Lord Tarbat

A SUCCINCT ACCOUNT
OF
MY LORD TARBAT'S RELATIONS,
IN A LETTER TO THE HONORABLE ROBERT BOYLE,
ESQUIRE, OF THE PREDICTIONS MADE BY
SEERS, WHEREOF HIMSELF WAS EAR-AND EYE-WITNESS.

Sir,--I heard very much, but believed very little of the second sight;
yet its being assumed by several of great veracity, I was induced to make
inquiry after it in the year 1652, being then confined in the north of
Scotland by the English usurpers. The more general accounts of it were
that many Highlanders, yet far more Islanders, were qualified with this
second sight; and men, women, and children, indistinctly, were subject to
it, and children where parents were not. Sometimes people came to age
who had it not when young, nor could any tell by what means produced. It
is a trouble to most of them who are subject to it, and they would be rid
of it at any rate if they could. The sight is of no long duration, only
continuing so long as they can keep their eyes steady without twinkling.
The hardy, therefore, fix their look that they may see the longer; but
the timorous see only glances--their eyes always twinkle at the first
sight of the object. That which generally is seen by them are the
species of living creatures, and of inanimate things, which be in motion,
such as ships, and habits upon persons. They never see the species of
any person who is already dead. What they foresee fails not to exist in
the mode, and in that place where it appears to them. They cannot well
know what space of time shall intervene between the apparition and the
real existence. But some of the hardiest and longest experience have
some rules for conjectures; as, if they see a man with a shrouding sheet
in the apparition, they will conjecture at the nearness or remoteness of
his death by the more or less of his body that is covered by it. They
will ordinarily see their absent friends, though at a great distance,
sometimes no less than from America to Scotland, sitting, standing, or
walking in some certain place; and then they conclude with an assurance
that they will see them so, and there. If a man be in love with a woman,
they will ordinarily see the species of that man standing by her, and so
likewise if a woman be in love. If they see the species of any person
who is sick to die, they see them covered over with the shrouding sheet.

These generals I had verified to me by such of them as did see, and were
esteemed honest and sober by all the neighbourhood; for I inquired after
such for my information. And because there were more of these seers in
the isles of Lewis, Harris, and Uist than in any other place, I did
entreat Sir James M'Donald (who is now dead), Sir Normand M'Loud, and Mr.
Daniel Morison, a very honest person (who are still alive),