Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/244

224 In the following case the hypothesis of the revival in dream of a latent impression involves perhaps a higher degree of improbability.

Miss Whiting, the narrator, had been an intimate friend of Kate Field, the well-known American journalist, and was in 1899 bringing out a life of her deceased friend. Miss Whiting believes that she has frequently held communication with the spirit of Kate Field.

No. 50. From 8th August, 1899.

Between 2 and 3, August 4th, Kate wakened me, speaking to me excitedly about a "letter of Lowell's" to her. All was confused and rapid, but at last I caught clearly: "In K. F.'s W.—in my Washington, Lilian; look in my Washington." Then I vaguely recalled that Lowell had written her a letter in re International Copyright, which she had published in her journal, and which I had already included in her biography, so I replied to her: "Yes, darling, I know—the letter is in the book. It 's all right."

Again an excited and rapid speaking, of which I only caught here and there a word, but—partly from impression, and almost impulsion—I rose, went out into my parlour, turned on the electric light,and took the five bound volumes of her K. F.'s W. down from my shelves. Half automatically I seemed to be guided (for I had totally forgotten its existence) to a letter that Lowell wrote to her in 1879, when he was American Minister to Spain—writing from Madrid, and she in London—and which, on his death, she had published in her Washington.

[Miss Whiting explains that the letter was of considerable literary interest, and then adds:] As the original letter was not among Miss Field's MSS., and as I had totally forgotten it (I don't, even now, recall seeing it, though I must have at the