The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)James, William
Science
The Principles of Psychology, Volume 2 (of 2)
James, William
Psychology
"One night in March 1873 or '74, I cannot recollect which year, I
was attending on the sick-bed of my mother. About eight o'clock in
the evening I went into the dining-room to fix a cup of tea, and on
turning from the sideboard to the table, on the other side of the
table before the fire, which was burning brightly, as was also the
gas, I saw standing with his hand clasped to his side in true military
fashion a soldier of about thirty years of age, with dark, piercing
eyes looking directly into mine. He wore a small cap with standing
feather; his costume was also of a soldierly style. He did not strike
me as being a spirit, ghost, or anything uncanny, only a living man;
but after gazing for fully a minute I realized that it was nothing
of earth, for he neither moved his eyes nor his body, and in looking
closely I could see the fire beyond. I was of course startled, and yet
did not run out of the room. I felt stunned. I walked out rapidly,
however, and turning to the servant in the hall asked her if she saw
anything. She said not. I went into my mother's room and remained
talking for about an hour, but never mentioned the above subject for
fear of exciting her, and finally forgot it altogether, returning to
the dining-room, still in forgetfulness of what had occurred, but
repeating, as above, the turning from sideboard to table in act of
preparing more tea. I looked casually towards the fire, and there I
saw the soldier again. This time I was entirely alarmed, and fled from
the room in haste. I called to my father, but when he came he saw
nothing."
Sometimes more than one sense is affected. The following is a case:
"In response to your request to write out my experience of Oct. 30,
1886, I will inflict on you a letter.
"On the day above mentioned, Oct. 30, 1886, I was in ----, where I
was teaching. I had performed my regular routine work for the day,
and was sitting in my room working out trigonometrical formulæ. I
was expecting every day to hear of the confinement of my wife, and
naturally my thoughts for some time had been more or less with her.
She was, by the way, in B----, some fifty miles from me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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