“Humbug! humbug! humbug!”

At last he rose, threw away his cigar, and with his hands in his pockets, said:  “Well, I also have two stories to tell you, which I will afterwards explain.  Here they are: 

“In the little village of Etretat, the men, who are all seafaring folk, go every year to Newfoundland to fish for cod.  One night the little son of one of these fishermen woke up with a start, crying out that his father was dead.  The child was quieted, and again he woke up exclaiming that his father was drowned.  A month later the news came that his father had, in fact, been swept off the deck of his smack by a billow.  The widow then remembered how her son had woke up and spoken of his father’s death.  Everyone said it was a miracle, and the affair caused a great sensation.  The dates were compared, and it was found that the accident and the dream were almost coincident, whence they concluded that they had happened on the same night and at the same hour.  And there is a mystery of magnetism.”

The story-teller stopped suddenly.

Thereupon, one of those who had heard him, much affected by the narrative, asked: 

“And can you explain this?”

“Perfectly, monsieur.  I have discovered the secret.  The circumstance surprised me and even perplexed me very much; but you see, I do not believe on principle.  Just as others begin by believing, I begin by doubting; and when I cannot understand, I continue to deny that there can be any telepathic communication between souls; certain that my own intelligence will be able to explain it.  Well, I kept on inquiring into the matter, and by dint of questioning all the wives of the absent seamen, I was convinced that not a week passed without one of them, or one of their children dreaming and declaring when they woke up that the father was drowned.  The horrible and continual fear of this accident makes them always talk about it.  Now, if one of these frequent predictions coincides, by a very simple chance, with the death of the person referred to, people at once declare it to be a miracle; for they suddenly lose sight of all the other predictions of misfortune that have remained unfulfilled.  I have myself known fifty cases where the persons who made the prediction forgot all about it a week after wards.  But, if, then one happens to die, then the recollection of the thing is immediately revived, and people are ready to believe in the intervention of God, according to some, and magnetism, according to others.”

One of the smokers remarked: 

“What you say is right enough; but what about your second story?”

“Oh! my second story is a very delicate matter to relate.  It happened to myself, and so I don’t place any great value on my own view of the matter.  An interested party can never give an impartial opinion.  However, here it is: 

“Among my acquaintances was a young woman on whom I had never bestowed a thought, whom I had never even looked at attentively, never taken any notice of.