Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/364

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344
On Clairvoyance and Prevision

been a robbery in the farmyard, and some stolen ducks had been found buried in the sand, with their heads protruding, in the very spot where I had seen the same. The farm was underlet, and I had not even any interest in the ducks to carry my thoughts towards them under the nefarious treatment they received.

"R. H. Busk."

Miss Busk's sister, Mrs. Pitt Byrne, who was present when this dream was told, corroborates as follows:

"I distinctly remember, and have often since spoken of, the circumstance of Miss R. H. Bush's relating to me her dream of ducks buried in the wood, before the bailiff who reported the incident came up to town.

"J.Pitt Byrne."

Impressions of this type are, however, very rare, and their occurrence is reported, so far as I am aware, only in dreams. It would not be safe, therefore, to build any hypothesis on such slender support. Moreover, improbable though the conception may appear of a malefactor revealing telepathically his own misdeed to any of those concerned, the remarkable dream connected with the death of W. Terriss, which is given below, would certainly seem to indicate such a possibility.

The evidence for precognition is at first sight, perhaps, more impressive than that for clairvoyance. But a little consideration will show us that it is as yet wholly inadequate to justify the tremendous assumptions implied in the hypothesis of foreknowledge of the future. Telepathy, as already indicated, does not seem necessarily to