SCOTTISH SECOND SIGHT.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 13, 19 July 1889, Page 27

SCOTTISH SECOND SIGHT.

(From the Catholic Ilmiseliold.) The following notes on this curious kind of prophetic vieion, which seems peculiar to the Scotch, are taken from the Rev. Dr. Gordon's exhaustive " History of the Catholic Chnrch in Scotland since the Reformation " (Aberdeen : King and Co., 1874) page 40—" It ssems that a cardinal in borne was at one time collecting facts and materials for a treatise on this difficult subject, with the avowed object of showing tba» tbis faculty (J.e , of second sight) was derived from the evil spirit. And tbis was the view that was taken of it by the great Scotch Catholic Bishop, Dr. flay. In some instances the gift seemed to be hereii'ary, the consequence, perhaps, of a former compact wilh the evil spirit ; in other instances the faculty was acquired by the use of spells, the result of a traditionary compact, as it was supposed, on which the effect depended, enabling the, 6eer to describe objects as then passing, and events as happening at a distance both cf time and place. Two examples seem to have especially proved their authenticity to Bishop Hay's judgment. He used to give ail the particulars, the names of the persons and of the places, together with the witnessee. In one of these instances, a man who bad the faculty of second sight declared tbat ■c saw a child, then in apparent health, running through the house, dressed in its grave-clotbes. In tde other, the seer was heard to describe the accidental death of a man who was at the time in perfect htalth. The death of both of those persons happened shortly after. When it was suggested as an insuperable difficulty to the bishop, ' How could the devil know these future contingencies 1 '

he replied that, although the devil had no fore-knowledge of the future, he might, in the case of the child, have seen some indication of death, not apparent to human perception, whilst as to the man, he might have prepared the accident. Bat against these, and all similarly mysterious agencies, Bishop Hay declared that in hii experience one remedy never failed : If the seer was confirmed, if he fulfiilled his other duties as a Catholic, and vigorously resisted those impressions, they soon left him unmolested ; an unanswerable proof, the bishop thought, that they were not from God. Dr. Ohisholm, another Scotch Catholic biahop, in a letter dated August 19th, 1797, • writes on the subject of second-sight, saying : ' It is my own private opinion that such a thing has existed, and does now exist, though less frequently than in former times. .... Some families are more famous for second-sight than others, such as the Macdonald family of Morar. The nature of it is generally a short and sometimes imperfect representation of what is to happen, does happen, or has happened at a distance beyond the reach of natural knowledge. Such as are effected with it, see indiscriminitely happy aad unhappy events ; but more frequently those of a black and melancholy complexion. They see them before the event, while it takes pi tee, and after it has happened but at such a distance that it would be impossible to know it as soon in a natural way.' Bishop Ohisholm then relates the following instance of second sight : • Forbes, of Culloien, president of the Oonrt of Session, while employed in checking some of the Highland chiefs from joining the Pretender, was cast by contrary winds into one of the small western isles. He went, on landing, to a gentleman's house, who had an elegant dinner prepared for him and his company. Astonished at the sight of the entertainment, and understanding the gentleman's fortuoe could not be great, the President said, " Sir, may I beg leave to ask if you always live in this style ? " " No, my Lord," said his host, •• that I cannot afford." "And how," replied the President, "did yon happen to have such a dinner to-day ? " "I knew," said the Islander, that your lordship was to be here to-day.' " Impossible," answered the President, "we only landed just now, and a little before we knew nothing about it ourselves." " Why, my lord, a man who livei by me, announced your arrival by describing your lordship's person, your company, dress, figure, etc., informing me of the time you would be here to-day, which made me prepare the dinner you see." " A connection of mine," the Bishop continues, " Major Chisholm, wai one day, as he told me, walking with his father before the latter'a castle door, when from the castle a woman, famous for her second sight, rushed out and cried aloud, ' God preserve your son, Laird ; God preserve your son, Roderick ; see him all covered over with blood.' In a short time, who appeared on an eminence coming boms but Roderick, supported by two men, all covered with blood, after a dangerous fall, which was only a prelude to the blood he spilt soon after at Culloden, where he received a mortal wound. Bishop Hugh Macdonald told the story of his servant fainting one day at the dinner-table. When he recovered he. was asked the cause. " Why," said he, " I saw a dead child on the table before me." Within a little space of time the dead body of a child was stretched on that very table. Bishop John Macdonald's nephew, bred in Bngland, came to see his friends in the Highlands. While in Morar among some of his relations, he was all at once struck. When asked about it, ' I see,' he answered, ' a person drowned taken out of the water,' and he described his appearance. In a short time after, the accounts of such a man as he described being drowned and taken out of the water were received. ' I knew the man,' adds Bishop Cbisbolm. 'About 1793, a child saw his father, Bailie Hector Mackenzie, factor (or steward) to Mackenzie of Seaforth, in the windingsheets. His father called bim his little prophet, and soon after died.' ' Some, in very pompous expressions,' concludes Bishop Chisholm, ' have attempted to explain, second sight in a natural way ; but their accounts appeared to me most unsatisfactory and absurd.' " The Bey. Dr. Gordon, author of the history from which the above is extracted, relates that when he himself was a boy, he saw in a dream an exact picture of the Catholic Cbapel at PreEhome. "When I awoke, the vision took hold of my mind, and a day or two after, 1 determined to satisfy myself and visit the Bcene which I had never seen before. The first burst of the view of the chapel was precisely what I had beheld in my dream." A more recent and still more striking instance <>f second sight is that recorded in the late Professor Ornsby's " Life of Mr. Janus Robert Hope-Bcott, Q.C.," in which work it is stated that this distinguished convert, great lawyer though he was, had a firm belief in second sight. The facts in the case, following, occurred in bis immediate vicinity, and made a deep impression on bis mind. "One Sunday, shortly before he came to I.ochshie l , it happened during service in a small country cbapel close to the present site of Doxlin House, which he built, that one of the congregation fainted, and had to be carried out. After the service was over, the man was asked what was the cause of his lloess. For a long time ha refused to tell ; but at length c declared that of the four men who were sitting n the bench before him, three suddenly appeared to alter iv every feature, ard to be transported to ocher places. One seemed to float upwards on the sea ; another lay entangled among the seaweed of the shore ; and the third lay on the beach covered with white ebeet. This sight had brought in the fainting fit. Somehow the story got abroad, and tbe fourth individual who did not ecter into tbe vision at all, passed In a few months into a stage verging on idiotcy, from fear that he was among the drowned. Strange to tell, the three men, who were the subjects of the warning, were drowned together some few months later on, when crossing an arm of the sea, not far from the hamlet where they dwelt. One of the bodies was found floating, as described above : another was washed ashore, and on being found was covered with a sheet, supplied from a farm-house close by. Tbe third was discovered at low water half-buried under a mass of sea-weed aad shingle. Tbe fourth, who had survived to lose his senses, died only seven years previous to the publication of the above-named biography of Mr. Hope Scott, by Murray, London, in 1884, a book that ought to be far better known to Catholics than it would appear to be." Lbotob.

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