The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1901-05-26
LEE MYsrERY 81 MEMoRY.


Sir Walter Scott notes in his diary that
/ one day. as he was sitting al dinner. after
a hard days work, he was strangely
haunted by what he was disposed 70
call sense OF preexisIencs- By a con-
fused idea that nothing that passed was
said for the nrst tlme-that the same top
les mad been discussed, and the same
I persons had stated the same opinions on
them And the sensation was 50 strong
as to make him feel gloomy and out ef
spirits. Yet the feeling can hardly have
/ been altogether 2 new experience, Tor
fifteen years previously he had made
artistic use OF il IN Guy Man1erings'
I when BerUram returned 70 what tai
though he did not then know it, was the
place OF his birth. is made 70 say: ~ ~
+ IS IL that some scenes awaken thoughts
( which belong. as II were, 10 dreams Of
( early and snadowy receiIectioEs, such as
( my old Brahmin 8Ioonshee would have
4 ascribed 10 & state Of preexistence2 How
often do we ind ourselves in society
which we have never before met. and
I yet feel impressed with a mysterious and
I ill-denned consciousness that neither the
scene, the speakers, nor the subject are
entirely new: nay. feel as II we could
anticipate the part of the conversation
which has not yet taken place From
the time OF Plato downward philosophers
have remarked upon this strange, obscure,
I evanescent feeling and doubtless many
+ persons, with no pretensions to philoso-
1 ply, have occasionally been perpIexed by
( an occurrence Of the. somewhat uncanny
j experience. Tennyson makes effective use
Of it as a smile in one of his poems:
/ As when with downcast eyes we muse
and brood,
And ebb into a former life. or seem
To lapse far back in a confused dream
/ To states OF mystical similitude;
Z If one bur Snpa1<S hens efirS his
Ever the wonder waxeth more and
more,
So that we say. An this hath been be-
fore;
All this hath been. I know not when or
where "
And such writer's as Glanvil. Henry
Lore, and the Cambridge Platonists
have instanced It, together with certain
other obscure mental phenomena, as an
indication Of the souls preeXistence.
( Wordsworth, too, in his great ode in
Guided these ''shadowy recollections
I among the instances of early childhood
which he held to be limitations of I'M
mortality. Regarding this explanation.
/ there is, Of course, room for doubt; but
| Of the existence. and even prevalence.
Of the feeling there is abundant evil
dence. Rousseau relates, in his Con
! LESSONS" that at a fete champetre, in
the company of Madame de Warenss at
a place which he had not previously seen.
'sall that we said and did that day, all
/ the objects which struck me, recalled 10
me a kind of dream which I had at
/ Annecy seven or eight years before, and
of which I have given an account in
/ its place. The relations were SO striking -
continues this ultra-sentimental philoso-
pher, that in thinking OF them could
not refrain from tears
Many recent cases of this peculiar affec-
( tion-to which modern psychologists have
given the name OF paramnesia-have
come under the notice OF medical men.
/ M. Lalande quotes patient who
! describes his unpleasant experience Of
/ it as follows: While reading a novel in
the train, 1 was suddenly seized with
the idea that 1 had already read it. and
at the same instant there arose IN my
mind such a whirlwind Of memories and
images that I thought was going mad.
This endured tor five minutes, during
which l suffered horribly" Another
French writer gives an instance Of a
student undergoing his viva-voce exami-
nation fer his bachelors degree, who
stated that it suddenly seemed 10 him
that he had heard the same questions
/ propounded by the same professor, speak
ing in the same room, and in the same
voice. His own answers appeared 10
Z
A similar. though much worse case was
/ recorded by Dr.. Pick in 1876. A young
man, thirty-two years of age. developed
this paramnesia in so surprising a de-
gree that If he was present at a social
gathering. if he visited any place what
ever, if he met stranger, the incident.
with all the attendant circumstances.
appeared 50 familiar that he was con-
WINGED Of having the same impression be-
fore. OF having been surrounded by the
same persons or the same objects, under
the same sky, and in the same state of
weather. If he undertook any new oc-
cupation, he seemed to have gone through
with II at some previous time, and under
the same conditions" DR. Wigan. who
wrote an ingenious book. TO prove what
he called the Duality Of the Mind" IN
1874, supplies an instance from his own
experience. he had obtained permission
to be present al the funeral Of the Prime
ess Charlotte as one OF the Lord Cham
berlains STAFF. Several disturbed nights
Immediately previous to the ceremony
had made him irritable and hystericaI,
he says. and the impossibiity Of getting
any food IN Windsor on the day added
to his nervous exhaustion. he stood for
four hours, and as the coffin was being
lowered into the grave. ne had what he
describes as no mere impression. but an
instant conviction that he had seen the
whole scene before. had heard the music,
and even the very words that were aG-
dressed TO him by Sir George Naylor.
He accounts for the phenomenon accord
ing 10 his pet theory that We have two
brains. or at least each Of the two hem
fspheres Of the brain has its own distinct
power and action, and sometimes acts
Independently OF the other.
Il believe the explanation 20 be this"
he says. only one brain has been used
In hn frr7rr1 af1f frlEr
scene; the ether brain has been asleep
or IN an analogous state nearly approach
ing fl. When the attention % both brains
IS reused 10 the topic there Is the same
vague consciousness that the ideas have
passed through the mind before which
takes place on re-perusing the page 1e
have read while thinking on some other
subject The ideas have passed through
the brain before. and as there was not
sufficient consciousness to TX them in
the memory without q renewal, we have
no means OF knowing the length q time
that had elapsed between the faint Inn
precision received by the single brein and
the distinct impression received by the
double brain Modern psychologists have
rejected Or. Wigan's theory. but as yet
have themselves altogether faiied 70
supply anything Ike q satisfactory eN-
PLANTATION OF the phenomena
From all that We know, q seems ex-
tremely probable that no impression once
made on the braIn Is absolutely lost
WHIST we lose IS the power Of recollect-
Ing Il Many a man il danger n drown
lag, for instance has afterwards de-
clared thst in the feT minures that
elapsed before his rescue lie saw tne
whole 0f his forgotten past life. ard
doubtless any impression made - tne
earliest DAYS Of childhood mignt ne more
or less distinctly revived hy tne apfilca-
ton o. the appropriate stimulus =
story - the preris71s - ctF in
q dream. which was Esiate1 come tine