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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
62
We
may
now
proceed
to
the
waking
hallucinations
of
sane
and
healthy
people,
which
Mr.
Galton
declares
to
be
so
far
from
uncommon.
Into
the
causes
of
these
hallucinations
which
may
actually
deceive
the
judgment,
Mr.
Galton
does
not
enter.
STORY
OF
THE
DIPLOMATIST
{56a}
For
example,
there
is
a
living
diplomatist
who
knows
men
and
cities,
and
has,
moreover,
a
fine
sense
of
humour.
"My
Lord,"
said
a
famous
Russian
statesman
to
him,
"you
have
all
the
qualities
of
a
diplomatist,
but
you
cannot
control
your
smile."
This
gentleman,
walking
alone
in
a
certain
cloister
at
Cambridge,
met
a
casual
acquaintance,
a
well-known
London
clergyman,
and
was
just
about
shaking
hands
with
him,
when
the
clergyman
vanished.
Nothing
in
particular
happened
to
either
of
them;
the
clergyman
was
not
in
the
seer's
mind
at
the
moment.
This
is
a
good
example
of
a
solitary
hallucination
in
the
experience
of
a
very
cool-headed
observer.
The
causes
of
such
experiences
are
still
a
mystery
to
science.
Even
people
who
believe
in
"mental
telegraphy,"
say
when
a
distant
person,
at
death
or
in
any
other
crisis,
impresses
himself
as
present
on
the
senses
of
a
friend,
cannot
account
for
an
experience
like
that
of
the
diplomatist,
an
experience
not
very
uncommon,
and
little
noticed
except
when
it
happens
to
coincide
with
some
remarkable
event.
{56b}
Nor
are
such
hallucinations
of
an
origin
easily
detected,
like
those
of
delirium,
insanity,
intoxication,
grief,
anxiety,
or
remorse.
We
can
only
suppose
that
a
past
impression
of
the
aspect
of
a
friend
is
recalled
by
some
association
of
ideas
so
vividly
that
(though
we
are
not
consciously
thinking
of
him)
we
conceive
the
friend
to
be
actually
present
in
the
body
when
he
is
absent.
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