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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS OF ANDREW LANG
- A NOTE ON THE TEXT
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- 1 THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE
- 2 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
- 3 FAIRY TALES
- 4 ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
- 5 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- 6 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- ‘Ghosts Up To Date’, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (January 1894)
- ‘Science and Demonology’, Illustrated London News (June 1894)
- ‘Science and “Miracles”’, The Making of Religion, 2nd edition (1900)
- Three Seeresses (1880–1900, 1424–1431)', Anglo-Saxon Review (September 1900)
- ‘Magic Mirrors and Crystal Gazing’, Monthly Review (December 1901)
- ‘Human Personality After Death’, Monthly Review (March 1903)
- ‘Presidential Address, Delivered on May 16th, 1911’, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (August 1911)
- Letters to Oliver Lodge
- Letters to William James
- ‘Letter to E. B. Tylor on Home and the Brownings’
- APPENDIX I: NAMES FREQUENTLY CITED BY LANG
- APPENDIX II: ETHINIC GROUPS CITED BY LANG
- EXPLANATORY NOTES
- Index
Letters to William James
from 6 - PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- GENERAL INTRODUCTION
- INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME
- CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE AND MAJOR WORKS OF ANDREW LANG
- A NOTE ON THE TEXT
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- 1 THE METHOD OF FOLKLORE
- 2 ANTHROPOLOGY AND FOLKLORE
- 3 FAIRY TALES
- 4 ANTHROPOLOGY, AND THE ORIGINS OF RELIGION
- 5 ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- 6 PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
- ‘Ghosts Up To Date’, Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (January 1894)
- ‘Science and Demonology’, Illustrated London News (June 1894)
- ‘Science and “Miracles”’, The Making of Religion, 2nd edition (1900)
- Three Seeresses (1880–1900, 1424–1431)', Anglo-Saxon Review (September 1900)
- ‘Magic Mirrors and Crystal Gazing’, Monthly Review (December 1901)
- ‘Human Personality After Death’, Monthly Review (March 1903)
- ‘Presidential Address, Delivered on May 16th, 1911’, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (August 1911)
- Letters to Oliver Lodge
- Letters to William James
- ‘Letter to E. B. Tylor on Home and the Brownings’
- APPENDIX I: NAMES FREQUENTLY CITED BY LANG
- APPENDIX II: ETHINIC GROUPS CITED BY LANG
- EXPLANATORY NOTES
- Index
Summary
8 Gibson Place
St Andrews
Scotland
Feb 19
Dear Mr James
If Mrs Piper will give me any verifiable news about Mlle Luci (Ferrand) (ob. 1752) not already known to me, I will be open to convictions and pay her fees. As a psychologue you probably know about Mlle Ferrand, but I am an ignoramus.
In June 1896, I was reading the m.s. letters of Prince Charles, in the Queen's collection – (1749–1752). I found that H.R.H. was ‘run’ by a mysterious ‘Mlle Luci.’ Unable to find out anything about her, I asked Miss X, who looked in a common inkpot, and saw a pleasing young woman, say of 28, dark, like Madame Patti, 18th century costume (I forget details of costume) and, on her shoulder, another lady's long white hand with a marquise diamond ring. Now please look at Condillac, Traité des Sensations, and read the initial chapter, a letter to Madame de Vassé. My Mlle Luci, I found by various hints, was the Mademoiselle Ferrand, mentioned in that chapter, who coached Condillac: she was the bosom friend of Madame de Vassé; they called each other sisters. The hand, we shall call Madame de Vassé's, who, in the Prince's secret corresponds [sic], is always called ‘La Grande main.’ It is picturesque, though not ‘evidential.’ But read Condillac's chapter. The pair kept the Prince hidden in their rooms in a convent: they call Condillac ‘le philosophe.’ I thought it was Montesquieu, but I was wrong.
Now if Mrs Piper can go one better, it won't be evidence, for you know the facts, but it will be useful. And I'm sure a girl who could coach Condillac and mother Prince Charlie was no ordinary young woman. Miss X. knew nothing, for I didn't when I asked her, and the name ‘Luci’ was a cypher name: all we knew: and I only said ‘look for Mlle Luci’, without saying why. And what does Mrs Piper know of Mlle Luci?
Your theory of singular taboos is the same as mine; Dr Johnson being a case. But taboos of wider prevelance have usually a discernible reason, if we know the run of the early mind: Jevons does not, I fancy.
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- Information
- The Edinburgh Critical Edition of the Selected Writings of Andrew LangAnthropology, Fairy Tale, Folklore, The Origins of Religion, Psychical Research, pp. 328 - 331Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015