[Fr.; where used in 16th c. in sense 2; but in Eng. introduced in sense 1; sense 2, when used, is partly directly from Fr., partly transf. from 1.]
1. A supposed faculty attributed to certain persons, or to persons under certain mesmeric conditions, consisting in the mental perception of objects at a distance or concealed from sight.
1847. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 24. Of the clairvoyance I have witnessed nothing.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Initial Love, Wks. (Bohn), I. 457. He is versed in occult science, In magic, and in clairvoyance.
1862. Lytton, Str. Story, I. 14–5. Mesmer had little faith in that gift of clairvoyance of which Puysegur was … the first audacious asserter.
2. Keenness of mental perception, clearness of insight; insight into things beyond the range of ordinary perception.
1861. [Mrs. A. J. Penny], Romance Dull Life, xxxvi. 258. She knew, by the kind of clairvoyance which distinguishes lonely minds, that her mother’s spirits rose whenever James paid her one of his clumsily marked attentions.
1884. Symonds, Shaks. Predecessors, ii. § 19. 79. What may be called … clairvoyance in dramatic matters. Ibid., 81. This clairvoyance gave them insight into things beyond their own experience. Shakspere painted much that he had never seen.
