The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1908-07-15

ed to water; that he seemed to be in
a singular and indescribable vessel.
but always the same, and that he was
moving with great rapidity toward a
dark and indefinite shore; that he
had had this singular dream preced-
| ing the firing on Sumter, the battles
of Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg,
Stone River, Vicksburg, etc. General
Grant answered with some emphasis
and asperity that Stone River was no
victory-that a few such victories
would have ruined the country, and
he knew of no important results
from it. The President said that per-
haps he should not altogether agree
with him, but whateve' might be the
facts his singular dream preceded
that fight. Victory did not always
follow the dream, but the event and
results were very important. Great
events did indeed follow. Within a
few hours the man who narrated his
dream was assassinated, and the
murder which closed forever his
earthly career affected for years. and
perhaps forever, the welfare of the
country.
In this example 1t is not difficult
to account for the modus operandi of
the presentiment. From the very be-
| ginning of his Presidency Mr.. Lin
coin had been constantly subjected
to the threats of his enemies and the
warnings of his friends. The threats
came in every form; his mail was in
tested with brutal and vulgar mem
aces, most anonymous. The warn
ings were not less numerous. He
| knew, indeed, that indictments to
| murder him were not uncommon.
What wonder. then, that his dreams
should be haunted by gloomy pic
lures, generally interpreted as fore
bodings of death.
There are also presentiments of
good, but we hear less of them, be-
cause, as rule, they are disappoint-
ed. The reader will find no difficulty
to charge the memory with abundant
proofs of the prevalence but also the
unreliability of such presentiments.
| Who has not some time In his life
felt, without any apparent cause,
arise in his heart hope bordering
on conviction of getting rich by one
of those sudden fortunes that aston
ish the world, or of obtaining the po-
sition craved for, or having his salary
raised by his employer, or similar
foolish hopes, to be doomed to disap-
pointment? To give only one histor-
ical example of a good though unful-
filled presentiment: The great Tu-
renne exclaimed: II do not mean to
be killed to-day" but few moments
afterward he was struck down by
cannon ball.
Supposing, then the occurrence Of
| presentiments be firmly established
and the cases as adduced by the au-
thors proven beyond doubt, we can
still discount by good deal the part
played by divination and the super
natural in the phenomenon. Thus,
with regard to the extraordinary
tales told of presentiments on the eve
of battle, it is not wonderful at all
that soldiers and sailors. proverbially
superstitious, should sometimes in
moments of depression conclude that
they would die in the next battle,
and that under the given circum-
stances their presentiment should
sometimes also happen to come true.
Nor does the explanation of numer-
| al fata NJ ir,n &c
the intervention Of some so far un-
discovered mysterious power and fac
ulty of the mind. The human mind
is a strange machine, and when ex-
cited by intense anxiety and wound
up to its highest pitch by despair or
fear it is no hard matter to conjure
up those signs and tokens" which
are now considered as sure and fatal
representations of the worst human
calamities. In such state the Or
dering of requiem by a stranger
may easily become to Mozart an
omen of sufficient magnitude to cause
his dissolution. And as evil over
takes the majority of mankind, such
| general forebodings are pretty cer-
tain of fulfilment. And it may also
be urged that a person thus fatally
| possessed may become so careless os
existence as thereby to insure his de-
struction.
However this be. the divination of
future events, in ones own or anoth
er's life, that makes some PRESENT.
ments so remarkable Is ultimately
nothing but the result of instructive
reasoning applied to probable events,
a deduction drawn from known facts.
from the motives to be feared or
hoped for. Some temperaments, es-
pecially among women, are capable
of discerning the slightest indications
that would pass unnoticed by others.
Thus. in great number of cases the
presentiment is but foresight based
upon a nice intuition of the circum-
stances; what is taken for an internal
voice is bat well done calculation.
The other cases must be ranged
among the superstitions. The great
est calamities which have befallen
most persons have come without any