The old man rose, took his stick, and went out, to the great
astonishment of the others, who thought him daft. He presently came
back and said:

"I did not have to go so far as the graveyard; your mother came to
meet me; I found her by the brook. She tells me that you will find
some receipts in the hands of a notary at Blois, which will enable you
to gain your suit."

The words were spoken in a firm tone; the old man's demeanor and
countenance showed that such an apparition was habitual with him. In
fact, the disputed receipts were found, and the lawsuit was not
attempted.

This event, under his father's roof and to his own knowledge, when
Louis was nine years old, contributed largely to his belief in
Swedenborg's miraculous visions, for in the course of that
philosopher's life he repeatedly gave proof of the power of sight
developed in his Inner Being. As he grew older, and as his
intelligence was developed, Lambert was naturally led to seek in the
laws of nature for the causes of the miracle which, in his childhood,
had captivated his attention. What name can be given to the chance
which brought within his ken so many facts and books bearing on such
phenomena, and made him the principal subject and actor in such
marvelous manifestations of mind?

If Lambert had no other title to fame than the fact of his having
formulated, in his sixteenth year, such a psychological dictum as
this:--"The events which bear witness to the action of the human race,
and are the outcome of its intellect, have causes by which they are