The Portland daily press., 1881-02-01
The Realm of Visions.
Lord Brougham's Ghost Story and It's
Sequel.
(From the Cincinnati aazette.l

ltrom the Cincinnati Gazette
The ''last man" compact entered into by
DIR. Waiter and six friends In 1882 was des-
cribed in Fridays Gazette. The seven dined
together annually for seven years, then six,
then five, and so on, until as the only survivor
the doctor broke open the cabinet in which
bottle of wine had been placed, ate his dinner
alone and drank the wine. So the account
runs, but we have heard the statement that
the wine was found to be spoiled. However
this may be, the agreement was weird one,
and the doctors nerves must have been
strong to enable hin to keep up till his own
death the yearly solitary feast. Even those
not inclined to superstition would be likely to
feel that they were surrounded by unseen
presences. Yet the compact above mentioned
was less uncanny and less strange in its de-
velopments than one made by that hard-head-
ed Scotchman, Lord Brougham.
In his Life and Times, written by himself,
he records under date of December 10, 1899.
being then on journey in Sweden and 81
years of age, the following:
At in the morning, arriving at o decent
inn, we decided to stop for the night, and
found couple of comfortable rooms. Tired
with the cold of yesterday, 1 was glad to take
advantage Of a hot bath before turned in
But here a most remarkable thing happened
to ms-so remarkable that / must tell the
story from the beginning. After I left the
high school went with c., my most inti-
mate friend, to attend the classes in the uni
versity. There was no divinity class, but we
frequently. in dhs walks, discussed -ahd spec
ulated on many grave SUBJECTS among others
on the immortality of the soul, and on q fu-
ture state. This question, and the possibility,
will not say of ghosts walking, but OF the
dead appearing to the living, were subject Of
much speculation; and we actually committed
the folly Of drawing up an agreement, written
with our blood, to the effect that whichever Of
us died the first should appear to the other,
and thus solve any doubts we had entertained
of the life after DEATH After we had finished
having got an appointment there in the civil
service. He seldom wrote to mo, and after
the lapse of a few years had almost forgotten
him; moreover his family having little con-
nection with Edinburgh, I seldom saw or
heard anything of them, or of him through
them, so that all the old schoolboy intimacy
had died out, and had nearly forgotten his
existence. had taken, as I have said,
warm bath, and while lying in 1t and enjoying
the comfort of the heat after the freezing
had undergone, I turned my head around,
looking toward the chair on which 1 had de-
posted my clothes, as L was about to get up
out of the bath. On the chair sat G. looking
calmly at me. How got out of the bath
know not, but on recovering my senses 1
found myself sprawling on the floor The ap-
partition, or whatever IL was, that had taken
the likeness of G. had disappeared. The WIS.,
ion produced such shock that had no in
cllnation to talk about it or to speak about it
even to Stuart; but the impression it made
upon me was too vivid to be easily forgotten,
and so strongly was affected by it that have
written down the whole history, with the
date, 18th of December, and all the particu-
lars as they are now fresh before me. No
doubt had fallen asleep and the appearance
presented SO distinctly to my eyes was dream,
cannot for moment doubt; yet for years
had no communication with G., nor had
there been anything to recall him TO my recol-
lection; nothing had taken place during our
Swedish travels either connected with G.. or
with India; or with anything relating to Linn
or to any member OF his family.i 1 recollected
quickly enough our old discussions, and the
bargain we had made. could not discharge
from my mind the impression that G.. must
have died, and that his appearance to me was
70 DC received We 10 oy me as proof OF a future
the whole was dream, and so painfully
vivid and so unfading was the impression that
l could not bring myself to talk of it or to
make the slightest allusion to 1t.
These were Broughams Immediate impress
sions. Nearly SO years later-October 16, 1852,
-he says:
have just been copying out from my jour
nal the account of this strange dream. Ger
tissima mortes image! And now to finish the
story begun above 60 years since. Soon after
my return to Edinburg there arrived letter
from India announcing G's death, and sta
ting that he had died on the 10Th of Decem-
berI Singular coincidence! Yet when one
reflects on the vast number of dreams which
night after night pass through our brains, the
number Of condolences between the vision
and the event are perhaps fewer and less re-
markable than fair calculation of chances
would warrant us to expect
He continues.to argue in this strain, and
tells story of a man who, on a wager went
into a tomb at night and drove nail into q
dead woman's coffin. His friends waited long
for him. and finally went after him and found
him in a fainting fit. On recovery, he in
sisted that the corpse had pulled him down.
Examination revealed the fact that he had
nailed the skirt of his coat to the coffin. He
does not seem to have been perfectly satisfied
with his reasoning, and we think it will hard
ly appear demonstrative to the reader, what
ever he may think Of the apparition 1t is
begging the question to assume that the
specter was seen in dream, and the exact
fulfllment of peculiar contract does not
come within the chances of fulfillment which
belong to the visions of ordinary sleep. As
suming the truthfulness Of the narrator, of
which there can be no doubt, his experience
must be added to a class of phenomena Of
which there have been many authenticated
examples, but no adequate explanations