Visionaries 121
mistook them for reality, although -they were very - distinct. This is quite a typical case, similar in- most respects to many others that I have.’
A notable proportion of sane persons have had not only visions, but actual hallucinations of sight, sound, or other sense, at one or more periods of their lives. I have a considerable packet of -instances contributed by my personal friends, besides a large number communicated to -me by other correspondents. One lady, a distinguished authoress, who was at the time a little fidgeted, but in no way over wrought or ill, assured me that she once saw the principal character of one of her novels glide ‘through the door straight up to’ her. It was about the size of a large doll, and it disappeared as suddenly as it came. Another lady, the daughter of an eminent musician, often imagines she’ hears her father playing. The day she told me of it the incident had again occurred. She was sitting in her room with her maid, and she asked the maid to open the door that she might hear the music better. The moment the maid got up the hallucination disappeared. Again, another lady, apparently in vigorous health, and belonging to a vigorous family, told me that during some past months she had been plagued by voices. The words were at first simple nonsense; then the word “pray” was frequently repeated; this was followed by some more or less coherent sentences of little import, and finally the voices left her. In short, the familiar hallucinations of the insane are to be-met with far more frequently than is commonly supposed, among people moving in society and in good working health.
I have now nearly done with my summary of facts; it remains to make a few comments on them.
The weirdness of visions lies in their sudden appearance in their vividness while present, and in their sudden departure. An incident in the Zoological Gardens struck me as a helpful simile. I happened to walk to’ the seal-pond at a moment when a sheen rested on the unbroken surface of the water. After waiting a while I became suddenly aware of the head of a seal, black, conspicuous,
[1] See some curious correspondence on this subject in the St. James Gazette, Feb. 10, 15, and 20, 1882.
