"The vision must have remained some minutes, during which time my real surroundings appeared to pale and die out; but as the vision faded actual surroundings came back, at first dimly, and then clearly. I could not doubt that what I had seen was real. So instead of going home, I went at once to the house of our medical man, and found him at home. He at once set out with me for my home, on the way putting questions I could not answer, as my mother was to all appearances well when I left home.
"I led the doctor straight to the White Room, where we found my mother actually lying as in my vision. This was true, even to minute details.
"She had been seized suddenly by an attack of the heart, and would soon have breathed her last but for the doctor's timely arrival. I shall get my father and mother to read this and sign it."
In answer to inquiries, Mrs. Brettany states further:
"The White Room in which I saw my mother, and afterwards actually found her, was out of use. It was unlikely she should be there.
"She was found lying in the attitude in which I had seen her. I found a handkerchief with a lace border beside her on the floor. This I had distinctly noticed in my vision. There were other particulars of coincidence which I cannot put here."
"I distinctly remember being surprised by seeing my daughter in company with the family doctor, outside the door of my residence; and I asked, 'Who is ill?' She replied, 'Mamma.' She led the way at once to the 'White Room,' where we found my wife lying in a swoon on the floor. It was when I asked when she had been taken ill that I found it must have been after my daughter had left the house. None of the servants in the house knew anything of the sudden illness, which our doctor assured me would have been fatal had he not arrived when he did.
"My wife was quite well when I left her in the morning."
Taking, as we must, the main incidents of this narrative as true, we have either a simple case of clairvoyance on the part of Mrs. Brettany as a child, or else, on the other hand, the subliminal self of the unconscious mother hastened to impress the situation upon the sensitive child, and with the definite good result which is recorded.
In gathering up the results of these investigations, it must be stated that in showing their relation to science there is no thought of any detraction from the nobility and greatness of scientific labor and achievement in the material world--that is grand almost beyond expression. The attitude of science is conservative, and it is right; but sooner or later it must awake to the fact that here is a new field for investigation which comes strictly within the limits of its aims, and even of its methods. Many individual members of the great body of scientific workers see and know this; gradually the majority will see it.