Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, First Series
History
Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, First Series
Atlantic Coast (Ireland) -- Social life and customs; Folklore -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs
NOTE 12. It is almost unthinkable to Lady Gregory and myself, who
know Mrs. Sheridan, that she can ever have seen a drawbridge in
a picture or heard one spoken of. Nor does this instance stand
alone. I have had in my own family what seemed the accurate calling
up of an unknown past but failing a link of difficult evidence
still unfound, coincidence, though exceedingly unlikely, is still
a possible explanation. I have come upon a number of other cases
which are, though no one case is decisive, a powerful argument taken
altogether. In _The Adventure_ (MacMillan), an elaborate vision
of this kind is recorded in detail and, accepting the record as
accurate, the verification is complete. Two ladies found themselves
in the garden of the Petit Trianon in the midst of what seemed to
be the court of Marie Antoinette, in just the same sudden way in
which some countryman finds himself among ladies and gentlemen
dressed in what seem the clothes of a long passed time. The record
purports to have been made in November and December 1901, whereas the
vision occurred in August. This lapse of time does not seem to me
to destroy the value of the evidence, if the record was made before
its corroboration by long and difficult research.[2] Accepting the
good faith of the narrators, both well-known women and of established
character, its evidence for some more obscure cause than unconscious
memory can only be weakened by the discovery in some book or magazine
accessible to the visionaries before their visit to the Trianon,
of historical information on such minute points as the dress Marie
Antoinette wore in a particular month, and the position of ornamental
buildings and rock work not now in existence. There is a great mass
of similar evidence in Denton's _Soul of Things_ though its value is
weakened by his not sufficiently allowing for thought transference
from his own mind to that of his sensitives.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account