421 H. The following case is taken from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiv. p. 279. It comes from Sir Lawrence Jones, Bart.; the account having been written on the day of the incident.

Ventnor, March 2yd, 1891.

I was called at eight this morning, and my letters left outside the door. I fell asleep again, and had what seemed a long and troublesome dream about a cheque which I had to fill up and sign. At nine I awoke, with a vivid recollection of my dream, got up, opened a packet of letters forwarded from home, and found among them a registered letter containing a cheque for a large sum, which I had to sign as trustee. L. J. J.

N.B. - I had no reason to expect the receipt of the cheque. The dream was not in any way concerned with the real cheque, but was rather my ineffectual attempts to draw a cheque properly on a blank sheet of paper. But the coincidence was very remarkable.

Lady Jones writes: -

April 1st, 1893. I can entirely corroborate from my own memory the story of my husband's dream about the cheque. Evelyn M. Jones.

Sir Lawrence Jones writes later: -

Cranmer Hall, Fakenham, April 1st, 1893. I related my dream to Lady Jones immediately after opening my letter. This dream was unusually vivid, and the impression of it remained with me much longer than usual. I dream a good deal, but rarely remember anything except in the case of morning dreams, when I have woken early and gone to sleep again.

421 J. The next case (quoted from Proceedings S.P.R., vol. xiv. p. 280) rests on specially good evidence, since it was noted before verification, while the full account of it was written from notes made immediately after by Professor A. Alexander, of Rio Janeiro. He says, in sending the account: -

February 4th, 1896. My informant, Senhor Nascimento, is a life member of the "Society of Arts," and received his technical education in London.

RlO, February 3rd, 1896.

A recent case of apparent clairvoyance has been communicated to me by a Brazilian engineer, called José Custodio Fernandes do Nascimento, who is himself the percipient. I have been acquainted with this gentleman for several years, and know him to be a careful and trustworthy witness. It will be seen that he has enabled me also to give direct testimony to the care with which he has provided for proper evidence.

In thus proceeding, he endeavours to atone for former laxness, inasmuch as some seven or eight years ago he failed to take adequate note of a probably veridical dream, in which he seemed to be trying to escape with his family from the deck of a burning vessel, and to witness the jumping overboard of a man whose clothes had caught fire. A telegram from a northern Brazilian port subsequently gave the news that about that time fire had broken out on board a certain vessel, and that on the occasion some individual had in reality jumped into the sea, more or less in the manner perceived in the dream.

Shortly after three p.m. on Saturday, January nth, 1896, I met Senhor Nascimento in the Rua do Ouvidor in this city, and he at once gave me verbal particulars of a second experience of the kind, which he had had on that very date.

He stated that, as the result of slackness in his business, he had lately been straitened for want of means, and had felt this impecuniosity all the more that his eldest daughter is shortly to be married to the son of a Don J., a merchant resident in Montevideo.

On the preceding evening of the 10th, the young man J. came to visit his fiancée at the usual hour, and mentioned that a letter from his father was waiting for Senhor Nascimento in the Rua da Alfandega at the firm of Jorge Dias Brothers, the correspondents in Rio of Don J. He had not brought it himself, as it was to be delivered to Senhor Nascimento personally.

My informant awoke on the following morning at an early hour, and fell again into a state of slumber between five and six o'clock. He then dreamt that he had called at Dias Brothers, and that they handed him a present from Don J. of one conto of reis (about £40), which he was so glad to receive that he embraced the members of that firm with an effusion of tears. In the dream he seemed to count the money.

He rose with the conviction that his vision would be realised, although no ordinary reasons concurred to make him suppose that such would be the case. This belief led him to write down on a slip of paper (which is herewith enclosed) the following note: -

"Sonhei que ao ir receber a carta dos Senhores Jorge Dias estes me entregaram a somma de 1:000 $ 000 de reis, e que eu commovido abracei-os chorando." 11-1-96.

("I dreamt that on going to receive the letter from Senhores Jorge Dias, the latter delivered to me the sum of 1:000 $000 of reis, and that I, being moved, embraced them with tears." 11-1-96).

Senhor Nascimento said nothing to his wife or children about the dream. He merely put the above note under other papers in a pigeon-hole of his bureau, which he then locked. He went into town; called at half-past ten at the house of Jorge Dias Brothers, and received the letter, which he afterwards opened in the street. This letter he showed to me when we met. In it Don J. makes a present of one conto of reis to his future daughter-in-law, and instructs Senhor Nascimento to draw the money at the house of John Moore & Co. of this city. This sum Senhor Nascimento had duly received about 1o'clock on that day, and he invited me to accompany him home to verify what he had stated regarding the note taken in the morning. The conto of reis was shown to me; the bureau was opened in my presence, and the slip of paper was taken out of the pigeon-hole and immediately delivered into my keeping.

On Monday the 13th, I returned for further information. By direct questioning, Senhor Nascimento had learnt that his friends, the Dias Brothers, were not aware of the contents of the letter at the time of its receipt. A similar declaration was made in my hearing by the young man J., who added, however, that he had afterwards {i.e. at an hour later than that of the dream) been informed by a brother of his what their father had done.

John Moore & Co. are not personally known to my informant. J.'s brother has no other connection with him than that established by the coming union between the families, and yet the dream coincided with the arrival of the letter at Rio and not with its despatch from Montevideo. The circumstances of the case, then, seem to render the explanation by clairvoyance more plausible than that by telepathy.

Senhor Nascimento states that, although he sometimes has waking presentiments, the two dreams above narrated are the only vivid ones of the kind he recollects having had in his experience. He does not remember ever receiving similarly positive indications in a vision which have remained unfulfilled.

(The above is written out from notes taken by me on the date of the occurrence.) A. Alexander.

Professor Alexander's account is confirmed as follows by the percipient: -

R10, February yd, 1896. I can testify to the fulness and exactness of all the details above given. I still have a vivid remembrance of the dream of the burning vessel, the confirmation of which came on the same day. A man was reported to have jumped overboard with his clothes on fire, just as I saw him in my dream.

I reside at No. 33 Travessa de Sao Salvador, Haddock Lobo, half-an-hour's journey from town in the tramcars, and I never come home during the course of the day.

Jose C. Fernandes do Nascimento.

The original note, made by Senhor Nascimento on the morning after his dream and before its verification, was sent with the narrative by Professor Alexander.