III.

It It will be said by some of those who will not give me the lie as to the accuracy of the foregoing narrative, that it [unclear: lies] not carry us beyond telepathy from the living. This be admitted if telepathy from the unconscious mind [unclear: as regarded] as an actual fact .In this case the [unclear: unconsious] mind telepathed mind what the conscious mind of the [unclear: transmitter] had entirely forgotten. The hypothesis of [unclear: telepathy] from the unconscious mind of the living can be [unclear: invorked] to account for almost any message said to be [unclear: transmitted] by the dead. But there is one class of messages [unclear: for] which telepathy from incarnate minds, [unclear: conscious] or un-conscious cannot account. That is the class of messages [unclear: which] relate neither to past nor present events, but which [unclear: foretell] an event or events which have still to happen.

Julia, on the very day on which she gave me the test [unclear: messages] recorded above, made a prediction, which was [unclear: given] me not really as a prediction but as a friendly [unclear: warning] intended to save another friend from making [unclear: engagements] which she would not be able to keep, as a certain [unclear: time] she would be three thousand miles away in England, [unclear: My] friend laughed the warning to scorn. The prediction [unclear: was] twice repeated, and both times treated with contempt. [unclear: Engagements] were entered into which, when the time came, [unclear: had] to be cancelled, because my friend found it necessary [unclear: go to] the distant place which Julia had named, and as [unclear: alia] had predicted.

It will be objected that the prophecy in this case may [unclear: have] helped to bring about its own fulfilment. Let us [unclear: ad-it] that for the sake of argument. The same objection [unclear: cannot] be urged against the next item of evidence I am [unclear: out to] produce. Some years ago I has in my [unclear: employmenty] a lady of remarkable talent, but of a very uncertain [unclear: as per] and of anything but robust health. She became so [unclear: difficult] that one January I was seriously thinking of part-with her, when Julia wrote with my hand, "Be very patient with E. M.; she is coming over to our side before the end of the year." I was rather startled, for there was nothing to make me think that she was likely to die. I said nothing about the message, and continued her in my employ. It was, I think, about January 15th or 16th when the warning was given.

It was repeated in February, March, April, May, and June, each time passage being written as a kind of re minder in the body of a longer communication about other matters. "Remember, E. M. is going to pass over before the end of the year." In July E. M. inadvertently swallowed a tack. It lodged in her appendix, and she became dangerously ill. The two doctors by whom she was attended did not expect her to recover. When Julia was writing with my hand, I remarked, "I suppose this is what you foresaw when you predicted E. M. would pass over." To my infinite surprise she wrote, "No: she will get better of this, but all the same she will pass over before the year is out." E. M. did recover suddenly, to the amazement of the doctors, and was soon doing her usual work. In August, in September, in October, and in November the warning of her approaching death was each month communicated through my hand. In December E. M. fell ill with influenza. "So it was this," I remarked to Julia, "that you foresaw." Again I was destined to be surprised, for Julia wrote, "No; she will not come over here naturally. But she will come before the year is out." I was alarmed, but I was told I could not prevent it. Christmas came. E. M. was very ill. But the old year passed, and she was still alive. "You see you were wrong," I said to Julia, "E. M. is still alive." Julia replied, "I may be a few days out. but what I said is true."

About January 10th Julia wrote to me, "You are going to see E. M. to morrow. Bid her farewell. Make all necessary arrangements. You will never see her again on earth." I went to see her. She was feverish, coughed badly, and was expecting to be removed to a nursing hospital, where she could receive better attention. All the time I was with her she talked of what she was going to do to carry out her work. When I bade her good-bye I wondered if Julia was not mistaken.

Two days after I received a telegram informing me that E. M. had thrown herself out of a four-storey window in delirium, and had been picked up dead. It was within a day or two of the end of the twelve months since the first warning was given.

This narrative can be proved by the manuscript of the original messages and by the signed statement of my two secretaries, to whom, under the seal of secrecy, I communicated the warnings of Julia. No better substantiated case of prevision written down at the time, and that not once but twelve times, is on record. However you may account for it, telepathy, conscious or unconscious, breaks down here.