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303
The Book of Dreams and Ghosts
·
Andrew Lang
108
Thus
the
doctrine
of
telepathy
puts
a
ghost
of
the
dead
in
a
great
quandary.
If
he
communicates
no
verifiable
information,
he
may
be
explained
as
a
mere
empty
illusion.
If
he
does
yield
fresh
information,
and
if
that
is
known
to
any
living
mind,
he
and
his
intelligence
may
have
been
wired
on
from
that
mind.
His
only
chance
is
to
communicate
facts
which
are
proved
to
be
true,
facts
which
nobody
living
knew
before.
Now
it
is
next
to
impossible
to
demonstrate
that
the
facts
communicated
were
absolutely
unknown
to
everybody.
Far,
however,
from
conveying
unknown
intelligence,
most
ghosts
convey
none
at
all,
and
appear
to
have
no
purpose
whatever.
It
will
be
observed
that
there
was
no
traceable
reason
why
the
girl
with
a
scar
should
appear
to
Mr.
G.,
or
the
soldier
and
suppliant
to
Mrs.
M.,
or
Lieutenant
B.
to
General
Barker.
The
appearances
came
in
a
vague,
casual,
aimless
way,
just
as
the
living
and
healthy
clergyman
appeared
to
the
diplomatist.
On
St.
Augustine's
theory
the
dead
persons
who
appeared
may
have
known
no
more
about
the
matter
than
did
the
living
clergyman.
It
is
not
even
necessary
to
suppose
that
the
dead
man
was
dreaming
about
the
living
person
to
whom,
or
about
the
place
in
which,
he
appeared.
But
on
the
analogy
of
the
tales
in
which
a
dream
or
thought
of
the
living
seems
to
produce
a
hallucination
of
their
presence
in
the
minds
of
other
and
distant
living
people,
so
a
dream
of
the
dead
may
(it
is
urged)
have
a
similar
effect
if
"in
that
sleep
of
death
such
dreams
may
come".
The
idea
occurred
to
Shakespeare!
In
any
case
the
ghosts
of
our
stories
hitherto
have
been
so
aimless
and
purposeless
as
to
resemble
what
we
might
imagine
a
dead
man's
dream
to
be.
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