hearers were astonished, and laughed
and would not be persuaded but that I had a previous acquaintance with
the former life of the person, inasmuch as what I had stated was
perfectly true.

"I was not less astonished to find that my dream-vision agreed with
reality. I then gave more attention to the subject, and as often as
propriety allowed of it, I related to those whose lives had so passed
before me the substance of my dream-vision, to obtain from them its
contradiction or confirmation. On every occasion its confirmation
followed, not without amazement on the part of those who gave it.

"On a certain fair-day I went into the town of Waldshut accompanied by
two young foresters, who are still alive. It was evening, and, tired
with our walk, we went into an inn called the 'Vine.' We took our
supper with a numerous company at the public table, when it happened
that they made themselves merry over the peculiarities and simplicity
of the Swiss in connection with the belief in mesmerism, Lavater's
physiognomical system and the like. One of my companions, whose
national pride was touched by their raillery, begged me to make some
reply, particularly in answer to a young man of superior appearance
who sat opposite, and had indulged in unrestrained ridicule.

"It happened that the events of this person's life had just previously
passed before my mind. I turned to him with the question whether he
would reply to me with truth and candour if I narrated to him the most
secret passages of his history, he being as little known to me as I to
him? That would, I suggested, go something beyond Lavater's
physiognomical skill. He promised if I told the truth to admit it
openly. Then I narrated the events with which my dream-vision had
furnished me, and the table learnt the history of the young
tradesman's life, of his school years, his peccadilloes, and, finally,
of a little act of roguery committed by him on the strong-box of his
employer. I described the uninhabited room with its white walls, where
to the right of the brown door there had stood upon the table the
small black money-chest, etc. The man, much struck, admitted the
correctness of each circumstance--even, which I could not expect, of
the last."

And after narrating this incident, the worthy Zschokke calmly goes on
to wonder whether perhaps after all this remarkable power, which he
had so often displayed, might not really have been always the result
of mere chance coincide