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SECOND SIGHT

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 571 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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SECOND SIGHT , a See also:

TERM

term denoting the opposite of its apparent significance, meaning in reality the seeing, in See also:

VISION (from Lat. videre, to see), or SIGHT

vision, of events before they occur. " Foresight " expresses the meaning of second sight, which perhaps was originally so called because normal vision was regarded as coming first, while supernormal vision is a secondary thing, confined to certain individuals. Though we hear most of the " second sight " among the Celts of the Scottish See also:

HIGHLANDS, THE

Highlands (it is much less See also:

FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

familiar to the Celts of See also:

Ireland), this See also:

SPECIES

species of involuntary prophetic vision, whether See also:

DIRECT

direct or symbolical, is See also:

PECULIAR

peculiar to no See also:

PEOPLE

people. Perhaps our earliest See also:

NOTICE

notice of symbolical second sight is found in the Odyssey, where Theoclymenus See also:

SEES

sees a See also:

SHROUD (O. Eng. scrud, garment; cf. Icel. skrudh, in the secondary sense of rigging, allied with " shred," O. Eng. screade, a piece, strip)

shroud of mist about the bodies of the doomed Wooers, and drops of See also:

BLOOD

blood distilling from the walls of the See also:

hall of See also:

ODYSSEUS (in Latin Ulixes, incorrectly written Ulysses)

Odysseus. The Pythia at See also:

DELPHI (the Pytho of Homer and Herodotus; in Boeotian inscriptions BeA4oi, on coins Aa)tg5oi)

Delphi saw the blood on the walls during the See also:

Persian See also:

War; and, in the Argonautica of See also:

APOLLONIUS

Apollonius Rhodius, blood and See also:

FIRE (in O. Eng. f j'r; the word is common to West German languages, cf. Dutch vuur, Ger. Feuer; the pre-Teutonic form is seen in Sanskrit pu, pavaka, and Gr. irup; the ultimate origin is usually taken to be a root meaning to purify, cf. Lat. purus)

fire appear to See also:

CIRCE (Gr. Kiprcrl)

Circe in her chamber on the See also:

NIGHT

night before the arrival of the fratricidal See also:

JASON ('Iaacov)

Jason and See also:

MEDEA (Gr. Mi/Seta)

Medea. Similar examples of symbolical visions occur in the Icelandic sagas, especially in Njala, before the burning of Njal and his See also:

FAMILY

family. In the Highlands, and in See also:

WALES (Cymru, Gwalia, Cambria)

Wales, thechief symbols beheld are the shroud, and the See also:

CORPSE (Lat. corpus, the body)

corpse See also:

CANDLE (Lat. candela, from candere, to glow)

candle or other spectral See also:

ILLUMINATION

illumination. The Rev. Dr See also:

Stewart, of Nether See also:

LOCHABER

Lochaber, informed the See also:

PRESENT

present writer that one of his parishioners, a woman, called him to his See also:

DOOR (corresponding to the Gr. Bbpa,. Lat. fores or valvae; the English word, with other forms common in allied languages, comes from the same Indo-European stem as the Gr. Obpa and Lat. fares)

door, and pointed out to him a See also:

rock by the See also:

sea, which shone in a See also:

KIND (O. E. ge-cynde, from the same root as is seen in " kin," supra)

kind of phosphorescent brilliance. The See also:

DOCTOR (Lat. for " teacher ")

doctor attributed the phenomenon to decaying sea-See also:

WEED, THURLOW (1797—1882)

weed, but the woman said, " No, a corpse will be laid there to-morrow." This, in fact, occurred; a dead See also:

BODY

body was brought in a See also:

BOAT (0. Eng. bdt; the true etymological connexion with Dutch and Ger. boot, Fr. bateau, Ital. battello presents great difficulties; Celtic forms are from O. Eng.)

boat for See also:

BURIAL

burial, and was laid at the See also:

FOOT

foot of the rock, where, as Dr Stewart found, there was no decaying See also:

VEGETABLE

vegetable See also:

MATTER

matter. Second sight flourished among the Lapps and the Red See also:

INDIANS, NORTH AMERICAN

Indians, the Zulus and Maoris, to the surprise of travellers, who have recorded the puzzling facts. But in these cases the visions were usually " induced," not " spontaneous," and should be considered as " See also:

CLAIRVOYANCE (Fr. for " clear-seeing ")

clairvoyance " (q.v.).

Ranulf See also:

HIGDON (or HIGDEN), RANULF (c. 1299—c. 1363)

Higdon's Polychronicon (14th See also:

CENTURY (from Lat. centuria, a division of a hundred men)

century) describes Scottish second sight, adding that strangers " setten their feet upon the feet of the men of that londe for to see such syghtes as the men of that londe doon." This method of communicating the vision is still practised, with success, according to the See also:

LATE

late Dr Stewart. The present writer once had the opportunity to make an experiment, but to him the vision was not imparted. (For the method see See also:

KIRK, SIR JOHN (1832- )

Kirk's See also:

SECRET (Lat. secretum, hidden, concealed)

Secret See also:

COMMONWEALTH

Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies, 1691, 1815, 1893.) It is, by some, believed that if a See also:

PERSON, OFFENCES AGAINST THE

person tells what he has seen before the event occurs he will lose the See also:

FACULTY (through the French, from the Lat. facultas, ability to do anything, from facilis, easy, facere, to do; another form of the word in Lat. facilitas, facility, ease, keeps the original meaning)

faculty, and recently a second-sighted See also:

man, for this See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason, did not warn his See also:

BROTHER

brother against taking See also:

PART

part in a regatta, though he had foreseen the See also:

accident by which his brother was drowned. Where this See also:

OPINION (Lat. opinio, from opinari, to think)

opinion prevails it is, of course, impossible to prove that the vision ever occurred. There are many seers, as See also:

Lord Tarbat wrote to See also:

Robert See also:

Boyle, to whom the faculty is a trouble, " and they would be rid of it at any See also:

RATE

rate, if they could." Perhaps the visions most frequently reported are those of funerals, which later occur in accordance with " the sight," of corpses, and of " arrivals " of persons, remote at the moment, who later do arrive, with some distinctive See also:

mark of See also:

DRESS (from the Fr. dresser, to set out, arrange, formed from Lat. directus, arranged, dirigere, to direct, arrange)

dress or equipment which the seer could not normally expect, but observed in the vision. See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

Good examples in their own experience have been given to the present writer by well-educated persons. Some of the anecdotes are too surprising to be published without the names of the seers. A See also:

FAIR

fair example of second sight is the following from Balachulish. An aged man of the last See also:

GENERATION (from Lat. generare, to beget, procreate; genus, stock, race)

generation was troubled by visions of armed men in See also:

UNIFORM

uniform, drilling in a particular See also:

field near the sea. The uniform was not " See also:

England's cruel red," and he foresaw an invasion. " It must be of Americans," he decided, " for the soldiers do not look like foreigners." The Volunteer See also:

MOVEMENT

movement later came into being, and the men drilled on the ground where the seer had seen them. Another See also:

case was that of a man who happened to be sitting with a boy on the edge of a path in the See also:

QUARRY

quarry.

Suddenly he caught the boy and leaped aside with him. He had seen a runaway trolly, with men in it, dash down the path; but there were no traces of them below. "The See also:

SPIRITS

spirits of the living are powerful to-See also:

day," said the percipient in Gaelic, and next day the fatal accident occurred at the spot. These are examples of what is, at present, alleged in the matter of second sight. " The sight " may, or may not, be preceded or accompanied by epileptic symptoms, but this appears now to be unusual. A learned See also:

MINISTER (Lat. minister, servant)

minister lately made a few inquiries on this point in his See also:

PARISH (Gr. irapouda, district, neighbourhood; 7r&poucos, one dwelling near or beside, from crap&, OtKOS, house; Lat. paroecur, Late Lat. parochia; cf. Fr. paroisse)

parish, at the See also:

REQUEST, LETTERS OF

request of the present writer. His See also:

BEADLE

beadle had " the sight " in See also:

rich measure: " it was always preceded by a sense of discomfort and anxiety," but was not attended by See also:

CONVULSIONS

convulsions. Out of seven or eight seers in the parish, only one was not perfectly healthy and temperate. A well-known seer, now dead, whom the writer consulted, was weak of body, the result of an accident, but seemed candid, and ready to confess that his visions were occasionally failures. He said that " the sight " first came on him in the See also:

VILLAGE

village See also:

street when he was a boy. He saw a dead woman walk down the street and enter the See also:

house that had been hers. He gave a few examples of his foresight of events, and one of his failure to discover the corpse of a man drowned in the See also:

LOCH, HENRY BROUGHAM LOCH, 1ST BARON (1827-1900)

loch.

The phenomena, as described, may be classed under " clairvoyance," " See also:

PREMONITION (from Lat. prae, before, monere, to advise or warn)

premonition," and " See also:

TELEPATHY (Gr. rnXe, far, wan, feelings), or THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE

telepathy " (q.v.), with a residuum of symbolical visions. In these, " corpse candles" and spectral See also:

LIGHTS, CEREMONIAL USE OF

lights See also:

PLAY

play a See also:

GREAT

great part, but, in the region best known to the writer, the " lights " are visible to all, even to See also:

ENGLISH

English tourists, and are not hallucinatory. The conduct of the lights is brilliantly See also:

ECCENTRIC (from Gr. F,c, out of, and Kivrpov, centre)

eccentric, but, as they have not been studied by scientific specialists, their natural causes remain unascertained. It is See also:

PLAIN (O. Fr. plain, from Lat. plenum)

plain that there is nothing peculiar to the Celts in second sight; but the Gaelic words for it and the prevailing opinion indicate telepathy, the See also:

ACTION

action of " the spirits of the living " as the See also:

main agents. Yet, in cases of premonition, this explanation is difficult. Conceivably an engineer, in 1881, was thinking out a See also:

LINE

line of railway from See also:

OBAN

Oban to Balachulish, at the moment when four or five witnesses were alarmed by the whizz and See also:

THUNDER

thunder of a passing See also:

TRAIN (M. Eng. trayn or trayne, derived through Fr. from Late Lat. trahinare, to drag, draw, Lat. trahere, cf. trail, trace, ultimately from the same source)

train on what was then the road, but was later (1903) usurped by the railway track. (For this amazing See also:

ANECDOTE (from av-, privative, and isSLSwµu, to give out or publish)

anecdote the writer has the first-See also:

hand See also:

EVIDENCE (Lat. evidentia, evideri, to appear clearly)

evidence of a highly educated percipient.) If the See also:

SPECULATION

speculation of the engineer was " wired on," telepathically, to the witnesses, then telepathy may See also:

account for the premonition, which, in any case, is a good example of collective second sight. That second sight has died out, under the See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence of See also:

EDUCATION

education and See also:

NEWSPAPERS

newspapers, is an averment of popular superstition in the See also:

south. The examples given, merely a selection from those known to the present writer, prove that the faculty is believed to be as See also:

COMMON

common as in any previous See also:

AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas)

age. The literature of second sight is not insignificant. The Secret Commonwealth of the Rev. Mr Kirk (1691), edited by See also:

Sir See also:

Walter See also:

Scott in 1815 (a See also:

HUNDRED

hundred copies), and by See also:

Andrew See also:

Lang in 1893, is in line with cases given in Trials for See also:

WITCHCRAFT

Witchcraft (cf.

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