it as 

 my wife's voice even if I had not turned and had not seen the figure 

 at all. The tone was conversational, just as if she would have said 

 the same words had she been actually standing there. 



"In regard to mj'self, I would say, as I have already intimated, I was 

 in my usual good health ; I had not been sick before, nor was I after 

 the occurrence, not so much as a headache having afflicted me. 



" Shortly after the experience above described, I retired for the night 

 and, as I usually do, slept quietly until morning. I did not speculate 

 particularly about the strange appearance of the night before, and 

 though I thought of it some, I did not tell anybody. The following 

 morning I rose, not conscious of having dreamed anything, but I was 

 very fii'mly impressed with the idea that there was something for me at 

 the telegraph-office. I tried to throw oft' the impression, for so far as I 

 knew there was no reason for it. Having nothing to do, I went out for 

 a walk ; and to help throw off' the impression above noted, I walked 

 away from the telegraph-office. As I proceeded, however, the impi'es- 

 sion became a conviction, and I actually turned about and went to the 

 very place I had resolved not to visit, the telegraph-office. The first 

 person I saw on arriving at said office was the telegraph-operator, who 

 being on terms of intimacy with me, remarked : ' Hello, papa, I've got 

 a telegram for you.' The telegram announced the birth of a boy, 

 weighing nine potinds, and that all were doing well. Now, then, I have 

 no theory at all about the events narrated above ; I never had any such 

 experience before nor since ; I am no believer in spiritualism, am not in 

 the least superstitious, know very little about ' thought-transference,' 



