Yet all four persons had heard it, probably by dint of expectation.
To hear articulate voices where there are none is extremely common in madness, {80b} but not very rare, as Mr.Galton shows, among the sane.
When the voices are veracious, give unknown information, they are in the same case as truthful dreams.

I offer a few from the experience, reported to me by himself, of a man of learning whom I shall call a Benedictine monk, though that is not his real position in life.
THE BENEDICTINE'S VOICES My friend, as a lad, was in a strait between the choice of two professions.

He prayed for enlightenment, and soon afterwards heard an _internal_ voice, advising a certain course.

"Did you act on it ?" I asked.
"No; I didn't.

I considered that in my circumstances it did not demand attention." Later, when a man grown, he was in his study merely idling over some books on the table, when he heard a loud voice from a corner of the room assert that a public event of great importance would occur at a given date.