Belgian essays (French) -- Translations into English; Death
I repeat, I am aware that, in the case of these occurrences and those
which resemble them, it is possible once again to invoke the theory of
coincidence. It will be contended that there are probably a thousand
predictions of this kind which are never talked about, because they were
not fulfilled, whereas, if one of them is accomplished, which is bound by
the law of probabilities to happen some day or other, the astonishment
is general and free rein is given to the imagination. This is true;
nevertheless, it is well to enquire whether these predictions are as
frequent as is loosely stated. In the matter of those which concern
the conscription-drawings, for instance, I have had the opportunity of
interrogating more than one constant witness of these little dramas of
fate; and all admitted that, on the whole, they are much rarer than one
would believe. Next, we must not forget that there can be no question
here of scientific proofs. We are in the midst of a slippery and nebulous
region, where we would not dare to risk a step if we were not allowing
ourselves to be guided by our feelings rather than by certainties which
we are not forbidden to hope for, but which are not yet in sight.
8
We will abridge our subject still further, referring readers who wish to
know the details to the originals, lest we should never have done; or
rather, instead of attempting an abridgment, which would still be too
long, so plentiful are the materials, we will content ourselves with
enumerating a few instances, all taken from Bozzano’s _Des Phénomènes
prémonitoires_. We read there of a funeral procession seen on a high-road
several days before it actually passed that way; or, again, of a young
mechanic who, in the beginning of November, dreamt that he came home at
half-past five in the afternoon and saw his sister’s little girl run
over by a tram-car while crossing the street in front of the house. He
told his dream, in great distress; and, on the 13th of the same month,
in spite of all the precautions that had been taken, the child was run
over by the tram-car and killed at the hour named. We find the ghost,
the phantom animal or the mysterious noise which, in certain families,
is the traditional herald of a death or of an imminent catastrophe. We
find the celebrated vision which the painter Segantini had thirteen days
before his decease, every detail of which remained in his mind and was
represented in his last picture, _Death_. We find the Messina disaster
clearly foreseen, twice over, by a little girl who perished under the
ruins of the ill-fated city; and we read of a dream which, three months
before the French invasion of Russia, foretold to Countess Toutschkoff
that her husband would fall at Borodino, a village so little known at the
time that those interested in the dream looked in vain for its name on
the maps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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