{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_40616/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_40616","id":"gutenberg_40616","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40616","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Mythology","Supernatural"],"text":"Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the\nOnline Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n(This file was produced from images generously made\navailable by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n  FIENDS, GHOSTS,\n  AND\n  SPRITES.\n\n  INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF\n  THE ORIGIN AND NATURE\n  OF\n  BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL.\n\n  BY JOHN NETTEN RADCLIFFE.\n\n  LONDON:\n  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.\n  1854.\n\n  PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS,\n  LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.\n\n\n\n\nFIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.\n\n\nA belief in the supernatural has existed in all ages and among all\nnations.\n\nTo trace the origin of this belief, the causes of the various\nmodifications it has undergone, and the phases it has assumed, is,\nperhaps, one of the most interesting researches to which the mind can be\ngiven,--interesting, inasmuch as we find pervading every part of it the\neffects of those passions and affections which are most powerful and\npermanent in our nature.\n\nSo general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling Power, possessing\nattributes altogether different from and superior to human powers, and\nbending these and the forces of nature to its will, that the thought\nhas been entertained by many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine\nis, however, refuted by an acquaintance with the inlets and modes of\nobtaining knowledge; by the fact that reason is necessary to its\ndiscovery; and by its uselessness.[1] \"There are neither innate ideas\nnor innate propositions; but there is an innate power of understanding\nthat shows itself in primitive notions, which, when put into speech, are\nexpressed in propositions, which propositions, decomposed, produce,\nunder the influence of abstraction and analysis, distinct ideas.\"[2]\n\nOthers have asserted and maintained that man derives his knowledge of\nthe existence of Deity, and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the\nexercise of reason upon himself and his own powers by self-reflection.\nIf he reflects upon the wonderful power of liberty and free-will which\nhe possesses, on his relation to surrounding beings and things, and\nparticularly on his imperfect, limited, and finite powers, it is argued\nthat the antithetical proposition of infinite must of necessity be\nadmitted. \"I cannot have the idea of the finite and of imperfection\nwithout having that of perfection and of infinite. These two ideas are\nlogically correlative.\"[3] Or if man extends his reasoning powers to the\nstudy or the contemplation \"of the beauty, the order, the intelligence,\nthe wisdom, and the perfection displayed throughout the universe; and as\nthere must of necessity be in the cause what is witnessed in the effect,\nyou reason from nature to its author, and from the existence of the\nperfection of the one you conclude the existence and perfection of the\nother.\"[4]\n\nBut many theologists maintain that the knowledge of a Deity, and of the\nexistence of supernatural beings, is derived solely from revelation; and\nstern and prolonged have been the struggles in this country between the\nupholders of the rival tenets.\n\nThat no idea of a Deity, such as that which the Christian entertains, is\nto be found among the vague and undefined notions of supernatural power\nwhich are contained in the mythologies of pagan nations; that even the\nconceptions of Plato are to be summed up in the phrase \"the unknown\nGod;\" and that the perfect idea of the Godhead is to be derived solely\nfrom Scripture, can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion sought\nto be established from this, that all our ideas of the supernatural are\nderived from this source, does not necessarily follow.\n\nThe postulate that man can derive a knowledge of the supernatural from\nthe exercise of his mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or\ndenied, but it is not improbable.\n\nPerhaps the nearest approach to correctness which we are as yet capable\nof on this subject is as follows:--\n\nAfter the creation of man, God revealed himself. The perfect knowledge\nof the Deity thus obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the human\nrace, notwithstanding the baneful effects of the fall; and at the epoch\nof the deluge, the solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm,\nformed a centre from which anew the attributes and powers of the Godhead\nwere made known in all their truth and purity. But again sin prevailed,\nand with the exception of one race, who alone treasured the true\nknowledge of the Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of their\nfathers; and as they receded from the light, the idea of the Godhead\nbecame obscured, and in the progress of time well nigh lost, and the\nvague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power derived from\ntradition, prompted to a terror and awe of some invisible yet mighty\ninfluence, unknown and inexplicable, but which was manifested to man in\nthe more striking objects and the incomprehensible phenomena of nature,\nwhich were regarded and worshipped as the seats of this unknown Power,\nforming the substratum of those wonderful systems of mythology which\nhave characterised successive eras and races.\n\n\"Once,\" writes Plato, referring to the earlier traditions of the Greeks,\n\"one God governed the universe; but a great and extraordinary change\ntaking place in the nature of men and things, infinitely for the worse\n(for originally there was perfect virtue and perfect happiness on\nearth), the command then devolved on Jupiter, with many inferior deities\nto preside over different departments under him.\"[5]\n\nTo state the influence which each of the elements indicated\nabove--tradition and reason--have had in the development of mythology,\nis doubtless impossible.\n\nThe existence of the first element, _tradition_, is, to those who admit\nthe truth of Scripture, undeniable, and it gives a clue to the\nelucidation of the leading principle in the belief in those gods,\nd\u00e6mons, fiends, sprites, &c., which, summed up, have constituted the\nobjects of worship of different nations.\n\n\nI. As in the course of generations the pristine revelation of the\nGodhead to man became obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief\nalone remained,--the conceptions, the thoughts and imaginations of each\ngeneration being implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing it by\nthe force of habit, education, and authority,--man, impressed with an\nimperfect notion of a supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of\nthe material world, on seeking to unfold the source of those changes\nwhich he beheld in the budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of\nsummer, the maturity of autumn, and the stern grandeur of winter,\nconceived that the wonderful phenomena ever going on around him owed\ntheir origin and effects to the influence of supernatural agency, and\nmarking their apparent dependence upon the sun and other orbs in space,\nhe offered adoration to those luminaries. But when he still further\nanalysed the changes occurring on the surface of the globe, and\ncomprehended the influence of the more palpable forces and elements, and\nthe inexhaustible variety and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena\nwhich he witnessed, incapable of otherwise solving the mysteries which\nsurrounded him, he deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling\nSpirit.[6]\n\nThus man concluded that he was surrounded by a world of supernatural\nbeings, of different powers, attributes, and passions. The sun and moon,\nthe planets and stars, were conceived to be the abodes of spiritual\nexistences; and the effects caused by those orbs which more immediately\ninfluence our earth, were considered as the indications of the powers of\ntheir respective deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents; the\nocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and rivers; and the earth, its\nhills, dales, and organic forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.\nEvery object of beauty shadowed forth the operations of a beneficent\nSpirit; while devastating storms, barren places and deserts, and the\nconvulsions of nature, betokened the malignancy of d\u00e6mons or fiends.\nAccording as a country's surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and\nstorm-tossed, or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the rays of\na fervid sun, so do we find the principal characters of its mythology;\nstern, gigantic, and fierce gods or d\u00e6mons, or spirits more kind towards\nman, and full of beauty and grace. The passions and affections of man,\nfor the same reasons, were considered to be under the sway of\nsupernatural beings; in short, every operation of nature in the organic\nor inorganic, in the mental or physical worlds, was deemed an indication\nof the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled and governed it.[7]\n\nThese powers in the progress of time were personified and represented as\npossessed of passions and propensities similar to those of man; for the\nsame finite and imperfect reason which had concluded that they dwelt in\nthe phenomena they were supposed to explain, also deemed, being unable\nto conceive any higher type of existence than was seen in man himself,\nthat they differed simply in degree of power, and were alike subject to\nthose appetites and passions which characterised humanity.\n\nThis source of belief in spiritual existences is found dominant in the\nsystems of mythology of all nations; and as it arises from causes which\nare inherant in man, it can easily be understood why there is so great a\nsimilarity in the primary mythological conceptions of different races.\n\nThe mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome furnish a very perfect\nillustration of the influence which this cause has exercised in the\ndevelopment of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better method\nof illustration can be adopted, than a sketch of the physical\nsignification of the principal deities, and classes of deities, of those\ncountries.\n\nThe primitive religion of the Greeks and Romans would appear to have\nconsisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):--the Titans\nare nearly all personifications of the celestial orbs. Subsequently,\ntheir mythology assumed a more physical character, and the offspring of\nCronos (Saturn, _time_), or the personifications of the firmament,\natmosphere, sea, &c., formed the leading deities of the more developed\nsystem of religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.\n\nIn this system, the god Jupiter is symbolical of the upper regions of\nthe atmosphere (_\u00c6ther_). Euripides writes:--\n\n    \"The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,\n    See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;\n    This own the chief of deities above,\n    And this acknowledge by the name of Jove.\"[8]\n\nAt a later period this god was conceived to represent the soul of the\nworld, diffused alike through animate and inanimate nature; or, as\nVirgil poetically describes it in the \u00c6neid--(Book vi.):\n\n        \"The heaven and earth's compacted frame,\n    And flowing waters, and the starry flame,\n    And both the radiant lights, one common soul\n    Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.\n    This active mind infused through all the space,\n    Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.\n    Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain,\n    And birds of air, and monsters of the main.\"\n\nThe god Apollo signifies the sun,--his prophetic power being symbolical\nof its influence in dispelling darkness; his knowledge of medicine and\nhealing, signifies the influence of that luminary in revivifying and\nrestoring the powers of organic life; his skill in music is symbolical\nof the central position of the sun among the seven planets, and its\nmaking harmony with them; and the harp upon which this god is depicted\nas playing, is furnished with seven strings, in emblem of the seven\nplanets. _Pan_ represents the universal world, and he is the emblem of\nfecundity. Hence this god is depicted in his upper part as a man, in his\nlower parts as a beast; \"because the superior and celestial part of the\nworld is beautiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this god, whose\nhorns resemble the rays of the sun, and the horns of the moon. The\nredness of his face is like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted\nskin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament. In his lower\nparts he is shagged and deformed, which represents the shrubs, and wild\nbeasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's feet signify the\nsolidity of the earth; and his pipe of seven reeds, that celestial\nharmony which is made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's hook,\ncrooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the turning of the year\ninto itself.\"[9]\n\nThe goddess _Cybele_ was symbolical of the earth; _Juno_, of the\nair--the link between earthly and heavenly natures; _Vulcan_, of fire;\n_\u00c6olus_, of the winds; _Diana_, of the moon; _Neptune_, of the sea;\n_Rusina_, of the country; _Ceres_, of the fruits of the earth;\n_Collina_, of the hills; _Vallonia_, of the valleys; _Silvanus_, of the\nwoods, which teemed also with inferior deities--_satyrs_ and _fauns_;\n_Seia_ presided over all seed; _Flora_, flowers; _Proserpina_ cherished\nthe corn when it had sprung above the earth; _Volasia_ folded the blade\nround it ere the beard broke out; _Nodosus_ watched over the joints and\nknots of the stalk; _Patelina_ governed the opened ear; _Lactusa_ took\ncharge when it became milky; _Matura_ guarded and conducted it to\nmaturity; _Hostilina_ presided over the crop; and _Tutelina_, over the\ncutting.\n\n_Nymphs_, goddesses of lovely form, and light and airy beauty, sported\nabout the earth; a _Dryad_ presided over every tree; a _Hamadryad_ was\nborn, lived, and died with each oak; _Oreads_ dwelt on the mountains;\n_Nap\u00eb\u00e6_, in the groves and valleys; _Lemoniads_, in the meadows and\nfields; _Nereiads_, in the ocean; _Naiads_, at the fountains;\n_Fluviales_, by the rivers: and _Lirinades_, by lakes and ponds.\n\n_Vesta_ presided over the vital heat of the body; _Janus_ opened the\ngate of life to infant man; _Opis_ assisted him when he came into the\nworld; _Nascio_ presided over the moment of birth; _Cunia_ watched over\nthe cradle, and while he lay and slept; _Vagitanus_, or _Vaticanus_,\ntook care while the infant cried; _Rumina_ presided while the child\nsucked the breast; _Potina_ guarded the infant drinking; _Educa_ watched\nover it while it received food; _Ossilago_ \"knit its bones\" and hardened\nits body; _Carna_ presided over the safety of the inward parts; the\ngoddess _Nundina_ had charge of the child on the ninth day--the day of\npurification; _Statilinus_ taught the infant to stand and walk, and\npreserved it from falling; _Fabulinus_ looked after the child when it\nbegan to speak; _Paventia_ preserved it from fright; _Juventus_\nprotected the beginning of youth; _Agenoria_ excited man to action;\n_Strenua_ encouraged him to behave bravely on all occasions; _Stimula_\nurged him to extraordinary exertions; _Horta_ exhorted him to noble\nactions; _Quis_ gave peace and quietude; _Murcia_ rendered man lazy,\nidle, and dull; _Adeona_ protected him in his outgoings and incomings;\n_Vibilia_ guarded wanderers; _Vacuna_ protected the lazy and idle;\n_Fessonia_ refreshed the weary; _Meditrina_ healed injuries; _Vitula_\npresided over and gave mirth; _Volupia_ governed pleasures; _Orbona_ was\na goddess supplicated that she might not leave parents destitute of\nchildren; _Pellonia_ drove away enemies; _Numeria_ endued men with the\npower of casting numbers; _Sentia_ gave just and honourable sentiments;\n_Augerona_ removed anguish from the mind; and _Consus_ presided over\ngood counsels.\n\n_Virtue_ also was worshipped as a goddess; and the several species of\nvirtue were considered each as emanating from some godlike power, and\n_Faith_, _Hope_, _Justice_, _Piety_, _Peace_, _Fidelity_, _Liberty_, and\n_Money_, were worshipped as good deities; while, on the other hand,\n_Envy_, _Contumely_, _Impudence_, _Calumny_, _Fraud_, _Discord_, _Fury_,\n_Fame_, _Fortune_, _Fever_, and _Silence_, were supplicated as evil\ndeities.\n\n_Minerva_ was symbolical of wisdom and chastity; _Mercury_, of\neloquence--speech; _Venus_ of ungovernable passions and desire;\n_Saturn_, time; _Momus_, mockery; _Silenus_, jesting; _Mars_, war; and\n_Bacchus_, wine. The _Muses_ each represented an accomplishment. Thus,\n_Calliope_ presided over epic poetry; _Clio_, history; _Erato_, elegy\nand amorous song; _Thalia_, comedy, gay, light, and pleasing song;\n_Melpomene_, tragedy; _Terpsichore_, dancing; _Euterpe_, music;\n_Polyhymnia_, religious song; and _Urania_, the knowledge of celestial\nevents.\n\n_Themis_ taught mankind what was honest, just, and right; _Astr\u00e6a_ was\nthe goddess of justice; _Nemesis_ punished vice, rewarded virtue, and\ntaught mankind their duty.\n\nEvery action of man, both in his collective and individual\ncapacity--everything in relation to his household and domestic\naffairs--was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which\nwere classed under the names of _Penates_ and _Lares_.\n\nThe _Penates_, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they\nmay be divided into three classes: 1st, those which presided over\nkingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and\n3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an\nextent this belief was carried, a penate named _Ferculus_ looked after\nthe door; the goddess _Cardua_ after the hinges; and _Limentius_\nprotected the threshold.\n\nThe _Lares_ were of human origin, and they presided also over houses,\nstreets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country\nand the sea.\n\nTo each person was also assigned two deities, termed _genii_. These\nspirits were subsidiary to the gods already mentioned, it being one of\ntheir duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in\nnature and disposition, and were divided into two classes--the _good_\nand the _bad_. The _good genius_ excited men to all actions of honour\nand virtue; the _evil genius_ excited him to all manner of wickedness.\nThe Greeks termed these genii _d\u00e6mons_, either from the terror and dread\nthey created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned\nwhen consulted as oracles.\n\nThe ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of\nthe evil passions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed\nthe _Furies_--_Alecto_, _Tisiphone_, and _Meg\u00e6ra_--who became symbolical\nof the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and\nDeath--_Nox_, _Mors_, and _Somnus_--were elevated among the gods.\n\nThis brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into\nthe formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology--a mythology containing\nmore than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate how every hidden power of\nnature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every\nequally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an\nexplanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the\nprogress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a\nform as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.\n\nThis source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already\nstated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their\nprimary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the\ndifference of climate, habits, &c.\n\nThus, of the gods of the ancient Britons--_Belin_, _Plennyd_, or\n_Granwyn_, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo;\n_Gwydion_, or _Teutath_, had all the attributes of Mercury; _Daronwy_,\n_Taranwy_, or _Taranis_, the thunderer, of Jove; _Anras_, or _Andraste_,\nof Bellona; _He-us_, _Hesus_, _Hugadarn_, or _Hu-ysgwn_, united the\ncharacters of Bacchus and Mars; _Ked_ and _Keridwen_ answered to Ceres;\n_Llenwy_ to Proserpine; _Olwen_ and _Dwynwen_ to Venus; and _Neivion_ to\nNeptune.[10]\n\nIn the Scandinavian mythology the principal gods are personifications of\nphysical and mental powers. _Odin_, the most powerful of the three\nbeings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of\nMercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, _Vili_ is the personification\nof light; _Ve_, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting\nconstantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of\nthe principal gods, we find that _Thor_ is symbolical of thunder;\n_Baldur_ of the sun; _Njord_ rules over the winds, sea, &c.; _Frey_ is\nthe god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; _Tyr_, of war;\n_Bragi_, of wisdom and poetry; _Vidar_, of silence; _Forseti_, of law\nand justice; _Loki_ is the personification of evil; _Frigga_ is the\ngoddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the\npast, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance, love, courtesy,\nwisdom, and every form and passion and power of nature which the\nScandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and\nworshipped god.\n\nThe original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly\nbodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers,\nwhich form the principal part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the\nfirmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most\nfrequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the\nelements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary\npoems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the\nSanhit\u00e2 of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly\naddressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons,\nthe sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices,\nor are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities.\nThe personified attributes of _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_, signifying\nrespectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later\nand more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities\nranking next in order to the _Trimurti_, and termed _Lokapalas_, are all\npersonifications of natural objects and powers. Thus _Indra_ is the god\nof, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm,\nand rain; _Agni_, of fire; _Yama_, of the infernal regions; _Surya_, of\nthe sun; _Varuna_, of water; _Parana_, of wind; _Kuvera_, of wealth; and\n_Soma_, or _Chandra_, of the moon.\n\nThe celebrated line which it is enjoined should be repeated without\nintermission, and which is the most holy passage in the Vedas, reads\nliterally, \"Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri (the\nsun--the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects.\" This, it is\nasserted, is addressed to the sun as the symbol of a divine and\nall-powerful being, and it is regarded as a proof of the monotheism of\nthe Vedas. This explanation is, however, considered by some to be far\nfrom satisfactory, and to offer greater difficulties than the text ever\ncan when taken in a natural light.\n\nThe creed of Buddha contains similar traces of elemental worship. The\nfive Buddhas and the five Bodhisattwas would appear to be\npersonifications of the principal natural elements and phenomena.\n\nIn Persian mythology we find a similar deification of natural phenomena.\nIn the creed of Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing\nbeliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being, _Zernane Akherene_\n(illimitable, uncreated time), who created _Ormuzd_ (light, goodness);\nand _Ahrimann_ (darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe, and the\ngenii, or deities of light, of whom there are three classes.\n\n_1st Class._ The seven _Amshaspands_, including _Ormuzd_ himself. The\nremaining are _Bahman_, the genius of the region of light;\n_Ardibehesht_, of ethereal fire; _Sharwir_, of metals; _Sarpandomad_, of\nfruitfulness; _Khudad_, of time; _Amerdad_, of the vegetable world,\nflocks, and herds.\n\n_2nd Class._ The twenty-seven _Izeds_, male and female--the _elementary_\ndeities: e.g. _Khorsid_, the deity of the sun; _Mah_, of the moon;\n_Tashter_, of the dog-star, and of rain; _Rapitan_, the deity of heat,\n&c. These deities were probably worshipped before the belief was reduced\nto a system.\n\n_3rd Class._ The _Fervers_--the vivifying principles of nature, the\nideal types of the material universe, corresponding in general with the\n_ideas_ of Plato. Every one, even Ormuzd, has his Ferver. \"An Iranite\nhas thus constantly by his side his ideal type, or uncorrupted material\nimage, to guide him through life and preserve him from evil.\"[12]\n\nThe Iranite worships light, fire, and water, as emblems of Ormuzd, in\nwhom these elements are united; he does not worship the elementary\nspirits attached to them.\n\nIn China, the state religion--the religious system of\nConfucius--embodies the following objects of worship, arranged in three\nclasses:--\n\n_1st Class._ _Ta sze_, or _great sacrifices_, includes the worship of\nthe heavens (_Y\u00e2ng_), and the earth (_Yin_); and while worshipping the\nmaterial heaven, they appear to consider that there exists an animating\n_intelligence_ (_Tae-keih_) which presides over the world, rewarding\nvirtue and vice. This class includes also deified sovereigns.\n\n_2nd Class._ _Choong-sze_, _medium sacrifices_, includes the worship of\ngods of the land and grain, the sun and moon, genii, sages, gods of\nletters, inventors of agriculture, manufacturers, and useful arts.\n\n_3rd Class._ _Seaon-sze_, or _lesser sacrifices_, includes the worship\nof the ancient patron of the healing art; innumerable spirits of\ndeceased statesmen, eminent scholars, martyrs to virtue, &c.; the\nprincipal phenomena of nature, as the clouds, rain, wind, thunder, each\nof which has its presiding god; the military banners (like the Romans);\nthe god of war; _Loong-wang_, the dragon-king; the gods of rain and the\nwatery elements; and _Tien-how_, the queen of heaven and goddess of the\nweather. The Chinese also believe in good and evil genii, and in tutelar\nspirits presiding over families, houses, and towns.[13]\n\nIn Africa, the mythology of its different nations is based on natural\nobjects and phenomena. The natives of Ashanti and the neighbouring\ndistricts worship water, lakes, rivers, mountains, rocks and stones,\nleopards, panthers, wolves, crocodiles, &c., all of which are more or\nless powerful \"fetishes;\" and the Nubian worships the moon. The natives\nof Tahiti and the islands of the South Sea also derive their principal\nideas of supernatural beings from material objects. In Mangareva, the\nlargest of the Gambier Islands, the gods adored by the natives were\nprincipally personifications of natural objects. A god named _Tea_ was\nthe deity and creator of the sun, wind, and water; _Rongo_ was the god\nof rain; _Tairi_, of thunder; _Arikitenow_, of the ocean; _A-nghi_, of\nstorms and famine; _Napitoiti_, of death, &c. The Tahitan conceives also\nthat animals, trees, stones, &c., possess souls which, like his own,\nafter destruction will have a subsequent existence. On the vast\ncontinent of South America we find numerous traces of elemental and\nnatural worship. The aborigines of Paraguay supplicate the sun, moon,\nstars, thunder, lightning, groves, &c. In the district bounded by the\nOrinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassequiare, including an\nextent of about 8000 square miles, and scattered also over a still\ngreater extent of this continent, are found rocks covered with colossal\nsymbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, household utensils, and of\nthe sun and moon,--doubtless objects of adoration to nations of whose\nexistence even tradition has not preserved a trace. It is also probable\nthat the rocks thus engraved were regarded as sacred; for the Macusi\nIndians, inhabiting one portion of the districts where these sculptures\nare found, have the tradition that \"the sole survivor of a general\ndeluge repeopled the earth by changing stones into human beings.\"[14]\nThe Incas of Peru--the children of the sun--built magnificent temples,\nand adored that luminary; and the sculptures on the walls of the\ncolossal temples and buildings of the Aztecs, the ancient inhabitants of\nMexico, as well as the remains of the pyramids of the sun and moon at\nTeotihuacan, teach the same lesson with regard to that extinct race. The\nPueblo Indians of New Mexico still perpetuate the holy fire \"by the side\nof which the Aztecan kept a continual watch for the return to earth of\nQuetzalcoatl, the god of air.\" In a solitary cave of the mountains is\npreserved the undying fire, and its dim light is seen by the hunter if,\nby chance, led by the chase, he passes near to this lonely temple.[15]\nAmong the tribes which inhabit the more northerly parts of the American\ncontinent, we find also similar traces of the important influence which\nnatural phenomena have exercised in the development of their ideas of\nsupernatural existences.\n\nWe could not well close this sketch without allusion to the Shaman\nreligion, which is diffused throughout the principal nations of Asiatic\nRussia, a great part of the Tartars, the Eins, Samoiedes, Ostiaks,\nMandshurs, Burats, and Tungsees; and it is even professed among the\nCoriaks and Techuks, and people of the eastern islands. This system of\nreligion is essentially founded upon the observation of natural\nphenomena: it teaches that the gods (_Burchans_) arose from the general\nmass of matter and spirit; and while inculcating the existence of a\nspiritual world, it instils the belief in the self-existence of matter.\n\nThese remarks will sufficiently show the important influence which the\nobservation of natural phenomena has had in the development of the\nbelief in the Supernatural of most nations; and it will fully indicate\nthe primary reason of the correspondence of their principal mythological\nconceptions. A consideration of the different habits, degree of\ncivilization, locality, &c., will also indicate the principal reason of\nthe various modifications which the same mythological conception is\nfound to present among different nations.\n\nThere was one Jupiter for Europe, and another for Africa; and the varied\nforms under which this god was worshipped, derived from the locality,\nhabits, and other peculiarities of his worshippers, were very numerous.\nAt Athens, the great Jupiter was the Olympian; at Rome, the Capitoline.\nThere was the mild and the thundering Jupiter, the Jupiter Nicephorus,\nOpitulus, Fulminator, &c., all differing in some subordinate characters.\n\nAmmon, of Egypt; Belus, of the Babylonians; Ibis, of the Ph\u0153nicians;\nAllah, of the Arabians; Beel, Baal, Beelphagor, Beelzebub, Beelzemer,\n&c., all possess the attributes of Jupiter, and are the same with that\ngod.\n\nThe Buddha of India; Fohi, of the Chinese; Odin, or Woden, of the\nScandinavians; and Gwydion, of the Ancient Britons, correspond with\nMercury.\n\nVishnu, Brahma, Siva, and Krishna, the latter both of the Irish and\nSanscrit, correspond with Apollo; whilst Arun, of the Irish and Hindoo\nsuperstitions, corresponds with the Aurora of the Greeks.\n\nIt is peculiarly interesting to mark in the writings of classic authors\nthe earlier traces of a correct explanation of the causes operating in\nthe changes observed in nature, and their influence in modifying the\nmythological ideas of the period. Socrates penetrated so far in the\ninterpretation of certain physical phenomena as to discover that they\nmight be explained without having recourse to the idea of supernatural\nagency. This is most interestingly shown in Aristophanes' comedy of \"The\nClouds\" (B.C. 440). In this comedy, written for the purpose of throwing\nridicule and contempt on the sophistical philosophy of Socrates,\nStrepsiades, an aged and ignorant man, is represented as suffering from\nthe excesses and expenses of his son Phidippides. He conceives the idea\nof studying logic, in order, by mere subtle reasoning, to overcome and\ncheat his creditors. He enrols himself as a pupil of Socrates, and in\nAct I, Scene 2, the following scene occurs:--\n\n  _Str._  Is not Olympian Jupiter our God?\n\n  _Soc._  What Jupiter? nay, jest not--there is none.\n\n  _Str._  How say'st thou? who then rains?--this first of all\n          Declare to me.\n\n  _Soc._              Why these (_the clouds_): by mighty signs\n          This I will prove to thee. Hast ever seen\n          Jove raining without clouds?--if it were so,\n          Through the clear fields of ether must he rain,\n          While these were far away.\n\n  _Str._                          Now by Apollo,\n          Full well hast thou discours'd upon this point;\n          Till now, in truth, I thought 'twas Jupiter,\n          Distilling through a sieve. But tell me next,\n          Who is the thunderer?--this awakes my dread.\n\n  _Soc._  They thunder as they roll.\n\n  _Str._                          But how, I pray?\n          Say, thou who darest all.\n\n  _Soc._                        When they are fill'd\n          With water, and perforce impell'd along,\n          Driven precipitate, all full of rain,\n          They meet together, bursting with a crash.\n\n  _Str._  But who compels them thus to move along?\n          Is not this Jove?\n\n  _Soc._                  No, but th'\u00e6therial whirl.\n\nIn a subsequent part of the comedy (Act III, Scene 1) Strepsiades is\nrepresented as speaking of this idea of a whirlwind as a deified being,\nthus admirably showing the tendency of man to consider that which he\ncould not comprehend as the result of supernatural agency, and to\npersonify it.\n\n  _Str._  Thou swearest now, by Jove.\n\n  _Phid._ I do.\n\n  _Str._      Thou see'st how good it is to learn,\n          There is no Jove, Phidippides.\n\n  _Phid._                           Who then?\n\n  _Str._  A whirlwind reigns; having driven him, Jove, away.\n\nIt would seem, also, that Socrates himself was subject to the influence\nof this feeling; for a passage in Act V, Scene 1,[16] has led to the\nconclusion \"that in the school of Socrates was placed an earthen image\n(\u03b4\u1fd6\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, the name of an earthen vessel as well as of the\n_whirlwind_, who has usurped the honours and attributes of Jove). (See\nSchol. ad Vesp. 617.) This, probably, was done by the philosopher as a\nsort of compensation for having expelled Jupiter (\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u0394\u03b9\u03ac)\nfrom his mythological system.\"[17]\n\n\nII. But the ideas derived from the contemplation of natural phenomena\nwere not the sole sources of mythology, such as we have received it.\nOther and most powerful causes operated, and of those next in degree of\nimportance were those feelings which prompted to the deification of men.\n\nPers\u00e6us, a disciple of Zeno, \"says, that they who have made discoveries\nadvantageous to the life of man, should be esteemed as gods; and the\nvery things, he says, which are healthful and beneficial, should have\ndivine appellations; so that he thinks it not sufficient to call them\nthe discoverers of gods, but that they themselves should be deemed\ndivine.\"[18]\n\nThe author of the \"Book of Wisdom\" in the Apocrypha, details other\ncauses which tended to the same result. He writes, (Chapter xiv, v.\n15-21):--\n\n\"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a son who hath been taken from\nhim, makes an image of his child: and him who before was _to his family_\nas a dead man, they now begin to worship as a god; rites and sacrifices\nbeing instituted, to be observed by his dependents. And in process of\ntime, custom having established these as a law, an image set up by an\nimpious tyrant receives divine honours. A man being unable to render\nsuch respect in their presence to those who dwelt remote from them, and\nhaving received their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded to\nmake a conspicuous image of any king to whom they inclined to pay divine\nhonours, by which means, though absent, the ruler receives their\nsolicitous homage, as though present with them. The exquisite pains\nbestowed by the artist has likewise contributed to this worship of the\nabsent by ignorant men; for being willing to give perfect satisfaction\nto him for whom he doth it, he avails himself of all the resources of\nhis art to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude, allured by\nthe beauty of the statue, come to regard as a god him whom before they\nhonoured but as a man. And this hath been the great delusion of\nhumanity, that out of affection for the dead, or subserviency to their\nrulers, men have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable name of\nGod.\"\n\nMost systems of mythology contain examples of deities which have been\nderived from this source.\n\n\"It has been a general custom, likewise,\" writes Cicero,[19] \"that men\nwho have done important service to the public should be exalted to\nheaven by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux,\n\u00c6sculapius and Liber, became gods; * * * thus, likewise, Romulus, or\nQuirinus--for they are thought to be the same--became a god. They are\njustly esteemed as deities, since their souls subsist and enjoy\neternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings.\"\n\nThe Chinese, at the present day, deify and adore their deceased\nemperors, as well as the spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs\nto virtue, &c.\n\nIt has occasionally happened that some great sage, on his apotheosis,\nhad attributed to him that which he had simply expounded during life,\nand thus became the personification of the religious ideas he had\nentertained. Buddha, who lived, as nearly as can be ascertained, about\n1000 years before Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India. After\ndeath he was deified by his converts, and became the embodiment of the\nprinciples he had advocated when on earth; and his name, with various\nmodifications, was applied to the system of cosmogony and religion which\nhe had advocated. The Grand Lamas (_Chaberons_) of Thibet are regarded\nas incarnations (_avatars_) of Buddha, and as such are adored by the\nThibetians and the various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast\ndistrict which extends from the banks of the Volga to Corea, in the Sea\nof Japan.\n\nAfter the persecution which terminated in the expulsion of the followers\nof Buddha from Hindostan, the Hindoos, not content with their celestial\ngods or heroes, extended their adoration to various living individuals,\nparticularly to the Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight years of\nage are worshipped by them as forms of the goddess Bhavani (_Venus_);\nand at certain seasons of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his\nwife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.\n\nSome writers have thought that all the gods of the ancients consisted of\ndeified men. This is, however, an error; for the deification of men was\nan act second in order to the worship of natural objects and phenomena.\nThe chronological position of this element of mythology has, among other\nreasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting conclusions on the\nrespective ages of the palaces of Nineveh.\n\nOn the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are found sculptured the winged\nand human-headed bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged\nfigures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed divinities, and other\nfigures, which are conceived to be symbolical of constellations, and of\nastronomical phenomena. From these nobler and simpler ideas of Divinity\nit is inferred, that when this palace was built the worship of the\nAssyrians was comparatively pure. But on the walls of Nimroud, in\naddition to the symbolical representations found at Khorsabad, there are\nalso indications of an increased number of divinities, from the presence\nof deified men; hence a reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the\nsystem of religion at the period when this palace was built, and\nconsequently its more recent date.[20]\n\n\nIII. Another element has also exercised a considerable influence upon\nthe mythologies of some nations, namely, _Scriptural narrative and\ntraditions_. It is not improbable that several of the heathen myths have\nbeen derived from this source. Many, indeed, believe that all mythology\narises from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that Deucalion is\nmerely another name for Noah; Hercules for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and\nBacchus is either Nimrod or Moses--for the former supposition the\nsimilarity of name being assigned; for the latter, among others, one of\nthe names and some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus was named\n_Bicornis, double-horned_; and the face of Moses appeared double-horned\nwhen he came down from the mountain where he had spoken to God,--the\nrays of glory darting from his brow having the semblance of radiant\nhorns. The Bacch\u00e6 drew waters from the rocks by striking them with their\nthyrsi; and wherever they went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and\nwine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes to dry up, by\nstriking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,--an\naction similar to that of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, &c. That\nScripture narrative has had an important influence in determining the\nformation of mythology, is highly probable; and we have already shown\nthat the primary revelation of a Godhead at the creation of man supplied\nan important initial excitement to that development of the belief in the\nsupernatural which occurred subsequent to the fall of man. The influence\nof Scriptural traditions on the myths of various nations it is probably\nimpossible to unravel satisfactorily.\n\n\nIV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths of the ancients, and of\nmodern pagan nations, were allegorical; and that they were designed to\nrepresent a philosophical, moral, or religious truth under a fabulous\nform. Thus, the myth of the giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off\nthe sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards stolen from him by\nMercury, and restored to Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful\nrebellions, by which the sinews of kings--their revenue and\nauthority--are cut off; but by mildness of address, and wisdom of\nedicts, influencing the people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they\nrecover their power and reconcile their subjects. And in the myth of the\nexpedition of the gods against the giants, when the ass Silenus became\nof great service in dispersing them, on account of the terror excited by\nhis braying, it is considered to be an allegory of those vast projects\nof rebels, which are mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain\nconsternation. Minerva was fabled to have been born out of the head of\nJupiter, because it was deemed that man did not in himself possess\nwisdom, but he derived it from divine inspiration; and this goddess was\nborn armed, because a wise man clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified\nagainst all the harms of life.\n\nThis element has undoubtedly had an important influence in the formation\nof the various myths, but it refers rather to an advanced stage in\nmythology, and to that period of development when a nation has made some\nprogress in arts and literature.\n\nThese elements, and doubtless also others of which the effects are less\neasily unfolded, _e.g._ intercourse between various nations, dispersion\nof tribes, &c., have all exercised a greater or less degree of influence\non the development and formation of the mythologies of different\nnations.\n\nIf we contemplate a race in the earlier phases of its existence, or one\ndegraded in the scale of being, we find that its ideas of the\nsupernatural are confined to the deification and worship of the simplest\nand most striking of the objects and phenomena of nature: as it has\nincreased in civilization and learning, those deities have been\nrepresented in symbolical forms; and as civilization and the cultivation\nof the mind advances, and the knowledge of surrounding nature has become\nincreased, so have the number of deities been multiplied by the\ndeification of the less evident powers of nature, of kings, and of\ndistinguished men, and then also allegory has come into play. Every\nvariation in the character of a nation, and every era, has impressed\nmore or less distinct marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we\nreceive it now, is the sum of all those changes which have been\nimpressed upon it from its earliest formation.\n\nWhen Christianity dawned upon the world, its effect was not the\nimmediate eradication or dispersion of the superstitious beliefs and\nobservances then entertained: it induced a change in the form and\nnature of those beliefs.\n\nAt the commencement of the Christian era, certain men, inspired by the\nHoly Ghost, were enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings\nderived from habit, education, and authority, and to receive at once, in\nall its purity and fulness, the light of the gospel--perhaps the most\nwonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ. Such was not the case,\nhowever, with the majority of the earlier Christians. They did not thus\nthrow off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin, but modified them\nso as to concur, as they thought, with Scripture.\n\nThus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of one sole, omnipotent,\nand omniscient God; and it fully defined a power of evil, and denounced\nidolatry. Hence the early Christian fathers were led to conceive, and\nteach, that the gods of the heathen were devils; and further, that their\nhistory, attributes, and worship, had been taught to mankind by the\ndevils themselves.\n\n    \"Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones;\n    Though of their names in heavenly records now\n    Be no memorial,--blotted out and razed,\n    By their rebellion from the book of life,--\n    ... wandering o'er the earth,\n    Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,\n    By falsities and lies the greatest part\n    Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake\n    God their Creator, and the invisible\n    Glory of Him that made them to transform\n    Oft to the image of a brute adorn'd\n    With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,\n    And devils to adore for deities;\n    Then were they known to man by various names,\n    And various idols through the heathen world.\"[21]\n\nThis phase being given to the existing superstitions, it will readily be\nunderstood how, under the form of devils, most of the principal classes\nof deities in pagan mythology were retained and believed in. Thus the\nelemental and primary gods of paganism were perpetuated under the name\nof _fiends_, _d\u00e6mons_, _genii_, &c.; and the terms _salamanders_,\n_undines_, &c., expressed certain spirits of fire and of water; in the\nform of _fairies_, _elves_, _sylphs_, &c., were retained the graceful\nNymphs--Oreads, Dryads, &c.--of antiquity,--\n\n    \"The light militia of the lower sky;\"\n\nthe hidden parts of the earth were peopled with _dwarfs_, and other\nspirits of a more powerful nature; and spectral apparitions frighted the\nmidnight hours of the watcher.\n\nIt is, therefore, to the retention of certain pagan superstitions in a\nmodified form, that we are to attribute the origin of the belief in\nthose unnumbered spirits, which, under the names of fiends, d\u00e6mons,\ngenii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs, sprites, &c., have been supposed to\nsurround us, and have hampered the imaginations of all Christian\nnations, and of which, to use the words of Pope--\n\n    \"Some in the fields of purest \u00e6ther play,\n    And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;\n    Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,\n    Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;\n    Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light,\n    Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,\n    Or suck the mists in grosser air below,\n    Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,\n    Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,\n    Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;\n    Others on earth o'er human race preside,\n    Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide.\"[22]\n\nThe belief that the heathen deities were devils, naturally led to the\nfurther conclusion, that the priests who sacrificed to those gods, and\nwho were regarded as the medium of communication between the gods and\nman, held immediate converse with devils,--a belief subsequently\nextended to idolators in general, and to all those practising magic and\nsorcery. Instances of the natural alliance of a mythological idea to a\nChristian belief might be multiplied.\n\nThe power of evil, enunciated by the Scriptures, and spoken of as the\n\"_Devil_,\" was early reputed to have appeared in a visible form,\nassuming the aspect of the god Pan, or of a faun or satyr, that is, a\nhorned figure, with hirsute frame, and the lower extremities of a goat,\nwhich indeed, until recently, was considered to be the most orthodox\nform of visibility for his Satanic Majesty. The connection of the power\nof evil with the gods of the most gloomy and hidden parts of nature is\nobvious: Pan, indeed, was the god of terror.\n\nFrequently, also, Satan appeared under the form of a goat. The goat is\nan emblem of the sin-offering, and of the wicked at the day of judgment;\nhence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness, and in this form\nthe devil most commonly appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins.\nIn Leviticus (xvii. 7), where it is written \"they shall no more offer\nsacrifices to devils,\" it is literally, to \"hairy-ones\"--goats. The\nsymbol of the goat prompted to the nature of the form given to Pan in\nthe Grecian and Roman mythology. Indeed, the Greeks derived their\nworship of that god from Egypt, where he was adored under the form of a\ngoat; and it is fabled that he captivated Diana under the aspect of a\nwhite goat.\n\nA singular superstition of the connection of the goat with Satan is\nentertained in some districts of this island. It is asserted that a goat\nis never visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as once in that\ntime it must visit Satan to have its beard combed![23]\n\nAnother example of the wedding of a pagan myth to the Christian religion\nis this:--Most heathen nations believed in the existence of deities\nwhose especial duty was to guard the threshold of the house, and prevent\nthe entrance of evil spirits.\n\nThe Grecians and Romans had their Penates and Lars, and the Genoese\nretain the superstition at the present day.\n\nThe Lars (_familiares_) were the souls of men, who lingered about the\ndwellings and places they had formerly inhabited and frequented. They\nwere represented by small images resembling monkeys, and covered with\ndog's skin; and these images were placed in a niche behind the door, or\naround the hearth. At the feet of the Lar was placed the figure of a\ndog, to intimate vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to them\nin the month of May, when offerings of fruit were presented, and the\nimages were crowned with flowers.\n\nPlautus (_Aulularia_) represents a Lar as using the following words:--\n\n              \"I am the family Lar\n    Of this house whence you see me coming out.\n    'Tis many years now that I keep and guard\n    This family; both father and grandsire\n    Of him that has it now, I aye protected.\"\n\nBeneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found\nimages of a foul and ugly appearance (_teraphim_), some having a lynx's\nhead and human body, others a lion's body and human head. Sentences were\nalso inscribed on the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures were\nplaced on each side of the portal. The intention was, doubtless, the\nprevention of the entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the\nhousehold.[24]\n\nThe Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti, believe in the existence\nof similar deities. The Bh\u00fbtas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent\nspirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities. Every house and each\nfamily has its particular Bh\u00fbta, which is often represented by a\nshapeless stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order to\npropitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to defend the house from\nthe machinations of neighbouring Bh\u00fbtas. The native of Ashanti offers\nalso daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which, under the form of a\nstone painted red, is placed upon a platform within his hut.\n\nThere are several remnants of this ancient superstition still in vogue\nin England. The common practice of nailing a horse-shoe behind the door,\nto terrify witches and prevent the entrance of evil spirits, is familiar\nto most persons. Formerly it was the custom to nail the horse-shoe to\nthe threshold. Aubrey writes, in his _Miscellanies_: \"Most houses of the\nwest end of London have the horse-shoe on the threshold.\" In Monmouth\nStreet, in 1797, many horse-shoes were to be seen fastened to the\nthreshold. In 1813, Sir Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes in\nthis position in that street, but in 1841 the number had diminished to\nfive or six.\n\nIn some parts of England, naturally perforated stones are suspended\nbehind the doors, with the same intention;[25] in others, jugs, of\nsingular and often frightful form, are built into the walls of the\ncottages--an interesting approximation to the Assyrian teraphim; and in\nGlamorganshire the walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to\nterrify wandering spirits,--a mode of prevention which we should like to\nsee more generally adopted, as it would doubtless prove of some effect\nin impeding the access of those roaming spirits of evil with which we\nhave to contend most at the present day--cholera and fever.\n\nAccording to Durandus, the dedication-crosses of the Roman Catholic\nchurches were adopted under the influence of a feeling in every respect\nanalogous to this ancient superstition. He writes that the crosses were\nused, \"first, as a terror to evil spirits, that they, having been\ndriven forth thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of the\ncross, and may not presume to enter therein again. Secondly, as a mark\nof triumph, for crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of his\ntriumph.... Thirdly, that such as look on them may call to mind the\npassion of Christ, by which He hath consecrated his church; and their\nbelief in his passion.\"[26]\n\nBut the influence of mythology on Christianity did not terminate with\nthe mere natural results of previous education, habits, &c. The church,\nunder and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing in the\nprotection of the civil power, and not content with the natural\nveneration due to those early Christians who had struggled for the\ncross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves by their long and\nprotracted sufferings, insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced\nby the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to deify his\nbenefactors, indulged a degree of reverence to the memory of those holy\nmen, which soon ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately\nto their canonization and invocation. The Fathers of that\nperiod--Athanasius, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.--encouraged the belief;\nand a rage was developed for the search of the remains and\nresting-places of the holy dead, to whom prayers were offered; and, in\nits encouragement of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles,\nprophetic dreams, relics, &c., the Roman church at this time rivalled\nthe omens, divinations, oracles, and hero-worship of one of the later\nphases of mythology.\n\nThe church even sought to promote the spread of Christianity by the\nadoption of certain pagan rites and ceremonies. No more remarkable and\ninteresting example of this is to be found than in the annals of our own\ncountry. In the year of our Lord 601, in a letter \"sent to the Abbot\nMellitus, then going into Britain,\" Pope Gregory wrote as follows:--\n\n\"I have, upon mature deliberation on the affairs of the English,\ndetermined ... that the temples of the idols of that nation ought not to\nbe destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed, let holy\nwater be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected,\nand relics placed. For if those temples be well built, it is requisite\nthat they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the\ntrue God; that the nation, seeing that the temples are not destroyed,\nmay remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true\nGod, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have\nbeen accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen\nin the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for these\non this account, as that on the day of dedication, or the nativities of\nthe holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may build\nthemselves huts of the boughs of trees about those churches which have\nbeen turned to that use from temples, and no more offer beasts to the\ndevil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return\nthanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end that,\nwhilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the\nmore easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God.\"[27]\n\nIn A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II expressed his approval of image-worship,\nand because the Greek emperor refused to accede to this form of\nidolatry, he caused the tribute paid to him by Rome to be suspended, and\neven went to the extent of excommunicating him; and in 789, the second\nNicene council re-established and confirmed the adoration of images.\n\nExamples of the influence of these doctrines in the Roman and other\nchurches may be multiplied.\n\nThe censers and lustration vessels of the priesthood are copied from the\nsacrificial vessels which were used in the pagan temples; the woollen\nfillet was transformed into the priest's amice; and the _lituus_, or\ncurved staff of the soothsayer, became the crozier of the bishop.\n\nThe sacred fountains of antiquity were perpetuated in a Christian form\nby dedication to a saint. Examples of this are afforded by the wells of\nSt. Elian, in Denbighshire; St. Winifred, in Flintshire, &c.\n\nIn no respect, however, has the Romish church so closely followed the\nexample of pagan nations, and borrowed from mythology, as in the\ndeification of men, and the adoption of tutelary divinities.\n\nAs the mythology of ancient Rome and Greece had its gods who presided\nover countries, cities, towns, and the numerous actions and duties of\nman in his civil and religious life, to each of whom worship was offered\nand altars erected, so also the Romish church encouraged the belief in\nguardian saints, and in this respect its calendar rivals the Pantheon.\n\nAs fully did this church adopt the principle of the deification\n(_canonization_) of men--one of the most prominent of the\ncharacteristics of idolatry.\n\nThus the Romish calendar contains guardian saints of countries: St.\nGeorge is the tutelary saint of England; St. Andrew, of Scotland; St.\nPatrick, of Ireland; St. Denis, of France; and St. Peter, of Flanders.\nAustria possesses two guardian saints, St. Colman and St. Leopold;\nGermany has _three_, St. Martin, St. Boniface, and St. George\nCataphrastus; and so on of all the countries of Europe.\n\nThere are also guardian saints of cities. St. Egidius presides over\nEdinburgh, St. Nicholas, Aberdeen; St. Peter succeeded Mars at Rome; St.\nFrideswide, Oxford; St. Genevieve, Paris; St. Thomas Aquinas and St.\nJanuarius, Naples, &c.\n\nOf the general body of tutelary saints the following list will afford an\nillustration:--\n\nSt. Agatha presides over nurses; St. Catherine and St. Gregory over\nstudious persons; St. Christopher, St. Hermus, and St. Nicholas, over\nmariners; St. Cecilia, over musicians; St. Cosmos and Damian, over\nphysicians, surgeons, and philosophers; St. Dismas and St. Nicholas,\nover thieves; St. Eustace and St. Hubert, over hunters; St. Felicitas,\nover young children; St. Julian, over pilgrims; St. Leonard and St.\nBarbara, over captives; St. Luke, painters; St. Martin and St. Urban\nover ale-knights, to prevent them falling in the kennel; St. \u00c6thelbert\nand \u00c6lian are invoked against thieves, &c.\n\nSt. Agatha presides over valleys; St. Anne, riches; St. Barbara, hills;\nSt. Florian, fire; St. Sylvester, woods, &c.\n\nSt. Thomas presides over divines; St. Thomas \u00e0-Becket, blind men; St.\nValentine, lovers; St. Winifred, virgins; St. Joseph, carpenters; St.\nAnthony, swineherds and grocers; St. Arnhold, millers; St. Blaise,\nwool-combers; St. Catherine, spinners; St. Clement, tanners; St. Cloud,\nnailsmiths; St. Dunstan, goldsmiths; St. Elry, blacksmiths, farriers,\n&c.; St. Florian, mercers; St. Francis, butchers; St. George, clothiers;\nSt. Goodman and St. Ann, tailors; St. Gore, potters; St. Hilary,\ncoopers; St. Leodager, drapers; St. Crispin, shoemakers, &c.\n\nSt. Anthony protects hogs; St. Ferriol, geese; St. Gertrude, mice and\neggs; St. Hubert, dogs; St. Joy, horses, &c.\n\nNumerous saints were invoked against diseases: _e.g._, St. Clara against\nsore eyes; St. Genow, gout; St. Marus, palsies and convulsions; St.\nSigismund, fevers, &c.\n\n\"There be many miracles assigned to saints,\" writes Barnaby Rich, in\n1619, \"that they say are good for all diseases: they can give sight to\nthe blind, make the deafe to hear; they can restore limbs that be\ncrippled, and make the lame go upright; they be good for horse, swine,\nand many other beasts. And women, also, have shee-saints.... They have\nsaints to pray to when they be grieved with a third-day ague, when they\nbe pained with toothache, or when they would be revenged on their angry\nhusbands.\n\n\"They have saints that be good amongst poultry when they have the pip,\nfor geese when they do sit, to have a happy success in goslings; and, to\nbe short, there is no disease, no sickness, no griefe, either amongst\nmen or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints.\"[28]\n\nThe Romish church also adopted the pagan belief in apparitions, and as\nthe latter had supported the argument in favour of the existence of the\ngods by the fiction of their occasional manifestations in a visible\nform, so the former endeavoured to sustain its dogmas by fables of the\napparition, from time to time, of its saints.\n\nIt is needless to dwell upon the manner in which this church pandered to\nthe credulity of the people in this respect, for an example is before\nthe world even at the present time in the apparition of the Blessed\nVirgin near La Salette, a village about four miles from Corps, a small\ntown situated on the road between Grenoble and Gap.\n\nThe story is as follows:--On the 19th September, 1846, the Blessed\nVirgin appeared to two children, the one a boy aged 11, and the other a\ngirl aged 14 years, who were watching cows near a fountain, in the\nhollow of a ravine in the mountains, about four miles from the church\nof La Salette. When first seen, she was in a sitting position, the head\nresting upon the hands, and she \"had on white shoes, with roses about\nher shoes. The roses were of all colours. Her socks were yellow, her\napron yellow, and her gown white, with pearls all over it. She had a\nwhite neckerchief, with roses round it; a high cap, a little bent in\nfront; a crown round her cap with roses. She had a very small chain, to\nwhich was attached a crucifix; on the right were some pincers, on the\nleft a hammer; at the extremities of the cross was another huge chain,\nwhich fell, like the roses, round her handkerchief. Her face was white\nand long.\"\n\nAddressing the children, tears coursing down her cheeks, she spoke to\nthem on the wickedness of the peasantry, particularly their neglect of\nthe Sabbath and of the duties of Lent, when they \"go like dogs to the\nbutchers' stalls.\" Then she foretold that if the men would not be\nconverted, there should be no potatoes at Christmas, all the corn should\nbe eaten up by animals, or if any did grow up, it should fall to dust\nwhen thrashed. There should be a great famine, preceding which \"children\nbelow seven years of age should have convulsions, and die in the arms of\nthose who held them; and the rest should do penance by hunger. Nuts and\ngrapes also should perish. But if men were converted, then the rocks and\nstones shall be changed into heaps of corn, and potatoes shall be sown\nall over the land.\" \"The lady,\" in addition, confided to each of the\nchildren a secret which was not to be told to the other, but which they\nconfided to the Pope in 1851. Then, after a little gossiping\nconversation, \"the lady\" vanished.\n\nSoon after this apparition had been noised abroad, it was discovered\nthat the waters of the fountain were possessed of marvellous healing\nproperties, and many miraculous cures were effected by its use. Pilgrims\nflocked to the scene of the vision, and it is affirmed that in one day\n60,000 of the faithful ascended the mountain.\n\nAmong others, the present Bishop of Orleans made a pilgrimage to the\n\"holy mountain,\" and he was so impressed by the solemn feelings excited\nby treading on such holy ground, that he often ejaculated, \"It cannot be\nbut that the finger of God is here.\" Other ecclesiastics of rank also\nvisited the spot, and the whole affair was officially sanctioned.\n\nNor did the matter rest here, for churches are being built, and\ndedicated to \"Our Lady of Salette,\" in different countries; and a\nsociety has been established in England bearing her name.\n\nWe have already alluded to the sacred fountains of heathen nations, and\nin the holy fountain of Salette we witness the modern development of a\nsimilar superstition. So also in the apparition of the Virgin the same\ncredulity is traced which prompted the ancients to believe in the\noccasional appearance of their deities.\n\nIt is related that Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter, by Leda the\nwife of Tyndarus, were seen fighting at the battle of Regillus; and\nthat, subsequently, mounted on white horses, they appeared to P.\nVatienus, as he journeyed by night to Rome, from his government of\nReate, and told him that King Perses had that day been taken prisoner.\n\nOn these legends Cicero remarks; \"Do you believe that the Tyndarid\u00e6, as\nyou called them, that is, men sprung from men, and buried in Lacedemon,\nas we learn from Homer, who lived in the next age,--do you believe, I\nsay, that they appeared to Vatienus on the road, mounted on white\nhorses, without any servant to attend them, to tell the victory of the\nRomans to a country fellow rather than to M. Cato, who was that time the\nchief person of the senate? Do you take that print of a horse's hoof,\nwhich is now to be seen on a stone at Regillus, to be made by Castor's\nhorse? Should you not believe, what is probable, that the souls of\neminent men, such as the Tyndarid\u00e6, are divine and immortal, rather than\nthat those bodies, which had been reduced to ashes, should mount on\nhorses and fight in an army? If you say that was possible, you ought to\nshow how it is so, and not amuse us with fabulous stories.\"\n\n\"Do you take these for fabulous stories?\" says Balbus. \"Is not the\ntemple built by Posthumius in honour of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in\nthe Forum? Is not the decree of the senate concerning Vatienus still\nsubsisting?... Ought not such authorities to move you?\"\n\n\"You oppose me,\" replies Cotta, \"with stories, but I ask reasons of\nyou.\"[29]\n\nIt would seem then that the parallelism is perfect, even to the building\nof temples, and the official recognition of the truth of the event.\n\nOf the individual personages of ancient mythology very few traces remain\nin England, and these principally belong to the fairy belief. This\nsuperstition, of which the analogue is found in the Nymphs, Oreads,\nDryads, Naiads, Lemoniads, and Nerieds, of ancient Greece and Rome, is\nstill prevalent in certain districts of this country; and the extinction\nof the general belief, among the lower orders, of one of the most noted\nof the personages which are met with in fairy lore, the _hobgoblin_, is\ncomparatively of recent date. The name is, however, still familiar, and\nin use for certain vague manifestations of the supernatural, although\nthe actual signification of the term is, to a great extent, lost sight\nof.\n\nThe hobgoblin is worthy of notice not only for its intrinsic interest,\nbut also for the illustration which it affords of the intimate\nrelationship which is often found to exist between the superstitions of\ndifferent and even far distant nations.\n\nThis spirit, in his palmy days, was that fairy which attached itself to\nhouses, and the neighbourhood of dwellings and churches (for even sacred\nedifices were not exempted from its influence). In disposition it was\nmischievous and sportive, although it often deigned, during the night,\nto perform many menial offices, and whatsoever building it attached\nitself to prospered. It was apt to take offence, particularly if, as a\nreward, money or clothes were placed for it in that part of the house it\nmost frequented; but it was partial to cream, or some delicately\nprepared eatable, and any housewife who was careful to conciliate the\nspirit by administering to this taste, was certain to be well rewarded.\nAs might be anticipated, it was a favourite character with poets, and\ndescriptions of its propensities and actions abound. Thus, in the\n\"Midsummer Night's Dream\" (Act II, Sc. 1), one of the Fairies is\nrepresented as addressing this spirit, and saying:--\n\n          \"Either I mistake your shape and making quite,\n          Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite\n          Called Robin Goodfellow. Are you not he\n          That frights the maidens of the villagery,\n          Skims milk, and labours in the quern,\n          And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn;\n          And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm;\n          Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?\n          Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,\n          You do their work and they shall have good luck,\n          Are not you he?\n\n  _Puck._           Thou speakest aright,\n          I am that merry wanderer of the night.\n          I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,\n          When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,\n          Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;\n          And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,\n          In very likeness of a roasted crab,\n          And when she drinks against her lips I bob,\n          And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.\n          The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,\n          Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;\n          Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,\n          And _tailor_ cries, and falls into a cough;\n          And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,\n          And waxen in their mirth, and reeze, and swear\n          A merrier hour was never wasted there.\"\n\nMilton, in the \"L'Allegro,\" writes of him in a different office, and--\n\n    \"Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,\n    To earn his cream-bowl duly set,\n    When in one night ere glimpse of morn,\n    His shadowy flail has thrashed the corn,\n    That ten day-lab'rers could not end:\n    Then lies him down the lubber-fiend,\n    And stretched out all the chimney's length,\n    Basks at the fire his hairy strength,\n    And cropfull out of doors he flings,\n    Ere the first cock his matin rings.\"\n\nAnother noted characteristic of this fairy is mentioned in the fine old\nsong of Ben Johnson's:--\n\n    \"When house or hearth doth sluttish lye,\n      I pinch the maidens black and blue;\n    The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,\n      And lay them naked all to view.\n          Twixt sleepe and wake\n          I do them take\n    And on the key-cold floor them throw:\n          If out they cry\n          Then forth I fly,\n    And loudly laugh out, ho! ho! ho!\"\n\nThe hobgoblin is one of the widest-spread forms of fairy belief. In\nEngland it is also termed _Boggard_, _Puck_, _Robin Goodfellow_, and\n_Robin Hood_; it is the _Brownie_ of Scotland; the _Cluricaune_,\n_Luricaune_, _Leprochaune_, &c., of Ireland; the _Kobold_ of Germany;\nthe _Servant_ of Switzerland; the _Nis_ of Denmark and Norway; the\n_Ni\u00e4gruiser_ of the Feroes; the _Tomt-gubbe_, or _Tont_, of Sweden; the\n_Phynnoderee_ of the Isle of Man; the _Monaciello_ of Naples; the\n_Duende_ of Spain; the _Lutin_, or _Gobelin_, of France; and the _Para_\nof Finland appears to have some affinity with it.\n\nThe derivation of some of the principal names of this fairy is also of\ninterest. From the Sclavonic _B\u00f4g_, signifying _God_, come the words\n_boggard_ and _boggart_; the Scottish _Bogle_, a hill-fairy; and\nprobably, also, the words _Bug-bear_ and _Bugaboo_; and from the\nIcelandic _Puki_, an evil spirit, come the English _Puke_, a devil, as\nalso _Puck_; the Friesland _Puk_; the German _Putz_, or _Butz_; the\nDevonshire _Pixie_; the Irish _Pouke_; the Welsh _Pwcca_, and the words\n_big_ and _bug_,--all names of certain varieties of the fairy-belief,\nand having the signification of an evil spirit.\n\nCertain forms of pagan worship would appear to have been perpetuated\nunmodified in Christian countries even to the present time. A remarkable\nand singular illustration of this is found in Ireland.\n\nOff the north-west coast of that kingdom are situated the islands of\nInniskea, containing a population of about 400 human beings. Nominally\nthe inhabitants are Christians, and under Roman Catholic tuition; in\nreality, they observe the ancient forms of Irish clan government, and\nare idolaters, worshipping rocks and stones. Their chief god is a stone\nidol termed _Nee-vougi_, which has been preserved from time immemorial.\nIt is clothed in homespun flannel, which arises from the custom of its\nvotaries offering portions of their dress when addressing it. These\nfragments are sewed upon it by an old woman who has charge of the idol,\nand who officiates as priestess. It is invoked, among other things, to\ndash helpless ships upon the coast, and to calm the sea in order that\nthe fishing may be successful.[30]\n\nThe adoration of rocks and stone pillars is one of the most ancient\nforms of idolatry on record. It probably took its origin from the custom\nof erecting stone pillars as a memorial, and consecrating them as altars\non any extraordinary event or occasion. The earliest mention of this\ncustom is found in Genesis (cxxviii, v. 10):--\n\n\"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took up the stone he had\nput for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the\ntop of it.\n\n\"And he called the name of that place Beth-El ... saying ... this stone\nwhich I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house.\"\n\nStones thus erected as memorials, and consecrated as altars, in the\ncourse of time were considered to be the abode of, or rather to be\nfilled with, the divine power, which had manifested itself there; and\nultimately stone pillars were used as symbols of the Deity. Singularly\nformed rocks and stones were also regarded in a similar light; and\ntraces of this very ancient form of idolatry may be found in all parts\nof the world.\n\nThe \"_animated stones_\" of antiquity, which received divine honours,\nderived their names from Beth-El, as for example, Baithulia, Bethyllia,\nand \u0392\u03b1\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf\u03bb\u03b9\u03b1, signifying consecrated or living stones; and one\nof the modifications of Jupiter, _Jupiter Lapis_ (a stone), was derived\nfrom this form of idolatry, and the most solemn of the Roman oaths was\nthat taken in the name of this god.\n\nNumerous traces of superstition are found scattered throughout England,\nand the countries of Western Europe, which are the lineal, although\ndegenerated descendants of the superstitions of the mythological era of\nthe respective nations, or rather races, dwelling there.\n\nThere are few large towns in Great Britain which do not contain one or\nmore persons who profess to practise astrology, magic, or\ndivination--_wise men_, as they are popularly designated; and the belief\nin charms and omens is far from being eradicated among a large mass of\nthe population, particularly among those who dwell in secluded or\nmountainous districts.\n\nNot unfrequently events happen by which we may gauge the extent to which\nthese superstitions are still entertained. Those who marked the effect\nwhich the appearance of the late comet had on the minds of many in this\ncountry, would perceive that a somewhat powerful feeling of\nsuperstitious dread, on the occurrence of remarkable celestial events,\nremained. The alarm excited among the credulous in England was, however,\nif anything, less marked than that caused in many parts of the\ncontinent[31] and in America.\n\nThree years ago we had an opportunity of witnessing a singular\nexhibition of fear, which was excited in the inhabitants of the most\nimpoverished districts of Leeds, by the prevalence of a brilliant\ndisplay of the aurora borealis. The scene paralleled the descriptions\nrecorded of the effects produced by similar phenomena in the Middle\nAges. The prevailing impression was, that the world was on the point of,\nif not in, the actual process of destruction; and in many the alarm\nbecame extreme, when, during the most magnificent period of the\nphenomena, several of the streamers became of a deep crimson and blue\ntint.\n\nThis display of the aurora extended over a vast extent of country, and a\nsingular example of the feelings with which it was regarded in Spain was\nrecorded at the time in the daily papers.\n\nOn the evening on which it occurred, it so happened that the subject of\nthe homily in one of the churches of Madrid was the destruction of the\nworld, and the day of judgment. At the conclusion of the service, and as\nthe congregation were issuing from the church, the northern heavens were\nglowing with the brilliant and ever-varying light of the aurora.\nStartled by a phenomenon which is of somewhat rare occurrence in Spain,\nthe idea at once occurred that the terrible events upon which the priest\nhad been descanting were about to come to pass; the people rushed back\nto the steps of the altar, and while the aurora continued, the terror\nand confusion beggared all description.\n\nAnother indication of the influence which the superstitions we have\nnamed exercise on the minds of certain classes, is the number of works\non astrology, principally reprints, which have issued from the press\nduring the last eight or nine years.\n\nThis ancient superstition, which is still practised by the Mahomedans,\nChinese, &c., retains a hold upon the minds of many, even now. Its\npractice in this country is, however, most frequently combined with some\nof the minor forms of magic and divination; and those who profess a\nknowledge of these arts chiefly direct them to the ignoble purpose of\ndetecting stolen articles.\n\nIn America, it would seem, from the advertisements which from time to\ntime appear in the newspapers, that this superstition is flourishing\nwith some vigour. We subjoin, in a note, specimens of these\nadvertisements.[32]\n\nThe belief in charms and omens, which was one of the most important of\nthe superstitions of antiquity, is still entertained by the lower orders\nin many counties, and it forms one of the most striking features of the\ncurrent folk-lore.\n\nThe Devonshire peasant will recite the 8th Psalm on three consecutive\ndays, for three weeks, over his child, in order to prevent its being\nattacked with the thrush; and should the disease, notwithstanding this\nprecaution, occur, he either plucks three rushes from a running stream,\npasses them through the mouth of the child, and then casts them into the\nstream, believing that the disease will decrease and disappear as the\nrushes float away; or seizing a duck, he will force it to open wide its\nbill, and then placing it close to the mouth of the child, he hopes to\nsee the affection vanish as the duck inhales the infant's breath.\n\nThe peasantry of Norfolk, Northampton, &c. have, for the prevention of\nepileptic fits, implicit confidence in a ring made from nine sixpences,\nobtained, by gift, from persons of the opposite sex, or from the money\ncontributed at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.\n\nThere is a charm for cramp in the leg which must be familiar to most\npersons. It runs thus:--\n\n    \"The devil is tying a knot in my leg!\n    Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it, I beg!\n    Crosses three we make to ease us,\n    Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus.\"\n\nThis formula, with a little modification, was applicable also to other\nfleeting but painful affections. Coleridge states that when he was at\nthe Blue-coat School there was a charm for one's foot when asleep, which\nran thus:--\n\n    \"Foot, foot, foot! is fast asleep!\n    Thumb, thumb, thumb! in spittle we steep;\n    Crosses three we make to ease us,\" &c.\n\nWe have seen a charm for the toothache, which we believe has now fallen\ninto desuetude, but which, from its singularity, is worthy of\npreservation. It is as follows:--\n\n\"In the name of God: Amen.\n\n\"As Jesus Christ passed through the gates of Jerusalem, he heard one of\nhis disciples weeping and wailing. Jesus saith unto him, Simon Peter,\nwhy weepest and wailest thou? Simon Peter saith unto him: Lord, the pain\nin my tooth is so grievous, I can do nothing. Jesus saith unto him:\nArise, Simon, and the pain in thy tooth shall be eased; and whosoever\nshall keep those words in remembrance or writing shall never be\ntroubled with the pain in the tooth:--\n\n\"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.\"\n\nThe coral and bells which are suspended round the necks of children for\ntheir amusement, were originally used with very different intentions.\n\nThose who professed the occult sciences attributed several very\nwonderful properties to coral, it being regarded by them as a\npreservative against evil spirits, poison, and certain diseases.\n\nThe ringing of bells was also, formerly, considered to be of great\neffect in terrifying and causing evil spirits to fly away. Nor did their\ninfluence cease there; they were esteemed efficacious for the dispersion\nof tempests; or, it would be more correct to say, that a cotemporary\nsuperstition was, that tempests, thunder and lightning, and high winds,\nwere caused by evil spirits, or devils, who in this manner endeavoured\nto wreak their rage on man; hence, in the Golden Legend of Wynken de\nWorde, it is said that \"evil spirytes that ben in the region of th'\nayre, dowt much when they hear the bells rongen, an this is the cause\nwhy the bells ben rongen when it thondreth, and whanne great tempests\nand outrages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked\nspirytes should be abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of\ntempest.\" This superstition probably dates from the period when it\nbecame customary to exorcise, bless, and baptize the bells suspended in\nchurches,--a custom which originated in the tenth century.\n\nThe use of the coral and bells was derived from these superstitions, and\nthey were at first suspended from the neck as an amulet which was\nprotective from the influence of evil spirits.\n\nCertain events are still regarded as omens by the peasantry in many\ndistricts.\n\nIf a magpie cross our path, it is said that we shall prove unlucky,\nunless we immediately cross ourselves; and an old rhyme says of the\nmagpie:--\n\n    \"One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth;\n    Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of a birth.\"\n\nIn Devonshire, if a person sees four magpies, it is regarded as an omen\nof death in his family. If a pigeon is seen sitting on a tree, or comes\ninto the house; or if a swarm of bees alight on a dead tree, or the dead\nbough of a living tree, it forebodes death in the family of the owner.\nIn Derbyshire, if the sun shines through the boughs of the apple-trees\non Christmas day, it is considered as a presage of a good crop the\nensuing year.\n\nOf all the superstitions entertained previous to the advent of Christ,\nnone have, however, been more fully perpetuated among Christian nations\nthan that of spectral apparitions,--the visible appearance of the\ndeities worshipped, or of the disembodied spirits of the dead--_ghosts_.\n\nThis was due not only to the nature of the causes inducing spectral\napparitions (causes which are inseparable from the physical constitution\nof man), but also to the confirmation which the belief was thought to\nreceive from Holy Writ.\n\nThe character of the superstition, as it has been retained down to the\nverge of the present period in our own country, and as it is still\nentertained in many countries, is very similar to that which it bore in\nthe remotest periods of antiquity.\n\nThe deities of those nations who had distinct and defined ideas\nrespecting their gods, are reputed to have appeared from time to time to\ntheir votaries, assuming the form in which they were most commonly\npourtrayed in the temples.\n\nThus the gods which \u00c6neas bore from the destruction of Troy and carried\ninto Crete, appeared to him in that island:\n\n    \"'Twas night, when every creature, void of cares,\n    The common gift of balmy slumbers shares;\n    The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),\n    Those gods whom I from flaming Troy redeem'd,\n    Before me stood, majestically bright,\n    Full in the beams of Ph\u0153be's entering light.\n    Then thus they spoke and eased my troubled mind:\n    'What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,\n    He tells thee here, and sends us to relate.\n    Those powers are we, companions of thy fate,\n    Who from the burning town by thee were brought,\n    Thy fortune follow'd, and thy safety wrought.\n    Through seas and lands, as we thy steps attend,\n    So shall our care thy glorious race befriend.\n    An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain,\n    A town that o'er the conquer'd world shall reign.\n    Thou, mighty walls for mighty nations build;\n    Nor let thy weary mind to labours yield:\n    But change thy seat; for not the Delian god\n    Nor we have given thee Crete for our abode.\n    A land there is, Hesperia call'd of old,\n    (The soil is fruitful, and the natives bold--\n    Th' \u0152otrians held it once), by later fame\n    Now call'd Italia from the leader's name.\n    Iasius there, and Dardanus, were born;\n    From thence we came and thither must return.\n    Rise, and thy sire with these glad tidings greet:\n    Search Italy; for Jove denies thee Crete.'\n    Astonished at their voices and their sight,\n    (Nor were they dreams, but visions of the night;\n    I saw, I knew their faces, and descry'd,\n    In perfect view, their hair with fillets tied),\n    I started from my couch; a clammy sweat\n    On all my limbs, and shivering body, sate.\n    To heaven I lift my hands with pious haste,\n    And sacred incense in the flames I cast.\"[33]\n\nAmong Christian nations visions of this character have also been common;\nand the religious writings of every age of the Church contain numerous\ninstances of apparitions of the Trinity, of our Lord, of the canonized,\nand the powers of evil.\n\nBut the most familiar phase of the ghost-belief is that of the visible\nmanifestation of the spirits of the dead; and probably few, if any,\nraces are without a superstition of this nature.\n\nThe Grecians and Romans believed that the souls of the dead (_manes_)\nroamed about the earth, having power to interfere with the affairs of\nman and inflict evil. The spirits of those who had been virtuous during\nlife were distinguished by the name of _lares_ (under which name we have\nin a previous page alluded to them as tutelary deities) or _manes_; and\nthe spirits of the wicked were termed _larv\u00e6_, or _lemures_, and often\nterrified the good, and haunted the wicked and impious. These ghosts\nwere also deified, and they were known as the _Dii Manes_; and the\nstones erected over the graves in Roman burial-grounds had usually\ninscribed upon them the letters D.M., or D.M.S., that is, _D\u00ees Manibus_,\nor _D\u00ees Manibus Sacrum_,--\"Sacred to the Manes Gods.\" Sacrifices were\noffered to these deities, the offerings being termed _religios\u00e6_, in\ncontradistinction to those offered to the superior gods, which were\ndenominated _sacr\u00e6_; and during the festivals held in honour of the\nghosts (_Lemuria_ or _Lemuralia_), it was customary to burn black beans\nover the graves, and to beat kettles and drums, in order that, by the\nnoxious odour of the former, and the noise of the latter, the ghosts\nmight be frightened away, and no longer terrify their relations.\n\nWe have already given several examples illustrative of the parallelism\nwhich exists between the accounts we possess of the apparitions of\nGrecian and Roman deities, and those manifestations of celestial\npersonages which are recorded to have occurred in more modern times. A\nsimilar resemblance exists between the accounts given of the spectral\nappearance of the spirits of the dead.\n\nIn the Odyssey (B. XI), Ulysses, previous to descending into hell, is\ndescribed as offering \"solemn rites and holy vows\" to the dead:--\n\n    \"When lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts,\n    Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts;\n    Fair, pensive youths, and soft, enamour'd maids;\n    And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades\n    Ghastly with wounds, the form of warriors slain\n    Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train:\n    These and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the ground,\n    And all the dire assembly shriek'd around.\"\n\nA striking illustration of the similarity of ancient and modern\nghost-stories, in all essential points, is contained in the description\ngiven in the \u00c6neis (B. II) of the apparition of the ghost of Hector to\n\u00c6neas, at the destruction of Troy:--\n\n    \"'Twas in the dead of night, when sleep repairs\n    Our bodies worn with toils, our minds with cares,\n    When Hector's ghost before my sight appears:\n    A bloody shroud he seem'd, and bath'd in tears;\n    Such as he was when by Pelides slain,\n    Thessalian coursers dragg'd him o'er the plain;\n    Swoll'n were his feet, as when the thongs were thrust\n    Through the bored holes; his body black with dust;\n    Unlike that Hector, who return'd from toils\n    Of war, triumphant in \u00c6acians' spoils,\n    Or him, who made the fainting Greeks retire,\n    And launch'd against their navy Phrygian fire.\n    His hair and beard stood stiffen'd with his gore,\n    And all the wounds he for his country bore\n    Now streamed afresh, and with new purple ran.\"\n\nAn equally, if not more marked example, is recorded by Pliny, the consul\nat Sura.\n\nA house at Athens was grievously haunted by a spirit, which, during the\nnight, restlessly roamed through the apartments, dragging, apparently, a\nheavy chain after it. Athenodorus, the philosopher, hired the house,\ndetermined to reduce the spirit to order and silence. In the depth of\nthe night, while pursuing his studies, the silence was broken by the\nnoise of rattling chains, which approached the room where he sat.\nPresently, a spectre entered, and beckoned to him, but the philosopher\ntook no notice. The spectre agitated its chains anew, and then he arose\nand, following his ghostly guide, he was led into the court-yard of the\nhouse, to a certain spot, when the spectre vanished. He marked the\nplace, and on the following day caused the ground to be dug up and\nsearched, when beneath it they found the skeleton of a man in chains.\nThe bones were publicly burned, and from that time the spirit ceased to\nhaunt the mansion.\n\nA belief in ghosts was one of the most prominent of the superstitions of\nthe ancient inhabitants of Northern Europe. It was customary with the\nScandinavians, as with the Grecians, to perform certain ceremonies at\nthe tombs of the dead, to propitiate the ghosts, and facilitate their\nentrance into the halls of bliss.\n\nThe ghosts of the departed warriors, after they had entered their airy\nhalls, were supposed to pursue pleasures similar in character to those\nwhich had engaged their attention on earth. They listened to the strains\nof immortal bards; followed the chase over the illimitable fields of\nheaven; visited the scenes of their former glories; and when resting\nwithin their tombs, they would talk of mortal men, and sing the songs of\nother worlds. Airy and unsubstantial as a wreath of mist, they often\nwandered on the surface of the earth. The ghost of a mighty hero,\nclothed in a panoply of lurid clouds, and armed with a meteor, might be\nseen brooding o'er his tomb, or attended \"by a ridge of formless\nshades,\" it swept across former battle-fields. The men of bygone days,\nwreathed in their vapoury robes, and reposing on clouds, hovered on the\nmidnight blast, which bore in its mighty cadences the echoing sounds of\nthe voices of the dead; or \"like the new moon seen through the gathered\nmist, when the sky pours down its flaky snow, and the world is silent\nand dark,\"[34] the spirits of the maidens glided over the rugged hills,\nor roamed on the pebbly shore.\n\nThe early Scandinavian traditions and historical writings, are pregnant\nwith ghosts and other supernatural agents. Mr. Howitt[35] quotes from\none of the Eddaic songs, which records the lives of a hero named Helge\nand his wife Sigrun, the following singularly interesting scene.\n\nHelge died, and the body was laid in its cairn. In the evening Sigrun's\nmaid passed the cairn, and saw the ghost of Helge ride into it with a\nnumerous train. Addressing the ghost, the maid said, \"Is it an illusion\nthat I see, or the Eve of the Mighty, that ye ride your horses and urge\nthem with your spurs? Or are the heroes bound for their homes?\" The\nghost replied, \"It is no illusion which thou seest, nor the Eve of the\nMighty; though thou seest us, and we urge our horses with our spurs;\nneither are the heroes bound for their homes.\"\n\nThe maid then went to her mistress and said, \"Haste thee, Sigrun, from\nthe hill of Seva, if the leader of the battle thou desirest to see. Open\nis the cairn; Helge is come; the war-scars bleed. Helge bade thee to\nstill his dripping wound.\" Sigrun went to the cairn, and entering it,\nsaid to the shade of her dead husband, \"Now am I as joyful of our\nmeeting as Odin's ravens when, long-fasting, they scent the warm food,\nor the day-wearied when they behold the close of day. I will kiss my\nlifeless king before thou throwest off thy bloody cuirass. Thy hair, O\nHelge! is pierced through with frost, or with the dew of death is the\nhero slain. Cold are the hands of the friend of H\u00f6gne. How, therefore,\nKing, shall I find a cure for thee?\"--\"Thou only, Sigrun! on the hill of\nSeva,\" replied the ghost, \"art the cause that Helge is here, slain by\nthe dew of sorrow. Thou weepest, gold-adorned one! burning tears, maid\nof the sun-glowing south! Before thou sleepest, every tear shall fall\nbloody on the breast of the Prince, pierced through with the cold of thy\ngrief. But we will drink the precious mead together, though we have lost\ngladness and lands. Yet no one sings a song of woe, though he sees a\nwound in my breast. Now are the brides closed in the cairns, and the\nprincely maidens are laid beside us.\"\n\nSigrun made a bed in the cairn, and said, \"Here have I, Helge, prepared\nrest for thee; rest free from all trouble. Son of the Ylfinga! I will\nsleep in thy arms as formerly, when my hero lived.\" The ghost answered,\n\"No longer will I say that thou art unfaithful on the hill of Seva.\nSince thou sleepest in the embrace of the dead in the cairn, thou fair\ndaughter of H\u00f6gur! And yet thou livest, offspring of kings! Time is to\nride the red ways. Let the pale steed tramp the steeps of the air. In\nthe west must we be, by the bridge Vindhjalen, ere the cock in Walhalla\nwakes the sons of victory.\"\n\nIn the Eyrbyggja Saga (written before A.D. 1264; period when the events\nrecorded occurred, A.D. 883) is an account of certain spectral\napparitions which followed the death of a lady whose commands upon the\ndeath-bed had not been obeyed. This story is almost unique in character,\nand it is a singularly interesting example of the ghost-belief of\nIceland at an early period.\n\nOn the evening of the day when the corpse was being removed to a distant\nplace of sepulture, an apparition of the lady was seen busily preparing\nvictuals in the kitchen of the house where the bearers reposed for the\nnight. On the night when the conductors of the funeral returned home, a\nspectral appearance resembling a half-moon glided around the boarded\nwalls of the mansion, in a direction opposite to that of the sun, and\ncontinued its revolutions until the domestics retired to rest. \"This\napparition was renewed every night during the whole week, and was\npronounced by Thorer with the wooden leg to presage pestilence and\nmortality.\" Shortly after, a herdsman showed signs of being persecuted\nby demons, and one morning he was found dead in bed, \"and then\" (to\nquote literally from Sir Walter Scott's abstract of the Saga) \"commenced\na scene of ghost-seeing unheard of in the annals of superstition. The\nfirst victim was Thorer, who had presaged the calamity. Going out of\ndoors one evening, he was grappled by the spectre of the deceased\nshepherd as he attempted to re-enter the house. His wooden leg stood him\nin poor stead in such an encounter; he was hurled to the earth and so\nfearfully beaten that he died in consequence of the bruises. Thorer was\nno sooner dead than his ghost associated itself to that of the herdsman,\nand joined him in pursuing and assaulting the inhabitants of Froda.\nMeantime an infectious disorder spread fast amongst them, and several of\nthe bondsmen died one after the other. Strange portents were seen\nwithin doors, the meal was displaced and mingled, and the dried fish\nflung about in a most alarming manner, without any visible agent. At\nlength, while the servants were forming their evening circle around the\nfire, a spectre resembling the head of a seal-fish was seen to emerge\nout of the pavement of the room, bending its round black eyes full on\nthe tapestried bed-curtains of Thorgunna (the deceased lady). Some of\nthe domestics ventured to strike at the figure; but, far from giving\nway, it rather erected itself further from the floor, until Kiartan, who\nseemed to have a natural predominance over these supernatural prodigies,\nseizing a huge forge-hammer, struck the seal repeatedly on the head, and\ncompelled it to disappear, forcing it down into the floor, as if he had\ndriven a stake into the earth. This prodigy was found to intimate a new\ncalamity. Thorodd, the master of the family, had some time before set\nforth on a voyage to bring home a cargo of dried fish; but, in crossing\nthe river Enna, the skiff was lost, and he perished with the servants\nwho attended him. A solemn funeral feast was held at Froda, in memory of\nthe deceased, when, to the astonishment of the guests, the apparition of\nThorodd and his followers seemed to enter the apartment dripping with\nwater. Yet this vision excited less horror than might have been\nexpected; for the islanders, though nominally Christians, retained,\namong other superstitions, a belief that the spectres of such drowned\npersons as had been favourably received by the goddess Rana were wont to\nshow themselves at their funeral feast. They saw, therefore, with some\ncomposure, Thorodd and his dripping attendants plant themselves by the\nfire, from which all mortal guests retreated to make room for them. It\nwas supposed this apparition would not be renewed after the conclusion\nof the festival. But so far were their hopes disappointed, that, so soon\nas the mourning guests had departed, the fires being lighted, Thorodd\nand his comrades marched in on one side, drenched as before with water;\non the other entered Thorer, heading all those who had died in the\npestilence, and who appeared covered with dust. Both parties seized the\nseats by the fire, while the half-frozen and terrified domestics spent\nthe night without either light or warmth. The same phenomenon took place\nthe next night, though the fires had been lighted in a separate house,\nand at length Kiartan was obliged to compound matters with the spectres\nby kindling a large fire for them in the principal apartment, and one\nfor the family and domestics in a separate hut. This prodigy continued\nduring the whole feast of Jol. Other portents also happened to appal\nthis devoted family; the contagious disease again broke forth, and when\nany one fell a sacrifice to it, his spectre was sure to join the troop\nof persecutors, who had now almost full possession of the mansion of\nFroda. Thorgrima Galldrakinna, wife of Thorer, was one of these victims;\nand, in short, of thirty servants belonging to the household, eighteen\ndied, and five fled for fear of the apparitions, so that only seven\nremained in the service of Kiartan.\"\n\nThe trouble and annoyance from the spectres had now reached so serious a\npitch that, by the advice of a maternal uncle, Kiartan instituted\njudicial measures against the spectres.\n\n\"A tribunal being then constituted, with the usual legal solemnities, a\ncharge was preferred by Kiartan against Thorer with the wooden leg, by\nThordo Kausa against Thorodd, and by others chosen as accusers against\nthe individual spectres present, accusing them of molesting the mansion,\nand introducing death and disease among its inhabitants. All the solemn\nrites of judicial procedure were observed on this singular occasion;\nevidence was adduced, charges given, and the cause formally decided. It\ndoes not appear that the ghosts put themselves on their defence, so that\nsentence of ejectment was pronounced against them individually in due\nand legal form. When Thorer heard the judgment, he arose, and saying,\n'I have sat while it was lawful for me to do so,' left the apartment by\nthe door opposite to that at which the judicial assembly was\nconstituted. Each of the spectres, as they heard their individual\nsentence, left the place, saying something which indicated their\nunwillingness to depart, until Thorodd himself was solemnly appointed to\ndepart. 'We have here no longer,' said he, 'a peaceful dwelling,\ntherefore will we remove.' Kiartan then entered the hall with his\nfollowers, and the priest, with holy water, and celebration of a solemn\nmass, completed the conquest over the goblins, which had been commenced\nby the power and authority of the Icelandic law.\"\n\nThe spectral phenomena of the ancient Swedish folk-lore differs in no\nrespect from the current histories of recent date. An interesting\nexample of this is found in the beautiful ballad of Sir Ulf and Lady\nS\u00f6lfverlind.\n\nSir Ulf was a nobleman who had married a wife from a foreign country.\nAfter they had lived together eight years, and had had a family of three\nchildren, the Lady S\u00f6lfverlind died. In a short time he married again,\nand by his second wife, the Lady Stineborg, he had also several\nchildren. This lady, however, proved a cruel step-mother; for, as the\nballad reads:--\n\n    \"Lady Stineborg's children went out to play,\n    Lady S\u00f6lfverlind's children sate weeping all day.\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    The youngest child it wept so loud,\n    That it woke its mother beneath the sod.\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    Lady S\u00f6lfverlind spoke to the angel-band:\n    'Is it granted to visit the earthly land?'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'It is granted from heaven to earth to go,\n    But thou must return ere the first cock crow.'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    She came to the door, she tirled at the pin;\n    'Rise up, my children, and let me in.'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'On sticks and stones why lie you thus?'\n    'Nothing besides is given to us.'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'Why look ye, my children, so grim and so grey?'\n    'We have not been washed since thou went away.'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'Rise up, Lady Stineborg, hearken to me,\n    For I have a few words to speak unto thee!'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'I left behind me both upland and low,\n    Yet now my children must supperless go.'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'I left behind me both oxen and kine,\n    Yet now they go barefoot, these children of mine.'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'I left soft down pillows, full many a one,\n    Now hard sticks and stones are the bed they lie on!'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'Hadst thou to my children shown tenderness sweet,\n    God the Father in heaven had found thee a seat!'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    'Have thy children in me a hard step-mother known?\n    Henceforth will I love them as well as my own!'\n                This know we of Ulf.\n\n    There ne'er was a lovelier sight in the sky,\n    Than S\u00f6lfverlind taking her children on high.\n                This know we of Ulf.\"[36]\n\nThe ghost-belief of Hindostan is one of the most important of the\npopular superstitions of that country. It differs from that of more\nwesterly countries in the degree of reality with which the natives have\ninvested it; for while the former look upon the interference of the\nspirits of the dead in the events of ordinary life as a circumstance of\nrare occurrence, and regard manifestations of this nature with an awe\nbefitting their solemnity and supernatural character, the latter lives\nin an atmosphere of spectral beings, which are the spirits of those who\nhave lived a wicked life on earth, and retain their malignant\ndisposition unabated after death, if indeed it is not increased in\nintensity by the devil-like nature they assume, and exercise their evil\npowers in all the affairs of life, haunting the localities which they\npreviously inhabited, and terrifying and tormenting alike friend and\nfoe. Neither are their terrors confined to mere occasional apparition,\nand to the fear excited by this, but to the power which they possess of\ninterference by physical force; for they belabour with blows, or\ngrievously affect with bodily ailments, the unhappy individuals whom\nthey haunt, and often subject to inexpressible tortures those who have\nhad the ill-hap to offend them. Hence the Hindoo dreads a ghost not so\nmuch on account of its supernatural character, abstractedly considered,\nas for the physical evil it may inflict upon him.\n\nThe ghosts of the wicked, and of the unmarried (as it is thought in some\nprovinces), are alone permitted to wander on earth, and they have a\npartiality, like our own ghosts, for frequenting solitary places, woods,\ncaverns, and ruins, from which they issue to exercise their baleful\npowers on man.\n\nSometimes a ghost will haunt a certain house, or a plot of ground, and\nbecome so obstreperous, that the occupier of the house is obliged to\ndesert it, and the proprietor of the land to allow it to become waste.\nBut it has happened that if the spirit was that of an old proprietor, a\ndeed executed in its name has appeased it, and it has no more troubled\nthe place.\n\nThese spirits are called, in the Deccan, _V\u00eerikas_, and in the more\nsoutherly parts of India, _Pais\u00e2chi_. It is customary to erect small\nshrines to them, formed of a pile of stones, on the top of which is a\nsheltered cavity, containing an image, or a rough, shapeless stone, to\nwhich offerings of cloth, rice, &c., are presented from time to time.\nThis propitiatory sacrifice is, in general, found to be an efficient\nmethod of obtaining immunity from the malignant pranks of the ghosts;\nbut if it be neglected, they will visit the unfortunate sinner with\ntorments and misfortune, or, appearing to him by night, intimate the\nmiseries hanging over his head, unless he quickly amends himself, and\noffers up the necessary gifts.\n\nDr. Buchanan relates a story of the apparition of a _Pais\u00e2chi_ which\noccurred during his journey in Mysore. His cook had been taken ill, and\ndied; orders had been given to secure his effects for the benefit of his\nwife and children, \"but on inspection, after his death, no money could\nbe found. Whether he had been plundered as soon as he became insensible,\nand that a guilty conscience occasioned fears among his companions, or\nwhether the sudden manner of his death occasioned suspicions, I cannot\nsay; but it was immediately believed that he would become a _Pais\u00e2chi_,\nand all my people were filled with terror. The butler imagined that the\n_Pais\u00e2chi_ appeared to him at night with a black silk handkerchief tied\nround its head, and gave him instructions to take all the effects of the\ndeceased to his family; upon this, the latter, being a man of courage,\nput his shoes on the right side of the door, which he considered to be a\nsure preventive against such intruders. Next night a cattle-driver,\nlying in all the agonies of nocturnal terror, saw the appearance of a\ndog enter, and smell round the place where the man had died; when, to\nhis utter dismay, the spectre gradually grew larger and larger, and at\nlength, having assumed the form of the cook, vanished with a shriek. The\npoor man had not the courage to use the slippers, but lay till morning\nin a kind of stupor. After this, even the minds of the _sepoys_ were\nappalled, and when I happened to be awake I heard the sentries, by way\nof keeping up their courage, singing with a tremulous voice.\"\n\nThere is a class of men called _Cani_, or _Shaycana_, who are supposed\nto have the power of ejecting and frightening away troublesome spirits\nby the performance of certain mystic ceremonies. It is requisite, first,\nto ascertain whether the offending ghost is that of a stranger, or if it\nbelong to any deceased member of the family; for it would seem that much\nmore powerful incantations are required to get rid of a family ghost,\nwhich seems to have the opinion that it has a right to haunt its\nrelations in the flesh, than to eject the ghost of a stranger. The\nlatter, according to Dr. Buchanan, may be got rid of for a fanam, or\nabout ninepence sterling; the former requires expensive sacrifices and\nmany prayers, therefore the fee is much larger.\n\nThe Chinese have a great dread of ghosts, particularly of the ghosts of\nthose who have come to an untimely end. They suspend in their houses,\nfor the purpose of preventing the entrance of these spirits, and of\ndefending themselves from their influence, a cruciform piece of iron, to\nwhich is attached pieces of perforated money, the coinage of emperors\nwho have been deified, and who are conceived to exercise a protective\npower over their votaries.\n\nThe superstitions of the modern Egyptians and of the Arabs are rich in\nghosts.\n\nThe term _\u00e9freet_ is applied to the ghosts of dead persons, as well as\nto evil genii, by the Egyptians; and the following story, related by Mr.\nLane, will illustrate the nature of this superstition as it is\nentertained by that people.\n\n\"I had once a humorous cook, who was somewhat addicted to the\nintoxicating hhasheesh: soon after he had entered my service, I heard\nhim, one evening, muttering and exclaiming on the stairs, as if in\nsurprise at some event; and then politely saying, \"But why are you\nsitting here in the draught? Do me the favour to come up into the\nkitchen, and amuse me with your conversation a little.\" The civil\naddress not being answered, was repeated and varied several times, till\nI called out to the man, and asked him to whom he was speaking. \"The\n\u00e9freet of a Turkish soldier,\" he replied, \"is sitting on the stairs,\nsmoking his pipe, and refuses to move; he came up from the well below:\npray step and see him.\" On my going to the stairs, and telling the\nservant that I could see nothing, he only remarked that it was because I\nhad a clear conscience. He was told afterwards that the house had long\nbeen haunted; but asserted that he had not been previously informed of\nthe supposed cause; which was the fact of a Turkish soldier having been\nmurdered there. My cook professed to see this \u00e9freet frequently\nafter.\"[37]\n\nThe Arabs entertain a considerable degree of fear and respect for\nghosts.\n\nMr. Bayle St. John states that when travelling through the Libyan\ndesert, in 1847, he saw a burial-place of the Bedouin Arabs, in the\ncentre of which were confusedly scattered \"camel-howdahs\"\n(_tachterwans_), stirrups, household utensils, small ploughs, &c.,\nwhich had been left there by the Arabs, when commencing a journey, under\nthe care of the ghost of a defunct sheikh, who had been interred\nthere.[38]\n\nSome of the aboriginal tribes of South America believe in the occasional\napparition of the souls of the dead.\n\nSoon after the Roman Catholic mission was established at Bahia, an\neclipse of the moon occurred; the savages, fully armed, rushed in terror\nto the mission, and when the priest inquired the cause of their alarm,\nthey responded that the moon was the abode of the souls of the dead, and\nthat on that night they had collected there in such numbers that they\ndarkened its surface: this was a sure sign of evil.\n\nSuch is a brief sketch of the ghost-belief of several nations, ancient\nand modern.\n\nThis belief, in its essential characteristics, was the same in the\nremote periods of antiquity as in more recent times; and a similar\nanalogy exists between the modifications of it which are now entertained\nin different and widely separated countries.\n\nThe variations which it is found to possess are dependent upon those\npeculiarities of habit, religion, and social life which characterize\neach nation. This fact gives an important clue by which we may unravel\nthe actual nature of the phenomena which are embodied in the belief. But\npreviously to entering upon this task it is requisite to point out a\nremote consequence of mythological and legendary lore which exercises a\nhighly important influence on the minds of most if not all persons at\nthe present time.\n\nThe numerous myths which were retained, the implicit faith reposed in\nthem, and the great extent to which the practice of the occult sciences\nwas carried in the Middle Ages, fostered ideas respecting the influence\nwhich supernatural beings exercised in the ordinary affairs of life,\nwhich rivalled in extent and variety those entertained before the\nChristian era; but they received perhaps a more gloomy character from\nthe doctrine of the agency of devils.\n\nThe prevalence of these superstitions throws a wild and weird-like\nshadow over the history of those periods, and one of the chief results\nwas that the records of local and general events became pregnant with\nmysterious occurrences and supernatural interpositions; and a mass of\nlegends, teeming with remnants of ancient myths, more or less modified,\ngiants, demons, witches, wizards, ghosts, portents, &c., have been\nperpetuated to modern times, and have formed an inexhaustible mine to\nthe novelist and romance-writer.\n\nThere are few localities in England which do not possess legends or\ntradition of this nature; and the standard nursery and children's tales\nare full of supernatural personages and occurrences in which are set\naside all the known laws of matter and force, and time and space are\nalike annihilated. Many of these tales are of great interest, for in\nthem we find degenerated forms of some of the most ancient traditions\nand myths of our own and other races.\n\nThe adventures of _Jack the Giant-Killer_, the most celebrated of all\ncelebrated nursery heroes, are for the most part derived from the\nfabulous era of our own country, and from Scandinavian mythology; and\nthe whole tale is a degraded and vitiated tradition in which the deeds\nof Corineus, a celebrated personage in the mythical history of Britain,\nand Prince Arthur; the adventures of Thor, the god of thunder, and other\nScandinavian deities, are jumbled together in strange confusion.\n\nGeoffrey of Monmouth, in his British History[39] states that the early\ninhabitants of this island were giants. Brutus, a grandson of Ascanius,\nthe companion of \u00c6neas in his flight from Troy, and Corineus, also of\nTrojan descent, guided by a dream, discovered Britain, and delighted\nwith \"the pleasant situation of the place, the plenty of rivers\nabounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods,\" they\nbecame desirous of fixing their habitation in so desirable a country,\nand landing, drove the giants into the fastnesses of the mountains, and\ndivided the country.\n\nTo Corineus was apportioned that part of the island which we call\nCornwall, and it is recorded that he had selected this portion of the\nisland for his share, because \"it was a diversion to him to encounter\nthe said giants, which were in greater numbers there than in all the\nother provinces that fell to the share of his companions.\"\n\nCorineus is described as being \"an ardent man in matters of council, and\nof great courage and boldness; who in an encounter with any person, even\nof gigantic stature, would immediately overthrow him as if he were a\nchild.\"\n\nIn the same fabulous history (B. X, ch. 3) it is stated, that a giant\nwho had invaded our shores, and taken refuge at the top of St. Michael's\nMount, was attacked by King Arthur in the night and killed; the country\nbeing thus freed \"from a most destructive and voracious monster.\"\n\nSome of Jack's principal adventures are derived from the ancient Eddas\nand Sagas of Scandinavia.\n\nThe incident which represents Jack as having overheard a giant, upon\nwhose hospitality he had intruded, muttering--\n\n    \"Though you lodge with me this night,\n    You shall not see the morning light;\n    My club shall dash your brains out quite;\"\n\nand in which he had evaded the catastrophe by placing a log of wood in\nthe bed, he lying quietly in a corner, while the giant furiously beat\nwith his club the inanimate object, thinking to dash him to pieces; and\nthe delightfully cool response of Jack to the wonder-struck giant when\nhe beheld him safe and sound in the morning, and inquired if he had not\nbeen disturbed in the night,--\"No, nothing worth mentioning, I believe a\nrat struck me with his tail two or three times:\"--this incident is a\nmodification of an adventure which occurred to Thor on his journey to\nthe land of giants, and it is found in some form or other in the\nfolk-lore of every nation in the north of Europe.\n\nThor, while journeying to the land of giants, met with one of that race\nnamed Skrymir. They formed a companionship, and the whole of the\nprovisions were placed in the giant's wallet. At night, when they\nstopped to rest, Skrymir at once lay down and fell asleep, previously\nhanding the wallet to Thor in order that he might refresh himself. Thor\nwas unable to open it, and wroth with the giant for his apparent\ninsensibility and the mode in which he had tied the knots, he seized his\nmighty hammer and flung it at the giant's head. Skrymir awaking, asked\nwhether a leaf had fallen on his head, and then he fell asleep again.\nThor again struck him with his hammer, and it apparently sank deep into\nhis skull; and the giant again awoke, and asked, \"Did an acorn fall on\nmy head? How fares it with thee, Thor?\" Thor, incensed beyond measure,\nwaited until the giant again slept, and then exerting all his power,\ndashed his hammer at the head of the sleeping monster, into which it\nsank up to the handle. Skrymir, rising up, rubbed his cheek and said,\n\"Are there any birds perched on this tree? Methought, when I awoke, some\nmoss from the branches fell on my head.\"\n\nSkrymir, distrusting Thor, had before he slept interposed a huge rock\nbetwixt himself and the god, and upon this Thor had unwittingly\nexercised his strength.\n\nThe adventure in which Jack is represented as outwitting a giant in\neating, by placing his food in a large leathern receptacle beneath his\nvesture, and then ripping it up, and defying the giant to do the same,\nwhereupon the giant seizes a knife, plunges it into his breast and\nkills himself, is contained also in stories which are prevalent among\nthe Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Servians, and Persians.\n\nThe Swedish version is as follows:--\"In the evening, when the giant and\nhis boy were about to sup, the crone placed a large dish of porridge\nbefore them. \"That would be excellent,\" said the boy, \"if we were to try\nwhich could eat the most, father or I.\" The giant was ready for the\ntrial, and they began to eat with all their might. But the boy was\ncrafty: he had tied his wallet before his chest, and for every spoonful\nthat entered his mouth, he let two fall into the wallet. When the giant\nhad despatched seven bowls of porridge, he had taken his fill, and sat\npuffing and blowing, and unable to swallow another spoonful; but the boy\ncontinued with just as much good-will as when he began. The giant asked\nhim how it was, that he who was so little could eat so much. \"Father, I\nwill soon show you: when I have eaten as much as I can contain, I slit\nup my stomach, and then I can take in as much again.\" Saying these\nwords, he took a knife and ripped up the wallet, so that the porridge\nran out. The giant thought this a capital plan, and that he would do the\nlike. But when he stuck the knife in his stomach, the blood began to\nflow, and the end of the matter was that it proved his death.\"[40]\n\nThe sword of sharpness, and the cloak which rendered the wearer\ninvisible, and by the aid of which Jack won so many important victories,\nare two of the principal supernatural elements in the _Nibelungenlied_.\nIn this ancient legend, which contains the same tragical story as the\nstill more ancient Scandinavian poem, the _V\u00f6lundar-Kvida_, the sword\n\"Balmurg\" is described:--\n\n                    \"a broad and mighty blade,\n    With such keen-cutting edges, that straight its way it made,\n    Where'er it smote on helmet:\"\n\nand the cloud-cloak which Siegfried took from the dwarf Albric, is\npourtrayed as--\n\n    \"A vesture that hight cloud-cloak, marvellous to tell,\n    Whoever has it on him, may keep him safe and well\n    From cuts and stabs of foemen; him none can hear or see,\n    As soon as he is in it, but see and hear can he\n    Whate'er he will around him, and thus must needs prevail;\n    He grows besides far stronger; so goes the wondrous tale.\"[41]\n\nThe story of _Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper_, is of great antiquity,\nand versions of it are found in many countries.\n\n\u00c6lian, who lived about A.D. 225, relates that, as Rhodope, a celebrated\nGreek courtezan, who had been carried into Egypt, was bathing one day,\nan eagle carried off one of her slippers, and as it flew over Memphis,\nwhere king Psammetichus was at that time sitting in tribunal, it let\nfall the sandal into his bosom. Astonished at the occurrence, and at the\nsmallness of the sandal, he caused inquiries to be made for its owner,\nwhom, when he had discovered, he married.\n\nOld versions of this story are found in Norway, Germany, Sweden,\nDenmark, France, Italy, Wallachia, Servia, Russia, Poland, and\nWales.[42]\n\nIn _Jack and the Bean-stalk_, the bean is evidently a version of the ash\nYgdrasil of the Edda, reaching from hell to heaven; and the golden hen,\nharp, &c., are familiar features in northern stories.\n\n_Puss in Boots_, the _Seven-league Boots_, &c., have their prototypes in\nScandinavian folk-lore; and the two last-mentioned tales, as well as\nothers, are probably of considerable antiquity.\n\nTales derived from these sources and composed of such elements, and\nfables in which beasts, birds, and fishes are represented as speaking\nand reasoning in a manner that puts man to the blush, are among the\nearliest things engrafted in the infant mind; and ever now\n\n                  \"By night\n    The village-matron round the blazing hearth,\n    Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,\n    Breathing astonishment--of witching rhymes,\n    Of evil spirits: of the death-bed call\n    Of him who robb'd the widow, and devoured\n    The orphan's portion: of unquiet souls\n    Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt\n    Of deeds in life concealed; of shapes that walk\n    At dead of night, and clank their chains and wave\n    The torch of hell around the murderer's bed.\n    At every solemn pause the crowd recoil,\n    Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd\n    With shiv'ring sighs; till eager for the event,\n    Around the beldam all erect they hang,\n    Each trembling heart with grateful terror quell'd.\"\n\nIdeas of mysterious and supernatural powers, vague, undefined, and\nfrightful, are thus instilled into the child, and influence it unchecked\nand uncontrolled by the Scriptural doctrines of the invisible which are\ntaught to it. At first the two trains of thought derived from these\nantithetical sources go on separately and distinctly; the more frightful\nand wonderful events of legendary lore and fable having a much greater\ninfluence, and forming a deeper impression on the mind of the child,\nwhose reasoning powers are still in abeyance to the emotions, than the\nScriptural doctrines of the supernatural. As it advances in years these\ntrains of thought insensibly blend; the more rampant absurdities of the\nsupernatural framework of legendary and ghost-lore are discarded; but\nthe less obvious and more insidious portions remain to a greater or\nless extent, and they are so graven in the mind, that they become part\nand parcel of it, and in whatever manner they may be subsequently\nmodified in form, it is probable that they are never eradicated, but\nform a medium which gives a false and deceptive gloss to all our ideas\nupon those matters which are not immediately within the ken of reason,\nor which are more clearly attributable to other agency than the forces\nof the material word--such matters, for example, as are contained in\nHoly Writ.\n\nHence our ideas of the supernatural are derived from two sources--from\nlegendary lore and from Scripture; and this results, that although in\nafter-life the more glaring errors and absurdities of the former are\nremoved, those only being retained which are thought to be compatible\nwith Holy Writ, yet the idea of the supernatural thus obtained, foreign\nfrom revelation, is retained in a vague and undefined form, and its\norigin and sources being lost sight of, it is regarded as an innate\nconsciousness of the existence of supernatural beings, and prompts to\nthe ready reception and belief of mysterious and not readily explicable\nphenomena being the result of supernatural agency.\n\nThat proclivity to the belief in supernatural interpositions, that vague\nnotion of spiritual beings, that so-called innate consciousness of the\nexistence of the supernatural, which most persons possess more or less\nof, and which is totally inconsistent with the clear and perfect\ndoctrine of the invisible taught in the Gospel, is, we believe, derived\nsolely from the infant mind and earlier periods of youth being poisoned\nby the supernatural events and phenomena detailed in fabulous,\nlegendary, and ghost-lore.[43]\n\nThis substratum of superstition is the prime cause of the retention of\nthose figments of degenerated and christianized mythology which are yet\nfound among us, and for the persistence of the most generally received\nof these figments--_ghosts_. It is also a highly important element in\nthe formation of that state of the mind which is from time to time\nmanifested in singular and wide-spreading delusions respecting the\ncommunication of the spirit-world with man, and of which we have\nexamples before us at the present time in the prevalent follies of\n\"spirit-rapping\" and \"table-talking.\"\n\nThe belief in ghosts does not now possess those glaring features which\nwere attached to it at the commencement of the present century, hence it\nis less obtrusive; but it is very far from being extinguished, as some\nwould teach, and its \"etiology\" is of interest, because it leads to the\nelucidation of the principal causes and sources of the fallacies to\nwhich the senses of man are subject, and by which he has been led in\nthe remotest periods of antiquity, as well as at the present time, to\nframe those mighty trammels of superstition from which the mind in vain\nstrives to disentangle itself completely.\n\nThe doctrine that the spirits of the dead return to visit the scenes\nwhich were dear to them during the body's existence, is in itself\nawfully solemn and sublime. Man, prone to believe in supernatural\ninterpositions (from causes already explained), and trusting altogether\nto the evidence of his senses, for many ages received this doctrine\nunquestioned; and aided by a fertile imagination, he clothed it with\nattributes which, although absurd in the main, yet as appealing to some\nof the deepest and warmest affections and passions of our nature, cannot\neven now be contemplated without exciting sensations of awe, if not\nfear.\n\nThe thought that the spirits of those who, during life, were bound\nto us by the closest ties of affection, are ever near, scrutinizing\nour actions and thoughts, and prompting us ever and anon to that\ncourse which would most tend to our profit here and our joy\nhereafter[44]--shielding us, like guardian angels, from the wiles\nof those wandering spirits who, like the \"Wicked One\" that came\nsoftly up to Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and\n\"whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he\nverily thought had proceeded from his own mind,\"[45] seek to tempt\nus to destruction,--such a thought thrills through the soul of every\none, and fills it with strange and undefined emotions of blended joy\nand fear.\n\nFew can free themselves altogether from the emotion of terror which is\nalmost necessarily connected with scenes polluted by murder, or by other\noutbreaks of man's foulest passions. This feeling acting on the minds\nof the superstitious and ignorant, has led them to people with spectres\nall those places which have obtained notoriety from being the scene of\nsome terrible ebullition of human frailty and wickedness.\n\nThus, the glen where murder had been committed; the pond in which the\nmother had immersed her new-born infant; the hoary ruin pregnant with\nhorrid legends of the past; the rocks over which the inebriated drunkard\nfell; the four cross roads where the suicide was impaled; the dwelling\nof the miser, or of him who did unjustly to the orphan; and the\nwillow-banks of the still-flowing river into which the love-lorn maiden\nhad cast herself,--each had its spectre, and at the midnight hour the\nghost of the murdered bared to the moon the mementos of its foul and\nmost unnatural end; the spectre of the murderer, writhing in agony,\nrattled its gibbet-chains; the suffocating sobs of the drowning infant\nwere borne on the fitful breeze; hideous spectres hovered o'er the\ndeserted ruin; the ghost of the miser guarded its quondam treasures; the\ncruel guardian and the suicide shrieked forth the agonies of the damned;\nand the phantom of the deceived maiden gliding on the banks of her\nwatery grave, mingled its plaintive wails with each sough of the\nmidnight wind.\n\nBut, alas! this prolific source of terror and romance must be consigned\nto the delusions of the past; and the churchyard--erst pregnant with\n\"thin-sheeted phantoms\"--is now also shorn of its gloomy horrors, and\nregarded alone as the last quiet resting-place of man on earth.\n\nEven when glimpses of the spirit-world are vouchsafed to those who still\nfirmly believe in occasional visitations from its inhabitants, it would\nseem that the fashion of their appearance has become more in accordance\nwith the quiet well-regulated ideas of the age. The major part of those\nterrible attributes of the nether world, that of old were delighted in,\nare no longer exhibited, and they are numbered with the things that have\nbeen. The form which appertained to Satan himself--the cloven foot, the\nforked tail, the hirsute frame, and the horned head--must also vanish\nbefore the march of civilisation; hence Mephistopheles, in the \"Faust\"\nof Go\u00ebthe, is represented as saying:--\n\n    \"Refinement too, which smoothens all\n      O'er which it in the world has pass'd,\n    Has been extended in its call,\n      And reached the devil, too, at last.\n    That northern phantom found no more can be,\n    Horns, tail, and claws, we now no longer see,\n      As for the foot--I cannot spare it,\n      But were I openly to wear it,\n      It might do greater harm than good\n      To me among the multitude.\n    And so like many a youth beside,\n      Who bravely to the eye appears,\n    Yet something still contrives to hide,\n      I've worn false calves for many years!\"\n\nThe phenomena upon which the belief of the occasional manifestation of\ndisembodied spirits to man is founded, may be accounted for without\nhaving recourse to the doctrine of supernatural interposition.\n\nOur senses and our reasoning powers are apt to err. We may deceive\nourselves, and are liable to be deceived by an erroneous appreciation of\nthe sensations which we receive from the objects surrounding\nus--_illusions_--but of the nature of which we may readily convince\nourselves.\n\nIllusions of the _sight_ may arise either from an error of judgment, or\nfrom a disordered state of the eye.\n\nOf those illusions arising from an error of judgment, perhaps none bear\ndirectly upon our subject. Examples of this kind of illusion are the\nbroken appearance of a stick partially immersed in water; the apparent\nmovement of trees, houses, &c., past a train in motion, or the banks of\na river past a steamboat.\n\nIllusions arising from a disordered condition of the eye, prompting the\nimagination, are a prolific source of ghost-seeing.\n\nIn the obscurity of the evening, or during the darkness of the night\n(particularly on those nights which are cloudy, and the darkness seems\nto rest on the ground), the difficulty with which we distinguish any\nobject to which the attention is directed, is liable to induce a\ndisordered state of the eye, the effects of which are very startling.\n\n\"The imperfect view which we obtain of such objects forces us to fix the\neye more steadily upon them; but the more exertion we make to ascertain\nwhat they are, the greater difficulties do we encounter to accomplish\nour object. The eye is actually thrown into a state of the most painful\nagitation, the object will swell and contract, and partly disappear, and\nit will again become visible when the eye has recovered from the\ndelirium into which it has been thrown.\"[46]\n\nThis illusion is increased by a disturbed condition of the pupil of the\neye.\n\nThe pupil is surrounded by a muscle called the _iris_, by the\ncontraction and dilatation of which the size of the opening is increased\nor diminished, and a greater or less amount of light admitted to the\neye. On a dark night, or during the twilight, the pupil is dilated to\nits utmost extent, so that every available ray of light may enter. In\nthis condition the eye is not able to accommodate itself to near\nobjects, and they become more indistinct; shadowy, and confused.\n\nUnder these circumstances, an object to which the attention is strongly\nattracted, may appear to assume strange variations in form,--now\nincreasing, now diminishing in size, now approaching nearer, now going\nfurther off, or anon disappearing altogether; and a bush, a guide-post,\na stoop, &c., will seem as though it assumed the most startling changes\nin size and appearance. Add the effects of the imagination, and we shall\nat once perceive a source of the various goblins, boggards, and other\nstrange sights which have been supposed to haunt many of our byeways and\ndeserted places.\n\nTo illustrate this form of illusion: a man with whom we were acquainted\ntells the following tale:--When young, he, one evening, had a quarrel\nwith his mother about some trifling affair, and in defiance of her grief\nand supplications he left home late at night, intending to enter the\narmy. It was very dark and stormy, and as he proceeded along a bye-path,\nsuddenly a tall object arrested his attention; startled, he stood still,\nwhen, to his utter horror and astonishment, the object increased in\nsize, and seemed as though about to pounce upon him; it then vanished,\nand anon appeared again. Terrified beyond measure, and conceiving that\nSatan had waylaid him for forsaking his mother, the poor man fell on\nhis knees, and exclaimed: \"O good Lord Devil, do not take me, and I'll\ngo back to my mother, and be a good lad!\" It is unnecessary to dwell\nupon the goggle eyes burning with flames which he imagined Satan to\npossess; suffice it that he remained before the supposed devil some\ntime, overcome with terror, when a blink of the rising moon showed that\nhe was laid at the foot of the stump of a tree. Heartily ashamed of his\nfear, he rose up, slunk back home, and made peace with his mother.[47]\n\nThis will suffice as an example of the most degraded form of ghost-life\nwith which our highways and byeways have been peopled by the\nsuperstitious and illiterate,--illusions which have arisen from the\neffects of a disturbed condition of the visual organ on an excited\nimagination. Burns humorously describes this variety of ghost in his\n\"Address to the Deil:\"\n\n    \"Ae dreary, windy, winter night,\n    The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light,\n    Wi' you, mysel, I gat a fright,\n              Ayont the lough:\n    Ye like a rash-bush stood in sight\n              Wi' waving sugh.\n\n    \"The cudgel in my nieve did shake,\n    Each bristled hair stood like a stake,\n    When wi' an eldricht stour, quaick--quaick--\n              Amang the springs,\n    Awa ye squatter'd like a drake,\n              On whistling wings.\"\n\nAnother form of illusion is induced by objects seen indistinctly when\nthe mind is disturbed and pre-occupied by some powerful and painful\nemotion.\n\n\"A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening twilight of a\nstormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching over a dying child.\nThe clouds were thick, the rain beginning to fall; darkness was\nincreasing; the wind was moaning mournfully through the trees. The\nlady's heart almost failed her as she saw that she had a mile to walk\nthrough the woods in the gathering gloom. But the reflection of the\nsituation of her friend forbade her turning back. Excited and trembling,\nshe called to her aid a nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She had\nnot proceeded far, when she beheld in the path before her the movement\nof some very indistinct object. It appeared to keep a little distance in\nadvance of her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see what it\nwas, it seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather\nunpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly discernable\nbefore her, and it appeared mysteriously to float along at a regular\ndistance without any effort at motion. Notwithstanding the lady's good\nsense and unusual resolution, a cold chill began to come over her; she\nmade every effort to resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing\nnearer the mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the\nfeatures of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in its shroud. She\ngazed earnestly, and then it remained distinct and clear before her\neyes. She considered it a monition that her friend's child was dead, and\nthat she must hasten on to her aid; but there was the apparition\ndirectly in her path; she must pass it. Taking up a little stick, she\nforced herself along to the object, and behold, some little animal\nscampered away. It was this that her excited imagination had transformed\ninto the corpse of an infant in its winding-sheet.\"[48]\n\nSir Walter Scott relates an interesting case of illusion occasioned by\nan accidental arrangement of some articles of clothing:--\n\n\"Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had filled,\nwhile living, a great station in the eye of the public, a literary\nfriend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged, during\nthe darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of the\npublications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of the\ndistinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had enjoyed\nthe intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he was deeply\ninterested in the publication, which contained some particulars relating\nto himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the apartment who\nwas also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into an\nentrance-hall rather fantastically fitted up with articles of armour,\nskins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his book,\nand passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning to\nshine, that the individual of whom I speak saw, right before him, and in\na standing position, the exact representation of his departed friend,\nwhose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He\nstopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with\nwhich fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of\ndress and posture of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the\ndelusion, he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary\naccuracy of the resemblance, and stepped onwards towards the figure,\nwhich resolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of\nwhich it was composed. These were merely a screen, occupied by\ngreat-coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles as usually are\nfound in a country entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot\nfrom which he had seen the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his\npower, to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this\nwas beyond his capacity; and the person who had witnessed the\napparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the means of\nraising it, had only to return, and tell the young friend he had left,\nunder what a striking hallucination he had for a moment laboured.\"[49]\n\nThe liability to illusion or hallucination in that transitional state of\nthe mind when it reverts to surrounding objects, after it has been\npre-occupied with some absorbing and intense thought, is very strikingly\nshown in the above case. It is very similar to that condition of the\nmind which obtains between sleeping and waking, when it is well known\nthat our dreams are most vivid and brilliant.\n\nDr. Ferriar relates the following interesting case of illusion\noccasioned by a ray of moonlight acting upon the mind of an individual\njust awaking from a horrid dream.\n\n\"A gentleman was benighted while travelling alone in a remote part of\nthe highlands of Scotland, and was compelled to ask shelter for the\nnight at a small lonely hut. When he was conducted to his bedroom, the\nlandlady observed with mysterious reluctance, that he would find the\nwindow very insecure. On examination, part of the wall appeared to have\nbeen broken down to enlarge the opening. After some inquiry, he was\ntold, that a pedlar, who had lodged in the room a short time before, had\ncommitted suicide, and was found hanging behind the door in the morning.\n\n\"According to one of the superstitions of the country, it was deemed\nimproper to remove the body through the door of the house; and to convey\nit through the window was impossible without removing part of the wall.\nSome hints were dropped that the room had been subsequently haunted by\nthe poor man's spirit.\n\n\"My friend laid his arms, properly prepared against intrusion of any\nkind, by the bedside, and retired to rest, not without some degree of\napprehension. He was visited in a dream by a frightful apparition, and\nawaking in agony, found himself sitting up in bed with a pistol grasped\nin his right hand. On casting a fearful glance round the room, he\ndiscovered, by the moonlight, a corpse dressed in a shroud, leaned\nagainst the wall close by the window. With much difficulty he summoned\nup resolution to approach the dismal object, the features of which, and\nthe minutest parts of the funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly. He\npassed one hand over it, felt nothing, and staggered back to the bed.\nAfter a long interval, and much reasoning with himself, he renewed his\ninvestigation, and at length discovered that the object of his terrors\nwas produced by the moonbeams forming a long bright image through the\nbroken window, on which his fancy, impressed by his dream, had produced\nwith mischievous accuracy, the lineaments of a body prepared for\ninterment.\"\n\nThere are some illusions which arise from certain of the laws of action\nof impressions on the _retina_--that tissue of the eye in which the\nchanges necessary to the excitation of the sensation of light by\nluminous rays are induced.\n\nA sensation excited in the retina is not momentary, or during the\ncontinuance of the exciting cause alone, but it persists some seconds\nafter that has been withdrawn. Thus if the end of a burning stick be\nrapidly moved in a circle before the eyes, it gives rise to the\nsensation of an uninterrupted circle of light; the sensation excited on\neach part of the retina enduring for a certain period after the luminous\npoint has passed.\n\nThe following instance is an example of an illusion, having relation to\nour subject, from this cause.\n\nA gentleman had been earnestly regarding a small and very beautiful\npainting of the Virgin and Child. On turning round from the\ncontemplation of it, he was surprised at finding a woman of the full\nsize, with an infant in her arms, standing before him. On examining the\nfigures more closely he, however, found that the woman wanted the lower\nfourth of the body, and this at once led to a correct appreciation of\nthe nature of the phantom. The painting he had been viewing was a\nthree-parts length, and it was the persistence of the image upon the\nretina for a short period after he had turned from it, which had given\nrise to the phantom.\n\nA species of divination is made use of in India which has its origin in\nan illusion of this nature, and of which the following is an interesting\nexample:--\n\nA lady who was about to undertake a long journey, was persuaded by a\nMoonshee to walk on the verandah and consult her fate.\n\n\"It was a clear calm night, the moon was full, and not the faintest\nspeck in the sky disturbed her reign. The Ganges was like a flood of\nsilver light, hastening on in charmed silence; while on the green smooth\nsward on which they walked a tall shrub here and there stood erect and\nmotionless. The young lady, whose impressions were probably deepened by\nthe mystical words of the Moonshee, felt a kind of awe stealing over\nher; she looked round upon the accustomed scene as if in some new and\nstrange world; and when the old man motioned her to stop, as they\nreached an open space on the sward, she obeyed with an indescribable\nthrill.\n\n\"'Look there,' said he, pointing to her shadow, which fell tall and dark\nupon the grass. 'Do you see it?'\n\n\"'Yes,' said she faintly, yet beginning to be ashamed. 'How sharply\ndefined are its edges! It looks like something you could touch!'\n\n\"'But look longer, look better, look steadfastly. Is it still definite?'\n\n\"'A kind of halo begins to gather round it: my eyes dazzle.'\n\n\"'Then raise them to the heavens; fix them on yonder blue sky. What do\nyou see?'\n\n\"'I see it still; but it is as white as mist, and of a gigantic size.'\n\n\"'Has it a head?' asked the Moonshee in an anxious whisper.\n\n\"'Yes, it is complete in all its parts; but now it\nmelts--floats--disappears.'\n\n\"'Thank God!' said the old man: 'your journey shall be prosperous, such\nis the will of Heaven.'\"[50]\n\nWhen a steady gaze is maintained upon an object until the retina is\nexhausted, which is shown by the imperfect vision, or \"dazzling,\" and\nthe eyes are then suddenly directed away from it to an uniformly\ncoloured surface, an image of the object, from the persistence of the\nimpression, as already stated, will still remain for a short period upon\nthe retina; but another phenomenon is also observed, for the exhausted\ncondition of the retina renders it incapable of responding, during its\ncontinuation, to the impression of the original colour of the object,\nand the spectrum appears of a different colour. To this spectral colour\nthe term _complementary_ or _accidental_ is applied; and if the colour\nof the object be red, the complementary colour will be green; if yellow,\ndeep purple; if black, white, &c., and _vice vers\u00e2_. Thus then the\nspectral apparition witnessed in the above relation receives a ready\nand intelligible explanation.\n\nThe sense of _hearing_ is also subject to illusions: for example, when a\ntimid person mistakes the rustling of leaves in a forest for the voices\nof robbers; or the soughing of the wind among the trees, in some place\nof evil repute, for the moaning of a wandering and unhappy spirit.\n\nThe varied and undefined noises often produced by the wind when sweeping\nover an irregular surface, among rocks and trees, on the surface of\nwater, in forests, or secluded and deep glens; and the mysterious sounds\noccasioned by the rushing of the water in the hollows and caverns of a\nrock-bound coast, have been fertile sources of illusion among the\nsuperstitious.\n\nThe ancient Romans listening to the inexplicable sounds which assailed\nthe ear in solitary and wooded places, fabled that they were the voices\nof the wood deities, or as Lucretius beautifully expresses it:--\n\n    \"The neighbouring swains believe, or fondly vaunt,\n    Satyrs and nymphs the rural regions haunt;\n    That fauns with wanton revel and delight\n    Disturb the sober silence of the night:\n    That music's blended notes are heard around,\n    The plaintive voice, and harp's according sound:\n    And well they know when Pan, the sylvan god,\n    (While o'er his brows the piny honours nod,)\n    With bending lip awakes the vocal reeds,\n    And the charmed ears of listening satyrs feeds.\n    With joy these tales they tell, or tales like these,\n    And fill the woods with fabled deities.\"[51]\n\nAs the winds swept over the wild heaths of the north, or roared amid the\nmountain passes, bearing upon their bosom the heavy mantling clouds\nwhich enwreathed the ghosts of the heroes of old, often in their varied\ntones did the ancient Celt conceive that he heard the voices of the\ndead; and he who was stricken with misery deemed that his forefathers\ncalled upon him to hasten to the land of shadows. \"The ghosts of\nfathers,\" they say, \"call away the souls of their race while they behold\nthem lonely in the midst of woe.\" Or when an eddy of wind sweeping into\nthe hall awoke a cadence of music as it played over the strings of the\nharps suspended there, the hearers shrunk as the notes thrilled through\nthem, and fearfully whispered that the ghosts of the dead touched the\nstrings, and asked whose death of all the mighty the ghostly music\nportended. \"The harps of the bards, untouched, sound mournful over the\nhill.\"[52]\n\nThe supernatural framework of many legends depends upon illusions of the\nhearing of a similar character.\n\nAt Crosmere, near Ellesmere, in Shropshire, there is a tradition that a\nchapel once stood on the borders of the lake, and it was long believed\nthat when the waters were ruffled by the wind the sound of the bells\nmight be heard beneath the surface; and an old story records that, long\nago, a church and village were entombed by an earthquake, near the spot\nwhere Raleigh, in Nottinghamshire, now stands; and that at Christmas,\neven now, the bells may be heard solemnly tolling deep in the bosom of\nthe earth.\n\nAmong the Cornish miners a very singular superstition prevails, which is\ndue to the sounds occurring in old and deserted workings, from the\ndropping of water and other causes. These noises are supposed to be\nproduced by certain spirits, which are termed \"_Knockers_,\" and,\naccording to the author of \"Yeast; a Problem,\" the miners hold that\n\"they are _the ghosts of the old Jews that crucified our Lord, and were\nsent for slaves by the Roman Emperors to work the mines_; and we find\ntheir old smelting-houses, which we call _Jews' houses_, and their\nblocks, at the bottom of the great bogs, which we call _Jews' tin_; and\nthere is a town among us, too, which we call _Market Jew_, but the old\nname was _Marazion_, that means the Bitterness of Zion, they tell me;\nand bitter work it was for them, no doubt, poor souls! We used to break\ninto the old shafts and adits which they had made, and find old\nstags'-horn pickaxes that crumbled to pieces when we brought them to\ngrass. And they say that, if a man will listen of a still night about\nthose old shafts, he may hear the ghosts of them at working, knocking,\nand picking, as clear as if there was a man at work in the next\nlevel.\"[53]\n\nBut the most common cause of illusion from sound arises from the\ndifficulty which all more or less experience, of tracing the direction\nof a sound, particularly if it be indistinct. The ascertainment of the\ndirection of a sound, and the distance of the sonorous body, is an act\nof judgment, and it is the result of experience. The power may be\ncultivated to a great extent, and many savage tribes possess it in a\nvery high degree; but among civilized nations, where the sounds\nrequisite to be attended to are principally of a point-blank character,\nand where the necessity for the cultivation of that nicety of hearing\nwhich is required in forest life does not exist, the power of\ndistinguishing the direction and distance of sounds is very imperfect.\n\nThe intensity of the sound, and the position of the ears, contribute to\nthe formation of a correct judgment; but if the two ears have precisely\nthe same relation to the point from which the sound issues, as when it\noccurs directly before or behind, it is impossible to distinguish by\nthe sensation alone whether the sound arises in the front or the rear.\n\nThe most familiar and striking illustration of the difficulty\nexperienced in determining the direction of sound, is _ventriloquism_.\nBy a cultivation of the power of speaking without the aid of the lips,\nand by keeping the muscles of the face in a state of passiveness, the\nventriloquist, on giving the mind of the listener a certain leading\nidea, will induce him to think that he hears voices issuing from the\nfloor, from the ceiling, from within him, or from any position but the\ncorrect one; and by a modification of the intensity of the sound, it may\nbe made to appear as if it arose at different distances, as when voices\nare heard in the distance, which gradually approach the listener, come\nclose to him, pass by, and are again lost in the distance. Although\nperfectly aware of the deception, there are few who can correct the\nimpressions received, and trace them to their legitimate source.\n\nThis uncertainty of distinguishing the direction and the nature of\nsounds has been a prolific source of belief in supernatural occurrences,\nand the majority, if not all, of those mysterious noises which are so\ncommon in old houses, and which it was customary, from inability to\ndiscover their origin, to attribute to spiritual agency, have been due\nto this cause. The yielding of wood-work, the scouring of vermin, the\nsighing of the wind in chinks and crannies, have been transformed by\nexcited and superstitious imaginations into the sighing, or whispering,\nor knocking of wandering ghosts, and there is, perhaps, not a town or\nvillage in England which has not at one time or other had one or more\nhouses reputed to be haunted by incorporeal visitants who have thus\nannounced their presence.\n\nSir David Brewster relates an interesting example of illusion arising\nfrom this source. \"A gentleman devoid of all superstitious feelings, and\nliving in a house free from any gloomy associations, heard, night after\nnight, in his bedroom, a singular noise, unlike any ordinary sound to\nwhich he was accustomed. He had slept in the same room for years without\nhearing it, and he attributed it at first to some change of\ncircumstances in the roof or in the walls of the room; but after the\nstrictest examination no cause could be found for it. It occurred only\nonce in the night; it was heard almost every night with few\ninterruptions. It was over in an instant, and it never took place till\nafter the gentleman had gone to bed. It was always distinctly heard by\nhis companion, to whose time of going to bed it had no relation. It\ndepended on the gentleman alone, and it followed him into another\napartment with another bed, on the opposite side of the house.\nAccustomed to such investigations, he made the most diligent but\nfruitless search into its cause. The consideration that the sound had a\nspecial reference to him alone, operated upon his imagination, and he\ndid not scruple to acknowledge that the recurrence of the mysterious\nsound induced a superstitious feeling at the moment. Many months\nafterwards it was found that the sound arose from the partial opening of\nthe door of a wardrobe which was within a few feet of the gentleman's\nhead, and which had been taken into the other apartment. This wardrobe\nwas almost always opened before he retired to bed, and the door being a\nlittle too tight, it gradually forced itself open with a sort of dull\nsound, resembling the note of a drum. As the door had only started half\nan inch out of its place, its change of position never attracted\nattention. The sound, indeed, seemed to come in a different direction,\nand from a greater distance.\n\n\"When sounds so mysterious in their origin are heard by persons\npredisposed to a belief in the marvellous, their influence over the mind\nmust be very powerful. An inquiry into their origin, if made at all,\nwill be made more in the hope of confirming than of removing the\noriginal impression, and the unfortunate victim of his own fears will\nalso be the willing dupe of his own judgment.\"[54]\n\nNot unfrequently the difficulty of distinguishing the direction of sound\nhas been made the basis of imposition upon the credulous; and when it is\nconsidered how readily the judgment is led into error in this respect,\neven when aware of the deception practised, as in ventriloquism, the\neasy facility with which it is imposed upon when superstitious feelings\nare excited, and the wide-spread delusions which have thus arisen,\ncannot be wondered at.\n\nThe Cock-lane ghost is a familiar example of a deception of this\nnature: but this, and every other delusion of a similar character,\nsink into insignificance before a delusion of our own day and\ntimes--_Spirit-rapping_.\n\nThe idea of a communication of the spiritual world with man by the\nintervention of _raps_, is not new. A writer in a recent number of\n\"Notes and Queries,\"[55] gives the following example of an early\ninstance of this kind in England.\n\n\"Rushton Hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire, was long the\nresidence of the ancient and distinguished family of Treshams. In the\nreign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion was occupied by Sir Thomas\nTresham, who was a pedant and a fanatic; but who was an important\ncharacter in his time by reason of his great wealth and powerful\nconnections. There is a lodge at Rushton, situate about half-a-mile from\nthe old hall, now in ruins, but covered all over within and without with\nemblems of the Trinity. This lodge is known to have been built by Sir\nThomas Tresham; but his precise motive for selecting this mode of\nillustrating his favourite doctrine was unknown until it appeared from a\nletter written by himself about the year 1584, and discovered in a\nbundle of books and papers inclosed since 1605, in a wall of the old\nmansion, and brought to light about twenty years ago. The following\nrelation of a \"rapping\" or \"knocking\" is extracted from this letter:--\n\n\"If it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity and Passion of\nChrist to depaint in this chamber, this is the principal instance\nthereof; that at my last being hither committed\"--(referring to his\ncommitments for recusancy, which had been frequent)--\"and I usually\nhaving my servants here allowed me, to read nightly an hour to me after\nsupper, it fortuned that Fulcis, my then servant, reading in the\n\"Christian Resolution,\" in the treatise of \"Proof that there is a God,\n&c.,\" there was upon a wainscot table at that instant three loud knocks\n(as if it had been with an iron hammer) given; to the great amazing of\nme and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton.\"\n\nAnother example of early \"spirit-rapping\" is the celebrated ghost of\n\"_Old Jeffreys_,\" at the Epworth Parsonage, during the childhood of the\nRevds. John and Charles Wesley.\n\nThe conception of a familiar correspondence between the spirit-world and\nman by means of knocks and raps is, however, an idea of modern times,\nand for which we are indebted to America, although it would seem that in\n1835 we were on the eve of making this unenviable discovery in our own\ncountry, for the invisible cause of certain noisy disturbances in a\nhouse occupied by a Captain Molesworth at Trinity, near Edinburgh, in\nthat year, would, it is asserted, respond to a question by knocks, if it\ncould be answered numerically; as, for example, \"How many people are\nthere in the room?\" when it would answer by as many knocks. This\nso-called spirit seemed at times to be drumming a certain tune. The\nknocks in this case had some very intimate connection with a sick girl,\na daughter of Captain Molesworth; for they accompanied her, and\nwherever she was there they prevailed most.\n\nIn 1846, or 1847, a house in the village of Hydesville, State of New\nYork, America, was reported to be haunted by certain noises, as\nknockings on the doors, panels, floors, ceilings, &c., of which the\nsource could not be ascertained; and chairs and tables were occasionally\ndisplaced, and crockery broken by some invisible power. When the noises\nand disturbances first commenced, it is stated that the house was\noccupied by a man named Weekman; but subsequently it passed into the\npossession of a person called Fox, who had two daughters, Catherine and\nMargaretta, and during their residence in it, not only did the knockings\nand irregular motions of the furniture persist, but they increased in\nintensity, variety, and frequency of occurrence, and it was ascertained\nby the young women that the knocks would mimic sounds which they made,\nand even respond to questions put orally. A code of signals in the\naffirmative and negative was next arranged, and by going over the\nletters of the alphabet, and the affirmative signal duly occurring at\ncertain letters, which were recorded, a system of correspondence was\nestablished with the invisible, but apparently intelligent, source of\nthe disturbances. By this method it was ascertained that the cause of\nthe noises, and other indications of invisible power, professed to be\nthe spirit of a man named Charles Ryan, who, while in the flesh, had\nresided in that house; had been foully murdered there; the corpse\ninterred in a certain part of the cellar; and had left a family of five\nchildren, all of whom were then alive. These revelations caused, as may\nwell be imagined, a great sensation in the village, and, notwithstanding\nthat no such person as Charles Ryan had ever lived there, or in that\nhouse, and that on searching the cellar carefully no remains of a corpse\nwere found, the imposition and delusion was persisted in. It is scarcely\nnecessary to add that as yet no one has come forward to claim kindred\nwith the first of the disembodied spirits that held communication with\nman.\n\nSeveral committees were appointed to investigate the matter, but they\nfailed to ascertain the cause of the sounds, and by common consent, no\nnatural cause being evident, it was assumed, _therefore_, that the cause\nwas supernatural.\n\nSubsequently, the Fox family removed to Rochester, and singular to say,\nthe spirit-sounds followed them. Noises began also to be heard in other\nhouses and towns, and it was soon found that many females, equally with\nthe Misses Fox, possessed the power of communicating familiarly through\nthe medium of sounds, with the spirit-world. In an almost incredibly\nbrief space of time, this delusion swept over the United States, and\nmultitudes from all ranks and conditions of society gave in their\naccession to the system of belief into which it was quickly moulded.\n\nCertain persons only were found to possess the power of summoning the\nspiritual knocks at pleasure; these were principally females, and they\nwere termed \"_mediums_.\" The belief itself was spoken of under the\nsimple term of \"_Spirit-rapping_,\" and its advocates and believers as\n\"_Rappers_,\" or \"_Rappites_.\"\n\nEach \"medium,\" somehow or other, managed to interweave his or her own\nviews with the spirit-revelations, and the spirits themselves did not\nhesitate in simple set phrase to give the lie to one another;\nconsequently, the revelations and doctrines inculcated are somewhat\nvaried and inconsistent. The most generally received doctrine at the\npresent time may, however, be summed up as follows:--The \"knocks,\"\n\"raps,\" and other manifestations of invisible power, are caused by the\nspirits of the dead, who, by direct permission of the Almighty\n(according to the more religious), or by self-discovery on the part of\nthe spirits (according to a statement made by the spirit of Benjamin\nFranklin), are enabled to communicate with their fellow-men by various\nsounds and exhibitions of physical power. This correspondence was\npermitted by God in consequence of the great advance which the Americans\nin particular, and mankind in general, had made towards perfection; and\nit is intimated that if the present rate of progression towards\nperfection continue, we shall soon be able to have intercourse by voice\nand sight with the spirit-world. As it is, certain persons possess these\nprivileges in full, and the mass of Christians, _if believers_, have so\ngrown in goodness that the religion of the present day--Biblical\nreligion--is no longer needed, and Christianity is to be regarded as a\nstate of probation that _was_ requisite to attain the perfection now\narrived at; but this transition state being passed, from the elevation\nof the spirit-world we can see that many of its doctrines form now a\nmighty and dangerous slough, in which we are in danger of being\nsmothered.\n\nThe ideas entertained by mankind respecting spiritual existences are\nsingularly incorrect; notwithstanding this, however, most of the\nspirits, as when in the body, entertain some peculiarity of doctrine,\nwhich shows that even in the \"spheres\" opinions are divided on this\npoint. The most general opinion states that the spirit-world surrounds\nthe earth, and is divided into seven spheres, which are subdivided into\nseven other spheres, and these again admit of still further\ndivision,--a geography evidently derived from Mahomedanism, and the old\nmonkish legends of the septate division of hell, purgatory, and\nparadise. In the first of the spheres the lowest orders of spirits\nreside. These form the most degraded class of spirit-life, and are\nunhappy compared with those in the higher spheres; but the lowest degree\nof their unhappiness exceeds the highest degree of man's pleasures. Into\nthis sphere pass all those who have had an unsatisfactory character on\nearth; while those who have been more correct in their conduct pass\nimmediately into the sphere which approximates to their degree of\ngoodness. The residence of any spirit in the lower spheres is not\nconstant; for, exposed to heavenly influences, it goes on gradually\nimproving, and as it sublimes, it ascends through the higher spheres,\nuntil at last the seventh sphere is attained, where it is fulfilled with\nbliss, and enters the presence of God. Hence we find St. Paul and Tom\nPaine, Calvin and Napoleon, Wesley and Shelley, united in friendly\nbrotherhood. There is no hell, such as is taught in the Scriptures, and\nno eternal punishment, and man carries into the spirit-world his\npassions and propensities, and relative degrees of ignorance and\nknowledge. The spirit of Calvin stated that the spirits understood all\nlanguages intuitively; but this has been refuted by an immense majority\nof spirits, and it is certain that they know no other languages than\nthose they were acquainted with on earth. Indeed, it is requisite to\nhave rudimental education in our own language in heaven. \"I have no\nfriends to teach me how to spell,\" said a spirit named Jack Waters.\nAnother, named Frank Copland, was unable to make any satisfactory\ncommunication, from being \"an illiterate youth\" when he died; and the\n\"medium\" to whom this communication was made, kindly advised the spirit\nto get the soul of a deceased sister to teach him. He did so, and in\nthree months it was ascertained that he had made very creditable\nprogress in spelling, &c. The amusements of the \"spirits\" consist of\nmusic, concerts, dancing, card-playing, &c., and they live in a species\nof concubinage. They dress according to fancy, but the male spirits\ngenerally wear trousers, hats or turbans, and beards. They have also\ncondescended to teach certain celestial architectural vagaries. They\n_lie_ like mortals, and coolly admit it; and it is occasionally\nnecessary to put the spirits on oath! They are very liable to error, and\nthe spirit of General Washington, equally careless of grammar and\northography, revealed, that they \"many times make mistakes, and so we\nare called liars; but this is owing to our neglect of the records that\nare given us, and also to evel spirits; but we will try to be more\ncareful or correct after we have becom more use to writing for our\nfriends.\" The spirits speak with the utmost contempt and abhorrence of\nthe religious beliefs of the present day, and regard the Bible as unfit\nfor general perusal, from the errors (due to the translators) which it\ncontains; and this assertion is fittingly crowned by the statement that\nit emanates under a special communication from St. Paul himself.\n\nNotwithstanding the painful absurdity and frightful blasphemy of these\ndoctrines (which satisfactorily show the class of persons by whom the\ndelusion is fostered, and the flagrant character of the imposition),\nclergymen, judges, and persons distinguished in literature have\npermitted themselves to be led away by the delusion, each establishing\nsome conscientious clause or giving a peculiar phase to the belief, in\norder to exculpate themselves from the charge of contributing to some of\nthe more outrageous dogmas of this strange delusion.\n\nThe phenomena which led to the delusion were sounds of various kinds and\nintensity, which were called up by the \"medium\" at will, apparently in\nvarious parts of the room in which the \"_s\u00e9ances_\" were held, but\nprincipally beneath the table at which she sat; and the movement of\ncertain articles of furniture. The intelligent correspondence with the\n\"raps\" (for the furniture-moving was merely indicative of the _power_ of\nthe suppositious spirits) was by questions uttered audibly, mentally, or\nin writing, to which replies were given by repeated raps--an\naffirmative; or by silence--a negative; or the words of the response\nwere spelled out by running over the alphabet--the affirmative knocks\ntaking place when the finger or pencil rested on the letters required to\nform the sentence. Some more highly-gifted mediums, pervaded by a\nspiritual afflatus, were enabled to write the answers; and others\nshadowed them forth in dancing.\n\nIf we reflect for a moment upon the difficulty which most persons\nexperience in detecting the direction and position of sounds,\nparticularly when the mind is under the dominion of certain ideas, we\nmay readily imagine how at the first the delusion of spirit-rapping\nobtained credence among the credulous and ignorant. It was, however,\nsoon ascertained that an imposition was being practised; and very\nshortly after the development of the mania, a \"medium\" came forward and\nconfessed the deception practised, and the mode in which she had carried\nit out. This \"medium,\" named Mrs. Norman Culvers, had been taught the\nmode of deception by Margaretta Fox, one of the original \"mediums;\" and\nshe stated that the raps were produced by the toes, the listener's mind\nbeing distracted by directing the attention, by a fixed gaze or\notherwise, to certain parts of the room, from which he was instructed\nthat the sounds came. By the confession of other \"mediums,\" and by\nobservation, it was ascertained that, in addition to the rapping by the\ntoes, raps were produced by a lateral movement of the knee-joint, and\nthe joints of the thumb and fingers (the \"cracking\" of the joints, a\nfamiliar phenomenon); by the action of the feet against the leg of the\ntable, or by the movement of the soles of the shoes one against another;\nand lastly, by a hammer ingeniously fixed in the woodwork of the table.\nIt was further shown to demonstration, that in no case when the\n\"mediums\" were placed in positions where none of the before-mentioned\nmethods of rapping could occur, did the raps take place; that in no case\ncould the \"spirits\" reply correctly to a single question, when the\nquerist, by an impassibility of countenance and scrupulous care over his\nactions, did not betray his thoughts, or indicate the letters\nconstituting the words he required; and that the \"spirits\" might be led\nto answer the most absurd and incorrect questions, utterly unconscious\nof imposition or error.\n\nNotwithstanding this exposure, the delusion is persisted in; and it is\nprincipally maintained by the occasional correct replies which are given\nby the medium to questions of which none present could be acquainted\nwith the answer, but the querist; and many men, even of considerable\nliterary attainments, have been led into the delusion by this simple\nphenomenon alone.\n\nA careful examination of the details of the spirit-communications, and\nthe confessions of the mediums already alluded to, will show that in no\ncase was there a correct response given to questions when precautions\nwere taken to guard against the indication given by the countenance or\nby the actions to the medium, and even this was not sufficient to\nprevent a multitude of errors being fallen into.\n\nThe pure spirit-communications which have been received from the\nApostles, Franklin, Washington, &c., vary according to the mediums to\nwhich they have been vouchsafed, and often flatly contradict each other;\nin itself a sufficient indication of the glaring character of the\ndelusion.\n\nSome, admitting the spiritual origin of the \"raps\" have gone a\nlittle further, and enunciated the opinion that the \"rappings\" occur\nthrough the influence of electricity or magnetism which the spirits\nwield; \"and if,\" writes N. P. Willis, \"disembodied spirits are still\nmoving consciously among us, and have thus _found an agent at\nlast--electricity--by which they can communicate with the world they\nhave left_, it must soon, in the progressive nature of things, ripen\nto an intercourse between this and the spirit-world.\" Surely an\nelectric condition that would cause sonorous \"raps,\" and tables,\nchairs, &c., to dance jigs, and imitate ships tossed in a storm,\nwould be within reach of the test of experiment. Such a test,\nhowever, has never been attempted; and thus it is men, even of high\nstanding in literature, with the utmost coolness plunge into\nconjectures respecting the operations of forces of which they seem\nto be unacquainted even with the signification of the terms. For\nelectricity and magnetism are no vague names, but terms applied to\ncertain phenomena which are readily ascertained, and without the\npresence of which we are not justified in using them.\n\nWe have already sufficiently shown the illusions to which the sense of\nhearing is liable, and the influence they have had in the formation of\nthe belief in spirit-rapping is evident. The disposition of the mind in\ncontributing towards this and allied delusions requires a brief comment.\n\nThe substratum of superstition which is found to prevail more or less in\nmost persons, is a never-failing source of delusion; and it is the\ngroundwork upon which the impostor acts. Readily excited and brought\ninto play by phenomena of which the origin is not palpably evident, it\nseizes with avidity upon doctrines which pander to its taste for mystery\nand wonder; and a suggestion, whether direct or implied, induces a\ncondition of the mind that interposes an almost insuperable bar to the\nhealthy action of the reason. This unconscious action of the mind, under\nthe influence of leading ideas, is the prime foundation of those\nillusions of the senses of which we have illustrations in the pseudo\nsciences of \"mesmerism,\" \"electro-biology,\" &c., all the phenomena of\nwhich may be produced by simply inducing certain trains of thought.\n\nWhen Go\u00ebthe represented Mephistopheles as saying--\n\n    \"_Whispered suggestions_ are the devil's r\u00f4le,\"\n\nit was with a profound perception of the powerful influence they\nexercise in the creation of delusions.\n\nThe throngs which crowd around the table of the \"medium,\" go pregnant\nwith a desire to see a mystery, and filled with a vague fear of the\nsupernatural influences to which they may be subjected. This is\nincreased by the interval of from five minutes to half an hour which is\nallowed to intervene between the commencement of the _s\u00e9ance_, and the\nfirst \"rap\" from the spirits; and during this period the mind is kept to\nthe utmost tension by listening, or is well exercised by attending to\nthe anecdotes illustrative of the power of the spirits which are\ndetailed by the medium, and it is thus brought into the state that is\nrequisite for the perfection of the delusion. In the condition of the\nmind thus induced, the medium has little difficulty in leading her\ncredulous hearer to whatever length it may be desired, and a careful\nexamination of the countenance and the hand will suffice for a correct\nresponse to the majority of the questions which may be proposed.\n\nThe want of discrimination of the facts from the theories invented to\nexplain them, is another and great source of delusion; for the majority\nit suffices that if the \"raps\" occur, or the table moves, it is\nsufficiently demonstrative that it is by the influence of spirits; and\nit is a much less difficult matter to them to believe that the phenomena\narises from supernatural than natural agency.\n\nCertain luminous phenomena, phosphorescent flames, luminous clouds,\nglistening stars, &c., have been observed when the spirit-manifestations\nhave occurred in profound darkness. These appearances were dependent upon\na disordered condition of the eye, which will be fully dwelt upon in a\nsubsequent part of this work.\n\nThe irregular and violent movements of the furniture which occurred when\nthe _s\u00e9ances_ were held in _darkened_ apartments, were the result of the\nmost palpable collusion. There were certain movements of the tables,\nhowever, around which the experimenters sat when eliciting the\nspirit-rappings, that could not be attributed to this source; and an\nexamination of these motions showed that if several persons arranged\nthemselves around a table, and rested their hands slightly upon it,\nafter a longer or shorter period motion would occur, which was to a\ngreat extent under the control of the will, although the experimenters\nwere not aware that they exerted any force whatever upon the table; and\nfurther, it was ascertained that a table thus set in motion would\nrespond by rapping with the legs, to questions propounded to it, and\nthat with a facility equal to the most perfect \"medium.\"\n\nThis interesting phenomenon soon attracted considerable attention, for\nit was certain that neither collusion nor wilful deception were\nconcerned in it; and it could be produced by persons who did not pretend\nto the character of \"mediums;\" indeed, out of a company of several\nindividuals it was pretty certain that some could be found capable of\ninducing the phenomenon.\n\nThe \"Rappites\" looked upon it simply as another and more general\nmanifestation of the spirit-world; others, imbued with the\npseudo-scientific dogmas of animal magnetism, odylism, &c., sought an\nexplanation in the principles of their respective theories; some\nregarded it as the result of Satanic agency; and lastly, those best\ncapable of judging on the question, looked upon the motion as the result\nof muscular force exerted unconsciously by the experimenters, and in\naccordance with certain well-known laws of muscular and mental action.\n\nThe doctrine of Satanic agency has excited great attention in this\ncountry, from the fact of its being propounded and advocated by certain\nclergymen of our Established Church, who not content with regarding it\nas one of those \"great wonders\" which are to prelude the reign of\nAnti-christ, have even sought by this agency to verify the truths of the\nimmortality of the soul, eternity, the existence of a hell; thus seeking\na confirmation of the Scripture from the devil himself, and comically\nidentifying themselves with the principles so pithily expressed by\nRalpho:--\n\n    \"Those principles I've quoted late,\n    Prove that the godly may allege\n    For anything their privilege,\n    And to the devil himself may go,\n    If they have motives thereunto:\n    For as there is a war between\n    The dev'l and them, it is no sin\n    If they, by subtle stratagem,\n    Make use of him, as he does them.\"[56]\n\nThe answer to this explication, as well as to those other explications\nbased on the doctrines of the \"Rappites,\" and the principles of the\npseudo-sciences, is found in the simple fact, that if care be taken to\nascertain the sources of motion which arise from the experimenters\nthemselves, and to obviate their influence in the experiment, neither\nmovements nor responses occur; and by a careful examination of the\nconditions requisite for the perfection of the experiment, and an\nexperimental illustration of them, we arrive at the conclusion that\n\"table-moving\" and \"table-talking\" are the result solely of muscular\naction exercised unconsciously under the influence of certain expectant\nideas.\n\nIf we proceed in the examination of this question as in that of every\nother physical question, by seeking the conditions requisite for the\nfulfilment of the experiment, and examining their nature, we observe\nthat the position of the persons who perform it is one that would give\nrise to certain easily understood and comprehensible results. The hands\nare placed upon the table in such a position that the experimenter\nexercises the least degree of pressure of which he can be conscious, and\nin this position they are kept for a longer or shorter period, but\ngenerally averaging from twenty to thirty minutes. Whether the\nindividual be sitting or standing, the protracted exertion of the\nmuscles to keep the hand in so constrained a position, gives rise to\nconsiderable fatigue, which is manifested by the usual painful\nsensations in the over-exercised parts; and these sensations have been\nsagely compared by the advocates of the pseudo-sciences to those\nexperienced by electric or electro-magnetic currents. As the muscular\nfatigue and the painful state of tension into which the muscles are\nthrown increase, the sensations by which we judge of the amount of\npressure exercised upon a given object diminishes, and unless the degree\nof pressure exercised is checked by information derived through some\nother sense, it goes on ever increasing in a direct ratio until the\nwhole weight of the hand, the arm, and even the shoulders of the person\nso standing is unconsciously thrown upon the table, and a degree of\nforce exercised, which is sufficient to induce the movements we witness\nin the table experimented on.\n\nThe inertia of the table is as thoroughly destroyed by the amount of\nforce thus brought to bear upon it, as if a more intense force had acted\nmomentarily. The period of suspense which occurs previous to the first\nmovement taking place, is that during which the force communicated by\nthe hand is equally diffused through the table, and the moment this\nhappens, as no body can be set in motion until the motion has been\nimparted to every integral particle of that body, a slight additional\nforce will be sufficient to overcome the resistence of surrounding\nmedia, and cause it to change its position. Hence a comparatively slight\nforce exercised over a long period will not unfrequently induce effects\nequal to those caused by a greater degree of force exercised during a\nshort period of time.\n\nWe often witness the practical application of this principle. If we\nobserve two men endeavouring to move a railway carriage upon the line,\nwe shall notice that they do not at the first exert all their strength\nin one powerful, and what would probably prove exhaustive and futile,\neffort, but placing their backs against the carriage, they will push\nwith a continuous and gradually increasing effort for several seconds,\nor even longer, when a slight movement will be perceived in the\ncarriage, and a slight additional exercise of force will set it in\nmotion. So also, as we have seen in quarries, when several men have\nendeavoured to move a large mass of stone with a lever, they have not\nused one long and powerful effort, but a succession of slighter ones,\nuntil a tremulous motion has been seen in the mass, when by one exertion\nof force they have hurled it from its place.\n\nThe degree of pressure exercised by any given persons will be in the\ninverse ratio of the degree of control which they can exercise over the\nmuscular system, and over their ideas; hence the phenomena of\ntable-turning and table-talking are most fully developed by those who\nare possessed of but a low degree of volitional power, and in whom the\npassions and emotions are paramount, as in young females, boys, or those\nwho are influenced by certain dominant ideas: and as these conditions\nvary in different persons to an almost endless extent, it would follow\nthat the power of exciting the movements of the table and responses, as\nwell as the nature and degree of the responses, would vary in a similar\ndegree, which is found to be the case; and the rule of response is, as\none of the supporters of the Satanic theory (the Rev. N. S. Godfrey)\nvery na\u00efvely remarks, \"whatever the investigator wishes it to be.\"\n\nThe directive force in the phenomena of table-moving is derived from\ncertain habitual actions of the muscles, as in the direction from right\nto left, from the customary use of the right hand; and the influence\nwhich our ideas exercise upon the muscular system, unwittingly and\ninvoluntarily on our part.\n\nThis, as well as the preceding remarks, are all capable of being\nexperimentally illustrated and demonstrated; and Professor Faraday,[57]\nby a rigorous series of experiments, has shown that it is upon these\nprinciples that the phenomena depend.\n\nBy the use of a most ingenious and simple piece of mechanism connected\nwith an index, he showed the extent to which we exercise a certain\ndegree of force and directive power unconsciously, and the nature of\nthis directive power; and the result was:--\n\n\"That when the parties saw the index it remained very steady; when it\nwas hidden from them, or they looked away from it, it wavered about,\nthough they believed that they always pressed directly downwards; and\nwhen the table did not move, there was still a resultant hand-force in\nthe direction in which it was wished the table should move, which,\nhowever, was exercised quite unwittingly by the party operating. This\nresultant it is which, in the course of the waiting-time, while the\nfingers and hands become stiff, numb, and insensible by continued\npressure, grows up to an amount sufficient to move the table or the\nsubstances pressed upon. But the most valuable effect of this\ntest-apparatus is the corrective power it possesses over the mind of the\ntable-turner. As soon as the index is placed before the most earnest,\nand they perceive--as in my presence they have always done--that it\ntells truly whether they are pressing downwards only or obliquely, then\nall effects of table-turning cease, even though the parties persevere,\nearnestly desiring motion, till they become weary and worn-out. No\nprompting or checking of the hand is heeded; _the power is gone_; and\nthis only because the parties are made conscious of what they are really\ndoing mechanically, and so are unable unwittingly to deceive\nthemselves.\"\n\nAn experiment is familiar to many persons by which a ring, being\nsuspended by means of a piece of thread to one of the fingers, may be\ncaused to beat responses against a glass surface (as that of a tumbler),\nin answer to certain queries put audibly; or, if the ring be held by the\nquestioner, it is requisite merely that the questions be conceived\nmentally. This, to many, a puzzling phenomenon is dependent upon\nprecisely the same cause as \"table-talking\"--a movement caused by\nmuscular action developed unconsciously under the influence of certain\nideational states of the mind.\n\nIt is an interesting fact, that a species of divination is mentioned by\nAmmianus Marcellinus, in which a ring, used after the above fashion, and\na table, consecrated by mystic rites, were used. We are indebted to the\nRev. J. W. Thomas, of Dewsbury, for the following quotation from the\nworks of this author, who lived about the middle of the fourth century.\nThe quotation is taken from the first chapter of the twenty-ninth book\n(\"Construximus, magnifici judices, ad cortin\u00e6 similitudinem Delphic\u00e6,\"\n&c.):--\n\n\"Noble judges, this unfortunate little table which you see, we\nconstructed of laurel-rods with fearful rites (or ill-omened signs),\nafter the likeness of the Delphic tripod; and (it having been) virtually\nconsecrated with imprecations of mystic incantations (secret hymns), and\nmany splendid and long-continued preparations, we at length used (_lit._\nmoved) it; and of using (moving) it, as often as it was consulted about\nsecret things, this was the method. It was placed in the middle of a\nclean house, with a round plate made of divers metallic materials,\ncorrectly (_lit._ purely) put upon it, on whose extreme circumference\nthe twenty-four letters of the alphabet were learnedly engraven,\nseparated by spaces accurately measured. A person [gifted] with\nceremonial science stood at it, clothed in linen garments, his feet in\nlinen socks, a wreath round his head, bearing branches of a lucky tree,\na fortunate omen having been obtained from the deity who is the author\nof predictions, by hymns conceived (Apollo); weighing with scales a\npensile ring, formed (or furnished) with very fine Carpathian thread,\nconsecrated with mystic rites, which (or who) by distinct intervals\nfalling by leaps on every letter retained, makes heroic verses agreeing\nwith (or answering to) the interrogatories, to the completed numbers and\nmetres, such as the Delphic ones are read, or those given by the oracles\nof the Branchid\u00e6. Thus then to those who inquired of us who should\nsucceed to the present imperial government, for being swept in every\npart [as] it has been mentioned, and the ring leaping touched (went\nthrough) two syllables, \u0398\u0395\u039f; with the addition of the last\nletter (last additional letter), one present cried out 'Theodorus!' (as\nthe name portended) by the decree of fate (by castal necessity).\"\n\nThis paragraph embodies the defence of one Hilarius, who, together with\na certain Patricius, was charged with having spread abroad prophecies\nadverse to the throne of the Emperor Valens.\n\nA correspondent of \"Notes and Queries\" (Vol. IX., p. 201) quotes the\nfollowing interesting passage from the \"Apologeticus\" of Tertullian,\ncap. xxiii.: (\"Porro si et magi phantasmata,\" &c.):--\n\n\"Moreover, if magical professors also exhibit phantoms and defame the\nsouls of the departed; if they press oracles out of childrens' talk; if\nthey play many miracles with mountebank tricks, and if they send dreams,\nhaving once the power assisting them, of inviting angels and demons, _by\nwhom_, and she-goats, _and tables, they were accustomed to divine_; how\nmuch more, &c.\"\n\nThe correspondent remarks: \"Here table-divination, by means of angels\nand demons, seems distinctly alluded to. How like the modern system! The\ncontext of this passage, as well as the extract itself, will suggest\nsingular coincidence between modern and ancient pretensions of this\nclass.\"\n\nThe sense of _touch_ rarely leads to illusions which are referred to the\nsupernatural, except under the influence of powerful superstitious\nfeelings, when it is generally connected with illusions of the other\nsenses.\n\nThe influence of fear in developing illusions of the senses of sight,\nhearing, and touch, has been well pourtrayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's\ncomedy of \"The Beggar's Bush\" (Act V, Scene 1):\n\n  _Boor._ Mistress, it grows somewhat pretty and dark.\n\n  _Gertrude._                                       What then?\n\n  _Boor._ Nay, nothing. Do not think I am afraid,\n          Although, perhaps, you are.\n\n  _Ger._                          I am not. Forward!\n\n  _Boor._ Sure but you are. Give me your hand; fear nothing.\n          There's one leg in the wood; do not fall backwards!\n          What a sweat one on's are in; you or I!\n          Pray God it do not prove the plague. Yet sure\n          It has infected me; for I sweat too:\n          It runs out at my knees. Feel, feel, I pray you!\n\n  _Ger._  What ails the fellow?\n\n  _Boor._                     Hark! hark! I beseech you:\n          Do you hear nothing?\n\n  _Ger._                      No.\n\n  _Boor._                       List! a wild hog;\n          He grunts! now 'tis a bear; this wood is full of 'em!\n          And now a wolf, mistress; a wolf! a wolf!\n          It is the howling of a wolf.\n\n  _Ger._  The braying of an ass, is it not?\n\n  _Boor._                                 Oh, now one has me!\n          Oh my left ham! farewell!\n\n  _Ger._                                  Look to your shanks,\n          Your breech is safe enough; the wolf's a fern-brake.\n\n  _Boor._ But see, see, see! there is a serpent in it!\n          'T has eyes as broad as platters; it spits fire!\n          Now it creeps tow'rds us; help me and say my prayers!\n          'T hath swallowed me almost; my breath is stopt:\n          I cannot speak! Do I speak, mistress?--tell me.\n\n  _Ger._  Why thou strange timorous sot, canst thou perceive\n          Anything i' th' bush but a poor glowworm.\n\n  _Boor._ It may be 'tis but a glowworm now; but 'twill\n          Grow to a fire-drake presently.\n\n  _Ger._                              Come then from it!\n          I have a precious guide of you, and courteous,\n          That gives me leave to lead myself the way thus. [_Holla._\n\n  _Boor._ It thunders; you hear that now?\n\n  _Ger._                                I hear one holla.\n\n  _Boor._ 'Tis thunder! thunder! see a flash of lightning\n          Are you not blasted, mistress? Pull your mask off;\n          'T has play'd the barber with me here: I have lost\n          My beard, my beard! Pray God you be not shaven;\n          'T will spoil your marriage, mistress.\n\n  _Ger._  What strange wonders fear fancies in a coward!\n\n  _Boor._ Now the earth opens!\n\n  _Ger._                      Prithee hold thy peace.\n\nWe have now glanced at the principal illusions to which the senses of\nsight and hearing are liable, and the bearing which they have on the\nsubject of spectral apparitions and other phenomena which it has been\ncustomary to regard as manifestations of the supernatural.\n\nBut a false appreciation of sensations excited by natural objects is not\nthe only mode in which we are liable to be deceived, for we are apt to\nregard sensations excited by the action of the mind, or by a disordered\ncondition of the nervous system, or both combined--subjective\nsensations--as sensations excited by natural objects--objective\nsensations.\n\nTo the erroneous perceptions arising from this source the term\n_hallucination_ has been given, and the phantasmata to which they give\nrise are more important than those arising from illusions, since the\njudgment is often unable to correct them, and they may impose equally on\nthe wisest and the most ignorant.\n\nIt is a law in physiology that a nerve of special sensation, (including\nin that term its central as well as its peripheral terminations,) in\nwhatever manner it may be excited, can only produce that sensation to\nwhich it is appointed. Thus the nerve of sight, whether it be excited by\nnatural or artificial light, or mechanical stimulus from without, or by\nmorbid changes within, can only give rise to the sensation of light; the\nnerve of hearing, sound; the nerve of smell, odours; and so on.\n\nIf the ball of the eye is pressed upon (say by the finger at the inner\nangle) when the eyelids are closed, or the light otherwise excluded,\ncertain luminous figures will be perceived. This arises from the\npressure exciting the inner coat of the eye (the _retina_), which is\nformed principally by the expansion of the nerve of light (the _optic\nnerve_), and is the tissue in which the changes necessary for the\nproduction of the sensation of light are induced by the rays of light\nfrom without.\n\nThe luminous figures caused by mechanical excitation of this, the\nperipheral termination of the nerve of sight, vary in intensity in\ndifferent individuals and at different times. They are sometimes very\nbrilliant, and have been observed to be iridescent. In form they are\ncircular, radiating, or regularly divided into squares, which have been\ncompared by Purkinje to the figures produced by the vibrations\ncommunicated to a fine powder scattered on a plate of glass, along one\nedge of which a violin-bow is drawn; or to the rhomboidal figures formed\non the surface of water in a glass, thrown into vibration by the same\nmeans.\n\nA familiar illustration of the excitation of a sensation of light by\nmechanical stimulus is the brilliant sparks of light, starlike figures,\n&c., caused by a blow on the eye, or by a fall on the head.\n\nA sensation of light may also be caused by the passage of a current of\nelectricity through the eyeball; by mental emotion, as grief, passion,\n&c.; and by a morbid state of the brain or optic nerve. It is often also\ninduced by a disordered state of the health, and under this condition\nthe luminous appearance occasionally assumes a bluish, green, yellow, or\neven red tint.\n\nWhen an excess of blood is determined in the vessels of the eye, either\nfrom position or other cause, a luminous arborescent figure is\noccasionally observed in the field of vision on entering a dark\napartment. This, according to Purkinje, is due to pressure on the retina\nby the distended blood-vessels. A luminous spot is also sometimes\nobserved isochronous with the pulse.\n\nIn ourselves, in ordinary health a lambent bluish coloured cloud of\nlight constantly floats before the eyes in a darkened apartment; and\nthere are probably few who would not perceive a greater or less\nsensation of light on being shut up in profound darkness.\n\nOn the spontaneous appearance of light in the field of vision when it is\ndarkened, M\u00fcller, the distinguished Prussian physiologist, writes:--\"If\nwe observe the field of vision, keeping the eyes closed, it occasionally\nhappens that we perceive not only a certain degree of luminousness, but\nfurther, that we discover a more marked glimmering of light, affecting\neven, in certain cases, the form of circular waves, which are developed\nfrom the centre towards the periphery, where they disappear. Sometimes\nthe faint light resembles a nebulosity, spots, and more rarely, in\nmyself, it is reproduced with a certain rhythm. To this spontaneous\nappearance of light in the eye, which is always very vague, are related\nthe more clearly delineated forms which show themselves at the moment we\nare about to fall asleep, and which depend upon the influence of the\nimagination isolating the nebulous glimmerings one from the other, and\nclothing them with more distinct forms.\"[58]\n\nThe degree to which this sensation of light is produced in health, and\nthe power which the imagination has over it, vary greatly in different\nindividuals.\n\nM\u00fcller writes:--\n\n\"I had occasion, in 1828, to converse with G\u00f6ethe upon this subject,\nwhich had an equal interest for both of us. Knowing that when I was\ntranquilly extended in bed, the eyes closed, but not asleep, I\nfrequently perceived figures that I could observe distinctly, he was\ncurious to know what I experienced then: I told him that my will had not\nany influence either upon the production or the metamorphoses of these\nfigures, and that I never distinguished anything symmetrical, anything\nthat had the character of vegetation. G\u00f6ethe, on the contrary, was able\nto appoint at will a theme, which afterwards transformed itself, after a\nfashion apparently involuntary, but always in obedience to the laws of\nharmony and symmetry: a difference between two men, of which one\npossessed the poetical imagination in the highest degree of development,\nwhilst the other devoted his life to the study of reality and of nature.\n\n\"G\u00f6ethe says, 'When I close the eyes, on lowering the head, I imagine\nthat I see a flower in the middle of my visual organ; this flower does\nnot for a moment preserve its form: it is quickly decomposed, and from\nits interior are born other flowers with coloured or sometimes green\npetals; these are not natural flowers, but fantastic, nevertheless\nregular, figures, such as the roses of sculptors. It was impossible for\nme to regard this creation fixedly, but it continued as long as I\nwished, without increasing or diminishing. Even when I figured to me a\ndisc charged with various colours, I saw continually borne from the\ncentre towards the circumference, new forms comparable to those that I\ncould perceive in a kaleidoscope.\"[59]\n\nIllusions arising from the production of the sensation of light, whether\nby pressure, mental emotion, or a disordered state of the health, have\nbeen a most prolific source of ghosts.\n\nImagine a person suffering from severe grief occasioned by the loss of a\nfriend or relative; or one subject to superstitious terrors. On retiring\nto rest in a darkened apartment, the attention is attracted and wonder\nraised by the appearance of a cloud of pale white, or blueish coloured\nlight (the colours which ghosts love to deck themselves in, and which\nare most readily excited) floating before the eyes. Unacquainted with\nits nature and source, he is naturally startled, and his superstitious\nfears are awakened. The imagination next coming into play, the luminous\ncloud is moulded into the form of the person recently dead, or of the\nsuperstitious ideas most prominent in the mind of the individual at the\ntime.\n\nOr suppose a superstitious person passing, in the obscurity of the\nnight, a place where some foul crime had been perpetrated. Terror gives\nrise to the production of a vivid sensation of light in the field of\nvision, and the imagination, as in the previous case, works out the\nrest.\n\nThe following cases are examples of the influence which the spontaneous\nappearance of light in the field of vision exercises in the development\nof spectral apparitions.\n\nA gentleman who had lost his wife from a painful and protracted disease,\nfor some time subsequently was troubled by her phantom, which remained\nbefore his eyes so long as he was in obscurity. On a light being\nbrought, or during the day, this spectre vanished, but no sooner was he\nplaced in darkness than it appeared vividly limned before him, and was a\nsource of constant terror.[60]\n\nThis phantom was evidently due to the production of the sensation of\nlight in the field of vision, and the subsequent effects of the\nimagination.\n\nA gentleman with whom we are acquainted happened, when young, to have a\nsevere fall on the head. After this accident and until he attained the\nage of eleven years, he was subject to visions of brilliant and\nvariously coloured light, when he retired to bed at night, and all light\nin his room had been extinguished. Occasionally these visions were so\ngorgeous and resplendent that he is accustomed to compare them to the\njewelled decorations of the palaces of the genii in the Arabian Nights'\nEntertainment. When about eleven years of age he got possession of a\nvolume of legends and romances, which were pregnant with supernatural\nevents and personages; and a friend injudiciously gave him a work full\nof ghost-stories, and entitled, \"News from the Invisible World.\" These\nworks he read with avidity, and the effect upon the mind was such that\nhenceforth his nightly visions were transformed into foul, horrid, and\noften variously coloured spectres, rendering the period of time\nintervening between retiring to rest and sleep, one of unmitigated\nterror, and it became necessary to have a light constantly burning in\nthe room until sleep occurred. After the twelfth year the intensity of\nthe visions rapidly diminished, and at length only occurred when he\nturned himself upon his face in bed. In this position a sensation as if\nthe bed had passed from under him occurred, and his eye formed the\ncentre of a circle of imps which whirled rapidly round it. The number of\nthese spectres next began to diminish, and by the time he was fifteen\nyears of age, but one remained, and this appeared only occasionally.\nThis solitary spectre gradually lost its fiend-like form, and assumed\nthat of a respectable-looking old Roman, clothed in a toga; and it at\nlength vanished to re-appear no more.\n\nThis gentleman has for many years been free from any spectral\napparition; but hard study, mental emotion, a disordered state of the\nhealth, or pressure with the finger on the eyeball, is apt to occasion a\nbrilliant evolution of coloured light in the field of vision.\n\nThe spontaneous appearance of light in the visual field, in this case,\nformed the substratum upon which the mind moulded the spectres; and it\nis interesting to remark the influence which the perusal of a volume of\nlegends and ghost-stories, and subsequent classical studies, had in\ndetermining the form of the phantasma.\n\nTo the same cause--the subjective phenomena of vision--are due the\nvarious coloured lights or luminous appearances which, in the\nexperiments of Reichenbach, the believers in animal magnetism,\nmesmerism, and electro-biology, are supposed to have been seen issue, by\nthe \"susceptible,\" from the poles of magnets placed in darkened\napartments, from so-called magnetised bodies, or from bodies placed in\nthe conditions which the respective theories demand.\n\nAll the sensations of light that are experienced under these\ncircumstances, and which have been sought to be explained by the\nassumption of the \"od\" force, or by the influence of magnetism, &c., are\ndependent on that excitation of a sensation of light in the eye when\nplunged into darkness, or when under certain mental emotions which we\nhave fully explained.\n\nThis has been demonstrated by positive experiment; for if we take any of\nthe \"susceptibles,\" and, indeed, others, and place them in a darkened\napartment, we may by simple suggestions excite all the luminous\nsensations attributed to the supposititious \"od\" force, or to \"animal\nmagnetism.\"\n\nThe luminous appearances which certain \"sensitives\" have averred that\nthey witnessed over graves, were due also to the subjective phenomena of\nvision, excited by an expectant idea.\n\nA young clergyman named Billing, who acted as an amanuensis to Pfeffer,\nthe blind poet, asserted that he constantly saw, at night, a luminous\ncloud resting in one position in the poet's garden; and on search being\nmade beneath the surface of the ground, at the spot occupied by this\nphantasm, the remains of a skeleton were found.\n\nReichenbach concluded from this that the process of decomposition of a\ncorpse going on in the grave, probably like what is observed in other\nforms of chemical action, gave rise to luminous appearances which were\nvisible to highly \"sensitive\" persons.\n\n\"It appeared possible,\" he writes, \"that such a person might see over\ngraves in which mouldering bodies lie, something similar to that which\nBilling had seen. Mademoiselle Reichel had the courage, rare in her sex,\nto gratify this wish of the author. On two very dark nights she allowed\nherself to be taken from the Castle of Reisenberg, where she was living\nwith the author's family, to the neighbouring churchyard of Grunzing.\nThe result justified his anticipation in the most beautiful manner. She\nvery soon saw a light, and observed on one of the graves, along its\nlength, a delicate breathing flame; she also saw the same thing, only\nweaker, on a second grave. But she saw neither witches nor ghosts. She\ndescribed the fiery appearance as a shining vapour, one to two spans\nhigh, extending as far as the grave, and floating near its surface.\nSometime afterwards she was taken to two large cemeteries near Vienna,\nwhere several burials occur daily, and graves lie about by thousands.\nHere she saw numerous graves provided with similar lights. Wherever she\nlooked she saw luminous masses scattered about. But this appearance was\nmost vivid over the newest graves, while on the oldest it could not be\nperceived. She described the appearance less as a clear flame than as a\ndense vaporous mass of fire, intermediate between fog and flame. On many\ngraves the flame was four feet high, so that when she stood on them it\nsurrounded her up to the neck. If she thrust her hand into it, it was\nlike putting it into a dense fiery cloud. She betrayed no uneasiness,\nbecause she had all her life been accustomed to such emanations, and had\nseen the same, in the author's experiments, often produced by natural\ncauses.\"[61]\n\nThe total neglect of those precautions which are requisite to obviate\nthe influence of expectant ideas and the subjective phenomena of vision\nin this experiment is most strange, and it is painful to witness men\nlike Reichenbach, Gregory, and others, thus stumbling over some of the\nsimplest facts of physiology and psychology, and utterly prostituting\nthe name and calling of science.\n\nSingular and fallacious as are the pseudo-scientific doctrines just\nmentioned, they are exceeded by the extraordinary speculations of other\nwriters, who also appear to hold in utter contempt the ordinary laws of\naction of the senses. For example, Mrs. Crowe writes of the sensation of\nlight perceived by somnambules and dreamers, and of the still more\nsimple phenomenon of the sensation of light induced by the inhalation of\nether, in the following manner:--\n\n\"All somnambules of the highest order,--and when I make use of this\nexpression, I repeat that I do not allude to the subjects of mesmeric\nexperiments, but to those extraordinary cases of disease, the\nparticulars of which have been recorded by various continental\nphysicians of eminence,--all persons in that condition describe\nthemselves as hearing and seeing, not by the ordinary organs, but by\nsome means the idea of which they cannot convey further than that they\nare pervaded by light; and that this is not the _ordinary_ physical\nlight is evident, inasmuch as they generally see best in the dark,--a\nremarkable instance of which I myself witnessed.\n\n\"I never had the slightest idea of this internal light till, in the way\nof experiment, I inhaled the sulphuric ether; but I am now very well\nable to conceive it; for, after first feeling an agreeable warmth\npervading my limbs, my next sensation was to find myself--I cannot say\nin this heavenly light, for the light was in _me_--I was pervaded by it;\nit was not perceived by my eyes, which were closed, but perceived\ninternally, I cannot tell how. Of what nature this heavenly light was--I\ncannot forbear calling it _heavenly_, for it was like nothing on\nearth--I know not,\"[62] &c.\n\nThe sense of _hearing_, like that of sight, in whatever manner it may be\nexcited, only gives rise to the sensation of sound; _e.g._, when an\nelectric current is passed through it, or a severe blow is struck upon\nit, and causes it \"to ring,\" as it is expressed in common parlance. The\nrushing and other sounds--as of the ringing of bells, rustling of\nleaves, &c.--caused by a disordered state of the circulation in the\nhead, are other examples; and there are perhaps few persons who have not\nat some time or other, started, and responded to their name, or to calls\nwhich they suppose they have heard, in the voice of persons who were at\na distance, or who had not spoken.\n\nA similar excitation of the nerves of _taste_ and _smell_ will also give\nrise to their special sensations; but disorder of these nerves and their\ncentres will rarely excite hallucinations, except in connection with a\ndisturbed condition of the senses of sight and hearing.\n\nSuch are the simplest forms of hallucination of the senses of sight,\nhearing, taste, and smell; and we have seen that all the phenomena of\nlight, colour, sound, taste, and smell, can occur in man without the\npresence of natural or artificial light, sonorous undulations of the\nair, sapid or odorous substances.\n\nWe are now in a position to comprehend more fully that, by the action of\nthe imagination and emotions alone, the changes going on in the nervous\ncentres may be so far disturbed that the whole of those sensations which\nare generally excited by agents external to the body may be called into\nplay, and the mental idea assume, in light, colour and shade, sound,\ntaste and touch, all the distinctness and definitiveness which\nappertains to an actual object within the sphere of the respective\nsenses, and be considered as such.\n\nIf the mind revert to any of the varied sensations which are stored up\nin the memory, and are within the power of the will to recall, an image\nis conjured up before the \"mind's eye,\" such that we can describe it as\nthough a real object stood before us; and if it be that of a person--a\nparent, a friend, or one bound by even still stronger ties--every\nlineament, every peculiarity, is depicted with a fidelity but little\nless than that we should be capable of were the individual actually\npresent before us; or should it be a scene which has been treasured up\nfor its grandeur, its loveliness, or for its being endeared to us by\nstill stronger feelings, every characteristic feature, every object, is\nminutely and truly described; and did we possess the power of limning,\nnot unfrequently we should find little difficulty in transferring the\nmental image to the canvass. \"I think I see him now\"--\"She might be\nbefore me\"--\"I can call to mind every tree and stone, so vivid is the\nmemory\"--are forms of expression in constant use, and they contain the\ngerm of the simplest form of ideal hallucination to which we are\nsubject.\n\nUnder the influence of love, grief, remorse, or other powerful and\nprotracted emotion, the ideas upon which the mind is concentrated assume\na vividness, in many persons little short of the reality; and when\nVictorian, addressing Preciosa in the \"Spanish Student\" (Act I, Scene\n3), is represented as saying:--\n\n    \"Thou comest between me and those books too often;\n    I see thy face in everything I see;\n    The paintings on the chapel wear thy looks,\n    The canticles are changed to sarabands;\n    And with the learned doctors of the schools,\n    I see thee dance cachucas;\"\n\nhe makes use of no exaggerated poetical tropes or figures, but speaks\nthe simple fact.[63]\n\nA painful illustration of the vividness of the mental image under\npowerful emotion is afforded by a passage in \"The Dream\" of Lord Byron,\nin which he describes the images of the object and scenes of his\nyouthful and only love, that occupied his mind, and rendered him\ninsensible to the ceremony of his marriage until he was aroused from his\nabstraction by the congratulations of the bystanders.\n\n                      \"He spoke\n    The fitting vows, but heard not his own words,\n    And all things reel'd around him; he could see\n    Not that which was, nor that which should have been,--\n    But the old mansion, and the accustom'd hall,\n    And the remember'd chambers, and the place,\n    The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,\n    All things pertaining to that place and hour,\n    And her who was his destiny, came back,\n    And thrust themselves between him and the light.\"\n\nThe protracted devotion of the thoughts to the memory of those whom the\ngrave has severed from us, or from whom we are separated by distance,\nand which is induced by grief, gives also to the mental image great\nvividness. Exquisitely beautiful and true is the sentence placed in the\nmouth of Constance, when blamed for the grief she entertained on being\nseparated from Prince Arthur:--\n\n    \"Grief fills the room up of my absent child,\n    Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;\n    Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,\n    Remembers me of all his gracious parts,\n    Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:\n    Then have I reason to be fond of grief.\"\n\nIn direct proportion to the concentration of the mind in the\ncontemplation of its own actions, is the brilliancy and distinctness of\nthe ideas which pass athwart it; and in the state of abstraction or of\nreverie, when from intense meditation, or from mere inactivity, the\nsensations derived from surrounding objects are not attended to, the\nideas are so defined that they differ but little from actual objects in\nthe sensations they excite. So also in sleep, if, from any cause,\nphysical or mental, we are roused into a state of semi-consciousness, as\nin dreaming, the phantasms of former events, stored up in the memory,\nand by certain sensations or trains of thought thrown to the surface,\ndiffer in no respect--light, colour, shade, or sound--from the\nsensations derived from the objects represented.\n\nShould, therefore, the concentration of the mind upon any subject be\nsuch as to disturb the natural functions of the brain, the mental image\nis liable to excite sensations, and to be pourtrayed with a distinctness\nand \"outness\" which approximates to, or equals, that of a real object,\nand it is regarded as such.\n\nIn the majority of individuals the concentration and intensity of\nfeeling necessary for the production of hallucinations is of rare\noccurrence, and it is found only under such conditions as profound grief\ncaused by death under painful or peculiar circumstances; from terror,\nexcited by causes bringing powerful superstitious feelings into\nplay--under which circumstances the hallucinations induced are generally\ntransitory--or by emotions inordinately protracted; hence it is that we\nfind visions of the dead among the most common of the temporary\nhallucinations. In the studious, and men of powerful thought, the mind\nbeing habituated to absorption in its own ideas, it not unfrequently\nhappens that hallucinations occur from a disordered state of the brain\ninduced by continued mental labour. These hallucinations are generally\nvery vivid, and may arise either voluntarily or involuntarily, and may\nbecome habitual without the health being seriously disturbed.\n\nIt will be seen, therefore, that the action of the mental powers alone\nis sufficient to give rise to sensations which are regarded as resulting\nfrom actual objects; and that from the simple vividness of the mental\nimage, which is common to most persons, we may trace their effects, in a\ngradually ascending scale, in inducing mental conditions in which the\nbrilliancy of the image is such that, for the time, it completely\noccupies the attention, and shuts out, as it were, the sensations\nderived from objects before the field of vision,--and in the formation\nof ideas so vivid and defined, that they take their position among\nsurrounding, and excite the sensations proper to external, objects.\n\nWe have thus far spoken of the effects of the imagination on the healthy\nframe, but in certain disordered conditions of the nervous system,\noccurring either alone, or in connection with other and more general\nmorbid alterations in the economy, hallucinations are more apt to occur\nthan in health. The system in this state is more susceptible of the\neffects of emotion, and the images arising in the mind are more vivid\nthan would happen from the same degree of excitement in health, and are\nreadily converted into hallucinations. This is witnessed in certain\nforms of hysteria, febrile diseases, &c.; hence, in these disordered\nconditions of the system, the hallucinations are not to be attributed to\nthe action of the mind, so much as to a morbid susceptibility to undergo\nthose changes requisite to the production of hallucinations; and these\nare, consequently, induced by grades of emotion and by influences which\nwould not have caused that in ordinary health.\n\nOn the other hand, the action of the mind in the development of\nhallucinations equally induces certain diseased states, either special\nor general. Even simple and temporary hallucination, in whatever manner\ncaused, must be regarded as an indication that the changes going on in\nthe nervous centres have passed the bounds of health; and according as\nthe causes inducing hallucinations are more or less protracted, or the\nhallucinations are more or less persistent or frequent, so we may mark a\ngreater or less deterioration in the mental powers, the nervous or the\ngeneral system, or indications of more acute disease, to progress along\nwith them, until the acme is reached in insanity, idiocy, or some more\nrapidly progressive and equally formidable disease.\n\nTo illustrate these remarks: Blake, the artist, who, after the death of\nSir Joshua Reynolds, enjoyed great fame as a portrait-painter, owed his\ncelebrity, in great part, to the singular fact that he required but one\nor, at the most, two sittings, from those whose portraits he painted. He\nwas accustomed to regard the person who sat to him attentively for about\nhalf an hour, sketching from time to time on the canvas, and he would\nthen pass on to another subject. When he wished to continue the first\nportrait, on placing the canvas before him, he had the power of calling\nup so vivid a mental image of the personage, the outline of whose face\nwas depicted upon it, that it assumed all the appearance of reality, and\nhe perceived it in the position in which he required it to be. From this\nphantasm he painted, turning from the canvas and regarding it as he\nwould have done had the representative of the phantom been there in\nperson. By degrees he began to lose the distinction between the real and\nthe imaginary objects, and at length a complete confusion of the mind\noccurred, rendering it necessary for him to be confined in an asylum.\nDuring his residence there, his insanity was marked by an exaggeration\nof that vivid power of imagination he had possessed previously; for he\nat will could summon before him the phantoms of any of the personages of\nhistory, and he held long and sensible conversations with Michael\nAngelo, Moses, Semiramis, Richard III, &c., all of whom appeared to him,\nwhen he desired, in the vivid hues and distinct outlines of reality.\n\nTalma, the great French tragedian, had the power, when upon the stage,\nof causing the vestments of his audience to disappear, and of depicting\nthem as skeletons. When the hallucination was complete, and he had\nfilled the theatre with these ghastly auditors, he was enabled to give\nthe fullest and most surprising force to his performance.\n\nExamples of the influence of powerful and protracted emotions in\ninducing hallucinations are numerous. Dr. Conolly relates the case of a\ngentleman who, when at one time in great danger of being wrecked in a\nsmall boat on the Eddystone rocks, in the moment of greatest peril saw\nhis family before him.\n\nM. Boismont quotes the case of a world-known general who, when in a\ncombat one day, was surrounded by the enemy, and in so great danger that\nescape seemed impossible. He, nevertheless, contrived to escape; but the\nimpression made upon him was such, that afterwards, until a late period\nof life, he occasionally suffered from an hallucination in which the\nscene of danger was again presented before him and re-enacted; and when\nsubsequently on a throne, sometimes the silence of the palace would be\ndisturbed by his cries, as he struggled and fought with his phantom\nfoes. The hallucination was momentary.\n\nThe intense emotion which Sir Richard Croft experienced on being\nsummoned to attend the Princess Charlotte of Wales on her death-bed was\nsuch, that he saw her form, habited in white, glide along before his\ncarriage.\n\nA case is related by Boismont of a lady who, while suffering from the\ndepression occasioned by receiving information that her daughter was\nseriously ill, heard a voice which addressed to her the words, \"Lovest\nthou me?\" The lady responded immediately, \"Lord, thou knowest that I\nhave placed all my confidence in thee, and that I love thee with all my\nsoul.\" The voice then said, \"Dost thou give her to me?\" The lady\ntrembled with fear, but summoning courage, she replied, \"However painful\nthe sacrifice may be, let Thy will be accomplished.\" This lady was\ndeeply pious, and the hallucination arose from the powerful and painful\nemotion caused by the sudden news of her daughter's illness, inducing\nthat disordered state of the nervous system, in which the thoughts\nnaturally engendered in one who submitted everything to the Almighty,\nbecame audible.\n\nThe combined influence of love and sorrow has been a powerful source of\nhallucinations, and many of those wild and beautiful legends and tales\nwhich are scattered throughout the kingdom, recording the apparition of\na deceased or distant lover to his betrothed, have been due to this\ncause.\n\nThus, as in the old ballad:--\n\n    \"When it was grown to dark midnight,\n      And all were fast asleep,\n    In came Margaret's grimly ghost,\n      And stood at William's feet.\"\n\nOr in the story of \"Isabella,\" by Boccacio, so beautifully rendered by\nKeats:--\n\n    \"It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,\n      The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot\n    Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb\n      Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot\n    Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom\n      Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute\n    From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears\n    Had made a miry channel for his tears.\n\n    Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;\n      For there was striving in its piteous tongue,\n    To speak as when on earth it was awake,\n      And Isabella on its music hung:\n    Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,\n      As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;\n    And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,\n    Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briers among.\n\n    Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright\n      With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof\n    From the poor girl by magic of their light,\n      The while it did unthread the horrid woof\n    Of the late darken'd time--the murd'rous spite\n      Of pride and avarice--the dark pine roof\n    In the forest--and the sodden turfed dell,\n    When, without any word, from stabs it fell.\n\n    Saying moreover, \"Isabel, my sweet!\n      Red whortle-berries droop above my head,\n    And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;\n      Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed\n    Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat\n      Comes from beyond the river to my bed:\n    Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,\n    And it shall comfort me within the tomb.\n\n    \"I am a shadow now, alas! alas!\n      Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling\n    Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,\n      While little sounds of life are round me knelling,\n    And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,\n      And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,\n    Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,\n    And thou art distant in humanity.\"\n\nSome of these apparitions have, in all probability, been illusions\ncaused by an object indistinctly seen in the pale moonlight, or by an\naccidental arrangement of the furniture of the apartment, transformed by\nan imagination devoted to the subject of its own sorrows, or influenced\nby a vivid dream, into the idea at the moment most prominent in the\nmind.\n\nThe influence of remorse, or of those terrible emotions which accrue to\nthe murderer on the perpetration of the foul deed, in causing\nhallucinations, is well known.\n\nThe ghost of Banquo (Macbeth, Act III, Scene 3) is a type of many\nwondrous histories:--\n\n    \"Prythee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo!--How say you?\n    Why what can I? If thou canst nod, speak too.\n    If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send\n    Those that we bury, back, our monuments\n    Shall be the maws of kites.\"\n\nVanderkiste[64] relates the story of a convict who had murdered an\noverseer, and taken to the bush:--\n\n\"He lived in the woods, and came armed to the huts to demand provisions\nfor some time, but imagined he was continually haunted by the spirit of\nthe man he had murdered. At last he delivered himself up to the\nauthorities, declaring his life a burden. He was seen for days, dogged,\nas he conceived, by the spectre of his victim, and escaping from tree to\ntree.\"\n\nSir Walter Scott records the story, that the captain of a slaver, in a\nfit of anger, shot at, and mortally wounded, one of his sailors. As the\nman was dying, he fixed his eyes upon the captain, and said, \"Sir, you\nhave done for me, but I will never leave you.\" The captain became grave\nand moody, and some time after he invited the mate into the cabin, and\naddressing him, said, \"I need not tell you, Jack, what sort of hand we\nhave got on board with us. He told me he would never leave me, and he\nhas kept his word. You only see him now and then, but he is always by my\nside, and never out of my sight. At this very moment I see him. I am\ndetermined to bear it no longer, and I have resolved to leave you.\"\nSoon after this, the captain, watching an opportunity when he was\nunobserved, plunged into the sea: the mate rushed to the side of the\nship, and the captain perceiving him, extended his hands upwards,\nexclaimed; \"By ----, Bill is with me now!\" and sunk.\n\nOne of the most remarkable examples of hallucination arising from the\nfeelings excited by cold-blooded murder is recorded by Boismont:--\n\n\"A duellist, who had killed sixteen persons in single combat, was\nconstantly accompanied by their phantoms; they never left him night or\nday.\"\n\nThe solitary hours of Charles IX were made frightful by the shrieks and\ncries which had reached him during the massacre of the Eve of St.\nBartholomew, and he was haunted for many days subsequent to its\noccurrence by hideous and bloody faces. Taking Ambrose Par\u00e9 aside, at\none time, he remarked that he wished they had not comprised in the\nmassacre the aged and children.\n\nNo cause is, however, so apt to engender hallucinations as religious\nenthusiasm, or an inordinate or rather fanatical occupation of the mind\nin the contemplation of religious subjects.\n\nIn the saint-visions which are so numerously scattered in the annals of\nChristian churches and which were so common under the self-denying and\nascetic rules of some of the monastic orders, we have examples; and\nSpenser's \"Hermit\" furnishes the type of this species of\nhallucination:--\n\n    \"Thence forward by that painfull way they pas\n    Forth to an hill, that was both steepe and hy;\n    On top whereof a sacred chapel was,\n    And eke a little hermitage thereby,\n    Wherein an aged holy man did lie,\n    That day and night said his devotion,\n    Ne other worldly busines did apply:\n    His name was Heavenly Contemplation;\n    Of God and goodness, was his meditation.\n\n    Great grace that old man to him given had;\n    For God he often saw from heavens hight:\n    All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,\n    And through great age had lost their kindly sight,\n    Yet wondrous quick and persaunt was his spright,\n    As eagles eie, that can behold the sunne.\"\n\nThe Virgin appeared to Ignatius Loyola, and confirming his designs,\nurged him to the enterprise he had in view for the establishment of the\nRoman Catholic church on a surer basis. Satan came visibly to Luther and\ncontended with him, sometimes worsting him in argument. Swedenborg\nbeheld in visions the heavenly scenes which his imagination had\npourtrayed; while Pascal wrote he beheld an abyss of flames beside his\nwriting-table; and Symeon Stylites conceived that Satan had appeared to\nhim under the form of Jesus Christ, and invited him to ascend to heaven\nin a chariot drawn by cherubim. Symeon put out his foot to enter the\nchariot, when the whole vanished; and, as a punishment for his\npresumption, the offending thigh was affected with an ulcer, which\nobliged him to rest upon one leg for the remainder of his life.\n\nIt is important to comprehend fully the influence of the imagination in\ndeveloping visions of this nature, particularly in a disordered state of\nthe health, from the important effects which they have exercised and\nstill exercise upon mankind.\n\nThe following example is an interesting illustration of the nature and\nsource of these hallucinations:\n\nSome years ago considerable attention was excited in Germany by the\npublication of a series of visions which a lady of considerable literary\nattainments and high character had beheld, and for which she believed\nthat she was indebted to divine favour.\n\nThe hallucinations which she experienced had first been noted in the\nfourth year of her age, when one day, as she was dressing a doll, and\nfor greater convenience had placed a large folio Bible beneath her feet,\nshe heard a voice exclaim: \"Put the book where you found it!\" She did\nnot immediately obey the order, as she saw no one, but in a few moments\nthe mandate was repeated, and she thought some one took hold of her\nface. This hallucination, according to Dr. Hibbert, is to be regarded as\na renovated feeling arising from some prior remonstrances regarding the\nholy volume; and, we would add, together with the altered sensation\nexperienced in the face, was evidently due to the earlier stages of a\ndisease which occasioned the more fully developed visions. After this\nperiod, she devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures; and her\nlabours, in this respect, were incessant and protracted. In her seventh\nyear she saw, when playing, a vision of a clear flame which entered the\nchamber door, in the centre of which was a strong bright light,\ndescribed as about the size of a child six years old. This vision\nendured about half an hour. No other vision is mentioned until the\nperiod of her marriage, which proved unfortunate, embittering her life\nand causing her constantly to meditate on death. It was in this state of\nmind that the principal visions to which she was subjected occurred. On\none occasion, after receiving some ill-treatment from her husband,\nbroken down in spirits, and thinking the Lord had forsaken her, she made\na resolution to desist from prayer. On retiring to bed, she repented the\ndecision she had made, and prayed fervently. She awoke in the morning\nbefore daybreak, and was surprised to find the room vividly\nilluminated, and that at the bedside was seated a heavenly figure, in\nthe form of an old man. This phantom was dressed in a blueish robe, and\nhad bright hair; and the countenance shone like the clearest red and\nwhite crystal. It regarded her benignantly, and said, \"_Proceed,\nproceed, proceed!_\" At first the words were unintelligible to her, but a\nyoung and beautiful angel, which appeared on the other side of the bed,\nexclaimed: \"_Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith, proceed in trials!_\"\nAfter this the devil appeared, pulled her by the hair, and tormented her\nin other ways, until the angel interfered, and drove him away. Satan in\nthis case assumed his usual hideous garb. Subsequently one of the angels\nexclaimed, three times: \"Lord, this is sufficient;\" and while saying\nthese words, the lady beheld large wings on his shoulders, and knew him\nto be an angel of God. The light and the angels then vanished, and the\nlady felt eased of her grief, and arose.\n\nIf the nature of the figures and the mode of action in these visions had\nnot sufficed to show how completely they were dependent upon dominant\nideas and a disordered state of the nervous system, the history of the\ncase would demonstrate it. The early, protracted, and inordinate study\nof religious beliefs, similar to that which laid the basis of\nSwedenborg's visions; the painful state of the mind induced by her\nunhappy marriage, and disease, were the source of the hallucinations to\nwhich she was subject; for it was ascertained that when the visions\noccurred she always suffered from slight attacks of epilepsy.\n\nIntense and protracted mental exertion frequently gives rise to\nhallucinations.\n\nA medical gentleman in Edinburgh, while seated one evening in his\nlibrary, after a period of excessive study, on raising his head, was\nstartled by perceiving at the opposite side of the table the spectre of\na gentleman who had died under melancholy circumstances some days\npreviously, and at whose post-mortem examination he had assisted.\n\nThat excessive action of the imagination, and consequent absorption of\nthe mind in its own workings, to exclusion of external sensations, which\nis common in men of genius, has been a fertile source of hallucinations.\n\nIn some instances the hallucinations have been \"counterfeit\npresentments\" of the ideas which have been most prominent in the mind;\nin others they have had no relation to that condition.\n\nSpinello, who had painted the Fall of the Angels, thought that he was\nhaunted by the frightful devils which he had depicted. He was rendered\nso miserable by this hallucination that he destroyed himself. One of\nour own artists, who was much engaged in painting caricatures, became\nhaunted by the distorted faces he drew; and the deep melancholy and\nterror which accompanied these apparitions caused him to commit suicide.\nM\u00fcller, who executed the copper-plate of the Sixtine Madonna, had more\nlovely visions. Towards the close of his life the Virgin appeared to\nhim, and thanking him for the affection he had shown towards her,\ninvited him to follow her to heaven. To achieve this, the artist starved\nhimself to death. Beethoven, who became completely deaf in the decline\nof life, often heard his sublime compositions performed distinctly.\n\nIt is related of Ben Jonson, that he spent the whole of one night in\nregarding his great toe, around which he saw Tartars, Turks, Romans, and\nCatholics climbing up, and struggling and fighting. Go\u00ebthe, when out\nriding one day, was surprised to see an exact image of himself on\nhorseback, dressed in a light-coloured coat, riding towards him.\n\nA similar kind of hallucination to this of Go\u00ebthe's has been observed as\na precursor of certain forms of insanity, and in the delirium of fever.\n\nBoismont records the case of a gentleman who was troubled with a\nspectral image of himself, which he had the power of calling before him\nvoluntarily. This, for several years, was a source of amusement to him;\nbut by degrees this phantom became more persistent, arose involuntarily,\nand addressed him. The hallucination then assumed a still graver\ncharacter, for his double would dispute with him, and often foil him in\nargument; and coincidently with this phase of the disease the gentleman\nbecame melancholy, and he ultimately committed suicide.\n\nThe imagination rarely gives rise to hallucinations of the senses of\ntouch, taste, or smell alone. The sweet-smelling odours which are stated\nto have been experienced during the visions of angels and saints; and\nthe foul and sulphurous fumes which have accompanied apparitions of the\ninfernals, are, however, to be attributed to this cause.\n\nThus far our illustrations and remarks have been confined to that class\nof hallucinations which are induced principally by the action of the\nimagination, mental emotion, or excessive exertion of the reasoning\npowers.\n\nThere is, however, another class of hallucinations dependent upon\ncertain disordered states of the general health and nervous system,\nwhich have an important bearing upon the belief in the supernatural.\n\nThe simplest forms of hallucination of this class are those occasionally\nobserved during the initiatory stages of some diseases, after the\ntermination of exhausting affections, or during temporary morbid\nconditions of the brain.\n\nThe following examples will illustrate the nature of the hallucinations\narising from these sources.\n\nA lady, with whom we are acquainted, was walking early one morning in a\nlonely and unfrequented path, which was open to the eye for some\ndistance. On approaching its termination, she was surprised to see a\nlady advancing towards her, dressed in deep mourning, and reading a\nbook. Struck by the peculiar beauty of the lady's face, she turned round\nto gaze upon her as she passed; but, to her surprise, the figure\nvanished. Startled and alarmed, she hurried home, and almost immediately\nafterwards was seized with shiverings, and suffered from a violent\nattack of fever, characterised by severe cerebral disturbance. The\nhallucination in this case was caused by the changes induced in the\nnervous system by the initiatory stages of the disease.\n\nA young lady recovering from a severe attack of fever, was left in\ncharge of the house during a fine Sunday evening in autumn, the\nremainder of the family having gone to church. A thunder-storm came on,\nwith heavy rain, and she became very anxious about her aged father. On\ngoing into the room generally occupied by the family, there, to her\ngreat astonishment, she beheld, as she thought, her father sitting in\nhis usual position. Supposing that he must have returned from church\nunwell, she advanced, placed her hand upon the semblance, and found\nnothing. Although startled, she attributed the vision to its proper\ncause, anxiety and weakness; but though she went in and out of the room\nseveral times, the spectre persisted for a considerable period.\n\nA merchant, while sitting in his counting-house, was annoyed by hearing\nvoices outside the door conversing freely respecting his character, and\nspeaking of him as a dishonoured man. Thinking it was some trick of his\nfriends, he quietly opened the door, and was astonished to find no one.\nOn closing it the voices again began in a similar strain; and on\nre-opening the door he still found no one. Alarmed, he left his office,\nand proceeded home, but the voices followed him, threatening punishment\nfor imaginary crimes. This hallucination was accompanied by other signs\nof a disordered state of the brain, and it was not until after a period\nof entire relaxation from business, and a daily game at cricket, that\nthe phantom-voices ceased.\n\nThere are certain formidable disorders of the nervous system in which\nhallucinations affect all the senses.\n\nThe following is an example of the diseases of this class, and it will\nshow the influence which they are liable to exert in the development of\ncertain forms of superstition.\n\nA maiden lady, aged forty years, who from early youth had been of a very\nsusceptible and restless disposition, suffered from hallucinations which\npersisted for many years.\n\nAt first the sight alone was affected, and she saw numerous persons of\nsingular and fantastic form. Subsequently she heard voices, which\nprofessed to have taken up their abode in her stomach, and addressed her\nfrom thence. These voices tormented her; commanded all her actions;\ninformed her of what took place within the body; gave her instructions\nupon diseases, and even prescribed for them. The voices gave her\ninformation respecting the characters of divers persons, and\noccasionally endowed her with the power of expressing herself in terms\nmore florid and fluent than she was accustomed to. Often the voices\nconversed on geography, grammar, rhetoric, &c.; and they would reprove\nher when she had done amiss. They told her that she was possessed, and\nalthough she was not superstitious, and fully recognized the\nhallucinations she suffered from, she at this time sought a priest to\nexorcise her, thought much of eternity, and sometimes gave herself up to\ndespair. At one time the voices told her she would become queen; often\nthey conversed with her upon strange, and sometimes even abominable\nsubjects; then they would say things extremely comical, and make her\nlaugh. They would please, and then mock her, and then assail her more\nviolently than ever, and spoil like harpies everything she touched or\ndid. If she took a glass of water, the voices would call out that it was\npoisoned; and frequently they urged her to destroy herself. When she\nwalked out, if she passed a female, the voices would cry out that she\ncarried musk (the odour of which the lady abominated) and immediately\nshe smelt this odour; if a man passed her, she was affected with the\nsmell of tobacco. The voices often gave her no rest until she did what\nthey liked, and they even ordered her to Paris, to place herself under\nthe care of physicians there.\n\nThe visions she suffered from were very singular. Her apartment was\nfilled with persons of all characters and descriptions; numerous\nprocessions defiled before her, and some of the figures had but one half\nthe body, a profile, or one eye; they were large or small, and\noccasionally underwent singular and fantastic changes of form.\n\nThe food she took did not possess its natural taste, and the voices\noften gave unpleasant savours, to prevent her eating.\n\nWhen she journeyed, she felt as if soaked with water, and she would\nattempt to wring her clothes.\n\nAddressing one of her physicians, when the malady was fully developed,\nshe said, \"I know that it is monomania, but the voices are stronger than\nmy will. I wish you to prescribe for me, it is impossible for me to\nremain in one place.\"[65]\n\nThis case is an interesting illustration of a form of disease, which,\nwhen developed in persons who are subject to religious enthusiasm, has\ngiven rise to the belief of possession with devils (_demonomania_).\nInstances of this disease are frequently met with in the French asylums.\n\nMany other forms of hallucination occur in insanity, monomania, fever,\nhysteria, and other diseases, in dreams, and from the influence of\ncertain poisonous substances taken into the system. Some of these\nhallucinations are of considerable interest, since they have been the\nprime cause of many superstitions.\n\nIn addition to the hallucinations of the hearing already mentioned, in\ncertain diseases, words spoken in the right ear have been heard in the\nleft, and _vice vers\u00e2_; and under the influence of opium or haschish\n(prepared from the Indian hemp), the sense becomes, occasionally, so\ndeveloped, that a word pronounced low, or a slight movement, sounds like\na peal of thunder. Hallucinations of the sight have occasionally\npresented figures of colossal stature, or of extreme diminutiveness; or\nthe patient has conceived the idea that he was so tall that he was\nunable to walk erect in a lofty apartment, or so diminutive that he\ndreaded the movements of any near to him, lest they should do him harm.\nPleasant or fetid odours are sometimes constantly present to the smell.\nFeuchtersleben states the case of a lady who was long haunted with the\neffluvia as of a charnel-house. The taste is subjected to hallucinations\nof exquisitely flavoured viands and wines; or the reverse, no food being\ntaken; or everything taken presents one undeviating flavour, which may\nbe pleasant or unpleasant, or it has no taste at all. A sensation of\n_flying_ is not uncommon. Boismont has a friend who frequently\nexperiences this sensation, and it often occurs in dreams. A friend of\nours is in the habit of dreaming that he is suspended about a foot above\nthe surface of the earth, and is carried along by simple volition,\nwithout movement of the limbs; and St. Jerome states, that often in\ndreams he flew from the earth over mountains and seas. Our ideas of\ndepth and space are sometimes increased in dreams to an extent that is\ninexpressible and almost bewildering; and the sensation of falling into\nan abyss is common to the dreamer. The idea of time is often extended\nindefinitely; in the space of a single night, days, weeks, years, and\neven ages, have appeared to elapse. Transformation of the figure is\noccasionally met with among the hallucinations of insanity; and in the\nstate induced by haschish, the singular and fantastic forms which those\nunder its influence, and the parties surrounding them, have appeared to\nundergo, are of great interest. \"The eyelashes,\" writes one gentleman,\n\"lengthened themselves indefinitely, and rolled themselves as threads of\ngold on little ivory bobbins, which turned unassisted, with frightful\nrapidity.... I still saw my comrades at certain moments, but _deformed_,\nhalf men, half plants, with the pensive airs of an ibis standing on one\nfoot, of ostriches flapping their wings, &c.\"--\"I imagined that I was\nthe parroquet of the Queen of Sheba, and I imitated as well as I was\nable the cries of this praiseworthy bird.\"\n\nIn the state caused by haschish it occasionally also happens that the\nperson under its influence may be caused to speak or act in any manner\nthat is suggested to him. This phenomenon is also seen in dreams; in\nboth conditions the half-awakened mind automatically pursues the train\nof thought which has been suggested to it either by the voice or by\ncertain sensations.\n\nLastly, in certain disordered conditions of the system, the person has\nthe power of looking, as it were, into himself, and ascertaining what is\ngoing on there, or of extending his sensual powers beyond the bounds of\ntheir ordinary sphere, and ascertaining what transpires in other places,\nor at a distance of many miles (_clairvoyance_). The gentleman from\nwhose experience of the effects of haschish we have already quoted,\nthought he could look at will into his stomach, and that he saw there,\nin the form of an emerald, from which escaped millions of sparkles, the\ndrug he had swallowed.\n\nBy a careful consideration of the illusions and hallucinations to which\nwe are liable, we obtain a clue to unravel the wild fantasies which\nconstitute the greater part of the most prominent superstitions.\n\nIf we reflect on the superstitious ideas which filled the minds of our\nforefathers, and follow them back, in their deepening intensity, into\nthe middle ages, we can easily imagine how the irregular and fantastic\nfigures which an indistinct and disordered vision gave rise to in the\ngloom of the night, were transformed into fiends and demons; how\nspectres, clothed in their horrid white and blue panoply, were seen\nstalking over the earth, and haunting the murder-stained castle, glade,\nand forest; how the dimly illuminated mists of the evening and morning\nshadowed forth the forms of the dead, and the spirits of the waters and\nthe air; how in the mist of Killarney, an O'Donoghue, mounted on his\nmilk-white steed, and attended by a host of fairy forms, swept over the\nbeautiful lake; and a spectral array arose night after night from the\nbed of the rushing Moldau, and besieged the walls of Prague; how the\nmoonbeams chequering the deep recesses of the woods, and the banks and\nmeadows overhung with foliage, were metamorphised into fairies; how the\nwind howling among the rocks and mountains, sweeping through the\nvalleys, or whispering amid the trees and about the nooks and corners of\nthe turretted castle and ruinous mansion, bore on its bosom the sounds\nof spectre-horsemen, demon-hunters, and fiend-like hounds, or the wail\nand lamentations of wandering and lost spirits, and the shrieks of the\ninfernals; and how the billows, rushing into the caverns and deep\nfissures in the cliffs of a rock-bound coast, filled the air with the\nmysterious and incomprehensible language of the spirits of the deep.\n\nA clue also is obtained to other forms of superstition.\n\nThe power which the witch was supposed to possess of transporting\nherself from place to place, and which those self-deluded wretches\nthemselves believed; and the orgies of the witch-sabbath, which were\nagain and again deposed to, were hallucinations due to a form of\ninsanity--for we may so call it--prevailing at the period, which was\ndetermined by the nature of the superstitious beliefs entertained. The\nreal character of this superstition is well shown by an incident which\nis recorded by Jung-Stilling.\n\nHe writes:--\"I am acquainted with a tale, for the truth of which I can\nvouch, because it is taken from the official documents of an old\nwitch-process. An old woman was imprisoned, put to the torture, and\nconfessed all that witches are generally charged with. Amongst others,\nshe also denounced a neighbour of hers, who had been with her on the\nBlocksberg, the preceding Walpurgis night. This woman was called, and\nasked if it were true what the prisoner said of her? On which she stated\nthat, on Walpurgis eve she had called upon this woman, because she had\nsomething to say to her. On entering her kitchen, she found the prisoner\nbusy in preparing a decoction of herbs. On asking her what she was\nboiling, she said, with a smiling and mysterious mien, \"Wilt thou go\nwith me to the Brocken?\" From curiosity, and in order to ascertain what\nthere was in the matter, she answered, \"Yes: I should like to go well\nenough.\" On which the prisoner chattered some time about the feast, and\nthe dance, and the enormous goat. She then drank of the decoction, and\noffered it to her, saying: \"There, take a hearty drink of it, that thou\nmayest be able to ride through the air:\" she likewise put the pot to her\nmouth, and made as if she drank of it, but did not taste a drop. During\nthis, the prisoner had put a pitchfork between her legs, and placed\nherself upon the hearth; that she soon sunk down, and began to sleep and\nsnore: after having looked on for some time, she was at length tired of\nit, and went home.\n\nThe next morning, the prisoner came to her, and said, \"Well, how dost\nthou like being at the Brocken? Sith, there were glorious doings.\" On\nwhich she had laughed heartily, and told her that she had not drunk of\nthe potion, and that she, the prisoner, had not been at the Brocken, but\nhad slept with her pitchfork upon the hearth. That the woman, on this,\nbecame angry, and said to her, that she ought not to deny having been at\nthe Brocken, and having danced and kissed the goat.\"[66]\n\nGassendi relates an experiment to the same effect. He anointed some\npeasants with a pomade made of belladonna or opium, persuading them that\nthe operation would convey them to the witch-sabbath. After a profound\nsleep, they awoke, and told how they had been present at the sabbath,\nand the pleasures they had enjoyed.\n\nStupifying and intoxicating drugs were, in all probability, freely used\nby sorcerers, and in the ancient mysteries, and to their use is to be\nattributed many of the illusions and hallucinations which are familiar\nin the details of the practice of the occult sciences.\n\nJung-Stilling quotes a singularly interesting example of a method of\npractising one of the most important processes of magic; and an\nexamination of it satisfactory shows the manner in which some of the\nmost striking of the deceptions of that art were brought about, and how\nit happened that the professor, as well as the student, was equally\ndeluded.\n\nIn Eckhartshausen's \"Key to Magic\" there is an account of a young\nScotsman \"who, though he meddled not with the conjuration of spirits,\nand such like charlatanry, had learned, however, a remarkable piece of\nart from a Jew, which he communicated also to Eckhartshausen, and made\nthe experiment with him,--which is surprising, and worthy of perusal. He\nthat wishes to raise and see any particular spirit, _must prepare\nhimself for it, for some days together, both spiritually and\nphysically_. There are also particular and remarkable requisites and\nrelations necessary betwixt such a spirit and the person who wishes to\nsee it--relations which cannot otherwise be explained, than on the\nground of the intervention of some secret influence from the invisible\nworld. After all these precautions, a vapour is produced in a room, from\ncertain materials which Eckhartshausen, with propriety, does not\ndivulge, on account of the dangerous abuse which might be made of it,\nwhich visibly forms itself into a figure which bears a resemblance to\nthat which the person wishes to see. In this there is no question of any\nmagic-lantern or optical artifice; but the vapour really forms a human\nfigure, similar to that which the individual desires to behold. I will\nnow insert the conclusion of the story in Eckhartshausen's own words:--\n\n\"Some time after the departure of the stranger, that is, the Scotsman, I\nmade the experiment for one of my friends. He saw as I did, and had the\nsame sensations.\n\n\"The observations that we made were these. As soon as the ingredients\nwere thrown into the chafing-dish, a whitish body forms itself, that\nseems to hover above the chafing-dish, as large as life.\n\n\"It possesses the likeness of the person whom we wished to see, only the\nvisage is of an ashy paleness.\n\n\"On approaching the figure, one is conscious of a resistance, similar to\nthat which is felt when going against a strong wind, which drives one\nback.\n\n\"If one speaks with it, one remembers no more distinctly what is spoken;\nand when the appearance vanishes, one feels as if awakening from a\ndream. The head is stupified, and a contraction is felt about the\nabdomen. It is also very singular that the same appearance presents\nitself when one is in the dark, or when looking upon dark objects.\n\n\"The unpleasantness of this sensation was the reason why I was unwilling\nto repeat the experiment, although often urged to do so by many\nindividuals.\"[67]\n\nIt would be difficult to conceive any more powerful method of inducing\nhallucinations than that detailed in this instructive and interesting\nrecital. The previous schooling of the imagination, in order thoroughly\nto imbue it with the train of ideas requisite for the full development\nof the phenomenon, and the subsequent intoxication induced by the\ninhalation of powerful narcotic vapours--an intoxication which, as we\nhave already seen in the example of haschish, is peculiarly apt to the\ndevelopment of hallucinations--will sufficiently account for the\nillusion of the smoke of the chafing-dish presenting any figure which\nthe mind desires to see. The difficulty which the experimenter\nexperienced in approaching the phantom, and which he compares to the\nresistance which is felt when contending against a strong wind, was\nevidently due to the powerful emotion which he experienced depriving him\nof that control of the voluntary muscles, such as we find in a person\nparalyzed by fear or astonishment; or perhaps it was rather a feeling\nsimilar to that experienced in nightmare, when, whatever effort we may\nmake, we feel almost incapable of motion.\n\nThe action of the narcotic vapour alone was sufficient to induce\nhallucinations; for, persuaded by a very experienced physician, who\n\"maintained that the narcotic ingredients which formed the vapour must\nof necessity violently affect the imagination, and might be very\ninjurious, according to circumstances,\" Eckhartshausen made the\nexperiment on himself without previous preparation; \"but,\" he writes,\n\"scarcely had I cast the quantum of ingredients into the chafing-dish,\nwhen a figure presented itself. I was, however, seized with such a\nhorror, that I was obliged to leave the room. I was very ill during\nthree hours, and thought I saw the figure always before me. Towards\nevening, after inhaling the fumes of vinegar, and drinking it with\nwater, I was better again; but for three weeks afterwards I felt a\ndebility: and the strangest part of the matter is, that when I remember\nthe circumstance, and look for some time upon any dark object, this ashy\npale figure still presents itself very vividly to my sight. After this I\nno longer dared to make any experiments with it.\"\n\nThe use of intoxicating and stupifying drugs doubtless contributed also\nto the development of those ideas of strange and wonderful\ntransformations and anomalies of form with which the legends and\nromances of Oriental and European nations teem. In the examples of\nhallucinations we have already given from this source, we find the key\nto the explanation of several of these transformations; and the\nelaborated supernatural framework of fairy tales, in which men are\nchanged without compunction into inferior animals, trees, or vegetables,\nhas probably had a similar origin.\n\nThe state of \"clairvoyance,\" and that condition of the nervous system\nwhich is found in certain diseases, dreams, and under the influence of\nnarcotic poisons, in which, by suggestions, in whatever manner given,\ncertain actions and trains of thought may be excited at the will of the\nsuggestor, is seen also, and may be induced at will in those conditions\nof the system which are summed up under the terms \"mesmerism,\" \"animal\nmagnetism,\" \"electro-biology,\" &c.; and the theories which have been\ninvented to explain them, and which are expressed in the above names,\nare not only needless, but inconsistent with the facts observed. The\nso-called mesmeric and electro-biological trance is strictly allied to\ncertain forms of dreaming; and the whole of the results witnessed may be\nexplained by certain admitted physiological and physical laws of action,\nand are due to leading trains of thought which are excited by\nsuggestions direct or indirect. As to the higher faculty of prevision\nclaimed in this state, we are not aware that, as yet, a single\ntrustworthy instance has been established.\n\nThere is a class of spectral apparitions which differ from those which\nwe have already dwelt upon, inasmuch as they have appeared to\nforeshadow, or have occurred coincidently with, the death of an\nindividual; or they have made known events occurring at a distance, or\nhave brought to light things else hidden by the grave.\n\nIn the deepening gloom of twilight the seer of Scotland often witnessed\nthe _wraiths_ of those who were about to die, wreathed in the ascending\nmists of the night, troop in ghostly silence before his horror-stricken\nvision; and the _Bodach Glas_ crossed the path of the death-laden Mac\nIvor; the _Bodac au Dun_, or Ghost of the Hill, warned the Rothmurchan\nof approaching calamity; the spectre of the Bloody Hand scared the\nKincardines; the _Bodach Gartin_ glided in significant horror through\nthe gloomy passages of Gartnibeg House; and the Girl with the Hairy Left\nHand--_Manch Monlach_--pointed to the death-bolt about to carry weeping\nand wailing into the halls of Tulloch Gorus.\n\nThe spectral _fetch_ shadowed forth in the sister isle the dark course\nof death; while the Banshee mourned with the frightful accents of the\ndead over the dying scions of the ancient families. Hovering near the\nsorrow-laden mansion, her robe flowing wide in the night air, and her\ntangled tresses borne upon the wind, she cried the keen of another world\nadown the vaulted passages, and sobbed in ghastly agony her bitter\nlamentations.\n\nThe _Gwr\u00e2ch y Rhibyn_--Hag of the Dribble--when the night had covered\nthe earth, spread out her leathern-like wings, and flitting before the\nhouse of the death-stricken Cambrians, shrieked in harsh, broken, and\nprolonged tones their names.\n\nIn our own land the spectres of all those who would die in the parish\nduring the year might be seen walking in ghostly procession to the\nchurch, or entering its portals, by him who would watch, three years\nconsecutively, during the last hour of the night and the first hour of\nthe morning, in the porch, on the Eve of St. Mark, or would kneel and\nlook through the keyhole of the door of the sanctuary at midnight on the\nEve of St. John the Baptist.\n\nThe _White Lady_, who haunts the ancient castle of the celebrated\nBohemian family of Rosenberg-Neuhaus, and who also appears from time to\ntime in the castles of the allied families of Brandenburg, Baden, and\nDarmstadt,--Trzebon, Islubocka, Bechin, and Tretzen, and even has been\nseen in Berlin, Bayreuth, and at Carlsrhue is of historical notoriety.\nTall of stature, attired in white, and wearing a white widow's veil\nadorned with ribbons, through the folds of which, and from within her, a\nfaint light has been seen to glimmer, she glides with a modest air\nthrough the corridors and apartments of those castles and palaces in\nwhich the death of one of her family is about to occur; and she has been\nseen at other times, and oft, with the aspect and air as though the\nspirit had a melancholy pleasure in visiting and hovering about her\ndescendants. It is said to be the ghost of one Perchta Von Rosenberg,\nwho was born between A.D. 1420 and 1430, and subsequently married to\nJohn Von Lichtenstein, a rich and profligate baron, who so embittered\nher life that she was obliged to seek relief from her relatives, and she\ndied borne down with the insults and indescribable distress she endured.\nAmong the old paintings of the family of Rosenberg was found a portrait\nof this lady, attired after the fashion of the times, and bearing an\nexact resemblance to the \"_White Lady_.\" In December, 1628, she appeared\nin Berlin, and was heard to exclaim, \"Veni, judica vivos et mortuos:\njudicium mihi adhuc superest!\"--\"Come, judge the living and the dead; my\nfate is not yet decided.\"\n\nThe _Klage-weib_ (Mourning Woman) when the storm is driving the rift\nbefore it, and the moon shines fitfully and faintly on the earth, may be\nseen stalking along, her gigantic and shadowy form enveloped in dark\nflowing grave-clothes, her deathlike countenance and deep cavernous eyes\nfreezing the unhappy spectator with horror, while, extending her vast\narm, she sweeps it above the cottage marked out by death.\n\nIn the Tyrol also, the phantom of a white woman looks in at the window\nof a house where a person must die.\n\nThese are examples of spectral apparitions foreboding death and\nmisfortune, which the lapse of ages and the influence of superstition\nhave invested with a semblance of reality, approximating them in\napparent truthfulness to historical facts.\n\nIt is a needless, and would be a thankless task, to show how these\nnotions were the legitimate result of the ideas of the supernatural\nentertained at the period when they were developed; and how when the\nsuperstitions once assumed a definite form, the slightest illusion\nduring the period of sickness or calamity, whether observed in the\ncastellated mansion, pregnant generally with deeds of darkness or blood,\nor in the twilight or the storm of a moon-lit night, were converted into\nthese phantoms;[68] or the imperfectly remembered dream, or its vivid\ndepiction of the superstition, shadowed forth the same.\n\nScant of romance, and that wild and thrilling medium through which many\nof our old legends are seen, we have handed to us numerous business-like\nstories, some of very recent date, in which the same principles are\ninvolved as in the legends we have detailed, and which demand grave\nattention, from the honest truthfulness with which they are evidently\ndetailed, and the events which they appear to have foreshadowed.\n\nLet us examine some of these instances, and endeavour to ascertain\nwhether they come under the character of illusions or hallucinations; or\nwhether they are to be placed in another category, and to be regarded as\nthe results of supernatural agency, as is most frequently done.\n\nIn \"Blackwood's Magazine\" for 1840, there is a letter which contains the\nfollowing statement:--\n\n\"The 'Hawk' being on her passage from the Cape of Good Hope towards the\nisland of Java, and myself having the charge of the middle watch,\nbetween one and two in the morning I was taken suddenly ill, which\nobliged me to send for the officer next in turn; I then went down on the\ngun-deck, and sent my boy for a light. In the meanwhile, I sat down on a\nchest in the steerage, under the after-grating, when I felt a gentle\nsqueeze by a very cold hand; I started, and saw a figure in white;\nstepping back, I said, 'God's my life! who is that?' It stood and gazed\nat me a short time, stooped its head to get a more perfect view, sighed\naloud, repeated the exclamation 'Oh!' three times, and instantly\nvanished. The night was fine, though the moon afforded through the\ngratings but a weak light, so that little of feature could be seen,\nonly a figure rather tall than otherwise, and white-clad. My boy\nreturning now with a light, I sent him to the cabins of all the\nofficers, when he brought me word that not one of them had been\nstirring. Coming afterwards to St. Helena, homeward-bound, hearing of my\nsister's death, and finding the time so nearly coinciding, it added much\nto my painful concern; and I have only to thank God, that when I saw\nwhat I now verily believe to have been her apparition (my sister Ann), I\ndid not then know the melancholy occasion of it.\"\n\nThe superstitious feelings which we find pervading the mind of the\ngentleman relating this incident, and which is evinced by its\ntermination; the circumstances under which the apparition took place,\nnamely, a dim uncertain light, that most favourable to illusion; an\nattack of indisposition leading to alteration of the natural sensations;\nand lastly, and most important of all, the after-conclusion arrived at\non hearing of the sister's death, and under the influence of which the\naccount was written, and which, it is evident from the nature of the\ndetails, gave rise to that definite statement which has been\nrecorded,--all tend to the conclusion that the spectre was an illusion,\nand that its significance was a phase imparted to it by superstitious\nfeelings alone.\n\nThe influence of subsequent conclusions in warping the real history of\nan event, and giving a definite and precise character to what would\notherwise have been vague and inconclusive, as is witnessed in the above\nstory, is one of the most important fallacies pervading ghost-stories.\nThere is no source of self-deception to which we are exposed, more\ninsidious; and it is requisite to keep it constantly in view, not only\nin relations of this nature, but in the examination of events of any\nkind whatever. The colouring which facts receive from this source, too\noften hides their real character; and the reciter is perfectly\nunconscious of the erroneous light which he casts upon them. Hence the\nimportance of ascertaining the peculiar bias and tendencies of thought\nwhich appertain to one who records occurrences upon which important\nconclusions or theories may be based.\n\nThe vicious habit which has been common among the advocates of\nsupernatural visitations, of supporting their opinions upon the\nassertions of men of known probity and honour, to the complete exclusion\nof an examination of the sources of delusion and error to which these\nmen were liable from the character of their previous education, habits\nof thought, associations, &c., and from their imperfect acquaintance\nwith the fallacies to which they may have been exposed, has been a\nfertile source of error.\n\nA so-called fact is not an abstract truth; it is simply a fact so far as\nit relates to the assertor, and the credence given to it by others\ndepends upon the extent to which it agrees with their experience, or\nupon the knowledge that the assertor has by previous study or experience\nso far diminished the probability of error on the subject to which it\nrelates, that the statement may be received without hesitation.\n\nAnother form of ghost-story is that in which the spirit of the dead has\nbeen compelled to wander in misery on the earth, for some crime or\nerror, small or great, committed during life, and which, unless it be\natoned for or rectified, prevents its eternal repose.\n\nA story of this kind is given by Jung-Stilling, and however absurd it\nmay be in some parts, it is interesting from the precision of its\ndetails enabling us to lay hold of a clue to the explanation of the\nmajority of these tales.\n\nIn 1756, M. Doerien, one of the proctors of Caroline College, Brunswick,\nwas taken ill and died, shortly after \"St. John's Day\" (June 24th).\nImmediately before his death, he requested to see another of the\nproctors, M. Hoefer, having some communication of importance to make to\nhim; but before that gentleman arrived, death had taken place. After\nsome time a report became prevalent in the college that the ghost of the\ndeceased proctor had been seen; but as this proceeded merely from the\nyoung, little attention had been given to it. At length, in October,\nupwards of three months after the death of M. Doerien, as M. Hoefer was\nproceeding on his accustomed nightly round, between the hours of eleven\nand twelve, in one of the corridors he saw the spectre of that\nprofessor, clothed in a common night-gown and white night-cap. This\nunexpected sight terrified M. Hoefer somewhat, but recollecting that he\nwas in the path of duty, he recovered himself, and advancing to the\nspectre, endeavoured to examine it by the light of the candle he held in\nhis hand; but such a horror came over him, that he could scarcely\nwithdraw the hand in which he extended the light, and from that moment\nit was so swollen, \"that some months elapsed before it was healed.\" The\nfollowing night he was accompanied in his rounds by a philosopher,\nProfessor Oeder, who was rather sceptical on the subject of apparitions;\nbut on approaching the spot in which the spectre had been seen on the\nprevious evening, there they beheld it again in the same position.\n\nOthers attempted to gain a sight of the ghost, but it would not manifest\nitself, not even to MM. Oeder and Hoefer, until the former gentleman,\nwearied with his useless watching during a somewhat prolonged period,\nexclaimed, \"I have gone after the spirit long enough to please him; if\nhe now wants anything, let him come to me.\" But what followed? About\nfourteen days after, when he was thinking about anything else than of\nghosts, he was suddenly and rudely awakened, between three and four\no'clock in the morning, by some external motion. On opening his eyes, he\nsaw an apparition opposite to the bed, standing by the clothes-press,\nwhich was only two paces from it, that presented itself in the same\nattire as the spirit. He raised himself up, and could then clearly\ndiscern the whole face. He fixed his eyes steadfastly upon the phantom,\nuntil, after a period of eight minutes, it became invisible.\n\nThe next morning he was again awakened about the same time, and saw the\nsame apparition, only with this difference, that the door of the press\nmade a cracking noise, just as if some one leaned upon it. This time the\nspirit remained longer, so that Professor Oeder spoke to it as follows:\n\"Get thee hence, thou evil spirit; what hast thou to do here?\" At these\nwords the phantom made all kinds of dreadful motions, waved its head,\nits hands, and its feet in such a manner, that the terrified Professor\nbegan to pray, \"Who trusts in God, &c.,\" and \"God the Father dwell with\nus, &c.,\" on which the spirit vanished.\n\nAfter eight days the spirit again appeared, \"but with this difference,\nthat it came from the press directly towards him, and inclined its head\nover him,\" whereupon the terrified Professor struck out at it, and the\nspirit retired; but no sooner had he laid down, than it again advanced,\nand he, noticing that its aspect was \"more in sorrow than in anger,\"\nobserved it attentively, and saw that the ghost had a short tobacco-pipe\nin its mouth. This circumstance and the spirit's mild mien induced him\nto address the ghost, and ask, \"Are you still owing anything.\" He knew\nbeforehand that the deceased had left some debts, and the amount of a\nfew dollars, _which occasioned the inquiry_. The spirit looked\nattentively at this query; and at length, guided by the tobacco-pipe,\nwhen the Professor asked, \"Are you perhaps owing something for tobacco?\"\nthe spirit retreated and suddenly disappeared. Measures were immediately\ntaken to liquidate the debt which was found to be owing for tobacco.\n\nThe next night Professor Seidler remained with Oeder. The spirit again\nappeared, but not as formerly, at the press, but near it, close to the\nwhite wall. It was visible only to Oeder, his brother professor merely\nseeing \"something white.\" From this night Oeder burnt a night-lamp, and\nhe no longer saw the apparition; but for some nights, at the same time,\nfrom three to five, he was troubled with uneasy sensations, and\nfrequently heard a noise at the clothes-press and knocking at the door.\nBy degrees these sensations passed away, and he discontinued the\nnight-lamp; but the second night after, the spectre again appeared \"at\nthe accustomed hour, but visibly darker.\" It had, moreover, a new sign\nin its hand--\"It was like a picture, and had a hole in the centre, into\nwhich the spirit frequently put its hand. After long ruminating and\ninquiring what the deceased might mean by these signs, so much was at\nlength elicited, that a short time before his illness he had taken some\npaintings in a magic lantern from a picture-dealer on trial, which had\nnot been returned. The paintings were given to the rightful owner, and\nfrom that time Oeder continued undisturbed.\"\n\nIn this story we notice, first, that a report was prevalent in the\ncollege, that the ghost of M. Doerien had been seen by several persons;\nand it is but natural to suppose that such a statement would exercise a\npowerful effect upon the mind of M. Hoefer, who had been placed in the\npainful position of being summoned to the death-bed of his friend, to\nreceive a communication \"necessary to mention to him,\" but had arrived\nin time only to witness the death-struggle. Upwards of three months\nafter the death of M. Doerien, and when M. Hoefer was evidently in a\ndisordered state of health, as is indicated by the swelling of the hand,\nand subsequent persistence of this swelling for some time, as this\ngentleman was making his usual rounds by the light of a taper in the\ndead of night, he witnesses the first apparition in a situation pregnant\nwith associations of the deceased. The apparition may have been an\nillusion, suggested at first by some outlines indistinctly seen; or it\nmay have been, and it is more probable to have been, an hallucination\nexcited by the association of ideas in a person whose system was in a\ndisordered state.\n\nThat connection of ideas, similar or dissimilar, which is acquired by\nhabit or otherwise, so that one of them, in whatever manner we may\nbecome conscious of it, will suggest and give rise to the others,\nwithout the intervention of a voluntary action of the mind, is familiar\nto most persons.\n\nThe association which the mind habitually forms between certain objects\nand scenes, and persons connected with them, is most evident when a\nseparation has been effected by death or removal to a distance; and, as\nis well-known, and has probably been painfully experienced by most\npersons, when the mind has been rallying from a state of abstraction or\nreverie, the sight of some object, or an indistinct sound, which during\nthe full activity of the faculties would not have been regarded, or\nwould simply have sufficed to arouse an ordinary reminiscence, will\ncause to flash athwart the mind, a vivid and startling image of the\ndeceased or far distant one.\n\nWe well remember some years ago, when a fellow-student, with whom we had\nbeen on very intimate terms, was cut off after a few days' illness. He\nhad been in the habit of spending much time in our rooms. For some\nmonths after his death, particularly when wearied with study, a slight\nnoise in the passage or at the door of the room has given rise to so\nvivid an impression that he was approaching, or at the door, that it has\nrequired an effort of the mind to quell the hallucination.\n\nThe apparition which M. Hoefer witnessed, was most probably an\nhallucination of this kind; the corridor, and position in which it\noccurred, recalling to memory, in all the vividness of reality, the form\nand lineaments of that deceased friend who had formerly frequented it\nalong with him.\n\nWe have already seen an instance of a somewhat similar character, in the\naccount given in a previous paper of the apparition of a father, then\nalive, but absent at church, to his daughter at home. In that case the\napparition was excited by the sight of the arm-chair generally occupied\nby the old gentleman, and connected with it alone, the association of\nthe ideas being obvious; and the state of the brain forming, so to\nspeak, the substratum of the hallucination, was induced by uneasiness\ncaused by a heavy thunder-storm acting on a frame debilitated by fever.\n\nThe apparition of the following night, which was seen also by Professor\nOeder, was, so far as M. Hoefer was concerned, a modification of the\nhallucination of the preceding night, prompted by the belief that the\napparition he had witnessed was supernatural; and the precise similarity\nof the apparition professed to have been seen by M. Oeder, to that seen\nby M. Hoefer on that and the preceding night, would lead to the\nsuspicion that in the former gentleman it was a trick of the imagination\nalone,--a suspicion confirmed by the subsequent progress of the tale.\n\nProfessor Oeder brooded upon the apparition he had witnessed, and, it is\nimportant to mark, made every endeavour for some time to obtain a second\nsight of it, but failed, until wearied out with his fruitless research,\nhe ceased to hunt after it. Fourteen days afterwards, he states that he\nwas suddenly and rudely awakened \"by some external motion\" (which is\nevidently an after-conclusion derived from what followed), and saw the\napparition of Doerien standing by the clothes-press.\n\nIn other words, he awoke suddenly out of a troubled sleep, and in the\ntransition state between sleeping and waking, in which the mental images\nare as bright and defined as in dreams, the subject which had occupied\nhis mind so much of late was presented before him in a visible form. As\nit not unfrequently happens when a dream has made a powerful impression\non the mind, it is repeated again, so on the following night M. Oeder's\nhallucination occurred, but with the addition of a slight creaking noise\nof the clothes-press door.\n\nOeder was now fully convinced of the supernatural character of his\nvisitant, and when the spectre again appeared to him, which was after a\nperiod of eight days, he having adopted the opinion at that period very\nprevalent, of troubled spirits, proceeded to inquire as to the cause of\nits visitations; and noticing a white tobacco-pipe in the spirit's\nmouth, and _knowing_ that the deceased Doerien had \"left some debts to\nthe amount of a few dollars,\" he asked, \"Are you perhaps owing for\ntobacco?\" whereupon the spirit disappeared. Here then we find an\nhallucination, either in the dreaming or waking state, presenting the\nprecise similitude of the Professor's opinions and conceptions\nrespecting the possible cause of the spectre.\n\nThe following night, when the spectre appeared again, a friend was with\nOeder, but this friend saw \"nothing further than something white,\"--no\nvery extraordinary sight in a room which had white walls, and was not\nperfectly dark.\n\nFrom this time Oeder used a night-lamp, and the spectre no more\nappeared, but by certain sensations and noises he knew it was in the\napartment.\n\nThe invisibility of the spectre, when the light was present, would\nindicate that a sensation of light excited in the eye by a disordered\nstate of the head, such as we have fully dwelt upon in a previous part\nof the work, played an important part of the hallucination; and the\ndisturbed sleep for so many nights, and uneasy sensations, point to a\ncircumstance which we have not yet alluded to, that the Professor's\nhealth was not in good condition,--the probable cause of the whole\nseries of hallucinations.\n\nThe uneasy sensations ceased, the light was dispensed with, the spectre\nagain came, but it was darker, and contained a new sign in its hand,\nwhich, by following out a similar course of reasoning as upon the\ntobacco-pipe, and by long ruminating and inquiring, the Professor\npuzzled out to signify some paintings belonging to a magic lantern which\nDoerien had received on trial before his death, and which had not been\nreturned. They were sought up, sent to their rightful owner, and the\napparition vanished to return no more.\n\nIt is to be remembered that this story, like most others of a similar\nnature, has been written under a full belief of the supernatural\ncharacter of the apparitions, and it has received a colouring\naccordingly; and our comments suffice to show that no care, no attempt,\nhas been made by the ghost-seer, to ascertain how much the apparitions\nmight depend upon some illusion or hallucinations connected with his\nbodily health. The progress of the tale further shows that the\napparitions occurred, in both M. Hoefer as well as Professor Oeder's\ncase, in connection with symptoms of disordered health, and that they\nadded nothing to what these gentlemen knew, or could work out, as M.\nOeder did, by his own reason and judgment; in short, that they were\nsimple images of ideas they already possessed or arrived at from the\ninformation they obtained.\n\nOther sources of error in the judgment could be pointed out, and other\ncauses of illusion and hallucination in the above tale, but we have\nwritten sufficient to show its worthlessness.\n\nOne of the most formidable objections to the majority of ghost-stories\nof this nature is the insufficiency of the authority upon which they are\ngiven. In many instances we cannot trace them satisfactorily to their\norigin; in others, we have received them after they have passed through\nthe hands of several persons; and in still more (as in the tales we have\njust analysed) there is intrinsic evidence that no endeavour has been\nmade to obviate or elicit the sources of fallacy to which the ghost-seer\nhas been exposed, and diminish as much as possible the chances of error.\n\nThe story of the \"Last Hours of Lord Lyttleton\" is a singularly\ninteresting example of a ghost-story, based upon insufficient authority,\nand probably also upon a trivial circumstance, receiving almost\nuniversal credence; and it shows, moreover, how readily the\nsuperstitious feelings of the listeners will lead them to receive\nwithout due examination, tales which in themselves may be utterly void\nof satisfactory foundation; and induce them to retail subsequently an\naccount which has probably received its precision and colouring from\ntheir imaginations alone.\n\nOft as the story has been told, we are necessitated again to quote it in\npart, in order to show more fully the nature of the authority upon\nwhich it depends.\n\nA gentleman, who was on a visit to Lord Lyttleton, writes:--\n\n\"I was at Pitt Place, Epsom, when Lord Lyttleton died; Lord Fortescue,\nLady Flood, and the two Miss Amphletts, were also present. Lord\nLyttleton had not long been returned from Ireland, and frequently had\nbeen seized with suffocating fits; he was attacked several times by them\nin the course of the preceding month, while he was at his house in Hill\nStreet, Berkeley Square. It happened that he dreamt, three days before\nhis death, that he saw a fluttering bird; and afterwards, that a woman\nappeared to him in white apparel, and said to him, 'Prepare to die, you\nwill not exist three days.' His Lordship was much alarmed, and called to\na servant from a closet adjoining, who found him much agitated, and in a\nprofuse perspiration: the circumstance had a considerable effect all the\nnext day on his Lordship's spirits. On the third day, while his Lordship\nwas at breakfast with the above personages, he said, 'If I live over\nto-night, I shall have jockied the ghost, for this is the third day.'\nThe whole party presently set off for Pitt Place, where they had not\nlong arrived before his Lordship was visited by one of his accustomed\nfits; after a short interval, he recovered. He dined at five o'clock\nthat day, and went to bed at eleven, when his servant was about to give\nhim rhubarb and mint-water; but his Lordship perceiving him stir it with\na tooth-pick, called him a slovenly dog, and bade him go and fetch a\ntea-spoon; but on the man's return, he found his master in a fit, and\nthe pillow being placed high, his chin bore hard upon his neck, when the\nservant, instead of relieving his Lordship on the instant from his\nperilous situation, ran in his fright and called out for help, but on\nhis return he found his Lordship dead.\"\n\nThe circumstances attending the apparition, as related by Lord\nLyttleton, according to the statement of a relative of Lady Lyttleton's,\nwere as follows:\n\n\"Two nights before, on his retiring to bed, after his servant was\ndismissed and his light extinguished, he had heard a noise resembling\nthe fluttering of a dove at his chamber window. This attracted his\nattention to the spot; when, looking in the direction of the sound, he\nsaw the figure of an unhappy female whom he had seduced and deserted,\nand who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence,\nstanding in the aperture of the window from which the fluttering sound\nhad proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed, the room was\npreternaturally light, the objects of the chamber were distinctly\nvisible; raising her head and pointing to a dial which stood on the\nmantel-piece of the chimney, the figure, with a severe solemnity of\nvoice and manner, announced to the appalled and conscience-stricken man\nthat, at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation, his life\nand his sins would be concluded, and nothing but their punishment\nremain, if he availed himself not of the warning to repentance which he\nhad received. The eye of Lord Lyttleton glanced upon the dial, the hand\nwas upon the stroke of twelve; again the apartment was involved in total\ndarkness, the warning spirit disappeared, and bore away at her departure\nall the lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit, ready flow of wit,\nand vivacity of manner, which had formerly been the pride and ornament\nof the unhappy being to whom she had delivered her tremendous summons.\"\n\nFrom a passage in the Memoirs of Sir Nathanial Wraxall, it would seem\nthat the sole authority for the above story was his Lordship's\n_valet-de-chambre_, for he writes:--\n\n\"Dining at Pitt Place, about four years after the death of Lord\nLyttleton, in the year 1783, I had the curiosity to visit the\nbedchamber, where the casement-window, at which Lord Lyttleton asserted\nthe dove appeared to flutter, was pointed out to me; and at his\nstepmother's, the Dowager Lady Lyttleton's, in Portugal Street,\nGrosvenor Square, I have frequently seen a painting, which she herself\nexecuted, in 1780, expressly to commemorate the event; it hung in a\nconspicuous part of her drawing-room. There the dove appears at the\nwindow, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the foot of\nthe bed, announcing to Lord Lyttleton his dissolution. Every part of the\npicture was faithfully designed, _after the description given to her by\nthe valet-de-chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all\nthe circumstances_.\"\n\nIn addition it would appear, according to Lord Fortescue, that the only\nfoundation upon which this story rests, is as follows:--\n\n\"I heard Lord Fortescue once say,\" writes a friend of Sir Walter Scott,\n\"that he was in the house with him (Lord Lyttleton) at the time of the\nsupposed visitation, and he mentioned the following circumstances as the\nonly foundation for the extraordinary superstructure at which the world\nhas wondered:--A woman of the party had one day lost a favourite bird,\nand all the men tried to recover it for her. Soon after, on assembling\nat breakfast, Lord Lyttleton complained of having passed a very bad\nnight, and having been worried in his dreams by a repetition of the\nchase of the lady's bird. His death followed, as stated in the\nstory.\"[69]\n\nIt would seem highly probable, therefore, that this story has been\nframed much after the same fashion as that of the \"three black crows,\"\nand the singular differences which we find in the versions we have\ngiven, fully confirm this view.\n\nConnected with the foregoing story is another of the apparition of Lord\nLyttleton, on the night of his death, to Miles Peter Andrews, one of his\nmost intimate friends. This apparition occurred at Dartford Mills, where\nMr. Andrews was then staying, and doubtless, in its origin and mode of\ndevelopment, the story is in every respect similar to that of Lord\nLyttleton's.\n\nThe March number of \"_Household Words_,\"[70] for 1853, contains a\nghost-story which exhibits another form of the belief, differing from\nthose which we have already dwelt upon, and it is interesting from its\ncomparatively recent occurrence, and from its having to a certain extent\nreceived the confirmation of a law-court.\n\nIn the colony of New South Wales, at a place called Penrith, distant\nfrom Sydney about thirty-seven miles, lived a farmer named Fisher. He\nwas unmarried, about forty-five years old, and his lands and stock were\nworth not less than \u00a34000. Suddenly Fisher disappeared, and a neighbour,\nnamed Smith, gave out that he had gone to England for two or three\nyears, and produced a written document authorizing him to act as his\nagent during his absence. As Fisher was an eccentric man, this sudden\ndeparture did not create much surprise, and it was declared to be\n\"exactly like him.\"\n\nAbout six months after Fisher's disappearance, an old man called Ben\nWeir, who had a small farm near Penrith, and who always drove his own\ncart to market, was returning from Sydney one night, when he beheld,\nseated on a rail which bounded the road--Fisher. _The night was very\ndark, and the distance of the fence from the middle of the road was at\nleast twelve yards._ Weir, nevertheless, saw Fisher's figure seated on\nthe rail. He pulled his old mare up, and called out, \"Fisher, is that\nyou?\" No answer was returned, but there, still on the rail, sat the form\nof the man with whom he had been on the most intimate terms. Weir, who\nwas not drunk, though he had had several glasses of strong liquor,\njumped off his cart, and approached the rail. To his surprise, the form\nvanished.\n\nWeir noticed that the ghost was marked by \"a cruel gash\" on the\nforehead, and that there was the appearance of fresh blood about it;\nand before leaving the spot, he marked it by breaking several branches\nof a sapling close by.\n\nOn returning home he told his story to his wife, who, however, told him\nthat he was drunk, and ridiculed him.\n\nOn the following Thursday night, when old Ben was returning from\nmarket,--again in his cart,--he saw seated upon the same rail, the\nidentical apparition. He had purposely abstained from drinking that day,\nand was in the full possession of all his senses.\n\nWeir again told his wife of the apparition, to be again ridiculed by\nher, and he remarked, \"Smith is a bad un! Do you think Fisher would ever\nhave left this country without coming to bid you and me good-bye?\"\n\nThe next morning Ben waited on a Mr. Grafton, a justice of the peace,\nwho lived near to him, and told his tale. The magistrate was at first\ndisposed to treat the account lightly, but after consideration, he\nsummoned one of the aboriginal natives, and at sunrise met Weir at the\nplace where the apparition had occurred, and which was sufficiently\nmarked by the dead and broken branches of the sapling.\n\nThe rail was found to be stained in several places, and the native,\nwithout any previous intimation of the object of the search, was\ndirected to examine them, and he shortly pronounced them to be \"_white\nman's blood_,\" and searching about, he pointed out a spot whereon a body\nhad been laid. \"Not a single shower of rain had fallen for several\nmonths previously,--not sufficient to lay even the dust upon the roads.\nNotwithstanding this, however, the native succeeded in tracking the\nfootsteps of one man to the unfrequented side of a pond at some\ndistance. He gave it as his opinion that another man had been dragged\nthither. The savage walked round and round the pond, eagerly examining\nits borders, and the sedges and weeds springing up around it. At first\nhe seemed baffled,--no clue had been washed ashore to show that anything\nunusual had been sunk in the pond; but having finished this examination,\nhe laid himself down on his face, and looked keenly along the surface of\nthe smooth and stagnant water. Presently he jumped up, uttered a cry\npeculiar to the natives when gratified by finding some long-sought\nobject, clapped his hands, and pointing to the middle of the pond, to\nwhere the decomposition of some sunken substance had produced a slimy\ncoating streaked with prismatic colours, he exclaimed, '_White man's\nfat!_' The pond was immediately searched; and, below the spot indicated,\nthe remains of a body were discovered. A large stone and a rotted silk\nhandkerchief were found near the body; these had been used to sink it.\"\n\nBy the teeth, and buttons upon the waistcoat, the body was identified as\nthat of Fisher. Smith was arrested, and, upon this evidence, tried\nbefore the late Sir Francis Forbes, found guilty, sentenced to death,\nand hung; but previous to the execution, \"he confessed that he, and he\nalone, committed the murder, and that it was upon the very rail where\nWeir swore that he had seen Fisher's ghost sitting, and that he had\nknocked out Fisher's brains with a tomahawk.\"\n\nWe quote this story as an interesting example of one of the best and\nmost consistent of the tales of this kind, although it is probable that\na more thorough investigation of the circumstances connected with it,\nwould show an origin of a nature similar to that of the \"Last Hours of\nLord Lyttleton.\"\n\nSeveral statements in the story require confirmation, and throw doubt\nupon the whole.\n\nThe assertion that Weir, on a \"very dark\" night, saw seated upon a rail,\nat a distance of _twelve yards_, a resemblance of Fisher which he took\nto be real, and was not aware of the actual nature of the appearance\nuntil he advanced towards it, is a statement too improbable to be\nworthy of credence unless supported by other and less objectionable\nevidence; and notwithstanding the extraordinary degree to which the\nvisual and other senses of the aboriginal natives are, as we are aware,\noften developed, yet that they will enable them to state that an old\nblood-stain is produced by the blood of a white man, or that an\niridescent scum floating at a distance on water is produced by the fat\nof the white man, are statements which cannot be admitted without strong\nconfirmatory evidence.\n\nIt not unfrequently happens that dreams appear to foreshadow events, the\noccurrence of which could not be anticipated by the reasoning faculties.\nMany of the instances recorded of this kind are after-conclusions\nfounded upon imperfectly remembered dreams, and are consequently\nworthless. Such, for example, is the story stated by Mrs. Crowe of a\ngentleman \"who has several times been conscious on awaking that he had\nbeen conversing with some one, whom he has been subsequently startled to\nhear had died at that period.\"[71]\n\nOther dreams have received a verification from the natural results of\nthe dreamer's superstitious folly.\n\nMrs. Crowe has quoted the following example from a continental\nnewspaper:--\n\n\"A letter from Hamburg contains the following curious story relative to\nthe verification of a dream. It appears that a locksmith's apprentice,\none morning lately, informed his master (Claude Soller), that on the\nprevious night he dreamt that he had been assassinated on the road to\nBergsdorff, a little town at about two hours' distance from Hamburg. The\nmaster laughed at the young man's credulity, and to prove that he\nhimself had little faith in dreams, insisted upon sending him to\nBergsdorff, with 140 rix dollars (\u00a322 8_s._), which he owed to his\nbrother-in-law who resided in the town. The apprentice, after in vain\nimploring his master to change his intention, was compelled to set out\nat about eleven o'clock. On arriving at the village of Billwaerder,\nabout halfway between Hamburg and Bergsdorff, he recollected his dream\nwith terror but perceiving the baillie of the village at a little\ndistance talking to some of his workmen, he accosted him, and acquainted\nhim with his singular dream, at the same time requesting, that as he had\nmoney about his person, one of his workmen might be allowed to accompany\nhim for protection across a small wood which lay in his way. The baillie\nsmiled, and in obedience to his orders, one of the men set out with his\nyoung apprentice. The next day the corpse of the latter was conveyed by\nsome peasants to the baillie, along with a reaping-hook, which had been\nfound by his side, and with which the throat of the murdered youth had\nbeen cut. The baillie immediately recognized the instrument as one which\nhe had on the previous day given to the workman who had served as the\napprentice's guide, for the purpose of pruning some willows. The workman\nwas apprehended, and on being confronted with the body of his victim,\nmade a full confession of his crime, adding that the recital of the\ndream had alone prompted him to commit the horrible act. The assassin,\nwho is thirty-five years of age, was a native of Billwaerder, and\npreviously to the perpetration of the murder, had always borne an\nirreproachable character.\"\n\nIt is well known that sensations from without will not only frequently\nexcite dreaming, but will also often determine the character of the\ndreams. The following story is evidently an example of a dream of this\nnature.\n\nOn the 30th July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was discovered in\na field at Littleport, in the Isle of Ely. There could be little doubt\nthat the woman had been murdered; and at the adjourned inquest held\nbefore Mr. W. Marshall, one of the coroners for the isle, on the 29th\nAugust, the following extraordinary evidence was given:--\n\n\"James Jessop, an elderly respectable-looking labourer, with a face of\nthe most perfect stolidity, and who possessed a most curiously shaped\nskull, broad and flat at the top, and projecting greatly on each side\nover the ears, deposed: 'I live about a furlong and a half from where\nthe body was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I had never\nseen her before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I\ndreamt three successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing\nfrom near the bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place\nwhere the body was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry, it\nwoke me. I fell asleep again, and dreamt the same again. I then woke\nagain, and told my wife. I could not rest; but I dreamt it again after\nthat. I got up between four or five o'clock, but I did not go down to\nthe Close, the wheat and barley in which have since been cut. I dreamt\nonce, about twenty years ago, that I saw a woman hanging in a barn, and\non passing the next morning the barn which appeared to me in my dream, I\nentered, and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down just in\ntime to save her life. I never told my wife I heard any cries of murder,\nbut I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body on the\nSaturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a day\nor two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream, and the trees\nthereon, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the wind\nlay from that spot to my house.\"\n\n\"Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related\nhis dreams to her, on the evening of the day the body was found.\"[72]\n\nIt is highly probable, that in this instance, the screams of the\nunfortunate woman, borne upon the wind, were the exciting cause of the\ndreams, and the direction from which the sound came would be sufficient\nto call up the associated idea of the fields in which the murder\noccurred. The powerful impression made upon the mind of the man,\naccording to his own account, will sufficiently account for the\nrepetition of the dreams; and the statement that the particulars of the\ndream were not related until after the finding of the body, must induce\na little caution to the reception of the above version as an actual\ndetail of the facts of the case. This remark applies also to the dream\ninterpolated in the evidence.\n\nAmong the most vivid and connected dreams, are those excited by a\ndominant or absorbing train of thought, which has engaged the mind\nduring waking hours, or by powerful or protracted emotion.\n\nM. Boismont relates a dream, which he conceives is to be classed among\nthe inexplicable phenomena of this nature, but which, with all deference\nto that distinguished psychologist, is rather to be placed in the\ncategory we have just named.\n\nMiss R., gifted with an excellent judgment, and religious without\nbigotry, lived, before her marriage, at the house of an uncle, a\ncelebrated physician, and a member of the Institute. She was at that\ntime separated from her mother, who had been attacked, in the country,\nby a severe illness. One night, this young lady dreamed that she saw her\nmother before her, pale, disfigured, about to render the last breath,\nand showing particularly lively grief at not being surrounded by her\nchildren, of whom one, cur\u00e9 of one of the parishes in Paris, had\nemigrated to Spain, and the other was in Paris. Presently she heard her\ncall upon her many times by her Christian name; whereupon the persons\nwho surrounded her mother, supposing that she called her grand-daughter,\nwho bore the same name, went to seek her in the neighbouring room, but a\nsign from the invalid apprised them that it was not the grand-daughter,\nbut the daughter who resided in Paris, that she wished to see. Her\nappearance expressed the grief she felt at her absence; suddenly her\nfeatures changed, became covered with the paleness of death, and she\nfell without life on the bed.\n\nThe lady had died during that night; and it was subsequently\nascertained, that the circumstances delineated in the dream, simulated\nthose which had occurred by the death-bed.\n\nWhat are the circumstances of this case?--A mother dangerously ill--her\nchildren away from home. What more likely to occur to a child cognisant\nof these facts, than the train of thought which engendered and caused\nthis dream? The events attending a death-bed scene under such\ncircumstances were all but inevitable, and we cannot, justifiably,\nconsider this case in any other light than that of a \"simple\ncoincidence.\"\n\nMany physiologists and metaphysicians are of opinion, and there is much\nground for the belief, that every sensation which has been actually\nexperienced, may become the subject of perception at some future time,\nalthough, in the interval, all trace of its existence may have been\nlost, and it is beyond the power of the will to recall.\n\nThe phenomena upon which this opinion has been principally founded, have\nbeen observed in the delirium of certain febrile diseases, and in\ndreaming.\n\nThere is a case on record of a woman, who, during the delirium of fever,\nrepeated long passages in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongues. When in\nhealth she was perfectly ignorant of these languages; and it was\nascertained, that the sentences she spoke in her delirium, were correct\npassages from known writers in them. It was subsequently discovered,\nthat at one period of her life she had lived with a clergyman who was in\nthe habit of walking up and down the passage, reading aloud from Hebrew\nand Chaldaic works, and it was the sensations thus derived, and retained\nunconsciously to herself, which had been revivified by the changes\ninduced during the progress of the fever.\n\nA case is also recorded by Dr. Abercrombie, in which a servant-girl who\nhad manifested no \"ear\" for, or pleasure in music, during sleep was\nheard to imitate the sounds of a violin, even the tuning, and to perform\nmost complicated and difficult pieces of music. This girl had slept for\nsome time, and much to her annoyance, in a room adjoining that occupied\nby an itinerant violinist who was somewhat of an enthusiast in his art,\nand was accustomed to spend a portion of the night in practising\ndifficult pieces of music, often preventing this female from sleeping.\nThe music she had thus heard, registered in the mind, so to speak, was\nrepeated, unconsciously, during the disturbed action of the brain\nconsequent upon imperfect health and dreaming.\n\nThe principle which has been deduced from these and similar cases, gives\na ready explanation to numerous stories which it has been customary to\nregard as coming within the pale of the supernatural.\n\nThose instances in which, during a dream, the places in which documents\nof value, which had been lost or misplaced, have been revealed, are\nexamples of revivified sensations which had been lost sight of, and of\nwhich the return had been determined by the protracted exercise of the\nmind to recover the missing traces.\n\nSir Walter Scott, in his notes to \"The Antiquary,\" relates the following\nhighly interesting illustration:--\n\n\"Mr. R----d, of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of\nGala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated\narrears of tiend (or tithe), for which he was said to be indebted to a\nnoble family, the titulars (lay improprietors of the tithes). Mr. R----d\nwas strongly impressed with the belief, that his father had, by a form\nof process peculiar to the law of Scotland, purchased those lands from\nthe titular; and therefore, that the present prosecution was\ngroundless. But after an industrious search among his father's papers,\nan investigation of the public records, and a careful inquiry among all\npersons who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence\ncould be recovered to support his defence. The period was now near at\nhand, when he conceived the loss of the lawsuit to be inevitable, and he\nhad formed his determination to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the\nbest bargain he could in the way of compromise. He even went to bed with\nthis resolution, and with all the circumstances of the case floating\nupon his mind, had a dream to the following purpose.\n\n\"His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to him, he thought,\nand asked him why he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams men are not\nsupprised at such apparitions. Mr. R----d thought he informed his father\nof the cause of his distress, adding, that the payment of a considerable\nsum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he had a strong\nconsciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to acquire any\nevidence in support of his belief. 'You are right, my son,' replied the\npaternal shade; 'I did acquire right to these tiends, for payment of\nwhich you are now prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction\nare in the hands of Mr. ----, a writer (or attorney), who is now retired\nfrom professional business, and resides at Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He\nwas a person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason,\nbut who never, on any other occasion, transacted business on my account.\nIt is very possible,' pursued the vision, 'that Mr. ---- may have\nforgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may call it\nto his recollection by this token,--that when I came to pay his account,\nthere was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of gold, and\nthat we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern.'\n\n\"Mr. R----d awoke in the morning with all the words of the vision\nimprinted on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across the\ncountry to Inveresk, instead of going straight to Edinburgh. When he\ncame there, he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very\nold man; without saying anything of the vision, he inquired whether he\nremembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased father. The\nold gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to his\nrecollection, but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold, the whole\nreturned upon his memory; he made an immediate search for the papers,\nand recovered them; so that Mr. R----d carried to Edinburgh the\ndocuments necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of\nlosing.\n\n\"The author's theory is, that the dream was only the recapitulation of\ninformation which Mr. R----d had really received from his father while\nin life, but which at first he merely recalled as a general impression\nthat the claim was settled. It is not uncommon for persons to recover,\nduring sleep, the thread of ideas which they have lost during waking\nhours.\n\n\"It may be added, that this remarkable circumstance was attended with\nbad consequences to Mr. R----d, whose health and spirits were afterwards\nimpaired by the attention which he thought himself obliged to pay to the\nvisions of the night.\"\n\nAn instance which is related by Mrs. Crowe, receives its explanation\nalso from this source.\n\n\"A case occurred not many years since in the North of Scotland, where a\nmurder having been committed, a man came forward, saying, that he had\ndreamt that the pack of the murdered pedlar was hidden in a certain\nspot; whereon, a search being made, it was actually found. They at first\nconcluded he was himself the assassin, but the real criminal was\nafterwards discovered; and it being asserted, though I have been told\nerroneously, that the two men had passed some time together, since the\nmurder, in a state of intoxication, it was decided that the crime, and\nthe place of concealment, had been communicated to the pretended\ndreamer,\" &c.\n\nIf the statement that the murderer and the dreamer had spent some time\ntogether in a state of intoxication, after the murder had been\ncommitted, be correct, the supposition that the murder had been\ncommunicated to the dreamer, forgotten when the state of intoxication\nhad passed away, but subsequently recalled during the progress of a\ndream, affords an easy and natural explanation of the whole matter.\n\nAs an example of that class of dreams which are inexplicable, but which,\nunfortunately, are of little weight from the imperfect authority upon\nwhich they are given, and from the fact that they bear intrinsic\nevidence of having been received without inquiry into the circumstances\nunder which they occurred, and the fallacies to which the dreamer and\nsubsequent details had been exposed, we quote the following from the\nworks of the Rev. John Wesley.[73]\n\n\"Among the congregation at Ambleside were a gentleman and his wife, who\ngave me a remarkable relation. She said she had often heard her brother\nrelate, what an intimate acquaintance had told her, that her husband was\nconcerned in the rebellion of 1745. He was tried at Carlisle, and found\nguilty. The evening before he was to die, sitting and musing in her\nchair, she fell fast asleep. She dreamed one came to her and said, 'Go\nto such a part of the wall, and among the loose stones you will find a\nkey, which you must carry to your husband.' She waked; but thinking it a\ncommon dream, paid no attention to it. Presently she fell asleep again,\nand dreamed the very same dream. She started up, put on her cloak and\nhat, and went to that part of the wall, and among the loose stones found\na key. Having, with some difficulty, procured admission into the gaol,\nshe gave this to her husband. It opened the door of his cell, as well as\nthe lock of the prison door.(!) So at midnight he escaped for life.\"\n\nIt is not uncommon to find persons asserting that they have had dreams\nwhich have prefigured events, often trivial, in the common run of life.\n\nProbably, without exception, these are irrelevant conclusions: the\naffirmative instances being marked, to the total neglect of the\nnegative. For example:--A lady with whom we are acquainted was\naccustomed to relate a dream which she had had, in which she thought\nthat she was in the nursery watching one of her children play, when\nsuddenly it tripped over the fender, and fell against the ribs of the\ngrate, and before it could be extricated, the face was severely burned.\nOn the following day the child she had seen in her dream, happened to\nhave an accident in the nursery very similar to that she had seen occur\nin the dream.\n\nOn inquiry, however, it proved that dreams of this nature respecting her\nchildren were quite usual to the lady, and that at one time or other she\nhad witnessed while sleeping almost all those accidents occur to which\ninfant life is exposed. This was the only instance in which any one had\napparently come true; and _until_ this had occurred she had very\nproperly and correctly attributed her dreams to the anxiety she\nnaturally entertained respecting her young family.\n\nOf all the divisions, or rather branches, of supernatural lore, none has\nobtained more universal credence, none has been more persistent, than\nthat of _presentiments_.\n\nA history of _presentiments_ would form a curious, if not very\ninstructive work, and it alone would almost suffice to indicate the\nabsurdity of the belief in its main features.\n\nWe have instances of _high spirits_ foreboding evil; _low spirits_\nforeboding the same; _sudden illness_ shadowing forth calamity, _not_\nto the person affected, but to a companion; _sudden dullness of sight_\npresaging death--indeed a collection of these instances would show that\nevery obscure sensation, every variation of emotion or passion,\npreceding an evil occurrence, has at one time or other been regarded as\na presentiment of that evil.\n\nJung-Stilling has so well described the nature of the faculty of\npresentiment, and the circumstances under which it is most commonly\ndeveloped, that we cannot do better than quote the words of that\ncelebrated writer on this subject. He writes:--\n\n\"As the developed faculty of presentiment is a capability of\nexperiencing the arrangements which are made in the world of spirits,\nand executed in the visible world, second-sight certainly belongs also\nunder this head. And as those who possess this capability are generally\nsimple people, it again follows from hence, that a developed faculty of\npresentiment is by no means a quality which belongs solely to devout and\npious people, or that it should be regarded as a divine gift; I take it,\non the contrary, for a disease of the soul, which we ought rather to\nendeavour to heal than promote.\n\n\"He that has a natural disposition for it, and then fixes his\nimagination long and intensely, and therefore _magically_, upon a\ncertain object, may at length be able, with respect to this object, to\nforesee things which have reference to it. Grave-diggers, nurses, and\nsuch as are employed to undress and shroud the dead, watchmen, and the\nlike, are accustomed to be continually reflecting on objects which stand\nin connexion with death and interment; what wonder, therefore, if their\nfaculty of presentiment at length develop itself on these subjects; and\nI am inclined to maintain, that it may be promoted by drinking ardent\nspirits.\"[74]\n\nIn addition to this, Mrs. Crowe remarks:--\n\n\"It is worthy of observation that idiots often possess some gleams of\nthis faculty of second-sight or presentiment; and it is probably on this\naccount that they are in some countries held sacred. Presentiment, which\nI think may very probably be merely the vague and imperfect recollection\nof what we _knew_ in our sleep, is often observed in drunken\npeople.\"[75]\n\nCicero,[76] after relating the myth of the apparition of Tages, in\nEtruria, adds:--\n\n\"But I should indeed be more foolish than they who credit these things,\nif I seriously argue the matter.\"\n\nEqually foolish it would be for us to attempt to show the absurdity of\nthe foregoing opinions; and we fear it would be a bootless and inutile\ntask to argue with those who regard the statements of the studiously and\ntranscendentally superstitious and ignorant, the incoherence of the\ndrunkard, the depressed feelings experienced after a debauch, or the\nvague gleams of understanding in an idiot, as evidences of communication\nwith the spirit-world.\n\nWe know two ladies gifted with the faculty of ordinary presentiment, and\nwho boast (if we may use that expression) that they are members of a\nfamily of which no scion has died for years without some supernatural\nindication of its occurrence. We well remember _after_ the information\nhad been received by them of the death of the last male representative\nof one branch of the family, that they told how on the night of the\ndeath they happened to be awake in bed, when certain strange noises were\nheard about the bed-curtains, \"as of a mouse\" scrambling upon them, and\nimmediately afterwards a blow was struck upon a large chest of drawers\nwhich stood opposite the foot of the bed, and the sound was as though\nthe chest had been broken to pieces. We did not draw the inference which\nthe ladies did from this circumstance, namely, that it was an intimation\nof the death of their relative, for, unfortunately for the romantic view\nof the question, we knew that such nightly occurrences as these were\nsomewhat common with them, and that a simple and comfortable house in a\ndensely-populated manufacturing district had been peopled by them with\nnightly noises and sounds, audible alone to them, to such an extent,\nthat the adaptation of a presentiment to any particular occurrence was a\nmatter of little difficulty.\n\nWe also well remember, some years ago, when an infant brother lay dying,\nthat our mother and the nurse were startled in the dead of night by a\nstrange fluttering at the window. On the curtain being raised, the light\nof the candle showed a bird fluttering and beating against one of the\npanes. Was it an omen of death, and an emblem of the happy transition of\nthe baby-spirit to another world? A few moments' examination soon showed\nthat it was no spectre bird, but apparently a robin, which had been\ndisturbed in the darkness, and was attracted by the light, and no sooner\nwas the window darkened than it flew away.\n\nThree days ago, we saw a woman who had been for some months in a\ndelicate state of health. \"Sir,\" she said, \"what I have most to complain\nof is, that I always feel as if some great evil was about to befall\nmyself or family.\" This feeling is common, in a greater or less degree,\nto that depressed state of the system preceding attacks of febrile and\nmany other diseases, and is often marked in hypocondriacism. Who, when\nsuffering from slight indisposition, has not often felt this feeling of\nforeboding, of which the lowest grade is expressed in the ordinary\nphrase, low-spirits? This feeling, and thus derived, has been the\nsubstratum for those vague, so-called presentiments, which constitute\nthe great bulk of instances in that doctrine; and the fallacy has been,\nthat the mind, more readily affected by affirmative than by negative\nexamples, has held to the former and neglected the latter, and deluded\nitself by an imperfect and too contracted view of the facts.\n\nBoismont, the most recent writer on the doctrine of presentiments,\nwrites:--\n\n\"In the greatest number of cases, they are not realised; in those where\nthe event justifies them, they are only a reminiscence--a simple\ncoincidence;--we admit all this. It is not the less true, that an\nunforeseen event, a strong prepossession, great restlessness, a sudden\nchange in habits, any fear whatsoever, gives rise, at the moment, to\npresentiments which it would be difficult to deny by systematic\ncredulity.\"[77]\n\nLet us examine one or two of the cases which would lead so distinguished\na psychologist to give a certain degree of credence to this belief.\n\nThe Prince de Radzvil had adopted one of his nieces, an orphan. He\ninhabited a ch\u00e2teau in Gallicia, and this ch\u00e2teau had a large hall which\nseparated the apartments of the Prince from those occupied by the\nchildren, and in order to communicate between the two suites of rooms it\nwas necessary either to traverse the hall or the court.\n\nThe young Agnes, aged from five to six years, always uttered piercing\ncries every time that they caused her to traverse the great hall. She\nindicated, with an expression of terror, an enormous picture which was\nsuspended above the door, and which represented the Sibyl of Cuma. They\nendeavoured for a length of time to vanquish this repugnance, which they\nattributed to infant obstinacy; but as serious accidents happened from\nthis violence, they ended by permitting her no more to enter the hall;\nand the young girl loved better, during ten or twelve years, to traverse\nin rain, snow, or cold, the vast court or the gardens, rather than pass\nunder this door, which made so disagreeable an impression upon her.\n\nThe young Countess being of age to marry, and already betrothed, there\nwas a reception at the ch\u00e2teau. The company, in the evening, wished to\nhave some noisy game; they went into the great hall, where, moreover,\nthe nuptial ball would be held. Animated by the young people who\nsurrounded her, Agnes did not hesitate to accompany the guests. But\nscarcely had she crossed the threshold of the door, than she wished to\ndraw back, and she avowed her fear. They had caused her to pass first,\naccording to custom, her betrothed, friends, and uncle, laughing at her\nchildishness, closing the doors upon her. But the poor young girl wished\nto resist; and in shaking and beating the door, caused the picture to\nfall which was above it. This enormous mass bruised the head by one of\nits corners, and killed her immediately.\n\nThe scene of this story is an old castle in Gallicia, doubtless, like\nall similar places, having attached to it many strange and wonderful\nlegends, and many servants fully imbued with these legends, and with all\nthe folk-lore which a district like Gallicia contains. We have no\ninformation as to what amount of this lore the nurse indoctrinated into\nthe child, or what use she may have made of the painting in order to\nterrify her little charge into submission from time to time. That an\ninquiry, special and distinct, upon this point was necessary ere the\nmain point of the story could be substantiated, is evident; for the\nestablishment of this influence would at once destroy the presentiment\nsought to be established; and to suppose that the child was brought up\nwithout its mind being so poisoned, is to suppose a phenomenon uniquely\nrare. Again, the painting was a representation of the Sibyl of Cuma. In\nher early days, says classic history, this Sibyl was lovely; but after\nher short-sighted bargain with Apollo for a life as long in years as the\nnumber of grains of sand she held in her hand, forgetting to add the\nrequest for perennial beauty also, she shortly became old and decrepid,\nher form decayed, her countenance melancholy and pale, and her looks\nhaggard; and it is as thus described, that we are generally accustomed\nto see her pourtrayed. But we are left in the dark as to whether the\npainting in question represented the Sibyl in early youth, in her\ndecrepid maturity, or at the moment of inspiration, when, according to\nthe \u00c6neis (Book vi),--\n\n    \"Her colour changed; her face was not the same,\n    And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.\n    Her hair stood up, convulsive rage possess'd\n    Her trembling limbs, and heaved her labouring breast.\n    Greater than human kind she seem'd to look,\n    And with an accent more than mortal spoke,\n    Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll;\n    When all the god came rushing on her soul.\"\n\nThat the painting must have depicted the Sibyl in one of the two latter\ncharacters is almost certain, for in any other it would have been\nmeaningless; and leaving the question of the extent to which her mind\nmight be poisoned by folk-lore, or by the servants making the painting a\nbugbear to her,--leaving this in abeyance, what must the effect of a\nfrightful-looking and gigantic picture, staring the child in the face,\nhave been upon a young mind? Little doubt need be entertained of the\nfeeling of terror with which an infant eye would regard it, and we have\nalready shown how such a feeling, being implanted there, would become a\npart and parcel of its nature, and be never subsequently eradicated.\n\nWe see this feeling manifested every day in the aversion which some\nindividuals manifest to certain animals. From emotions taught during\nchildhood and youth, and often lost sight of in mature years, a cat, a\ndog, a rat, a spider, a frog, &c., has become an object of such dread to\nsome persons, that even in advanced life the presence of one has caused\nthe utmost annoyance and terror.\n\nThe powerful and persistent influence of ideas thus associated has been\nclearly and pithily expressed by Locke,[78] and his first instance has\nan immediate bearing upon our subject:--\n\n\"The ideas of goblins and sprights have really no more to do with\ndarkness than light, yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on\nthe mind of a child, and raise them there together, probably he shall\nnever be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness\nshall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they\nshall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other.\"\n\nThat the fall of the painting was caused by the vibrations occasioned by\nshaking and beating upon the door beneath it, seems certain; but that\nthere was any _presentimental_ connection (if we may so word it) between\nthe fall of the painting and the previous dread of it,--any\nforeshadowing in this dread of the subsequent fall and its fatal\nconsequences,--there is no satisfactory evidence whatever.\n\nAnother example of presentiment, quoted by Boismont, is the following:--\n\nTwo French gentlemen, refugees, who resided together in New York on\nterms of great amity, freighted a ship for India. Everything was\nprepared for their departure, and they waited only a favourable wind.\nOne of them, B----, of a calm and placid temperament, apparently excited\nby the uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began to manifest a\ndegree of restlessness which surprised his companion. One day he entered\nthe apartment where his friend was engaged in writing letters for\nEurope, and under the influence of an excitement so great that he had\ndifficulty to suppress it, he exclaimed: \"Why lose time in writing\nletters?--they will never go to their destination. Come with me and take\na turn on the Battery. The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps,\nnearer the point of departure than we suppose!\" Acceding to the request,\nhis friend accompanied him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he was\nastonished at the rapid and excited manner in which B---- walked. On\nreaching the Battery, B---- precipitated his rate of walking still more,\nuntil they approached the parapet. He spoke in a high and quick tone,\nexpressing in florid terms his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he\narrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend separated from him. \"I\nregarded him fixedly,\" to continue the narrative in the words of the\nnarrator; \"he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down. 'B----,' I\ncried, 'you intend to kill me, you wish to throw me from this height\ninto the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The madman looked me in\nthe face with haggard eyes for a moment, but I was careful not to lose\nhis glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured some incoherent words,\nand sought to pass by me. I barred the way, extending my arms. After\nlooking vaguely right and left, he threw himself on my neck, and melted\ninto tears. 'It is true, it is true, my friend! The thought has haunted\nme night and day, as a torch of hell. It was for this end that I brought\nyou here; had you been but a foot from the border of the parapet, the\nwork had been done.' The demon had abandoned him, his eyes were without\nexpression, a foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was passed. I\nreconducted him to the house. Some days of repose, together with\nbleeding and low diet, re-established him completely; and what is still\nmore extraordinary, we never more spoke of this event.\"\n\nAre we, with Boismont, to regard this as an example of \"sudden and\nmysterious inspiration?\" Would it not have been still more mysterious if\na minute examination of the countenance of a madman, who was talking\nincoherently near the verge of a precipitous descent, and big with\nintent to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his purpose? We\nthink it would, and that there is no evidence here of anything beyond\nthe pale of the laws of common observation.\n\nIt would be needless to multiply instances of presentiment which have\ncarried conviction to the minds of persons less accustomed to analyze\nthe operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont, and in whom\nerrors of observation are infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless\nthere are instances on record which, if the authority upon which they\nare stated be admitted, receive no explanation from natural laws so far\nas we are yet acquainted with them.\n\nOne of the best and most striking examples of this kind is given on the\nauthority of Mrs. Crowe.\n\nShe writes:--\n\n\"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which\noccurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when\nlying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a\nyoung Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away\nhis plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table,\ncovering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The\npresident of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young\nmen to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to\nspeak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a\nsudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India\nwas dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I\nam perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this\nconviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The\nyoung man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned.\"[79]\n\nA singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress\nJosephine, which may fitly be detailed here.\n\n\"She was born in the West Indies,\" writes Sir Archibald Alison, \"and it\nhad early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her\nfirst husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards\nbe greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is\nplaced beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her\nfirst husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the\nRhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on\naccount of his belonging to the nobility; and she herself, who was also\nimprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the\nfall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind,\nthat while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every\nhour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to\nher fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies\nof the bed-chamber,--a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one\nof their number.\"\n\nSir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the\nprophecy:--\n\n\"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long before Napoleon's\nelevation to the throne, from the late Countess of Bath and the late\nCountess of Ancrum, who were educated in the same convent with\nJosephine, and had repeatedly heard her mention the circumstance in\nearly youth.\"[80]\n\nThe most grave of the errors affecting the details of those occurrences\nwhich have been supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some\ninexplicable and supernatural connection with certain circumstances\noccurring coincidently with them, has been fully set forth by Lord\nBacon, in the 46th Aphorism of the \"Novum Organum,\" and to this _dictum_\nnothing needs to be added.\n\n\"The human understanding, when any proposition has been once laid down\n(either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it\naffords) forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation,\nand although most cogent and abundant instances may exist to the\ncontrary, yet either does not observe, or despises them, or gets rid of\nand rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious\nprejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.\nIt was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive\ntablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was\npressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by\nan inquiry, \"But where are the portraits of those who have perished in\nspite of their vows?\" All superstition is much the same, whether it be\nthat of astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the like; in\nall of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled,\nbut neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more\ncommon.... Besides, even in the absence of that eagerness and want of\nthought (which we have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual\nerror of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by\naffirmatives than negatives, whereas it ought duly and regularly to be\nimpartial; nay, in establishing any true axiom, the negative instance is\nthe most powerful.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe have now briefly examined the principal of those phenomena which it\nhas been, and in many instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural\ninterposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain how far they receive\nexplanation from the known laws of action of the senses and reasoning\nfaculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion that they mainly\ncome within the category of those laws.\n\nOf the exceptions to this conclusion, it is unfortunate that the\nauthority upon which they depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the\ndetails imperfect in many of the most important particulars; and they,\nto use the words of Mrs. Crowe, (whose evidence in this respect is of\nconsiderable importance), \"as they now stand, can have no scientific\nvalue; they cannot, in short, enter into the region of science at all,\nstill less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be led\nto form, cannot be founded on pure induction. We must confine ourselves\nwholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we shall\nassuredly founder.\"[81]\n\nWe are not aware that this imperfection of details necessarily\nappertains to facts of this nature, and we simply require the same care\nagainst error which is expected and is exercised in other departments of\ninquiry; and until the instances presented bear evidence of this, we\nmust entertain doubts, and decline to receive them as facts establishing\nsuch theories as have been endeavoured to be founded upon them.\n\nThe great progress of physiology and psychology is almost daily enabling\nus to grapple with sensuous phenomena which have hitherto been obscure;\nand it is never to be lost sight of in researches into the domains of\nthe so-called supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of our own\npowers is as yet very imperfect and limited.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDIX.\n\n\nEXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR FARADAY'S LETTER ON TABLE MOVING.\n\n_Athen\u00e6um, July 2, 1853, p. 801._\n\n\"The object which I had in view in my inquiry was, not to satisfy\nmyself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of\nthose who had turned tables,--but that I might be enabled to give a\nstrong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for it.\nYet the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the\ninquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should adopt\nin any other physical investigation. The parties with whom I have worked\nwere very honourable, very clear in their intentions, successful\ntable-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the existence\nof a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual. It is with\nme a clear point that the table moves when the parties, though they\nstrongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe, that they move it\nby ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table draws their hands;\nthat it moves first, and they have to follow it; that sometimes it even\nmoves from under their hands. With some, the table will move to the\nright or left, according as they wish or will it; with others, the\ndirection of the first move is uncertain;--but all agree that the table\nmoves the hands, and not the hands the table. Though I believe the\nparties do not intend to move the table, but obtain the result by a\nquasi-involuntary action, still I had no doubt of the influence of\nexpectation upon their minds, and, through that, upon the success or\nfailure of their efforts.\n\n\"The first point, therefore, was to remove all objections due to\nexpectation--having relation to the substances which I might desire to\nuse; so, plates of the most different bodies, electrically speaking,\nnamely, sand-paper, mill-board, glue, glass, moist clay, tinfoil,\ncard-board, gutta percha, vulcanized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a\nbundle, and placed on a table, under the hands of a turner. The table\nturned. Other bundles of other plates were submitted to different\npersons at other times,--and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore,\nthese substances may be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither\nduring their use, nor at any other times, could the slightest trace of\nelectrical or magnetic effects be obtained. At the same trials, it was\nreadily ascertained that one person could produce the effect; and that\nthe motion was not necessarily circular, but might be in a straight\nline. No form of experiment or mode of observation that I could devise\ngave me the slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No\nattraction or repulsion, or signs of tangential power appeared; nor\nanything which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical\npressure exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to\nanalyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal\ndirection; doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A\nsoft cement, consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was\nprepared. Four or five pieces of smooth slippery card-board were\nattached one over the other by little pellets of the cement, and the\nlower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table; the edges\nof these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil\nline was drawn over the laps, so as to indicate position. The upper\ncard-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from\nsight. Then the table-turner placed the hands upon the upper card, and\nwe waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to offer\nconsiderable resistence to mechanical motion, and also to retain the\ncards in any new position which they might acquire, and yet weak enough\nto give way slowly to a continued force.\n\n\"When at last the tables, cards, and hands, all moved to the left\ntogether, and so a true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On\nexamination, it was easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the\nline, that the hand had moved further than the table, and that the\nlatter had lagged behind;--that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper\ncard to the left, and that the under cards and the table had followed\nand been dragged by it. In other similar cases, when the table had not\nmoved, still the upper card was found to have moved, showing that the\nhand had carried it in the expected direction. It was evident,\ntherefore, that the table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor\nhad it moved simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things\nunder it, behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the\nhand back.\n\n\"The next step was, to arrange an index, which should show whether the\ntable moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both moved or\nremained at rest together.... Two thin boards, nine and a-half by seven\ninches, were provided; a board, nine by five inches, was glued to the\nmiddle of the under side of one of these (to be called the table-board),\nso as to raise the edges free from the table; being placed on the\ntable, near and parallel to its side, an upright pin was fixed close to\nthe further edge of the board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum\nfor the indicating lever. Then, four glass rods, seven inches long, and\na quarter of an inch in diameter, were placed as rollers on different\nparts of this table-board, and the upper board placed on them; the rods\npermitted any required amount of pressure on the boards, with a free\nmotion of the upper on the lower to the right and left. At the part\ncorresponding to the pin in the lower board, a piece was cut out of the\nupper board, and a pin attached there, which, being bent downwards,\nentered the hole in the end of the short arm of the index lever: this\npart of the lever was of card-board: the indicating prolongation was a\nstraight hay-stalk fifteen inches long. In order to restrain the motion\nof the upper board on the lower, two vulcanized rubber rings were passed\nround both, at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst they\ntied the boards together, acted also as springs--and whilst they allowed\nthe first, feeblest tendency to motion to be seen by the index, exerted,\nbefore the upper board had moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power\nin pulling the upper board back from either side, to resist a strong\nlateral action of the hand.\n\n\"All being thus arranged, except that the lever was away, the two boards\nwere tied together with string running parallel to the vulcanised rubber\nsprings, so as to be immoveable in relation to each other. They were\nthen placed on the table, and a table-turner sat down to them. The table\nvery shortly moved in due order, showing that the apparatus offered no\nimpediment to the action. A like apparatus, with metal rollers, produced\nthe same result under the hands of another person. The index was now put\ninto its place, and the string loosened, so that the springs should come\ninto play. It was soon seen with the party that could will the motion in\neither direction (from whom the index was purposely hidden), that the\nhands were gradually creeping up in the direction before agreed upon,\nthough the party certainly thought they were pressing downwards only.\nWhen shown that it was so, they were truly surprised; but when they\nlifted up their hands and immediately saw the index return to its normal\nposition, they were convinced. When they looked at the index, and could\nsee for themselves whether they were pressing truly downwards, or\nobliquely, so as to produce a resultant in the right or left handed\ndirection, then such an effect never took place. Several tried, for a\nlong while together, and with the best will in the world, but no motion,\nright or left, of the table or hand, or anything else, occurred.\n\n\"I think the apparatus I have described may be useful to many who really\nwish to know the truth of nature, and who would prefer that truth to a\nmistaken conclusion, desired perhaps only because it seems to be new or\nstrange. Persons do not know how difficult it is to press directly\ndownward, or in any given direction against a fixed obstacle, or even to\nknow only whether they are doing so or not, unless they have some\nindicator which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall instruct them;\nand this is more especially the case when the muscles of the fingers and\nhand have been cramped and rendered either tingling or insensible or\ncold by long-continued pressure. If a finger be pressed constantly into\nthe corner of a window-frame for ten minutes or more, and then,\ncontinuing the pressure, the mind be directed to judge whether the force\nat a given moment is all horizontal or all downwards, or how much is in\none direction and how much in the other, it will find great difficulty\nin deciding, and will, at last, become altogether uncertain,--at least\nsuch is my case. I know that a similar result occurs with others, for I\nhave had two boards arranged, separated, not by rollers, but by plugs of\nvulcanized rubber; and with the vertical index, when a person with his\nhands on the upper board is requested to press only downwards, and the\nindex is hidden from his sight, it moves to the right, to the left, to\nhim and from him, and in all horizontal directions; so utterly unable is\nhe strictly to fulfil his intention without a visible and correcting\nindicator. Now, such is the use of the instrument with the horizontal\nindex and rollers; the mind is instructed and the involuntary or\nquasi-involuntary motion is checked in the commencement, and, therefore,\nnever rises up to the degree needful to move the table, or even\npermanently the index itself. No one can suppose that looking at the\nindex can in any way interfere with the transfer of electricity, or any\nother power, from the hand to the board under it, or to the table. If\nthe board tends to move, it may do so; the index does not confine it;\nand if the table tends to move, there is no reason why it should not. If\nboth were influenced by any power to move together, they may do so, as\nthey did, indeed, when the apparatus was tied, and the mind and muscles\nleft unwatched and unchecked.\"\n\nPRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS, LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.\n\n\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n\n[1] Locke. Of Human Understanding, B. I, ch. 2.\n\n[2] Cousin. Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne, edit. 1847,\nT. III, p. 269.\n\n[3] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 368.\n\n[4] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 370.\n\n[5] Plato. Politicus. Mitford's Greece, Vol. I, p. 84.\n\n[6] \"Vain indeed is the life of all men in whom there is not the true\nknowledge of God: who, from the things which are seen to be good, have\nnot been able to conceive aright of that which is goodness itself; nor,\nwhile they viewed the work, to acknowledge the architect: but have\nthought that either fire, or the wind, the swift air, or the stars in\ntheir courses, or the vast deep, or the sun and moon, were the deities\npresiding over the world.\"--_Liber Sapienti\u00e6_, ch. 13, v. 1, 2.\n_Translation by Luke Howard, F.R.S._\n\n[7] An interesting illustration of the tendency of mankind in a state of\nsavageism to attribute striking phenomena to supernatural agency, and\ndeify the means through which they are apparently exhibited, occurred on\nthe march of Cortes from Mexico to Honduras. During a deer-hunt, the\nhorse which Cortes rode was taken ill. \"It did not then die, though it\nwould have been better if it had,\" says the devout but ruthless\nconqueror, parenthetically. A little while afterwards, having been\ncourteously received by the Itzalan Indians, Cortes \"entrusted them with\nthe care of his horse Morgillo, which had been lamed, charging them to\ntake great care of it, and attend to its recovery, as he prized it very\nhighly, and telling them that when he had found the Spaniards he was in\nsearch of, he should send for his steed again. It was from no want of\ncare on the part of the Itzaex, but rather from an excess of it, that\nMorgillo lost his life under their management; for in their anxiety to\neffect a cure, and regarding the animal as one endowed with reason, they\ngave him poultry and other meat to eat, and presented him with bunches\nof flowers, as they were accustomed to do to persons of rank when they\nwere sick; a species of attention somewhat similar to that which the\nfool laughed at in _King Lear_, when he speaks of the cockney who for 'a\npure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.' The consequence of this\nunaccustomed style of medical treatment was, that Morgillo languished\nand died, and then a worse evil befell, for, observes the pious\nVillagutierre, \"though some people say Canek burnt his idols in the\npresence of Cortes, there was in reality no burning of idols or anything\nelse in that city of Tayasal; on the contrary, by leaving the horse with\nthe infidel Itzaex, they obtained a greater and still more abominable\nidol than the many they had before.\" The meaning of this sentence is\nsubsequently explained by the worthy chronicler informing us that, on\nthe death of Morgillo, the Itzaex raised its effigy \"in stone and\nmortar, very perfect,\" and worshipped it as a divinity. It was seated on\nits hind-quarters, on the floor of one of the temples, rising on its\nfore legs, with its hind legs bent under it. These barbarians adored it\nas the god of thunder and thunderbolts, calling him Tzinachac, which\nmeans the bride of thunder, or the thunderbolt. They gave it this name\nfrom having seen some of the Spaniards who were with Cortes fire their\nmuskets over the horses' heads when they were hunting deer, and they\nbelieved the horses were the cause of the noise that was made, which\nthey took for thunder, and the flash of the discharge and the smoke of\nthe gunpowder for a thunderbolt.\"--_Fancourt's History of Yucatan._\n_Athen\u00e6um._ 1854, p. 109.\n\n[8] Cicero. De Natur\u00e2 Deorum, B. II, c. 25.\n\n[9] Servius. Tooke's Pantheon, p. 198.\n\n[10] Hor\u00e6 Britannic\u00e6. By Jno. Hughes, Vol. I., p. 235. 1818.\n\n[11] The Garrows, a number of wild tribes occupying the district lying\nbetween the N.E. frontier of Bengal and the kingdom of Assam, in\naddition to the worship of M\u00e2h\u00e2deva, or Siva, adore also the sun and\nmoon; and the _Khatties_, or _Catties_, another wild tribe inhabiting\nthe peninsula of Guzerat, worship the sun.\n\n[12] Blackwell. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Bohn, 1847, p. 473.\n\n[13] Davis. \"The Chinese,\" Chap. xii.\n\n[14] Humboldt. \"Aspects of Nature,\" Vol. I., p. 198, note 51. \"Steppes\nand Deserts.\"\n\n[15] Ruxton. Adventures in Mexico and Rocky Mountains, p. 192.\n\n[16]\n\n  _Str._  That cursed Ch\u00e6rophon and Socrates,\n          Who have deceived both thee and me alike.\n\n  _Phid._ I must not act unjustly towards my teachers.\n\n  _Str._  Nay, nay, revere paternal Jupiter;\n\n  _Phid._ Paternal Jupiter! old fashion'd fool;\n          Is there a Jupiter?\n\n  _Str._                    There is.\n\n  _Phid._                           Not so,\n          Since having cast out Jove a whirlwind reigns.\n\n  _Str._  Not cast him out; but I imagin'd this,\n          Seeing the whirlwind here. O wretched ones,\n          To take thee, earthen image, for a god!\n\n[17] Wheelwright's Translation, p. 124, and note. Oxford, 1837.\n\n[18] Cicero. De Natur\u00e2 Deorum. B. I., ch. 15.\n\n[19] Op. cit., B. II., c. 24.\n\n[20] Bonomi. \"Nineveh and its Palaces,\" pp. 139-264, &c.; Dr.\nGrotefend, Athen\u00e6um, June 26, 1853; Ravenshaw, Athen\u00e6um, July 16, 1853.\n\n[21] Paradise Lost.\n\n[22] Rape of the Lock. Ch. 1.\n\n[23] The _black_ colour which is popularly ascribed to the devil, was\nprobably derived from old monkish legends, which affirmed that he often\nappeared as an Ethiopian. (Jortin. Vol. II., p. 13, ed. 1805.)\n\n[24] Bonomi. Op. cit., p. 159. \"The root, or the original word from\nwhich teraphim is derived, signifies, to relax with fear, to strike with\nterror, or 'Repheh,' an appaller, one who makes others faint or fail; a\nsignification that singularly accords with the terrifying images found\nby Botta.\" The possible connection between these images and the images\n(_teraphim_) which Rachel had stolen from her father Laban, is of great\ninterest.\n\n[25] This custom is probably a relic of old Scandinavian mythology. In\nthe \"Prose Edda,\" it is stated, that the gods having captured Loki (the\npersonification of evil), who had fled from their justly excited anger,\n\"dragged him without commiseration into a cavern, wherein they placed\nthree sharp-pointed rocks, boring a hole through each of them.\"\n\n[26] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 200.--Eusebius, in his _Oration_\nin praise of the Emperor Constantine, writes, that the Emperor honoured\n\"the triumphall signe of the crosse, having really experienced and found\nthe divine virtue that is therein. For by it the multitudes of his\nenemies were put to flight; by it the vaine ostentation of the enemies\nof God was suppressed, the petulant tongues of evil speakers and wicked\nmen were silenced; by it the barbarous people were subdued; by it the\ninvisible powers of the divil were vanquished and driven away; and by it\nthe superstitious errors were confuted and abolished.\"\n\n[27] Bede. Ecclesiastical History. B. I., ch. 30. Dr. Giles' Transl.\nBohn.\n\n[28] Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. Vol. I. p. 201. Note.\nMichaelmas Day.\n\n[29] Cicero. De Natur\u00e2 Deorum. B. III., ch. 5.\n\n[30] See \"Notes and Queries.\" Sir J. E. Tennant, Vol. V., p. 121; W.\nBlood, &c., Vol. VIII., p. 413.\n\n[31] The Berlin correspondent of the _Times_ related the following\nincident:--\n\n\"The comet which has lately been visible, has served a priest, not far\nfrom Warsaw, with materials for a very curious sermon. After having\nsummoned his congregation together, although it was neither Sunday nor\nfestival, and shown them the comet, he informed them that this was the\nsame star that had appeared to the Magi at the birth of the Saviour, and\nthat it was only visible now in the Russian Empire. Its appearance on\nthis occasion was to intimate to the Russian eagle, that the time was\nnow come for it to spread out its wings, and embrace all mankind in one\northodox and sanctifying church. He showed them the star now standing\nimmediately over Constantinople, and explained that the dull light of\nthe nucleus indicated its sorrow at the delay of the Russian army in\nproceeding to its destination.\"\n\n[32] \"Madam Morrow, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and a\ndescendant of a line of astrologers reaching back for centuries, will\ngive ladies private lectures on all the events of life, in regard to\nhealth, wealth, love, courtship, and marriage. She is, without\nexception, the most wonderful astrologist in the world, or that has ever\nbeen known. She will even tell their very thoughts, and will show them\nthe likenesses of their intended husbands and absent friends, which has\nastonished thousands during her absence in Europe. She will leave the\ncity in a very short time. 76, Broome Street, between Cannon and\nColumbia. Gentlemen are not admitted.\"\n\n\"Madame la Compt flatters herself that she is competent by her great\nexperience in the art of astrology, to give true information in regard\nto the past, present, and future. She is able to see clearly any losses\nher visitors may have sustained, and will give satisfactory information\nin regard to the way of recovery. She has, and continues to give perfect\nsatisfaction. Ladies and gentlemen 50 cents. 13, Howard Street.\"\n\n\"Madame la Compt has been visited by over two hundred ladies and\ngentlemen the past week, and has given perfect satisfaction; and in\nconsideration of the great patronage bestowed upon her, she will remain\nat 13, Howard Street, for four days more, when she will positively sail\nfor the South.\"\n\n\"Mrs. Alwin, renowned in Europe for her skill in foretelling the future,\nhas arrived, and will furnish intelligence about all circumstances of\nlife. She interprets dreams, law matters, and love, by astrology, books,\nand science, and tells to ladies and gentlemen the name of the persons\nthey will marry; also the names of her visitors. Mrs. Alwin speaks the\nEnglish, French, and German languages. Residence, 25, Rivington Street,\nupstairs, near the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar.\"\n\n\"Mrs. Prewster, from Philadelphia, tenders her services to the ladies\nand gentlemen of this city in astrology, love, and law matters,\ninterpreting dreams, &c., by books and science, constantly relied on by\nNapoleon; and will tell the name of the lady or gentleman they will\nmarry; also the names of the visitors. No. 59, Great Jones Street,\ncorner of the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar.\"\n\n\"The celebrated Dr. F. Shuman, Swede by birth, just arrived in this\ncity, offers his services in astrology, physiognomy, &c. He can be\nconsulted in matters of love, marriage, past, present, and future events\nof life. Nativity calculated for ladies and gentlemen. Mr. S. has\ntravelled through the greater part of the world in the last forty-two\nyears, and is willing to give the most satisfactory information. Office,\n175, Chambers Street, near Greenwich.\"\n\n(From a recent number of the _New York Herald_. Notes and Queries,\nDecember 10, 1853, p. 561.)\n\n[33] The \u00c6neis. B. III.\n\n[34] Carthon. Ossian.\n\n[35] \"The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe,\" by W. and Mary\nHowitt. Vol. I., p. 99.\n\n[36] Howitt. \"The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe.\" Vol. I.\n\n[37] An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians; by\nE. W. Lane, Vol. I, p. 311.\n\n[38] Adventures in the Libyan Desert, p. 22.\n\n[39] B. I, ch. 13 and 16.\n\n[40] Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Bohn, p. 248. And Table of Contents, p.\nXIII.\n\n[41] \"The Fall of the Nibelungers,\" &c.; a Translation of the Nibelunge\nN\u00f4t, or Nibelungenlied, by W. N. Lettsom, p. 59, St. 346, 347; p. 167,\nSt. 983.\n\n[42] Thorpe. Op. cit. Table of Contents, p. IX.\n\n[43] \"The marvellous stories, the frightful tales, the threats, which\nwere so long the apanage of infancy, would dispose the naturally\nimpressionable mind to receive all the fantastic creations of the\nperiod. Now, it is said, the system is completely changed, and they are\ntaught to ridicule these ancient beliefs. This argument would be\nunanswerable if they spoke of colleges and boarding schools; but they\nforget the servants to whom are confided the early years of infants;\nthus is the nursery always reviving fooleries, terrors, and frightful\nstories, in the middle of which the infant grows. I will content me with\none example, that of one of the celebrated poets of England, Robert\nBurns. 'I owed much in my infancy,' says this writer, 'to an old woman\nwho lived with us, and who was extremely ignorant, and remarkably\ncredulous and superstitious. No one in the country had a larger\ncollection of tales and songs respecting devils, fairies, ghosts,\nsorcerers, magicians, jack-o'-lanterns, hobgoblins, phantoms,\napparitions, charms, giants, dragons, &c.\n\n\"'Not only did these tales cultivate in me the germs of poesy, but they\nhad such an effect upon my imagination, that, even now, in my night\njourneys, I have often, in spite of myself, the eye upon certain\nsuspicious places; and although no one can be more sceptical in such\nmatters, an effort of the reason is occasionally necessary to chase away\nthese vain terrors.'\n\n\"'Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, solitariness, contribute\nstrongly to develop the feeling of terror so wrongly cast in the minds\nof infants. Their eye readily perceives frightful figures which regard\nthem in a menacing manner; their chamber is peopled with assassins,\nrobbers, devils, and monsters of all kinds.\"--_A. Brierre de Boismont.\n\"Des Hallucinations; ou Histoire Raisonn\u00e9e des Apparitions,\"_ &c. Ed.\nII, 1852, p. 362.\n\n[44] This idea has been beautifully expressed by Longfellow in the\n\"Voices of the Night.\"\n\n    \"When the hours of day are numbered,\n      And the voices of the night\n    Wake the better soul, that slumbered,\n      To a holy calm delight,\n\n    Ere the evening lamps are lighted,\n      And like phantoms grim and tall,\n    Shadows from the fitful firelight\n      Dance upon the parlour wall;\n\n    Then the forms of the departed\n      Enter at the open door;\n    The beloved, the true-hearted,\n      Come to visit us once more.\" &c.\n\nSee also Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall. St. Martin's Eve.\n\n[45]\n\n    \"I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;\n      But or ever a prayer had gusht,\n    A wicked whisper came and made\n      My heart as dry as dust.\"\n\n                    Coleridge. \"Ancient Mariner.\"\n\n[46] Brewster. Natural Magic, p. 15.\n\n[47] A few hundred feet from the place where this occurred, is a lane\n(Oldfield Lane, Wortley, near Leeds) which was noted, many years ago, as\nthe beat of one of those somewhat rare spectres, a headless ghost. Some\nare living even now who have _known_ those who had seen this phantom.\nWhen last seen, it appeared as a comfortable-looking man, dressed in a\ndrab-coat, and carried the head under the arm. As a Yorkshire version of\na very ancient and wide-spread superstition, its memory is worth\npreserving. The belief in headless ghosts is found in many parts of\nEngland, Ireland (the _Dullahan_ or _Dulachan_), Wales, Scotland, Spain,\nFrance, and Germany.\n\n[48] Chambers' Miscellany. Art. \"Spectral Apparitions,\" &c.\n\n[49] Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. 2nd Ed., p. 3.\n\n[50] \"Phantoms of the Far East.\" Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Vol. XVII,\np. 315.\n\n[51] Busby's Lucretius, B. IV.\n\n[52] Temora.\n\n[53] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 7.\n\n[54] Letters on Natural Magic. 5th Ed., p. 166.\n\n[55] D. Jardine, \"Notes and Queries,\" Vol. VIII, p. 512, Nov. 26, 1853.\n\n[56] Hudibras. Can. III.\n\n[57] Athen\u00e6um. July 2, 1853, p. 801, and Appendix.\n\n[58] M\u00fcller. \"Manuel de Physiologie.\" Traduit par A. J. L. Jourdan. 2nd\ned., 1851, par E. Littr\u00e9, T. II., p. 388. See also \u00b6 A. B. C. E. F.,\nSect. V, \"Ph\u00e9nom\u00e8nes Subjectifs de Vision,\" p. 386.\n\n[59] M\u00fcller. Op. cit., T. II, p. 549.\n\n[60] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 74.\n\n[61] \"Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, &c., in their Relations to\nthe Vital Force,\" by Karl von Reichenbach, Pts. I & II.\n\n[62] \"The Night Side of Nature,\" by Mrs. Crowe. Ed. 1853, p. 362.\n\n[63]\n\n    \"I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,\n    Thy image steals between my God and me;\n    Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,\n    With every bead I drop too soft a tear.\"\n\n                       _Eloise and Abelard._ Pope.\n\n[64] Notes and Narrative of a Six Years' Mission principally among the\nDens of London. By R. W. Vanderkiste, p. 182.\n\n[65] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 110.\n\n[66] \"Theory of Pneumatology.\" By Dr. J. H. Jung-Stilling: translated by\nSaml. Jackson; p. 197, Lond., 1834.\n\n[67] Op. cit., p. 200.\n\n[68] The apparition of the \"_White Lady_\" was very irregular and\nuncertain, for many members of the family died without her spectre\nhaving been seen.\n\n[69] \"Demonology and Witchcraft.\" 2nd Ed., p. 350, note.\n\n[70] \"Household Words.\" Conducted by Charles Dickens, March, 1853, p. 6.\n\n[71] Op. cit., p. 142.\n\n[72] \"Notes and Queries.\" Vol. VIII., p. 287.\n\n[73] Ed. 1829, Vol. IV., p. 271.\n\n[74] Op. cit., p. 182.\n\n[75] Op. cit., p. 470.\n\n[76] De. Divinatione et de Fato.\n\n[77] Op. cit. p. 243.\n\n[78] \"Of Human Understanding.\" Bk. II, ch. 33, sect. 10.\n\n[79] Op. cit., p. 65.\n\n[80] \"History of Europe,\" from 1789 to 1815. By Sir Archibald Alison,\nBart. Chap. XX, Sect. 25, and notes.\n\n[81] Op. cit., p. 10.\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\nTranscriber's Note:\n\nPunctuation in the text has been standardised, and typographical errors\nhave been silently corrected.\n\nVariations in hyphenation, and obsolete or variant spelling, including\nquoted passages, have all been preserved. Inconsistencies in quotation\nmark usage, single quotes, double quotes, and quotes-within-quotes are\nall as in the original.","title":"Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites: Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief in the Supernatural","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":61148}