THE "OPEN VISION" OF DEATH.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1 STR,—It may be worth while to carry on the induction in which the two narratives supplied by Miss Cobbe and Mr. Hens- leigh Wedgwood are leading instances, by another within my own knowledge.
The mother of one of the foremost thinkers and theologians of our time was lying on her death-bed, in the April of 1854. She had been for some days in a state of almost complete un- consciousness. A short time before her death, the words came from her lips,—".There they are, all of them,—William and Elizabeth, and Emma and Anne ;" then, after a pause, "and Priscilla, too." William was a son who had died in infancy, and whose name had for years never passed the mother's lips. Priscilla had died two days before, but her death, though known to the family, had not been reported to her.—I am, Sir, Ssc., E. H. PLUMPTRE.
Deanery, Wells, Somerset, August 22nd.
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