Vision Outside Window.

The Rev. Mr. Brock's story follows; "Owing in the fact that his wife was not in good health Dr. Astley, the vicar of East Radham, decided to winter in a warmer climate, and obtained the chaplaincy at Bisberne, Algeria, and left England with Mrs. Astley on December 10th.  It was arranged that I should act as locum tenens. "

"I met Dr. Astley for the first time in London December 9th and spent not more than half an hour with him prior to coming on here; and I heard nothing more of him until Saturday last, December 26th, when I received a letter from the Rev. Herbert Muril, the English chaplain at Algiers, announcing that Dr. and Mrs. Astley had sustained injuries in a railway accident on Wednesday, December 16th.  On the same evening that I got the letter, Saturday, December 20th, I was seated in the dining room when Mrs. Hartley, the housekeeper, came to me and said, 'Come and see Dr. Astley,' and led me into the study."

"Looking through the glass window on to the lawn, I myself distinctly saw Dr. Astley, in clerical attire, standing against the wall which adjoins the dining room."

Sure It Was Not His Own Face.

"It certainly was not the reflection of my own face, for I am clean shaven and the face of the figure I saw wore beard and mustache.  It was distinctly Dr. Astley as I saw him London.  I rubbed my eyes and looked again.  I was not dreaming.  The figure was not looking at me, but seemed to be plunged in thought."

"Mrs. Hartley had a candle in her hand, and I told her to take it away.  I still saw the figure most clearly.  A housemaid who had joined us could also see the figure."

"I will go and have a look in the garden," I said, and did go.  There was nothing there; and when I returned the vision had gone.  The time was about 4:45 P.M. The vision lasted ten minutes."

Unconscious at Time of Apparition.

On the following Tuesday, December 28th, Mrs. Hartley again saw the apparition.  "As on the previous occasion," continued Mr. Brock, "Mrs. Hartley went to close the shutters in the study, and came running in to me saying, "Come quickly! Here it is again!"  I went rapidly to the study.  Looking through the window, I again distinctly saw the vicar on the lawn, albeit it was not so distinctly visualized as before, probably because of the strong moon shining.

After the first apparition telegrams were sent to Algiers inquiring about the Astleys.  The response came that both Dr. and Mrs. Astley were progressing comfortably, but, curiously enough, a letter written December 26th, which arrived in England later, revealed the interesting fact that Dr. Astley was suffering from concussion of the brain and was presumably unconscious at the time of the apparition.

The Rev. Robert Brock has suggested this as a probable form of explanation of the mysterious apparition:

"My own impression Saturday," he said, "having had no previous experience of these things, was that Dr. Astley was dead.  Now, it would really appear that when we saw his figure outside the study window he was in a state of unconsciousness or delirium, and in some mysterious way was able to project himself in living form to his home in England, where, perhaps, at the time he supposed himself to be.  It remains to be seen whether this explanation will commend itself to scientists and students of the supernatural.

So far several scientists who have been approached have refused to express an opinion on the subject, but the secretary of the Society of Psychical Research, while declaring that visions of this kind of living agent's are note rare.. expresses pleasure that this recollection of the vision was absolutely fresh as to the occurrence and that the attestation received was immediate and after careful investigation.

The independent narratives of the three witnesses---Mr. Brock, Mrs. Hartley, a woman of 70, who is of nervous temperament and given to seeing things, and the housemaid, aged 17, who says she saw Dr. Astley once, but was too frightened to look a second time, were taken down by the correspondent of the London Times, and, as one unimaginative scientific contributor to that paper writes:  "Their publication is really of great value, because it is evident that the witnesses of the so-called apparition were suffering from optical delusion."

Another skeptic points out that the vision, to be convincing, should have appeared on December 16th, the day of the accident, not ten days later, when the news of it had reached the impressionable Mrs. Hartley, who transmitted her impression to the Rev. Mr. Brock, by profession a believer in spirits.

Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York - Monday, January 18 1909   

Between the conception
And the spasm
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men