THE UNKNOWN GUEST

THE WORKS OF MAURICE MAETERLINCK

ESSAYS
THE TREASURE OF THE HUMBLE
WISDOM AND DESTINY

THE LIFE OF THE BEE THE BURIED TEMPLE THE DOUBLE GARDEN THE MEASURE OF THE HOURS DEATH ON EMERSON, AND OTHER ESSAYS OUR ETERNITY THE UNKNOWN GUEST

PLAYS
BLEUE JOYZELLE AND MONNA VANNA THE BLUE BIRD, A FAIRY PLAY
SISTER BEATRICE AND ARDIANE AND BAKBE

MARY MAGDALENE
AND MELISANDE, AND OTHER PLAYS PRINCESS MALEINE THE INTRUDER, AND OTHER PLAYS
PE'LLKAS

AGLAVAINE AND SELYSETTE

HOLIDAY EDITIONS
OUR FRIEND THE DOG THE SWAKM THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE FLOWERS
CHRYSANTHEMUMS

THE LEAF OF OLIVE THOUGHTS FROM MAETERLINCK THE BLUE BIRD THE LIFE OF THE BEE NEWS OF SPRING AND OTHER NATURE
STUDIES

The Unknown Guest

BY

MAURICE MAETERLINCK
Translated by

ALEXANDER TEIXEIRA DE MATTOS

NEW YORK
DODD,

MEAD AND COMPANY

I9H
i
<

Copyright, 1914

BY THE INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY

Copyright, 1914

BY METROPOLITAN MAGAZINE COMPANY

Copyright, 1914

BY HARPER

&

BROTHERS

Copyright, 1914

BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY

JF

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
Of
the
five

essays

in

this

volume,

The
York,

Knowledge of

the Future has appeared in

the Cosmopolitan

Magazine, of
in the
city,

New

The Elberfeld Horses

Metropolitan

Magazine, of the same

and The Un-

known Guest

in

Harper's Magazine.
not,

The

remainder have

at this present date,

been published elsewhere.

A. T. DE

M.

CHELSEA, zothJune, 1914.

CONTENTS
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

....
....
OF
.

PAGE
5

INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER
I.

PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

PSYCHOMETRY

23

II.

59

III.

THE KNOWLEDGE FUTURE

THE
107
.

IV.

THE ELBERFELD HORSES

THE UNKNOWN GUEST

21*9

V.

.361

INTRODUCTION
i

MY
a single

ESSAY on Death led

1

me

to

make
the

conscientious

enquiry

into

present position of the great mystery, an en-

quiry which

have endeavoured to render

I

as complete as possible.

had hoped that

to contain

volume would be able

the result of these investigations,

which,

may those who have been

I

say at once, will teach

nothing to

over the same ground

to

and which have nothing them except their sincerity,

ity

recommend

their impartial-

and a
I

certain scrupulous accuracy.

I

But,

as

proceeded,

saw the

field
I

under

my

feet,

so

much

so that
into

widening have been

obliged to divide
the

my work

two almost

'Published in English, in an enlarged form, under title of Our Eternity (London and New York, Translator's Note. 1913)-

Introduction
equal parts.
is

The

first is

now

published and

a brief study of veridical apparitions

or,

and hallucinations and haunted houses,

if

you

will,

the phantasms of the living and

the dead; of those manifestations which

have been oddly and not very appropriately described as "psychometric"; of the

knowledge of the future: presentiments, omens, premonitions, precognitions and the

rest;

and

lastly of the

Elberfeld horses.

In

the second, which will be published later, I

shall treat of the miracles of

Lourdes and

other places, the phenomena of so-called materialization, of the divining-rod and of

fluidic asepsis,

not unmindful withal of a

that hangs

diamond dust of the miraculous

over the greater marvels
in that

strange

at-

mosphere

into

which we are about to

2

pass.

speak of the present position of the mystery, I of course do not mean the
I
10

When

Introduction
mystery of life, its end and its beginnings, nor yet the great riddle of the universe

which

lies

about

us.
I

In this sense,

all is
is

mystery, and, as
likely

have said elsewhere,

always to remain so; nor is it probable that we shall ever touch any point of

even the utmost borders of knowledge or

certainty.
It
is

here a question of that

midst of this recognized and usual mystery, the familiar mystery of

which,
in the

which we are almost oblivious, suddenly disturbs the regular course of our general
ignorance.

In

themselves,

these

facts

which

strike us as supernatural are

no more

so than the others; possibly they are rarer,

or, to
less

be more accurate,
observed.

less

frequently or
case,

easily

In

any

their

deep-seated causes, while being probably neither more remote nor more difficult of
access,

seem to
less

lie

hidden
visited

in

an unknown
science,

region

often
all is

by our

which after

but a reassuring and conii

Introduction
ciliatory expression of

our ignorance.

To-

day, thanks to the labours of the Society

for Psychical Research and a host of other
seekers,

we

are able to approach these phe-

nomena
dence.

as a

whole with

a certain confi-

Leaving the realm of legend, of

illu-

after-dinner stones, old wives' tales,

sions
at

and exaggerations, we find ourselves last on circumscribed but fairly safe

This does not mean that there are

ground.

no other supernatural phenomena besides

those collected in the publications of the
society in question

and

in a

few of the more

weighty reviews which have adopted the same methods. Notwithstanding all their diligence, which for over thirty years has
been ransacking the obscure corners of our
planet,
it

is

inevitable that a

good many

things escape their notice, besides which the

rigour of their investigations makes them

reject

three-fourths

of those

which are

brought before them.

12

But we may say

Introduction
that the twenty-six volumes of the society's

Proceedings and the fifteen or sixteen volumes of its Journal, together with the
twenty-three annuals of the Annales des
sciences psychiques,
to

mention only

this

one periodical of signal excellence, embrace for the moment the whole field of the extraordinary and offer some instances of
all

the abnormal manifestations of the inexplicable.

We

are

henceforth

able

to

classify them, to divide

and subdivide them

varieties.
it

into genera, species

and

This

is

not much, you

may

say; but

is

thus that

every science begins and furthermore that

many

a one ends.

We

have therefore

suffi-

cient evidence,

facts

that can scarcely be

disputed, to enable us to consult

itably, to

them prof-

recognize whither they lead, to

their general character

form some idea of

and perhaps
which

to trace their sole source

by

gradually removing the weeds and rubbish

for so

many hundreds and

13

thou-

Introduction
sands of years have hidden
eyes.
it

from our

Truth to
festations

tell,

these supernatural maniless

seem

marvellous and

less
;

fantastic than they did

some

centuries ago

and we are

at first a little disappointed.

One would
has
its

think that even the mysterious

ups and downs and remains subject to the caprices of some strange extramun-

dane fashion or perhaps, to be more

;

exact,

it

is

evident that the majority of those

legendary miracles could not withstand the

rigorous scrutiny of our day.

Those which

emerge triumphant from the test and defy our less credulous and more penetrating
vision are all the

more worthy of holding

are not the last sur-

our attention.
vivals

They
riddle,

of the
its

for

this

continues

to exist in
in

and grows greater proportion as we throw light upon it;

entirety
14

Introduction
but

we

can perhaps see in them the supreme

first

or else the

efforts

of a force which
in

does not appear to reside wholly

sphere.

our

They

suggest blows struck from

without by an Unknown even more unknown than that which we think we

know, an Unknown which is not that of the universe, not that which we have gradually

made
a
sort

into an inoffensive

and amiable Unthe universe

known, even

as

we have made

of province of the

earth,

but a

stranger arriving from another world, an unexpected visitor who comes in a rather
sinister

way

to

trouble

the

comfortable

quiet in which

we were

slumbering, rocked

by the firm and watchful

science.

hand of orthodox

4
Let us
first

be content to enumerate them.

We
with

shall find that

its

we have
15

table-turning,

raps; the

movements and transpor-

Introduction
tations of inanimate objects without contact;

luminous

phenomena;

lucidite,

or

clairvoyance; veridical apparitions or hallucinations; haunted houses; bilocations

and

so forth; communications with the dead;

the divining-rod; the miraculous cures of

Lourdes and elsewhere; fluidic asepsis; and lastly the famous thinking animals of Elberfeld and

Mannheim.

These,
all

if I

be not
is

mistaken, after eliminating

sufficiently

that

in-

attested,

constitute the residue

this latter-day miracle.

or caput

mortuum of

Everybody has heard of table-turning, which may be called the A B C of occult

science.
It
is

so

common and

so easily pro-

duced that the Society for Psychical Research has not thought it necessary to devote special attention to the subject.
I

need

hardly add that we must take count only of movements or "raps" obtained without
the hands touching the table, so as to re-

move

every possibility
16

of

fraud

or un-

Introduction
conscious
complicity.
it

To

obtain
it

these

movements
dispensable

is

enough, but
those

is

also in-

that

who

form

the

"chain" should include a person endowed with mediumisti" ^acuities. I repeat, the

experiment

is

within the reach of any one

it

who

cares to try

under the requisite con-

ditions;

and

it is

as incontestable as the po-

larization of light or as crystallization

by

means of

electric currents.

In the same group

may be

placed the

movement and
the luminous
tions.

transportation

of objects
spirit

without contact, the touches of

hands,

phenomena and materializa-

Like table-turning, they demand the presence of a medium. I need not observe
that

we

here find ourselves in the happy

hunting-ground of the impostor and that even the most powerful mediums, those possessing the most genuine and undeniable
tfifts,

such as the celebrated Eusapia Pala-

dino, are upon occasion

17

and the occasion

Introduction
occurs but too often
But,
incorrigible cheats.

when we have made every allowance

number of
incidents so rigorously

for fraud, there nevertheless remains a considerable

we must needs accept them or else abandon all human certainty. The case is not quite the same with leviattested that
tation

and the wonders performed, so

trav-

ellers tell us,

by certain Indian jugglers.

Though
being
less
is

the prolonged burial of a living

very nearly proved and can doubt-

be physiologically explained, there are many other tricks on which we have so far

no authoritative pronouncement. I will not speak of the "mango-tree" and the "baskettrick,"

which are mere conjuring; but the "fire-walk" and the famous "rope-climbingremain more of a mystery. The fire-walk, or walk on red-hot bricks
is

trick"

or glowing coals,

a sort of religious cere-

mony

practised in the Indies, in

in

some of

the Polynesian islands,

18

Mauritius and

Introduction
elsewhere.

As

the result of incantations ut-

tered by the high-priest, the bare feet of

the faithful

who

follow him upon the bed

of burning pebbles or brands seem to become almost insensible to the touch of fire.
Travellers are anything but agreed whether
the heat of the surface traversed
intolerable,
is

really

whether
is

the

extraordinary

power of endurance
tects the soles

explained by the

thickness of the horny substance which pro-

of the natives'

feet,

whether

the feet are burnt or whether the skin re-

mains untouched; and, under present conditions,

the

question

is

too

uncertain to
it.

make

it

worth while to linger over

is

"Rope-climbing"

more extraordinary.
an open

The

juggler takes his stand in

space, far

from any
by
a

tree or house.

He

is

accompanied

child;

and

his

only

impedimenta are a bundle of ropes and an old canvas sack. The juggler throws one
end of the rope up
in the air; 19

and the rope,

Introduction
though drawn by an coils and rises straight
as
invisible

hook, un-

into the sky until

the end disappears; and, soon after, there

come tumbling from

legs, a

the blue

two arms, two

head and so on, all of which the wizard picks up and crams into the sack. He
it

next utters a few magic words over

and

opens it; and the child steps out, bowing and smiling to the spectators. This is the usual form taken by this particular sorcery. It is pretty rare and seems
to be practised only

nated

in

by one sect which origithe North-West Provinces. It has

not yet perhaps been sufficiently investi-

gated to take

its

place
If

among
it

the evidence
really as I

mentioned above.

were

have described,

it

could hardly be explained

save by some strange hallucinatory power

emanating from the juggler or

illusionist,

who

influences the audience

it

by suggestion
In that

and makes

see

what he wishes.
20

case the suggestion or hallucination covers

Introduction
a very extensive area. In point of fact,

onlookers, Europeans, on the balconies of

houses at some distance from the crowd of

have been known to experience the same influence. This would be one of the
natives,

most curious manifestations of that "un-

known

guest'*

of which

we

shall

speak
its

again later when, after enumerating

acts

and deeds, we

try to investigate
its

and note

down

the eccentricities of

character.

Levitation in the proper sense of the

word, that
out
contact,

is

to

say,

the

raising,

withinani-

and

floating

of

an

mate object or even of a person, might due to the same hallupossibly be

cinatory power; but hitherto the instances

have not been

sufficiently

numerous or

au-

thentic to allow us to

draw any
it

conclusions.

Also we

shall

meet with

again

when we

come

to the chapter treating of the mate-

rializations of

which

it

forms part.

CHAPTER

PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

THE UNKNOWN GUEST

CHAPTER
I

PHANTASMS OF THE LIVING AND THE DEAD

THIS the consideration of veridical apparitions

brings us without any break to

and

hallucinations

and

finally

to

haunted houses.

We

all

know

that the

phantasms of the living and the dead have now a whole literature of their own, a literature which owes
its

birth to the numerin

ous and conscientious enquiries conducted

England, France, Belgium and the United

States at the instance of the Society for

Psychical Research.

In the presence of the

it

mass of evidence
surd to persist
in

collected,

would be ab-

denying the reality of the

25

The Unknown Guest

phenomena themselves.
tion
It is

by

this

time

incontestable that a violent or deep emo-

can

be

transmitted
to another,

instantaneously

from one mind

the distance that separates the

however great mind experireceiving

encing the emotion from the

the communication.
It
is

mind

most often mani-

fested by a visual hallucination,

more

rarely

by an auditory hallucination; and, as the

most violent emotion which man can undergo

is

that which grips and overwhelms

him

at the

approach or
it

at the

very
this

moment

of death,

nearly always supreme emotion which he sends forth and directs

is

with incredible precision through space,

necessary
across
seas

if

and

continents,

towards

an

invisible

and moving

goal.

Again, though

this occurs less frequently,

a grave danger, a serious crisis can beget

and transmit to a distance

lucination.

a similar halS.

This

is

what the
26

P. R. calls

"phantasms of the living."

When

the hal-

The Unknown
lucination takes place

Guest
after the

some time

decease of the person

whom

it

seems to
it

evoke, be the interval long or short,

classed

is

among

the

"phantasms

of

the

dead."

The

latter, the so-called

"phantasms of

the dead," are the rarest.

As

F.

W. H.

Myers pointed out

ity,

in his

Human

Personal-

consideration of the proportionate

at various

number of apparitions observed

periods before and after death shows that

they increase very rapidly for the few hours

which precede death and decrease gradually during the hours and days which
follow;

while after about a year's time

they become extremely rare and exceptional.

However
apparitions

exceptional they
nevertheless

may

be, these

exist

and

are

proved, as far as anything can be proved,

by abundant testimony of a very precise character. Instances will be found in the

27

The Unknown
etc.

Guest
vi.,

Proceedings, notably in vol.

pp. 13-65,

Whether

it

be a case of the

living, the

dying, or the dead,

we

are familiar with

the usual form which these hallucinations

take.

Indeed their main outlines hardly

ever vary.

Some

one, in his bedroom, in

the street, on a journey,

no matter where,

suddenly sees plainly and clearly the phantom of a relation or a friend of whom he

was not thinking at the time and whom he knows to be thousands of miles away, in
America, Asia or Africa as the case
be, for distance does not count.

may

As

a rule,

the

phantom
is

says

nothing;
is

its

presence,
silent

which

always brief,

but a sort of

warning.
futile
it

Sometimes

it

seems a prey to

and

trivial anxieties.

More
little

rarely,
all.

speaks, though saying but

rarely
still,
it

after

More

reveals something that

has happened, a crime, a hidden treasure

of which no one else could know.

28

But we

The Unknown
ing this brief enumeration.

Guest

will return to these matters after complet-

The phenomenon

of haunted houses re-

sembles that of the phantasms of the dead, except that here the ghost clings to the
residence,

the house, the building and in

no way to the persons

the second year of
say,
its

who

inhabit

it.

By
is

existence, that

to

1884,

the
S.

Committee on Haunted
P. R.

Houses of the

had

selected

and

made an

analysis of some sixty-five cases

out of hundreds submitted to

it, twentyof which rested first-hand and eight upon

1 superior evidence.

It is

worthy of remark,

in the first place,

that these authentic nar-

ratives bear

no relation whatever to the

legendary and sensational ghost-stories that

still

linger in

many English and American

ii.,

l Procffdings, vol. i., pp. 101-115; vol. 151; vol. viii., pp. 311, 332, etc.

pp. 137-

29

The Unknown
magazines, especially
bers.
coffins,

Guest
Christmas num-

in the

They mention no winding-sheets, skeletons, graveyards, no sulphurous

curses,

flames,

blood-curdling groans,

no

clanking chains, nor any of the timehonoured trappings that characterize this
rather feeble literature of the supernatural.

On

the

contrary,

the

scenes

enacted

in

houses that appear to be really haunted are

generally very simple and insignificant, not
to say dull

and commonplace. The ghosts are quite unpretentious and go to no exare clad as they were when, some-

pense in the matter of staging or costume.

They
times

many

years ago, they led their quiet,

life

unadventurous

within their

own home.

We

find in

one case an old woman, with a

thin grey shawl

breast,

meekly folded over her who bends at night over the sleep-

ing occupants of her old home, or

who

is

frequently encountered in the hall or on

the stairs, silent, mysterious, a
30
little

grim.

The Unknown Guest

Or
else
it

is

the gentleman with a lacka figured

lustre eye

and

dressing-gown

who
illu-

walks along a passage brilliantly minated with an inexplicable light.

again

Or

we have another

elderly lady, dressed

in black,

who

is

often found seated in the

bow-window of her drawing-room.

When

spoken to, of replying, but says nothing. When pursued or met in a corner, she eludes all contact

she rises and seems on the point

and vanishes.

Strings

are

fastened

across the staircase with glue; she passes

and the strings remain as they were. The and this happens in the majority of ghost
cases
is

seen by

all

the people staying in

the house: relations, friends, old servants

and new.

Can

it

be a matter of suggestion,

of collective hallucination?
strangers, visitors

At any rate, who have had nothing

as the others

said to them, see

ask, innocently:

it

do and

31

The Unknown Guest

"Who
met
is

the lady in

mourning

whom

dining-room?" If it is a case of collective suggestion, we should have to admit that it is a subconscious suggestion

in the

emitted without the

knowledge of the
is

participants,

which indeed

quite possible.

Though
I will

they belong to the same order,

not here mention the exploits of what

call

the

Germans
form of

the Poltergeist, which take

the

flinging stones, ringing bells,

turning mattresses, upsetting furniture and

so forth.
to

These matters are always open suspicion and really appear to be nothing

but quaint frolics of hysterical subjects or

of mediums indulging their sense of hu-

mour.

The

manifestations of the Polter-

geist are fairly

numerous and the reader

Proceedings
S.

will find several instances in the

and especially in the Journal of the

P. R.
I

As

for communications with the dead,

in

devoted a whole chapter to these

32

my

The Unknown Guest

essay entitled
return to
recall

Our

Eternity and will not

It will

them now.

be enough to

and recapitulate

my

general impres-

sion, that

probably the dead did not enter

into

any of these conversations.

concerned with
purely

We

are

here

mediumistic

phenomena, more curious and more subtle than those of table-rapping, but of the same
character; and these manifestations, how-

ever astonishing they

the terrestrial
prisoned.

do not pierce sphere wherein we are im-

may

be,

Setting

aside

the

religious

hypotheses,

which we are not examining here, for they

1 belong to a different order of ideas, we find, as an explanation of the majority of
l On the same grounds, we will also leave on one side the theosophical hypothesis, which, like the others, begins by calling for an act of adherence, of blind

explanations, though often ingenious, are no forcible but gratuitous asseverations and, as I said in Our Eternity, do not give us the shadow of the commencement of a proof.
faith.
Its

more than

33

The Unknown Guest

these

phenomena, or

at least as a

means of

avoiding an absolute and depressing silence

regard to them, two hypotheses which reach the unknown by more or less divergin

ent paths, to wit, the spiritualistic hypothesis

and the mediumistic hypothesis.

scientific spiritualists,

The
not be

spiritualists,

or rather the neospiritualists

or

who must

confused

w ith
r

the

somewhat over-credulous

disciples of Allan Kardec, maintain that

the dead do not die entirely, that their spiritual or animistic entity neither departs

nor

disperses into space after the dissolution of

the body, but continues an active though

invisible existence
itualistic

around

us.

The
life

neospir-

theory, however, professes only

led by
in-

very vague notions as to the

these discarnate spirits.
telligent

Are they more

than they were

when they

inhabited

their flesh ?

they possess a wider understanding and mightier faculties than ours?

Do

Up

to the present,

we have
34

not the unim-

The Unknown Guest

peachable facts that would permit us to say
so.
It

would seem, on the contrary,

if

the

discarnate spirits really continue to exist,

that their life
is

circumscribed,

frail,

pre-

carious, incoherent and,

above

all,

not very

long.
it

To

this the objection

is

raised that

only appears so to our feeble eyes.

The

dead among
ing
it

whom we move

without know-

struggle to
to

make themselves underbut

stood,

manifest themselves,

dash

themselves against the impenetrable wall of

our senses, which, created solely to perceive matter, remain hopelessly ignorant of all
the rest, though this
tial
is

doubtless the essen-

part of the universe.

That which

will
is

survive in us, imprisoned in our body,

absolutely inaccessible to that which sur-

vives in them.

The utmost

that they can

do

is

occasionally to cause a few glimmers

of their existence to penetrate the fissures of

those
singular organisms

known

as

meven-

diums.

But these vagrant,

35

fleeting,

The Unknown Guest

turous, stifled,

give us a

deformed glimmers can but ludicrous idea of a life which

has no longer anything in

life

common

with the

purely animal for the most part

this earth.
It is possible;

which we lead on

and there
theory.

is

It

something to be said for the is at any rate remarkable that

certain communications, certain manifestations

est

have shaken the scepticism of the coldand most dispassionate men of science,
utterly hostile to

men

supernatural

influ-

ences.

In order to some extent to under-

stand their uneasiness and their astonish-

ment,

we need

only read
a

to quote but one

a disquieting

instance

among

thousand

but unassailable

article,

entitled,

Dans

les

regions Inexplorees de la blologle humaine. Observations et experiences stir Eusapla

Paladlno, by Professor Bottazzi, Director

of the Physiological Institute of the Uni1 Seldom have experiversity of Naples.

^Annales des sciences psychlques: April-November
1907-

The Unknown Guest

ments
in

the

domain of mediums or

spirits

been conducted with more distrustful

picion or with
strictness.

sus-

more implacable

scientific

Nevertheless,

scattered

limbs,

pale,

diaphanous but capable hands, sudin

denly appeared

the

little

physiological
its
it

laboratory of Naples University, with

doors heavily padlocked and sealed, as

were, mathematically excluding any possibility

of fraud; these same hands worked ap-

paratus specially intended to register their

touches; lastly, the outline of something
black, of a head, uprose between the curtains of the mediumistic cabinet,
visible for several seconds
tire until itself

remained
re-

and did not

apparently frightened by the

exclamations

of surprise drawn
all,

from

group of scientists who, after

for

were pre-

pared anything; and Professor Bottazzi confesses that it was then that, to
quote
his

own words
a
37

measured words,

as beseems

votary of science, but ex-

The Unknown Guest

pressive

he

felt

"a shiver

all

through

his

body."
It

was one of those moments

in

which

doubt which

one had thought for ever

abolished grips the most unbelieving.

the
first

For

time, perhaps, he looked around

him with uncertainty and wondered in what world he was. As for the faithful adherents

long understood that we must resign ourselves

to understanding nothing

of the unknown,

who had

and be prepared

for every sort of surprise, there

all

was

here,

the same, even for them, a mystery of

another character, a bewildering mystery,

the only really strange mystery,

more

tor-

turing than
it

all

the others together, because

verges upon ancestral fears and touches

the

most

sensitive point of

our destiny.

The

spiritualistic
is

argument most worthy

38

of attention

that supplied by the appari-

The Unknown Guest

tions of the

We

will

dead and by haunted houses. take no account of the phantasms

that precede,

accompany or follow hard

upon death: they are explained by the transmission of a violent emotion from one
subconsciousness
to

another;

and,

even

when they

are not manifested until several

it

days after death,

may

still

be contended

that they are delayed telepathic

cations.

communi-

But what are we to say of the

ghosts that spring up

nay,

more than

a year,

more than

ten years after the disap-

pearance of the corpse?

rare, I

They

are very

know, but after

all

there are

some

that are extremely difficult to deny, for the

accounts of their actions are attested and

corroborated by numerous and trustworthy

witnesses.
It
is in
is

true

that

here

again,

where

it

most

cases a question of ap-

paritions to relations or friends,

we may be

told that

we

are in the presence of tele-

pathic incidents or of hallucinations of the

39

The Unknown
memory.
of a
realm.

Guest

We

thus deprive the spiritualists

new and

considerable province of their

Nevertheless, they retain certain

private demesnes into which our telepathic

do not penetrate so easily. There have in fact been ghosts that showed
explanations

themselves to people
or seen them in the

who had
flesh.

never

known

They

are more

or less closely connected with the ghosts in

haunted houses, to which we must revert

for a moment.

As

said above,
to

it

is

almost impossible
existence

honestly
houses.

deny the

of these

Here again

the telepathic inter-

pretation enforces itself in the majority of

cases.

We may
known.

even allow
for

it

a strange but
limits

justifiable

extension,
It

its

are

scarcely

has happened fairly

often, for instance, that ghosts

come

to dis-

turb a dwelling whose occupiers find, in

response to their indications, bones hidden

in the walls

or under the
40

floors.

It

is

even

The Unknown Guest

possible, as in the case of

which was

as strictly

William Moir, 1 conducted and super-

vised as a judicial enquiry, that the skeleton

is

buried at some distance from the house

and dates more than forty years back. When the remains are removed and decently interred, the apparitions cease.

But even
there
is

in

the case of

William Moir

no

sufficient

reason for abandoning

the telepathic theory.

"sensitive,"

The medium,

the

as the English say,

feels the

presence or the proximity of the bones;

some
him

relation established between

a

them and
is

relation

which

certainly

pro-

foundly mysterious

makes him experience

the last emotion of the deceased and some-

times allows him to conjure up the picture

and the circumstances of the

murder, even
as, in

suicide

or
liv-

telepathy between

ing persons, the contact of an inanimate

object
is

able to bring
iProceedings, vol.

him
vi.,

into direct relapp. 35-41.

41

The Unknown Guest

tion with the subconsciousness of
its

owner.

The
is

slender chain connecting

life

and death

not yet entirely broken; and

we might

even go so far as to say that everything is still happening within our world.

But are there cases

in

which every

link,

however
it,

is

thin, however subtle we may deem Who would definitely shattered?

venture to maintain this?

We
those

are only

beginning to suspect the

bility,

elasticity, the flexi-

the

complexity

of

invisible

threads

which

bind

together
all

objects,
is

thoughts, lives, emotions,

that

on

this

earth and even that which does not yet

exist to that

which

exists

us take an instance in
the

no longer. Let the first volume of

Z.,

Proceedings:
to

Mr. X.

known

most of the members

of the

who was Com-

mittee on

Haunted Houses, and whose evidence was above suspicion, went to reside in a large old house, part of which was
occupied by his
friend
42

Mr.

Mr.

The Unknown

Guest

X. Z. knew nothing of the history of the 's place except that two servants of Mr. G

had given him

it

notice

on account of strange

noises which they

had heard.

was the 22nd of

his

One night September Mr. X. Z.,

bedroom
in the

on

way up

to his

dark,

saw the whole passage filled with a dazzling and uncanny light, and in this strange light
he saw the figure of an old man in a flowered dressing-gown. As he looked, both
figure

and

light vanished

and he was

left

in pitch

darkness.

The

next day, remem-

bering the tales told by the two servants,

he

made

enquiries in the village.

At

first

he could find out nothing, but

finally

an old

lawyer told him that he had heard that the grandfather of the present owner of the
house had strangled his wife and then cut own throat on the very spot where Mr.

his

X. Z. had seen the apparition.

event; but

He

was

unable to give the exact date of this double

Mr. X.

Z. consulted the parish

43

The Unknown Guest

register

and found that

it

had taken place

on a 22nd of September.

22nd of September of the fol's arrived lowing year, a friend of Mr. G

the
to

On

make

a short stay.

The morning

after

his arrival, he came down, pale and tired, and announced his intention of leaving in>

mediately.

On
all

being questioned, he conafraid, that he

fessed that he

was

had been

kept awake

night by the sound of groans,

blasphemous oaths and cries of despair,

that his

bedroom door had been opened,

and so

forth.

Three years afterwards, Mr. X. Z. had

occasion to call on the landlord of the
house,

who

lived in

the mantelpiece a

London, and saw over picture which bore a strik-

ing resemblance to the figure which he had

seen in the passage.
his friend

He
,

pointed

it

out to

Mr.
is

saying:
I

"That

the

man whom
44

saw."

The

landlord, in reply to their questions,

The Unknown Guest

said that the painting

was

a portrait of his

grandfather, adding that he had been "no

credit to the family."

Evidently, this does not in any

way prove

the existence of ghosts or the survival of

man.

It

is

quite possible that, in spite of

Mr. X.

Z.'s

undoubted good

faith,

imaginain

tion played a subtle but

powerful part

these marvels.

Perhaps

it

was

set

going by

the stories of the

two

servants, insignificant

gossip to which no attention

time,

was paid

at the

but which probably found

into the

its

way
next

down

weird and

fertile

depths of

the subconsciousness.

The image was

to

transmitted

by suggestion

the

visitor

frightened by a sleepless night.

As
is

for the
either

recognition of the portrait, this

the weakest or the most impressive part of

the story, according to the theory that
is

being defended.
It is

none the

less certain that

there

is

some unfairness

in

suggesting this explana45

The Unknown
tion

Guest
It

for every incident of the kind.

stretching to the uttermost

means

and

per-

haps stretching too far the elastic powers of that amiable maid-of-all-work, telepathy.

For that matter, there are

the telepathic interpretation
uncertain,
as
in

cases in
is

which

even more

that
in

described by
vol.
viii.

Miss
the

R.

C.

Morton

of

Proceedings.

The

story

is

too long and complicated to

It
is

be reproduced here.

unnecessary to

observe that, in view of the character of

Miss Morton, a lady of scientific training, and of the quality of the corroborative testimony, the facts themselves seem incon-.
testable.

The
whose

case
first

is

that of a house built in 1860,

occupier was an Anglo-Indian,

the next tenant being an old

man and

the

house then remaining unlet for four years. In 1882, when Captain Morton and his
family

moved

in,

there
46

had

never, so far

The Unknown Guest

as they

knew, been any question of

its

being

Three months afterwards, Miss Morton was in her room and on the point of
haunted.
getting into bed,
at the

when

she heard
it,

some one
it

door and went to

thinking that

might be her mother. On opening the door, she found no one there, but, going a few
steps along the passage, she

saw

a tall lady,

dressed in black, standing at the head of the

stairs.

She did not wish to make the others

uneasy and mentioned the occurrence to no one except a friend, who did not live in the

neighbourhood. But soon the same figure dressed

in

black

was seen by the various members of the household, by a married sister on a visit to
the house,

by the
a
,

father,

by the other

sisters,

by

little

boy,

by a neighbour,
that

General
orchard

who saw
thinking

a lady crying in the

and,

one

of

the

daughters of the house was

quire after her.

ill,

sent to en-

Even
47

the Mortons'

two

The Unknown
showed
It
it

Guest

dogs on more than one occasion clearly

that they

saw the phantom.

fact,

was, as a matter of

very harmless

said nothing; it wanted nothing; it wandered from room to room, without any ap-

parent object; and,

it

when

it

was spoken
its

to,

did not answer and only

made

escape.
to the

The household became accustomed

apparition
;

it

troubled nobody and inspired

no

terror.

It

was immaterial,

it

could not

be touched, but yet it intercepted the light. After making enquiries, they succeeded in
identifying
it

as

the

second wife of the

family had

Anglo-Indian.

The Morton

never seen the lady, but, from the description

which they gave of the phantom

to those

who had known

likeness

her,

it

appeared that the

was unmistakable.

For the

rest,

they did not

know why
in

she came back to

haunt a house

which she had not died.

less fre-

After 1887, the appearances became

48

quent, distinct, ceasing altogether in 1889.

The Unknown
5

Guest

Let us assume that the facts as reported

in

the Proceedings are certain and indis-

putable.
case,
tion.

have very nearly the ideal free from previous or ambient suggesIf

We

we

refuse to believe in the existif

ence of ghosts,
tive

we

are absolutely positheir

that

the

dead do not survive

death, then

we must admit

that the hal-

lucination took birth spontaneouslyJiL-the

imagination of Miss Morton,

scious

an uncon-

medium, and was subsequently transmitted by telepathy to all those around her.
In

my

opinion, this explanation,

it

however
the one

arbitrary and severe

may

be,

is

which

behoves us to accept, pending But it must be confessed further proofs.

it

that, in thus

extending our incredulity,

difficult

render

it

very

for the dead to

we make

their existence

known.

We
this

possess a certain

number of

cases of

kind,

rigorously

investigated,

cases

The Unknown Guest

probably representing but an infinitesimal part of those which might be collected. Is
it

possible that they one

?

and
It

all

elude the
neces-

telepathic explanation

would be

sary to

make

a study of them, conducted

with the most scrupulous and unremitting attention; for the question is not devoid of
interest.

If the existence of ghosts

it

were

well-established,
into this world,

would mean the entrance

which we believe to be our

force that

world, of a

new

would explain

more than one thing which we are still far from understanding. If the dead interfere
one point, there is no reason why they should not interfere at every other point.
at

We
we
it.

should no longer be alone,

among

our-

selves, in

our hermetically-closed sphere, as

should have to alter more than

are perhaps only too ready to imagine

We

one of our physical and moral laws, more than one of our ideas; and it would no
doubt be the most important and the most
50

The Unknown Guest

extraordinary revelation that would be ex-

pected

in the

present state of our knowl-

old positive

edge and since the disappearance of the But we are not religions.
all

there yet: the proof of

this

is

still

in
if

the nursery-stage; and

it

do not know

will ever get

beyond

that.

Nevertheless

the fact remains that, in these impenetrable

regions of mystery which

ploring, the one

we

are

now
a

ex-

weak

spot

lies

here, the

one wall

in

which there seems to be

one enough
there

chink

a strange

giving a glimpse
It
is

into the other world.

is

narrow and
darkness;

vague and behind

but
shall
it

it

still

is

not without significance and

to lose sight of
it.

we

do well not

Let us observe that

dead,
as

this survival

of the
it,

the

neospiritualists

conceive

seems much

less

improbable since

we have

been studying more closely the manifesta51

The Unknown Guest

tions of the extraordinary
spiritual force that lies
selves.
It is

and incontestable

hidden within our-

not dependent on our thought,

will;

nor on our consciousness, nor on our

and

very possibly either on our life.

it

is

not

dependent
are
still

While we

breathing on this earth, it is already surmounting most of the great obstacles that
limit

and paralyse our existence. It acts at a distance and so to speak without organs.
It passes

through matter, disaggregates it and reconstitutes it. It seems to possess

It
is

the gift of ubiquity.

not subject to

the laws of gravity and

all

lifts weights out of the real and measurwith proportion

able strength of the

lieved to emanate.
itself

body whence it is beIt releases and removes

from that body; it comes and goes freely and takes to itself substances and
shapes which
it

borrows

all

around

it

and

therefore
it

no longer so strange to see surviving for a time that body to which

it

is

52

The Unknown Guest

it

does not appear to be as indissolubly bound as is our conscious existence. Is it

necessary to add that this survival of a
part of ourselves which

we

hardly

know

and which besides seems incomplete, incoherent and ephemeral is wholly without
prejudice to our fate in the eternity of the

worlds?

But

this is a question

which we

are not called

I shall

upon

to study here.

perhaps be asked:
is

"If
for
all

it

becoming increasingly difficult these facts and there are more of

to be

them accumulating every day

braced
theory,
istic

em-

in

the telepathic or psychometric

why

not frankly accept the spiritual-

explanation,

which

is

the

simplest,

which has an answer for everything and which is gradually encroaching on all the
others ?"

That

is

true:

it

is

the simplest theory,

like the religious
all

perhaps too simple; and,

theory,
it

dispenses us
53

from

effort

or

The Unknown Guest

seeking.
it

have nothing to set against but the mediumistic theory, which doubt-

We

does not account exactly for a good many things, but which at least is on the
less

same

side of the hill of life as ourselves

us,

and remains among

upon our

earth,

within reach of our eyes, our hands, our

thoughts and our researches.

a time

There was
and earth-

when

lightning, epidemics

quakes were attributed without distinction

to the

wrath of Heaven.

Nowadays, when
with the source

we

are

more or

less familiar

of the great infectious diseases, the hand of Providence knows them no more; and,

though we are still ignorant of the nature of electricity and the laws that regulate
longer dream, while waiting to learn more about them, of looking for their causes in the judgment or
seismic shocks,

we no

anger of an imaginary Being.

likewise in the present case.

Let us act
It

behoves

us above

all

to avoid those rash explana54

The Unknown Guest

tions which,
in

their haste,

leave by the

roadside a host of things that appear to

be unknown or unknowable only because

the necessary effort has not yet been
to

made

know them.
eliminate

After
the

all,

while

we must
theory,
it.

not

spiritualistic

neither must
It is

we

content ourselves with

even preferable not to linger over it until it has supplied us with decisive arguments, for
it is

the duty of this theory which

sweeps us roughly out of our sphere to For the furnish us with such arguments.
present,

simply relegates to posthumous regions phenomena that appear to occur

it
it

within ourselves;

adds superfluous mys-

tery and needless difficulty to the

istic

medium-

mystery whence it springs. If we were concerned with facts that had no footing in
this world,

we should

certainly
;

have to turn
but

our eyes
large

in

another direction
actions

we

see a

number of

performed which

are of the

same nature
55

as those attributed

The Unknown
to the spirits

Guest
inexplicable, ac-

and equally

tions with which, however,

we know

that
it

they have

nothing to

do.

When
some

is

proved that the dead exercise

vention,

inter-

ingly

we will bow before the fact as willas we bow before the mediumistic
it

mysteries:

is

a question of order, of inscientific

ternal policy

and of

method much
preference
or

more than of
fear.

probability,

The hour

has not yet come to abanI

don the principle which

have formulated

elsewhere with respect to our communications with the dead, namely, that
ral that
it is

natu-

we

should remain at home,

as long as

in

our

own world, we are not

series

we

can, as long as
it

violently driven from

by a

of irresistible and

incontrovertible

proofs coming from the neighbouring abyss.

The

no more improbable than the prodigious faculties which we

survival of a spirit
is

are obliged to attribute to the

mediums

if

we deny them

to the dead.
56

But the

exist-

The Unknown Guest

ence of

mediums
is

is

that of spirits
for the spirits

beyond dispute, whereas not; and it is therefore

or for those
to begin

who make

use

of their
exist.

by proving that they Before turning towards the mystery

let

name

beyond the grave,

us

first

exhaust the

possibilities of the mystery here on earth.

57

CHAPTER

II

PSYCHOMETRY

CHAPTER
I

II

PSYCHOMETRY

and the dead, what have we left? Ourselves and all the life around us; and
perhaps enough. It is, at any rate, much more than we are able to grasp.
is

NOW

that

we have

eliminated the gods

that

Let us now study certain manifestations that are absolutely similar to those which

we
is

attribute to the spirits

and quite

as sur-

prising.

As

for these manifestations, there

not the least doubt of their origin.

;

They

do not come from the other world they are born and die upon this earth; and they arise
solely

and incontestably from our own

ac-

tual living mystery.

They

are,

moreover,

of

all

psychic manifestations, those which

are easiest to examine and verify, seeing

61

The Unknown Guest

that they can be repeated almost indefinitely

and that a number of

excellent

and

well-

known mediums
duce them
in

are always ready to repro-

the presence of any one interIt

is

ested in the question.

case of uncertain

no longer a

and casual observation,

but of

scientific

experiment.

The

manifestations in question are so

many phenomena

of intuition, of clairvoydis-

ance or clairaudience, of seeing at a

tance and even of seeing the future.

These

phenomena may
in

either be due to pure, spon-

taneous intuition on the part of the medium,

an hypnotic or waking state, or else produced or facilitated by one of the various

only to arouse the medium's subconscious
faculties

empirical methods which apparently serve

and to

release in

some way

his

subliminal

clairvoyance.

Among

such

methods, those most often' employed are,

as

we

all

know, cards, coffee-grounds,

62

pins,

the lines of the hand, crystal globes, astrol-

The Unknown Guest

ogy, and so on.

They

possess no impor-

tance in themselves, no intrinsic virtue, and

are worth exactly
uses
says:

what the medium who

them

is

worth.

As M. Duchatel

well

ln reality,

there

is

only one solitary

mancy.
ever

The

faculty of seeing in time, like

is

the faculty of seeing in space,

its

one, what-

outward form or the process em-

ployed."

We will not linger now

festations

over those mani-

which, under appearances that

are sometimes childish and vulgar, often

conceal surprising and incontestable truths,

but will

devote the present chapter

ex-

clusively to a series of

phenomena which
and which has

includes almost all the others

been classed under the generic and rather ill-chosen and ill-constructed title of "psy-

chometry." Psychometry, to borrow Dr. Maxwell's excellent definition, is "the fac63

The Unknown Guest

ulty possessed by certain persons of placing

themselves in relation, either spontaneously

or,

for the most part, through the interobject,

mediary of some

with unknown and

often very distant things and people."

The who

existence of this faculty

is

no longer

seriously denied;

and

it is

easy for any one

it

cares to

do so to verify

for himself;

for the

mediums who

possess

it

are not ex-

tremely rare, nor are they inaccessible. It has formed the subject of a number of experiments (see,
lier's

among

others,

M.

Warcol-

report

in

the Annales

des sciences

psychiques of July,
treatises, in

1911) and of a few the front rank of which I would

Duchatel's Enquete sur des cas

mention

M.

de psychometrie and Dr. Osty's recently published book, Lucidite et intuition, which
is

the fullest, most profound and most con-

scientious
ter

work

that

we

possess on the mat-

up

to the present.

Nevertheless

it

may

be said that these regions quite lately an64

The Unknown

Guest

nexed by metapsychical science are as yet

hardly explored and that fruitful surprises
are doubtless awaiting earnest seekers.

The

faculty in question

is

one of the

strangest faculties of our subconsciousness

and beyond a doubt contains the key to most of the manifestations that seem to proLet us begin a with of the aid by seeing, living and typical

ceed from another world.

example,

how
,

it is

exercised.

Mme.

one of the best mediums

mentioned by Dr. Osty, is given an object which belonged to or which has been touched and handled by a person about

whom

it is

M
who

proposed to question her. Mme. operates in a state of trance; but

there are other noted psychometers, such as

Mme. F

and

M.

Ph.

M.

de

retain all their

normal consciousness,
65

so that hypnotism or the somnambulistic

The Unknown Guest

state
is

in

no way indispensable to the

this extraordinary faculty of

awakening of
clairvoyance.

When
ter,
is

the object, which

is

usually a

let-

has been handed to

Mme.

M M

she

asked to place herself in communication with the writer of the letter or the owner
of the object.

Forthwith,

Mme.

not only sees the person in question, his

physical

appearance,

his

character,

his

habits, his interests, his state of health, but

of rapid and changing visions that follow upon one another like
also, in a series

cinematograph pictures, perceives and describes exactly his immediate surroundings,

the scenery outside his window, the rooms
in

which he

lives,

the people

who
ill,

live

with

him and who wish him

well or

the psy-

chology and the most secret and unexpected intentions of all those who figure in his
existence.

you

direct

by means of your questions, her towards the past, she traces

If,

66

The Unknown Guest

the whole course of the subject's history.

you turn her towards the future, she seems often to discover it as clearly as the
If
past.

But we

will for the

moment

reserve

this latter point, to

which we shall return

later in a chapter devoted to the

knowledge

of the future.
3

In the presence of these phenomena, the

thought that naturally occurs to the mind is that we are once more concerned
first

with that astonishing and involuntary com-

munication between

one subconsciousness

and another which has been invested with

the

name of

telepathy.

And

there

is

no

dein

nying that telepathy plays a great part

these intuitions.

However,

to explain their

working, nothing is equal to an example based upon a personal experience. Here is

one which

is

in

no way remarkable, but

which plainly shows the normal course of

the operation.
67

The Unknown
In September,

Guest

1913, while I was at Elberfeld, visiting KralPs horses, my wife

went to consult

Mme. M gave her a a note disscrap of writing in my hand patched previous to my journey and con,

taining no allusion to

it

and asked her

With-

where

was and what

was doing.

out a second's hesitation,

Mme.

declared that I was very far away, in a

foreign country where they spoke a lan-

guage which she did not understand. She saw first a paved yard, shaded by a big tree, with a building on the left and a
garden
at the

back: a rough but not inapt

description

of KralPs stables, which

my

wife did not

not seen at

know and which I myself had the time when I wrote the note.

She next perceived

me

in the

midst of the

horses, examining them, studying

them with
air.

an absorbed, anxious and tired

This

was

true, for I found those

visits,

which

overwhelmed me with

a sense of the marvel-

68

The Unknown Guest

lous

and kept

my
if

attention

on the rack,

singularly exhausting

and bewildering.

My

wife asked her

horses.

intended to buy the

She replied:
at all; he
is

"Not

not thinking of
as

it."

And, seeking her words

express

an

unaccustomed

though to and obscure

thought, she added:

"I don't
terested;
it

know why he
is

is

so

much

in-

not like him.

for
horses.

He

has no

particular

passion

He

has

some
cover.

lofty idea which I can't quite dis-

..."
in

She made two rather curious mistakes

this experiment.

time
yard,

when
I

she saw

The first was that, at the me in Krall's stablethere.

was no longer

She had

re-

ceived her vision just in the interval of a

few hours between two

visits.
is

Experience

shows, however, that this

a usual error
not, prop-

among

psychometers.

They do

erly speaking, see the action at the very

69

mo-

The Unknown
ment of
its

Guest

performance, but rather the

princi-

customary and familiar action, the

pal

thing that preoccupies either the person

about

whom

they are being consulted or the

person consulting them.

They
is

frequently

go astray
'

in time.

There

not, therefore,

necessarily any simultaneity between the action and the vision and it is well never to
;

take their statements in this respect

erally.

lit-

The

other mistake referred to our dress

Krall and I were in ordinary town clothes,

whereas she saw us

in

those long coats

which stable-lads wear when grooming their

horses.

Let us now make every allowance for

wife's unconscious suggestions: she

my

knew
should

that I

was

at Elberfeld

and that
;

be

in the

midst of the horses

and she knew

or could easily conjecture my state of mind. The transmission of thought is remarkable

;

but this

is

a recognized phenomenon and

70

The Unknown Guest

one of frequent occurrence and we need not therefore linger over it.

The

real

mystery begins with the descrip-

tion of a place

which
I

my

wife had never

either
at'

seen and which

had not seen

the

time of writing the note which established

the psychometrical communication.
to believe that the appearance of

Are we
what
I

was one day

was already inscribed on that prophetic sheet of paper, or more simply and more probably that the paper
to see

which represented myself was enough to

transmit either to
ness or to

my

wife's subconscious,

Mme.

whom

at that

time

what
miles
is

had never met, an exact picture of my eyes beheld three or four hundred

away?

But, although this description

exceedingly accurate
building on the
is
it

paved yard, big

garden
all

tree,

left,

at the

back

not too general for

idea of

chance coincidence to be eliminated?

Per-

haps, by insisting further, greater precision

71

The Unknown Guest

might have been obtained; but
certain,
this
is

not

for as a rule the pictures follow

in

upon one another so swiftly vision that he has no time

details.

the medium's

to perceive the

When

all

is

said, experiences

of

this

kind do not enable us to go beyond

the telepathic explanation.

different one, in

But here

is

which subconscious suggesany part whatever.

tion cannot play

Some days
I

after the experiment which

have

related, I received

from England

request for

my

autograph.

Unlike most of

those which assail an author of any celeb-

was charming and unaffected; but it told me nothing about its writer. Without
rity, it

even noticing from what town

to me, after showing
it

it

was

sent

to

my

wife, I reit

placed

it

in

its
.

envelope and took

to

Mme.

my

She began by describing us, wife and myself, who both of us had

touched the paper and consequently impregnated it with our respective "fluids."
72

The Unknown
I

Guest

asked her to pass beyond us and come to She then saw a the writer of the note.
girl

of fifteen or sixteen, almost a child,

who had been in rather indifferent health, but who was now very well indeed. The
girl

was

in

a beautiful garden, in front of

a large and luxurious

the midst of

rather hilly

house standing in She country.

big,

was

playing

with

curly-haired,

long-eared

dog.

Through

the

branches

of the trees one caught a glimpse of the

sea.

On

enquiry,

all

the details were found to

be astonishingly accurate; but, as usual, there was a mistake in the time, that is to
say, the girl

and her dog were not

in the

garden

at the instant

when

the

medium saw

them

Here again an habitual action had obscured a casual movement; for, as

there.

have

already

said,

the
the

vision

very

rarely
reality.

corresponds

with

momentary

73

The Unknown Guest

4
There
example;
is

nothing exceptional
it

in the

above

I selected
it

others because
sides, this

is

from among many Besimple and clear.

is

kind of experience

already, so

to speak, classical, or at least should be so,

were

it

not that everything relating to the

is

manifestations of our subconsciousness

always
picion.

received

with
I

extraordinary

susre-

In any case,

cannot too often

is

peat that the experiment body's reach; and

it

within everyachieve

rarely fails to

absolute success with capable psychometers,

who

are pretty well

known and whom

it is

open to any one to consult. Let us add that it can be extended much
further.
If,

for instance, I

had acted

as I

did in similar cases and asked the

questions
circle,

medium
home-

about

the

young

girl's

about the character of her father, the

she would have

health of her mother, the tastes and habits

of her brothers and

sisters,

74

The Unknown Guest

answered with the same
precision as one
certainty, the

same

might do who was not only

penetrating facul-

a close acquaintance of the girl's, but en-

dowed with much more

ties

of intuition than a normal observer.

In

short, she

would have

felt

that this girl's subconsciousness

felt

and expressed all would have

with regard to the persons mentioned. But it must be admitted that, as we are
here no longer speaking of facts that are
easily
finitely

verified,

confirmation

becomes

in-

more

difficult.

There could be no
cumstances,

question, in the cir-

of

transmission
I

of

thought,

since both the

medium and

were ignorant

of everything.
easily devised

Besides, other experiments,

and repeated and more rigorously controlled, do away with that theory
entirely.

For

instance, I took three letters

written by intimate friends, put each of

them

in a

double envelope and gave them

to a messenger unacquainted with the con75

The Unknown Guest

tents of the envelopes

and
to

also with the

persons

in
.

question

take

to

Mme.
mes-

On

arriving at the house, the

senger handed the clairvoyant one of the

letters, selected at

random, and did nothing

further beyond putting the indispensable

questions, likewise at

random, and taking

strik-

down

the medium's replies in shorthand.

Mme.

began by giving a very

ing physical portrait of the lady

who had

written the letter; followed this up with an

absolutely faithful description of her character,

her habits, her

qualities;

tastes,

her intellectual

and moral
of which of

and ended by adding

life,

a few details concerning her private

I

myself was entirely unaware and which I obtained the confirmation

afterwards.

shortly

The

experiment

yielded just as

remarkable

results

when

con-

tinued with the two other letters.

In the face of this mystery, two explanations

may

be offered, both equally perplex76

The Unknown Guest

ing.

On

the one hand,

we

shall

have to

admit that the sheet of paper handed to the psychometer and impregnated with hu-

man

"fluid" contains, after the

manner of
gas, all the

some prodigiously compressed

incessantly

renewed, incessantly recurring

all his

images that surround a person,

past

and perhaps
often

his future, his psychology, his

state of health, his wishes, his intentions,

unknown
in light

to himself, his

most
all

secret
is

instincts, his likes

and
all

dislikes,

that

bathed

and

that

darkness, his whole

life, in

plunged in short, and more

is

than his personal and conscious

all

life,

besides

the lives and

all

the influences,
all

good or

bad, latent or manifest, of

who approach

him.

We

should have here a mystery as

at least as vast as that of

unfathomable and

generation, which transmits, in an infinitesi-

mal

particle, the

mind and matter, with

all

all

the qualities and

the faults,

all

the ac-

quirements and

all

the history, of a series

77

The Unknown Guest

of
lives

of

which

none

can

tell

the

number.

On

the other hand,

if

we do
lie

not admit

that so

much energy can

concealed in a

sheet of paper, continuing to exist and de-

velop indefinitely there, we must necessarily suppose that an inconceivable network of

nameless

forces

is

perpetually

radiating

same paper, forces which, cleaving time and space, detect instantaneously, anywhere and at any distance, the life that
this

from

and place themselves in complete communication, body and soul, senses and thoughts, past and future, consciouslife

gave them

ness and subconsciousness, with an existence

lost

amid the innumerous host of men who

It
is,

people this earth.

indeed,

exactly

what happens
diums
in

experiments with meautomatic speech or writing, who

in the

believe themselves to be inspired

by the

dead.
spirit,

no longer a discarnate but an object of any kind imbued

Yet, here
it is

78

The Unknown Guest

with
a

living

"fluid"

that

works

the

miracle; and

this,

we may remark
blow

in pass-

ing, deals a severe

to the spiritualistic

theory.

Nevertheless, there are two rather

seri-

ous objections to this second explanation.

Granting that the object really places the medium in communication with an unknown
entity discovered in space,

how comes
ever

it

that the image or the spectacle created by

that

communication

hardly

corre-

sponds with the reality

at the actual
it is

mo-

ment? On the other hand,

that the

indisputable
his

psychometer's

clairvoyance,

gift of seeing at a distance the pictures

and
is

scenes surrounding an

unknown

being,

exercised with the

same certainty and the

same power when the object that sets his strange faculty at work has been touched by
a person

who

has been dead for years.

is

Are

we, then, to admit that there

an actual,

living communication with a human being

79

The Unknown Guest

who
is

no more, who sometimes

as,

for

instance, in a case of incineration

has left

no trace of himself on
a dead

earth, in short, with

man who

continues to live at the

place and at the

moment

at

which he im-

pregnated the object with his "fluid" and who seems to be unaware that he is dead?

But these objections are perhaps

serious than one

less

might

believe.

To

begin
"tele-

with,

there

are

seers,

so-called

psychics,"
is

who

are not psychometers, that

to say, they are able to

communicate with

an unknown and distant person without the intermediary of an object; and in these
seers, as in the

psychometers, the vision very

rarely corresponds with the actual facts of

the

moment: they

too perceive above

all

the general impression, the usual and characteristic actions.

Next, as regards com-

munications with a person long since dead, we are confronted with one of two things
80

either confirmation will be almost impos-

The Unknown Guest

sible

when

it

concerns revelations on the

subject of the dead man's private deeds

actions,

and

which are unknown to any living person; or else communication will be established not with the deceased, but with
the living person,

who
is

necessarily

knows

the facts which he

called

upon
:

to confirm.

As Dr. Osty very

"The

rightly says

conditions are then those of per-

ception by the intermediary of the thoughts

of a living person; and the deceased is perceived through a mental representation.

The
tive

experiment, for this reason,

is

value-

less as

evidence of the reality of retrospec-

psychometry and consequently of the

of

recording part played by the object.

experiment that could be of value from this point of view,

only
class

"The

would be

that in which confirmation

would

come subsequently from documents whose contents remained unknown to any living
81

The Unknown Guest

person until after the clairvoyance sitting. It might then be proved that the object
can latently register the
ties

human
it

personaliit is

which have touched

and that

sufficient in itself to

allow of a mental

re-

construction of those personalities through

the interpretation of the register by a clair-

voyant or psychometer."
5
It

may

be imagined that experiments of

in

this sort,

which there

is

no crack, no
In the case of

leak on the side of the living, are anything

but easy to carry through.

a murder,

for instance,

it

can always be

maintained that the medium discovers the

body and the circumstances of the tragedy through the involuntary and unconscious intermediary of the murderer, even when the
latter

escapes

prosecution

and suspicion

altogether.

But a recent

incident, related

by Dr. Osty with the utmost precision of

82

The Unknown
detail
in

Guest

and the most scrupulous verification the Annales des sciences psychiques of

April, 1914, perhaps supplies us with one

of those experiments which

we have not
I

been able to achieve

the facts
in a

until this day.

give

few words.
this year,

On
left

the

2nd of Mach of

M.

Etienne Lerasle, an old

his

man
at

of eighty-two,

son's

house

Cours-les-Barres

(Cher)

for his daily

walk and was not

seen again.

The

house stands in the middle

of a forest on Baron Jaubert's estate. Vain searches were made in every direction for
the missing man's traces; the ponds and

pools were dragged to no purpose

the 8th of

and on

and systematical exploration of the wood, in which no fewer than twenty-four people took part,
a careful

March

led to no result.

At

last,

on the i8th of

March, M.

Louis Mirault, Baron Jaubert's agent, thought of applying to Dr. Osty,

and supplied him with a scarf which the

83

The Unknown Guest

old

man had worn.

medium,

Dr. Osty went to

his

favourite

Mme.
of

He
who

knew only one

cerned

thing, that the matter con-

an old

man
slight

eighty-two,

walked with a
all.

stoop; and that was

As soon
of an old
in a

as

Mme.

had taken the

scarf in her hands, she

man
in

wood,

saw the dead body on the damp ground, lying the middle of a coppice, be-

side a horse-shoe pond, near a sort of rock.

She traced the road taken by the victim, depicted the buildings which he had passed,
his

mental condition impaired by age,

his

fixed intention of dying, his physical appear-

ance, his habitual

and

characteristic

way of

carrying his

stick,

his

soft striped shirt,

and so on.

The

the greatest astonishment

ing man's friends.
that puzzled

accuracy of the description caused among the miss-

There was one

detail

them

a little: the mention of

84

The Unknown Guest

a rock in a part of the country that possessed none.

The
of

search was resumed on

the

the
the
a

strength

data
all

supplied
the

by
in

clairvoyant.

But

roads

forest are

more or

less

alike;

the in-

dications

were not enough; and nothing

was found.
happened that the second and third had to be interviews with Mme.
It so

postponed until the 3Oth of March and the 6th of April following. At each of these
sittings, the details

of the vision and of the

road taken became clearer and clearer and

were given with

tions

startling precision, so

much

so that, by pursuing step by step the indica-

of the medium,

the man's

friends

ended by discovering the body, dressed as stated, lying in the middle of a coppice, just
as described, close to a tree
all

huge stump of a covered with moss, which might

mistaken for a rock, and on the

easily be

edge of a crescent-shaped piece of water.

85

The Unknown Guest

I

may add

that these particular indications

applied to no other part of the wood.

refer the reader to Dr. Osty's conscien-

tious

and exhaustive
I

article for the

numer-

ous details which

have been obliged to omit; but those which I have given are

enough

to

show the character of

this ex-

traordinary case.

To

begin with,

we have

one certainty which appears almost unassailable, namely, that there can be no question
of a crime.
in

No

one had the least interest

procuring the old man's death.

The

body bore no marks of violence; besides, the minds of those concerned did not for a

moment entertain the thought of an assault. The poor man, whose mental derangement was known to all those about him, obsessed
by the desire and thought of death, had gone quietly and obstinately to seek it in
the nearest coppice.

There was therefore

86

The Unknown Guest

no criminal
there
in

the case,

in

other words,

was no

possible or imaginable

com-

munication between the medium's subconsciousness and that of any living person.

Hence we

are compelled to admit that the

communication was established with the

dead man or with

his

subconsciousness,

which continued to live for nearly a

after his death

month

and to wander around the

same
this

places; or else

we must agree

that

all

coming tragedy, all that the old man was about to see, do and suffer was already
irrevocably contained and inscribed in the
scarf at the

moment when he

last

wore

it.

In this particular case, considering that

all relations

with the living were definitely

I

and undeniably severed,

can see no other

explanations beyond these two. They are both equally astounding and land us sud-

denly

in a

world of fable and enchantment

which we thought that we had left for good and all. If we do not adopt the theory
87

The Unknown
of the
tell-tale scarf,

Guest

of the spiritualists,
spirits

we must accept that who maintain that the

freely.
It
is

communicate with us

possible that they

may

find a serious argu-

ment

in this case.

But a

solitary fact

is

not

enough

to support a theory, all the

more

so as the one in question will never be absolutely safe

raised
is

if

from the objection that could be the case were one of murder, which
all,

possible, after

and cannot be actually

therefore,

disproved.

We

must,

while

awaiting other similar and more decisive

any such are conceivable, return to those which are, so to speak, laboratory
facts,
if

facts, facts

which are only denied by those

to interpret these facts there are

who

will
;

not take the trouble to verify

them and

only the two theories which

we mentioned
in these

above, before this digression; for,

cases,

which are unlike those of automatic

speech or writing,

we have

not as a rule to

consider the possibility of any intervention

The Unknown Guest

of the dead.

As

a matter of fact, the best-

known psychometers
itualists
spirits.

are very rarely spir-

and claim no connection with the

They

care but

little,

as

rule,

about the source of their intuitions and

seem very little interested workng and origin. Now

ceedingly surprising
in the
if,

in
it

their

exact
ex-

would be

acting and speaking

name of

the departed, they should

be so consistently ignorant of the existence

of those
prising

who
we

inspire

them; and more

surcir-

still if

the dead,

whom

in

other

cumstances

see so jealously vindicating

their identity, should not here,

when

the

occasion

is

so propitious, seek to declare

themselves, to manifest themselves and to

make themselves known.

7

Dismissing for the time being the intervention of the dead, I believe then that, in

most of the cases which

89

I will call

labora-

The Unknown Guest

tory cases, because they can be reproduced
at will,

we

are not necessarily reduced to

the theory of the vitalized object represent-

ing wholly, indefinitely and inexhaustibly,

through

all

the vicissitudes of time

and

space, every one of those who have held it in their hands for a little while. For we

must not forget

that,

according to this

theory, the object in question will conceal

and, through the intermediary of the me-

dium, will reveal as

plete
personalities
It will

many
as
it

distinct

and com-

has

undergone
will

contacts.

never confuse or mix those

different personalities.

They

remain

there in definite strata, distinct one from

another; and, as Dr. Osty puts

it,

"the mebein

dium can
ginning

interpret each of

them from
he

to

end,

as

though

were

communication with the

far-off entity."
in-

All this makes the theory somewhat

credible,

so than the

even though it be not much more many other phenomena in which

90

The Unknown
ened by familiarity.
less

Guest

the shock of the miraculous has been soft-

We

can find more or

everywhere

in

nature that prodigious

faculty of storing away inexhaustible energies

and

ineffaceable traces,

memories and
is

impressions in space.
in this

There
lost,

not a thing

world that

is

that disappears,

that ceases to be, to retain and to propagate

life.

Need we

recall, in this connection,

the

incessant emission of pictures perceived by

the sensitized plate, the vibrations of sound

that accumulate in the disks of the

phone, the Hertzian

of their strength

waves that

lose

gramonone

in space, the in a

mysteries of

reproduction and,

word, the incomprehensibility of everything around us?

8

Personally,
in

if I

had

to choose, I should,
cases, frankly

most of these laboratory

adopt the theory that the object touched

serves simply to detect,
pi

among

the pro-

The Unknown Guest

digious

crowd of human
it

beings, the one

who impregnated

with his "fluid."

"This object," says Dr. Osty, "has no other function than to allow the medium's
sensitiveness to distinguish a definite force

from among the innumerable

assail it."

forces that

It

seems more and more certain that, as

of an immense organism,

the

cells

we

are

connected with everything that exists by

an

inextricable

network

of

vibrations,

waves, influences, of nameless, numberless

and uninterrupted
in nearly all

fluids.

Nearly always,

men, everything carried along

by these

invisible wires falls into the depths

of the unconsciousness and passes unperceived,

which does not mean that

it

remains
cir-

inactive.

But sometimes an exceptional

in

cumstance

the present case, the marvelfirst-class

lous sensibility of a
92

medium

The Unknown Guest

suddenly reveals to

by the vibrations and the undeniable action of one of those wires,

us,

the existence of the infinite network.

I will

not speak here of

trails

discovered and fol-

lowed

in

an almost mediumistic manner,

after an object of
at.

some

sort has been sniffed

Such

stories,

though highly probable,

But, within
in a

as yet lack adequate support.

a similar order of ideas,

and

humbler

world and one with more modest

dog, for instance,
is

limits, the

incessantly surrounded
to

by

different scents

and smells
until
his

which he
is

appears

indifferent

attention

aroused by one or other of these vagrant effluvia, when he extricates it from the
hopeless tangle.
the
in trail

It

would seem

as

took

life,

vibrating like

though a chord

unison with the animal's wishes, becomit

ing irresistible, and taking

after innumerable winds

to

its

goal

and

turns.

We
also

see the mysterious

network revealed

in

"cross-correspondence."
93

Two

or

The Unknown Guest

three
other,

mediums who do not know one

an-

who

are often separated by seas or

continents,

who

are ignorant of the where-

abouts of the one

who

is

to complete their

thought, each write a part of a sentence

which, as

it

stands,

conveys no meaning

whatever.
gether,
tion

On

piecing the fragments tofit

we

perceive that they

to perfec-

and acquire an

intelligible

and obhere find

the

viously premeditated sense.

We

once more the same faculty that permits medium to detect, among thousands
others, a definite force

of

which was wander-

ing in space.

It is true that, in these cases,

the spiritualists maintain that the whole ex-

periment

is

organized and directed by a

discarnate intelligence, independent of the

mediums, which means to prove its existence and its identity in this manner. Without
incontinently rejecting this theory, which
is

not necessarily indefensible,

we
is

will

merely

remark

that, since the faculty

94

manifested

The Unknown Guest

psychometry without the intervention of the spirits, there can be no sufficient reason
in

for attributing

it

to

them

in

cross-corre-

spondence.
9

But
den
in

in

whom

does

it

reside?

Is

it

hid-

ourselves or in the

medium?

Ac-

cording to Dr. Osty, the clairvoyants are

mirrors reflecting the intuitive thought that
is is

latent in each of us.

In other words,
are clairvoyant,

it

we

ourselves

who
to

and

they but reveal to us our

own
to

clairvoyance.

Their mission

is

stir,

awaken, to gal-

vanize, to illumine the secrets of our sub-

consciousness and to bring

face of our

them

to the suract

normal

lives.

They
as, in

upon

our inner darkness exactly

graphic
acts

the photo-

dark-room,

the

developing-bath
I

upon

the sensitized plate.

is

am

con-

vinced that the theory

accurate as re-

gards intuition

and clairvoyance proper,

95

The Unknown Guest

that
is

to say, in all cases

where we are
But

in

the medium's presence and more or

directly in

less

touch with him.

Is
it

is it

so in
to

psychometry?
ourselves,

we who, unknown

or
it

is

it

the

know all that the object contains, medium alone who discovers
independently of the

in the object itself,

person

who

produces the object?

When,
from
a

for instance,

we

receive a letter
letter,

stranger, does this

which has ab-

sorbed like a sponge the whole life and by choice the subconscious life of the writer,
disgorge
all

that

it

contained into our subinstantly learn all

consciousness ?
that

Do we
its

concerns

author,

absolutely

as

though he were standing before us in the flesh and, above all, with his soul laid bare,
though we remain profoundly ignorant of the fact that we have learnt it until the

medium's intervention
This,
question.
if

tells

us so?

you like, is simply shifting the Let it be the medium or myself

96

The Unknown Guest

that discovers the

unknown
it

personality in

the

object
all

or tracks

across

time and

space:

that

of our riddle,
scure.
in

widen the scope while leaving it no less obis

we do

to

Nevertheless, there

is

some

interest

knowing whether we have to do with

all

general faculty latent in

explicable
dividuals.

men

or an
rare

inin-

privilege

reserved to

The exceptional should always be eliminated, if possible, and not left to

hang over the abyss
like
I

an unfinished

bridge leading to nothing.

am well aware
all,

that the compulsory intervention of the me-

dium

implies that, in spite of

we

recog-

nize his possession of abnormal faculties;

but at any rate

their

we reduce

their

power and

extent

appreciably

and we return

sooner and more easily to the ordinary laws of the great human mystery. And it

of importance that we should be ever coming back to that mystery and ever bringis

ing

all

things back to
97

it.

But, unfortun-

The Unknown Guest

ately, actual experience
this generalization.

does not admit of

It is clearly a case of

a special faculty, one peculiar to the me-

dium, one which

latent intuition.
selves of this

is

wholly unknown to our

can easily assure our-

We

by causing the medium to receive through a third party and enclosed

of three envelopes, as in the experiment described above, a letter of which we know the writer, but of which both the
in a series

source and the contents are absolutely un-

known

to the messenger.
in

These unusual
all

circumstances,

which
between

subconscious

communications

consultant
will in
;

and

consulted are strictly cut

off,

hamper

the medium's clairvoyance

it

no way and we

may

fairly conclude that

is

actually the
directly,

medium himself who

to use

discovers

without an intermediary, without "relays,"

M.

Duchatel's expression,
It,

all

that

the object holds concealed.

therefore,

seems certain that there

98

is,

at least in psy-

The Unknown Guest

chometry, something more than the mere mirror of which Dr. Osty speaks.

10
I

consider

it

necessary to declare for the

last

time that these psychometric phenom-

though they appear at first, known, proved and certain and are no longer denied or doubted by any of those
ena, astonishing

are

who have
have

studied
full

them

seriously.

could
large

given

particulars

of
;

number of

conclusive experiments

but this

seemed to me as superfluous and tedious as would be, for instance, a string of names
of the recognized chemical reactions that can be obtained
in a

laboratory.

Any one
him-

who

pleases

is

at liberty to convince

self of the reality of the facts,

provided that

he applies to genuine mediums and keeps

aloof from the inferior "seers" and especially the
in

shams and imposters who swarm

this

region

more than
99

in

any other.

The Unknown
Even with
scious

Guest

the best of them, he will have

involuntary, uncon-

to be careful of the

and almost inevitable interference

is

of telepathy, which

also very interesting,

though
class,

phenomenon of a different much less surprising and debatable

it

is

than pure psychometry.

He

must

also learn

the art of interrogating the

refrain

medium and from asking incoherent and random

questions about casual or future events.

will not forget that "clairvoyance
is

He

strictly

limited to the perception of

human

person-

ality," according to the rule so well formu-

lated by Dr. Osty.

in

Experiments have been a which made psychometer, on touching the tooth of a prehistoric animal, saw the
landscapes

and

the

cataclysms

of

the

earth's earliest ages displayed before his

eyes

which another medium, on handling a jewel, conjured up, it would seem with
;

in

marvellous exactness, the games and processions of ancient Greece, as

100

though the

The Unknown Guest

objects permanently retained the recollection or rediscovered the "astral negatives"

of

all
it

the events which they once witnessed.

will be

But
any

understood that,
is,

in

such cases,

effective control

so to speak, impos-

sible

and that the part played by telepathy

It
is

cannot be decided.
fore, to
verified.

important, there-

keep

strictly to that

which can be

Even when
experimenter

thus limiting his scope, the

will

meet with many

surprises.

For

instance, though the revelations of

two
is

psychometers to

whom
main

the

same

letter

handed

in succession in their

most often agree

outlines,
it

re-

markably

can also

happen that one of

whereas the other
in

them perceives only

letter,

what concerns the writer of the

will be interested only

the person to

whom

the letter

was adin
It
first

dressed or to a third person

the
is

who was
written.

room where

the letter

was

well to be forearmed against these

101

The Unknown
quent cases where
strict

Guest

mistakes, which, for that matter, in the frecontrol

is

possible,

but confirm the existence and the indepen-

dence of the astounding faculty.

ii

As
plain

for the theories that attempt to exit,

am

quite willing to grant that

they are

still

somewhat confused.

The

im-

portant thing for the

lation of cases

moment

is

the accumu-

and experiments that go feeling their way farther and farther along all the paths of the unknown. Meanwhile,
than

unexpected door which sheds at the back of our old convictions more
door,

one

than one unexpected

which sheds

upon the life and habits of our secret being sufficient light to puzzle us for
a long day.

many

This brings us back once more to the omniscience and perhaps the omnipotence of our hidden guest, to the brink of the mysterious reservoir of every manner
102

The Unknown Guest

of knowledge which we shall meet with
again

when we come

to speak of the future,

of the talking horses, of the divining-rod,

of materializations and miracles,

in

in short,

every circumstance where

little

we

pass beyond
life.

the horizon of our

daily

As we

thus advance, with slow and cautious footsteps,

in

these as yet deserted

and very

nebulous regions of metapsychics,

we

are

compelled to
exist

recognize that
in this

there

must

somewhere,

world or
is

in others,

a spot in which everything

which everything is possible, thing goes, from which everything comes,

known, in to which every-

which belongs to all, to which all have access, but of which the long-forgotten
roads must be learnt again by our stumbling
feet.

We
in

shall often

meet those

difficult

roads

the course of our present quest

and we

shall

have more than one occasion

which
all

to refer again to those depths into

the

supernatural

facts
103

of

our

existence

The Unknown
there.

Guest

flow, unless indeed they take their source

For the moment, that which must

all

above

engage our attention

is

in these psy-

chometric phenomena
exclusively

their purely

and

human

character.

They

occur
this
lies

between the living and the

solid earth of ours, in the

living,

on

world that

before our eyes; and the

spirits,

the dead,

the gods and the interplanetary intelligences

know them
except in

not.

Hardly anywhere
and
in certain

else,

the equally perplexing manifesta-

tions of the divining-rod

terializations, shall

maone

we

find

with the same

clearness this

same

specific character, if
is

may

call

it

so.

This

a valuable lesson.
life

It tells

us that our every-day

as disturbing

provides

phenomena same kind and nature

other circumstances,
forces than ours.

and of exactly the

attribute to other

as those which, in

we

It teaches us also that

we must

first

direct

and exhaust our

en-

quiries here below,

among
104

ourselves, before

The Unknown

Guest
first

passing to the other side; for our

care

should be to simplify the interpretations and explanations and not to seek elsewhere,
in suppositions,

what probably
us utterly,

lies
if

hidden
the un-

within us

in reality.

Afterwards,
if

known overwhelm
ness engulf us
still

the dark-

beyond all hope, there will be time to go, none can tell where, to

question the deities or the dead.

105

CHAPTER

III

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE FUTURE

CHAPTER
I

III

THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE FUTURE

or precognition leads

more us to PREMONITION
still

mysterious regions,
intol-

where stands, half-emerging from an

can

erable darkness, the gravest problem that

thrill

future.

mankind, the knowledge of the The latest, the best and the most
it
is,

complete study devoted to

that recently published by

I believe,

M.

Ernest Boz-

zano, under the

monitoires.
earlier

title

Des Phenomenes Pre-

Availing himself of excellent

work, notably that of Mrs. Sidgwick

result of his

and Myers 1 and adding the

own

researches, the author collects

some

thousand cases of precognition, of which he discusses one hundred and sixty, leaving the
^Proceedings, Vols. V. and XI.

109

The Unknown

Guest

great majority of the others on one side, not because they are negligible, but because he does not wish to exceed too fla-

grantly the normal limits of a monograph.

He

begins by carefully eliminating

all

the episodes which, though apparently pre-

monitory,
tion

may

be explained by self-sugges-

(as in the case, for instance,

a disease
still

where
latent

some one smitten with

seems to foresee

this disease

and the death

which

will be

its

conclusion), by telepathy
is

(when

a sensitive

aware beforehand of
,

the arrival of a person or a letter)

or lastly

by clairvoyance (when a man dreams of a spot where he will find something which he has mislaid, or an uncommon plant, or
an insect sought for
in vain,

or of the un-

known
In

place which he will visit at

some

later date).
all

these cases,

we have
is

not, properly

speaking, to do with a pure future, but

rather with a present that

not yet known,

no

The Unknown Guest

Thus reduced and
influences

stripped of

all

foreign

and
in

intrusions,

the
is

number of
a
really

instances
clear

which

there

and incontestable
of
the

perception

of

fragment
enough,
believed,
to

future
to
it

remains
is

large

contrary
to

what

generally
for us

make

impossible

extraordinary speak There must be wonderful coincidences.

a
limit

of

accidents

or

to

everything,

even

to

distrust,

even

to

the
all

most extensive
historical

incredulity,

otherwise

research

and

good deal of scientific research would become decidedly impracticable. And this re-

mark

applies as

much

to the nature of the

incidents related as to the actual authenticity

of the narratives.

We can

contest or

suspect

any story whatever, any written proof, any evidence; but thenceforward we must abandon all certainty or knowledge
that
is

not acquired by means of matheoperations

matical

or laboratory

experi-

The Unknown Guest

ments, that
is

to say, three-fourths of the

human
most.

phenomena
investigators

which

interest

us

Observe that the records collected

of
the
S.

by
like

the

P.

R.,

those
all

discussed
at

by M.

are

told

first

hand

Bozzano, and that

those stories of which the narrators were

not the protagonists or the direct witnesses

Furtherhave been ruthlessly rejected. more, some of these narratives are necessarily of the nature of

medical observations;

as for the others, if

we

attentively

examre-

ine the character of those

who have

lated

them and the circumstances which

corroborate them,

we

shall agree that

it is

more
in

just

and more reasonable

to look

to believe

them than

upon every man who

has an extraordinary experience as being a priori a liar, the victim of an hallucination,

or a wag.
2

There could be no question of giving

112

The Unknown Guest

here even a brief analysis of the most
ing
cases.
It
strik-

pages and would

this essay,

would require a hundred alter the whole nature of

its

which, to keep within

it

proper

dimensions, must take

for granted that

it

most of the materials which

are familiar.
I

examines

therefore refer the reader

who may

wish to form an opinion for him-

self to the easily-accessible sources

which

have mentioned above.

It will suffice, to

give an accurate idea of the gravity of the problem to any one who has not time or

opportunity to consult the original docu-

ments

if I

sum up

in a

few words some of

selected

these pioneer adventures,

among

those which seem least open to dispute; for

it

goes without saying that

all

have not the

same value, otherwise the question would be settled. There are some which, while exceedingly striking at
first

sight

and

offer-

ing every guarantee that could be desired

as to authenticity, nevertheless

do not imply

The Unknown Guest

knowledge of the future and can be interpreted in another manner. I give one,
a real

to serve as an instance

it is

reported by Dr.
pratique du

Alphonse Teste

in his

Manuel

magnetisme animal.

On
netizes

the 8th of

May, Dr. Teste magin the

Mme.

Hortense
She
is

presence of her husband.

no sooner

asleep than she announces that she has been

pregnant for a fortnight, that she will not go her full time, that "she will take fright
at something," that she will

have a

fall

and
She

that the result will be a miscarriage.

adds that, on the I2th of May, after having had a fright, she will have a fainting-fit

which

will last for eight minutes;

and she

then describes, hour by hour, the course of

her malady, which will end

loss of reason,

in three days'

from which she

will recover.

awaking, she retains no recollection of anything that has passed; it is kept from
her; and Dr. Teste communicates his notes
114

On

The Unknown Guest

to Dr.

Amedee
calls

Latour.

May, he
finds

on
at

M. and
table

On the Mme.
and
puts

I2th of
,

them

Mme.

whereupon she repeats word for word what she told him four days before. They wake her up. The
to sleep again,

drawing near. They take every imaginable precaution and even

is

dangerous hour

close the shutters.

Mme.
extraordinary

made

uneasy by these

measures

which she
asks

is

quite unable

to understand, to

what they are going

three
rises

do to her.

Half-past

o'clock

strikes.

Mme.

from the sofa on which they have made her sit and wants to leave the
room.

The

doctor and her husband try to

prevent her.

"But what
asks.

is

the matter with

you?" she
in

"I simply must go out."

shall not: I

"No, madame, you

speak

the interest of your health."

"Well, then, doctor," she

replies,

with

us

The Unknown Guest

a smile, "if
it is

in the interest

of

my

health,

that
let

is all

the

more reason why you should

a plausible one

me go out." The excuse is

and even

irresistible;

but the husband, wishing to

carry the struggle against destiny to the

last,

declares that he will

accompany

his

wife.

The

doctor remains alone, feeling

somewhat

anxious, in spite of the rather

farcical turn

which the incident has taken.

is

Suddenly, a piercing shriek

noise of a
finds

heard and the

runs out and

body

falling.

He

Mme.

wild with fright and

apparently dying in her husband's arms. the moment when, leaving him for an

At
in-

stant, she opened the door of the place

where she was going, a

rat,

the

first

seen

there for twenty years, rushed at her and

gave her so great a start that she fell flat on her back. And all the rest of the prediction was fulfilled to the letter, hour by

hour and

detail

by

detail.
116

The Unknown Guest

3

To make it quite am undertaking this

at the

clear in

what

spirit I

study and to remove

beginning any suspicion of blind or

I

systematic credulity,

am

anxious, before

going any

further, to say that I fully realize

that cases of this kind by no

conviction.

means carry

It is quite possible that every-

thing happened in the subconscious imagination of the subject and that she herself
created,
fright,

by self-suggestion, her illness, her her fall and her miscarriage and

adapted herself to most of the circumstances which she had foretold in her sec-

ondary

state.

at the fatal

The appearance moment is the only

a
precise

of the rat
thing that

would suggest
vision

and disquieting of an inevitable future event. Unfor-

tunately,

we

are not told that the rat was

perceived by other witnesses than the patient,

it

so that there

is

nothing to prove that

I

also

was not imaginary.

117

have there-

The Unknown
because
it

Guest

fore quoted this inadequate instance only

represents fairly well the general

aspect and the indecisive value of

similar cases

many

and enables us to note once

the objections which can be

and for
raised

all

and the precautions which we should take before entering these suspicious and
obscure regions.

We
nificant

now come
and
less

to an infinitely

more

sig-

questionable case related

by Dr. Joseph Maxwell, the learned and very scrupulous author of Les Phenomenes
psychiques, a

work which has been

title

trans-

lated into English under the

of

eta-

psychical

Phenomena.
to

It

concerns a vision

which was described

him eight days before the event and which he told to many
it

people before

was accomplished.

sensitive perceived in a crystal the follow-

ing scene: a large steamer, flying a flag of

three horizontal bars, black, white

and

red,

and bearing the name Leutschland, was

118

The Unknown Guest

sailing in mid-ocean.

The

boat was sud-

denly enveloped in smoke; a great number of sailors, passengers and

men

in

uniform

rushed to the upper deck; and the boat went

down.
Eight days afterwards, the newspapers announced the accident to the Deutschland,

whose boiler had

boat to stand
to.

burst, obliging the steam-

The

evidence of a

man

like

Dr. Max-

well, especially

when we have

to do with a

so-to-speak personal incident, possesses an

We

importance on which it is needless to insist. have here, therefore, several days beforehand, the very clear prevision of an

event which, moreover, in no

the percipient: a

way

concerns

curious detail,
in

but one
cases.

which

is

not

uncommon
in

these

The

mistake

reading Leutschland for

Deutschland, which would have been quite natural in real life, adds a note of probability

and authenticity to the phenomenon.

The Unknown
As

Guest

for the final act, the foundering of the

vessel in the place of a simple heaving to,

we must
and

see in this, as Dr. J.

W.

Pickering

W.

A. Sadgrove suggest, "the subin-

conscious dramatization of a subliminal

ference of the percipient."

tizations,

Such dramaal-

moreover, are instinctive and

most general in this class of visions. If this were an isolated case, it would
certainly not be right to attach decisive im-

portance to

it;

"but,"

Dr. Maxwell ob-

serves, "the same sensitive has given

me

other curious instances; and these cases,

compared with others which I myself have observed or with those of which I have received
first-hand

accounts,

render

the

hypothesis of coincidence very improbable,

though they do not absolutely exclude

it."

4 Another and perhaps more convincing case, more strictly investigated and estabI

MAXWELL: Metapsychical Phenomena,

1

p.

202.

20

The Unknown Guest

lished, a case

which clearly does not admit

of explanation, by the theory of coincidence,

worthy of
is

all respect

though
the

this

theory be,

that related by

M. Theodore
at

Flournoy,
of

science

professor
in his

university

Geneva,

Mediums.
critical

remarkable work, Esprits et Professor Flournoy is known

to be one of the

most learned and most

exponents of the

new

science

of

metapsychics.

He

even carries his fond-

ness for natural explanations

and

his re-

pugnance to admit the intervention of superhuman powers to a point where it is

often
difficult to

follow him.

I will

give

the narrative as briefly as possible.

It will

be found

in full

on pp. 348 to 362 of

a
certain

his

masterly book.
In

August,

1883,

Mme.
re-

Buscarlet,

whom

he knew personally,
after

turned

to

Geneva
two

spending three

years with the Moratief family at

as governess to
girls.
121

Kazan

She continued

The Unknown Guest

to correspond with the family

and

also with

Mme.

Nitchinof,

who

kept a school at

Kazan

to

which Miles. Moratief,

Mme.

Buscarlet's former pupils, went after her

departure.

On

the night of the 9th of

December

(O. S.) of the same year, Mme. Buscarlet had a dream which she described the fol-

lowing morning in a letter to Mme. MoraShe wrote, to tief, dated 10 December.

quote her

own words "You and I were on

:

a country-road

when
came

a carriage passed in front of us

and

a voice

from
up
to

inside called to us.

When we
clothed in

the carriage,
across

we saw

Mile. Olga

white, it, Popoi lying trimmed with a bonnet yellow ribwearing

bons. "

She said to you

called

'I

you to

tell

you that
school

Mme.
on the

Nitchinof will leave

1

the

1 7th.

"The

carriage then drove on."

122

The Unknown Guest

A
letter

week

later

and three days before the

reached Kazan, the event foreseen in

fulfilled in a tragic fashion.

the

dream was

Mme.

Nitchinof died on the i6th of an

infectious disease;

and on the iyth her

body was carried out of the school for fear

of infection.
It is well to
let's letter

add that both

replies

Mme.

Buscar-

and the

which came from

Russia

were communicated to Professor

Flournoy and bear the postmark dates. Such premonitory dreams are frequent;
but
it

does not often happen that circum-

stances

and

especially the

existence of a

document dated previous to their fulfilment give them such incontestable authenticity.

We may remark in passing the odd character of this premonition, which

is

however

fully in

accordance with the habits of our

guest.

unknown
cisely;

The

date

is

fixed

preal-

but only a veiled and mysterious

lusion (the

woman

lying across the carriage

123

The Unknown
and cloaked
tial

Guest
to the essen-

in

white)

is

made

part of the prediction, the illness and

death.

Was
future

there a coincidence, a vision of the

future pure and simple, or a vision of the

suggested by telepathic influence?

The
if

need

theory of coincidence can be defended, be, here as everywhere else, but

in this case.

would be very extraordinary

As

for telepathic influence,

we should have

on the 9th of December, a week before her death, Mme. Nitchinof

to suppose that,

had

in

her subconsciousness a presentiment

this pre-

of her end and that she transmitted

sentiment across some thousands of miles,

from Kazan to Geneva, to a person with whom she had never been intimate. It is
very complex, but possible, for telepathy
often has these disconcerting ways.
If this

were
latent

so,

the case which would be one of

illness

or even of self-suggestion;
future, without

and the preexistence of the

124

The Unknown Guest

being
entirely

disproved,

would be

less

clearly established.

Let us pass to other examples. I quote from an excellent article on the importance
of precognitions, by Messrs. Pickering and

Sadgrove, which appeared

des
sciences

in the
i

Annales
February

psychiques

for

1908, the

summary of an experiment by
Verrall told in full detail in

Mrs. A.
Vol.
rall

W.

XX
is

of the Proceedings.

Mrs. Ver;

a celebrated "automatist"

and her
a

"cross-correspondences"

occupy

whole

volume of the Proceedings.

faith,
entific

Her good
sci-

her sincerity, her fairness and her

precision are above suspicion;

and

she

is

members

one of the most active and respected of the Society for Psychical

Research.

On
P.M.,

the

nth

of

May, 1901,
125

at

n.io

Mrs. Varrall wrote as follows:

The Unknown
"Do
not hurry

Guest
hoc
K.OCL

date this

est

quod volui
rivl

tandem.

dmaLoavvrf

ffv^Govsi GvrsroiGir. A. W. V. nal i'ffoos. calx pedibus inhaerens difficulta-

tem superavit.
sectando semper.

magnopere adiuvas

per-

Nomen
1

inscribere

iam

possum

sic,

en

tibi I"

After the writing comes a humorous

drawing representing a bird walking. That same night, as there were said
"uncanny happenings"
the
in

to be

some rooms near

London Law
sit

Courts, the watchers arin the

ranged to
rooms.
intrusion

through the night

empty

Precautions were taken to prevent

and powdered chalk was spread on the floor of the two smaller rooms, "to
^enoglossy is well known not to be unusual in automatic writing; sometimes even the "automatist" speaks or writes languages of which he is completely ignorant. The Latin and Greek passages are translated as follows: "This is what I have wanted, at last. Justice and joy speak a word to the wise. A. W. V. and perhaps some one else. Chalk sticking to the feet has got over the difficulty. You help greatly by always persevering. Now I can write a name thus, here it is!"
126

The Unknown Guest

anybody or anything that might come or go." Mrs. Verrall knew nothing of the
trace

matter.

A.M.

The phenomena began and ended at 2.9 A.M. The

powdered
it

at

12.43 watchers

noticed marks on the

chalk.

On
the

examination
"clearly

was seen that the marks were

bird's

defined

footprints

in

middle of the

floor, three in the left-hand in

room and

five

the right-hand room."

The marks were

identical

and exactly 2^4

inches in width; they might be

compared

to the footprints of a bird about the size

of a turkey.

The

footprints

were observed

phenomena had begun at 12.43 tnat same morning. The words about "chalk sticking to the
feet" are a singularly appropriate

at 2.30 A. M.; the unexplained

comment

on the events; but the remarkable point is that Mrs. Verrall wrote what we have said
one hour and thirty-three minutes before
the events took place.

The

persons

who watched
127

in

the

two

The Unknown
dington, a
S.

Guest
J.

rooms were questioned by Mr.

G. Pid-

member

of the council of the

P. R., and declared that they

had not

any expectation of what they discovered. I need hardly add that Mrs. Verrall had
never heard anything about the happenings in the haunted house and that the watchers

were completely ignorant of Mrs. Verrall's

existence.

Here then

is

a very curious prediction

itself,

of an event, insignificant in
to happen, in a house

which

is

unknown

to the one

who
not

foretells

it,

to people

whom

she does

know
have
its

either.

The
a

spiritualists,

who

score in this case, not without

will
it

some
in

reason,

that

spirit,

order to

prove

existence

and

its

intelligence,

organized

this little scene in

which the
all

fu-

ture, the present

and the past are

mixed

up together.
VerralFs
this,

Are they right?

Or
It
is

is

Mrs.
like

subconsciousness

roaming

at random, in the future?

128

certain

The Unknown Guest

that the problem has seldom appeared un-

der a more baffling aspect.

We
dream,
of the

will

now
1

take another premonitory

strictly controlled

by the committee
September, 1893,

S.

P. R.

Early

in

Annette, wife of Walter Jones, tobacconist,

of Old Gravel Lane, East London, had her

boy she saw a

she was.

little

ill.

One

night she dreamt that

cart drive
It

up and stop near where contained three coffins, "two

white and one blue.

One white

coffin

was

bigger than the other; and the blue was the biggest of the three." The driver took out
the bigger white coffin and left
it

at the

mother's

feet,

driving off with the others.

Mrs. Jones told her dream to her husband and to a neighbour, laying particular stress
on the curious circumstance that one of the
coffins

was

blue.
xi.,

^Proceedings, vol.

p.

493.

129

The Unknown Guest

On
who
the loth of September, a friend of

Mr. and Mrs. Jones was

Their own
little

confined of a boy, died on the 29th of the same month.

boy died on the following Monday, the 2nd of October, being then sixteen months old. It was decided to bury

the two children on the same day.

On

the

morning of the day chosen, the parish priest informed Mr. and Mrs. Jones that another
child

had died

in the

neighbourhood and

body would be brought into church the two others. Mrs. Jones rewith along marked to her husband
that
its
:

"If the

coffin is blue,

then

my dream
coffins

will

come

true.

For the two other

were

white."

The
blue.

third coffin
It

was brought;

it

was

remains to be observed that the

coffins

dimensions of the
actly

corresponded exthe

with the

dream premonitions,

smallest being that of the child

first,

who

died

the next that of the

130

little

Jones boy,

The Unknown Guest

who was
of age.
sixteen

months

old,

and the
six

largest, the blue one, that of a

boy

years

Let us take, more or

less at

random, an-

other case from the inexhaustible Proceedings*

The

report

is

written by

Mr.

Al-

fred Cooper and attested by the Duchess of

Hamilton, the Duke of Manchester and another gentleman to

whom
:

the duchess re-

lated the incident before the fulfilment of

the prophetic vision

"A
1882,

fortnight before the death of the late

Earl of

," says

I called

upon the

Mr. Cooper, "in Duke of Hamilton,

professionally.

in Hill

Street, to see

him

After

had

finished seeing him,

we went

into the drawing-room,

where the duchess

was, and " 'Oh, Cooper,

the duke said to

me

how

is

the earl?'
earl?' and,

"The

duchess said,

'What
505.

on

^Proceedings, vol.

xi.,

p.

The Unknown Guest

my
"

answering,

'Lord

L
I
I

,'

she re-

plied:

'That

is

very odd.

have had a most

but,

extraordinary vision.
after being in

went to bed,

exactly asleep,
as if
in
it

bed a short time, I was not but thought I saw a scene

from a play before me.

were Lord

The

actors

in a chair, as if

in a

fit,

with a

man

standing over him with

side of a bath,

a red beard.

He was by the

over which bath a red lamp was distinctly

shown/
"I then said: "
'I

am
is

attending
is

Lord
little

at

present; there

very

the matter with

all

him; he

not going to die; he will be

right very soon/

"Well, he got better for a week and was nearly well, but, at the end of six or seven
days after
denly.
this, I

was

called to see

him sudlungs.
in

He

had inflammation of both

in Sir

"I called

William Jenner, but

132

The Unknown Guest

six

days he was a dead man.

There were

two male nurses attending on him; one had been taken ill. But, when I saw the other,
the

dream of the duchess was

exactly rep-

resented. He was standing near a bath over the earl and, strange to say, his beard was red. There was the bath with the red

lamp over
to

it;

and

this

brought the story

my

mind.
vision seen

"The
two

by the duchess was told

the

weeks
.

before
It is a

death

of

Lord

most remarkable thing."

7

But

it is

impossible to find space for the

many

instances related.

As

have

said,

there are hundreds of them,

making
I

their

tracks in every direction across the plains

of the future.

Those which

have quoted

give a sufficient idea of the predominating

tone and the general aspect of this sort of

story.
It is nevertheless right to

add

that

The Unknown Guest

many of them
are not at
its

all

tragic

and that

premonition opens

mysterious and ca-

pricious vistas of the future in connection

with

the

most diverse and

It cares

insignificant

events.

but

little

for the

human

value of the occurrence and puts the vision

of a number in a lottery on the same plane The roads as the most dramatic death.

by which it reaches us are also unexpected and varied. Often, as in the examples
quoted,
times,
it

comes to us

in a

dream.

Some-

it is

an auditory or visual hallucinaseizes

tion

upon us while awake; sometimes, an indefinable but clear and irbut powerful obsession, an absurd but imperative

which

resistible presentiment, a shapeless

certainty

from the depths of our inner darkness, where perhaps lies hidden the final answer to every riddle.
which
rises

One might

illustrate

each of these maniI will

festations with

numerous examples.
134

mention only a few, selected not

among

the

The Unknown

Guest

most striking or the most attractive, but among those which have been most strictly
tested

A young peasant from the neighbourhood of Ghent, two months before the drawing for the conand
1

investigated.

scription,

he will

and sundry that draw number 90 from the urn. On

announces to
all

entering the presence of the district-com-

missioner
is still in.

in

charge, he asks
is

if

number 90

The answer
I shall

yes.

"Well, then,

have

it!"

And,

to

the

general

amazement,

he

does draw number 90.

Questioned as to the manner

in

which he

acquired this strange certainty, he declares

that,

two months ago, just after he had gone to bed, he saw a huge, indescribable form appear in a corner of his room, with

the

number 90 standing out

sat

plainly in the

middle, in figures the size of a man's hand.

He

up

in

bed and shut and opened

xi.,

his

^Proceedings, vol.

p.

545.

135

The Unknown

Guest
was not

eyes to persuade himself that he

dreaming. The apparition remained in the same place, distinctly and undeniably.
Professor Georges Hulin, of the university

of

Ghent,

and

M.

Jules

van
re-

Dooren, the district-commissioner,

who

port the incident, mention three other similar

M. I am

and equally striking van Dooren during

inasmuch as I

cases witnessed
his

by

term of

office.

the less inclined to doubt their decla-

ration

am

personally

ac-

quainted with them and know that their statements, as regards the objective reality
of the
facts, are so to

a legal deposition.

speak equivalent to M. Bozzano mentions

quite as remark-

some previsions which are

at

able in connection with the gaming-tables

Monte

Carlo.

I repeat, I

am

aware

that, in the case of

these occurrences

and those which resemble

be contended

them,

it is

the possible once again to invoke

It will

theory of coincidence.
136

The Unknown Guest

that there are probably a thousand predictions of this kind

which are never talked

were
is

about,

because
if

they

not

fulfilled,

whereas,

one of them

accomplished,

which
to

bound by the law of probabilities happen some day or other, the astonishis

ment

is

general and free rein

is

given to the
it

imagination.
is

This

is

true; nevertheless,

well to enquire whether these predictions

is

are as frequent as

loosely stated.

In the

matter of those which concern the conscription-drawings, for instance, I have

had

the opportunity of interrogating

more than
dramas

one constant witness of these

of fate; and
they are
lieve.
all

little

admitted that, on the whole,

rarer than one

much

would

be-

Next, we must

not forget that there

scientific

can be no question here of

proofs.

We

are in the midst of a

slippery

and

nebulous region, where

to risk a step
if

we would

not dare
our-

we were not allowing

137

selves to be guided

by our feelings rather

The Unknown
than by certainties which

Guest

we

are not for-

bidden to hope
in sight.

for,

but which are not yet

We will
tails to

abridge our subject

still

further,

referring readers

who

wish to

know

the de-

the originals, lest

we should

never

have done; or rather, instead of attempting an abridgment, which would still be

too long, so plentiful are the materials,
will content ourselves with

we

few

instances,

all

enumerating a taken from Bozzano's

Des Phenomenes

premonitoires.

We

read

there of a funeral procession seen on a high-

road several days before

that

it

actually passed

way;
in

or, again, of a

young mechanic
of

who,

the

beginning

November,
sister's little

dreamt that he came home

in

at half-past five

the afternoon and saw his

girl

run over by a tram-car while crossing

the street in front of the house.

138

He

told

The Unknown Guest

his
1

dream,

in

great distress; and, on the

3th of the same month, in spite of all the precautions that had been taken, the child

was run over by the tram-car and killed at the hour named. We find the ghost, the

phantom animal or

the mysterious noise

is

which, in certain families,

the traditional

herald of a death or of an imminent catastrophe.

We find the celebrated vision which

the painter Segantini had thirteen days before his decease, every detail of which re-

mained
his last

mind and was represented in We find the Mespicture, Death.

in his

sina disaster clearly foreseen, twice over,

by

little girl

who

perished under the ruins

of the ill-fated city; and

we read of
to

dream

which, three months before the French invasion

of

Russia,

foretold

Countess
fall

Toutschkoff that her husband would

at Borodino, a village so little

known

at

the time that those interested in the

dream

looked

in

vain for

its

name on

the maps.

139

The Unknown Guest

Until

now we have spoken

as

only of the

spontaneous manifestations of the future.

It

would seem

though coming events,

lives,

gathered in front of our

crushing weight upon

bear with

the uncertain

and
is

de-

ceptive dike of the present, which

no

longer able to contain them.

They ooze

through, they seek a crevice by which to

by side with these and intractable premopassive, independent nitions, which are but so many vagrant and
us.

reach

But,

side

furtive

emanations of the unknown, are

others which do yield to entreaty, allow

themselves to be directed into channels, are

more or

less

obedient to our orders and will

sometimes reply to the questions which we put to them. They come from the same inaccessible reservoir, are

no

less

mysterious,

but yet appear a

the others
;

little

more human than

and, without drugging ourselves

illusions,
if

with puerile or dangerous

we may
follow

be permitted to hope
140

that,

we

The Unknown Guest

them and study them
attentively, they will

one day open to us the hidden paths that join that which is no more to that which is
not yet.
It
is

true that here,

where we must needs

mix with the somewhat lawless world of

professional mystery-mongers,
increase our caution

we have

to

and walk with meas-

ured steps on very suspicious ground. But even in this region of pitfalls we glean a certain

number of

facts that cannot reasonIt will

ably be contested.
recall,

be enough to

for instance, the symbolic premoni-

famous "seeress of Prevorst," Frau Hauffe, whose prophetic spirit was

tions of the

awakened by soap-bubbles,
rors;
1

crystals

and mir-

the clairvoyant who, eighteen years

before the event, foretold the death of a

by the hand of her rival in 1907, in a written prophecy which was presented to the court by the mother of the murdered
girl
J

A.

J.

C.

KERNER: Die Scherin von Prevorst.

141

The Unknown Guest

l

girl

the gypsy who, also in writing, fore-

told all the events in

life,

Miss Isabel Arundel's

2

including the

name of her husband,

the sealed
vice-presi-

Burton, the famous explorer;

letter addressed to

M.

Morin,

dent of the Societe du Mesmerisme, describing the

most unexpected circumstances

of a death that occurred a month later; 3

the famous

"Marmontel
a vision,

prediction,"

ob-

tained by Mrs. Verrall's cross-correspondences,

which gives

two months and

a half before their accomplishment, of the

most

insignificant actions of a traveller in

an hotel

bedroom

4
;

and many

others.

I will

not review the various and very

Paris and
2

The crime was committed in ^Light, 1907, p. 219. made a great stir at the time.
LADY BURTON: The Life
i.,

of Captain Sir Richd. F.

Burton, K.C.M.G., vol.

p.

p. 253.

^Journal of the Society for Psychical Research, vol.

ix.,

15.
xx., p.

Proceedin0s, vol.

331.

142

The Unknown Guest

often grotesque methods of interrogating
the future that are most frequently practised

to-day:

cards,

palmistry,

crystalcoffee-

gazing, fortune-telling

by means of

grounds, tea-leaves, magnetic needles and white of egg, graphology, astrology and
the rest.
said,

These methods, as I have already are worth exactly what the medium
is

who employs them

worth.

They have

no other object than to arouse the medium's subconsciousness and to bring it into relation with

that of the person questioning

a matter of fact, all these purely

him.

As

empirical processes are but so many, often

puerile forms of self-manifestation adopted

by the undeniable

gift

which

is

known

as

intuition, clairvoyance or, in certain cases,

psychometry.

have spoken

at sufficient

length of this last faculty not to linger over

it

now.

All that
it

consider

for a

we have moment

still

to
its

do

is

to

in

relations

with the foretelling of the future.

The Unknown Guest

large

number of

investigations, nota-

bly those conducted by

M.

Duchatel and

Dr. Osty, show

that, in

psychometry, the

notion of time, as Dr. Joseph Maxwell observes,

is

very loose, that

is

to say, the past,

present and future nearly always overlap.

Most

of the clairvoyant or psychometric

subjects,

when they

are

honest,

do not

know, "do not feel," as M. Duchatel very ably remarks, "what the future is. They do
not distinguish
it

from the other

in

tenses;

and consequently they succeed

a

being
In

prophets, but unconscious prophets."

word

and

this

is

indication

from

the

very important point of view of

the

probable
it

coexistence

of

the

three

tenses
is

appears that they see that

which

not yet with the same clearness and on

is

the same plane as that which

no more,

but are incapable of separating the two visions and picking out the future which
alone interests us.

For a
144

still

stronger rea-

The Unknown Guest

son,
it is

impossible for them to state dates

with precision.

Nevertheless, the fact rethe trouble to

mains

that,

when we take
realization

sift their

evidence and have the patience to

await

the

of

certain

events

which are sometimes not due for a long

time to come, the future
ceived
sayers.
is

fairly often per-

by some of these strange sooth-

There are psychometers, however, and

notably
ite

Mme.
past.

M
Mme.

Dr. Osty's favour-

medium, who
in

never confuse the future

and the
sions

places her vi-

time

according to
in space.

the

position

which they occupy

Thus

she sees

the future in front of her, the past behind

her and the present beside her.

But, not-

withstanding these distinctly-graded visions, she also is incapable of naming her dates
exactly; in fact, her mistakes in this respect

are so general that Dr. Osty looks

as a pure chronological coincidence
145

upon

it

when

The Unknown
prediction
told.
is

Guest

realized at the

moment
in

fore-

We

should also observe that,

psy-

chometry,

only those events can be per-

ceived which relate directly to the individual communicating with the percipient, for
it

is

not so

into us as
sciousness,

much the percipient that sees we that read in our own subconwhich
is

his presence.

We

momentarily lighted by must not therefore ask

him

for predictions of a general character,

in

whether, for instance, there will be a war

the spring, an epidemic in the

summer

or

an earthquake

in the

autumn.

The mo-

ment the question concerns events, however important, with which we are not intimately
connected, he
is

bound

to answer, as

do

all

the genuine mediums, that he sees nothing.

The

area of his vision being thus limited,

in

does he really discover the future

it?

After three years of numerous, cautious and systematic experiments with some twenty
146

The Unknown Guest

mediums, Dr. Osty categorically declares that he does
:

"All the incidents," he says, "which

these three years of

filled

my

life,

whether wished

for by

me

or not, or even absolutely con-

trary to the ordinary routine of

my

life,

had always been

foretold to me, not

all

by

each of the clairvoyant subjects, but

all

by

one or other of them.

tising these tests

have been praccontinually, it seems to me

I

As

that the experience of three years wholly

devoted to

this

object should give

some

weight to
dictions."

my

opinion on the subject of pre-

This
scientific

is

incontestable;

and the

sincerity,

conscientiousness and high intel-

Dr. Osty's fine work inspire one with the most entire confidence. Unlectual value of

fortunately, he contents himself with quot-

ing too summarily a few facts and does

not, as he ought, give us in extenso the de147

The Unknown Guest

tails I

of his experiments, controls and

tests.

am

well aware that this would be a thank-

less

and wearisome

task,

necessitating

large volume which a mass of puerile

inci-

dents and inevitable repetitions would

make
could
intiit

almost unreadable.

Moreover,

it

scarcely help taking the form of an

mate and
is

indiscreet autobiography;

and

not easy to bring one's self to

make

this

sort of public confession.

But
is

it

has to be

done.
stages,

In a science which
it is

only

in its early

not enough to show the object

it is

attained and to state one's conviction;

necessary above

all to

describe every path

that has been taken and, by an incessant

and and

infinite

accumulation of investigated

attested facts, to enable every one to

his

draw

own

conclusions.

This has been

the cumbrous and laborious

method of the
it

Proceedings for over thirty years; and

is

the only right one.

Discussion

is

possi-

ble

and

fruitful only at that price.

148

In

all

The Unknown

Guest

these extraconscious matters,

we have not

yet reached the stage of definite deductions,

we

are

still

bringing up materials to the

scene of operations.

Once more,
as I

know

that, in these cases,

have seen for myself, the really con-

vincing facts are necessarily very rare; indeed, nowhere else do we meet with the

same

difficulty. If

the

medium

tells

you, for

instance, as

Mme.
will

M
if

seems easily to

do,

how you

employ your day from the

she sees you in a certhis

morning onwards,
or that person,

tain house in a certain street

it is

meeting

impossible to say that,

is

on the one hand, she

not already reading

your as yet unconscious plans or intentions, or that, on the other hand, by doing what
she has foreseen, you are not obeying a suggestion against which you could not fight

except by violently doing the opposite to

what

it

demands of you, which again would

be a case of inverted suggestion.

149

None

The Unknown Guest

therefore would have any value save predictions of unlikely happenings, clearly defined

and outside the sphere of the person

interested.

As Dr. Osty

says

"The

ideal prognostication

would obvi-

ously be that of an event so rare, so sud-

den and unexpected, implying such a change

in one's

mode

of

life

that the theory of cofor-

incidence could not decently be put

ward.

But, as everybody

is

not,

in

the

peaceful course of his existence, threatened

by such an absolutely convincing event, the

clairvoyant cannot always reveal to the per-

son experimenting and reveal more or less approximate date

those
incidents

it

for

one of

whose

accomplishment

would carry

irresistible conviction."

In any case, the question of psychometric

prognostications calls for further enquiry,

although

it is

easy even at the present day

to foresee the results.

150

The Unknown
10

Guest

Let us now return to our spontaneous premonitions, in which the future comes to
seek us of
its

own accord
home.
that,

and, so to speak,
I

to challenge us at

sonal

experience

know from perwhen we embark

first

upon

these disconcerting matters, the

is

impression

scarcely favourable.

We

are

very much inclined to laugh, to treat as

wearisome
tions,

tales,

as

hysterical

hallucinafictions

as

ingenious

or

interested

most of those incidents which give too violent a shock to the narrow and limited idea
which we have of our human
smile, to reject everything
life.

To

beforehand and

to pass

by with averted head, as was done,

in

remember,

the time of Galvani and in

is

the early days of hypnotism,

much more

easy and seems

more

respectable and pru-

dent than to stop,

Nevertheless
to

admit and examine.

not forget that
it is

we must

some who did not smile so

lightly that

The Unknown Guest

we owe
in

the best part of the marvels from

whose heights we are preparing to smile our turn. For the rest, I grant that, thus
the details that throw light upon them and
the proofs that support them, the incidents

presented, hastily and summarily, without

advantage and, inasmuch as they are isolated and sparingly chosen, lose all the weight and authority
derived from the compact and imposing mass whence they are arbitrarily detached. As I said above, nearly a thousand cases

in question

do not show

to

have been

collected, representing probably not the tenth part of those which a more

active

and general search might bring

to-

gether.

The number

is

evidently of im-

portance and denotes the enormous pressure of the mystery; but, if there were only

half a dozen genuine cases

well's,
rall's,

and Dr. MaxMrs. Ver-

Professor

Flournoy's,

the Marmontel, Jones and

Hamilton

cases

and some others are undoubtedly

152

The Unknown
genuine
that,

Guest
show

they would be enough to

under the erroneous idea which we

form of the past and the present, a new verity is living and moving, eager to come
to light.

The
after

efforts

of that verity,

need hardly

say, display a very different sort of force

we have

actually

and

attentively read

those

hundreds of extraordinary stories which, without appearing to do so, strike

to doubt.

to the very roots of history.

all inclination

We soon lose We penetrate into

all

another world and come to a stop

out

of countenance.

We no longer know where

in-

we

stand; before and after overlap and

mingle.
sidious

We
and

no longer distinguish the

factitious but indispensable line

which separates the years that have gone by from the years that are to come. We
clutch at the hours

present to
to

and days of the past and reassure ourselves, to fasten on

some

certainty, to convince ourselves that

153

The Unknown
we
are
still

Guest

our right place in this life where that which is not yet seems as subin

stantial, as real, as positive, as

powerful as

that which

is

no more.

We

discover with

uneasiness that time, on which

we based

our whole existence,

It
is

no longer exists. no longer the swiftest of our gods,

itself

known
things;

to us only
it

by
is

its

flight across all

alters its position

no more than
in-

space, of

which

it

doubtless but the

comprehensible

reflex.
;

It reigns in the cenis

tre of every event

in its
;

and every event centre and all that comes and

to

fixed

all

that
little

goes passes from end

life

end of our

without moving by a hair's breadth

its

around

motionless pivot.

It is entitled

to but one of the thousand

names which we

have been wont to lavish upon its power, a power that seemed to us manifold and
innumerable
:

yesterday, recently, formerly,

before,
like
154

erewhile, after,

to-morrow, soon,
childish

never,

later

fall

masks,

The Unknown Guest

whereas
to-day

and

always

completely

cover with their united shadows the idea

which we form

in the

end of a duration

which has no subdivisions, no breaks and no stages, which is pulseless, motionless and
boundless.

ii

Many
imagined

are the theories which

in their

men have

attempts to explain the

working of the strange phenomenon; and

many others might be As we have seen,

imagined.
self-suggestion

and

telepathy explain certain cases which concern events already in existence, but
latent
still

and perceived before the knowledge of them can reach us by the normal process
of the senses or the intelligence.
But, even

by extending these two theories to their uttermost point and positively abusing their

accommodating
ceed
in

elasticity,

we do not

suc-

illumining by their aid

i55

more than a

The Unknown Guest

rather restricted portion of the vast undis-

covered land.

We must therefore

look for

something

else.

The
is

first

theory which suggests

itself

and

which on the surface seems rather attractive

that of spiritualism, which
it

may

be ex-

tended until

is

scarcely distinguishable
re-

from the theosophical theory and other

ligious suppositions.
It

assumes the sur-

vival of spirits, the existence of discarnate

or other superior and more mysterious entities

which surround

us, interest

themselves
acIt

fate, guide our thoughts and our tions and, above all, know the future.

in

our

is,

as

we recognized when

speaking of

ghosts and hanted houses, a very acceptable

theory; and any one to

can adopt

it

appears without doing violence to his

whom

it

intelligence.

But we must confess that

it

seems less necessary and perhaps even less clearly proved in this region than in that.
It starts

by begging the question: without

156

The Unknown Guest

the intervention of discarnate beings, the
spiritualists say,
it

is

impossible to explain

the majority of the premonitory

phenomit

ena; therefore

we must admit
to

the existence

of these discarnate beings.

for the

Let us grant

moment, for

beg the question,

merely an indefensible trick of the superficial logic of our brain, does not necesis

which

sarily

condemn

a theory

and neither takes

away from nor adds to the reality of things. Besides, as we shall insist later, the intervention or non-intervention of the spirits
is

not the point at issue; and the crux of the

mystery does not

interest us
aries
is

lie

there.

What must

far less the paths or intermedi-

by which prophetic warnings reach us

in the

than the actual existence of the future

present.
It is true

to

do complete
its

justice

to neospiritualism
certain advantages

that

position offers

from the point of view

It

of the almost inconceivable problem of the

preexistence of the future.
157

can evade

The Unknown Guest

or divert some of the consequences of that

problem.
not

The

spirits,

it

declares,

do
a

necessarily

see

the

future

as

whole, as a total past or present, motion-

and immovable, but they know infinitely better than we do the numberless
less

causes that determine any agent, so that,

finding themselves at the luminous source

of those causes, they have no

foreseeing their
effects.

difficulty in

They

are,

with

re-

spect to the incidents

still in

process of for-

mation,

in the position

of an astronomer
a

who

foretells,

within
in

second,

all

the
sees

phases of an eclipse

which a savage

nothing but an unprecedented catastrophe

which he

attributes to the anger of his idols

It is

of straw or clay.
this acquaintance

indeed possible that

causes

explains

with a greater number of certain predictions; but

there are plenty of others which presume a

knowledge of so many causes, causes so remote and so profound, that this knowledge
158

The Unknown Guest

hardly to be distinguished from a knowledge of the future pure and simple. In any
is

case,

beyond

certain limits, the preexistence

of causes seems no clearer than that of effects.

Nevertheless,

it

must be admitted

that the spiritualists gain a slight advantage

here.

They believe that they when they say or might say

possible

gain
that

another
it

is still

that

the

spirits

stimulate

us

to realize the events

which they

foretell

without themselves clearly perceiving them

in the

future.

After announcing, for

in-

stance, that

a certain place and

on a certain day we shall go to do a certain thing, they

proceed to the spot
there
to

urge us

irresistibly to

named and
prophesied.

perform

the

act

But

this theory, like those

of
ex-

self-suggestion

and telepathy, would

all

plain only a

few phenomena and would

those cases, infinitely
al-

leave in obscurity

more numerous because they make up

159

The Unknown
most the whole of our
either chance intervenes or

Guest
in

future,

which
in

some event

no way dependent upon our

spirit's,

will or the

unless indeed

latter possesses

we suppose that the an omniscience and an omni-

potence which take us back to the original mysteries of the problem.

Besides, in the
it

gloomy regions of

pre-

almost always a matter of cognition, anticipating a misfortune and very rarely, if ever, of meeting with a pleasure or a
is

joy.

We

should therefore have to admit

that the spirits which drag

me

to the fatal
act that will

place and compel

me

to

do the

have tragic consequences are deliberately hostile to me and find diversion only in the
spectacle

of

my
be,
arise

suffering.

What
evil

could

those

spirits

from what

world
ex-

would they
plain

and how should we

why our

brothers and friends of yes-

terday, after passing through the august

and peace-bestowing gates of death, sud160

The Unknown Guest

denly become transformed into crafty and

malevolent
spiritual

demons?
in

Can
which

the
all

great

kingdom,
flesh

passions

born of the
a dismal
It will

should be

stilled,

be but

abode of hatred,

spite

and envy?

perhaps be said that they lead us into misfortune in order to purify us; but
this brings us to
it is

religious theories

which

not our intention to examine.

12

The

only attempt at an explanation that

its

can hold

own with

spiritualism has re-

course once again to the mysterious powers

of

our subconsciousness.
if
it

We

must

needs recognize that,

the future exists

will be

to-day, already such as

when

it

becomes for us the present and the past, the intervention of discarnate minds or of
any other
spiritual entity adrift
is

from ancan pic-

other sphere

of

little avail.

We

ture an infinite spirit indifferently contem161

The Unknown
plating the past and
existence
;

Guest

future in their co-

we

can imagine a whole hierarchy

of intermediate intelligences taking a more

or less extensive part in the contemplation

and transmitting it to our subconsciousness. But all this is practically nothing more than
inconsistent

speculation

and
any

ingenious
it is

dreaming

in the

dark;

in

case,

ad-

ventitious, secondary

us keep to the facts

and provisional. Let as we see them an un:

known

faculty, buried

deep

in

our being and

generally inactive, perceives, on rare occasions, events that

We
ject,

have not yet taken place. possess but one certainty on this subnamely, that the phenomenon actually
within
ourselves;
it

occurs

is

therefore

within ourselves that

we must
it

first

study

it,

without burdening ourselves with suppositions

which remove

from

its

centre

and

simply shift the mystery.

hensible mystery
future; once
is

The

incompre-

the preexistence of the

this

we admit
162

and

it

seems

The Unknown Guest

very
difficult to

deny

there

is

no reason

to

attribute

to to

imaginary
ourselves

intermediaries
the
faculty

rather

than

of

descrying certain fragments of that future.

We see,
tic

regard to most of the mediumismanifestations, that we possess within

in
all

ourselves

the unusual forces with which

the spiritualists

endow
it

discarnate spirits;

and why should

be otherwise as concerns

the powers of divination?

The

explanation
is

taken from the subconsciousness

the most

direct, the simplest, the nearest, whereas

the other

is

endlessly circuitous, complicated

and

distant.

Until the

spirits

testify to

their existence in an unanswerable fashion,

there

is

no advantage

in

seeking in the

grave for the solution of a riddle that appears indeed to lie at the roots of our own
life.

'3
It is true that this

explanation does not

explain

much but
;

the others are just as in163

The Unknown
effectual
tions.

Guest

and are open to the same objecThese objections are many and variit is

ous; and

easier to raise

them than

to

reply to them.
ourselves
spirits,

For

instance,

we

can ask

why

the subconsciousness or the

seeing that they read the future and

are able to announce an impending calamity,

hardly ever give us the one useful and

definite indication that

would allow us

to

avoid

it.

What
it

can be the childish or mys-

terious reason of this strange reticence ?

In
in-

many
stance,

cases
in
1

is

almost criminal; for

related

case

by

Professor

Hyslop we
est

see the foreboding of the great-

misfortune that can befall a mother

germinating, growing, sending out shoots,

developing,
like

some

gluttonous

and

deadly plant, to stop short on the verge of the last warning, the one detail, insignificant
in
itself

but

indispensable,
It
is

which
the case

would

have saved the child.

p. 266.

^Proceedings, vol. xiv.,

164

The Unknown
of a

Guest

woman who
but

begins by experiencing a

powerful impression that a "burden" was going to fall upon grievous

vague

her family.

Next month,

this

premonitory

feeling repeats itself very frequently, be-

comes more intense and ends by concentrating

itself

daughter.

upon the poor woman's little Each time that she is planning
child's future, she hears

something for the

a voice saying:

"She'll never need it."

A
the

week before
fire fills

the catastrophe, a violent

smell of

the house.
to

From

that time

mother begins
reach.

be

careful

about

matches, seeing that they are

in safe places
all

and out of

She looks
feels a

over the

house for them and

to

burn

all

strong impulse matches of the kind easily

fatal

lighted.

About an hour before the

disaster, she reaches for a box to destroy it; but she says to herself that her eldest boy
is

gone

out, thinks that she

165

may need

the

The Unknown Guest

matches to light the gas-stove and decides to destroy them as soon as he comes back.

She takes the child up to

its
is

crib for
it

its

morning

sleep and, as she

putting

into

the cradle, she hears the usual mysterious

voice whisper in her ear
:

"Turn

the mattress."

But, being in a great hurry, she simply

says that she will turn the mattress after

the child has taken

its

nap.

She then goes

downstairs to work.

After a while, she

hears the child cry and, hurrying up to the

room,

finds the crib

and

its

bedding on
it

fire

and the

child so badly burnt that

dies

in three hours.

14
Before
about
going
further

and theorizing
that the reader

this case, let

I

us once more state the

matter precisely.

know

may

straightway

and quite legitimately

this kind.
166

deny the value of anecdotes of

The Unknown Guest

He
will say that

we have

to

do with a neu-

rotic

who

has drawn upon her imagina-

tion for all the elements that give a dra-

matic setting to the story and surround with a halo of mystery a sad but commonplace
domestic accident.

This

is

quite possible;

and
case.

it is

perfectly allowable to dismiss the

it

But

is

none the

less true that,

by

thus deliberately rejecting everything that

does not bear the stamp of mathematical or

judicial certainty,

we

risk losing as

we go

along most of the opportunities or clues which the great riddle of this world offers
us in
ness.
its

moments of

inattention or gracious-

At the beginning of an enquiry we must know how to content ourselves with

little.

For the

incident in question to be
in

convincing,

previous evidence

writing,

more or
required,

less official statements,

would be
and a

whereas we have

only the decla-

rations of the husband, a neighbour

sister.

This

is insufficient, I

agree; but

we

167

The Unknown
must
at the

Guest
cir-

same time confess that the

cumstances are hardly favourable to obtaining the proofs which

we demand.

Those

who

receive warnings of this kind either be-

lieve in

them or do not
believe in them,

believe in them.
it is

If they

quite natural

that they should not think

scientific interest

first

of

all

of the

of their trouble, or of put-

ting

down
its

in writing

and thus

authenticat-

ing

premonitory symptoms and gradual

If they

evolution.
it is

do not believe

in

them,

no

less

natural that they should not pro-

ceed to speak or take notice of inanities of

which they do not recognize the value until after they have lost the opportunity of supplying convincing proofs of them.
Also,

do not forget that the

tion
is

little

story in quesa

selected

from among
repeating

hundred

others,

which

in their turn are equally in-

decisive,

but which,

the

same

facts

and the same

tendencies with a strange

168

The Unknown Guest

persistency,

and by weakening the most

in-

veterate distrust. 1

15

Having
ciliate

said this much, in order to con-

or part company with those

who

have no intention of leaving the terra firma of science, let us return to the case before
us,

which
as

is

all

the

more

disquieting inasit

much

we may

consider

a sort of proto-

type of the tragic and almost diabolical

reticence
tions.

which we
It
is

find in

probable

most premonithat under the

mattress there was a stray match which the

child discovered

and struck;

this

is

the only

possible explanation of the catastrophe, for

there

was no

fire

burning on that floor of

the house.

If the

mother had turned the

the match;
xlix.

mattress, she
'See,

would have seen

Bozzano's cases
xlix.,

These two, especially case

and Ixvii. which tells of a personal experience of the late W. T. Stead, are supI have quoted ported by more substantial proofs.
in particular,
is

Professor Hyslop's case, because the reticence

striking.

more

169

The Unknown Guest

and, on the other hand, she would certainly

have turned the mattress

told that there

if

she

had been
it.

was

match underneath

Why

did the voice that urged her to per-

form the necessary action not add the one word that was capable of ensuring that action?

The problem moreover

is

equally

perturbing and perhaps equally insoluble whether it concerns our own subconscious
faculties,

or

spirits,

or strange intelligences.

Those who give these warnings must know

that they will be useless, because they mani-

whole but they must also know that one last word, which
festly foresee the event as a
;

they do not pronounce, would be enough

to prevent the misfortune that
is

already

consummated

in

their

prevision.

know

it

so well that they bring this

They word
it

to the very edge of the abyss, hold

susre-

pended
capture

there,
it

almost

let

it

fall

and

suddenly at the moment when its weight would have caused happiness and
170

The Unknown Guest

life to rise

once more to the surface of the

mighty
Is
it

gulf.

What
is

then

is

this

mystery?

incapacity or hostility?

If they are in-

capable,

what

the

unexpected

and

sovran force that interposes between them and us? And, if they are hostile, on
what, on
selves?

whom are they revenging themWhat can be the secret of those

games,
of those uncanny and on the most slippery and

inhuman

cruel diversions

dangerous peaks of fate?

they

Why

warn,

if

know

that the warning will be in vain?

Of whom

are they

making sport?

Is there

really an inflexible fatality by virtue of which that which has to be accomplished is

accomplished from

all

eternity?
all

But then
speech
all,
is

why

not respect silence, since

useless?

Or do

they, in spite of

per-

ceive a gleam, a crevice in the inexorable

wall?

What hope do
they
not
seen

they

find

in

it?

Have

more

clearly

than

ourselves

that

no deliverance can come

in

The Unknown
through that crevice?

Guest
could under-

One

stand this fluttering and wavering, all these efforts of theirs, if they did not know; but

here
since

it is

proved that they know everything, they foretell exactly that which they
If

might prevent.

we

press

them with

questions, they answer that there is nothing to be done, that no human power could

avert or thwart the issue.

Are they mad,

depend on the

bored, irritable, or accessory to a hideous

pleasantry?

Does our

fate

happy solution of some petty enigma or

childish
in
is

conundrum, even as our salvation,

so-called revealed religions,
cast of the

most of the
settled

by a blind and stupid

die?

Is all the liberty that

we

are granted
less

reduced to the reading of a more or

ingenious riddle?

Can

the great soul of

the universe be the soul of a great baby?

16
But, rather than pursue this subject, let
172

The Unknown Guest

us be just and admit that there
is

perhaps
re-

no way out of the maze and that our

conduct of the

proaches are as incomprehensible as the

spirits.

Indeed, what would

you have them do logic imprisons them ?

in the circle in

which our

Either they foretell

us a calamity which their predictions can-

not avert, in which case there

foretelling
it,

is

no use
it

in

or, if

they announce

to us

and

at the
it,

prevent

same time give us the means to they do not really see the future

and are
ity is

foretelling nothing, since the calam-

not to take place, with the result that

their action seems equally absurd in both

cases.
It is

obvious

to

whichever side we turn,

we

find nothing but the incomprehensible.

On

the one hand, the preestablished, un-

shakable, unalterable future which

called destiny,
fatality or

we have
will,

what you

which suppresses man's entire independence and liberty of action and which is the most
173

The Unknown Guest

inconceivable
teries
;

and the dreariest of mys-

on the other, intelligences apparently superior to our own, since they know what

we do

not, which, while

is

aware that

their

intervention

always useless

and very

often cruel, nevertheless

come harassing us

with their sinister and ridiculous predictions.

Must we
in the
is

resign ourselves once

more

to living with our eyes shut

and our reason

drowned
ness;

boundless ocean of dark-

and

there no outlet?

For the moment we

will not linger in

is

the dark regions of fatality, which

the

supreme mystery, the desolation of every effort and every thought of man. What
is

clearest

amid

this incomprehensibility
first

is

that the spiritualistic theory, at

the

sight

most seductive, declares itself, on examination, the most difficult to justify. We

will also once

more put
174

aside the theosophi-

The Unknown Guest

cal

theory or any other which assumes a

divine intention and which might, to a certain

extent,

explain

the

hesitations

and

anguish of the prophetic warnings, at the cost, however, of other puzzles, a thousand
times as hard to solve, which nothing authorizes us to substitute for the actual puzzle,

formless and

infinite,

presented to our

uninitiated vision.

When

all is said, it is

perhaps only

in the

theory which attributes those premonitions

to our subconsciousness that
find, if

we

are able to

not a justification, at least a sort of

explanation of that formidable reticence.

They accord
inconsistent,

fairly well

with the strange,

whimsical
the
to

and disconcerting
entity

character
us

of

unknown
live

within

that

seems

on

nothing

but

nondescript fare

borrowed from worlds to

which our intelligence as yet has no access. It lives under our reason, in a sort of invisible

and perhaps eternal palace,

175

like a

The Unknown Guest

casual guest, dropped

from another

planet,

whose

interests, ideas, habits, passions

in

have

naught to have notions on the hereafter that are

it

common with

ours.

If

seems

infinitely

wider and more precise than those

it

which we possess,

has only very vague

notions on the practical needs of our existence.

It ignores us for years,

absorbed no

doubt with the numberless relations which

it

maintains with
;

all

the mysteries of the

it

universe
us,

and,

when suddenly

remembers
it

thinking

apparently to please us,

makes an enormous, miraculous, but at the same time clumsy and superfluous movement, which upsets
all

that

we

believed

we
it

knew, without teaching us anything.

Is

making fun of
ing
itself,
is
it

us,

is

it

jesting,

is

it

amus-

facetious, teasing, arch, or

simply

sleepy,

bewildered,

inconsistent,
it

absent-minded?

In any case,
it

is

rather
to

remarkable

that

evidently
It readily
176

dislikes

make

itself useful.

performs the

The Unknown Guest

most glamorous
provided that
feats

of sleight-of-hand,

we
up

can derive no profit from

tables,

them.
articles,

It lifts

moves the heaviest

produces flowers and hair, sets strings vibrating, gives life to inanimate objects

and passes through

solid matter, con-

jures

up ghosts, subjugates time and space, creates light; but all, it seems, on one condition,

that

its

performances should be

without rhyme or reason and keep to the province of supernaturally vain and puerile
recreations.
is

The

case of the divining-rod

in

almost the only one

which

it

lends us

any regular assistance, this being a sort of game, of no great importance, in which it
appears to take pleasure.
say
all

Sometimes, to
consents to cure

that can be said,

it

certain ailments, cleanses an ulcer, closes a

wound, heals

a lung, strengthens or

makes

supple an arm or leg, or even sets bones, but always as it were by accident, without
reason,

method or

object,
177

in

a deceitful,

The Unknown Guest

illogical

and preposterous fashion.

it

One

would

set

down

as a spoilt child that has

been allowed to lay hands on the most tremendous secrets of heaven and earth it has
;

no suspicion of
all

their power, jumbles

them

up together and turns them into

It

paltry,

inoffensive toys.

knows everything,

perits

haps, but

is

ignorant of the uses of

It has its arms laden with knowledge. treasures which it scatters in the wrong

manner and
to

at the

wrong

time, giving bread

to the

the thirsty

and water

hungry,

overloading those

who

refuse

and stripping

the suppliant bare, pursuing those

from
it.

it

and

fleeing

from those

who flee who pursue

Lastly, even at its best moments, it behaves as though the fate of the being in
it

whose depths
at all, as

dwells interested
it

it

hardly

though

had but an

insignificant

share in his misfortunes, feeling assured,

one might almost think, of an independent

and endless

existence.
178

The Unknown
It is

Guest

not surprising, therefore,

habits, that
its

when we

know
tastic

its

communications on

the subject of the future should be as fanas

the

other manifestations of
its

its

knowledge or

power.
in

quite fair, that,

Let us add, to be those warnings which

it

we would wish

to see efficacious,

stumbles

against the same difficulties as the spirits

or other alien intelligences uselessly foretelling the event

which they cannot prevent,

or annihilating the event by the very fact of foretelling it.

18

And
known

now, to end the question,

guest alone responsible?

is

our un-

Does

it

explain itself badly or do

we

not under-

stand it?

When we
is,

look into the matter

closely, there

under those anomalous and

in spite

confused manifestations,

of efforts

which we
vering,
a

feel to be

enormous and perseincapacity

sort

of

for

self-

179

The Unknown Guest

expression and action which
attract our attention.
Is
is

bound

to

our conscious and

individual life separated by impenetrable

worlds from our subconscious and probDoes our unknown ably universal life?
guest speak an
the

unknown language and do words which it speaks and which we

that

think

we understand
Is
is

disclose

its

thought? barred and

every direct road pitilessly there nothing left to it but

narrow, closed paths in which the best of

what

it

had
reason

to reveal to us

is

lost?

Is

this the
ish,

why

it

seeks those odd, child-

roundabout ways of automatic writing,

the rest?

cross-correspondence, symbolic premonition

and

all

Yet, in the typical case

which we have quoted, it seems to speak quite easily and plainly when it says to the
mother:

"Turn
If
it
it

the mattress."

can utter this sentence,

it

why

should

find

difficult or impossible to add:

180

The Unknown Guest

"You
will
find the

matches there that

will set fire to the curtains."

What
mouth

forbids

it

to

do so and

closes its

at the decisive

moment?

We
it

relapse

into the everlasting question: if

cannot

complete the second sentence because it would be destroying in the womb the very
event which
it
is

foretelling,

why

does

it

utter the first?

19

But

it

is

well in spite of everything to

it

seek an explanation of the inexplicable;

is

by attacking

it

on every

side,

at

all

hazards, that

coming

it;

we cherish the hope of overand we may therefore say to

when
it

ourselves that our subconsciousness,

warns us of

a calamity that

is

about to

fall

knowing all the future as it necessarily knows that the calamity

upon
us,

does,
is

al-

ready accomplished.

As our
it,

conscious and
it

unconscious lives blend in

181

distresses

it-

The Unknown Guest

self

and

flutters

around our overconfident

inform
us,

ignorance.

It tries to

through

nervousness, through pity, so as to mitigate

the lightning cruelty of the blow.
all

It

speaks

words that can prepare us for its coming, define it and identify it; but it is
the

unable to say those which would prevent

from coming, seeing that it has come, that it is already present and perhaps past,
it

manifest,

ineffaceable,

on

another

plane

than that on which

we

live, the only plane

which we are capable of perceiving.

finds itself, in a

It

word,

in the position

of

the

man who,

in

the midst of peaceful,

happy and unsuspecting folk, alone knows some bad news. He is neither able nor
willing to announce
it

nor yet to hide

delays,

it

completely.

He

hesitates,

makes

more or

less

transparent allusions, but does

not either say the last

word

that would, so

to speak, let loose the catastrophe in the

hearts of the people around him, for to

182

The Unknown Guest

those
is

who do
as

not

know
it

of

it

the catastrophe

still

though

were not there.

that case,

Our
act

subconsciousness,

in

would

towards the future as we act towards the

past, the

two conditions being

identical, so

much so that it we can see more

often confuses them, as

particularly in the celeit

brated Marmontel case, where

evidently

blunders and reports as accomplished an

incident that will not take place until several

months

later.

It

is

of course impossible

for us, at the stage which

we have

reached,

to understand this confusion or this coexist-

ence of the past, the present and the future;

but that
contrary,

is

no reason for denying

it;

on the
is

what man understands

least

probably that which most nearly approaches

the truth.

20
Lastly, to complicate the question,
it

may

be very justly objected that, though pre183

The Unknown Guest

monitions
in

general are useless and appear

systematically to withhold the only indis-

pensable

and

decisive

words,

there

are,

nevertheless,

some that often seem

them.
first,

to save
is

those

who obey

These,
but
still

it

true,

are rarer than the

a
certain
It

they include

number

that are well-authenti-

cated.

remains to be seen

how

far they

imply

knowledge of the future.

is

Here, for instance,

a traveller

who,

arriving at night in a small

unknown town
dock
in

and walking along the

the
direction

ill-lighted

of

an hotel of which he

roughly knows the position, at a given moment feels an irresistible impulse to turn and go the other way. He instantly obeys,

though

his reason protests

and "berates him

for a fool" in taking a roundabout

his destination.

way

to

The

next day he discovers

that, if

he had gone a few feet farther, he

would

have slipped into the river; and, as he was but a feeble swimmer, he
certainly
184

The Unknown
would
aided
in

Guest
and un-

just as certainly, being alone

the extreme darkness, have been

1

drowned.

But

is

this a prevision
is

of an event?

for no event

to take place.

No, There is

simply an abnormal perception of the proximity of some unknown water and consequently of an imminent danger, an unexplained but fairly frequent subliminal sensitiveness.

In a word, the problem of the

future

is

not raised

in this case,

nor

in
it.

any

of the numerous cases that resemble

Here
to the

is

another which evidently belongs

class,

same

though

at first sight

it

seems to postulate the preexistence of a

fatal event

and

a vision of the future cor-

responding exactly with a vision of the past. A traveller in South America is descending
a river in a canoe; the party are just about

promontory when a sort of mysterious voice, which he has already

to run close to a
^Proceedings, vol.
xi.,

p.

422.

185

The Unknown Guest

heard
life,

at different

momentous times of

his

imperiously orders

him immediately

to

cross the river

quickly as

and gain the other shore as This appears so abpossible.

is

surd that he

obliged to threaten the In-

dians with death to force them to take this

course.

They have

scarcely crossed

more

than half the river when the promontory

falls at the

very place where they meant to

round

it.

The

perception of imminent danger

is

here, I admit,
in the previous

even more abnormal than

example, but
It
is
it

comes under

the same heading.

phenomenon

of subliminal hypersensitiveness observed

more than

once, a sort of premonition in-

duced by subconscious perceptions, which

has been christened by the barbarous name of "cryptaesthesia." But the interval be-

tween the moment when the

nalled and that at which
I

peril

is

sig-

it is

consummated

FLOURNOY: E sprits

et

mediums,
186

p. 316.

The Unknown Guest

is

too short for those questions which re-

late to a

knowledge or a preexistence of
almost the same with the

the future to arise in this instance.

The

case

is

adventure of an American dentist, very

carefully

investigated

The

dentist

which was a

Hodgson. was bending over a bench on little copper in which he was

by Dr.

vulcanizing some rubber,

voice calling,
in

when he heard

quick and imperative

manner, these words:

"Run

to the

window, quick!

Run

to

the window, quick!"

He

at once ran to the

window and looked

out to the street below,

when suddenly he

heard a tremendous report and, looking

round, saw that the copper had exploded,
1 destroying a great part of the workroom.

Here

again, a subconscious cautiousness

certain indications
It
is

was probably aroused by

^Proceedings, vol.

imperceptible to our ordinary senses.

xi.,

p.

424.

187

The Unknown
even
possible

Guest
exists

that

there

between

things and ourselves a sort of sympathy or

subliminal

communion which makes

us ex-

perience the trials and emotions of matter

that has reached the limits of
unless, as
is

its
is

existence,

merely a simple coincidence between the chance idea of a possible explosion and its realization.

more

likely, there

A last and
is

rather

more complicated
his

case

that of Jean Dupre, the sculptor,

who

was driving alone with

wife along a

mountain road, skirting a perpendicular cliff. Suddenly they both heard a voice that

seemed

to

come from the mountain

crying:

"Stop!"

They turned

round, saw nobody and con-

tinued their road.

But the

cries

were

re-

peated again and again, without anything to reveal the presence of a human being amid
the solitude.

At

last the sculptor alighted

left

wheel of the carriage, which was grazing the edge of the preci188

and saw that the

The Unknown Guest

pice,

had

lost its linch-pin

and was on the

point of leaving the axle-tree, which

would

almost inevitably have hurled the carriage

into the abyss.

Need we, even

here, relinquish the theory

of subconscious perceptions?

Do we know
tell

and can the author of the anecdote, whose

good

faith

is

not in question,

us that

certain unperceived circumstances, such as

the grating of the wheel or the swaying of

the carriage,

did not give him the

all,

first

alarm?
stories

After

we know how

easily

of this kind involuntarily take a dramatic turn even at the actual moment

and especially afterwards.

21

These examples

and there are many

are enough,
I

more of
tions.

similar kind

think, to illustrate this class of premoni-

The problem
it

in these cases

is

simpler

than when

relates to fruitless
189

warnings;

The Unknown Guest

at least
it

is

simpler so long as

we do

not

bring into discussion the question of

spirits,

of

unknown

intelligences, or of

an actual

knowledge of the future; otherwise the same difficulty reappears and the warning,
which
this

time seems efficacious, In

fact,

is

in real-

ity just as vain.

the mysterious
will

entity which knows that the traveller

go

to the water's edge, that the wheel will

be on the point of leaving the axle, that the copper will explode, or that the promontory

moment, must at the same time know that the traveller will not
will fall at a precise

take the last fatal step, that the carriage will not be overturned, that the copper will

not hurt anybody and that the canoe will

pull

away from the promontory.

It
it

is

inad-

missible that, seeing one thing,

see the other, since everything

will

not

happens at

the

same

point, in the course of the

same

second.

Can we say
190

that,

if

it

had not

given warning, the

little

saving

movement

The Unknown Guest

would not have been executed?

How

can

we imagine

a future which, at

one and the

same time, has parts that are steadfast and

others that are not? the
If
it

is

foreseen that

promontory

will

fall

and that the

traveller will escape, thanks to the super-

natural warning,

it

is

necessarily foreseen
if so,

that the warning will be given; and,

what
I see

is

the point of this futile

comedy?

no reasonable explanation of it in the spiritist or spiritualistic theory, which postulates a

complete knowledge of the future,

at least at a settled point

and moment.

On

the other hand,

if

we adhere

to the theory

of a subliminal consciousness,

we

find there

an explanation which is quite worthy of acceptation. This subliminal consciousness,

though,
clear
in

the majority of cases,

it

has no

and comprehensive vision of the imfuture,

mediate

can

nevertheless

possess

an intuition of imminent danger, thanks to

indications that escape our ordinary percep191

The Unknown
tion.
It

Guest

can also have a partial, intermitflickering vision of

if

tent

and so to speak

the future event and,

doubtful, can risk

giving an incoherent warning, which, for

that matter, will change nothing in that

which already

is.

22
In conclusion,
let

us state once

more

that

fruitful premonitions necessarily annihilate

events in the
their

bud and consequently work

any control They would have an

own

destruction, so that

becomes impossible.
existence only
if

they prophesied a general event which the subject would not escape
If they

but for the warning.

had

said to

any one intending to go to Messina two or

three

months

before

the

catastrophe,

"Don't go, for the town

before the month
is

will be destroyed

out,"

we should have
it
is

an excellent example.
able

But

a remark-

thing that genuine premonitions

192

of

The Unknown Guest

this

kind are very rare and nearly always rather indefinite in regard to events of a
In
is

general order.
collection,

M.

Bozzano's excellent

which

a sort of

compendium
both of

of premonitory phenomena, the only pretty

clear cases are nos. civ.

and

clviii.,

which are taken from the Journal of the S.P.R. a mother sent a In the first,
1

servant to bring

home her

little

daughter,

who had

already left the house with the

"railway between the seaground wall and the railway-embankment, in order

intention of going through the

garden," a strip of

on the great stones by the seaside and see the trains pass by. A few minutes
to
sit

after the

little girl's

departure, the mother

a voice

had

distinctly

and repeatedly heard

within her say:

"Send for her back, or something dreadful will

happen to her."
after, a train ran off the line
viii.,

Now, soon
^Journal, vol.

p. 45.

193

The Unknown Guest

and the engine and tender
fell,

breaking

through the protecting wall and crashing

down on

the very stones

to
sit.
1

where the

child

was accustomed

In the other case,

into

which Professor

W.
tain

F. Barrett

made

a special enquiry, Capin

MacGowan was

Brooklyn with
holidays.

his

two boys, then on

their

He

promised the boys that he would take them to the theatre and booked seats on the
previous day; but on the day of the pro-

posed

visit

he heard a voice within him con-

stantly saying:

"Do

not go to the theatre; take the boys

back to school."

He
sumed

hesitated,
it

again.

gave up his plan and reBut the words kept repeatthe end, he definitely

ing themselves and impressing themselves

upon him; and,

in

decided not to go,

disgust.
id.,

much

to the

That night
i.,

the theatre

two boys' was de-

vol.

p.

283.

194

The Unknown
stroyed by
fire,

Guest

with a loss of three hun-

dred

lives.

We may add
alluded.
tail,

to this the prevision of the

I

Battle of Borodino, to which

I will

have already

give the story in fuller de-

as told in the journal of Stephen Grel-

let

the Quaker.

About three months before

the French

army entered
in

Russia, the wife of General

Toutschkoff dreamt that she was at an inn

a

town unknown

to her

and that her

holding her
in a

father came into her room,

only son by the hand, and said to her,

pitiful tone:

"Your happiness

is

at

an end.

He"
husat

meaning Countess band "has fallen.

Borodino."

ToutschkoflPs

He

has

fallen

The dream was repeated a second and a third time. Her anguish of mind was such that she woke her husband and asked him "Where is Borodino?"
:

195

The Unknown
They looked
and did not
find

Guest
the

for the
it.

name on

map

Before the French armies reached Moscow, Count Toutschkoff was placed at the

head of the army of reserve; and one morning her father, holding her son by the hand,

entered her
staying.

room

at the inn

where she was

In great distress, as she had bein

held him

her dream, he cried out

"He
dino."

has fallen.

He

has fallen at Boro-

Then she saw herself in the very same room and through the windows beheld the
very same objects that she had seen in her dreams. Her husband was one of the many

who

perished in the battle fought near the River Borodino, from which an obscure
its

village takes

name. 1
23

This

is

evidently a very rare

of
i.,

and perhaps
of

^Memoirs
Grellet, vol.

the
p. 434.

Life

and Labours

Stephen

196

The Unknown Guest

solitary

example of a long-dated prediction of a great historic event which nobody

could foresee.
It stirs

more deeply than

any other the enormous problems of fatalBut has ity, free-will and responsibility.
it

been attested with

sufficient
I

rigour for

us to rely upon it?

That

cannot say.

In

any

case,

it

has not been sifted by the

S.P.R.

Next, from the special point of

interests us for the

view that

moment, we

are unable to declare that this premonition

had any chance of being of avail and preventing the general from going to Borodino.
It is

highly probable that he did not

know where he was going

was; besides, the
irresistible

or where he

machinery of

war held him

fast

and

it

was not

his

part to disengage his

destiny.

The
not
to

pre-

monition, therefore, could only have been

given

because

it

was

certain

be

obeyed.

As

for the two previous cases, nos.

197

civ.

The Unknown Guest

and
clviii.,

we must
is

here again remark the

usual strange reservations and observe

difficult
it

how

to explain these premonitions

save by attributing them to our subconsciousness.

The

main, unavoidable event

is

not precisely stated; but a subordinate con-

sequence seems to be averted, as though to

make

us believe in

some

definite

power of

free-will.

Nevertheless, the mysterious en-

tity that foresaw the catastrophe must also

have foreseen that nothing would happen to the person whom it was warning; and
this brings us

back to the useless farce of

which we spoke above.

theory of a subconscious

Whereas, with the

self,

the latter

may

have

as in the case of the traveller, the

promontory, the copper or the carriage

not this time by inferences or indications
that escape our perception, but by other un-

known means,
impending

peril,

vague presentiment of an or, as I have already said,

a partial, intermittent
198

and unsettled

vision

The Unknown Guest

of the future event, and, in
utter
its

its

doubt,

may
it

cry of alarm.
let

Whereupon
in

us recognize that

is

almost forbidden to
these regions;
is,

human

reason to stray

prophet

next to that of a

and that the part of a commentator

difficult

of prophecies, one of the most

thankless that a

and

man

can attempt to sustain

on the world's stage.

24
I

am

not sure

if

it

is

really necessary,
in the

before closing this chapter, to follow

wake of many

others and broach the probfuture,

lem of the preexistence of the

time and of space, that

which

includes those of fatality, of free-will, of

is

to say, all the

points that touch the essential sources of the

great mystery of the universe.

The

theo-

logians and the metaphysicians have tackled

these

problems from every side without giving us the least hope of solving them.
199

The Unknown
Among
nitely
if

Guest
sets us,

those which

life

there

is

none to which our brain seems more

defi-

and strictly closed; and they remain, not as unimaginable, at least as incom-

prehensible as on the day

first

when

they were

perceived.

What

corresponds, outside

us, with what we call time and space? We know nothing about it; and Kant, speaking in the name of the "apriorists," who hold

that the idea of time

is

innate in us, does

tells

not teach us

much when he
is
is

us that

time, like space,

sensibility, that

an a priori form of our to say, an intuition pre-

ceding experience, even as Guyau,

the "empiricists,"
idea
is

among

who

consider that this

acquired only by experience, does

not enlighten us any more by declaring that

this

same time
changes
in

is

the abstract formula of

the
universe.

the

Whether
se-

space, as Leibnitz maintains, be an order

of coexistence and time an order of

quences, whether
it

be by space that
200

we

The Unknown Guest

succeed
in

representing

time or whether

time be an essential form of any representation,

whether time be the father of space or space the father of time, one thing is
certain,

which

is

that the efforts of the

the pure empiricists

piricists all
all

Kantian or neo-Kantian apriorists and of and the idealistic em-

end

in the

same darkness; that

the philosophers

with the formidable

who have grappled dual problem, among

indiscriminately

whom
terday

one

may mention
to-day

the names of the greatest thinkers of yes-

and

Herbert

Spencer,

Helmholtz,
Stumpf,

Renouvier,

James Ward,
Balmes,

James Sully, William James,

and
endless
it;

Stuart Mill, Ribot, Fouillee, Guyau, Bain,

Lechalas,
others
that,

Dunan

have been unable to tame

their theories

and
con-

however much
and

may

tradict

one another, they are

201

all

equally

defensible

alike struggle vainly in the

The Unknown
our world.
25

Guest

darkness against shadows that are not of

To

catch a glimpse of this strange prob-

lem of the preexistence of the future, as it shows itself to each of us, let us essay more

humbly
to place

to translate
it

it

into tangible images,

were upon the stage. I am writing these lines sitting on a stone, in the shade of some tall beeches that overlook a
as
it

little

Norman

village.

It

is

one of those

lovely
life is

summer days when

the sweetness of

almost visible in the azure vase of

In the distance stretches
valley of the Seine,
rest-

earth and sky.

the immense,

fertile

with

its

green

meadows planted with

ful trees,

between which the river flows like

a long path of gladness leading to the misty

hills

of the estuary.

am

looking

down on
young

the village-square, with

lime-trees.

its

ring of

procession leaves the church

and,

amid prayers and chanting, they carry

202

The Unknown Guest

the statue of the Virgin around the sacred
pile.
I

am

conscious of
:

all

the details of

the ceremony

the sly old cure perfunctorily

bearing a small reliquary; four choirmen

opening their mouths to bawl forth vacantly the Latin words which convey nothing to them;
in

two mischievous serving-boys

little

frayed cassocks; a score of

girls

girls,
all

young

and old maids

in

white,
six

starched and flounced, followed by

or

seven .village
coats.
trees,

notables

in

baggy

frock-

The pageant

disappears behind the

of the

comes into sight again at the bend road and hurries back into the

church.
as

The

clock in the steeple strikes

five,

though
in

to ring

down

the curtain and

mark
none
tacle

the infinite history of events which

will recollect the conclusion of a spec-

which never again, until the end of the world and of the universe of worlds,
will

be just what
it

it

was during those

sec-

onds when

beguiled
203

my

wandering

eyes.

The Unknown Guest

For
in

vain will they repeat the proces-

sion next year

and every year after

never

again will

it

be the same.

Not

only will

several of the actors probably have disap-

peared, but

all

those

who resume
and

their old

places in the ranks will have undergone the

thousand

little visible

invisible

changes
In

wrought by the passing days and weeks.

a word, this insignificant

moment
all

is

unique,

irrecoverable, inimitable, as are all the

mo-

ments

in the existence

of

things; and
sec-

this little picture,

enduring for a few

onds suspended

in

boundless duration, has

it

lapsed into eternity, where henceforth

will

remain

in

its

entirety to the end of

if

time, so

much

so that,

man

could one

day recapture in the past, among what some one has called the "astral negatives,"
the image of
intact,

what

it

was, he would find

it

unchanged, ineffaceable
204

and unde-

niable.

The Unknown Guest

26
It is

not

difficult

for us to conceive that

one can thus go back and see again the astral negative of an event that is no more;

and retrospective clairvoyance appears

It astonishes

to

us a wonderful but not an impossible thing.

son.

but does not stagger our reaBut, when it becomes a question of

discovering the same picture in the future, the boldest imagination flounders at the first
step.
exists

How

are

we

to

admit that there

somewhere

a representation or repro-

duction of that which has not yet existed?

Nevertheless, some of the incidents which

we have
in

just been considering

seem to prove

an almost conclusive manner not only

that such representations are possible, but

that

we may

arrive

at

them more

fre-

quently, not to say

more conveniently, than

at those of the past.

resentation preexists,

Now, once this repas we are obliged to

number of

admit

in

the case of a certain

205

The Unknown

Guest

premonitions, the riddle remains the same

whether the preexistence be one of a few hours, a few years or several centuries. It
is

therefore possible

for,

in

these mat-

ters,

we must go

straight to extremes or else

it

leave

them alone

is

therefore possible

that a seer mightier than any of to-day,

some god, demigod or demon, some unknown, universal or vagrant intelligence, saw that procession a million years ago, at a time when nothing existed of that which
composes and surrounds it and when the very earth on which it moves had not yet
risen

from the ocean depths.

mighty
as the
first,

And

other

seers, as

who from

age

to age contemplated the

same spot and the

same moment, would always have perceived, through the vicissitudes and upheavals of seas,
shores and forests,
the

same procession going round the

little

same

church that

still

lay slumbering in the

oceanic ooze and

made up of
206

the same per-

The Unknown Guest

sons sprung from a race that

was perhaps

not yet represented on the earth.

27
It is

obviously
that

difficult

for us to under-

stand

the

future

can
is

thus

precede

chaos, that the present

at the

same time

the future and the past, or that that which

is

not yet exists already at the same time

at

which
it

it is is

no more.

But, on the other

hand,

just as

hard to conceive that

is

the future does not preexist, that there

nothing before the present and that everyIt is very thing is only present or past.
probable that, to a more universal
gence than ours, everything
nal present, an
is

intelli-

but an eter-

immense punctnm stans, as the metaphysicians say, in which all the

events are on one plane; but
it

is

no

less

probable that
are men,
in

we ourselves, so long as we order to understand anything of

always be obliged
207

this eternal present, will

The Unknown
to divide
it

Guest

into three parts.

Thus caught

between two mysteries equally baffling to our intelligence, whether we deny or admit
the preexistence of the future,

we

are really

only wrangling over words

in

the one case,

we

give the

name of
is

"present," from the

point of view of a perfect intelligence, to

that which to us
the future; in the other,

we

give the

name

of "future" to that which,

a perfect intelall,
it

from the point of view of

ligence,
is

the present.

But, after

is

incontestable in both cases that,

at

least

from our point of view, the future

since preexistence
is

preexists,

the only

name by which

we

can describe and the only form under

which we can conceive that which we do

not yet see in the present.

28

Attempts have been made to shed light

on the riddle by transferring

is

it

to space.

It

true that

it

there loses the greater part

208

The Unknown Guest

of
its

obscurity; but this apparently

is
it

be-

cause, in

changing

its

environment,
its

has

completely

changed

nature

and
it

no

longer bears any relation to what

was

when

it

was placed

in time.

We

are told,
cities

for instance,

that innumerable

dis-

tributed over the surface of the earth are

to us as
if

they were not, so long as

we

on the day when we

true;

have not seen them, and only begin to exist That is visit them.
but space,
outside
all

metaphysical
us

speculations,

has

realities

for

which

time does not possess.

Space,

although

very mysterious and incomprehensible once

we

pass certain limits,

is

nevertheless not,

like time,

incomprehensible and illusory in

all its parts.

We

are certainly quite able

to conceive that those

towns which we have

in-

never seen and doubtless never will see

dubitably
exist,

whereas we

find

it

much

more

difficult

to
fifty

imagine that the catasyears hence, will annihi209

trophe which,

The Unknown Guest

late

one of them already

itself.

exists as really as

the town

We

are capable of pic-

turing a spot whence, with keener eyes than

those which
in

we

boast to-day,

we should

see

one glance all the cities of the earth and even those of other worlds, but it is much
less

easy for us to imagine a point in the

ages whence

we should

simultaneously

dis-

cover the past, the present and the future,

because the past, the present and the future
are three orders of duration which cannot
find

room

at the

same time

in

our

intelli-

gence and which inevitably devour one another.

How

can

we

picture to ourselves,

for instance, a point in eternity at which

our
is

little

procession already exists, while

it is
it

it

not yet and although

no more?
is

Add
had
at

to this the thought that

inevitable,

necessary and

from the

millenaries which

no beginning,
leave the

that, at a given
little

moment,

a given place, the

little

procession should
a given

church
210

in

manner

The Unknown
in in

Guest
will can

and that no known or imaginable

it, change anything more than in the past; and we begin to understand that there is no hope of under-

the future any

standing.

29

We

find

among

the cases collected by

M.

Bozzano a singular premonition wherein the unknown factors of space and time are
continued in a very curious fashion. In

August,

1910,

Cavaliere

Giovanni

de

Figueroa, one of the most famous fencing-

masters at Palermo, dreamt that he was

going along a road white with dust, which brought him to a broad ploughed field. In the middle of the field
in the country,

stood a rustic building, with

floor used for store-rooms

ground-

and cow-sheds

and on the right a rough hut made of branches and a cart with some harness lying
in
it.

peasant wearing dark trousers, with a

211

The Unknown Guest

black
felt

hat on his head, came forward to

meet him, asked him to follow him and took him round behind the house. Through a
low, narrow door they entered a
little

stable

with a short, winding stone staircase leading to a loft over the entrance to the house.

A mule

fastened to a swinging
;

manger was

blocking the bottom step and the chevalier had to push it aside before climbing the
staircase.

On

reaching the

loft,

he noticed

that

were suspended strings of melons, tomatoes, onions and Indian

ceiling

from the

corn.

In this

room were two women and

a

little girl;

and through

door leading to

another room he caught sight of an extremely

high bed, unlike any that he had ever seen

before.

Here

the

dream broke

off.

It

seemed

to

him so strange that he spoke of it to several of his friends, whom he mentions by name
and who are ready
ments.
212

to confirm his state-

The Unknown
On
in

Guest
in the

the

2th of October

same

year,

order to support a fellow-townsman in a duel, he accompanied the seconds, by motor-

from Naples to Marano, a place which he had never visited nor even heard of. As
car,

soon as they were some way in the country, he was curiously impressed by the white and
dusty road.

The

car pulled up at the side

at once

of a

field

which he

recognized.

They alighted; and he remarked to one of

the seconds:

"This

is

not the

first

time that

have

been here.

There should be

a house at the

path and on the right a hut and a cart with some harness in it."
this

end of

As

a matter of fact, everything

it.

was

as he

described

An

instant later, at the exact

moment
in

foreseen by the dream, the peasant

the dark trousers and the black felt hat

to follow him. But,

came up and asked him

went
in front,

instead of walking behind him, the chevalier

for he already
213

knew

the way.

The Unknown Guest

He
found the stable and, exactly at the place which it occupied two months before,
near
the
its

swinging manger, the mule blocking

to

way

the staircase.

The

fencing-

master went up the steps and once more saw the loft, with the ceiling hung with melons,
onions and tomatoes, and, in a corner on the
right, the

two

silent

women and

the child,

identical with the figures in his

in

dream, while
the bed
so

room he recognized whose extraordinary height had

the next
It really

much

impressed him.
looks as
if

the facts themselves,

the extramundane realities, the eternal verities,

or whatever

them, have tried

we may be to show us

pleased to

call

here that time

and space are one and the same illusion, one and the same convention and have no existence outside our
little

day-spanned underterms and reign

cross

standing; that "everywhere" and "always"

are exactly synonymous

alone

as

soon

as

we
214

the

narrow

The Unknown Guest

boundaries of the obscure consciousness in

ready to admit that Cavaliere de Figueroa may have had by clairvoyance an exact and detailed
live.

which we

We

are quite

vision of places
until later: this

which he was not to

is

visit
alit

a pretty frequent
r

and
as

most

classical

phenomenon, w hich,

affects the realities

of space, does not as-

tonish us beyond measure and, in any case,

does not take us out of the world which

our senses perceive. The field, the house, the hut, the loft do not move; and it is no
miracle that they should be found in the

same
enon

place.

But,
all is

suddenly, quitting this

stationary, the
in

domain where
is

phenomthose un-

transferred to time and,

known
drama

places, at the foretold second, brings

all

together
in

the

moving

actors of that
first

little

two

acts,

of which the
a

was

performed some two and

before,
in

half

months

the depths of

some mysterious

other

life

where

it

seemed to be motion215

The Unknown Guest

lessly
trial

and irrevocably awaiting

realization.

its

terres-

Any
in the

explanation would

but condense this vapour of petty mysteries

into a

few drops

ocean of mysteries.
in passing, the

Let us note here again,

strange freakishness of these premonitions.

They accumulate
mains

the most precise and

cir-

cumstantial details as long as the scene reinsignificant,

but come to a sudden

stop before the one tragic and interesting scene of the drama the duel and its issue.
:

Here again we recognize

our unknown guest.

the inconsistent,

impotent, ironical or humorous habits of

30
But we
vain
time.
will not

prolong these somewhat

concerning
space

speculations

and

We

are merely playing with words

that represent very badly ideas which

we
up,

do not put

into

form

at all.

To sum

if it is difficult

for us to conceive that the

216

The Unknown Guest

future preexists, perhaps
difficult
it

is

even more
it

for us to understand that

does

not exist; moreover, a certain number of

facts tend to
definite
nity,

prove that it is as real and and has, both in time and in eter-

same permanence and the same vividness as the past. Now, from the mothe

ment that
that

it

preexists,

it

is

not surprising
it; it is

we should be

able to

know
it

even

astonishing, granted that

overhangs us on

every side, that

ener and

we should not discover it oftIt

more easily.

remains to be learnt
life
if

what would become of our

thing were foreseen in
folding beforehand,
it,

everyit

if

we saw

units

in its entirety,

with

events which would have to be inevitable,

because,

were possible for us to avoid them, they would not exist and we could
if it

not perceive them.

Suppose

that, instead of

being abnormal, uncertain, obscure, debatable

and very unusual, prediction became, so to speak, scientific, habitual, clear and infal217

The Unknown Guest

lible
:

in a short time,
it

having nothing more

to foretell,
instance,
it

would

die of inanition. If, for

to

was prophesied

me

that I

must
I

die in the

course of a journey in Italy,

should naturally abandon the journey; therefore it could not have been predicted
to

me; and thus

all life

would soon be noth-

ing but inaction, pause and abstention, a

sort of vast desert
still-born

where the embryos of events would be gathered in heaps

and where nothing would grow save perhaps one or two more or less fortunate enterprises

and the

little

insignificant incidents

which no one would trouble

to avoid.

But
is

these again are questions to which there

no solution; and we
further.

will not pursue

them

218

CHAPTER

IV

THE ELBERFELD HORSES

CHAPTER
I

IV

THE ELBERFELD HORSES

WILL

sible,

sum up as briefly as posfor whoso may still be ignorant

first
it

of them, the facts which

is

necessary to

know

if

one would fully understand the

marvellous story of the Elberfeld horses. For a detailed account, I can refer him to

Herr Karl

Krall's remarkable work,

Den-

kende Tiere (Leipsic, 1912), which is the first and principal source of information

amid

a bibliography that

is

already assum-

ing considerable dimensions.

Some twenty
von Osten.

years ago there lived in

Berlin an old misanthrope

He

was
little

named Wilhelm man with a small

ways

private income, a

eccentric in his

and obsessed by one

animals.

idea, the intelligence of

He

began by undertaking the

221

The Unknown
definite results.

Guest

education of a horse that gave him no very

But, in 1900, he became

the owner of a Russian stallion who, under

the

name of Hans, to which was soon added the Homeric and well-earned prefix
of Kluge, or Clever, was destined to upset

all

our notions of animal psychology and to raise questions that rank among the most

unexpected and the most absorbing problems which man has yet encountered.

Thanks

to

Von

Osten, whose patience,

think,

contrary to

what one might

was

in

no wise angelic but resembled rather a

frenzied obstinacy, the horse

made

rapid

and extraordinary progress.

is

This progress very aptly described by Professor E.

Clarapede, of the university of Geneva, who says, in his excellent monograph on the

Elberf eld horses

"After making him familiar with various

common

ideas, such as right, left, top, bot222

The Unknown Guest

began to teach him arithmetic by the intuitive method. Hans was brought to a table on which were
placed
small
first

torn

and so

on, his master

one,

then

two,

then several

skittles.

Von

Osten, kneeling beside

Hans, uttered the corresponding numbers, at the same time making him strike as many
blows with
on the
his

hoof as there were

skittles

Before long, the skittles were replaced by figures written on a blackboard. The results were astonishing. The horse
table.

was capable not only of counting (that is to say, of striking as many blows as he was
asked), but also of himself making real
calculations, of solving little problems.
.
.

But Hans could do more than mere

:

sums he knew how to read he was a musi;

cian,

distinguishing between

harmonious

and dissonant chords.

:

He

also

had an

ex-

traordinary memory he could tell the date of each day of the current week. In short,

he got through

all

the tasks which an intel223

The Unknown Guest

ligent schoolboy of fourteen
is

able to per-

form."
2

The rumour

of these curious experiments

soon spread; and visitors flocked to the little stable-yard in which Von Osten kept
his singular pupil at work. The newspapers took the matter up and a fierce controversy broke forth between those who believed in
;

the genuineness
those

who

of the phenomenon and saw no more in it than a bare-

faced fraud.

scientific

committee was

appointed in 1904, consisting of professors of psychology and physiology, of the director of a zoological garden, of a circus-

manager and of veterinary surgeons and

cavalry-officers.

The committee

discovered

nothing suspicious, but ventured upon no explanation. A second committee was then
appointed, numbering

among

its

members

Herr Oskar Pfungst, of the Berlin psychoHerr Pfungst, after a logical laboratory.
224

The Unknown Guest

long series of experiments, drew up a volu-

minous and crushing report, in which he maintained that the horse was gifted with

no

intelligence,

that

it

did not recognize

it

either letters or figures, that

really

knew

neither

how

to calculate nor

how

to count,
in-

but merely obeyed the imperceptible,

finitesimal

and
its

unconscious
master.

signs

which

escaped from

Public opinion veered round suddenly

and completely.
cowardly
to

People

felt a sort

of half-

relief at

beholding the prompt

collapse of a miracle which was threatening

throw confusion

into

the self-satisfied

little

fold of established truths.

in

Poor Von
never re-

Osten protested

vain

no one listened to

him; the verdict

was

given.

He

covered from this

official
all

blow; he became

the laughing-stock of
at
first

those

whom

he had

astounded; and he died, lonely and

embittered, on the 2Qth of June, 1909, at

the age of seventy-one.
225

The Unknown
3

Guest

But he

left a disciple

whose

faith

had

not been shaken by the general defection.

A well-to-do
Krall,

Elberfeld manufacturer,
interest in

Herr

had taken a great

Von

Osten's labours and, during the latter years

of the old man's

life,

had eagerly followed

and even on occasion directed the education

of the wonderful stallion.

Von Osten
on
his

left

Kluge Hans to him by will; side, Krall had bought two Arab

own

stallions,

Muhamed

and Zarif whose prowess soon surpassed that of the pioneer. The whole question was reopened, events took a vigor>

ous and decisive turn and, instead of a

weary, eccentric old man, discouraged almost to sullenness and with no weapons for
the struggle, the critics of the miracle found

themselves

faced

by

young and
markable

high-spirited,
scientific

new adversary, endowed with requick-witted,

instinct,

scholarly and well able

226

to

defend himself.

The Unknown Guest

His educational methods
terially

also differ
It

ma-

from Von Osten's.

was

a strange

thing, but deep

down

in the

rather queer,
enthusiast

cross-grained

soul

of the

old

there had grown up gradually a sort of hatred for his four-legged pupil. He felt
the stallion's proud and nervous will resist-

ing his with an obstinacy which he qualified

as diabolical.
like

They stood up to each other two enemies; and the lessons almost

assumed the form of a tragic and secret struggle in which the animal's soul rebelled
against man's domination.
Krall,

on the other hand,

this

adores

his

pupils;
in

atmosphere of affection has a manner of speaking humanized them.

and

There are no longer those sudden movements of wild panic which reveal the ancestral dread of man in the quietest and besttrained horse.

He

talks to

them long and

his chil-

tenderly, as a father

might talk to

dren; and

we have

the strange feeling that

227

The Unknown
they listen to
it.

Guest

all

that he says and understand

If they appear not to grasp an explana-

tion or a demonstration,

he will begin
paraphrase

it

all

over again, analyze

it,

it

ten

times in succession, with the patience of a

mother.

And

so their progress has been

in-

comparably swifter and more astounding than that of old Hans. Within a fortnight
of the
little
first

lesson,

Muhamed

did simple
quite

addition-

and subtraction-sums

correctly.

He had learnt

to distinguish the

tens

from the

units, striking the latter

with

his right foot

and the former with

his left.

He knew

the

and minus.

meaning of the symbols plus Four days later, he was beginIn four

ning multiplication and division.

months' time, he knew

;

how

to extract square

and cubic roots and, soon after, he learnt to spell and read by means of the conventional
alphabet devised by Krall.

This alphabet,

at the first glance,

seems
it is

rather complicated.

For that matter,

228

The Unknown Guest

only a makeshift; but

how

could one find

anything better?

The

unfortunate horse,

who
in

is

almost voiceless, has only one

way

which to express himself: a clumsy hoof, which was not created to put thought into words. It became necessary, therefore, to
contrive, as in table-turning, a special alphabet, in

which each

letter

is

designated by a

certain

number of blows
left.

struck by the right

is

foot and the

Here

the copy handed

to visitors at Elberfeld to enable

them

to

follow the horse's operations:

The Unknown Guest

To mark
the letter E, for instance, the
stallion will strike

one blow with

;

his left

foot and one with his right

for the letter L,

two blows with

his

his left foot

and three with

right; and so on.

The

horses have this

alphabet so deeply imprinted in their

mem-

ory that, practically speaking, they never make a mistake and they strike their hoofs
;

so quickly, one after the other, that at

first

one has some

difficulty in

following them.

MuhamedandZarif
was almost equal
the

forZarif sprogress

to that of his fellow-pupil,

little

though he seems a
standpoint

less gifted

from

of higher mathematics
in this

Muhamed
names of

and Zarif

way reproduce

the words spoken in their presence, spell the

their visitors, reply to questions

put to them and sometimes

servations,
little

make

little

ob-

personal and spontaneous

shall return present-

reflections to

which we

ly. They have created for their own use an inconceivably fantastic and phonetic system
2.30

The Unknown Guest

of spelling which they stubbornly refuse to relinquish and which often makes their
writing rather
difficult to read.

Deeming

most of the vowels

useless,

they keep almost

exclusively to the consonants; thus Zucker,

for instance, becomes

Z K

R, Pferd,

P F
many
by

R T
I

or

F R

T, and so on.

will not set forth in detail the

different proofs of intelligence lavished

the

singular

inhabitants

of

this

strange

stable.

They

are not only first-class calthe most repellent frac-

culators, for

whom

tions

and roots possess hardly any secrets: they distinguish sounds, colours, and scents, read the time on the face of a watch, recognize
certain

geometrical

figures,

like-

nesses

and photographs. Following on these more and more con-

and especially after the publication of Krall's great work, Denkende Tiere, a model of precision and arclusive experiments

rangement, men's minds were faced with a

231

The Unknown
clear

Guest
this time,

and

definite

problem which,

could not be challenged.

tees

Scientific

commit-

followed one another at Elberfeld;

their reports

and

became

legion.

Learned

men of every

country

including Dr. Ed-

inger, the eminent Frankfort neurologist;

Professors Dr.

H. Kraemer and H. E.

Ziegler, of Stuttgart; Dr. Paul Sarasin, of

Bale; Professor Ostwald, of Berlin; Professor A. Beredka, of the Pasteur Institute

;

Dr. E. Clarapede, of the university of Geneva Professor Schoeller and Professor

;

Gehrke, the natural philosopher, of Berlin; Professor Goldstein, of Darmstadt; Pro-

von Buttel-Reepen, of Oldenburg; Professor William Mackenzie, of Genoa;

fessor

Professor R. Assagioli, of Florence; Dr.

Hartkopf, of Cologne; Dr. Freudenberg, of Brussels; Dr. Ferrari, of Bologna, etc.,

etc.,

for the

list is

lengthening daily

came

to study on the spot the inexplicable phe-

nomenon which Dr. Clarapede proclaims

232

The Unknown Guest

to be "the

most sensational event that has

in the

ever happened

psychological world."

With
tics

the exception of two or three scep-

or convinced misoneists and of those

too short a stay at Elberfeld,
in
all

who made
facts

were unanimous
were

recognizing

that

the

as stated

and that the

experifair-

ments were conducted with absolute

ness. Disagreement begins only when it becomes a matter of commenting on them, interpreting them and explaining them.

To
case

complete

this short

preamble,

it

is

right to

add

that, for

some time

past, the

of the

Elberfeld horses

no longer

stands quite alone.

There

exists at

Mann-

heim

dog of

a rather doubtful breed

who
his

performs

almost

the
is

same
less

feats

as

equine rivals.

He

advanced than
little

they

in arithmetic,

but does

additions,

subtractions and multiplications of one or

two

figures correctly.
233

He

reads and writes

The Unknown
by tapping with his paw, an alphabet which, it
also
in

Guest
accordance with
he

appears,

has

thought out for himself; and

is

his spelling

simplified

and phoneticized

to the

utmost.

He

distinguishes the colours in a

bunch of

flowers, counts the

money
and

in

purse and separates the marks from the

pfennigs.

He

knows how

to seek

find

words to define the object or the picture

placed before him.
stance,

You show

him, for

in-

a bouquet in a vase
is.

and ask him

what

it

"A glass And his

a

with

little

flowers," he replies.

answers

are

often

curiously

spontaneous and

original.
in

In the course of
the

reading-exercise

which

word

Herbst, autumn, chanced to attract attention, Professor William Mackenzie asked

him

if

he could explain what autumn was.

is

"It

the time

when

there are apples/'

Rolf replied.

On

the

same

occasion, the
'234

same profes-

The Unknown Guest

sor,

without knowing what

it

represented,

held out to him a card

marked with red

and blue squares: "What's this?"

"Blue, red, lots of cubes," replied the dog.

Sometimes
in

his repartees are not lacking

humour.
"Is there anything you

would

like

me

to

do for you?"
asked, one day.

a lady of his acquaintance

And Master
tail!"

Rolf gravely answered: "Wedelen" which means, "Wag your

comparatively has not like illustrious rivals his young, yet, of the Rhine Province, been the object of
Rolf,

whose

fame

is

minute enquiries and copious and innumerable reports. But the incidents which I

have

just

mentioned and which are vouched

for by such

men

as Professor

Mackenzie

and

M.

Duchatel, the learned and clear-

sighted vice-president of the Societe Uni235

The Unknown
Mannheim
for

Guest
1

verselle d'Etudes Psychiques,

who went
purpose

to

the

express

of

studying them, appear to be no more controvertible than the Elberfeld occurrences,

of which they are a sort of replica or echo. It is not unusual to find these coincidences

amongst
ters

abnormal

phenomena.
in different

They

spring up simultaneously

quarof the globe, correspond with one anin

is

other and multiply as though

to
a

obedience

word of command.

It
still

probable

therefore that

we

shall see

more man-

ifestations of the

same

class.

One might
passing over
in
is

almost say that a

the world and,
forces

new
after

spirit is

awakening

whereof he was not aware,

man now
in-

reaching other creatures

who

with us

habit this mysterious earth, on which they

live, suffer

and

die, as

we

do, without

know-

ing why.
1 See the interesting lecture by M. Edmond Duchatel, published in the Annales des sciences Psychiques, Oc-

tober 1913.

236

The Unknown Guest

5
I

have not been to Mannheim, but

to

made my pilgrimage
away with me
those

Elberfeld

and

stayed long enough in the town to carry

the conviction shared by the journey.
all

who have undertaken

few months ago, Herr Krall,

whom

had promised the year before that I would come and see his wonderful horses, was kind
enough to repeat
pressing
fashion,
his invitation in a

more

adding that his stable would perhaps be broken up after the i5th of September and that, in any case, he

would be obliged, by
of training which
fatiguing.
I

his doctor's orders,

to interrupt for an indefinite period a course

he

found exceedingly

at once left for Elberfeld, which, as

everybody knows, is an important manufacturing-town in Rhenish Prussia and is, in

fact,

more

quaint, pleasing
I

than one might expect.

237

and picturesque had long since

The Unknown Guest

read everything that had been published on
the question; and
I

was wholly persuaded

Indeed
to have

of the genuineness of the incidents.

it

would be

difficult

any doubts

after the repeated

sion

and unremitting superviand verification to which the experi-

ments are subjected, a supervision which is of the most rigorous type, often hostile and
almost ill-mannered.
pretation, I

As

for their intertelepathy,

was convinced that

that

is

to say, the transmission of thought

to another, re-

from one subconsciousness

mained, however strange
it

might be

in this

new

region, the only acceptable theory; and

this in spite

of certain circumstances that

it.

seemed plainly to exclude

of telepathy proper,

In default

I inclined

towards the

mediumistic or subliminal

theory,

which

was very ably outlined by M. de Vesmes

in a

remarkable lecture delivered, on the

of

22nd
Societe

December,
238

1912,

before

the

Universelle

d'Etudes

Psychiques.

The Unknown Guest

It
is

true that telepathy, especially

its

when

carried to
all to

extreme

limits,

appeals above

the subliminal forces, so that the two

theories overlap at

and
the

it

is

more than one point often difficult to make out where

But
be more appropriate a

first

ends and the second begins.

this discussion will

little

later.

6
I

found Herr Krall

in

his goldsmith's-

shop, a sort of palace of Golconda, stream-

ing and glittering with the most precious

pearls and stones on earth.
it

Herr

Krall,

is

well to remember, in order to dispel

any suspicion of pecuniary interest, is a rich manufacturer whose family for three generations,

from father

to son, have conducted

one of the most important jewellery-busi-

Germany. His researches, so far from bringing him the least profit, cost him
nesses in
a great deal of

money, take up all his leisure and some part of the time which he would
239

The Unknown Guest

otherwise devote to his business and, as
usually

happens,

procure

him from
a

his

fellow-citizens

and from not

few

scientific

men more
His work

annoyance, unfair criticism and

sarcasm than consideration or gratitude.

is

preeminently the disinterested

and thankless task of the apostle and

pioneer.

For the
faith
is

rest,

Herr

Krall,

though

his

active, zealous and infectious, has

in

nothing

common

with the visionaries or

a

illuminati.

He

is

man

of about

fifty,

vigorous, alert and enthusiastic, but at the

same time well-balanced; accessible to every idea and even to every dream, yet practical
and methodical, with
invincible

a ballast of the

most

common-sense.

He

inspires

from

the outset that fine confidence, frank and

unrestrained, which instantly disperses the

instinctive doubt, the strange uneasiness

and

the veiled suspicion that generally separate

two people who meet for the

240

first

time

and

The Unknown Guest

one welcomes
in

him, from the very depths

of one's being, the honest man, the staunch

friend
is

whom

one can

trust

and

whom

one

sorry not to have

known

earlier in life.

We

go together through the streets and

few hundred steps from

along the bustling quays of Elberfeld to the

stable, situated at a

the shop.

The

horses are taking the air

outside the doors of their boxes, in the yard

shaded by a lime-tree. There are four of them: Muhamed, the most intelligent, the

most gifted of them

little less

all,

the great mathe-

matician of the party; his double, Zarif, a

advanced,

less tractable, craftier,

but at the same time

more

fanciful,

more
dis-

spontaneous and capable of occasional

concerting sallies; next, Hanschen,

a little

Shetland pony, hardly bigger than a Newfoundland dog, the street-urchin of the
band,

always quivering with excitement,

roguish, flighty, uncertain and passionate,

but ready

in a

moment
241

to

work you

out the

The Unknown Guest

most
difficult

addition-

and multiplication-

sums with a furious scrape of the hoof; and lastly the latest arrival, the plump and
placid Berto,
quite blind

an imposing black

stallion,

He
and

and lacking the sense of smell. has been only a few months at school
is still,

so to speak, in the preparatory

a little

class,
ily,

but already does

more clums-

but more good-humouredly and consmall addition- and subtrac-

scientiously

tion-sums quite as well as

the

many

a child of

same age.

In a corner,

Kama,

young elephant two

or three years old, about the size of an out-

rageously "blown" donkey, rolls his mischievous and almost knavish eyes under the
shelter of his

wide

ears,

each resembling a
in-

great rhubarb-leaf, and with his stealthy,

sinuating trunk carefully picks up whatever he considers fit to eat, that is to say, pretty

well everything that

lies

about on the stones.

but

Great

things

were

hoped of him,
242

The Unknown Guest

hitherto he has disappointed
tions
:

all

expecta-

he

is

the dunce of the establishment.

is

Perhaps he

too young

still

his little ele-

phant-soul no doubt resembles that of a

sucking-babe which,

in the

place of

its

feet

and hands, plays with the stupendous nose that must first explore and question the universe.
It is

impossible to grip his attention;

set

and,

when they

out before him his

al-

phabet of movable letters, instead of naming those which are pointed out to him he
applies himself to pulling

them

off

their

stems,
tiously.

in

order to swallow them surreptiHe has disheartened his kind

master, who, pending the coming of the

reason and
boscidian

wisdom promised by the prolegends, leaves him in a con-

tented state of ignorance

ful

made more

bliss-

by an almost

insatiable appetite.

But

ask to see the great pioneer, Kluge

Hans, Clever Hans.

He
243

is still

alive.

He

The Unknown Guest

is

old

he must be sixteen or seventeen but

;

his old age, alas,

is

not exempt from the

baneful troubles
selves suffer
in

from which men themtheir decline!

it

Hans
is

has

turned out badly,

appears, and

never

mentioned save

in

ambiguous terms.
I

An

imprudent or vindictive groom,

forget

which, having introduced a mare into the

yard,

Hans

the Pure,

who

till

then had led

an austere and monkish existence, vowed

to celibacy, science

and the chaste delights

of figures,

Hans

the Irreproachable incon-

head and cut himself open on the hanging-rail of his stall. They had to force back his intestines and sew up his
tinently lost his
belly.

He

is

now

rusticating miserably in

meadow

outside the town.

So true

it

is

that a life cannot be judged except at

close

its

and that we are sure of nothing

8

until

we

are dead.

Before

the

sitting
244

begins,

while

the

The Unknown Guest

master
is

making

his

morning
speak to

inspection, I

go up
while

to

Muhamed,

him, looking straight into

in

him and pat his eyes meanand

in

order to catch a sign of his genius.

creature, well-bred

The handsome

hard condition, is as calm and trusting as a dog; he shows himself excessively gra-

and friendly and huge licks and mighty

cious

tries to

give

me some
I

kisses

which

do

my
unex-

best to avoid because they are a

little

expected and overdemonstrative.

pression of his limpid antelope-eyes
serious

The
is

deep,

and remote, but

of

it

differs in

no wise

from that of
sands

his brothers

who, for thounothing but

years,

have seen
in

brutality

and ingratitude

man.
it

If

we

were able
which we

to read anything there,

would

not be that insufficient and vain

call

little effort

thought, but rather an inde-

finable, vast anxiety, a

tear-dimmed regret
plains

for

the

boundless,

stream-crossed

where

his sires sported at will before they

245

The Unknown Guest

knew man's yoke.
beating
cobbles,
off

In any case, to see him

thus fastened by a halter to the stable-door,

the
flies

and absently pawing the

is

Muhamed

nothing more than a

to be waiting

well-trained horse

who seems

for his saddle or harness and

who

hides his

profoundly which nature has buried in him.

new

secret as

as all the others

But they are summoning me to take my place in the stable where the lessons are
given.
It is a

small room, empty and bare,

with peat-moss

washed

walls.

bedding and whiteThe horse is separated from

litter

the people present by breast-high

partitions.

wooden

Opposite

the

four-legged
;

scholar

is

a black-board, nailed to the wall

and on one side a corn-bin which forms a

seat for the spectators.
in.

Muhamed
nervous,

is

led

Krall,

who

is

little

makes

no

secret of his uneasiness.

246

His horses are

The Unknown Guest

fickle animals, uncertain, capricious

and

ex-

tremely

sensitive.

trifle

disturbs them,
off.

confuses them,

puts

them

At such
irre-

times, threats, prayers

sistible

and even the

and good rye-bread They obstinately refuse to do any work and they answer at random. Everything depends on a whim, the state of
carrots

charm of

are useless.

the weather, the morning meal or the impression which the visitor
Still,

makes upon them.

is

Krall seems to know, by certain im-

perceptible signs, that this

not going to

be a bad day.

Muhamed

quivers with ex-

citement, snorts loudly through his nostrils,

utters a series of indistinct little whinnyings
:

excellent

symptoms,

it

appears.

take

my

seat

on the corn-bin.

The

master, standin

ing beside the black-board, chalk

introduces
as to a

hand,

me

to

Muhamed

in

due form,

human

being:
attention!

"Muhamed,
uncle"

This

is

your

pointing to

me
247

"who has come

The Unknown Guest

honour you with a visit. Mind you don't disappoint him. His name
all

the

way

to

Krall pronounces the Mah. u You German-fashion: syllable understand: Maeterlinck. Now show him
is

Maeterlinck."

first

that you
spell a

know your letters and that you can name correctly, like a clever boy.
and, on

Go ahead, we're listening." Muhamed gives a short neigh

first

the small, movable board at his feet, strikes

left

with his right hoof and then with his the number of blows which correspond

with the letter

in

the conventional

al-

phabet used by the horses. Then, one after the other, without stopping or hesitating, he

marks the

letters

ADRLINSH,
in the equine
is

rep-

resenting the unexpected aspect which

my

humble name assumes

and phonetics.

mind
read-

His attention
is

called to

the fact that there

ily

a mistake.

He

agrees and replaces the S

by a

and then the

by a K.
248

They

insist

that

The Unknown Guest

he must put a

instead of the

D;

but

Muhamed,
his

content with his work, shakes head to say no and refuses to make

any further corrections.

10
I

assure you that the

first

shock

is

rather

disturbing,
I

am

quite

however much one expected it. aware that, when one describes
is

these things, one

taken for a dupe too

readily dazzled by the doubtless childish

illusion

of an ingeniously-contrived scene.
illusions

But what contrivances, what

have

we here?

Do

they

lie in

the spoken

word?
just to

Why,
and

to admit that the horse understands

translates his master's

words

is

accept the most extraordinary part of the

phenomenon

Is

it

a case of surreptitious

touches or conventional signs?

However
one

simple-minded

one

may

be,

would

nevertheless notice
a horse,

them more

easily than

even a horse of genius.

249

Krall

The Unknown Guest

never lays a hand on the animal he moves all round the little stable, which contains
;

no appliances of any sort for the most part, he stands behind the horse, which is un;

able to see him, or comes and

his guest

sits

beside

on the innocuous corn-bin, busying while himself, lecturing his pupil, in writing up the minutes of the lesson.

He

also

welcomes with the most serene readiness

any
restrictions or tests

which you propose.

is

I assure

you that the thing itself

much

simpler and clearer than the suspicions of the arm-chair critics and that the most distrustful
est idea

mind would not

entertain the faint-

of fraud in the frank, wholesome

atmosphere of the old stable. "But," some one might

"Krall,

have

said,

who knew

to Elberfeld,

hearsed his
apparently

that you were coming had of course thoroughly relittle exercise in spelling, which

is

only an exercise

in

memory."
I

For

conscience' sake,
250

though

did not

The Unknown Guest

look upon the objection as serious, mitted
it

sub-

to Krall,
it

who

at

once said:
Dictate to the

"Try
syllables,

for yourself.

horse any

German word of two

it

or three

I'll go strongly. emphasizing out of the stable and leave you alone with

him."

Behold
I

confess

Muhamed and me by ourselves. I that I am a little frightened.

felt less

have many a time

of the earth.
exactly
?

uncomfortable

in

the presence of the great ones or the kings

Whom am
I first

dealing with

However, and speak aloud the

summon my courage
word
that occurs

to me, the

name of
a little

the hotel at which I

am

staying:

Weidenhof.

At

first,

Muhamed,

who seems

absence, appears not to hear

puzzled by his master's me and does

I

not even deign to notice that

am

there.

But

repeat eagerly, in varying tones of

by turns insinuating, threatening, beseeching and commanding

voice,
:

251

The Unknown Guest

"Weidenhof!
hof!"

Weidenhof!

Weiden-

At
ears

last,

my

mysterious companion sud-

denly makes up his mind to lend

me

his

and straightway blithely raps out the following letters, which I write down on

the black-board as they come:

WE
spelling!
call in
is

D N H O Z.
specimen of equine
I

It is a magnificent

Triumphant and bewildered,

it

friend Krall, who, accustomed as he

quite natural,

to the prodigy, thinks

but knits his brows:

"What's

this,

a mistake again.

Muhamed? You've made It's an F you want at the

Just correct
it

end of the word, not a Z.

at once, please."

And

the docile

Muhamed,

recognizing
his

his blunder, gives the three

blows with

right hoof, followed by the four blows with

252

The Unknown Guest

which represent the most unexceptionable F that one could ask for.
his left,

Observe, by the way, the logic of his

phonetic writing: contrary to his habit, he
strikes the
is

mute

after the

W,
it

because

it

indispensable; but, finding

it

included in

the D, he considers
presses
it

superfluous and sup-

with a high hand.

You

rub your eyes, question yourself, ask

in

yourself

the presence of

what humanized

phenomenon, of what unknown force, of what new creature you stand. Was all this what they hid in their eyes, those silent
brothers of ours?
injustice.

You

blush at man's long

for

You look around you

some

sort of trace, obvious or subtle, of the mystery.

You

feel yourself attacked in

your

citadel, where you held yourself most certain and most impregnable. You

innermost

have
face.
if

felt a

breath from the abyss upon your

You would

not be more astonished

you suddenly heard the voice of the dead.

253

The Unknown

Guest
is

But the most astonishing thing

are not astonished for long.

that you
all,

We
it

un-

known
it

to ourselves, live in the expectation

of the extraordinary; and,

when

comes,

moves us much
It is as

tion.
stinct,

than did the expectathough a sort of higher inless

is

which knows everything and

not

ignorant of the miracles that hang over our

heads, were reassuring us in advance and

helping us to

make an

easy entrance into

the regions of the supernatural.

There

is

nothing to which we grow accustomed more readily than to the marvellous; and it is
only afterwards, upon reflection, that our

which knows hardly anything, appreciates the magnitude of certain phenomena.

intelligence,

ii

But

Muhamed

gives unmistakable signs

of impatience to show that he has had

sion

enough of spelling. Thereupon, as a diverand a reward, his kind master suggests

254

The Unknown Guest

the extraction of a few square and cubic
roots.

Muhamed

appears delighted: these

are his favourite problems; for he takes less

interest than

formerly

in the

most

difficult

multiplications and divisions.

He
on

doubtless

thinks

them beneath him.

therefore
writes the
I

Krall

black-

board various numbers of which

take note.
tests the

did not

Moreover,
fact
it

nobody now conthat the horse works them

as

with ease,

would hardly be

interesting to

reproduce here several rather grim problems of which numerous variants will be

found

in

the accounts and reports of experi-

ments

signed

by

Drs.

Mackenzie

and

Hartkopff,

by Overbeck,

many
larly

others.
is

What

strikes

Clarapede and one particuI

the facility, the quickness,

was

almost saying the joyous carelessness with

which the strange mathematician gives the

answers.

The

last figure is

hardly chalked
is

upon the board before the right hoof

255

The Unknown
by the
is

Guest

striking off the units, followed immediately

left

hoof marking the

tens.

There

not a sign of attention or reflection; one

is

not even aware of the exact

at the

moment
;

at

which the horse looks

problem

and

the answer seems to spring automatically

from an

invisible

intelligence.

Mistakes
it

are rare or frequent according as

hap-

pens to be a good or bad day with the horse; but, when he is told of them, he
nearly always corrects them.

Not

unsel-

dom, the number is reversed: 47, for instance, becomes 74; but he puts it right
without demur when asked.
I

am

manifestly dumbfounded; but per-

haps these problems are prepared beforehand? If they were, it would be very extraordinary,

but yet less surprising than

Krall does not read
eyes, because they

their actual solution.

this suspicion in

my
it,

do

not show
least

it;

nevertheless, to

remove the
to write a

shade of

he asks
256

me

The Unknown Guest

number of my own on
I

the black-board for

the horse to find the root.

must here confess the humiliating

is

ig-

norance that

the disgrace of

my

life.

have not the

faintest idea of the mysteries

concealed within those recondite and complicated operations.

like
I

did

my

humanities

everybody else; but, after crossing the

useful
tion

and familiar
I

frontiers of multiplica-

and division

found

it

impossible to

advance any farther into the desolate regions, bristling with figures, where the
square and cubic roots hold sway, together

with

all sorts

of other monstrous powers,

faces,

without shapes or
of

which inspired

me

with invincible terror.

All the persecutions

my

excellent instructors

wore themselves
Sucto

out against a dead wall of stolidity.

cessively disheartened, they left

me

my

dismal ignorance, prophesying a most dreary

future for me, haunted with bitter regrets.
I

must say

that, until
257

now,

had

scarcely

The Unknown
experienced
the
effects

Guest
these

of

gloomy

predictions; but the hour has come for

me

to expiate the sins of

theless, I

my

youth.
it
;

Neverand, tak-

put a good face upon

the
first

ing at

random

figures that suggest

I

themselves to

my

mind,

boldly write on

the black-board an

enormous and most darremains motionsharply, telling

lifts his

ing number.
less.

Muhamed

Krall speaks to
to hurry up.

him

him

Muhamed
let it fall.

right

hoof, but does not

patience,

Krall loses

lavishes

prayers,

threats;

the

hoof

promises and remains poised, as

though

to bear witness to

good

intentions

that cannot be carried out.

Then my

host

turns round, looks at the problem

and asks

me:
"Does
Exact ?
it

give an exact root?"

What
.
. .

does he mean ?
?

Are there
:

roots which

But

dare not go on

my

shameful ignorance

suddenly

flashes

before

my

eyes.

Krall smiles indulgently

258

The Unknown
and, without

Guest

making any attempt to supplement an education which is too much in

arrears
to

allow

of the

slightest

hope,

laboriously

declares that the horse

works out the problem and was right in refus-

ing to give an impossible solution.

12

Muhamed
form of
a pupil
is

receives

our thanks

in

the

a lordly portion of carrots;

and

introduced whose attainments do

not tower so high above mine: Hanschen,

the
rat.
little

pony, quick and lively as a big

Like me, he has never gone beyond elementary arithmetic; and so we shall understand each other better and meet on
equal terms.

Krall asks
tiply.
I

me

for

two numbers

to mul-

give

him 63

He

does the

sum and

writes the product on the board,

followed by the sign of division: 441 --7. Instantly Hanschen, with a celerity difficult
259

The Unknown Guest

to follow, gives three blows, or rather three

violent scrapes with his right

hoof and

six

with his

left,

which makes 63, for we must

not forget that in

German they say not but consixty-three, three-and-sixty.

We

gratulate him; and, to evince

tion,

his satisfac-

he nimbly reverses the number by marking 36 and then puts it right again by
63.

evidently enjoying himself and juggling with the figures. And

additions, subtractions, multiplications

scraping

He

is

and

divisions follow one after the other, with

figures supplied

by myself, so as to remove any idea of collusion. Hanschen seldom

blunders; and,

when he

does,

we

receive a

very clear impression that his mistake is voluntary: he is like a mischievous school-

boy playing
ter.

a practical joke

upon

his

mas-

The
little

solutions fall thick as hail

;

upon
is

the

spring-board the correct answer

released by the question as though you were

pressing the button of an electric push.

260

The

The Unknown
pony's flippancy
is

Guest

as surprising as his skill.

in this hastiis

But

in this

unruly flippancy,

ness which seems inattentive there

theless a fixed

never-

and permanent
if

idea.

Han-

schen

paws the ground,

kicks,

prances,

tosses his head, looks as

still,

he cannot keep
Is

but never leaves his spring-board.

in
is

he interested
joy them?

the problems, does he en-

It

impossible to say; but he

certainly has the appearance of one accom-

plishing a duty or a piece of

work which

we do

not discuss, which

is

important, neces-

sary and inevitable.

But the lesson suddenly ends with a joke

carried rather too far by the pupil,

who

catches his

good master by the

is

seat of his

trousers, into
teeth.

which he plants disrespectful

severely

reprimanded, deprived of his carrots and sent back in disgrace to his private apartments.
'3

He

Next comes Berto, who

261

is

like a big, sleek

The Unknown Guest

Norman
fied,

horse.

He

makes the calm,

digni-

peaceful entrance of a blind giant.

His

large, dark, brilliant eyes are quite dead, de-

prived of any reflex power.

He

feels

about
is

with his hoof for the board on which he

to rap his answers.

He

has not yet gone

;

beyond the rudiments of mathematics and the early part of his education was particularly difficult.

They managed

to

make him

understand the value and meaning of the numbers and of the addition- and multiplication-signs
sides.

by means of

little

taps on his

Krall speaks to him as a father

his sons.

might speak to the youngest of

He

explains to
I

him fondly

the easy sums

which

suggest his doing: two plus three,

;

eight minus four, four times three he says "Mind! It's not plus three or minus
:

three
three!'

this
1

time,

but

four multiplied by

Berto

hardly

ever

makes

mistake.

When

he does not understand the question,

262

The Unknown Guest

he waits for
it

to be written with the finger

on

his side;
it

he works

and the careful way in which out like some backward and
is

afflicted child

an

infinitely pathetic sight.

He

is

much more

zealous and conscientious

than his fellow-pupils; and

we

feel that, in

the darkness wherein he dwells, this

is,

work

next to his meals, the only spark of light

interest in his existence.

and

He

will cer-

tainly never rival

Muhamed,
is

for instance,

who

is

the arithmetical prodigy, the Inaudi,

a valuable

and living proof that the theory of unconscious and imperceptible signs, the only one which the
of horses; but he

German
I

theorists
is

have hitherto seriously

clearly untenable.
is

considered,

now

have not yet spoken of Zarif. He not in the best of tempers; and besides,
arithmetic, he
is

in

only a less learned and

more

capricious

Muhamed.

He

answers

most of the questions at random, stubbornly raising his foot and declining to lower it, so
263

The Unknown Guest

as clearly to

mark

his disapproval; but he

problem correctly when he is promised a panful of carrots and no more

solves the last
lessons for that morning.
ters to lead

The groom enhim away and makes some

other at which the
shies.

movement
starts, rears

or

horse

and

"That's his bad conscience/' says Krall,

gravely.

And

the expression assumes a singular

in this

meaning and importance

hybrid

at-

mosphere, steeped in an indefinable something from another world.

But

it

is

half-past one, the sacred Ger-

man

dinner-hour.

The

horses are taken

back to their racks and the men separate, wishing one another the inevitable Mahlzeit.

As he walks with me along the quays of the black and muddy Wupper, Krall says
:

"It

is

a pity that

one of his

you did not see Zarif in He is sometimes better moods.

264

The Unknown Guest

more
given
startling

than

Muhamed and

has

me two

or three surprises that seem

for instance, I

incredible.

One morning,

came

to the stable and

give him his lesson in

was preparing to arithmetic. He was

no sooner

in front

of the spring-board than

he began to stamp with his foot. I left him alone and was astounded to hear a whole
sentence,

an

absolutely
letter

human
his

sentence,
:

come
to

letter

by

from

hoof

'Albert

has beaten Hanschen,' was what he said

me

that day.
his

down from
bitten

Another time, I wrote dictation, 'Hanschen has

Like
a
child
felt

Kama.'

seeing

its

father after an absence, he

the need to

inform
stable;

me

of

the

little

doings

of

the

he provided me with the artless chronicle of a humble and uneventful life."

Krall, for that matter, living in the midst

of his miracle, seems to think this quite

natural and almost inevitable.
I,

who have

been immersed

in

it

for only a few hours,

265

The Unknown Guest

accept
believe
it

almost as calmly as he does.

without hesitation what he

this
in

tells

me; and, in the presence of non which, for the first time
ence,

phenomeman's existhas
not

gives

us

sentence

that
I

sprung from a human brain,

whither we are tending, where what lies ahead of us. ,
.
.

ask myself
stand and

we

14
After
again, for
dinner,

the
is

experiments

begin
all,

my

host

untiring.

First of
if
is.

pointing to me, he asks

Muhamed
name
is

he

re-

members what
and

his uncle's

The

horse raps out an

H.

Krall

astonished

utters fatherly

reprimands:

"Come,
an

take care!

You know

it's

not

H." The horse

raps out an E.
:

Krall becomes

little

impatient he threatens, he implores,

he promises in turns carrots and the direst

punishments, such as sending for Albert,
266

The Unknown Guest

the groom, who, on special occasions, recalls

and inattentive pupils to a sense of duty and decorum, for Krall himself never chastises his horses, lest he should lose their
idle

friendship or their confidence.

tinues his reproaches:

So he con-

"Come now,
how?"

are you going to be

more

careful and not rap out your letters any-

Muhamed
and
strikes

obstinately goes his

own way
open face
under-

an R.

Then

Krall's

lights

up:
says.

"He's right/' he
stand:

"You

HER,
to give

standing for Herr.

title to

He

wanted

you the

man wearing
right.

a top
it

which every hat or a bowler has the

only very rarely and
I

He
me

does
all

had forgotten
heard

probably you Herr Maeterlinck and wanted to get it perfectly. This special
call

about

it.

He

politeness

and

this excess

of zeal augur a

particularly

good

lesson.
267

You've done very

The Unknown Guest

well,

Muhamed, my
I

child

you Ve done very

well and

beg your pardon.

Now

kiss

me

and go on.'* But Muhamed, after giving his master a hearty kiss, still seems to be hesitating.

Then
the

Krall, to put

him on the
of

right track,

observes that the

first letter

my name

is

same

as

the

first

letter

of his own.

Muhamed
a big
horse,

strikes a

K, evidently thinking

of his master's name.

At

last,

Krall draws

M on the black-board, whereupon the

like

one suddenly remembering a

think of, raps out,

word which he could not

the letters

one after the other and without stopping,

stripped of useless vowels, represent the curious cor-

M A Z R L K, which,
my name

ruption which
since the

has undergone,
not a
is

morning,

in a brain that is
is

human
correct.

brain.

He

told that this

not

He
and

seems to agree, gropes about

little

writes,

MARZLEGK.
asks which

Krall repeats

my name and
268

is

The Unknown
the
first letter

Guest

to be altered.

The

stallion

marks an R.
"Good, but what
stead ?"
letter will

you put

in-

Muhamed

strikes

an N.
!"

"No, do be careful He strikes a T.

"Very good, but come?"

in

what place

will the

"In the third," replies the horse; and

the corrections continue until

my

patronyal-

mic comes out of

its

strange adventure

most unscathed.
15

And

the spelling, the questioning, the

sums, the problems are resumed and follow

upon one another,

as wonderful,

as

be-

wildering as before,

but already a

little

dimmed by

familiarity, like
It
is

any other pro-

longed miracle.

important, besides,

to notice that the instances

which

have

given are not to be classed

269

among

the most

The Unknown
day's
able
is

Guest
To-

remarkable feats of our magic horses.

a

good ordinary
in the

lesson, a respect-

lesson,

not illumined by flashes of

presence of other withorses performed more start-

genius.

But

nesses the

ling exploits

which broke down even more

decisively the barrier, which is undoubtedly an imaginary one, between animal and hu-

man

nature.

One

day, for instance, Zarif,

the scamp of the party, suddenly stopped

in the

middle of his lesson.

They asked

him

the reason.
I

"Because

am

tired."

Another time, he answered: "Pain in my leg."

They recognize and

shown
scents.

identify

pictures

to
I

them,

distinguish

colours

and

what
with

have made a point of stating only saw with my own eyes and heard
ears;

my own

and

declare that I

have done so with the same scrupulous accuracy as though I were reporting a crim270

The Unknown Guest

inal trial in

which a man's

life

depended

on

my
But

evidence.
I

was

practically convinced of the

truth of the incidents before going to Elberfeld;

and

it

was not
I

to check

them
to

that

made

the journey.
if

was anxious

make
was

certain

the telepathic theory, which

I

the only one that

considered admissible,
tests

would withstand the

to apply to
it.

which

intended

opened
at

my

mind on the
did not quite

subject to Krall,

who

first

grasp what

was asking.

Like most men

who have
above
all

not

made

a special study of these

questions, he imagined that telepathy meant

a deliberate

and conscious

trans-

mission of thought; and he assured

me

that

he never

made any

effort to transmit his

and
a

that, for the most part, the horses gave

reply which

was the exact opposite of

what he was expecting. I did not doubt this for a moment; in fact, direct and deliberate transmission

of thought

is,

even

271

The Unknown Guest

among men,
certain
a very rare, difficult

and un-

phenomenon, whereas involuntary, unpremeditated and unsuspected communications between one subconsciousness

and

another can no longer be denied except by

those

who

of set purpose ignore studies and

experiments that are within the reach of any one who will take the trouble to en-

gage
that

in

them.

was persuaded therefore

acted
exactly
like

the

horses

the

"tipping-tables" which simply translate the

subliminal ideas of one or other of those

present by the aid of conventional
taps.
little

When

all is said, it is

much

less surlift its

prising to see a horse than a table

foot and

much more

natural that the

liv-

ing substance of an animal rather than the

inert

matter of a thing should be sensitive

susceptible to the mysterious influence
I

and

of a medium.

knew

quite well that exin

periments had been

inate this theory.

made
272

order to elim-

People, for instance, pre-

The Unknown

Guest

pared a certain number of questions and placed them in sealed envelopes. Then, on
entering the presence of the horse,

they

would take one of the envelopes at random, open it and write down the problem
on
the

black-board;

and

Muhamed

or

Zarif would answer with the same facility

and the same readiness

tion

as

though the

solu-

had been known

it

to

all

the onlookers.

But was

really

unknown

to their subcon-

sciousness?

Who

could say for certain?

Tests of

this

kind require extraordinary

precautions and a special dexterity; for the

action of the subconsciousness
is

so subtle,

takes such unexpected turns, delves in the

museum of
and operates

so

many

forgotten treasures

at such distances that

one

is

never sure of escaping it. Were those precautions taken ? I was not convinced that
they were; and, without pretending to decide the question, I said to myself that
blissful

my

ignorance of mathematics might

273

The Unknown Guest

perhaps be of service some part of it.
in

shedding light upon

For

this ignorance,

however deplorable

from other points of view, gave me a rare advantage in this case. It was in fact extremely unlikely that
sciousness,

my

subliminal con-

which had never known what a

cubic root

was or the root of any other

I

power, could help the horse.

therefore

took from a table a

problems,
all

list

containing several
all

different

and

equally unsolutions,

pleasant-looking, covered

up the

asked Krall to leave the stable and, when

alone with Zarif, copied out one of them

on the black-board.

In order not to over-

load these pages with details which would only be a repetition of one another, I will
at once say that
tests

none of the antitelepathic succeeded that day. It was the end of

the lesson and late in the afternoon; the

horses were tired and irritable and, whether

;

Krall was there or not, whether the problem

274

The Unknown Guest

was elementary or
absurd
in
it,"
difficult,

they gave only

replies, wilfully

"putting their foot

as

reason.

one might say with very good But, next morning, on resuming

their task,

when

proceeded as described
Zarif, doubtless in
accus-

above,

Muhamed and
to their

a better temper

and already more

in

tomed

new examiner, gave

I

rapid

succession correct answers to nearly every

problem

set

them.

am bound

in fairness

was no appreciable difference between these results and those which

to say that there

are obtained in the presence of Krall or

other onlookers who, consciously or unconsciously, are already

aware of the answer

required.
I

next thought of another and

test,

much

sim-

but one which, by virtue of its very simplicity, could not be exposed to any
pler

elaborate and far-fetched suspicions.

saw

on one of the shelves

in

the stable a parcel

of cards, about the size of an octavo volume,

275

The Unknown Guest

each bearing an arable numeral on one of its I once more asked my good friend sides.
Krall,

whose courtesy

is

inexhaustible, to
I

leave

me

alone with his pupil.

then
in

shuffled the cards and put three of

them

row on the spring-board

in front of the

horse,

without looking at them myself.

There was therefore, at that moment, not a human soul on earth who knew the figures
spread at the feet of

my

companion,

this

creature so full of mystery that already I

no longer dare call him an animal. Without hesitation and unasked, he rapped out correctly the

number formed by the

with Hanschen,

cards.
I

The

experiment succeeded, as often as

to try
it,

cared

Muhamed and
:

Zarif alike.

Muhamed
me

did even more

I

as

each figure was of a different colour,

asked
I

him
self

to tell

the colour

of which

myfirst

was absolutely ignorant

on the right.

of the

letter

With the
276

aid of the conit

ventional alphabet, he replied that

was

The Unknown
blue,

Guest

which proved to be the case. Of course, I ought to have multiplied these

experiments and
tive

made them more

exhaus-

and complicated by combining, with the aid of the cards and under the same conditions, exercises in multiplication, division

and the extracting of roots. time; but, a few days after

ject

had not the

the sub-

I left,

was resumed and completed by Dr. H. Hamel. I will sum up his report of the
:

experiments

the doctor, alone in the stable

with the horse (Krall was away, travelling)* P uts down on the black-board the
sign

and then places before and after

this sign,

a card

without looking at either of them, marked with a figure which he does

not know.

He

next asks

up the two numbers. gives a few heedless taps with

is

Muhamed to add Muhamed at first

his hoof.

He
seri-

called to order

and requested to be

ous and to attend.

distinct taps.

The

then gives fifteen doctor next replaces the

277

He

The Unknown
sign

Guest

by

and, again without looking

at them,

places

two cards on the black-

board and asks the horse not to add up the two figures this time, but to multiply them.

Muhamed
same

taps out, "27," which

is

right,

for the black-board says, "9

3-"

The

success follows with other multiplica:

tion-sums

2, 8

6.

Then

the doctor

takes from an envelope a problem of which

he does not

know

the solution

4X7890481.
doctor looks

Muhamed
at the

replies,

"53."

The

back of the paper: once more, the

is

answer

perfectly correct.

16

Does
telepathy

this
is

mean

that

every

risk
It

of

done away with?

would
as-

perhaps be rash to make a categorical

sertion.

are as

The power and extent of telepathy yet, we cannot too often repeat, inindiscernible, untraceable

definite,

and un-

limited.

We

have but quite

278

lately discov-

The Unknown Guest

ered
it,

we know
much

only that
;

its

existence can

no longer be denied

but, as for all the rest,

we

are at

the

same stage

as that

whereat Galvani was when he gave life to the muscles of his dead frogs with two
little

plates

of

metal which

roused the

jeers of the scientists of his time, but con-

tained the
tricity.

germ of

all

the wonders of elec-

Nevertheless, as regards telepathy in the

we understand and know it I am perto-day, my mind is made up. suaded that it is not in this direction that we
sense in which

must seek for an explanation of the phenomenon; or, if we are determined to find
it

there,

the explanation becomes compli-

cated with so
that
it

many

subsidiary

mysteries
it

is

better to accept the prodigy as

its

stands,
plicity.

in

original obscurity

and sim-

When,
it

for instance,

was copying
I

out one of the grisly problems which

have
con-

mentioned,

is

quite certain that

279

my

The Unknown Guest

scious intelligence could

nor

tail
it

of

it.

did

make neither head not so much as know

what

meant or whether the exponent

called for a multiplication, a divi-

3.4.5
sion or

some other mathematical operation

I

which
rack

did not even try to imagine; and,

as I
in

my memory
moment
it

may,

cannot remem-

ber any

my
I

life

when

knew
should

more about
a

than

do now.

We

therefore have to admit that

self
lible
is

my

subliminal
infal-

born mathematician, quick,

It is

and endowed with boundless learning. possible and I fell a certain pride at

But the theory simply shifts the miracle by making it pass from the
the thought.
horse's soul to mine;

and the miracle be-

comes no clearer by the transfer, which, for I that matter, does not sound probable.
need
hardly

add

that,

fortiori,

Dr.

HamePs
which
I

experiments

and

many

others

have not here the space to describe

of the theory.
280

finally dispose

The Unknown
i?

Guest

Let us see how those who have

ested

inter-

themselves

in

these

extraordinary

manifestations have attempted to explain

them.

As we go
theories.

along,

we

will

just

shear

through the feeble undergrowth of childish I shall not, therefore, linger over
suggestions of cheating, of manifest

the

signs addressed to the eye or ear, of electrical

installations

that

are

supposed to

control the answers, nor other idle tales of

an excessively clumsy character.

their

To

realize

inexcusable inanity

we have but

to

spend a few minutes

feld stable.

in the

honest Elber-

At

the beginning of this essay,

men-

tioned the attack

made by Herr
all

Pfungst.

Herr

Pfungst, the reader will remember,

the horse's replies

claims to prove that

are determined by imperceptible and probably unconscious

movement on
281

the part of

The Unknown
which
falls

Guest
This
in-

the person putting the questions.

terpretation,

to

the

ground,

like all the others, in the face of the actual

facts,

would not deserve

it

serious discussion,

were

not that the Berlin psychologist's

report created an immense sensation some

years ago and has succeeded in intimidating

the

greater part of the

official

German
true that
use-

scientific

world to

this day.
is

It

is

the report in question

less

monument of

pedantry, but

we

are none
it

the less
it

bound

to admit that, such as

was,

an-

nihilated poor
controversialist

Von

Osten, who, being no

and not knowing how to proclaim the truth which was struggling for utterance, died in gloom and solitude.

To make

an end of this cumbrous and

is
it

puerile theory,

necessary to emphasize
in

again that experiments

which the animal

does not see the questioner are as regularly

successful as the others?
Krall,
if

you ask

him, will stand behind the horse, will speak

282

The Unknown Guest

from the end of the room, will leave the stable altogether; and the results are just
the same. the tests

They are the same again when are made in the dark or when
is

the animal's head

fitting

covered with a closeeither in

hood.

They do not vary

the case of Berto,

who

is

stone-blind, or
sets the
it

when any other person whatever

problem
in

Krall's

absence.

Will
or

be

maintained
stranger
is

that

this

outsider

that

acquainted beforehand with the

imperceptible signs that are to dictate the

solution which he himself often does not

know?
But what
is

the use of prolonging this

fight against a cloud of

it

smoke?
it

None
calls for

of a

can bear examination; and

effort

genuine

of the will to set one's self

seriously to refute such pitiful objections.

18

On

the ground thus cleared and at the

283

The Unknown Guest

portal of this unlooked-for riddle, which

comes to disturb our peace

in

region

which we thought to be

finally

explored and

conquered, there are only two ways, if not of explaining, at least of contemplating the

phenomenon:
the almost

to admit purely

and simply

human

intelligence of the horse,

or to have recourse to an as yet very vague

and

indefinite

theory which, for lack of a

better designation,
istic

we

will call the

medium-

or subliminal theory and of which

we

will strive presently

and no doubt vainly

darkness.
But,

to

dispel

the

grosser

whatever interpretation we adopt, we are

bound

to recognize that

it

plunges us into

a mystery

which

is

equally profound and

equally

astonishing

on

either

side,

one

directly related to the

greatest mysteries
it is

that

overwhelm
it

us; and

open to us to
a

accept

with resignation or rejoicing, ac-

cording as

we

prefer to live
is

in

world

wherein everything

within the reach of

The Unknown Guest

i

our intelligence or a world wherein everything

is

incomprehensible.

As
selves,

for Krall, he does not doubt for an

that
his

instant

horses

solve

for them-

without any assistance, without any

outside influence, simply by their

tal

own men-

powers, the most arduous problems set

them.

He

is
is

persuaded that they undersaid to

stand what
say,
will
in

short,

them and what they that their brain and their

human

perform exactly the same functions as brain and will. It is certain that

the facts seem to prove

him right and that

for,

his opinion carries very great weight,

after

all,

he knows his horses better than

any one does; he has beheld the birth or rather the awakening of that dormant intelligence,

even as a mother beholds the

birth or the

awakening of
its first

intelligence in
its

her child; he has perceived

ings,

first

grop-

known

resistance
it

and

its first

triumphs; he has watched

285

taking shape,

The Unknown
point at which
it

Guest

breaking away and gradually rising to the

stands to-day; in a word,

he

is

the father and the principal and sole

perpetual witness of the miracle.

19
Yes, but the miracle comes as such a surprise that, the

moment we
the

set foot in

it,

sort of instinctive aberration seizes us, re-

fusing to

accept

evidence

and com-

pelling us to search in every direction to

see
if

there

is

not another outlet.

Even

in

the presence of those astounding horses and

while they are working before our eyes,

we do not
fills

yet .sincerely believe that which

and subdues our gaze. We accept the facts, because there is no means of escap-

ing them; but

sionally
till

we

accept
all

them only proviwhich

cer-

and with

reserve, putting off

later the comfortable explanation

will give us
tainties.

back our familiar, shallow

286

But the explanation does not

The Unknown Guest

come; there
is

none

in the

homely and not

very lofty regions wherein

one; there
is

we hoped

to find

neither fault nor flaw in the

mighty evidence; and nothing delivers us from the mystery.

It

must be confessed that

this

mystery,

springing from a point where we least expected to come upon the unknown, bears

enough within
victions.

itself to scatter all

our con-

Remember

that,

since

man

ap-

peared upon

this earth,

he has lived

among

creatures which,

from immemorial experi-

ence, he thought that he

knew

as perfectly

as he

knows an

object fashioned by his

hands.

Out of

these creatures he chose the

as

most docile and,

he called them, the most

intelligent, attaching in this case to the

word

intelligence a sense so

narrow

as to be alscruti-

most

ridiculous.

He
in

observed them,

nized them, tried them, analyzed them and

dissected

them
lives

every imaginable way;

and whole

were devoted to nothing

287

The Unknown Guest

but the study of their habits, their faculties,

their nervous system, their pathology,

their psychology, their instincts.

All this
those sup-

led to certainties which,

among

ported by our unexplained little existence on an inexplicable planet, would seem to be

the least doubtful, the least subject to revision.

There

is is

that the horse

no disputing, for instance, gifted with an extraordi-

nary memory, that he possesses the sense of direction, that he understands a few
signs

and even
It

a
is

few words and that he

equally undeniable that

obeys them.

the anthropoid apes are capable of imitat-

ing a great number of our actions and of

our attitudes; but

their bewildered

it

is

also manifest that

and feverish imagination

their

perceives
scope.

neither

object

nor
all

their

As

for the dog, the one of

these

privileged animals

who

lives closest to us,

who

for thousands and thousands of years has eaten at our table and worked with us
288

The Unknown Guest

and been our
friend,
it is

manifest that,

now

and then, we catch a rather uncanny gleam

in

his deep,

watchful eyes.

It

is

certain

that he

sometimes wanders

in

curious

fashion along the mysterious border that

separates our

own

intelligence

from

that

which we grant to the other creatures inBut it is no habiting this earth with us.
less

certain
it.

that he

has never definitely

passed

We know exactly how far he can

go; and we have invariably found that our efforts, our patience, our encouragement,

our passionate appeals have hitherto failed to draw him out of the somewhat narrow,
darkly

enchanted

circle

wherein

nature

seems to have imprisoned him once and

for
all.

20

There remains,
world,
It

it

is

true,

the

insect-

in

which marvellous things happen.

includes architects, geometricians, mech-

anicians,

engineers,

weavers,
289

physicists,

The Unknown
chemists and surgeons

Guest
forestalled
I

who have

most of our human inventions.

need not

here remind the reader of the wasps' and

bees' genius for building, the social

and

eco-

nomic organization of the hive and the

ant-hill,

the spider's snares, the eumenes'

cell

nest

and hanging egg, the odynerus'

its

with

neat stacks of game, the sacred

the leaf-

beetle's filthy but ingenius ball,

cutter's faultless disks, the brick-laying

of

the

mason-bee,

the

three

dagger-thrusts

which the sphex administers to the three

nerve-centres of the cricket, the lancet of the
cerceris,

who

paralyses

her

victims

without killing them and preserves them for an indefinite period as fresh meat, nor a

thousand other features which

it

would be

impossible to enumerate without recapitulating the

whole of Henri Fabre's work

and completely altering the proportions of the present essay. But here such silence and
such darkness reign that
290

we have nothing

The Unknown Guest

to

hope

for.

There

exists, so to

speak, no

bench-mark, no means of communication

between the world of

insects

and our own;

and we are perhaps

less far

from grasping

and fathoming what takes place in Saturn or Jupiter than what is enacted in the anthill

or the

hive.

We

know

absolutely

nothing of the quality, the number, the extent or even the nature of their senses.

Many
is

of the great laws on which our

exist for

life

based do not

them: those, for

instance,

reversed.

which govern fluids are completely They seem to inhabit our planet,

but

in reality

world.

an entirely different Understanding nothing of their inin

move

telligence pierced with disconcerting gaps,

which the blindest stupidity suddenly comes and destroys the ablest and most inin

spired schemes,
instinct to that

we have given the name of which we could not appreupon

291
life's

hend, postponing our interpretation of a

word

that touches

most insoluble

The Unknown Guest

riddles.

There

is,

therefore,

from the

point of view of the intellectual faculties,

nothing to be gathered from those extraordinary creatures who are not, like the other animals, our "lesser brothers,'* but
strangers, aliens

from we know not where,

survivors or percursors of another world.

21

We were
fully
in

at this stage,

slumbering peace-

our long-established convictions,

when
and

man

entered upon the scene and

suddenly showed us that

that, for

we were wrong long centuries, we had over-

looked a truth which was scarcely even And the covered with a very thin veil.
strangest thing
is

that this astonishing dis-

covery is in no wise the natural consequence of a new invention, of processes or methods

hitherto

unknown.

It

owes nothing to the

our knowledge.
It

latest acquirements of

springs

from the humblest idea which the

292

The Unknown Guest

most primitive man might have conceived
the
first

in
is

days of the earth's existence.

little

It

simply a matter of having a

patience, confidence

more

and respect for all that which shares our lot in a world whereof we

know none

of the purposes.

It is

simply

a matter of having a

little less

pride and

of looking a
existences

little

more
There

fraternally

upon

that

are

much more
is

fraternal

than

we

believed.

no secret about

the almost puerile ingenuousness of

Von
start

Osten's methods and Krall's.

They

with the principle that the horse is an ignorant but intelligent child; and they treat

him

as such.

They
a

speak, explain,

demon-

strate,

argue and mete out rewards or punlike

ishments
little

schoolmaster

addressing

boys of five or six. placing a few skittle-pins

strange pupil.

They begin by
in front

of their

They

count them and

make
and

him count them by

alternately lifting

lowering the horse's hoof.

293

He

thus ob-

The Unknown Guest

tains his first notion of numbers.

They

next

add one or two more

instance
:

skittles

and

say, for

"Three
skittles."

skittles

and two

skittles are five

In this way, they explain and teach addition; next,

tion,

by the reverse process, subtracis

which

followed by multiplication,
the rest.
the lessons
are
ex-

division

and

all

At

the beginning,

tremely laborious and

demand an
is

untiring
se-

and loving patience, which

cret of the miracle.
first

the whole

But, as soon as the

is

barrier

of

darkness

passed,

the

progress becomes bewilderingly rapid. All this is incontestable; and the facts
are there, before which

we must

needs bow.
or,

But what upsets

of years have

all

our convictions

more

correctly, all the prejudices

which thousands

made

as invincible as axioms,
in

what we do not succeed

understanding is that the horse at once understands what we

294

The Unknown Guest

want of him; it is that tremor of an unexpected
suddenly reveals itself as
the veil rent asunder? say; but
first step,

the

first

intelligence,

which

human.

At what
and was

precise second did the light appear

It is impossible to

it is certain that, at a given mowithout visible to reveal the ment, any sign

prodigious inner transformation, the horse

though he suddenly understood the speech of man. What is it

acts
replies as

and

that sets the miracle

working?

We

know

that, after a time, the horse associates cer-

tain

words with

certain objects that interest

in-

him or with three or four events whose

finite repetition

forms the humble

tissue of

his daily life.

This

is

only a sort of mehas nothing in com-

chanical

memory which
fine

mon

with the most elementary intelligence.

day, without any per-

But behold, one

ceptible transition, he seems to

know

the

meaning of

a host

of words which possess

no interest for him; which represent to him

The Unknown Guest

no
picture,

no memory; which he has never

to connect with

had occasion

any sensation,
handles
fig-

agreeable or disagreeable.
ures which even to

He

man

are nothing but

obscure

and abstract

ideas.

He

solves

problems that cannot possibly be made objective or concrete.

He He

reproduces letters

which, from

his point of view, correspond

fixes his attention

with nothing actual.

and makes observations on things or circumstances which in no way affect him, which
remain and always will remain alien and indifferent to him. In a word, he steps out of

narrow ring in which he was made to turn by hunger and fear which have been
the

described as the two great

moving powers
to enter the im-

of

all

that

is

not

human
come
22

mense

circle in
till

which sensations go on beinto view.

ing shed

ideas

Is

it

possible to believe that the horses

296

The Unknown Guest

really

do what they appear

to

do ?

Is there

no precedent for the marvel ? Is there no transition between the Elberfeld stallions

and the horses which we have known

this day?.
It is

until

not easy to answer these

only since yesterday that

questions, for

it is

the intellectual powers of our defenceless

brothers
scientific

have been subjected to

experiments.

strictly

We

have,

it is

true,

more than one

to the skies; but

collection of anecdotes in
is

which the intelligence of animals

lauded

we

cannot rely upon these

ill-authenticated stories.

To

find

genuine

and incontestable instances we must have

recourse to the works, rare as yet, of scientific

men who have made

a special study of

the subject.

M.

Hachet-Souplet, for ex-

ample, the director of the Institut de Psychologic Zoologique, mentions the case of
a

dog who

learnt to acquire an abstract

idea of weight.

You put
297

in

front of
stones,

him
of

eight rounded and polished

all

The Unknown Guest

exactly the

same

size

ferent weights.

You

and shape, but of diftell him to fetch the

heaviest or the lightest; he judges their

weight by

lifting

them and, without mistells

take, picks out the one required.

The same
parrot to

writer also

the story of a

whom

he had taught the word

that could be

"cupboard" by showing him a little box hung up on the wall at difal-

ferent heights and in which his daily

lowance of food was always ostentatiously

put away:

"I next taught him the names of a number of objects," says

M.

Hachet-Souplet,

Among "by holding them out to him. them was a ladder; and I prevailed upon
the bird to say, 'Climb,' each time that he

saw me mount the

steps.

One morning,
into

when

the parrot's cage

was brought
little

the laboratory, the cupboard was hanging

near the

ceiling,

while the

ladder was

The Unknown Guest

stowed away
in a

corner

among

other ob-

jects familiar to the bird.

Now

the parrot,

every day,

when

opened the cupboard,

used

to

scream,

'Cupboard!
his might.
this:

Cupboard!

Cupboard!' with all lem was, therefore,

My

prob-

seeing that the

cupboard was out of

therefore,
I

my

reach and that,

could not take his food out

knowing, on the other hand, that I was able to raise myself above the level
of
it;

of the floor by climbing the ladder; and having the words 'climb' and 'ladder at
1

his disposal:

gest to

me

the idea of using

would he employ them to sugthem in order

Greatly excited,

to reach the cupboard?

the parrot flapped his wings, bit the bars

of his cage, and screamed:

"And I The next

much

"'Cupboard! Cupboard! Cupboard!* got no more out of him that day.

day, the bird, having received
millet,

nothing but

for which he did not

care, instead of the hemp-seed con299

The Unknown

Guest

tained in the cupboard, was in paroxysms

of anger; and, after he had

less

made numberhis

attempts to

force open his bars,

attention

was

at last caught

by the ladder
"
!'

and he said:
"

'Ladder, climb, cupboard

We

have here, as the author remarks, a

effort.
;

marvellous intellectual

There
is

is

an

evident association of ideas

cause

linked

with

effect;

and examples such

as this les-

sen appreciably the distance separating our

learned horses from their less celebrated

brethren.

We

must admit, however, that

this intellectual effort, if

a little carefully,

is

we much

observe animals
less

uncommon
all
is

than

we

think.

It surprises us in this case

because a special and,

when

said,

purely mechanical arrangement of the parrot's

organ gives him a human voice.

I find in

At
asso-

every moment,

my own dog

ciations of ideas

no

less

evident and often

300

The Unknown Guest

more complex.
thirsty,

For

instance,

if

he

is

he seeks

my

eyes

and next looks

at

the tap in the dressing-room, thus showing that he very plainly connects the notions of
thirst,

running water and

human

interven-

tion.

When
all

dress to go out, he evidently

watches
lacing

my

movements.

While

am

my
to

boots, he conscientiously licks

my

hands, in order that

my

divinity

may be

good

him and

especially to congratulate

me

on

my

capital idea of going out for a

It is a sort

constitutional.

of general and

as yet

vague approval.

Boots promise an
is

excursion out of doors, that

to say, space,

fragrant roads, long grass

corners scented with
offal,

full

of surprises,

friendly or tragic
il-

encounters and the pursuit of wholly

lusory game.

But the

fair vision

is still

in

anxious suspense.
if

He

does not yet

he

is

going with me.

His

fate

know is now

being decided; and his eyes, melting with If I buckle on anguish, devour my mind.
301

The Unknown Guest

my
leather gaiters,
it

means the sudden and

utter extinction of all that constitutes the

joy of

life.

They
the

leave not a ray of hope.

hateful,

They
cycle,

herald

lonely

motor-

which he cannot keep up with; and he stretches himself sadly in a dark corner,

where he goes back

I slip

to the

gloomy dreams
But,

of an unoccupied, forsaken dog.

when

great-coat,

my heavy one would think that they were opening the gates of the most dazzling
For
this implies the car, the ob-

my

arms

into the sleeves of

paradise.
vious,

indubitable

motor-car,

in

other

words, the radiant summit of the most

superlative delight.

And

delirious barks,

inordinate

bounds,

riotous,

embarrassing

demonstrations of affection greet a happiness which, for all that,

rial idea, built
is

but an immate-

up of

artless

memories and

ingenuous hopes.

23 mention these matters only because they

302

The Unknown Guest

are quite ordinary and because there
is

no-

body who has not made

observations.

thousand similar

As

a rule,

we do not

notice

that these humble manifestations represent

sentiments, associations of ideas, inferences,

deductions, an absolute

and altogether hulack only speech

;

man mental
but speech

effort.
is

They

merely a mechanical accident

which reveals the operations of thought

more

clearly to us.

We

are

amazed

that

Muhamed
man on

or Zarif should recognize the

picture of a horse, a donkey, a hat, or a

horseback, or that they should sponlittle

it

taneously report to their master the

events that happen in the stable; but
certain that our

is

own dog

is

incessantly per-

forming a similar
if

work and

that his eyes,

tell

we

could read them, would

us a great

deal more.
feld
is

The primary

miracle of Elber-

that the stallions should have been

given the means of expressing what they think and feel. It is momentous; but, when
303

The Unknown
closely
ble.
silent

Guest

looked

into,

it

is

not incomprehensi-

Between the talking horses and my dog there is an enormous distance, but
I

not an abyss.
tract

am

saying this not to deextent

from the nature or

of the

prodigy, but to call attention to the fact

that the theory of animal intelligence
is

more
is

justifiable

and

less fanciful

than one

at first inclined to think.

24
But the second and greater miracle is that man should have been able to rouse the
horse from his immemorial sleep, to
direct his
fix

and
in

attention and

to interest

him

matters that are more foreign and

ent to

indiffer-

him than the

variations of temperaIt

ture in Sirius or Aldebaran are to us.

really seems,

when we

consider our preconis

ceived ideas, that there

not

in the

animal

an organic and insurmountable inability to

do what man's brain

does, a total

and

irre-

304

The Unknown Guest

mediable absence of intellectual
faculties,

but rather a profound lethargy and torpor

of those

faculties.

It lives in a sort

of un-

disturbed stolidity,

of nebulous slumber.
justly remarks,

As Dr. Ochorowicz very

"its

waking
of
a

state

is

very near akin to the

in

state

man walking
one

his

sleep."
it

Having no notion of space or time,

spends
its life,

may
and

say, in a perpetual
strictly
all

dream.

It

does what

is

necessary

to keep itself alive;

the rest passes

at all into

over
its

it

and does not penetrate

circumstances

hermetically closed imaginings.

Excep-

tional

some extraordinary
are required

need, wish, passion or shock

to produce

Hachet-Souplet calls "the psychic flash" which suddenly thaws

what

M.

and galvanizes
minute
in

its

brain, placing
state in

it

for a

the

waking

which the

human

brain works normally.

It

Nor

is

this

surprising.

does not need that awaken-

ing in order to exist; and

305

we know

that na-

The Unknown
ture never

Guest
efforts.

makes great superfluous

"The

intellect," as Professor Clarapede

well says, "appears only as a makeshift, an

instrument which betrays that the organism is not adapted to its environment, a mode of expression which reveals a state of impotence."
It
is

probable that our brain at

first suf-

fered from the same lethargy, a condition,

from which many men have not yet emerged; and it is even more probable that, compared with other modes
for that matter,

of existence, with other psychic phenomena,

on another plane and in another sphere, the dense sleep in which we move is similar
to that in which the lower animals have
their being.
It also
is

traversed, with in-

creasing frequency, by psychic flashes of a

different order
ing,

and

a different scope.

See-

on the one

side, the intellectual

move-

ment that seems

to be spreading

among our

lesser brothers and,

on the other, the ever

306

The Unknown Guest

more
constantly repeated manifestations of

our subconsciousness, we might even ask ourselves i-f we have not here, on two different planes, a tension, a parallel pressure,
a

new

desire, a

new attempt of

the mysteuni-

rious spiritual force

which animates the

verse and which seems to be

incessantly

seeking fresh outlets and fresh conductingrods.

Be

this as

it

may, when the

flash has

passed,

we behave very much

suffices also for

as the animals

do:

we promptly
which

lapse into the indifferent

sleep

our miserable
it,

ways.
to an

We

ask no more of
trail

follow the luminous

that

we do not summons us
in

unknown world, we go on turning

dismal
circle,
Isis'

our

like

contented

sleep-

walkers, while

sistrum rattles without

respite to rouse the faithful.

25
I

repeat, the great miracle of Elberfeld

is

that of having been able to prolong and

307

The Unknown Guest

reproduce at will those isolated "psychic The horses, in comparison with flashes."
the other animals, are here in the state of
a

man whose

subliminal consciousness had

gained the upper hand.

That man would

imma-

lead a higher existence, in an almost

terial

atmosphere, of which the

phenomena

of metaphysics, sparks falling from a re-

gion which

perhaps one day reach, sometimes give us an uncertain and fleetshall

we

ing glimpse.
really lethargy

OUT

intelligence,

which

is

oned

in a

and which keeps us imprislittle hollow of space and time,

would there be replaced by intuition, or rather by a sort of immanent knowledge

which would forthwith make us sharers
all

in

that

is

known

to a universe

which per-

haps knows all things. Unfortunately, have not, or at least, unlike the horses,

we we

are not acquainted with a superior being

who

interests himself in us
off

throw

our torpor.
308

We

and helps us to have to become

The Unknown Guest

our

own

god, to rise above ourselves and

ourselves raised by our unaided
It is

to keep

strength.

almost certain that the horse

his nebulous

would never have come out of

sphere without man's assistance; but it is not forbidden to hope that man, with no
other help than his

own courage and high

succeed
in

purpose,

may

yet

breaking

through the sleep that cramps him and

blinds him.

26

To come
to

back then to our horses and

point,
it

the

main

which

is

the isolated

is admitted that they "psychic flash/' know the values of figures, that they can

and identify smells, colours, forms, objects and even graphic reproducdistinguish
tions of those objects.

They

also under-

stand a large number of words, including

some of which they were never taught the

meaning, but which they picked up as they went along by hearing them spoken around
309

The Unknown
them.

Guest
with
the
as-

They have

learnt,

sistance of an exceedingly complicated al-

phabet, to reproduce the words, thanks to

which they manage

to

convey impressions,

sensations, wishes, associations of ideas, ob-

servations and even spontaneous reflections.

It

has been held that

all this

implies real
fact,

acts of intelligence.

It

is,

in

often
far
it

very
is

difficult to

decide exactly

how

intelligence

and how far memory,

in-

stinct,

imitative genius,

obedience or me-

chanical impulse, the effects of training, or

happy coincidences. There are cases, however, which admit of little or no hesitation. I give a few.

One day
teach
speech.

Krall and his collaborator, Dr.

Scholler, thought that they

would

try

and
in

Muhamed

to

express

himself

The horse, a docile and eager pupil, made touching and fruitless efforts to reproduce human sounds. Suddenly,
he stopped and,
in

his
310

strange

phonetic

The Unknown Guest

spelling, declared,

by striking

his foot

on

the spring-board:

"Ig hb kein gnd Sdim:

voice."

have not a good

not

Observing that

he

did

open

his

mouth, they strove to make him understand, by the example of a dog, with pictures, and
so on, that, in order to speak,
to
it is

necessary

separate

the jaws.

They

next

asked

him:

"What must you do

to speak?"
his foot
:

He

by striking with "Open mouth."

replied,

"Why

don't you open yours?"

"Weil kan nigd: because I can't." A few days after, Zarif was asked how
he talks to

Muhamed. "Mi/ Munt: with mouth."

"Why
mouth?"

don't you

tell

me

that with your

"IPeil ig kein Stim hbe: because

have

no voice."

The Unknown Guest

Does not
this answer, as Krall remarks,

allow us to suppose that he has other means

than speech of conversing with his stable-

companion?
In the course of another lesson,

Mu-

hamed was shown

girl

the portrait of a young

whom

he did not know.

his master.

"What's that?" asked

"Metgen:

a girl?"
:

On
t(

the black-board
is
it

"Why
hair."

a girl?"

Weil lang

Hr

hd: because she has long

"And what

has she not?"

"Moustache."

They next produced man with no moustache.

"What's this?"

the likeness of a

"Man."

"Why

is

it

man?"

"Weil kurz
short hair."

Hr

had: because he has

312

The Unknown Guest

I

could multiply these examples indefi-

nitely

by drawing on the voluminous Elber-

feld minutes, which, I

may

say in passing,

have the convincing force of photographic

must be agreed, is unexpected and disconcerting, had never been foreseen or suspected and may be regarded
records.

All this,

it

one of the strangest prodigies, one of the most stupefying revelations that have
as

taken place since

man

has dwelt in this

reflect-

world of
ing,

riddles.

Nevertheless, by

by comparing, by investigating, by

re-

garding certain forgotten or neglected land-

by taking into consideration the thousand imperceptible

starting-points,

marks and

gradations between the greatest and the

least,

the highest and the lowest,

it

is

still

possible to explain, admit

and understand.

We
dog

can, if

it

comes to

in his secret self, in

imagine that, his tragic silence, our

that,

also

makes

similar remarks and reflec-

tions.

Once

again, the miraculous bridge

313

The Unknown Guest

which,
in this instance,

spans the gulf be-

tween the animal and

man

is

much more
it-

the expression of thought than thought

self.

We

may go

further and grant that

calculations,

certain
little

elementary
little

such

as

additions,

subtractions of one or

two
I,

figures, are, after all, conceivable;

and

for

my

part,

am

inclined to believe that

the horse really executes them.

But where

we
it

get out of our depth, where

we

enter

into the

realm of pure enchantment is when becomes a matter of mathematical operaon a large

scale,

tions

notably of the finding

instance, that the

of roots.

We

know, for

extraction of the fourth root of a

number
divisions
in

of

six figures calls for

eighteen multiplica-

tions,

ten subtractions and three

and that the horse does thirty-one sums

five

or

six

seconds,

that

is

to

say,

during the brief, careless glance which he gives at the black-board on which
the

problem

is

inscribed,
314

as

though the

The Unknown Guest

answer came to him intuitively and
stantaneously.
Still,

in-

if

we admit
also
is

the theory of

intelli-

gence,

we must

admit that the horse

it is

knows what he
after learning

doing, since
a squared

not until
a

what

number or

square root

means that he appears

to un-

derstand or that, at any rate, he gradually works out correctly the ever more complicated calculations required of him.
It
is

not possible to give here the details of this

which was astonishingly rapid. The reader will find them on pages 117
instruction,
et seq.

of Krall's book, Denkende Tiere.

Krall begins by explaining to

that 2
2

Muhamed
2
s

is

equal

to

2X2 = 4; that 2X2X2 = 6; that 2

equal to

is

is

the

square root of 4; and so on.

In short, the

explanations and demonstrations are absolutely similar to those which one would
give to an extremely intelligent child, with
this difference, that the horse
315
is

much more

The Unknown
attentive than the child

Guest
that, thanks

and

to his extraordinary memory, he never forgets what he appears to have understood.

Let us add, to complete the magical and

incredible

character

of

the

phenomenon
statement,

that, according to Krall's

own

the horse

was not taught beyond the point of extracting the square root of the numthe

ber 144 and that he spontaneously invented

manner of

extracting all the others.

27

Must we once more

with
those
these
startling

repeat, in connection

performances,

that
sig-

who

speak of audible or visible

nals, of telegraphy and wireless telegraphy, of expedients, trickery or deceit, are speak-

what they do not know and of what they have not seen? There is but one reing of

ply to be

made

to any one

who

honestly

refuses to believe:

"Go

to Elberfeld

the problem
316

is suffi-

The Unknown
sequences to

Guest

ciently important, sufficiently big with con-

make the journey worth while behind closed doors, alone with the and,
and
silence of

horse, in the absolute solitude

the stable, set

Muhamed

to extract half-a-

dozen roots which,

mentioned,
require

like that

which

have

thirty-one

operations.

You must

yourself be ignorant of the solu-

tions, so as to

do away with any transmisIf he then

sion of unconscious thought.

gives you, one after the other, five or six

correct solutions, as he did to others, you will not

me and many
by
its

go away with the conis

viction that the animal

telligence to extract

able

in-

those roots, because

would upset too thoroughly the greater part of the certainties on which
that conviction

your

life is

based; but you

will, at

any

rate,

be persuaded that you have been for a few minutes in the presence of one of the great-

and strangest riddles that can disturb the mind of man and it is always a good
est
;

The Unknown
and salutary thing to come
emotions of
this order."

Guest
into contact with

28
to say, the theory of intelligence animal would be so extraordinary as to be almost untenable. If we are deterin the

Truth

mined, at whatever
it,

cost, to pin

our faith to

we

are

bound

to call in the aid of other

ideas, to appeal,

for instance, to the ex-

tremely mysterious and essentially uncomprehended and incomprehensible nature of

numbers.

It

is

almost

certain

that

the

science of mathematics lies outside the intelligence.

It

forms a mechanical and ab-

stract whole,

more

spiritual

than material
visible

and more material than

only through
its

spiritual,

shadow and

yet constitut-

ing the most immovable of the realities that

govern the universe.

From

first

to last

it

declares itself a very strange force and, as

it

were, the sovereign of another element

318

The Unknown Guest

than that which nourishes our brain. Secret,
indifferent,

imperious

and implacable,

it

subjugates and oppresses us from a great

height or a great depth, in any case, from

veiy

far,

without telling us why.

One

might say that figures place those who handle them in a special condition. They draw the cabalistic circle around their vicHenceforth, he master, he renounces
tim.
erally "possessed"
is

no longer

his

own
lit-

his liberty,

he

is

by the powers which he

invokes.

He

whither, into
ity,

dragged he knows not a formless, boundless immensis

subject to laws that have nothing hu-

man
lively

about them,

in

which each of those

little

and tyrannical
in their

signs

which move

thousands under the pen represents nameless, but eternal, invincible

and dance

and inevitable
are directing

verities.

We

think that

we

them and they enslave us. We become weary and breathless following them
into

their

uninhabitable
319

spaces.

The Unknown Guest

When we
touch them,

we

let

loose a force

which we are no longer able to control. They do with us what they will and always
end by hurling us, blinded and benumbed, into blank infinity or upon a wall of ice against which every effort of our mind and
will
It
is is

shattered.
possible, therefore, in the last resort,

by the no less obscure mystery that surrounds numThis really only means moving to bers.
to explain the Elberfeld mystery

another spot
just

in the

gloom; but

it

is

often

by that moving to another spot that we end by discovering the little gleam of In light which shows us a thoroughfare.

any

case,

ideas,

and to return to more precise more than one instance has been
prove that the
gift
is

cited to

of handling

great groups of figures

almost indepen-

dent of the intelligence proper.

One

of the

most curious

is

that of an Italian shepherd-

boy, Vito Mangiamele,

320

who was brought

The Unknown Guest

before the Paris

Academy

of Science

in

1837 and who, at the age of ten, though devoid of the most rudimentary education,

was able

in

half a minute to extract the

cubic root of a

number of seven
still,

figures.

Another, more

striking
in

also

mentioned

by Dr.

Clarapede
is

his

paper on the

learned horses,
birth,

that of a

man

blind

from

an inmate of the lunatic-asylum at

Armentieres.
is

This blind man, whose name

Fleury, a degenerate
in

can calculate

and nearly an idiot, one minute and fifteen secin thirty-nine

onds the number of seconds

years, three

months and twelve days, not

forgetting the leap-years.

They
is,

explain to

him what

a square root

without telling
finding
it;

him the conventional method of

and soon he
Inaudi

extracts almost as rapidly as

himself,

without

blunder,

the

square roots of numbers of four figures,

giving the remainder.

On

the other hand,

we know

that a mathematical genius like

321

The Unknown Guest

Henri Poincare confessed himself incapable of adding up a column of figures without
a mistake.

29 From the maybe enchanted atmosphere that surrounds numbers we shall pass more
easily to the even
final theory,

more magic mists of the

the mediumistic or sub-

the only one remaining to us

for the

moment:

liminal theory.
is

This,

we must remember,
reject.

not the telepathic theory proper which

decisive experiments

have made us

Let us have the courage to venture upon it. When one can no longer interpret a

phenomenon by
try to
fore,

the known,

we must

needs
there-

do so by the unknown.

We,

new province of a great unexplored kingdom, in which we shall find

now

enter a

ourselves without a guide.

Mediumistic phenomena, manifestations

of the secondary or the subliminal consciousness,

between

man and man,

322

are, as

The Unknown Guest

we have more
than once had occasion to
assure ourselves, capricious, undisciplined,

evasive and uncertain, but

more frequent

than one thought and, to one

who

examines

them

seriously

and honestly, often undesimilar manifestations been

niable.

Have

discovered between

man and
in the case

the animals?
is

The
very

study of these manifestations, which

difficult
still

even
so

of man, bequestion witare,

comes
nesses
ever,

more

when we

doomed

to silence.

There

how-

as

some animals which are looked upon "psychic," which, in other words, seem

indisputably to be sensitive to certain subliminal influences.

cat, the

One

usually classes the

dog and

the horse in this

somewhat

ill-defined category.

To

these superstitious

one might perhaps add certain birds, more or less birds of omen, and even
animals
a

few

insects,

notably the bees.

Other

animals, such

as,

for instance, the elephant

and the monkey, appear to be proof against

323

The Unknown Guest

mystery.

Be
in

this

as

it

may,
article

M.

Ernest

Bozzano,
in

an excellent

on Les Percollected

ceptions psychiques des

animaux?

1905

sixty-nine cases of telepathy, pre-

sentiments and hallucinations of sight or

hearing
cats,

which the principal actors are There are, even dogs and horses.
in

among them,
the

ghosts or phantoms of dogs

which, after their death, return to haunt

which they were happy. Most of these cases are taken from the Proceed-

homes

in

ings of the S. P. R., that

is

to say, they

have nearly
gated.
It

all
is

been very

strictly investi-

impossible,

short of

filling

these pages with often striking and touch-

ing but rather cumbersome anecdotes, to

enumerate them here, however briefly. It will be sufficient to note that sometimes the

dog begins to howl at the exact moment when his master loses his life, for instance,
^Annales des sciences psychiques, August, 1905, pp.
422-469.

324

The Unknown
on a
battlefield,

Guest

hundreds of miles from

the place where the

dog

is.

More com-

monly,

the

cat,

the

dog and the horse

plainly manifest that they perceive, often

before

men

do,

telepathic

apparitions,

phantasms of the living or the dead. Horses in particular seem very sensitive to
places that pass as haunted or uncanny.

On

the whole, the result of these observations

is

that

we
in

can hardly dispute that these ani-

mals communicate as much as we do and

perhaps
the

tery that lies

same fashion with the mysaround us. There are moman, they
see the in-

ments
visible

at which, like

and perceive
senses.
It

events, influences

and

emotions that are beyond the range of their

normal

is,

therefore, permissible

to believe that their nervous system or

some

remote or secret part of their being contains the same psychic elements connecting

them with an unknown that

with as

inspires

them

much

terror as
325

it

does ourselves.

The Unknown Guest

And,
let

us say in passing, this terror

all,

is

rather strange; for, after

what have

from a phantom or an apparition, they who, we are convinced, have no after-life and who ought, therefore, to rethey to fear

main perfectly indifferent to the manifestations of a world in which they will never
set
I

foot?
shall

perhaps be told that

it

is

not

certain that these apparitions are objective,

that they correspond with an external reality,

but that

it

is

exceedingly possible that

they spring solely from the man's or the

animal's brain.

This

is

not the

moment

to

discuss this very obscure point,

which

raises

the whole question of the supernatural and

all

the problems of the hereafter.

is

The

only important thing to observe

that at

one time
ror,

it

is

man who

transmits his terin-

his perception

or his idea of the

visible to

the animal and at another the

its

animal which transmits

326

sensations

to

The Unknown Guest

man.
have here, therefore, intercommunications which spring from a deeper

We

common

source than any that

it

we know and
it,

which, to issue from

or go back to

pass

through other channels than those of our

customary
senses.

Now
as

all this

belongs to

that unexplained sensibility, to that secret

treasure,

to

that

yet

undetermined

psychic power which, for lack of a better

term,

we

call

subconsciousness or subliminal

consciousness.

Moreover,

it

is

not surpris-

ing that,

in

the animals, these subliminal

faculties not

only

exist,

but are perhaps

in ourselves,

keener and more active than

because
it

is

our conscious and abnormally

life

individualized
relegating

that atrophies
to

them by
idleness

them

state

of

wherein they have fewer and fewer opportunities of being exercised, whereas in our
brothers

who

are less detached

if

from the
give that

universe, consciousness

we can

name

to a very uncertain
327

and confused no-

The Unknown
tion of the ego
is

Guest
ele-

reduced to a few
are

mentary

actions.

They

much

less sep-

arated than ourselves from the whole of

the circumambient life and they
sess a
still

pos-

number of those more general and

indeterminate senses whereof

we have been

deprived by the gradual encroachment of

a

narrow and intolerant

special faculty, our

intelligence.

Among
want
of a
I

these

senses

which
in-

up

to the present

we have
and
it

described as
is

stincts,

for

pressing want
nite

more

suitable

becoming a and defidi-

word, need
of

mention the sense of

rection,

migration, foreknowledge of the

weather,

earthquakes

and avalanches

and many others which we doubtless do not

even suspect?

Does

all this

not belong to

a subconsciousness

which

differs

from ours

only in being so

much
30

richer?

am

fully

aware that
328
.

this explanation

by

The Unknown Guest

means of the subliminal consciousness
not explain very
will

invoke the aid of

the

much and will at most the unknown to illuminate

But to explain a
J.

incomprehensible.
as

phenomenon,
which
is

Dr.
is

de

Modzelwski

very truly says,

forward a theory more familiar and more easily

to put

comprehensible to us than the phenomenon

at issue.

"

This

is

really

what we are con-

stantly
physics,

and almost exclusively doing in chemistry, biology and in every

branch of science without exception.

explain a

To

make

it

phenomenon is not necessarily to as clear and pellucid as that two

and two are four; and, even so, the fact that two and two are four is not, when we
go to the bottom of things, as clear and
pellucid as
in
it

seems.

What

in this case, as

most others, we wrongfully

is

call explain-

ing

simply confronting the unexpected

mystery which these horses offer us with a phenomena which are themselves un3-9

The Unknown
known,
but

Guest
perceived

which have been

longer and more frequently. same mystery, thus explained,

And
in this

this

will serve

one day to explain others.

that science goes to work.

It

is

way
does

We

must not
it

blame

it:

it

does what

it

can; and

not appear that there are other ways.

3
If
1

we

assent to this explanation by

means
is

of the subliminal consciousness, which

sort of mysterious participation in all that

happens

in this

world and the

others,

obstacles disappear
in

and we enter

into

many a new

which we draw strangely nearer region to the animals and really become their
brothers by closer links, perhaps the only

They take part from great human problems, in the extraordinary actions of our unknown guest; and, if, since we have been observing
essential links in life.

that

moment

in the

the indwelling force

more
330

attentively, noth-

The Unknown Guest

ing any longer surprises us of that which
realizes
in
it

us, no more should anything surprise us of that which it realizes in them. We are on the same plane with them, in

some
is

as yet undetermined element,

where

it

no longer the

intelligence that reigns

alone, but another spiritual power,

which

pays no heed to the brain, which passes by other roads and which might rather be the
psychic substance of the universe
itself,

no

longer set
cialized

in

grooves,

isolated

and

spe-

by man, but
if

diffused,

multiform
it,

and perhaps,

we could

trace

equal in

everything that exists.

There

is,

henceforth, no reason
in

why

the

horses should not participate

most of the

mediumistic phenomena which we find existing between man and man; and their mystery ceases to be distinct from those of hu-

man
its

metaphysics.

If their subliminal

is

akin to ours,

we

can begin by extending to

the
33i

utmost

limits

telepathic

theory,

The Unknown Guest

which
has, so to speak,

no

limits,

for,

in

the matter of telepathy, as

all

Myers has
is

said,

that

we

are permitted to declare

that
itself

"life has the

power of manifesting

to life."
if

We may

ask ourselves, therefore,

the problem which I set to the horse,

without knowing the terms of it, is not communicated to my subliminal, which is ig-

norant of
read
is
it
it.

it,

by that of the horse, who has

It is practically certain that this

possible between
I

human

subliminals.
it

Is

who

see the solution and transmit

to

the horse,

who

only repeats

it

to

me?

But,

suppose that

it is

a problem which I myself

am
if

incapable of solving?
I

the solution come, then?

Whence does do not know

the experiment has been attempted, under

the

same

conditions, with a
if it

human medium.
it

For

that matter,

succeeded,

would

be very much the same as the no

liminal

less sub-

phenomenon of the arithmetical prodigies, or lightning calculators, with

332

The Unknown Guest

which,
phere,
in

this

rather superhuman atmos-

we

are almost forced to compare the

riddle of the mathematical horses.

Of

all

the interpretations,
the
tric

it is

the one which, for

moment, and the most

appears to

me

the least eccen-

natural.
gift of

We

have seen that the

is

handling
in-

colossal figures
telligence
that,
in

almost foreign to the

proper;

one
it

can
is

even declare
evidently and

certain cases,

completely independent of such intelligence.

In these cases, the gift
to
is

manifested prior
earliest years
list

any education and from the

If

of childhood.

we

refer to the

of

arithmetical prodigies given by Dr. Scrip1

ture,

we

see that the faculty

in

made
at

its

ap-

pearance

Ampere
six,

at the

age of three, in
three,
in

Colburn

at

in

Gauss

Mangiamele
Whateley
it

at ten, in Safford at six, in

at three,

and so

on.

Generally,

lasts

for only a

few years, becoming

x

^American Journal of Psychology,

333

April 1891.

The Unknown Guest

rapidly enfeebled with age and usually vanishing suddenly at the
sessor begins to

moment when

its

pos-

go

to school.

When

you ask those children and even

most of the lightning calculators who have come to man's estate how they go to work to solve the huge and complicated problems
them, they reply that they know nothing about it. Bidder, for instance, declares
set

that

it

is

impossible for
tell

him

to say

how

he can instinctively

the logarithm of a

number
It
is

consisting of seven or eight figures.

the

same with

Safford,
in his

who,

at the

age

of

ten,

used to do

head, without ever

making

a mistake, multiplication-sums the

result of

which ran into

thirty-six figures.

The

solution presents itself authoritatively

it is

and spontaneously;

a vision, an impres-

sion, an inspiration, an intuition coming one

knows not whence, suddenly and indubitaAs a rule, they do not even try to bly.
calculate.

Contrary to the general

334

belief,

The Unknown
they

Guest
or,
if

have no

peculiar
it is

methods;

method

there be,

more

a practical

of subdividing the intuition.

think that the solution

way One would

suddenly

springs

from the very enunciation of the problem, in the same way as a veridical hallucination.
It

appears to

done, from a
reservoir

and readysort of eternal and cosmic

rise,

infallible

wherein
lie

the

answers
It

to

every

question

dormant.

must, therefore,
here a phenomebrain,

be admitted that

we have

non that occurs above or below the

by the side of the consciousness and the

mind, outside
all

the intellectual methods

precisely for

and habits; and

it is

phenom-

ena of this kind that Myers invented the

word

"subliminal."

J I have no need to recall the derivation of the term subliminal: beneath (sub) the threshold (limen) of consciousness. Let us add, as M. de Vesme very rightly remarks, that the subliminal is not exactly

what
which

classical psychology calls the subconsciousness, latter records only notions that are normally

to say, faculties

perceived and possesses only normal faculties, that is recognized to-day by orthodox science.

335

The Unknown Guest

32

Does not
ment that
tion of a

all this

bring us a

little

nearer

to our calculating horses?

it is

From

the

mosolu-

demonstrated that the

mathematical problem no longer depends exclusively on the brain, but on another faculty, another spiritual power

whose presence under various forms has

been ascertained beyond a doubt in certain animals, it ceases to be wholly rash or extravagant to suggest that perhaps,
horse, the
in the

same phenomenon is reproduced developed in the same unknown, wherein moreover the mysteries of numbers
and

and those of subconsciousness mingle in a like darkness. I am well aware that an

explanation laden to such an extent with
mysteries explains but very
silence
little
it

more than
at least a

does; nevertheless,

is

silence traversed

by

restless

murmurs and
to

sedulous whispers that are better than the

gloomy and hopeless ignorance

336

which

The Unknown
we would have perforce if we did not struggle,

Guest

to resign ourselves
in spite

of

all,

to
is

perform the great duty of man, which

to discover a spark in the darkness.
It

goes without saying that objections are

raised

from every

side.

Among

men,

arith-

metical prodigies are looked upon as

sters, as a sort
ical

mon-

of extremely rare teratolog-

phenomenon.

We

can count, at most,

half-a-dozen

in a century,

whereas,

among

horses, the faculty

most general, or
fact,

at

would appear to be alleast quite common. In

out of six or seven stallions

whom

Krall tried to initiate into the secrets of

mathematics, he found only two that appeared to him too poorly gifted for him
to waste time on their education.
I

These

were, believe, two thoroughbreds that were presented to him by the Grand-duke

of Mecklenburg and sent back by Krall to

their
five

sumptuous
others,

stables.

In the four or
as

taken at random
337

circum-

The Unknown Guest

stances supplied them, he
it is

unequal,

true,

met with aptitudes but easily developed and

giving the impression that they exist normally, latent and inactive, at the bottom of

every equine soul.

point of view,
is

From
the

the mathematical

horse's

subliminal

consciousness then superior to man's?

Why
prob-

not?

His whole subliminal being

ours,

is

ably superior to

of greater range,
alive

younger, fresher,
since
it

more

and

less

heavy,

is

not incessantly attacked, coerced

intelligence
it

and humiliated by the

which

gnaws
it

at

it,

stifles

it,

cloaks

and relegates

to a

dark corner which neither light nor

air

can penetrate.
is

His subliminal conbottom

sciousness

always present, always alert;

is

ours

is

never there,

asleep at the

of a deserted well and needs exceptional

operations, results and events before
it

can

be drawn from

its

slumber and

its

unre-

membered

deeps.

All this seems very ex-

traordinary; but, in any case,

338

we

are here

The Unknown
in

Guest

the midst of the extraordinary; and this

is

outlet
is

perhaps the least hazardous.

It

not a question,

we must remember,

of a

cerebral operation, an intellectual performance, but of a gift of divination closely allied to other gifts of the

same nature and

the

same origin which are not the peculiar attribute of man. No observation, no experiment enables
of
us,

up

to the present, to

establish a difference between the subliminal

human

beings and that of animals.

On

the contrary, the as yet restricted

number

of actual cases reveals constant and striking

analogies between the two.

In most of
it

those arithmetical operations, be

noted,

the subliminal of the horse behaves exactly

like that

of the

medium

in a state

of trance.

The

horse readily reverses the figures of

the solution; he replies, "37," for instance,

instead of "73," which
is

mediumistic

phenomenon
that
it

so well-known

and so frequent

has been styled "mirror-writing."

339

The Unknown
He
makes mistakes

Guest
most

fairly often in the

elementary additions and subtractions and much less frequently in the extraction of
the most complicated roots, which again, in
similar
cases,
is

such

as

"xenoglossy"

and

psychometry,

one of the eccentricities of

is

human mediumism and

same

explained by the

cause, namely, the inopportune interintelligence,

vention of the ever fallible

which, by meddling

in

the matter, alters the

certainties of a subliminal which,

when
It

left
in

to

itself,

never makes a mistake.

is,

fact,

quite probable that the horse, being

really able to
relies solely

do the small sums, no longer on his intuition and, from that

moment, gropes and flounders about.

solution hovers between the intelligence

The
and
one,

the subliminal and, passing

from the

which
which

is is

not quite sure of

it,

to the other,
to,

not urgently appealed

it

comes

out of the conflict as best

case
is

may.

The

the

same with the psychometric or

340

The Unknown Guest

spiritualistic

medium who
in

seeks to profit by

what he knows

the ordinary way, so as

to complete the visions or revelations of his

subconscious sensibility.
instance,
is

He,

too,

in

this

nearly always guilty of flagrant

and inexplicable blunders.

Many
exist,

other similarities will be found to

notably the

way

in

which the lessons

capri-

vary.

Nothing

is

more uncertain and

cious than manifestations of

human medimaterializaseries
re-

umism.
matic

Whether
writing,

it

be a question of auto-

psychometry,

tions or anything else,

we meet with

of sittings that yield none but absurd

sults.

Then, suddenly, for reasons as yet

the state of the weather, the presI

obscure

ence of this or that witness, or

know not

what

the most undeniable and bewildering

manifestations occur one after the other.

The
able

case
:

is

precisely the

same with the

horses

their queer fancies, their unaccount-

and disconcerting freaks drive poor

34i

The Unknown Guest

Krall to despair.

He

never opens the door

of that uncertain stable, on important days,

without a sinking at the heart. Let the beard or the frown of some learned professor
fail

to please the

horses: they will,

forthwith, take an unholy delight in giving

the most irrelevant answers to the most ele-

mentary questions for hours and even days on end.

Other common features are the strongly-

marked

personality

of

the

mediumistic

"raps" and the communications known as

"deferred telepathic communications," that
is

to say, those in

which the answer

is

ob-

tained at the end of a sitting to a question

put at the beginning and forgotten by all those present. What at first sight seems

one

of

the

strongest

objections

urged

against the

mediumism of the horse even

it.

tends to confirm
the

If the reply comes

it

from

horse's subconsciousness,

has been

asked,

how

is it

that

it

should be necessary

342

The Unknown Guest

first

him the elements of language, mathematics and so forth, and that Berto,
to teach

for instance,

is

incapable of solving the

as

same problems
Vesme, who
u

Muhamed?
:

This obby

jection has been very ably refuted

M.

de

writes

produce automatic writing, a medium must have learnt to write; before

Victorien Sardou or Mile Helene Schmidt

To

could produce their mediumistic drawings and paintings, they had to possess an ele-

mentary knowledge of drawing and painting; Tartini would never have composed The Devil's Sonata in a dream, if he had
not

known music; and

so forth.

Uncon-

scious cerebration,

however wonderful, can

or another.

only take effect upon elements already ac-

quired in some

way

The

sub-

conscious cerebration of a
birth will not

man

blind from

make him
343

see colours/'

The Unknown
Here, then,
in

Guest

this

comparison which

might easily be extended, are several fairly well-defined features of resemblance.

We

receive
habits,

vivid

impression

of the

same

the same contradictions and the

same

eccentricities;

and we once more

rec-

ognize the strange and majestic shadow of

our unknown guest.

33

One
the

great objection remains, based upon

the very nature of the phenomenon, upon

really

insuperable

distance

that

sep-

arates the

whole

life

of the horse from the

life

abstract

and impenetrable
for a

of numbers.
in-

How
terest

can his subliminal consciousness

itself

moment

in

signs that

represent nothing to him, have no relation

to his

organism and will never touch

But, in the first place,
it

his

existence?

is

just

the

same with the

child or the illiterate cal344

The Unknown Guest

culator.

He

is

not interested either

lets

in the

figures

which he

loose.

He

is

com-

pletely ignorant of the consequences of the

problems which he solves. He juggles with digits which have hardly any more meanHe is ining to him than to the horse.
capable of accounting for what he does;

and

his subconsciousness also acts in a sort

It is true

of indifferent and remote dream.

that, in his case,

and to
enough

we can appeal to heredity memory; but is this difference

and
definitely

to settle the difficulty

to separate the

two phenomena?
is is

To

ap-

peal

to heredity
it

still

to appeal to the
all

subliminal; and

not at

certain that

the latter

is

limited by the interest of the

it.

organism sheltering
contrary, in

It appears,

on the

many

circumstances, to spread

and extend far beyond that organism in which it is domiciled, one would say, accidentally

and provisionally.
it

It likes to

show,

apparently, that

is

in

relation with all

345

The Unknown Guest

that exists.
It declares itself, as

often as

possible, universal

and impersonal. It has but a very indifferent care, as we have seen in the matter of apparitions and premonitions, for the

happiness and even the safety

It

of
its

its

host and protector.

prophesies to

companion of

a lifetime events

which he

cannot avoid or which do not concern him.

It
all

makes him

see beforehand, for instance,

the circumstances of the

death of a

stranger

whom
when

he will only hear of after

this event
is

the event,

irrevocable.

It

brings a

crowd of barren presentiments and

idle.

conjures up veridical hallucinations that are

wholly alien and

With

psychometric,
it

typtological or materializing mediums,

practises art for art's sake,

mocks

at space

and

time, passes through personalities, sees

through solid bodies, brings into communication thoughts and emotions worlds apart,
reads souls and lives by the light of a flower,
a rag or a scrap of paper;
346

and

all this

for

The Unknown Guest

nothing,
to
it

amuse

itself,

to

astonish us,

because

adores the superfluous, the inco-

herent, the unexpected, the improbable, the

bewildering, or rather, perhaps, because

is

it

a huge, rough, undisciplined force

in

still

struggling

the darkness and coming to

fits

the surface only by wild

and

starts, be-

cause

it is

an enormous expansion of a spirit

collect
itself,

striving to

to

achieve con-

sciousness, to

make

itself

of service and to

obtain a hearing.
being,
it

In any case, for the time

appears just what

we have

de-

scribed,

and would be unlike

itself if it be-

haved any otherwise

zles us.

in the case that

puz-

34
Lastly, to close this chapter, let us remark

that

it

is

nearly certain that the solution

is

given by calculating children and horses

not of a mathematical nature at

all.

They

do not

in

any

way

consider the problem or

347

The Unknown Guest

the

sum

to be worked.

They simply

find

the answer straight

guessing of which

is

away to a riddle, the made easy by the actual

in the requisite state

nature of figures which keep their secrets

badly.

To
it

any one

of

becomes a question of a sort of elementary charade, which hides its answer

mind,
only from those

who
it

speak another lan-

guage.

It

is

evident that every problem,

however complex
within
its

may

appear,
its

carries

very enunciation

one, invari-

able solution, scarce veiled by the indiscreet

signs that contain or cover
it.

It is there,

under the numbers that have no other object

than to give

it life,

tossing, stirring

and
It

ceaselessly proclaiming itself a necessity.

is

not surprising therefore that eyes sharper

than ours and ears open to other vibrations should see and hear it without knowing what
it

represents,

what

it

implies or
figures

from what prodigious mass of

operations
it

and

emerges.
348

The problem

itself

The Unknown Guest

speaks; and the horse but repeats the sign

which he hears whispered in the mysterious life of numbers or deep down in the abyss

where

the

eternal

verities
it,

hold

sway.

He

understands none of

he has no need

to understand,

he

is

but the unconscious

medium who
the

lends his voice or his limbs to

mind

that inspires him.

There

is

here

but a bare and simple answer, bearing no

precise significance, seized in an alien existence.

There

is

here but a mechanical reve-

lation, so to speak, a sort of special reflex

which we can only record and which, for the

any other phenomenon of consciousness or instinct. After
rest, is as inexplicable as
all,

when we think of

it,

it is

just as aston-

ishing that
lution as

we should not perceive the soit is that we should discover it.

I grant that all this is but a venturesome interpretation to be taken for what it is worth, an experimental or interim

However,

theory with which

we must needs
349

content

The Unknown
ourselves since
all

Guest

the others have hitherto

facts.

been controverted by the

35 Let us now
Elberfeld
briefly

sum up what
have

these
us.

experiments

yielded

Having put
sense

aside telepathy in the enters

is

narrow

which perhaps
for

into

more

than one phenomenon but

sable
,to
it,

not indispen-

we see these samei phenomena repeated when telepathy is pracwe cannot help observtically impossible ing that, if we deny the existence or the
influence of the subliminal,
difficult to contest
it is

all

the

more
in-

the existence and the

tervention of the intelligence, at any rate up

to the extracting of roots, after which there
is

a steep precipice
if

which ends

in darkness.

But, even

we

stop at the roots, the sudden

discovery of an intellectual force so similar

to our own,
see but

where we were accustomed

is

to

an irremediable impotency,
350

no

The Unknown Guest

doubt one of the most unexpected revelations that we have received since the in-

and the unknown began to press upon us with a persistence and an impatience which they had not displayed heretovisible

fore.

It is

not easy to foresee as yet the

consequences and the promises of this

aspect which the great riddle of the

new

intelli-

gence
that

is

we

shall

suddenly adopting. soon have to revise some of

But

I believe

the essential ideas which are the foundations

of our

life

and that some rather

strange horizons are appearing out of the

mists in the history of psychology, of
rality,

mo-

of

human

destiny and of

many

other

things.

36
So much for the
other hand, what
intelligence.

On

the

we deny

to the intelli-

gence

we

are constrained to grant to the

is

subliminal; and the revelation

35i

even more

The Unknown Guest

disconcerting.

We should then have to admit

horse

that there

is

in the

and hence most

probably
earth
a
is

in

everything that lives on this

psychic

power

similar
veil

to

that

which

hidden beneath the

of our
it,

reason and which, as

we

learn to

know

astonishes, surpasses and dominates our reason more and more. This psychic

power, in which no doubt we shall one day be forced to recognize the genius of the
universe
itself,

appears, as

we have

often
all-

observed, to be all-wise, all-seeing and

powerful. It has, when it is pleased to communicate with us or when we are allowed to

penetrate into
tion
it,

an answer for every quesill.

We
ease

and perhaps a remedy for every will not enumerate its virtues again.
it

It

will be

enough mocks at

for us to recall with

space, time

what

and

all

the ob-

stacles that beset

our poor

human knowl-

like all that

edge and understanding. We believed it, seems to us superior and mar352

The Unknown Guest

vellous, the intangible, inalienable

and

in-

communicable attribute of man, with even

better reason than his intelligence.

And
it

now an

accident,

strangely belated,

is

true, tells

us that, at one precise point, the

strangest

and

least

foreseen

of

all,

the

horse and the dog draw more easily and

perhaps more directly than ourselves upon its mighty reservoirs. By the most inexplicable of anomalies,

though one that

is

fairly consistent with the fantastic charac-

ter of the subliminal, they

appear to have
is

access to

it

only at the spot that

most

remote from their habits and most un-

known
nothing

to their propensities,
in

for there

is

the world about which animals

trouble less than figures.

But

is

this

not

perhaps because we do not see what goes on elsewhere? It so happens that the infinite mystery of numbers can sometimes be expressed by a very few simple movements which are natural to most animals;

353

The Unknown
but there
is

Guest
us that,
if

nothing to

tell

we

could teach the horse and the dog to attach

same movements the expression of other mysteries, they would not draw upon
to these

them with equal

less clear idea

facility.

It

has been suca

cessfully attempted to give

them

more or

of the value of a few figures

and perhaps of the course and nature of certain elementary operations; and this appears to have been enough to open up to

them the most

matics,
in

secret

regions of matheis

which every question

It
is

anillu-

swered beforehand.

not wholly

sive to suppose that, if

we

could impart to

them, for instance, a similar notion of the

future, together with a

manner of conveymight

ing to us

what they

see there, they

also have access to strange visions of an-

which are jealously kept from us by the too-watchful guardians of our There is an opportunity here intelligence.
other
class,

for experiments which will doubtless prove

354

The Unknown
so easily seen

Guest
is

exceedingly arduous, for the future

not

and above

all

not so easily
It

interpreted and expressed as a number.

is

possible,

moreover,
it,

that,

when we know
most
:

how

to set about

we

shall obtain

of the

human mediumistic phenomena

rap-

ping, the

moving of objects, materialization

by that astound-

even and Heaven knows what other surprises held in store for us

ing subliminal to
to be

whose fancy there appears

In any case,
if

no bounds.

we

accept

the divining of numbers, as

we

are almost

forced to do,

it

is

almost certain that the

divining of other matters must follow.

An

unexpected breach is made in the wall behind which lie heaped the great secrets that

seem to

us, as

our knowledge and our

civi-

lization increase, to

more

inaccessible.
it
is

become stronger and True, it is a narrow

first

breach; but

the

that has been

opened

in

that part of the hitherto uncranis

nied wall which

not turned towards man355

The Unknown Guest

kind.

What

will issue

through
hope.

it?

No

one

can foretell what

we may
37

What
we

astonishes us

most

is

that this reve-

lation has been so long delayed.

How

are

to explain that
his

man

has lived to this day

with

domestic animals never suspecting

that they harboured mediumistic or sub-

liminal faculties as extraordinary as those

which he vaguely felt himself to possess? One would have in this connection to study
the mysterious practices of ancient India

and of Egypt; the numerous and persistent

legends of animals talking, guiding their masters and foretelling the future; and,
nearer to ourselves, in history proper,
that
science
all

of
its

which derived

augury and soothsaying omens from the flight of

birds, the inspection of entrails, the appetite

or attitude of the sacred or prophetic

animals,

among which
356

horses were often

The Unknown
numbered.

Guest
in-

We

here find one of those

numerous

instances of a lost or anticipated

power which make

us suspect that

man-

kind has forestalled or forgotten all that we believe ourselves to be discovering. Re-

member

that there

is

almost always some

distorted,

misapprehended or dimly-seen

truth at the bottom of the most eccentric

and wildest
ends.

creeds,

superstitions

and

leg-

All this

new

science of metaphysics

or of the investigation of our subconsciousness and of

scarcely

unknown powers, which has

begun to unveil its first mysteries, thus finds landmarks and defaced but recognizable traces in the old religions, the most
inexplicable traditions and the
history.

most ancient

Besides, the probability of a thing

does not depend upon undeniably established precedents.

tain that there
is

While

it

is

almost certhe

nothing new under

sun or
it is

in

the eternity preceding the suns,

quite possible that the

357

same forces do

The Unknown Guest

As The I observed, nearly twenty years Treasure of the Humble, at a time when I hardly knew at all what I know so impernot always act with the same energy.
ago, in
fectly to-day:

"A
psychic

spiritual"

should have said, a

"epoch is perhaps upon us, an epoch to which a certain number of analoFor there are gies are found in history.

periods recorded
dience to

when

the soul,

in

obe-

unknown

laws, seemed to rise to

it

the very surface of humanity, whence

gave clearest evidence of

of
its

its

existence

and

at mopower. ments such as these, as though humanity"

...

It

would seem,

and, I

would add
this earth

to-day, all that lives

with

it

on

"were on the point

of struggling from beneath the crushing

burden of matter that weighs

it

down."

One might in fact believe that a shudder which we have not yet experienced is pass358

The Unknown Guest

ing over everything that breathes; that a

new

activity, a

new

restlessness

is

permeat-

spiritual atmosphere which surrounds our globe; and that the very animals have felt its thrill. One might say

ing the

by the side of the niggardly private spring which would only supply our intellithat,

gence, other streams are spreading and

ris-

ing to the
ence.

same

level in every

form of
is

exist-

A sort of word of command

are

being

passed from rank to rank; and the same

phenomena
attention, as

bursting
in

quarter of the globe

every order to attract our

forth

in

though the obstinately dumb

si-

genius that lay hidden in the pregnant

lence of the universe,
stones, the flowers

from that of the

insects to the

and the

mighty

silence of the stars,

tell

were at

last
it

trying to

us

some

secret

whereby

would be
is

better

known
is

to us or to itself.
illusion.

It

possible that this

but an

Per-

haps we are simply more attentive and bet359

The Unknown Guest

ter

informed than of

old.

We learn at the

very instant what happens in every part of our earth and we have acquired the habit
of more minutely observing and examining
the things that happen.

But the
the force,

illusion
all

would

in this case
all

have

all

the

value and

the

meaning of the reality and

would enjoin the same hopes and the same

obligations.

360

CHAPTER

THE UNKNOWN GUEST

CHAPTER V
THE UNKNOWN GUEST
I

w
ness

have now studied certain manifes-

tations of that

which we have called

the

in turn

and more or

less indiscriminately

subconscious mind, the subliminal conscious-

and the unknown

guest,

names

to

which we might add that of the superior

subconsciousness or superior psychism
in-

vented by Dr. Geley.

Granting that these manifestations are really proved, it is no

longer possible to explain them or rather

to classify

them without having recourse

to

fresh

theories.

Now we
points,

can

entertain

doubts on
argue; but

many
I

we

can cavil and

defy any one approaching

these facts in a serious and honest spirit

to reject them

all.

It is

permissible to neg-

363

The Unknown Guest

most extraordinary but there are a multitude of others which have become or,
lect the
;

to speak

more

accurately, are

to be as frequent

acknowledged and habitual as any fact

life.

whatever
not

in

normal, everyday

It is

difficult to

reproduce them at

will,

pro-

vided

we place ourselves in the demanded by their very nature;

so,

condition

and, this

being

there remains

no valid reason for

excluding them from the domain of science

in the strict sense of the

word.
learnt regardis

Hitherto,

all

that

we have
is

ing these occurrences

that their origin

is

unknown.

It will

be said that this

is

not

much and
boast of.

that the discovery

I

nothing to

quite agree: to imagine that

one can explain a phenomena by saying that it is produced by an unknown agency would
indeed be childish.
thing to have
still

But

it is

already some-

marked

its

source, not to be

lingering in the thick of a fog, trying

in

any and every direction

364

order to find a

The Unknown Guest

way
tion
out, but to be concentrating

our atten-

on a single spot which

all

is

the starting-

point of
instant

these wonders, so that at each

in

we recognize

each phenomenon

the characteristic customs, methods or features of the

same unknown agency.

all

It is

very nearly

that

we can do

for the

mo-

ment; but

this first effort is

not wholly to

be despised.
2
It

has seemed to us then that

it

was our

unknown guest that expressed itself in the name of the dead in table-turning and in
automatic writing and speaking.

This un-

known

guest has appeared to us to take

within us the place of those

who

are

no

more, to unite
that

itself

do not

die,

perhaps with forces to visit the grave with the

object of bringing thence inexplicable phan-

toms which

rise

up

in

front of us fruit-

lessly or haunt our houses without telling us why. have seen it, in experiments

We

365

The Unknown Guest

in clairvoyance
all

and

intuition,

suppressing

the obstacles

that

banish or conceal

thought and, through bodies that have become transparent, reading in our very souls
forgotten secrets of the past, sentiments
that have not yet taken shape, intentions as
yet unborn.

We have discovered that some

now
far
to

object once handled by a person

away

is

enough
life

make

it

take part in the

innermost

of that person, to go deeper

and rise higher than he does, to see what he sees and even what he does not see the
:

landscape that surrounds him, the house

which he inhabits and also the dangers that threaten him and the secret passions by

which he
it

is

stirred.

We

have surprised
thither,
at
it

wandering hither and

in

hazard,

the future, confounding

hapwith

the present and the past, not conscious

of

where

it

is

but seeing far and wide,

know-

ing perhaps everything but unaware of the

importance of what

it

knows, or as yet

in-

366

The Unknown
capable of turning
it

Guest
mak-

to account or of

ing itself understood, at once neglectful and

overscrupulous, prolix and reticent, useless

and indispensable. We have seen it, lastly, although we had hitherto looked upon it as and unchangeably human, suddenly emerge from other creatures and there reveal faculties akin to ours, which
indissolubly

commune with them deep down

est

in the

deep-

mysteries and which equal them and

in

sometimes surpass them

a region that

wrongly appeared

to us the only really un-

assailable province of

mankind,

mean

the

obscure and abstruse province of numbers.

It

has

many
more

other no less strange and

perhaps

important

manifestations,
in a later vol-

which we propose to examine

ume, notably its surprising therapeutic virtues and its phenomena of materialization.
But, without expressing a premature judg-

ment on what we do not yet know,

haps we have
sketched
367
it

per-

with

sufficient

The Unknown

Guest

clearness in the foregoing pages to enable

us henceforward to disentangle certain general

and characteristic features from

a con-

fusion of often contradictory lines.

3
But, in the
this
first

place, does

it

really exist,

and comical, evasive and unavoidable figure which we make no claim to

tragic

portray, but at most to divest of

some of
it

its

shadows?
loudly
;

It

were rash to affirm

in the

too

but meanwhile,
it

realms where

we suppose
as

to reign, everything happens

Do away with it did exist. though and you are obliged to people the world and burden your life with a host of hypoit

thetical

and imaginary beings

gods, demi-

gods, angels, demons, saints,

spirits, shells,

elementals, etherial entities, interplanetary

intelligences

and so on; accept

it

and

all

those phantoms, without disappearing, for

they

may

very well continue to

368

live in its

The Unknown Guest

shadow, become superfluous or accessory. It is not intolerant and does not definitely
eliminate any of the hypotheses by the aid

of which
plain
ses

man

has hitherto striven to ex-

what he did not understand, hypothewhich, in regard to some matters, are

it

not inadmissible, although not one of them

is

confirmed; but

brings them back to

it-

self,

absorbs them and rules them without

If,

annihilating them.
lect the
it is

for instance, to se-

most defensible theory, one which sometimes difficult to dismiss absoluteyou

insist

ly,

if

that the discarnate spirits

take part in your actions, haunt your house,

inspire
will

your thoughts, reveal your future, answer:

is

it

"That
nate
is

true, but

it is still

I; I

am

dis-

carnate, or rather I
:it is

am

not wholly incar-

only a small part of

in

my

being that
rest,

embodied
is

your
all

flesh;

and the

which

nearly

of me, comes and goes

those
369

freely both

among

who

once were

The Unknown Guest

and among those who are yet to be; and, when they seem to speak to you, it is my

own

speech that borrows their customs and

their voice in order to

make you

listen

and

to arouse your often slumbering attention.

If you prefer to deal with superior entities

of

unknown

origin, with interplanetary or

supernatural intelligences, once

I
;

more

it

is

your body, must needs be elsewhere; and to be elseis

for, since I

am

not entirely

in

where when one

1 '

not held back by the

is

weight of the flesh one so pleases.

to be everywhere

if

We

see,

it

has a reply to everything,

that
it,

it

takes every

name

we wish and
it

there
in

is

nothing to limit

because

lives

world wherein bounds are

useless

as illusory as the

words which we employ on

earth.

4
While
tain
it

has a reply to everything, cer-

manifestations

which
370

it

deliberately

The Unknown
ascribes to the spirits

Guest

have brought upon it grave and not undeserved reproach. To begin with, as Dr. Maxwell observes, it has

no absolutely
every country
in

fixed
in the

doctrine.

In
it

nearly

world, when
it

speaks

the

name of

the spirits,

declares that

lates their past existences.

they undergo reincarnation and readily reIn England, on

the contrary,
it

usually asserts that they

do not become reincarnated.

this

What

does

mean?

Surely this ignorance or this

inconsistency on the part of that

which ap-

pears to

know

everything
it

is

very strange!

And

worse, sometimes

attributes to the

spirits,

sometimes to

itself

or any one or
it

anything the revelations which

us.

makes

to

When
least

exactly

is it

speaking the truth?

three,
it

At

on two occasions out of

If

it

de-

ludes itself or deludes us.

itself,
if
it

deceives
in

it

is

mistaken about a matter

should be easy for it to know the truth, what can it teach us on the subject

which

37i

The Unknown Guest

of a world of whose most elementary laws it is ignorant, since it does not even know

whether

it

is

itself

to us in the

name
it

or another that speaks of that world? Are we

in the

to believe that

moves

same darkit

ness as our poor superficial ego, which

pretends so often to enlighten and which

it

does

in fact inspire in

most of the great

events of life?
it

If

it

deceives us,
object:

why
it

does

do so?

We can see no

asks for

nothing, not for alms, nor prayers,

nor

thoughts, on behalf of those whose mantle

assumes for the sole purpose of leading us astray. What is the use of those misit

chievous

and puerile

pranks,

of
It

those

ghastly graveyard pleasantries?

lie

must

then for the mere pleasure of lying; and our unknown guest, that infinite and doubt-

less

immortal subconsciousness

in

which we

have placed our last hopes, is after all but an imbecile, a buffoon or a rank swindler
!

372

The Unknown
5
I

Guest

do not believe that the truth

this.

is

as hide-

ous as

Our unknown
more than
and

guest does not

it

deceive itself any

deceives us;
It
is

but

it

is

we who

deceive ourselves.
itself;
its

has
not

not the stage to

voice

the voice that sounds in our ears, which

were never made

world that
is

to catch the echoes of a

not like ours.

If

it

could

speak to us itself and tell us what it knows, we should probably at that instant cease to
be on this earth.

But we are immured

in

our bodies, entombed prisoners with whom it cannot communicate at will. It roams

around the
knocks
is

walls,

it

utters

warning

cries,

it

at

every door, but

all

that reaches us

vague disquiet, an indistinct murmur that is sometimes translated to us by a halfa

awakened gaoler who,

lifelong captive.

like ourselves,

is

he has his

The gaoler does his best; own way of speaking, his faknows ours and, with
373

miliar expressions; he

The Unknown Guest

the aid of the words which he possesses and
those which he hears repeated, he tries to

make

us understand

what he hardly underdoes not

stands himself.

He

know

exactly

whence the sounds come which he hears; and, according as tempests, wars or riots

happen

to be

uppermost

at the

moment, he
tramping
In other

attributes

them

to the winds, to

soldiers or to frenzied crowds.

words and speaking without metaphor, it is the medium who draws from his habitual
language and from that suggested to him by his audience the wherewithal to clothe

and identify the strange presentiments, the unfamiliar visions that come from some un-

known

region.

If he believes that the

dead
it is

survive, he will naturally imagine that

the dead

who speak

to him.

If he has a
will

favourite spirit, angel,

demon or god, he
name;
if

express himself in

its

he has no

preconceived opinion, he will not even allude to the origin of the revelations which
374

The Unknown Guest

he

language of the subconsciousness necessarily borrows

is

making.

The

inarticulate

that of the normal consciousness;

and the

two become confused

into a sort of shifting

and multiform jargon. And our unknown guest, which is not thinking of delivering a
course of lectures upon
ply giving us as best
useless
it

its entity,

but simless

can a more or
its

warning or

mark of

existence,

seems to care but

in

little

as to the

garments

which

it

is

rigged out, having indeed no

it

choice in the matter, for, either because

is

unable to manifest

itself

or because

we

are incapable of understanding it, it has to be content with whatever comes to hand.
Besides,
if

we

attribute too exclusively to

the spirits that which comes

quarter, the mistake
is
it

from another

doubtless no great
is

one

in

its

eyes; for
it

not madness to

believe that

lives with that

which does

not die in the dead even as with that which

does not die

in ourselves,

with that which

375

The Unknown

Guest

does not descend into the grave even as with

that which does not take flesh at the hour

of birth. 6

There

is

no reason therefore to condemn

the other theories entirely.

doubtless contain

Most of them something more than a

school

particle of truth; in particular, the great

quarrel

between the subconscious

spiritualists
is

and the

based on the whole

It is quite pos-

upon
sible

a misunderstanding.

and even very probable that the dead are all around us, since it is impossible that

the dead do not live.

Our

subconsciousness

must mingle with all that does not die in them and that which dies in them or rather
;

disperses

and

loses all

its

importance

is

but

the

little

consciousness accumulated on this

earth and kept up until the last hour by the

frail

bonds of memory. In all those manifestations of our unknown guest, it is our

lives
in

posthumous ego that already

376

us

The Unknown Guest

while

we

are

still

in

the flesh and at

mo-

ments joins that which does not die in those who have quitted their body. Then does
the existence of our

unknown guest
a
it

pre-

sume the immortality of

selves ?

part of our?

Can one

possibly doubt

Have
picpic-

you ever imagined that you would perish

entirely?

As

for me,
in

what

cannot

ture

is

the

manner

which you would

But,
if

ture that total annihilation.

you

cannot perish entirely,

that those

it

is

no

less certain

who came

before you have not

it

perished either; and hence

is

not altoable to

gether improbable that

discover

we may be

them and

to

communicate with

them.
theory
not at
ful

In this wider sense, the spiritualistic

is

perfectly admissible; but

what

is

all

admissible

is

the narrow and

its

piti-

interpretation which
it.

exponents too

often give

They

see the

dead crowding
indissol-

around us

like

wretched puppets

ubly attached to the insignificant scene of

377

The Unknown
their death

Guest
little

by the thousand

threads

of insipid memories and infantile hobbies.

They

are supposed to be here, blocking up

our homes, more abjectly human than if they were still alive, vague, inconsistent,
garrulous, derelict, futile and
idle,

tossing

hither and thither their desolate shadows,

which are being slowly swallowed up by lence and oblivion, busying themselves

si-

in-

cessantly with what no longer concerns them, but almost incapable of doing us a
real service, so

much

so that, in short, they

would end by persuading us that death

serves no purpose, that
it

neither purifies

nor
that

exalts, that
it

it

brings no deliverance and

is

indeed a thing of terror and de-

spair.

No, and act.

it

is

not the dead

who

thus speak

Besides,

why

bring them into the

I

matter unnecessarily?
that

could understand
if

we should

be obliged to do so
378

there

The Unknown

Guest

were no similar phenomena outside them; but in the intuition and clairvoyance of nonspiritualistic

mediums and

particularly

in

psychometry we obtain communications between one subconsciousness and another and

revelations of
incidents

unknown, forgotten or future which are equally striking, though

with

stripped of the vapid gossip and tedious

reminiscences

which

whelmed by defunct persons more jealous to prove their

we who

are
are

overall

the

identity inas-

much
It

as they
is

know that they do not exist. infinitely more likely that there is a
in

strange medley of heterogeneous forces

the uncertain regions into which

venturing.

we

are

The whole
its

of this ambiguous
is

drama, with

incoherent crowds,

prob-

ably enacted round about the dim estuary

where our normal consciousness flows

our
subconsciousness.

into

The consciousness of the medium for we must not forget that there is necessarily always a medium
379

The Unknown Guest

at

the sources of these

consciousness of the

phenomena the medium, obscured by

speech and can
first

the condition of trance but yet the only one

that possesses our

human

make

itself

heard, takes in

and almost

exclusively

what

it

best understands and

it

what most
mutilated
guest,

interests

in

the stifled and

revelations
its

of

our

unknown

which for

part communicates with

the dead and the living and everything that The rest, which is the only thing exists.
that matters, but which
is

less

clearand

less

vivid because
rarely

it

comes from afar, only very

difficult

makes

its

forest of insignificant talk.

way through a We may add

as

that our subconsciousness,

Dr.

Geley

very rightly observes,

is

formed of super-

posed elements, beginning with the unconsciousness that governs the instinctive

move-

ments of the organic life of both the species and the individual and passing by imperceptible degrees
till
it

rises to the

superior

380

The Unknown Guest

psychism whose power and extent appear to have no bounds. The voice of the me-

we hear within ourselves when, at certain moments of excitement or crisis in our lives, we become our own medium, has therefore to traverse
dium, or that which
three worlds or three provinces
atavistic instincts
:

that of the

which connect us with the

animal; that of
sciousness; and

human or

empirical con-

lastly that of our

unknown

guest

or

our

superior

subconsciousness,
invisible realities

which

links us to

immense
if

and which we may,

or superhuman.

we

wish, call divine

Hence

it is

not surprising

that the intermediary, be he spiritualist, au-

tonomist,

palingenesist

or what he
those

will,

should

lose

himself

in

wild

and

troubled eddies and that the truth or mes-

sage which he brings us, tossed and tumbled in every direction, should reach us

broken, shattered and pulverized beyond

recognition.
381

The Unknown
For the
rest, I repeat,

Guest
it

were

not for the

in the

absurd prominence given to our dead

spiritualistic interpretation, this question

of

origin would have little importance, since both life and death are incessantly joining

and uniting in all things. There are assuredly dead people in all these manifestations, seeing that

we

are full of dead peo-

ple and that the greater part of ourselves

is

at this
is

moment

steeped in death, that

is

to say,

already living the boundless

life

that awaits us on the farther side of the

grave.
8

should be wrong, however, to fix all our attention on these extraordinary phe-

We

nomena, either those with which we unduly connect the deceased or those no less striking ones in which

we do

not believe that

they take part.

They
mark

are evidently prec-

ious points of emergence that enable us ap-

proximately to

the extent, the forms

382

The Unknown Guest

and the habits of our mystery.
within ourselves,
in

But

it

is

the silence of the dark-

ness of our being,

tion,

where

it

is

ever

in

mo-

guiding our destiny, that we should

strive to surprise that

mystery and to

dis-

cover

it.

And

am

not speaking only of the

in-

dreams, the presentiments, the vague

tuitions, the

more or

less brilliant inspira-

tions
tions,

which are so many more manifestaspecific as it were and analogous with

those that have occupied us.

other, a

There

is

an-

existence which

and much more active we have scarcely begun to study and which is, if we descend to the

more

secret

bed-rock of truth, our only real existence.

From
to die,

the

darkest corners of our ego

life,

it

directs our veritable

the one that

is

not

and pays no heed to our thought or to anything emanating from our reason,
which believes that
it

guides our steps.

It

alone knows the long past that preceded our birth and the endless future that will
383

The Unknown Guest

follow our departure from this earth.
itself

It

is

that future

and that

past, all those

all

from

whom we
will spring

have sprung and

those

who

from

us.

It represents in

the individual not only the species but that

which preceded it and that which will follow it; and it has neither beginning nor
end: that
ing
is
it

why

nothing touches

it,

noth-

moves
it

which does not concern that

which

represents.
it

When

a misfortune or a

joy befall us,

knows

their value instantly,

knows

if

they are going to open or to close

life.

the wells of
is

It

is

the one thing that

never wrong. In vain does reason demonto

it is
it,

strate

by

irresistible

arguments,
silent

that

hopelessly

at

fault:

un-

immovable mask, whose expression we have not yet been able to read, it purder
its

way. It treats us as insignificant children, void of understanding, never answers our objections, refuses what we ask
sues
its

and lavishes upon us that which we

384

refuse.

The Unknown Guest

If

we go
If

to the right,

it

reconducts us to the

left.

we

cultivate this or that faculty

which we think that we possess or which we would like to possess, it hides it under some
other which

we

did not expect and did not

wish

for.

It saves us

from

a danger by im-

parting to our limbs unforeseen and unerr-

which they had never made before and which are contrary
ing
actions
to those

movements and

make:

it

which they had been taught to knows that the hour has not yet
it

come when
selves.
It

will be useless to

defend ourof the

chooses our love

in spite

revolt of our intelligence or of our poor,

ephemeral heart. It smiles when we are frightened and sometimes it is frightened

when we

it is always the winour ner, humiliating reason, crushing our

smile.

And

wisdom and
sions alike
destiny.

arguments and paswith the contemptuous hand of

silencing

The

greatest

doctors

surround

our sick-bed and deceive themselves and us

385

The Unknown Guest

in foretelling

our death or our recovery

it

alone whispers in our ear the truth that will

not be denied.
tal

A thousand apparently morupon our head and not

a lash

blows
its

fall

of

eyelids quivers; but suddenly a tiny

shock, which our senses had not even trans-

mitted to our brain, wakes

It sits up,
It

it

with a

start.

looks around and understands.

in the

has seen the crack

vault that sepa-

rates the

two

lives.

It gives the signal for

departure.
cell to cell
;

Forthwith panic spreads from

and the innumerous

city that

we

are utters yells of horror and distress and

hustles

around the gates of death.

9

That great
been there,
in

figure,

that

new being has

all

our darkness, from

time,
ac-

though
the

its

awkward and extravagant

are only
It

tions, until recently attributed to the gods,

demons or the dead,

386

now

ask-

ing for our serious attention.

has been

The Unknown Guest

likened to an immense block of which our
personality
is

but a diminutive facet; to an

iceberg of which

we

see a

few glistening
while nine-

prisms that represent our

life,

tenths of the enormous mass remain buried

in

the shadows of the sea.

ing that has not

Lodge, it is become carnate; according to Gustave Le Bon, it is the "condensed"

soul of our ancestors, which
is

Sir Oliver

According to that part of our be-

true,

beyond

a doubt, but only a part of the truth, for

we

find in

it

also the soul of the future

and

probably of many other forces which are not necessarily human. William James

saw

in

it

a diffuse cosmic consciousness

and

the chance intrusion into our scientifically-

organized world of remnants and bestiges of the primordial chaos. Here are a number of images striving to give us an idea of a reality so vast that we are unable to

grasp

it.

It

is

certain that
is

what we

see

from our

terrestrial life
387

nothing com-

The Unknown
if

Guest
see.

pared with what we do not

Besides,

we

think of

it,

it

would be monstrous

and inexplicable that we should be only what we appear to be, nothing but ourselves,

whole and complete

isolated,

in

ourselves,

separated,

circumscribed by our

body, our mind, our consciousness, our birth and our death. become possible and

We

probable only on the conditions that we project beyond ourselves on every side and that

we

stretch in

every direction throughout

time and space.

10

But how

shall

we

explain the incredible

contrast between the immeasurable gran-

deur of our unknown guest, the assurance, the calmness, the gravity of the inner life

which

it

leads in us and the puerile and

sometimes grotesque incongruities of what one might call its public existence? Inside
us,
it is

the sovereign judge, the supreme

The Unknown Guest

arbiter, the prophet,

almost the god omni-

potent; outside us,

it

from the moment that

and manifests
is

quits

its

shelter
it

itself in

external actions,

nothing more than a fortune-teller, a bone-setter, a sort of face-

tious conjuror or telephone-operator, I

was

on the verge of saying a mountebank or

clown.

At what
Is
its

particular instant
it

is

it

really itself?

seized with giddiness

Is
it

when

it

leaves

lair?

we who no

longer hear it, who no longer understand it, as soon as it ceases to speak in a whisper

and

to act in the
in

dark recesses of our

it

life?
in-

Are we

regard to

the terrified hive

vaded by a huge and inexplicable hand, the

trampled by a colossal and incomprehensible foot? Let us not
ant-hill

maddened

venture yet to solve the strange riddle with the aid of the little that we know. Let us
confine ourselves, for the

moment,

to noting

on the
tions

way some other, rather which we can at least try

389

easier ques-

to answer.

The Unknown
First of
all,

Guest

are the facts at issue really

new ? Was

it only yesterday that the existof our unknown ence guest and its external

manifestations were revealed to us?

Is

it

our attention that makes them appear more

numerous, or

is it

the increase in their

num-

ber that at last attracts our attention?

It

does indeed seem that, however far

we

go back in history, we everywhere find the same extraordinary phenomena, under other names and often in a more glamorous
setting.

Oracles, prophecies, incantations,

"possession,"

haruspication,

evocation

of

the dead,

apparitions,

ghosts,

miraculous

cures, levitation, transmission of thought,

apparent resurrections and the rest are the

exact equivalent, though magnified by the

aid of plentiful and obvious frauds of our

latter-day supernaturalism.

Turning

in an-

other direction,
chical

we

are able to see that psy-

phenomena

are very evenly distrib-

uted over the whole surface of the globe.

390

The Unknown Guest

At
all events,

there does not appear to be

is

any race that

absolutely or peculiarly re-

fractory to them.

One would be
among

inclined

to say, however, that they manifest themselves by preference

the most

civilis

ized

nations

perhaps

because

that

where they are most carefully sought after and among the most primitive. In short,
it

cannot be denied that

we

are in the pres-

ence of faculties or senses,

latent but at the

more or

less
dis-

same time universally

tributed,

and

which form part of the general unvarying inheritance of mankind.

faculties or senses under-

But have these

gone evolution, like most of the others? And, if they have not done so on our earth,

do they show
evolution?

traces of an extraplanetary

Is there

progress or reaction?
useless branches, or

Are they withered and

buds swollen with sap and promise?

they retreating before the march of

Are
intelli-

gence or invading

its

domain ?

391

The Unknown
ii

Guest

M.

Ernest Bozzano, one of the most

learned,

most daring and most

subtle ex-

ponents of the new science that is in process of formation, in the course of a remarkable
essay in the Annales des sciences psychi-

ques* gives

it

as his opinion that they

have

remained stationary and unchanged. He considers that they have become in no way diffused, generalized and refined, like so

many

others that are

much

less

important

and useful from the point of view of the

struggle for
life,

such as the musical facIt

ulty, for instance.

does not even seem,

it

says

M.

Bozzano, that

is

possible to

cultivate

or develop them systematically.

races in particular,

The Hindu
thousands

who

for

of years

have been

devoting

themselves to the study of these manifestations,

have arrived

at

nothing but a better

cal-

knowledge of the empirical methods

1

September 1906.
392

The Unknown Guest

culated to produce

them

in individuals al-

ready

endowed with
I

these
to

supernormal

faculties.

do not know

what extent

M.

Bozzano's assertions are beyond dispute. They concern historical or remote facts

which
case,

it

is

very

difficult to verify.

In any

it

is

has

been

something to have perfected, as done in India, the empirical

methods favourable to the production of

supernormal phenomena. One might even say that it is about all that we have the
right to expect, seeing that,

by the author's
been
or

own

admission, these faculties are latent in

every
seen,

man and
it

that, as has frequently

illness,

needs but an

lesion,

sometimes even the slightest emotion or a

mere passing

faintness to

make them
in

sud-

denly reveal themselves

an individual devoid
of

who seemed most

them.
It is

hopelessly

therefore quite possible that,

by improving the methods, by attacking the

mystery from other quarters,
393

we might

ob-

The Unknown Guest

tain

more

decisive results than the Hindus.

We must remember that our western science

has but lately interested itself in these problems and that it has means of investigating

and experimenting which the

possessed.
It

Asiatics never

may

even be declared that at

no time
the

in the existence of

our world has

scientific

mind been

better-equipped,

better-suited to cope with every task, or

more

exact,

more
have
it

skilful

and more penetraBecause the orienis

ting than

it is

to-day.

tal empirics

failed, there

no reason
awaken-

to believe that

will not succeed in

ing and cultivating in every man those faculties which would often be of greater
use to
It
is

him than those of the

intellect itself.

not overbold to suggest that, from

certain points of view, the true history of

mankind has hardly begun.

12
Nevertheless, in so far as concerns the
394

The Unknown Guest

natural
evolution

of those

faculties,

M.

Bozzano's assertion seems

fied.

fairly well-justi-

We

do

not, in fact,

observe a start-

ling or even appreciable difference

between

what they were and what they are. And this anomaly is the more surprising in as

much
in

as

it

is

almost universally accepted

that a sense or a faculty becomes developed

proportion to
I

its

usefulness;

and there

are few,

think, that

would have been not

only more useful but even more necessary

to

man.

He

has always had a keen and

primitive interest in
lay the most

knowing without

de-

secret thoughts of his fellow-

man, who

is

often his adversary and some-

times his mortal enemy.

He

has always

had an

interest

no

less

great in immediately

transmitting those thoughts through space,

beyond the continents and seas, in going back into the past, in advancing into
in seeing

the future, in being able to find

in his

mem-

ory at will not only

all

the acquirements of

395

The Unknown
his ancestors,
in

Guest

his personal experience but also those of

communicating with the dead and perhaps with the sovereign intelligence diffused over the universe, in discov-

ering hidden springs and treasures, in escap-

ing the harsh and depressing laws of matter

and

gravity, in relieving pain, in curing the

greater

number of

his disorders

and even

in restoring his limbs,

not to mention

many
if

other miracles which he could

work

he

knew

all

the mighty forces that doubtless

slumber

in the

dark recesses of

his life.

Is this

once more an unexpected charac-

ter of the eccentric physiology of

our un-

known guest?

Here

are

faculties

more

precious than the most precious faculties that have made us what we are, faculties

whose magic buds sprout on every

side un-

derneath our intelligence but have never

burst into flower, as though a wind

from

another sphere had killed them with its icy breath. Is it because it occupies itself first
396

The Unknown Guest

and foremost with the
neglects the individual?
species
is

species that

it

thus
the

But, after

all,

only an aggregate of successive

individuals;

and

its

evolution consequently

There would depends upon therefore have been an evident advantage

their evolution.

to the species in developing faculties that

would perhaps have carried it much farther and much higher than has been done
by
its

brain-power, which alone has proIf there

is

gressed.
here,

no evolution for them

do they develop elsewhere?

What

are those powers which exist outside and

independent of the laws of this earth? Do they then belong to other worlds? But, if

what are they doing in ours? One would sometimes think, at the sight of so
so,

much

neglectfulness, uncertainty

and inconin-

sistency, that

man's evolution had been

tentionally retarded

by a superior

will, as

though that will feared that he

too
fast,

that

was going he was anticipating some pre397

The Unknown Guest

established order and

moving prematurely

out of his appointed plane.

13

And
these

the riddles accumulate which

It

we

cannot hope to solve.

has been said that

are

abnormal

faculties

communica-

tions or infiltrations, themselves abnormal,

which have found their way through the partitions that separate our consciousness

from our subconsciousness.

likely,

This

is

very

but

it

is

only a minor side of the

question.
to

would be important before all know what that subconsciousness repreIt

sents,
self

whither
is

it

tends and with what

Is

it it-

communicating.

the

cerebral

form of knowledge
dental

a necessary or an acci-

stage?
it

Is

the

impersonal

form

which

takes in the subconsciousness the

Is there really, as every-

only true one?

thing seems to prove, a hopeless incompatibility between our intellectual faculties and
398

The Unknown Guest

those faculties of uncertain origin, to such

an extent that the latter are unable to manifest

themselves except

when

the former are

It

weakened or temporarily suspended?

has, at

any

rate,

been observed that they

are hardly ever exercised simultaneously.

Are we

to believe that, at a given

moment,

mankind or the genius that presides over its destinies had to make an exclusive and awful choice

between cerebral energy and the

mysterious forces of the subconsciousness and that we still find traces of its hesitations in our

organism?

What would
In

have

become of
brain?

a race of

men

which the sub-

consciousness
Is

had

not this

triumphed over the the case with animals;

and would not the race have remained

purely animal
?

Or

else

would not

this pre-

ponderance of a subconscious element more powerful than that of the animals and al-

most independent of our body have

sulted in the disappearance of life as
399

re-

we

The Unknown
know
lead
it;

Guest

and should we not even now be

life

leading the

which we

shall probably

when we

are dead?

Here

are a

num-

ber of questions to which there are no answers and which are nevertheless perhaps
not so idle as one might at
first

believe.

14

Amidst
are

this

antagonism, whose triumph

hope for? Is any alliance between the two opposing forces for ever imto

we

possible so long as

we

are in the flesh?

If

What

are

we

to

do meanwhile?

choice be inevitable, which

choice incline;
sacrifice ?

way

will
shall

our

and which victim

we
tell

Shall
is

we

listen to those

who

us that there

nothing more
those

to be gained

or

learnt
all

in

inhospitable

regions

where

our bewildering phenomena have

been known since

it

man

first

was man?
which

Is

true that occultism

called,

as

it is

very impropit

erly

for the knowledge

400

The Unknown Guest

seeks
is
it

is

no more occult than any other

is

true that occultism

marking time,

that

the

it is becoming hopelessly entangled in same doubtful facts and that it has not

taken a single step forward since

scence

its

rena-

more than

fifty

years ago

One must

be entirely ignorant of the wonderful efforts

of those fruitful years
to
is

venture upon

such an assertion.

This

not the place to

discuss the question,

full

which would require

and careful treatment; but we may safely say that until now there is no science
which
in

so short a time has brought order

out of such a chaos, ascertained, checked

and

classified

such a quantity of facts, or

more
trained

rapidly
in

awakened,

cultivated

and

man

certain faculties

which he

had never
sess;

seriously been believed to pos-

and

furthermore

none

which

has

caused to be recognized as incontestable

and thus introduced

realities

into the circle of the

lives a

whereon we base our

401

num-

The Unknown
her
of
unlikely

Guest

phenomena which had

true,

hitherto been contemptuously passed over.

We

are

still, it is

waiting for the doforce,

its

mestication of the

new

practical
still

application to daily use.

We

are

wait-

ing for the all-revealing, decisive manifestation

which

will

remove our

last

doubts

and throw
its

light

very source.

upon the problem down to But let us admit that we

In any

are likewise waiting for this manifestation

in the great

majority of sciences.

case,

we

are already in the presence of an

astonishing mass of well-weighed and verified materials

which, until now, had been

taken for the refuse of dreams, fragments

of wild legends, meaningless and unimporFor more than three centuries, the tant.
science of electricity

remained at very much the same point at which our psychical sciences stand to-day. Men were recording, accumulating, trying to interpret a host

of odd and

futile

phenomena, toying with

402

The Unknown Guest

Ramsden's machine, with Leyden
Volta's rough battery.
jars,

with
that

They thought

they had discovered an agreeable pastime, an ingenious plaything for the laboratory or
study; and they had not the slightest suspicion that they were touching the sources

of an universal,

irresistible,

inexhaustible

power, invisibly present and active in all things, that would soon invade the surface
of our globe.
psychic forces

Nothing tells us that the of which we are beginning

to catch a glimpse have not similar surprises in store for us, with this difference,

that

we

are here concerned with energies

and mysteries which are loftier, grander and doubtless fraught with graver consequences, since they affect our eternal destinies,

traverse alike our life and our death

planet.

and extend beyond our

15
It is

not true therefore that the psychical

403

The Unknown Guest

sciences

have said their

last

word and

that

we have nothing more

to expect

from them.

They have but

just

awakened or reawak-

ened; and, to postdate Guyau's prediction

by a hundred years, we might say, with them in our minds, that the twentieth century "will end with discoveries as ill-formulated but perhaps as important in the moral

world as those of Newton and Laplace

the astronomical world."

in

But,

though we
is

have much to hope from them, that

reason

no

why we

should look to them for

in

everything and abandon

their

favour

that which has brought us where

we

are.

The

choice of which

we
it

spoke, between the

brain and the subconsciousness, has been

made long ago; and make it over again.

by

is

not our part to

are carried along

We

a force acquired in the course of

;

two or

three thousand years and our methods, like our intellectual habits, have of themselves

become transformed

into a sort of

minor

404

The Unknown Guest

subconsciousness

superposed

upon

the

major subconsciousness and sometimes mingling with it. Henri Bergson, in his very
fine presidential

address to the Society for

Psychical Research on the 28th of

said that he

May,

1913, dered what would have happened if modern science, instead of setting out from

had sometimes won-

mathematics,

instead

of bringing

all

its

forces to converge on the study of matter,

had begun by the consideration of mind; if Kepler, Galileo and Newton, for instance,

had been psychologists:

should certainly," said he, "have

"We
had
form no

a psychology of
idea,

which to-day we can

any more than before Galileo we could have imagined what our physics

would be; a psychology that probably would have been to our present psychology

what our physics

is

to Aristotle's.

Foreign

to every mechanistic idea, not even conceiv-

ing the possibility of such an explanation,

405

The Unknown Guest

science

would have enquired

facts

into, instead

of

dismissing a priori,

such

as

those

which you study; perhaps 'psychical research' would have stood out as its principal preoccupation.

The most

general laws
in

of mental activity once discovered (as,

fact,

the fundamental laws of mechanics

were discovered), we should have passed from mind, properly so-called, to life; biology would have been constituted, but a
vitalist biology, quite different

from

ours,

which would have sought behind the sensible forms of living beings the inward,
invisible force of

which the sensible forms

are the manifestations."

It

would therefore
activity

in the

very

first

days
these

of

its

have encountered

all

strange problems: telepathy,

tions,

materializacures,

clairvoyance,

miraculous

knowledge of the future, the possibility of

survival,

interplanetary

intelligence

and

many

others,

which

it

has neglected hither-

406

The Unknown Guest

to

and which, thanks

to

its

neglect, are

still

in their infancy.
is

But, as the

human mind
it

not able to follow two diametrically op-

posite directions at the

same time,

would

necessarily have rejected the mathematical

sciences.

steamship coming from an-

other

hemisphere,

one

in

which

men's

minds had taken, unknown to ourselves, the road which our own has actually taken, would have seemed to us as wonderful, as
incredible as the

phenomena of our

sub-

consciousness seem to us to-day. We should have gone very far in what at present we
call

the

unknown or

the occult; but

we

should have known hardly anything of physics,

is

chemistry or mechanics, unless, which

very probable,

by another
occult.
It

we had come upon them road as we travelled round the

true that certain nations, the

is

Hindus

particularly,

the

Egyptians

and
all

perhaps the Incas, as well as others, in

probability,

who have
407

not left

sufficient

The Unknown
traces,

Guest
the other
Is

thus went to

work

way
this

and obtained nothing

between the

decisive.

again a consequence of the hopeless incompatibility

faculties of the brain

and those of the subconsciousness?

sibly;

Posare

but

we must

not forget that

we

speaking of nations which never possessed

our intellectual habits, our passion for precision,

for

verification,

for

experimental

certainty;

indeed,

this
in

passion

has

only

been fully developed

the
last

ourselves within
centuries.
It
is

two or three

presumed therefore that the European would have gone much farther in the
other direction than the Oriental.

to be

would he have arrived?

Where Endowed with a

more
ex-

different brain, naturally clearer,

acting,

more

logical, less credulous,

more

practical, closer to realities,

more

attentive

to details, but with the scientific side of his

intelligence

uncultivated,

would he have

gone astray or would he have met the truths

408

The Unknown Guest

which we are
well be
rial
still

seeking and which

all

may

more important than

Ill-prepared,

our mate-

conquests.

ill-equipped,

ill-balanced, lacking the necessary ballast of

experiments and proofs,

would he have
all

been exposed to the dangers familiar to

the too-mystical nations?
cult to
It
is

very

diffi-

imagine

so.

But the hour has now

perhaps come to try without risk what he could not have done without grave peril.

While abandoning no whit of

standing, which
is

his under-

small compared with the

boundless scope of the subconsciousness, but which is sure, tried and docile, he can

now embark upon

try to
fore.
It
is

the great adventure and

do that which has not been done bea

matter of discovering the con-

necting link between the two forces.

are
still

We

ignorant of the means of aiding,

encouraging,

developing and taming the

it

greater of the two and of bringing

to us; the quest will be the
409

closer

most

difficult,

The Unknown
the most dangerous that

Guest

the most mysterious and, in certain respects,

mankind has ever

undertaken.

But we can say to ourselves,

without fear of being very far wrong, that it is the best task at the moment. In any case, this is the first time since man has
existed that he will be fronting the un-

known with such good weapons, even

is

as

it

also the

first

time since

its

awakening
al-

that his intelligence, which has reached a

summit from which

it

can understand

most everything, will at last receive help from outside and hear a voice that is something more than the echo of
its

own.

THE END

410

1032

Maeterlinck, Maurice The unknown guest

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