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diff --git a/12674.txt b/12674.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e8c786 --- /dev/null +++ b/12674.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10359 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Cock Lane and Common-Sense, by Andrew Lang + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Cock Lane and Common-Sense + +Author: Andrew Lang + +Release Date: June 21, 2004 [eBook #12674] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COCK LANE AND COMMON-SENSE*** + + + +Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +COCK LANE AND COMMON-SENSE + + + + + + +TO JAMES PAYN, Esq. + + +Dear Payn, + +Spirits much more rare and valuable than those spoken of in this +book are yours. Whatever 'Mediums' may be able to do, you can +'transfer' High Spirits to your readers; one of whom does not hope +to convert you, and will be fortunate enough if, by this work, he +can occasionally bring a smile to the lips of his favourite +novelist. + +With more affection and admiration than can be publicly expressed, + +Believe me, + +Yours ever, + +ANDREW LANG. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +Since the first publication of Cock Lane and Common-Sense in 1894, +nothing has occurred to alter greatly the author's opinions. He has +tried to make the Folklore Society see that such things as modern +reports of wraiths, ghosts, 'fire-walking,' 'corpse-lights,' +'crystal-gazing,' and so on, are within their province, and within +the province of anthropology. In this attempt he has not quite +succeeded. As he understands the situation, folklorists and +anthropologists will hear gladly about wraiths, ghosts, corpse- +candles, hauntings, crystal-gazing, and walking unharmed through +fire, as long as these things are part of vague rural tradition, or +of savage belief. But, as soon as there is first-hand evidence of +honourable men and women for the apparent existence of any of the +phenomena enumerated, then Folklore officially refuses to have +anything to do with the subject. Folklore will register and compare +vague savage or popular beliefs; but when educated living persons +vouch for phenomena which (if truly stated) account in part for the +origin of these popular or savage beliefs, then Folklore turns a +deaf ear. The logic of this attitude does not commend itself to the +author of Cock Lane and Common-Sense. + +On the other side, the Society for Psychical Research, while +anxiously examining all the modern instances which Folklore rejects, +has hitherto neglected, on the whole, that evidence from history, +tradition, savage superstition, saintly legend, and so forth, which +Folklore deigns to regard with interest. The neglect is not +universal, and the historical aspect of these beliefs has been dealt +with by Mr. Gurney (on Witchcraft), by Mr. Myers (on the Classical +Oracles), and by Miss X. (on Crystal-Gazing). Still, the savage and +traditional evidence is nearly as much eschewed by psychical +research, as the living and contemporary evidence is by Folklore. +The truth is that anthropology and Folklore have a ready-made theory +as to the savage and illusory origin of all belief in the spiritual, +from ghosts to God. The reported occurrence, therefore, of +phenomena which suggest the possible existence of causes of belief +_not_ accepted by anthropology, is a distasteful thing, and is +avoided. On the other hand, psychical research averts its gaze, as +a rule, from tradition, because the testimony of tradition is not +'evidential,' not at first hand. + +In Cock Lane and Common-Sense an attempt is made to reconcile these +rather hostile sisters in science. Anthropology ought to think +humani nihil a se alienum. Now the abnormal and more or less +inexplicable experiences vouched for by countless living persons of +honour and sanity, are, at all events, _human_. As they usually +coincide in character with the testimony of the lower races all over +the world; with historical evidence from the past, and with rural +Folklore now and always, it really seems hard to understand how +anthropology can turn her back on this large human province. For +example, the famous affair of the disturbances at Mr. Samuel +Wesley's parsonage at Epworth, in 1716, is reported on evidence +undeniably honest, and absolutely contemporary. Dr. Salmon, the +learned and acute Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, has twice +tried to explain the phenomena as the results of deliberate +imposture by Hetty Wesley, alone, and unaided. {0a} The present +writer examined Dr. Salmon's arguments (in the Contemporary Review, +August, 1895), and was able, he thinks, to demonstrate that scarcely +one of them was based on an accurate reading of the evidence. The +writer later came across the diary of Mr. Proctor of Wellington, +near Newcastle (about 1840), and found to his surprise that Mr. +Proctor registered on occasion, day by day, for many years, +precisely the same phenomena as those which had vexed the Wesleys. +{0b} Various contradictory and mutually exclusive theories of these +affairs have been advanced. Not one hypothesis satisfies the +friends of the others: not one bears examination. The present +writer has no theory, except the theory that these experiences (or +these modern myths, if any one pleases), are part of the province of +anthropology and Folklore. + +He would add one obvious yet neglected truth. If a 'ghost-story' be +found to contain some slight discrepancy between the narratives of +two witnesses, it is at once rejected, both by science and common- +sense, as obviously and necessarily and essentially false. Yet no +story of the most normal incident in daily life, can well be told +without _some_ discrepancies in the relations of witnesses. None +the less such stories are accepted even by juries and judges. We +cannot expect human testimony suddenly to become impeccable and +infallible in all details, just because a 'ghost' is concerned. Nor +is it logical to demand here a degree of congruity in testimony, +which daily experience of human evidence proves to be impossible, +even in ordinary matters. + +A collection of recent reports of 'fire-walking' by unscorched +ministrants, in the South Seas, in Sarawak, in Bulgaria, and among +the Klings, appeals to the present writer in a similar way. +Anthropology, he thinks, should compare these reports of living +witnesses, with the older reports of similar phenomena, in Virgil, +in many books of travel, in saintly legends, in trials by ordeal, +and in Iamblichus. {0c} Anthropology has treasured the accounts of +trials by the ordeal of fire, and has not neglected the tales of old +travellers, such as Pallas, and Gmelin. Why she should stand aloof +from analogous descriptions by Mr. Basil Thomson, and other living +witnesses, the present writer is unable to imagine. The better, the +more closely contemporary the evidence, the more a witness of the +abnormal is ready to submit to cross-examination, the more his +testimony is apt to be neglected by Folklorists. Of course, the +writer is not maintaining that there is anything 'psychical' in +fire-walking, or in fire-handling. Put it down as a trick. Then as +a trick it is so old, so world-wide, that we should ascertain the +modus of it. Mr. Clodd, following Sir B. W. Richardson, suggests +the use of diluted sulphuric acid, or of alum. But I am not aware +that he has tried the experiment on his own person, nor has he +produced an example in which it was successfully tried. Science +demands actual experiment. + +The very same remarks apply to 'Crystal-Gazing'. Folklore welcomes +it in legend or in classical or savage divination. When it is +asserted that a percentage of living and educated and honourable +people are actually hallucinated by gazing into crystals, the +President of the Folklore Society (Mr. Clodd) has attributed the +fact to a deranged liver. {0d} This is a theory like another, and, +like another, can be tested. But, if it holds water, then we have +discovered the origin of the world-wide practice of crystal-gazing. +It arises from an equally world-wide form of hepatic malady. + +In answer to all that has been urged here, anthropologists are wont +to ejaculate that blessed word 'Survival'. Our savage, and +mediaeval, and Puritan ancestors were ignorant and superstitious; +and we, or some of us, inherit their beliefs, as we may inherit +their complexions. They have bequeathed to us a tendency to see the +viewless things, and hear the airy tongues which they saw and heard; +and they have left us the legacy of their animistic or +spiritualistic explanation of these subjective experiences. + +Well, be it so; what does anthropology study with so much zest as +survivals? When, then, we find plenty of sane and honest people +ready with tales of their own 'abnormal' experiences, +anthropologists ought to feel fortunate. Here, in the persons of +witnesses, say, to 'death-bed wraiths,' are 'survivals' of the +liveliest and most interesting kind. Here are parsons, solicitors, +soldiers, actors, men of letters, peers, honourable women not a few, +all (as far as wraiths go), in exactly the mental condition of a +Maori. Anthropology then will seek out these witnesses, these +contemporary survivals, these examples of the truth of its own +hypothesis, and listen to them as lovingly as it listens to a +garrulous old village wife, or to an untutored Mincopi. + +This is what we expect; but anthropology, never glancing at our +'survivals,' never interrogating them, goes to the Aquarium to study +a friendly Zulu. The consistency of this method laisse a desirer! +One says to anthropologists: 'If all educated men who have had, or +believe they have had "psychical experiences" are mere "survivals," +why don't you friends of "survivals" examine them and cross examine +them? Their psychology ought to be a most interesting proof of the +correctness of your theory. But, far from studying the cases of +these gentlemen, some of you actually denounce, for doing so, the +Society for Psychical Research.' + +The real explanation of these singular scientific inconsistencies is +probably this. Many men of science have, consciously or +unconsciously, adopted the belief that the whole subject of the +'abnormal,' or, let us say, the 'psychical,' is closed. Every +phenomenon admits of an already ascertained physical explanation. +Therefore, when a man (however apparently free from superstitious +prejudice) investigates a reported abnormal phenomenon, he is +instantly accused of _wanting to believe_ in a 'supernatural +explanation'. Wanting (ex hypothesi) to believe, he is unfit to +investigate, all his conclusions will be affirmative, and all will +be worthless. + +This scientific argument is exactly the old argument of the pulpit +against the atheist who 'does not believe because he does not want +to believe'. The writer is only too well aware that even scientific +minds, when bent on these topics, are apt to lose balance and +sanity. But this tendency, like any other mental bad habit, is to +be overcome, and may be vanquished. + +Manifestly it is as fair for a psychical researcher to say to Mr. +Clodd, 'You won't examine my haunted house because you are afraid of +being obliged to believe in spirits,' as it is fair for Mr. Clodd to +say to a psychical researcher, 'You only examine a haunted house +because you want to believe in spirits; and, therefore, if you _do_ +see a spook, it does not count'. + +We have recently seen an instructive example. Many continental +savants, some of them bred in the straitest sect of materialists, +examined, and were puzzled by an Italian female 'medium'. Effects +apparently abnormal were attested. In the autumn of 1895 this woman +was brought to England by the Society for Psychical Research. They, +of course, as they, ex hypothesi, 'wish to believe,' should, ex +hypothesi, have gone on believing. But, in fact, they detected the +medium in the act of cheating, and publicly denounced her as an +impostor. The argument, therefore, that investigation implies +credulity, and that credulity implies inevitable and final +deception, scarcely holds water. + +One or two slight corrections may be offered here. The author +understands that Mr. Howitt does not regard the Australian conjurers +described on p. 41, as being actually _bound_ by the bark cords +'wound about their heads, bodies, and limbs'. Of course, Mr. +Howitt's is the best evidence possible. + +To the cases of savage table-turning (p. 49), add Dr. Codrington's +curious examples in The Melanesians, p. 223 (Oxford, Clarendon +Press, 1891). + +To stories of fire-handling, or of walking-uninjured through fire +(p. 49), add examples in The Journal of the Polynesian Society, vol. +ii., No. 2, June, 1893, pp. 105-108. See also 'At the Sign of the +Ship,' Longman's Magazine, August, 1894, and The Quarterly Review, +August, 1895, article on 'The Evil Eye'. + +Mr. J. W. Maskelyne, the eminent expert in conjuring, has remarked +to the author that the old historical reports of 'physical +phenomena,' such as those which were said to accompany D. D. Home, +do not impress him at all. For, as Mr. Maskelyne justly remarks, +their antiquity and world-wide diffusion (see essays on 'Comparative +Psychical Research,' and on 'Savage and Classical Spiritualism') may +be accounted for with ease. Like other myths, equally uniform and +widely diffused, they represent the natural play of human fancy. +Inanimate objects are stationary, therefore let us say that they +move about. Men do not float in the air. Let us say that they do. +Then we have the 'physical phenomena' of spiritualism. This +objection had already occurred to, and been stated by, the author. +But the difficulty of accounting for the large body of respectable +evidence as to the real occurrence of the alleged phenomena remains. +Consequently the author has little doubt that there is a genuine +substratum of fact, probably fact of conjuring, and of more or less +hallucinatory experience. If so, the great antiquity and uniformity +of the tricks, make them proper subjects of anthropological inquiry, +like other matters of human tradition. Where conditions of darkness +and so on are imposed, he does not think that it is worth while to +waste time in examination. + +Finally, the author has often been asked: 'But what do you believe +yourself?' + +He believes that all these matters are legitimate subjects of +anthropological inquiry. + +London, 27th October, 1895. + + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Nature of the subject. Persistent survival of certain Animistic +beliefs. Examples of the Lady Onkhari, Lucian, General Campbell. +The Anthropological aspect of the study. Difference between this +Animistic belief, and other widely diffused ideas and institutions. +Scientific admission of certain phenomena, and rejection of others. +Connection between the rejected and accepted phenomena. The +attitude of Science. Difficulties of investigation illustrated. +Dr. Carpenter's Theory of unconscious Cerebration. Illustration of +this Theory. The Failure of the Inquiry by the Dialectical Society. +Professor Huxley, Mr. G. H. Lewes. Absurdity and charlatanism of +'Spiritualism'. Historical aspect of the subject. Universality of +Animistic Beliefs, in every stage of culture. Not peculiar to +savagery, ignorance, the Dark Ages, or periods of Religious crisis. +Nature of the Evidence. + +It is not without hesitation that this book is offered to the +reader. Very many people, for very various reasons, would taboo the +subjects here discoursed of altogether. These subjects are a +certain set of ancient beliefs, for example the belief in +clairvoyance, in 'hauntings,' in events transcending ordinary +natural laws. The peculiarity of these beliefs is, that they have +survived the wreck of faith in such elements of witchcraft as +metamorphosis, and power to cause tempest or drought. To study such +themes is 'impious,' or 'superstitious,' or 'useless'. Yet to a +pathologist, or anthropologist, the survivals of beliefs must always +be curious and attractive illustrations of human nature. + +Ages, empires, civilisations pass, and leave some members even of +educated mankind still, in certain points, on the level of the +savage who propitiates with gifts, or addresses with prayers, the +spirits of the dead. + +An example of this endurance, this secular survival of belief, may +be more instructive and is certainly more entertaining than a world +of assertions. In his Etudes Egyptiennes (Tome i. fascic. 2) M. +Maspero publishes the text and translation of a papyrus fragment. +This papyrus was discovered still attached to a statuette in wood, +representing 'the singer of Ammen, Kena,' in ceremonial dress. The +document is a letter written by an ancient Egyptian scribe, 'To the +Instructed Khou of the Dame Onkhari,' his own dead wife, the Khou, +or Khu, being the spirit of that lady. The scribe has been +'haunted' since her decease, his home has been disturbed, he asks +Onkhari what he has done to deserve such treatment: 'What wrong +have I been guilty of that I should be in this state of trouble? +what have I done that thou should'st help to assail me? no crime has +been wrought against thee. From the hour of my marriage till this +day, what have I wrought against thee that I need conceal?' + +He vows that, when they meet at the tribunal of Osiris, he will have +right on his side. + +This letter to the dead is deposited in the tomb of the dead, and we +may trust that the scribe was no longer annoyed by a Khou, which +being instructed, should have known better. To take another ancient +instance, in his Philopseudes Lucian introduces a kind of club of +superstitious men, telling ghost stories. One of them assures his +friend that the spectre of his late wife has visited and vexed him, +because he had accidentally neglected to burn one of a pair of gilt +shoes, to which she was attached. She indicated the place where the +shoe was lying hidden, and she was pacified. Lucian, of course, +treats this narrative in a spirit of unfeeling mirth, but, if such +tales were not current in his time, there would have been no point +in his banter. Thus the belief in the haunting of a husband by the +spirit of his wife, the belief which drives a native Australian +servant from the station where his gin is buried, survived old +Egypt, and descended to Greece. We now take a modern instance, +closely corresponding to that of the Instructed Khou of the Dame +Onkhari. + +In the Proceedings of the Psychical Society (part xiv. p. 477) the +late General Campbell sends, from Gwalior House, Southgate, N., +April 27, 1884, a tale of personal experiences and actions, which +exactly reproduces the story of the Egyptian Scribe. The narrative +is long and not interesting, except as an illustration of survival,-- +in all senses of the word. + +General Campbell says that his wife died in July, 1882. He +describes himself as of advanced age, and cautious in forming +opinions. In 1882 he had never given any consideration to 'the +subject of ultra-mundane indications'. Yet he recounts examples of +'about thirty inexplicable sounds, as if inviting my attention +specially, and two apparitions or visions, apparently of a carefully +calculated nature, seen by a child visitor, a blood relation of my +late wife, whom this child had never seen, nor yet any likeness of +her'. The general then describes his house, a new one, and his +unsuccessful endeavours to detect the cause of the knocks, raps, +crashes, and other disturbances. Unable to discover any ordinary +cause, he read some books on 'Spiritualism,' and, finally, addressed +a note, as the Egyptian Scribe directed a letter, to the 'agent': +{4} _Give three raps if from my deceased wife_! + +He was rewarded by three crashing sounds, and by other peculiar +phenomena. All these, unlike the scribe, he regarded as sent 'for +my particular conviction and comfort'. + +These instances prove that, from the Australian blacks in the Bush, +who hear raps when the spirits come, to ancient Egypt, and thence to +Greece, and last, in our own time, and in a London suburb, similar +experiences, real or imaginary, are explained by the same +hypothesis. No 'survival' can be more odd and striking, none more +illustrative of the permanence, in human nature, of certain +elements. To examine these psychological curiosities may, or may +not, be 'useful,' but, at lowest, the study may rank as a branch of +Mythology, or of Folklore. + +It is in the spirit of these sciences, themselves parts of a general +historical inquiry into the past and present of our race, that we +would glance at the anecdotes, legends, and superstitions which are +here collected. The writer has been chiefly interested in the +question of the Evidence, its nature and motives, rather than in the +question of Fact. It is desirable to know why independent +witnesses, practically everywhere and always, tell the same tales. +To examine the origin of these tales is not more 'superstitious' +than to examine the origin of the religious and heroic mythologies +of the world. It is, of course, easy to give both mythology, and +'the science of spectres,' the go by. But antiquaries will be +inquiring, and these pursuits are more than mere 'antiquarian old +womanries'. We follow the stream of fable, as we track a burn to +its head, and it leads us into shy, and strange scenes of human +life, haunted by very fearful wild-fowl, and rarely visited save by +the credulous. There may be entertainment here, and, to the student +of his species, there may be instruction. + +On every side we find, as we try to show, in all ages, climates, +races, and stages of civilisation, consentient testimony to a set of +extraordinary phenomena. Equally diffused we find fraudulent +imitations of these occurrences, and, on one side, a credulity which +has accepted everything, on the other hand, a scepticism which +denies and laughs at all the reports. But it is a question whether +human folly would, everywhere and always, suffer from the same +delusions, undergo the same hallucinations, and elaborate the same +frauds. The problem is one which, in other matter, always haunts +the student of man's development: he is accustomed to find similar +myths, rites, customs, fairy tales, all over the world; of some he +can trace the origin to early human imagination and reason, working +on limited knowledge; about others, he asks whether they have been +independently evolved in several places, or whether they have been +diffused from a single centre. In the present case, the problem is +more complicated. Taboos, totemism, myths explanatory of natural +phenomena, customs like what, with Dr. Murray's permission, we call +the Couvade, are either peculiar to barbarous races, or, among the +old civilised races, existed as survivals, protected by conservative +Religion. But such things as 'clairvoyance,' 'levitation,' +'veridical apparitions,' 'movements of objects without physical +contact,' 'rappings,' 'hauntings,' persist as matters of belief, in +full modern civilisation, and are attested by many otherwise sane, +credible, and even scientifically trained modern witnesses. In this +persistence, and in these testimonies, the alleged abnormal +phenomena differ from such matters as nature-myths, customs like +Suttee, Taboo, Couvade, and Totemism, the change of men into beasts, +the raising of storms by art-magic. These things our civilisation +has dropped, the belief in other wild phenomena many persons in our +civilisation retain. + +The tendency of the anthropologist is to explain this fact by +Survival and Revival. Given the savage beliefs in magic, spirit +rapping, clairvoyance, and so forth, these, like Marchen, or nursery +tales, will survive obscurely among peasants and the illiterate +generally. In an age of fatigued scepticism and rigid physical +science, the imaginative longings of men will fall back on the +savage or peasant necromancy, which will be revived perhaps in some +obscure American village, and be run after by the credulous and +half-witted. Then the wished-for phenomena will be supplied by the +dexterity of charlatans. As it is easy to demonstrate the quackery +of paid 'mediums,' as _that_, at all events, is a vera causa, the +theory of Survival and Revival seems adequate. Yet there are two +circumstances which suggest that all is not such plain sailing. The +first is the constantly alleged occurrence of 'spontaneous' and +sporadic abnormal phenomena, whether clairvoyance in or out of +hypnotic trance, of effects on the mind and the senses apparently +produced by some action of a distant mind, of hallucinations +coincident with remote events, of physical prodigies that contradict +the law of gravitation, or of inexplicable sounds, lights, and other +occurrences in certain localities. These are just the things which +Medicine Men, Mediums and classical Diviners have always pretended +to provoke and produce by certain arts or rites. Secondly, whether +they do or do not occasionally succeed, apart from fraud, in these +performances, the 'spontaneous' phenomena are attested by a mass and +quality of evidence, ancient, mediaeval and modern, which would +compel attention in any other matter. Living, sane, and +scientifically trained men now,--not to speak of ingenious, and +intelligent, if superstitious observers in the past,--and Catholic +gleaners of contemporary evidence for saintly miracle, and +witnesses, judges, and juries in trials for witchcraft, are +undeniably all 'in the same tale'. + +Now we can easily devise an explanation of the stories told by +savages, by fanatics, by peasants, by persons under ecclesiastical +influence, by witches, and victims of witches. That is simple, but +why are sane, scientific, modern observers, and even disgusted +modern sceptics, in a tale, and that just the old savage tale? What +makes them repeat the stories they do repeat? We do not so much +ask: 'Are these stories true?' as, '_Why are these stories told_?' +Professor Ray Lankester puts the question thus, and we are still at +a loss for an answer. + +Meanwhile modern science has actually accepted as real, some strange +psychological phenomena which both science and common-sense +rejected, between 1720 and 1840, roughly speaking. The accepted +phenomena are always reported, historically, as attendant on the +still more strange, and still rejected occurrences. We are thus +face to face with a curious question of evidence: To what extent +are some educated modern observers under the same illusions as Red +Men, Kaffirs, Eskimo, Samoyeds, Australians, and Maoris? To what +extent does the coincidence of their testimony with that of races so +differently situated and trained, justify curiosity, interest, and +perhaps suspense of judgment? + +The question of the value of the facts is one to be determined by +physiologists, physicians, physicists, and psychologists. It is +clear that the alleged phenomena, both those now accepted and those +still rejected, attend, or are said to attend, persons of singular +physical constitution. It is not for nothing that Iamblichus, +describing the constitution of his diviner, or seer, and the +phenomena which he displays, should exactly delineate such a man as +St. Joseph of Cupertino, with his miracles as recounted in the Acta +Sanctorum {9} (1603-1663). Now certain scientific, and (as a layman +might suppose), qualified persons, aver that they have seen and even +tested, in modern instances, the phenomena insisted on by +Iamblichus, by the Bollandists, and by a great company of ordinary +witnesses in all climes, ages, and degrees of culture. But these +few scientific observers are scouted in this matter, by the vast +majority of physicists and psychologists. It is with this majority, +if they choose to find time, and can muster inclination for the task +of prolonged and patient experiment, that the ultimate decision as +to the portee and significance of the facts must rest. The problem +cannot be solved and settled by amateurs, nor by 'common-sense,' +that + +Delivers brawling judgments all day long, +On all things, unashamed. + +Ignorance, however respectable, and however contemptuous, is +certainly no infallible oracle on any subject. Meanwhile most +representatives of physical science, perhaps all official +representatives, hold aloof,--not merely from such performances or +pretences as can only be criticised by professional conjurers,--but +from the whole mass of reported abnormal events. As the occurrences +are admitted, even by believers, to depend on fluctuating and +unascertained personal conditions, the reluctance of physicists to +examine them is very natural and intelligible. + +Whether the determination to taboo research into them, and to +denounce their examination as of perilous moral consequence, is +scientific, or is obscurantist, every one may decide for himself. +The quest for truth is usually supposed to be regardless of +consequences, meanwhile, till science utters an opinion, till Roma +locuta est, and does not, after a scrambling and hasty inquiry, or +no inquiry at all, assert a prejudice; mere literary and historical +students cannot be expected to pronounce a verdict. + +Spiritualists, and even less convinced persons, have frequently +denounced official men of science for not making more careful and +prolonged investigations in this dusky region. It is not enough, +they say, to unmask one imposture, or to sit in the dark four or +five times with a 'medium'. This affair demands the close scrutiny +of years, and the most patient and persevering experiment. + +This sounds very plausible, but the few official men of science, +whose names the public has heard,--and it is astonishing how famous +among his peers a scientific character may be, while the public has +never heard of him--can very easily answer their accusers: 'What,' +they may cry, 'are we to investigate? It is absurd to ask us to +leave our special studies, and sit for many hours, through many +years, probably in the dark, with an epileptic person, and a few +hysterical believers. We are not conjurers or judges of conjuring.' +Again, is a man like Professor Huxley, or Lord Kelvin, to run about +the country, examining every cottage where there are rumours of +curious noises, and where stones and other missiles are thrown +about, by undetected hands? That is the business of the police, and +if the police are baffled, as in a Cock Lane affair at Port Glasgow, +in 1864, and in Paris, in 1846, we cannot expect men of science to +act as amateur detectives. {11} Again, it is hardly to be expected +that our chosen modern leaders of opinion will give themselves up to +cross-examining ladies and gentlemen who tell ghost stories. +Barristers and solicitors would be more useful for that purpose. +Thus hardly anything is left which physical science can investigate, +except the conduct and utterances of the hysterical, the epileptic, +the hypnotised and other subjects who are occasionally said to +display an abnormal extension of the perceptive faculties, for +example, by way of clairvoyance. To the unscientific intelligence +it seems conceivable that if Home, for example, could have been kept +in some such establishment as the Salpetriere for a year, and could +have been scrutinised and made the subject of experiment, like the +other hysterical patients, his pretensions might have been decided +on once for all. But he merely performed a few speciosa miracula +under tests established by one or two English men of science, and +believers and disbelievers are still left to wrangle over him: they +usually introduce a question of moral character. Now a few men of +science in England like Dr. Gregory about 1851, and like Dr. +Carpenter, and a larger number on the continent, have examined and +are examining these peculiarities. Their reports are often +sufficiently astonishing to the lay mind. + +No doubt when, if ever, a very large and imposing body of these +reports is presented by a cloud of scientific witnesses of esteemed +reputation, then official science will give more time and study to +the topic than it is at present inclined to bestow. Mr. Wallace has +asserted that, 'whenever the scientific men of any age have denied, +on a priori grounds, the facts of investigation, they have _always +been wrong_'. {12} He adds that Galileo, Harvey, Jenner, Franklin, +Young, and Arago, when he 'wanted even to discuss the subject of the +electric telegraph,' were 'vehemently opposed by their scientific +contemporaries,' 'laughed at as dreamers,' 'ridiculed,' and so on, +like the early observers of palaeolithic axes, and similar +prehistoric remains. This is true, of course, but, because some +correct ideas were laughed at, it does not follow that whatever is +laughed at is correct. The squarers of the circle, the discoverers +of perpetual motion, the inquirers into the origin of language, have +all been ridiculed, and ruled out of court, the two former classes, +at least, justly enough. Now official science apparently regards +all the long and universally rumoured abnormal occurrences as in the +same category with Keely's Motor, and Perpetual Motion, not as in +the same category with the undulatory theory of light, or the theory +of the circulation of the blood. Clairvoyance, or ghosts, or +suspensions of the law of gravitation, are things so widely +contradictory of general experience and of ascertained laws, that +they are pronounced to be impossible; like perpetual motion they are +not admitted to a hearing. + +As for the undeniable phenomenon that, in every land, age, and +condition of culture, and in every stage of belief or disbelief, +some observers have persistently asserted their experience of these +occurrences; as for the phenomenon that the testimonies of +Australian blacks, of Samoyeds, of Hurons, of Greeks, of European +peasants, of the Catholic and the Covenanting clergy, and of some +scientifically trained modern physicians and chemists, are all +coincident, official physical science leaves these things to +anthropology and folklore. Yet the coincidence of such strange +testimony is a singular fact in human nature. Even people of open +mind can, at present, say no more than that there is a great deal of +smoke, a puzzling quantity, if there be no fire, and that either +human nature is very easily deluded by simple conjuring tricks, or +that, in all stages of culture, minds are subject to identical +hallucinations. The whole hocus-pocus of 'spirit-writing' on slates +and in pellets of paper, has been satisfactorily exposed and +explained, as a rather simple kind of leger-de-main. But this was a +purely modern sort of trickery; the old universal class of useless +miracles, said to occur spontaneously, still presents problems of +undeniable psychological interest. + +For example, if it be granted, as apparently it was by Dr. +Carpenter, that, in certain circumstances, certain persons, wide +awake, can perform, in various ways, intelligent actions, and +produce intelligent expressions automatically, without being +conscious of what they are doing, then that fact is nearly as +interesting and useful as the fact that we are descended from +protozoa. Thus Dr. Carpenter says that, in 'table-talking,' 'cases +have occasionally occurred in the experience of persons above +suspicion of intentional deception, in which the answers given by +the movements of tables were not only unknown to the questioners, +but were even contrary to their belief at the time, and yet +afterwards proved to be true. Such cases afford typical examples of +the doctrine of unconscious cerebration, for in several of them it +was capable of being distinctly shown that the answers, although +contrary to the belief of the questioners at the time, were true to +facts of which they had been formerly cognisant, but which had +vanished from their recollection; the residua of these forgotten +impressions giving rise to cerebral changes which prompted the +responses without any consciousness on the part of the agents of the +latent springs of their actions.' It is, apparently, to be +understood that, as the existence of latent unconscious knowledge +was traced in 'several' cases, therefore the explanation held good +in all cases, even where it could not be established as a fact. + +Let us see how this theory works out in practice. Smith, Jones, +Brown and Robinson are sitting with their hands on a table. All, ex +hypothesi, are honourable men, 'above suspicion of intentional +deception'. They ask the table where Green is. Smith, Jones and +Robinson have no idea, Brown firmly believes that Green is in Rome. +The table begins to move, kicks and answers, by aid of an alphabet +and knocks, that Green is at Machrihanish, where, on investigation, +he is proved to be. Later, Brown is able to show (let us hope by +documentary evidence), that he _had_ heard Green was going to +Machrihanish, instead of to Rome as he had intended, but this +remarkable change of plans on Green's part had entirely faded from +Brown's memory. Now we are to take it, ex hypothesi, that Brown is +the soul of honour, and, like Mr. Facey Rumford, 'wouldn't tell a +lie if it was ever so'. The practical result is that, while Brown's +consciousness informs him, trumpet-tongued, that Green is at Rome, +'the residue of a forgotten impression' makes him (without his +knowing it) wag the table, which he does not intend to do, and +forces him to say through the tilts of the table, that Green is at +Machrihanish, while he believes that Green is at Rome. + +The table-turners were laughed at, and many, if not all of them, +deserved ridicule. But see how even this trivial superstition +illuminates our knowledge of the human mind! A mere residuum of a +forgotten impression, a lost memory which Brown would have sworn, in +a court of justice, had never been in his mind at all, can work his +muscles, while he supposes that they are _not_ working, can make a +table move at which three other honourable men are sitting, and can +tell all of them what none of them knows. Clearly the expedient of +table-turning in court might be tried by conscientious witnesses, +who have forgotten the circumstances on which they are asked to give +evidence. As Dr. Carpenter remarks, quoting Mr. Lecky, 'our +doctrine of unconscious cerebration inculcates toleration for +differences not merely of belief, but of the moral standard'. And +why not toleration for 'immoral' actions? If Brown's residuum of an +impression can make Brown's muscles move a table to give responses +of which he is ignorant, why should not the residuum of a forgotten +impression that it would be a pleasant thing to shoot Mr. Gladstone +or Lord Salisbury, make Brown unconsciously commit that solecism? +It is a question of degree. At all events, if the unconscious self +can do as much as Dr. Carpenter believed, we cannot tell how many +other marvels it may perform; we cannot know till we investigate +further. If this be so, it is, perhaps, hardly wise or scientific +to taboo all investigation. If a mere trivial drawing-room +amusement, associated by some with an absurd 'animistic hypothesis,' +can, when explained by Dr. Carpenter, throw such unexpectedly +blinding light on human nature, who knows how much light may be +obtained from a research into more serious and widely diffused +superstitious practices? The research is, undeniably, beset with +the most thorny of difficulties. Yet whosoever agrees with Dr. +Carpenter must admit that, after one discovery so singular as +'unconscious cerebration,' in its effect on tables, some one is +bound to go further in the same field, and try for more. We are +assuming, for the sake of argument, the accuracy of Dr. Carpenter's +facts. {17a} + +More than twenty years ago an attempt was made by a body called the +'Dialectical Society,' to investigate the phenomena styled +spiritualistic. This well-meant essay had most unsatisfactory +results. {17b} + +First a committee of inquiry was formed, on the motion of Dr. +Edmunds. The committee was heterogeneous. Many of the names now +suggest little to the reader. Mr. Bradlaugh we remember, but he +chiefly attended a committee which sat with D. D. Home, and it is +admitted that nothing of interest there occurred. Then we find the +Rev. Maurice Davies, who was wont to write books of little +distinction on semi-religious topics. Mr. H. G. Atkinson was a +person interested in mesmerism. Kisch, Moss, and Quelch, with Dyte +and Isaac Meyers, Bergheim and Geary, Hannah, Hillier, Reed (their +names go naturally in blank verse), were, doubtless, all most +estimable men, but scarcely boast of scientific fame. Serjeant Cox, +a believer in the phenomena, if not in their spiritual cause, was of +the company, as was Mr. Jencken, who married one of the Miss Foxes, +the first authors of modern thaumaturgy. Professor Huxley and Mr. +G. H. Lewes were asked to join, but declined to march to Sarras, the +spiritual city, with the committee. This was neither surprising nor +reprehensible, but Professor Huxley's letter of refusal appears to +indicate that matters of interest, and, perhaps, logic, are +differently understood by men of science and men of letters. {18} +He gave two reasons for refusing, and others may readily be imagined +by the sympathetic observer. The first was that he had no time for +an inquiry involving much trouble, and (as he justly foresaw) much +annoyance. Next, he had no interest in the subject. He had once +examined a case of 'spiritualism,' and detected an imposture. 'But, +supposing the phenomena to be genuine, they do not interest me. If +anybody would endow me with the faculty of listening to the chatter +of old women and curates in the nearest cathedral town, I should +decline the privilege, having better things to do.' Thus it would +not interest Professor Huxley if some new kind of telephone should +enable him to hear all the conversation of persons in a town (if a +cathedral town) more or less distant. He would not be interested by +the 'genuine' fact of this extension of his faculties, because he +would not expect to be amused or instructed by the contents of what +he heard. Of course he was not invited to listen to a chatter, +which, on one hypothesis, was that of the dead, but to help to +ascertain whether or not there were any genuine facts of an unusual +nature, which some persons explained by the animistic hypothesis. +To mere 'bellettristic triflers' the existence of genuine abnormal +and unexplained facts seems to have been the object of inquiry, and +we must penitently admit that if genuine communications could really +be opened with the dead, we would regard the circumstance with some +degree of curious zest, even if the dead were on the intellectual +level of curates and old women. Besides, all old women are not +imbeciles, history records cases of a different kind, and even some +curates are as intelligent as the apes, whose anatomy and customs, +about that time, much occupied Professor Huxley. In Balaam's +conversation with his ass, it was not so much the fact that mon ane +parle bien which interested the prophet, as the circumstance that +mon ane parle. Science has obviously soared very high, when she +cannot be interested by the fact (if a fact) that the dead are +communicating with us, apart from the value of what they choose to +say. + +However, Professor Huxley lost nothing by not joining the committee +of the Dialectical Society. Mr. G. H. Lewes, for his part, hoped +that with Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace to aid (for he joined the +committee) and with Mr. Crookes (who apparently did not) 'we have a +right to expect some definite result'. Any expectation of that kind +was doomed to disappointment. In Mr. Lewes's own experience, which +was large, 'the means have always been proved to be either +deliberate imposture . . . or the well-known effects of expectant +attention'. That is, when Lord Adare, the Master of Lindsay, and a +cloud of other witnesses, thought they saw heavy bodies moving about +of their own free will, either somebody cheated, or the spectators +beheld what they did behold, because they expected to do so, even +when, like M. Alphonse Karr, and Mr. Hamilton Aide, they expected +nothing of the kind. This would be Mr. Lewes's natural explanation +of the circumstances, suggested by his own large experience. + +The results of the Dialectical Society's inquiry were somewhat +comic. The committee reported that marvels were alleged, by the +experimental subcommittees, to have occurred. Sub-committee No. 1 +averred that 'motion may be produced in solid bodies without +material contact, by some hitherto unrecognised force'. Sub- +committees 2 and 3 had many communications with mysterious +intelligences to vouch for, and much erratic behaviour on the part +of tables to record. No. 4 had nothing to report at all, and No. 5 +which sat four times with Home had mere trifles of raps. Home was +ill, and the seances were given up. + +So far, many curious phenomena were alleged to have occurred, but +now Dr. Edmunds, who started the whole inquiry, sent in a separate +report. He complained that convinced spiritualists had 'captured' +the editing sub-committee, as people say, and had issued a report +practically spiritualistic. He himself had met nothing more +remarkable than impudent frauds or total failure. 'Raps, noises, +and movements of various kinds,' he had indeed witnessed, and he +heard wondrous tales from truthful people, 'but I have never been +able to see anything worthy of consideration, as not being accounted +for by unconscious action, delusion, or imposture'. Then the +editors of the Report contradicted Dr. Edmunds on points of fact, +and Mr. A. R. Wallace disabled his logic, {21} and Mr. Geary +dissented from the Report, and the editors said that his statements +were incorrect, and that he was a rare attendant at seances, and +Serjeant Cox vouched for more miracles, and a great many statements +of the most astounding description were made by Mr. Varley, an +electrician, by D. D. Home, by the Master of Lindsay (Lord Crawford) +and by other witnesses who had seen Home grow eight inches longer +and also shorter than his average height; fly in the air; handle +burning coals unharmed, cause fragrance of various sweet scents to +fill a room, and, in short, rival St. Joseph of Cupertino in all his +most characteristic performances. Unluckily Mr. Home, not being in +the vein, did not one of these feats in presence of Mr. Bradlaugh +and sub-committee No. 5. These results are clearly not of a +convincing and harmonious description, and thus ended the attempt of +the Dialectical Society. Nobody can do otherwise than congratulate +Professor Huxley and Mr. Lewes, on their discreet reserve. The +inquiry of the Dialectical Society was a failure; the members of the +committees remained at variance; and it is natural to side with the +sceptics rather than with those who believed from the first, or were +converted (as many are said to have been) during the experiments. +Perhaps all such inquiries may end in no more than diversity of +opinion. These practical researches ought not to be attempted by +the majority of people, if by any. On many nervous systems, the +mere sitting idly round a table, and calling the process a seance, +produces evil effects. + +As to the idea of purposely evoking the dead, it is at least as +impious, as absurd, as odious to taste and sentiment, as it is +insane in the eyes of reason. This protest the writer feels obliged +to make, for while he regards the traditional, historical and +anthropological curiosities here collected as matters of some +interest, in various aspects, he has nothing but abhorrence and +contempt for modern efforts to converse with the manes, and for all +the profane impostures of 'spiritualism'. + +On the question of the real existence of the reported phenomena +hereafter chronicled, and on the question of the portee of the +facts, if genuine, the writer has been unable to reach any +conclusion, negative or affirmative. Even the testimony of his +senses, if they ever bore witness to any of the speciosa miracula, +would fail to convince him on the affirmative side. There seems to +be no good reason why one observer should set so much store by his +own impressions of sense, while he regards those of all other +witnesses as fallible. On the other hand, the writer feels unable +to set wholly aside the concurrent testimony of the most diverse +people, in times, lands and conditions of opinion the most various. +The reported phenomena fall into regular groups, like the symptoms +of a disease. Is it a disease of observation? If so, the topic is +one of undeniable psychological interest. To urge this truth, to +produce such examples as his reading affords, is the purpose of the +author. + +The topic has an historical aspect. In what sorts of periods, in +what conditions of general thought and belief, are the alleged +abnormal phenomena most current? Every one will answer: In ages +and lands of ignorance and superstitions; or, again: In periods of +religious, or, so to say, of irreligious crisis. As Mr. Lecky +insists, belief in all such matters, from fairies to the miracles of +the Gospel, declines as rationalism or enlightenment advances. Yet +it is not as Mr. Lecky says, before reason that they vanish, not +before learned argument and examination, but just before a kind of +sentiment, or instinct, or feeling, that events contradictory of +normal experience seem ridiculous, and incredible. + +Now, if we set aside, for the present, ecclesiastical miracles, and +judicial witchcraft, and fix our attention on such minor and useless +marvels as clairvoyance, 'ghosts,' unexplained noises, unexplained +movements of objects, one doubts whether the general opinion as to +the ratio of marvels and ignorance is correct. The truth is that we +have often very scanty evidence. If we take Athens in her lustre, +we are, undeniably, in an age of enlightenment, of the Aufklarung. +No rationalistic, philosophical, cool-headed contemporary of +Middleton, of Hume, of Voltaire, could speak more contemptuously +about ghosts, and about the immortality of the soul, than some of +the Athenian gentlemen who converse with Socrates in the Dialogues. +Yet we find that Socrates and Plato, men as well educated, as +familiar with the refined enlightenment of Athens as the others, +take to some extent the side of the old wives with their fables, and +believe in earth-bound spirits of the dead. Again, the clear-headed +Socrates, one of the pioneers of logic, credits himself with +'premonitions,' apparently with clairvoyance, and assuredly with +warnings which, in the then existing state of psychology, he could +only regard as 'spiritual'. Hence we must infer that belief, or +disbelief, does not depend on education, enlightenment, pure reason, +but on personal character and genius. The same proportionate +distribution of these is likely to recur in any age. + +Once more, Rome in the late Republic, the Rome of Cicero, was +'enlightened,' as was the Greece of Lucian; that is the educated +classes were enlightened. Yet Lucretius, writing only for the +educated classes, feels obliged to combat the belief in ghosts and +the kind of Calvinism which, but for his poem, we should not know to +have been widely prevalent. Lucian, too, mocks frequently at +educated belief in just such minor and useless miracles as we are +considering, but then Lucian lived in an age of cataclysm in +religion. Looking back on history we find that most of historical +time has either been covered with dark ignorance, among savages, +among the populace, or in all classes; or, on the other hand, has +been marked by enlightenment, which has produced, or accompanied, +religious or irreligious crises. Now religious and irreligious +crises both tend to beget belief in abnormal occurrences. Religion +welcomes them as miracles divine or diabolical. Scepticism produces +a reaction, and 'where no gods are spectres walk'. Thus men cannot, +or, so far, men have not been able to escape from the conditions in +which marvels flourish. If we are savages, then Vuis and Brewin +beset the forest paths and knock in the lacustrine dwelling perched +like a nest on reeds above the water; tornaks rout in the Eskimo +hut, in the open wood, in the gunyeh, in the Medicine Lodge. If we +are European peasants, we hear the Brownie at work, and see the +fairies dance in their grassy ring. If we are devoutly Catholic we +behold saints floating in mid-air, or we lay down our maladies and +leave our crutches at Lourdes. If we are personally religious, and +pass days in prayer, we hear voices like Bunyan; see visions like +the brave Colonel Gardiner or like Pascal; walk environed by an +atmosphere of light, like the seers in Iamblichus, and like a very +savoury Covenanting Christian. We are attended by a virtuous sprite +who raps and moves tables as was a pious man mentioned by Bodin and +a minister cited by Wodrow. We work miracles and prophesy, like Mr. +Blair of St. Andrews (1639-1662); we are clairvoyant, like Mr. +Cameron, minister of Lochend, or Loch-Head, in Kintyre (1679). If +we are dissolute, and irreligious like Lord Lyttelton, or like +Middleton, that enemy of Covenanters, we see ghosts, as they did, +and have premonitions. If we live in a time of witty scepticism, we +take to the magnetism of Mesmer. If we exist in a period of learned +and scientific scepticism, and are ourselves trained observers, we +may still watch the beliefs of Mr. Wallace and the experiments +witnessed by Mr. Crookes and Dr. Huggins. + +Say we are Protestants, and sceptical, like Reginald Scot (1584), or +Whigs, like De Foe, we then exclaim with Scot, in his Discovery of +Witchcraft (1584), that minor miracles, moving tables, have gone out +with benighted Popery, as De Foe also boasts in his History of the +Devil. Alas, of the table we must admit eppur si muove; it moves, +or is believed by foreign savants to move, for a peasant medium, +Eusapia Paladino. Mr. Lecky declares (1865) that Church miracles +have followed Hop o' my Thumb; they are lost, with no track of white +pebbles, in the forest of Rationalism. {26a} And then Lourdes comes +to contradict his expectation, and Church miracles are as common as +blackberries. Enfin, mankind, in the whole course of its history, +has never got quit of experiences which, whatever their cause, drive +it back on the belief in the marvellous. {26b} + +It is a noteworthy circumstance that (setting apart Church miracles, +and the epidemic of witchcraft which broke out simultaneously with +the new learning of the Renaissance, and was fostered by the +enlightened Protestantism of the Reformers, the Puritans, and the +Covenanters, in England, Scotland and America) the minor miracles, +the hauntings and knockings, are not more common in one age than in +another. Our evidence, it is true, does not quite permit us to +judge of their frequency at certain periods. The reason is obvious. +We have no newspapers, no miscellanies of daily life, from Greece, +Rome, and the Middle Ages. We have from Greece and Rome but few +literary examples of 'Psychical Research,' few collections of books +on 'Bogles' as Scott called them. We possess Palaephatus, the life +of Apollonius of Tyana, jests in Lucian, argument and exposition +from Pliny, Porphyry, Iamblichus, Plutarch, hints from Plato, +Plautus, Lucretius, from St. Augustine and other fathers. Suetonius +chronicles noises and hauntings after the death of Caligula, but, +naturally, the historian does not record similar disturbances in the +pauperum tabernaae. + +Classical evidence on these matters, as about Greek and Roman +folklore in general, we have to sift painfully from the works of +literary authors who were concerned with other topics. Still, in +the region of the ghostly, as in folklore at large, we have relics +enough to prove that the ancient practices and beliefs were on the +ordinary level of today and of all days: and to show that the +ordinary numbers of abnormal phenomena were supposed to be present +in the ancient civilisations. In the Middle Ages--the 'dark ages'-- +modern opinion would expect to find an inordinate quantity of +ghostly material. But modern opinion would be disappointed. +Setting aside saintly miracles, and accusations of witchcraft, the +minor phenomena are very sparsely recorded. In the darkest of all +'dark ages,' when, on the current hypothesis, such tales as we +examine ought to be most plentiful, even witch-trials are +infrequent. Mr. Lecky attributes to these benighted centuries +'extreme superstition, with little terrorism, and, consequently, +little sorcery'. The world was capable of believing anything, but +it believed in the antidote as well as in the bane, in the efficacy +of holy water as much as in the evil eye. When, with the dawn of +enlightenment in the twelfth century, superstition became cruel, and +burned witch and heretic, the charges against witches do not, as a +rule, include the phenomena which we are studying. Witches are +accused of raising storms, destroying crops, causing deaths and +blighting marriages, by sympathetic magic; of assuming the shapes of +beasts, of having intercourse with Satan, of attending the Sabbat. +All these fables, except the last, are survivals from savage +beliefs, but none of these occurrences are attested by modern +witnesses of all sorts, like the 'knockings,' 'movements,' 'ghosts,' +'wraiths,' 'second sight,' and clairvoyance. + +The more part of mediaeval witchcraft, therefore, is not quod +semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus. The facts were facts: people +really died or were sterile, flocks suffered, ships were wrecked, +fields were ruined; the mistake lay in attributing these things to +witchcraft. On the other hand, the facts of rappings, ghosts, +clairvoyance, in spite of the universally consentient evidence, are +very doubtful facts after all. Their existence has to be +established before we look about for their cause. Now, of records +about _these_ phenomena the Middle Ages produce but a very scanty +supply. The miracles which were so common were seldom of this kind; +they were imposing visions of devils, or of angels, or of saints; +processions of happy or unhappy souls; views of heaven, hell, or +purgatory. The reason is not far to seek: ecclesiastical +chroniclers, like classical men of letters, recorded events which +interested themselves; a wraith, or common ghost ('matter of daily +experience,' says Lavaterus, and, later, contradicts himself), or +knocking sprite, was beneath their notice. In mediaeval sermons we +meet a few edifying wraiths and ghosts, returning in obedience to a +compact made while in the body. Here and there a chronicle, as of +Rudolf of Fulda (858), vouches for communication with a rapping +bogle. Grimm has collected several cases under the head of 'House- +sprites,' including this ancient one at Capmunti, near Bingen. {30} +Gervase of Tilbury, Marie de France, John Major, Froissart, mention +an occasional follet, brownie, or knocking sprite. The prayers of +the Church contain a petition against the spiritus percutiens, or +spirit who produces 'percussive noises'. The Norsemen of the Viking +age were given to second sight, and Glam 'riding the roofs,' made +disturbances worthy of a spectre peculiarly able-bodied. But, not +counting the evidence of the Icelandic sagas, mediaeval literature, +like classical literature, needs to be carefully sifted before it +yields a few grains of such facts as sane and educated witnesses +even now aver to be matter of their personal experience. No doubt +the beliefs were prevalent, the Latin prayer proves that, but +examples were seldom recorded. + +Thus the dark ages do _not_, as might have been expected, provide us +with most of this material. The last forty enlightened years give +us more bogles than all the ages between St. Augustine and the +Restoration. When the dark ages were over, when learning revived, +the learned turned their minds to 'Psychical Research,' and Wier, +Bodin, Le Loyer, Georgius Pictorius, Petrus Thyraeus, James VI., +collected many instances of the phenomena still said to survive. +Then, for want of better materials, the unhappy, tortured witches +dragged into their confessions all the folklore which they knew. +Second sight, the fairy world, ghosts, 'wraiths,' 'astral bodies' of +witches whose bodies of flesh are elsewhere, volatile chairs and +tables, all were spoken of by witches under torture, and by sworn +witnesses. {31} Resisting the scepticism of the Restoration, +Glanvil, More, Boyle, and the rest, fought the Sadducee with the +usual ghost stories. Wodrow, later (1701-1731), compiled the +marvels of his Analecta. In spite of the cold common-sense of the +eighteenth century, sporadic outbreaks of rappings and feats of +impulsive pots, pans, beds and chairs insisted on making themselves +notorious. The Wesley case would never have been celebrated if the +sons of Samuel Wesley had not become prominent. John Wesley and the +Methodists revelled in such narratives, and so the catena of +testimonies was lengthened till Mesmer came, and, with Mesmer, the +hypothesis of a 'fluidic force' which in various shapes has endured, +and is not, even now, wholly extinct. Finally Modern Spiritualism +arrived, and was, for the most part, an organised and fraudulent +copy of the old popular phenomena, with a few cheap and vulgar +variations on the theme. + +In the face of these facts, it does not seem easy to aver that one +kind of age, one sort of 'culture' is more favourable to the +occurrence of, or belief in, these phenomena than another. +Accidental circumstances, an increase, or a decrease of knowledge +and education, an access of religion, or of irreligion, a fashion in +intellectual temperament, may bring these experiences more into +notice at one moment than at another, but they are always said to +recur, at uncertain intervals, and are always essentially the same. + +To prove this by examples is our present business. In a thoroughly +scientific treatise, the foundation of the whole would, of course, +be laid in a discussion of psychology, physiology, and the phenomena +of hypnotism. But on these matters an amateur opinion is of less +than no value. The various schools of psychologists, neurologists, +'alienists,' and employers of hypnotism for curative or experimental +purposes, appear to differ very widely among themselves, and the +layman may read but he cannot criticise their works. The essays +which follow are historical, anthropological, antiquarian. + + + + + +SAVAGE SPIRITUALISM. + + +'Shadow' or Magic of the Dene Hareskins: its four categories. +These are characteristic of all Savage Spiritualism. The subject +somewhat neglected by Anthropologists. Uniformity of phenomena. +Mr. Tylor's theory of the origin of 'Animism'. Question whether +there are any phenomena not explained by Mr. Tylor's theory. +Examples of uniformity. The savage hypnotic trance. Hareskin +examples. Cases from British Guiana. Australian rapping spirits. +Maori oracles. A Maori 'seance'. The North American Indian Magic +Lodge. Modern and old Jesuit descriptions. Movements of the Lodge. +Insensibility of Red Indian Medium to fire. Similar case of D. D. +Home. Flying table in Thibet. Other instances. Montezuma's +'astral body'. Miracles. Question of Diffusion by borrowing, or of +independent evolution. + +Philosophers among the Dene Hareskins in the extreme north of +America recognise four classes of 'Shadow' or magic. Their +categories apply sufficiently closely to all savage sorcery +(excluding sympathetic magic), as far as it has been observed. We +have, among the Hareskins:-- + +1. Beneficent magic, used for the healing of the sick. + +2. Malevolent magic: the black art of witchcraft + +3. Conjuring, or the working of merely sportive miracles. + +4. Magic for ascertaining the truth about the future or the distant +present--clairvoyance. This is called 'The Young Man Bound and +Bounding,' from the widely-spread habit of tying-up the limbs of the +medium, and from his customary convulsions. + +To all of these forms of magic, or spiritualism, the presence and +aid of 'spirits' is believed to be necessary, with, perhaps, the +exception of the sportive or conjuring class. A spirit helps to +cure and helps to kill. The free spirit of the clairvoyant in +bondage meets other spirits in its wanderings. Anthropologists, +taking it for granted that 'spirits' are a mere 'animistic +hypothesis'--their appearances being counterfeited by imposture-- +have paid little attention to the practical magic of savages, as far +as it is not merely sympathetic, and based on the doctrine that +'like cures like'. + +Thus Mr. Sproat, in his excellent work, Scenes and Studies of Savage +Life, frankly admits that in Vancouver Island the trickery and +hocus-pocus of Aht sorcery were so repugnant to him that he could +not occupy himself with the topic. Some other travellers have been +more inquisitive; unlettered sojourners among the wilder peoples +have shared their superstitions, and consulted their oracles, while +one or two of the old Jesuit missionaries were close and puzzled +observers of their 'mediumship'. + +Thus enough is known to show that savage spiritualism wonderfully +resembles, even in minute details, that of modern mediums and +seances, while both have the most striking parallels in the old +classical thaumaturgy. + +This uniformity, to a certain extent, is not surprising, for savage, +classical, and modern spiritualism all repose on the primaeval +animistic hypothesis as their metaphysical foundation. The origin +of this hypothesis--namely, that disembodied intelligences exist and +are active--is explained by anthropologists as the result of early +reasonings on life, death, sleep, dreams, trances, shadows, the +phenomena of epilepsy, and the illusions of starvation. This +scientific theory is, in itself, unimpeachable; normal phenomena, +psychological and physical, might suggest most of the animistic +beliefs. {35} + +At the same time 'veridical hallucinations,' if there are any, and +clairvoyance, if there is such a thing, would do much to originate +and confirm the animistic opinions. Meanwhile, the extraordinary +similarity of savage and classical spiritualistic rites, with the +corresponding similarity of alleged modern phenomena, raises +problems which it is more easy to state than to solve. For example, +such occurrences as 'rappings,' as the movement of untouched +objects, as the lights of the seance room, are all easily feigned. +But that ignorant modern knaves should feign precisely the same +raps, lights, and movements as the most remote and unsophisticated +barbarians, and as the educated Platonists of the fourth century +after Christ, and that many of the other phenomena should be +identical in each case, is certainly noteworthy. This kind of +folklore is the most persistent, the most apt to revive, and the +most uniform. We have to decide between the theories of independent +invention; of transmission, borrowing, and secular tradition; and of +a substratum of actual fact. + +Thus, either the rite of binding the sorcerer was invented, for no +obvious reason, in a given place, and thence reached the Australian +blacks, the Eskimo, the Dene Hareskins, the Davenport Brothers, and +the Neoplatonists; or it was independently evolved in each of +several remote regions; or it was found to have some actual effect-- +what we cannot guess--on persons entranced. We are hampered by not +knowing, in our comparatively rational state of development, what +strange things it is natural for a savage to invent. That spirits +should knock and rap seems to us about as improbable an idea as +could well occur to the fancy. Were we inventing a form for a +spirit's manifestations to take, we never should invent _that_. But +what a savage might think an appropriate invention we do not know. +Meanwhile we have the mediaeval and later tales of rapping, some of +which, to be frank, have never been satisfactorily accounted for on +any theory. But, on the other hand, each of us might readily invent +another common 'manifestation'--the _wind_ which is said to +accompany the spirit. + +The very word spiritus suggests air in motion, and the very idea of +abnormal power suggests the trembling and shaking of the place +wherein it is present. Yet, on the other side, the 'cold non- +natural wind' of seances, of Swedenborg, and of a hundred stories, +old or new, is undeniably felt by some sceptical observers, even on +occasions where no professional charlatan is engaged. As to the +trembling and shaking of the house or hut, where the spirit is +alleged to be, we shall examine some curious evidence, ancient and +modern, savage and civilised. So of the other phenomena. Some seem +to be of easy natural invention, others not so; and, in the latter +case, independent evolution of an idea not obvious is a difficult +hypothesis, while transmission from the Pole to Australia, though +conceivable, is apt to give rise to doubt. + +Meanwhile, one phenomenon, which is usually said to accompany others +much more startling, may now be held to have won acceptance from +science. This is what the Dene Hareskins call the Sleep of the +Shadow, that is, the Magical Sleep, the hypnotic trance. Savages +are well acquainted with this abnormal condition, and with means of +producing it, and it is at the bottom of all their more mysterious +non-sympathetic magic. Before Mesmer, and even till within the last +thirty years, this phenomenon, too, would have been scouted; now it +is a commonplace of physiology. For such physical symptoms as +introverted eyes in seers we need look no further than Martin's +account of the second-sighted men, in his book on the Hebrides. The +phenomenon of anaesthesia, insensibility to pain, in trance, is not +unfamiliar to science, but that red-hot coals should not burn a seer +or medium is, perhaps, less easily accepted; while science, +naturally, does not recognise the clairvoyance, and still less the +'spiritual' attendants of the seer in the Sleep of the Shadow. +Nevertheless, classical, modern, and savage spiritualists are agreed +in reporting these last and most startling phenomena of the magic +slumber in certain cases. + +Beginning with what may be admitted as possible, we find that the +Dene Hareskins practise a form of healing under hypnotic or mesmeric +treatment. {38} The physician (who is to be pitied) begins by a +three days' fast. Then a 'magic lodge,' afterwards to be described, +is built for him in the forest. Here he falls into the Sleep of the +Shadow; the patient is then brought before him. In the lodge, the +patient confesses his sins to his doctor, and when that ghostly +friend has heard all, he sings and plays the tambour, invoking the +spirit to descend on the sick man. The singing of barbarous songs +was part of classical spiritualism; the Norse witch, in The Saga of +Eric the Red, insisted on the song of Warlocks being chanted, which +secured the attendance of 'many powerful spirits'; and modern +spiritualists enliven their dark and dismal programme by songs. +Presently the Hareskin physician blows on the patient, and bids the +malady quit him. He also makes 'passes' over the invalid till he +produces trance; the spirit is supposed to assist. Then the spirit +extracts the _sin_ which caused the suffering, and the illness is +cured, after the patient has been awakened by a loud cry. In all +this affair of confession one is inclined to surmise a mixture of +Catholic practice, imitated from the missionaries. It is also not, +perhaps, impossible that hypnotic treatment may occasionally have +been of some real service. + +Turning to British Guiana, where, as elsewhere, hysterical and +epileptic people make the best mediums, or 'Peay-men,' we are +fortunate in finding an educated observer who submitted to be +peaied. Mr. Im Thurn, in the interests of science, endured a savage +form of cure for headache. The remedy was much worse than the +disease. In a hammock in the dark, attended by a peay-man armed +with several bunches of green boughs, Mr. Im Thurn lay, under a vow +not to touch whatever might touch him. The peay-men kept howling +questions to the kenaimas, or spirits, who answered. 'It was a +clever piece of ventriloquism and acting.' + +'Every now and then, through the mad din, there was a sound, at +first low and indistinct, and then gathering in volume, as if some +big, winged thing came from far towards the house, passed through +the roof, and then settled heavily on the floor; and again, after an +interval, as if the same winged thing rose and passed away as it had +come,' while the air was sensibly stirred. A noise of lapping up +some tobacco-water set out for the kenaimas was also audible. The +rustling of wings, and the thud, 'were imitated, as I afterwards +found, by skilfully shaking the leafy boughs, and then dashing them +suddenly against the ground'. Mr. Im Thurn bit one of the boughs +which came close to his face, and caught leaves in his teeth. As a +rule he lay in a condition scarcely conscious: 'It seems to me that +my spirit was as nearly separated from my body as is possible in any +circumstances short of death. Thus it appears that the efforts of +the peay-man were directed partly to the separation of his own +spirit from his body, and partly to the separation of the spirit +from the body of his patient, and that in this way spirit holds +communion with spirit.' But Mr. Im Thurn's headache was not +alleviated! The whirring noise occurs in the case of the Cock Lane +Ghost (1762), in Iamblichus, in some 'haunted houses,' and is +reported by a modern lady spiritualist in a book which provokes +sceptical comments. Now, had the peay tradition reached Cock Lane, +or was the peay-man counterfeiting, very cleverly, some real +phenomenon? {40} + +We may next examine cases in which, the savage medium being +entranced, spirits come to him and answer questions. Australia is +so remote, and it is so unlikely that European or American +spiritualists suggested their ideas to the older blacks (for +mediumship seems to be nearly extinct since the settling of the +country), that any transmission of such notions to the Black Fellows +must be very ancient. Our authorities are Mr. Brough Smyth, in +Aborigines of Victoria (i. 472), and Messrs. Fison and Howitt, in +Kamilaroi and Kurnai, who tell just the same tale. The spirits in +Victoria are called Mrarts, and are understood to be the souls of +Black Fellows dead and gone, not demons unattached. The mediums, +now very scarce, are Birraarks. They were consulted as to things +present and future. The Birraark leaves the camp, the fire is kept +low, and some one 'cooees' at intervals. 'Then a noise is heard. +The narrator here struck a book against the table several times to +describe it.' This, of course, is 'spirit-rapping'. The knocks +have a home among the least cultivated savages, as well as in +mediaeval and modern Europe. Then whistles are heard, a phenomenon +lavishly illustrated in certain seances held at Rio de Janeiro {41a} +where children were mediums. The spiritual whistle is familiar to +Glanvil and to Homer. Mr. Wesley, at Epworth (1716), noted it among +all the other phenomena. The Mrarts are next heard 'jumping down,' +like the kenaimas. Questions are put to them, and they answer. +They decline, very naturally, to approach a bright fire. The medium +(Birraark) is found entranced, either on the ground where the Mrarts +have been talking, or at the top of a tree, very difficult to climb, +'and up which there are no marks of any one having climbed'. The +blacks, of course, are peculiarly skilled in detecting such marks. +In maleficent magic, as among the Dene Hareskins, the Australian +sorcerer has 'his head, body, and limbs wound round with stringy +bark cords'. {41b} The enchantment is believed to drag the victim, +in a trance, towards the sorcerer. This binding is customary among +the Eskimo, and, as Mr. Myers has noted, was used in the rites +described by the Oracles in 'trance utterances,' which Porphyry +collected in the fourth century. Whether the binding was thought to +restrain the convulsions of the mediums, or whether it was, +originally, a 'test condition,' to prevent the medium from cheating +(as in modern experiments), we cannot discover. It does not appear +to be in use among the Maoris, whose speciality is 'trance +utterance'. + +A very picturesque description of a Maori seance is given in Old New +Zealand. {42} The story loses greatly by being condensed. A +popular and accomplished young chief had died in battle, and his +friends asked the Tohunga, or medium, to call him back. The chief +was able to read and write; he had kept a journal of remarkable +events, and that journal, though 'unceasingly searched for,' had +disappeared. This was exactly a case for a test, and that which was +given would have been good enough for spiritualists, though not for +more reasonable human beings. In the village hall, in flickering +firelight, the friends, with the English observer, the 'Pakeha +Maori,' were collected. The medium, by way of a 'cabinet,' selected +the darkest corner. The fire burned down to a red glow. Suddenly +the spirit spoke, 'Salutation to my tribe,' and the chief's sister, +a beautiful girl, rushed, with open arms, into the darkness; she was +seized and held by her friends. The gloom, the tears, the sorrow, +nearly overcame the incredulity of the Englishman, as the Voice +came, 'a strange, melancholy sound, like the sound of a wind blowing +into a hollow vessel'. 'It is well with me,' it said; 'my place is +a good place.' They asked of their dead friends; the hollow answers +replied, and the Englishman 'felt a strange swelling of the chest'. +The Voice spoke again: 'Give my large pig to the priest,' and the +sceptic was disenchanted. He now thought of the test. '"We cannot +find your book," I said; "where have you concealed it?" The answer +immediately came: "Between the Tahuhu of my house and the thatch, +straight over you as you go into the door".' Here the brother +rushed out. 'In five minutes he came back, _with the book in his +hand_.' After one or two more remarks the Voice came, '"Farewell!" +_from deep beneath the ground_. "Farewell!" again _from high in +air_. "Farewell!" once more came moaning through the distant +darkness of the night. The deception was perfect. "A +ventriloquist," said I, "or--or, _perhaps_ the devil."' The seance +had an ill end: the chief's sister shot herself. + +This was decidedly a well-got-up affair for a colonial place. The +Maori oracles are precisely like those of Delphi. In one case a +chief was absent, was inquired for, and the Voice came, 'He will +return, yet not return'. Six months later the chiefs friends went +to implore him to come home. They brought him back a corpse; they +had found him dying, and carried away the body. In another case, +when the Maori oracle was consulted as to the issue of a proposed +war, it said: 'A desolate country, a desolate country, a desolate +country!' The chiefs, of course, thought the _other_ country was +meant, but they were deceived, as Croesus was by Delphi, when he was +told that he 'would ruin a great empire'. In yet another case, the +Maoris were anxious for the spirits to bring back a European ship, +on which a girl had fled with the captain. The Pakeha Maori was +present at this seance, and heard the 'hollow, mysterious whistling +Voice, "The ship's nose I will batter out on the great sea"'. Even +the priest was puzzled, this, he said, was clearly a deceitful +spirit, or atua, like those of which Porphyry complains, like most +of them in fact. But, ten days later, the ship came back to port; +she had met a gale, and sprung a leak in the bow, called, in Maori, +'the nose' (ihu). It is hardly surprising that some Europeans used +to consult the oracle. + +Possibly some spiritualists may take comfort in these anecdotes, and +allege that the Maori mediums were 'very powerful'. This is said to +have been the view taken by some American believers, in a very +curious case, reported by Kohl, but the tale, as he tells it, cannot +possibly be accurate. However, it illustrates and strangely +coincides with some stories related by the Jesuit, Pere Lejeune, in +the Canadian Mission, about 1637. The instances bear both on +clairvoyance and on the force which is said to shake houses as well +as to lift tables, in the legends of the modern thaumaturgists. We +shall take Kohl's tale before those of the old Jesuit. Kohl first +describes the 'Medicine Lodge,' already alluded to in the account of +Dene Hareskin magic. + +The 'lodge' answers to what spiritualists call 'the cabinet,' +usually a place curtained off in modern practice. Behind this the +medium now gets up his 'materialisations,' and other cheap +mysteries. The classical performers of the fourth century also knew +the advantage of a close place, {45a} 'where the power would not be +scattered'. This idea is very natural, granting the 'power'. The +modern Ojibway 'close place,' or lodge, like those seen by old +Jesuit fathers, 'is composed of stout posts, connected with basket- +work, and covered with birch bark. It is tall and narrow, and +resembles a chimney. It is very firmly built, and two men, even if +exerting their utmost strength, would be unable to move, shake, or +bend it.' {45b} On this topic Kohl received information from a +gentleman who 'knew the Indians well, and was even related to them +through his wife'. He, and many other white people thirty years +before, saw a Jossakeed, or medium, crawl into such a lodge as Kohl +describes, beating his tambour. 'The entire case began gradually +trembling, shaking, and oscillating slowly amidst great noise. . . . +It bent back and forwards, up and down, like the mast of a vessel in +a storm. I could not understand how those movements could be +produced by a man inside, as we could not have caused them from the +exterior.' Two voices, 'both entirely different,' were then heard +within. 'Some spiritualists' (here is the weakest part of the +story) 'who were present explained it through modern spiritualism.' +Now this was not before 1859, when Kohl's book appeared in English, +and modern spiritualism, as a sect of philosophy, was not born till +1848, so that, thirty years before 1859, in 1829, there were no +modern spiritualists. This, then, is absurd. However, the tale +goes on, and Kohl's informant says that he knew the Jossakeed, or +medium, who had become a Christian. On his deathbed the white man +asked him how it was done: 'now is the time to confess all +truthfully'. The converted one admitted the premisses--he was +dying, a Christian man--but, 'Believe me, I did not deceive you at +that time. I did not move the lodge. It was shaken by the power of +the spirits. I could see a great distance round me, and believed I +could recognise the most distant objects.' This 'with an expression +of simple truth'. It is interesting, but the interval of thirty +years is a naked impossibility. In 1829 there were queer doings in +America. Joe Smith's Mormons 'spoke with tongues,' like Irving's +congregation at the same time, but there were no modern +spiritualists. Kohl's informant should have said 'ten years ago,' +if he wanted his anecdote to be credited, and it is curious that +Kohl did not notice this circumstance. + +We now come to the certainly honest evidence of the Pere Lejeune, +the Jesuit missionary. In the Relations de la Nouvelle France +(1634), Lejeune discusses the sorcerers, who, as rival priests, gave +him great trouble. He describes the Medicine Lodge just as Kohl +does. The fire is put out, of course, the sorcerer enters, the +lodge shakes, voices are heard in Montagnais and Algonkin, and the +Father thought it all a clumsy imposture. The sorcerer, in a very +sportsmanlike way, asked him to go in himself and try what he could +make of it. 'You'll find that your body remains below and your soul +mounts aloft.' The cautious Father, reflecting that there were no +white witnesses, declined to make the experiment. This lodge was +larger than those which Kohl saw, and would have held half a dozen +men. This was in 1634; by 1637 Pere Lejeune began to doubt whether +his theory that the lodge was shaken by the juggler would hold +water. Two Indians--one of them a sorcerer, Pigarouich, 'me +descouvrant avec grande sincerite toutes ses malices'--'making a +clean breast of his tricks'--vowed that they did not shake the +lodge--that a great wind entered fort promptement et rudement, and +they added that the 'tabernacle' (as Lejeune very injudiciously +calls the Medicine Lodge), 'is sometimes so strong that a single man +can hardly stir it.' The sorcerer was a small weak man. Lejeune +himself noted the strength of the structure, and saw it move with a +violence which he did not think a man could have communicated to it, +especially not for such a length of time. He was assured by many +(Indian) witnesses that the tabernacle was sometimes laid level with +the ground, and again that the sorcerer's arm and legs might be seen +projecting outside, while the lodge staggered about--nay, more, the +lodge would rock and sway after the juggler had left it. As usual, +there was a savage, Auiskuouaskousit, who had seen a juggler rise in +air out of the structure, while others, looking in, saw that he was +absent. St. Theresa had done equal marvels, but this does not occur +to the good Father. + +The savage with the long name was a Christian catechumen, and yet he +stood to it that he had seen a sorcerer disappear before his very +eyes, like the second-sighted Highlander in Kirk's Secret +Commonwealth (1691). 'His neibours often perceaved this man to +disappear at a certane place, and about one hour after to become +visible.' It would be more satisfactory if the Father had seen +these things himself, like Mrs. Newton Crosland, who informs the +world that, when with Robert Chambers and other persons of sanity, +she felt a whole house violently shaken, trembling, and thrilling in +the presence of a medium--not a professional, but a young lady +amateur. Here, of course, we greatly desire the evidence of Robert +Chambers. Spirits came to Swedenborg with a wind, but it was only +strong enough to flutter papers; 'the cause of which,' as he remarks +with naivete, 'I do not yet understand'. If Swedenborg had gone +into a Medicine Lodge, no doubt, in that 'close place,' the +phenomena would have been very much more remarkable. In 1853 Pere +Arnaud visited the Nasquapees, and describes a seance. 'The +conjurers shut themselves up in a little lodge, and remain for a few +minutes in a pensive attitude, cross-legged. Soon the lodge begins +to move like a table turning, and replies by bounds and jumps to the +questions which are put to the conjurer.' {48} The experiment might +be tried with a modern medium. + +Father Lejeune, in 1637, gives a case which reminds us of Home. +According to Home, and to Mrs. S. C. Hall, and other witnesses, when +'in power' he could not only handle live coals without being burned, +but he actually placed a large glowing coal, about the size of a +cricket-ball, on the pate of Mr. S. C. Hall, where it shone redly +through Mr. Hall's white locks, but did him no manner of harm. Now +Father Pijart was present, tesmoin oculaire, when a Huron medicine- +man heated a stone red hot, put it in his mouth, and ran round the +cabin with it, without receiving any harm. Father Brebeuf, +afterwards a most heroic martyr, sent the stone to Father Lejeune; +it bore the marks of the medicine-man's teeth, though Father Pijart, +examining the man, found that lips and tongue had no trace of burn +or blister. He reasonably concluded that these things could not be +done 'sans l'operation de quelque Demon'. That an excited patient +should not feel fire is, perhaps, admissible, but that it should not +scorch either Mr. Hall, or Home, or the Huron, is a large demand on +our credulity. Still, the evidence in this case (that of Mr. +Crookes and Lord Crawford) is much better than usual. + +It would be strange if practices analogous to modern 'table-turning' +did not exist among savage and barbaric races. Thus Mr. Tylor, in +Primitive Culture (ii. 156), quotes a Kutuchtu Lama who mounted a +bench, and rode it, as it were, to a tent where the stolen goods +were concealed. The bench was believed, by the credulous Mongols, +to carry the Lama! Among the Manyanja of Africa thefts are detected +by young men holding sticks in their hands. After a sufficient +amount of incantation, dancing, and convulsions, the sticks became +possessed, the men 'can hardly hold them,' and are dragged after +them in the required directions. {50a} These examples are analogous +to the use of the Divining Rod, which is probably moved +unconsciously by honest 'dowsers'; 'sometimes they believe that they +can hardly hold it'. These are cases of movement of objects in +contact with human muscles, and are therefore not at all mysterious +in origin. A regular case of movement _without_ contact was +reported from Thibet, by M. Tscherepanoff, in 1855. The modern +epidemic of table-turning had set in, when M. Tscherepanoff wrote +thus to the Abeille Russe: {50b} 'The Lama can find stolen objects +by following a table which flies before him'. But the Lama, after +being asked to trace an object, requires an interval of some days, +before he sets about finding it. When he is ready he sits on the +ground, reading a Thibetan book, in front of a small square table, +on which he rests his hands. At the end of half an hour he rises +and lifts his hands from the surface of the table: presently the +table also rises from the ground, and follows the direction of his +hand. The Lama elevates his hand above his head, the table reaches +the level of his eyes: the Lama walks, the table rushes before him +in the air, so rapidly that he can scarcely keep up with its flight. +The table then spins round, and falls on the earth, the direction in +which it falls, indicates that in which the stolen object is to be +sought. M. Tscherepanoff says that he saw the table fly about forty +feet, and fall. The stolen object was not immediately discovered, +but a Russian peasant, seeing the line which the table took, +committed suicide, and the object was found in his hut. The date +was 1831. M. Tscherepanoff could not believe his eyes, and searched +in vain for an iron wire, or other mechanism, but could find nothing +of the sort. This anecdote, if it does not prove a miracle, +illustrates a custom. {51} + +As to clairvoyance among savages, the subject is comparatively +familiar. Montezuma's priests predicted the arrival of the +Spaniards long before the event. On this point, in itself well +vouched for, Acosta tells a story which illustrates the identity of +the 'astral body,' or double, with the ordinary body. In the witch +stories of Increase Mather and others, where the possessed sees the +phantasm of the witch, and strikes it, the actual witch proves to be +injured. Story leads to story, and Mr. Thomas Hardy somewhere tells +one to this effect. A farmer's wife, a woman of some education, +fell asleep in the afternoon, and dreamed that a neighbour of hers, +a woman, was sitting on her chest. She caught at the figure's arm +in her dream, and woke. Later in the day she met her neighbour, who +complained of a pain in the arm, just where the farmer's wife seized +it in her dream. The place mortified and the poor lady died. To +return to Montezuma. An honest labourer was brought before him, who +made this very tough statement. He had been carried by an eagle +into a cave, where he saw a man in splendid dress sleeping heavily. +Beside him stood a burning stick of incense such as the Aztecs used. +A voice announced that this sleeper was Montezuma, prophesied his +doom, and bade the labourer burn the slumberer's face with the +flaming incense stick. The labourer reluctantly applied the flame +to the royal nose, 'but he moved not, nor showed any feeling'. On +this anecdote being related to Montezuma, he looked on his own face +in a mirror, and 'found that he was burned, the which he had not +felt till then'. {52} + +On the Coppermine River the medicine-man, according to Hearne, +prophesies of travellers, like the Highland second-sighted man, ere +they appear. The Finns and Lapps boast of similar powers. Scheffer +is copious on the clairvoyant feats of Lapps in trance. The Eskimo +Angakut, when bound with their heads between their legs, cause +luminous apparitions, just as was done by Mr. Stainton Moses, and by +the mediums known to Porphyry and Iamblichus; the Angakut also send +their souls on voyages, and behold distant lands. One of the oddest +Angekok stories in Rink's Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo (p. +324) tells how some children played at magic, making 'a dark +cabinet,' by hanging jackets over the door, to exclude the light. +'The slabs of the floor were lifted and rushed after them:' a case +of 'movement of objects without physical contact'. This phenomenon +in future attended the young medium's possessions, even when he was +away from home. This particular kind of manifestation, so very +common in trials for witchcraft, and in modern spiritualistic +literature, does not appear to prevail much among savages. Persons +otherwise credible and sane tell the authorities of the Psychical +Society that, with only three amateurs present, things are thrown +about, and objects are brought from places many miles distant, and +tossed on the table. These are technically termed apports. The +writer knows a case in which this was attested by a witness of the +most unimpeachable character. But savages hardly go so far. Bishop +Callaway has an instance in which 'spirits' tossed objects into the +midst of a Zulu circle, but such things are not usual. Savages also +set out food for the dead, but they scarcely attain to the +credulity, or are granted the experience, of a writer in the Medium. +{53} This astonishing person knew a familiar spirit. At dinner, +one day, an empty chair began to move, 'and in answer to the +question whether it would have some dinner, said "Yes"'. It chose +croquets de pomme de terre, which were placed on the chair in a +spoon, lest the spirit, whose manners were rustic, should break a +plate. 'In a few seconds I was told that it was eaten, and looking, +found the half of it gone, with the marks showing the teeth.' +Perhaps few savages would have told such a tale to a journal which +ought to have a large circulation--among believers. + +The examples of savage spiritualism which have been adduced might +probably receive many additions; those are but gleanings from a +large field carelessly harvested. The phenomena have been but +casually studied; the civilised mind is apt to see, in savage +seances, nothing but noisy buffoonery. We have shown that there is +a more serious belief involved, and we have adduced cases in which +white men were not unconscious of the barbarian spell. It also +appears that the now recognised phenomena of hypnotism are the basis +of the more serious savage magic. The production of hypnotic +trances, perhaps of hypnotic hallucinations, is a piece of knowledge +which savages possessed (as they were acquainted with quinine), +while European physicians and philosophers ignored or laughed at it. +Tobacco and quinine were more acceptable gifts from the barbarian. +His magic has now and then been examined by a competent +anthropologist, like Mr. Im Thurn, and Castren closely observed the +proceedings of the bound and bounding Shamans among the Samoyeds. +But we need the evidence both of anthropologists and of adepts in +conjuring. They might detect some of the tricks, though Mr. Kellar, +a professional conjurer and exposer of spiritualistic imposture, has +been fairly baffled (he says) by Zulus and Hindus, while educated +Americans are puzzled by the Pawnees. Mr. Kellar's plan of +displaying a few of his own tricks was excellent: the dusky +professionals were stimulated to show theirs, which, as described, +were miracles. The Pakeha Maori, already quoted, saw a Maori +Tohunga perform 'a very good miracle as times go,' but he does not +give any particulars. The late Mr. Davey, who started as a +Spiritualist catechumen, managed, by conjuring, to produce answers +to questions on a locked slate, which is as near a miracle as +anything. But Mr. Davey is dead, though we know his secret, while +it is improbable that Mr. Maskelyne will enrich his repertoire by +travelling among Zulus, Hindus, and Pawnees. As savages cease to be +savages, our opportunities of learning their mystic lore must +decrease. + +To one point in this research the notice of students in folklore may +be specially directed. In the attempt to account for the diffusion +of popular tales, such as Cinderella, we are told to observe that +the countries most closely adjacent to each other have the most +closely similar variants of the story. This is true, as a rule, but +it is also true that, while Scandinavian regions have a form of +Cinderella with certain peculiarities not shared by Southern Europe, +those crop up sporadically, far away, among Kaffirs and the Indian +'aboriginal' tribe of Santhals. The same phenomenon of diffusion +occurs when we find savage mediums tied up in their trances, all +over the North, among Canadian Hareskins, among Samoyed and Eskimo, +while the practice ceases at a given point in Labrador, and gives +place to Medicine Lodges. The binding then reappears if not in +Australia, certainly in the ancient Greek ceremonial. The writer is +not acquainted with 'the bound and bounding young man' in the +intervening regions and it would be very interesting to find +connecting cases, stepping-stones, as it were, by which the rite +passed from the Levant to the frozen North. + + + + +ANCIENT SPIRITUALISM. + + +M. Littre on 'demoniac affections,' a subject, in his opinion, +worthy of closer study. Outbreak of Modern Spiritualism. Its +relations to Greek and Egyptian Spiritualism recognised. Popular +and literary sources of Modern Spiritualism. Neoplatonic +thaumaturgy not among these. Porphyry and Iamblichus. The +discerning of Spirits. The ancient attempts to prove 'spirit +identity'. The test of 'spirit lights' in the ancient world. +Perplexities of Porphyry. Dreams. The Assynt Murder. Eusebius on +Ancient Spiritualism. The evidence of Texts from the Papyri. +Evocations. Lights, levitation, airy music, anaesthesia of Mediums, +ancient and modern. Alternative hypotheses: conjuring, +'suggestion' and collective hallucination, actual fact. Strange +case of the Rev. Stainton Moses. Tabular statement showing +historical continuity of alleged phenomena. + +In the Revue des Deux Mondes, for 1856, tome i., M. Littre published +an article on table-turning and 'rapping spirits'. M. Littre was a +savant whom nobody accused of superstition, and France possessed no +clearer intellect. Yet his attitude towards the popular marvels of +the day, an attitude at once singular and natural, shows how easily +the greatest minds can pay themselves with words. A curious reader, +in that period of excitement about 'spiritualism,' would turn to the +Revue, attracted by M. Littre's name. He would ask: 'Does M. +Littre accept the alleged facts; if so, how does he explain them?' +And he would find that this guide of human thought did not, at +least, _reject_ the facts; that he did not (as he well might have +done) offer imposture as the general explanation; that he regarded +the topic as very obscure, and eminently worthy of study,--and that +he pooh-poohed the whole affair! + +This is not very consistent or helpful counsel. Like the rest of +us, who are so far beneath M. Littre in grasp and in weight of +authority, he was subject to the idola fori, the illusions of the +market-place. It would never do for a great scientific sceptic to +say, 'Here are strange and important facts of human nature, let us +examine them as we do all other natural phenomena,' it would never +do for such a man to say that without qualification. So he +concluded his essay in the pooh-pooh tone of voice. He first gives +a sketch of abnormalities in mortal experience, as in the case of +mental epidemics, of witchcraft, of the so-called prophets in the +Cevennes, of the Jansenist marvels. He mentions a nunnery where, +'in the sixteenth century,' there occurred, among other phenomena, +movements of inanimate objects, pottery specially distinguishing +itself, as in the famous 'Stockwell mystery'. Unluckily he supplies +no references for these adventures.' {57} The Revue, being written +for men and women of the world, may discuss such topics, but need +not offer exact citations. M. Littre, on the strength of his +historical sketch, decides, most correctly, that there is rien de +nouveau, nothing new, in the spirit-rapping epidemic. 'These +maladies never desert our race.' But this fact hardly explains +_why_ 'vessels were dragged from the hands' of his nuns in the +sixteenth century. + +In search of a cause, he turns to hallucinations. In certain or +uncertain physical conditions, the mind can project and objectify, +its own creations. Thus Gleditch saw the dead Maupertuis, with +perfect distinctness, in the salle of the Academy at Berlin. Had he +not known that Maupertuis was dead, he could have sworn to his +presence (p. 866). Yes: but how does that explain volatile pots +and pans? Well, there are _collective_ hallucinations, as when the +persecuted in the Cevennes, like the Covenanters, heard non-existent +psalmody. And all witches told much the same tale; apparently +because they were collectively hallucinated. Then were the +spectators of the agile crockery collectively hallucinated? M. +Littre does not say so explicitly, though this is a conceivable +theory. He alleges after all his scientific statements about +sensory troubles, that 'the whole chapter, a chapter most deserving +of study, which contains the series of demoniac affections +(affections demoniaques), has hardly been sketched out'. + +Among accounts of 'demoniac affections,' descriptions of objects +moved without contact are of frequent occurrence. As M. Littre +says, it is always the same old story. But why is it always the +same old story? There were two theories before the world in 1856. +First there was the 'animistic-hypothesis,' 'spirits' move the +objects, spirits raise the medium in the air, spirits are the +performers of the airy music. Then there was the hypothesis of a +force or fluid, or faculty, inherent in mankind, and notable in some +rare examples of humanity. This force, fluid, agency, or what you +will, counteracts the laws of gravitation, and compels tables, or +pots, to move untouched. + +To the spiritualists M. Littre says, 'Bah!' to the partisans of a +force or fluid, he says, 'Pooh!' 'If your spirits are spirits, why +do they let the world wag on in its old way, why do they confine +themselves to trivial effects?' + +The spiritualist would probably answer that he did not understand +the nature and limits of spiritual powers. + +To the friends of a force or faculty in our nature, M. Littre +remarks, in effect, 'Why don't you _use_ your force? why don't you +supply a new motor for locomotives? _Pooh_!' The answer would be +that it was not the volume and market value of the force, but the +_existence_ of the force, which interested the inquirer. When +amber, being rubbed, attracted straws, the force was as much a +force, as worthy of scientific study, as when electricity is +employed to bring bad news more rapidly from the ends of the earth. + +These answers are obvious: M. Littre's satire was not the weapon of +science, but the familiar test of the bourgeois and the Philistine. +Still, he admitted, nay, asserted strongly, that the whole series of +'demoniac affections' was 'most worthy of investigation,' and was +'hardly sketched out'. In a similar manner, Brierre de Boismont, in +his work on hallucinations, explains a number of 'clairvoyant' +dreams, by ordinary causes. But, coming to a vision which he knew +at first hand, he breaks down: 'We must confess that these +explanations do not satisfy us, and that these events seem rather to +belong to some of the deepest mysteries of our being'. {60} There +is a point at which the explanations of common-sense arouse +scepticism. + +Much has been done, since 1856, towards producing a finished +picture, in place of an ebauche. The accepted belief in the +phenomena of hypnotism, and of unconscious mental and bodily +actions--'automatisms'--has expelled the old belief in spirits from +many a dusty nook. But we still ask: '_Do_ objects move untouched? +_why_ do they move, or if they move not at all (as is most probable) +_why_ is it always the same story, from the Arctic circle to the +tales of witches, and of mediums?' + +There is little said about this particular phenomena (though +something is said), but there is much about other marvels, equally +widely rumoured of, in the brief and dim Greek records of +thaumaturgy. To examine these historically is to put a touch or two +on the picture of 'demoniac affections,' which M. Littre desired to +see executed. The Greek mystics, at least, believed that the airy +music, the movements of untouched objects, the triumph over +gravitation, and other natural laws, for which they vouch, were +caused by 'demons,' were 'demoniac affections'. To compare the +statements of Eusebius and Iamblichus with those of modern men of +science and other modern witnesses, can, therefore, only be called +superfluous and superstitious by those who think M. Littre +superstitious, and his desired investigation 'superfluous'. + +When the epidemic of 'spiritualism' broke out in the United States +(1848-1852) students of classical literature perceived that +spiritualism was no new thing, but a recrudescence of practices +familiar to the ancient world. Even readers who had confined their +attention to the central masterpieces of Greek literature recognised +some of the revived 'phenomena'. The 'Trance Medium,' the +'Inspirational Speaker' was a reproduction of the maiden with a +spirit of divination, of the Delphic Pythia. In the old belief, the +god dominated her, and spoke from her lips, just as the 'control,' +or directing spirit, dominates the medium. But there were still +more striking resemblances between ancient and modern thaumaturgy, +which were only to be recognised by readers of the late +Neoplatonists, such as Porphyry, and of the Christian Fathers, such +as Eusebius, who argued against the apologists of heathenism. The +central classical writers, from Homer to Tacitus, are not +superstitious; they accept the orthodox state magic of omens, of +augurs, of prodigies, of oracles, but anything like private +necromancy is alien and distasteful to them. We need not doubt that +sorcery and the consultation of the dead were being practised all +through the classical period, indeed we know that it was so. Plato +legislates against sorcery in a practical manner; whether it does +harm or not, men are persuaded that it does harm; it is vain to +argue with them, therefore the wizard and witch are to be punished +for their bad intentions. {62} + +There were regular, and, so to speak, orthodox oracles of the dead. +They might be consulted by such as chose to sleep on tombs, or to +visit the cavern of Trophonius, or other chasms which were thought +to communicate with the under world. But the idea of bringing a +shade, or a hero, a demon, or a god into a private room, as in +modern spiritualism, meets us late in such works as the Letter of +Porphyry, and the Reply of Iamblichus, written in the fourth century +of our era. If we may judge by the usual fortune of folklore, these +private spiritualistic rites, without temple, or state-supported +priestly order, were no new things in the early centuries of +Christianity, but they had not till then occupied the attention of +philosophers and men of letters. The dawn of our faith was the late +twilight of the ancient creeds, the classic gods were departing, +belief was waning, ghosts were walking, even philosophers were +seeking for a sign. The mysteries of the East had invaded Hellas. +The Egyptian theory and practice were of special importance. By +certain sacramental formulas, often found written on papyrus, the +gods could be constrained, and made, like mediaeval devils, the +slaves of the magician. Examples will occur later. This idea was +alien to the Greek mind, at least to the philosophic Greek mind. +The Egyptians, like Michael Scott, had books of dread, and an old +Egyptian romance turns on the evils which arose, as to William of +Deloraine, from the possession of such a volume. {63} Half- +understood strings of Hebrew, Syriac, and other 'barbarous' words +and incantations occur in Greek spells of the early Christian age. +Again, old Hellenic magic rose from the lower strata of folklore +into that of speculation. The people, the folk, is the unconscious +self, as it were, of the educated and literary classes, who, in a +twilight of creeds, are wont to listen to its promptings, and return +to the old ancestral superstitions long forgotten. + +The epoch of the rise of modern spiritualism was analogous to that +when the classical and oriental spiritualism rose into the sphere of +the educated consciousness In both periods the marvellous +'phenomena' were practically the same, and so were the perplexities, +the doubts, the explanatory hypotheses of philosophical observers. +This aspect of the modern spiritualistic epidemic did not escape +attention. Dr. Leonard Marsh, of the University of Vermont, +published, in 1854, a treatise called The Apocatastasis, or Progress +Backwards. He proved that the marvels of the Foxes, of Home, and +the other mediums, were the old marvels of Neoplatonism. But he +draws no conclusion except that spiritualism is retrogressive. His +book is wonderfully ill-printed, and, though he had some curious +reading, his style was cumbrous, jocular, and verbose. It may, +therefore, be worth while, in the light of anthropological research, +to show how very closely human nature has repeated its past +performances. + +The new marvels were certainly not stimulated by literary knowledge +of the ancient thaumaturgy. Modern spiritualism is an effort to +organise and 'exploit' the traditional and popular phenomena of +rapping spirits, and of ghosts. Belief in these had always lived an +underground life in rural legend, quite unharmed by enlightenment +and education. So far, it resembled the ordinary creeds of +folklore. It is probable that, in addition to oral legend, there +was another and more literary source of modern thaumaturgy. Books +like Glanvil's, Baxter's, those of the Mathers and of Sinclair, were +thumbed by the people after the literary class had forgotten them. +Moreover, the Foxes, who started spiritualism, were Methodists, and +may well have been familiar with 'old Jeffrey,' who haunted the +Wesleys' house, and with some of the stories of apparitions in +Wesley's Arminian Magazine. + +If there were literary as well as legendary sources of nascent +spiritualism, the sources were these. Porphyry, Iamblichus, +Eusebius, and the life of Apollonius of Tyana, cannot have +influenced the illiterate parents of the new thaumaturgy. This fact +makes the repetition, in modern spiritualism, of Neoplatonic +theories and Neoplatonic marvels all the more interesting and +curious. + +The shortest cut to knowledge of ancient spiritualism is through the +letter of Porphyry to Anebo, and the reply attributed to Iamblichus. +Porphyry, the disciple of Plotinus, was a seeker for truth in divine +things. Prejudice, literary sentiment, and other considerations, +prevented him from acquiescing in the Christian verity. The +ordinary paganism shocked him, both by its obscene and undignified +myths, and by many features of its ritual. He devised non-natural +interpretations of its sacred legends, he looked for a visible or +tangible 'sign,' and he did not shrink from investigating the +thaumaturgy of his age. His letter of inquiry is preserved in +fragments by Eusebius, and St. Augustine: Gale edited it, and, as +he says, offers us an Absyrtus (the brother of Medea, who scattered +his mutilated remains) rather than a Porphyry. {65a} Not all of +Porphyry's questions interest us for our present purpose. He asks, +among other things: How can gods, as in the evocations of gods, be +made subject to necessity, and _compelled_ to manifest themselves? +{65b} + +How do you discriminate between demons, and gods, that are manifest, +or not manifest? How does a demon differ from a hero, or from a +mere soul of a dead man? + +By what sign can we be sure that the manifesting agency present is +that of a god, an angel, an archon, or a soul? For to boast, and to +display phantasms, is common to all these varieties. {65c} + +In these perplexities, Porphyry resembles the anxious spiritualistic +inquirer. A 'materialised spirit' alleges himself to be Washington, +or Franklin, or the lost wife, or friend, or child of him who seeks +the mediums. How is the inquirer, how was Porphyry to know that the +assertion is correct, that it is not the mere 'boasting' of some +vulgar spirit? In the same way, when messages are given through a +medium's mouth, or by raps, or movements of a table, or a +planchette, or by automatic writing, how (even discounting +imposture) is the source to be verified? How is the identity of the +spirit to be established? This question of discerning spirits, of +identifying them, of not taking an angel for a devil, or vice versa, +was most important in the Middle Ages. On this turned the fate of +Joan of Arc: Were her voices and visions of God or of Satan? They +came, as in the cases mentioned by Iamblichus, with a light, a +hallucination of brilliance. When Jean Brehal, Grand Inquisitor of +France, in 1450-1456, held the process for rehabilitating Joan, +condemned as a witch in 1431, he entered learnedly into the tests of +'spirit-identity'. {66a} St. Theresa was bidden to try to exorcise +her visions, by the sign of the Cross. Saint or sorcerer? it was +always a delicate inquiry. + +Iamblichus, in his reply to Porphyry's doubts, first enters into +theology pretty deeply, but, in book ii. chap. iii. he comes, as it +were, to business. The nature of the spiritual agency present on +any occasion may be ascertained from his manifestations or +epiphanies. All these agencies show _in a light_, we are reminded +inevitably of the light which accompanied the visions of Colonel +Gardiner and of Pascal. Joan of Arc, too, in reply to her judges, +averred that a light (claritas) usually accompanied the voices which +came to her. {66b} These things, if we call them hallucinations, +were, at least, hallucinations of the good and great, and must be +regarded not without reverence. But modern spiritualistic and +ghostly literature is full of lights which accompany +'manifestations,' or attend the nocturnal invasions of apparitions. +Examples are so common that they can readily be found by any one who +studies Mrs. Crowe's Night Side of Nature, or Home's Life, or +Phantasms of the Living, or the Proceedings of the Psychical +Society. Meantime Homer, and Theocritus in familiar passages, +attest this belief in light attendant on the coming of the divine, +while the Norse Sagas, and the well-known tale of Sir Charles Lee's +daughter and the ghost of her mother (1662), speak for the same +belief in the pre-Christian north, and in the society of the +Restoration. {67a} A light always comes among the Eskimo, when the +tornak, or familiar spirit, visits the Angekok or sorcerer. Here, +then, is harmony enough in the psychical beliefs of all time, as +when we learn that lights were flashed by the spirits who beset the +late Rev. Stainton Moses. {67b} Unluckily, while we have this cloud +of witnesses to the belief in a spiritual light, we are still +uncertain as to whether the seeing of such a light is a physical +symptom of hallucination. This is the opinion of M. Lelut, as given +in his Amulette de Pascal (p. 301): 'This globe of fire . . . is a +common constituent of hallucinations of sight, and may be regarded +at once as their most elementary form, and their highest degree of +intensity'. M. Lelut knew the phenomenon among mystics whom he had +observed in his practice as an 'alienist'. He also quotes a story +told of himself by Benvenuto Cellini. If we can admit that this +hallucination of brilliant light may be produced in the conditions +of a seance, whether modern, savage, or classical, we obtain a +partial solution of the problem presented by the world-wide +diffusion of this belief. Of course, once accepted as an element in +spiritualism, a little phosphorus supplies the modern medium with a +requisite of his trade. {68a} + +Returning to Iamblichus, he classifies his phantasmogenetic agencies +by the _kind_ of light they show; greater or less, more or less +divided, more or less pure, steady or agitated (ii. 4). The arrival +of demons is attended by disturbances. {68b} Heroes are usually +very noisy in their manifestations: a hero is a polter-geist, +'sounds echo around' (ii. 8). There are also subjective moods +diversely generated by diverse apparitions; souls of the dead, for +example, prompt to lust (ii. 9). On the whole, a great deal of +experience is needed by the thaumaturgist, if he is to distinguish +between one kind of manifestation and another. Even Inquisitors +have differed in opinion. + +Iamblichus next tackles the difficult question of imposition and +personation by spirits. Thus a soul, or a spirit, may give itself +out for a god, and exhibit the appropriate phantasmagoria: may +boast and deceive (ii. 10). This is the result of some error or +blunder in the ceremony of evocation. {69} A bad or low spirit may +thus enter, disguised as a demon or god, and may utter deceitful +words. But all arts, says our guide, are liable to errors, and the +'sacred art' must not be judged by its occasional imperfections. We +know the same kind of excuses in modern times. + +Porphyry went on to ask questions about divination and clairvoyance. +We often ascertain the future, he says, in dreams, when our bodies +are lying still and peaceful: when we are in no convulsive ecstasy +such as diviners use. Many persons prophesy 'in enthusiastic and +divinely seized moments, awake, in a sense, yet not in their +habitual state of consciousness'. Music of certain kinds, the water +of certain holy wells, the vapours of Branchidae, produce such +ecstatic effects. Some 'take darkness for an ally' (dark seances), +some see visions in water, others on a wall, others in sun or moon. +As an example of ancient visions in water, we may take one from the +life of Isidorus, by Damascius. Isidorus, and his biographer, were +acquainted with women who beheld in pure water in a glass vessel the +phantasms of future events. {70a} This form of divination is still +practised, though crystal balls are more commonly used than +decanters of water. Ancient and modern superstition as in the +familiar case of Dr. Dee, attributes the phantasms to spiritual +agency + +Is a divine being _compelled_, Porphyry asks, to aid in these +efforts, or is it only the soul of the seer, as some believe, which +hallucinates itself, by the aid of points de repere? {70b} Or is +there a blending of the soul's operations with the divine +inspiration? Or are demons in some way evolved out of something +abstracted from living bodies? He seems to hint at some such theory +of 'exuvious fumes' from the 'circle,' as more recent inquirers have +imagined. The young appear to be peculiarly sensitive to vapours, +invocations, and other magical methods, which affect the human +constitution, and the young are usually engaged as seers. Hence +visions are probably subjective. Ecstasy, madness, fasts and vigils +seem particularly favourable to divination. Or are there certain +mystic correspondences in the nature of things, which may be +detected? Thus stones and herbs are used in evocations; 'sacred +bonds' are tied (as in the Eskimo hypnotism and in Australia); +closed doors are opened, the heavenly bodies are observed. Some +suppose that there is a race of false and counterfeiting spirits, +which, indeed, Iamblichus admits. These act the parts of gods, +demons, and souls of the dead. Again, the conjurer plays on our +expectant attention. Omitting some remarks no longer appropriate, +Porphyry asks what use there is in chanting barbarous and +meaningless words. He is inclined to think that the demon, or +guardian spirit of each man is only part of his soul,--in fact his +'subliminal self'. And generally, he suspects that the whole affair +is 'a mere imaginative deceit, played off on itself by the soul'. + +Replying as to divination, Iamblichus says that the right kind of +dreams are between sleeping and waking when we hear a voice giving +directions. A modern example occurred in the trial of the Assynt +murderer in 1831. One Kenneth Fraser, called 'the dreamer,' said in +the trial: 'I was at home when I had the dream. It was said to me +in my sleep by a voice like a man's voice, that the pack (of the +murdered pedlar) was lying in sight of the place. I got a sight of +the place just as if I had been awake. I never saw the place +before, but the voice said in Gaelic, "the pack of the merchant is +lying in a cairn of stones, in a hollow near to their house". The +voice did not name Macleod's house.' The pack was, however, not +found there, but in a place hard by, which Kenneth had _not_ seen in +his dream. Oddly enough, the murderer had originally hidden the +pack, or some of its contents, in a cairn of stones, but later +removed it. In the 'willing game,' as played by Mr. Stuart +Cumberland, the seeker usually goes first to the place where the +hider had thought of concealing the object, though later he changed +his mind. Macleod was hanged, he confessed his guilt. {71} + +Iamblichus believed in dreams of this kind, and in voices heard by +men wide awake, as in the case of Joan of Arc. When an invisible +spirit is present, he makes a whirring noise, like the Cock Lane +Ghost! {72} Lights also are exhibited; the medium then by some +mystic sense knows what the spirit means. The soul has two lives, +one animal, one intellectual; in sleep the latter is more free, and +more clairvoyant. In trance, or somnambulism, many cannot feel pain +even if they are burned, the god within does not let fire harm them +(iii. 4). This, of course, suggests Home's experiments in handling +live coals, as Mr. Crookes and Lord Crawford describe them. Compare +the Berserk 'coal-biters' in the saga of Egil, and the Huron coal- +biter in the preceding essay. 'They do not then live an animal +life.' Sword points do not hurt them. Their actions are no longer +human. 'Inaccessible places are accessible to them, when thus borne +by the gods; and they tread on fire unharmed; they walk across +rivers. . . . They are not themselves, they live a diviner life, +with which they are inspired, and by which they are possessed.' +Some are convulsed in one way, some in another, some are still. +Harmonies are heard (as in Home's case and that of Mr. Stainton +Moses). Their bodies are elongated (like Home's), or broadened, or +float in mid-air, as in a hundred tales of mediums and saints. +Sometimes the medium sees a light when the spirit takes possession +of him, sometimes all present see it (iii. 6). Thus Wodrow says (as +we have already shown), that Mrs. Carlyle's ancestor, Mr. Welsh, +shone in a light as he meditated; and Patrick Walker tells the same +tale about two of the fanatics called 'Sweet Singers'. + +From all this it follows, Iamblichus holds, that spiritual +possession is a genuine objective fact and that the mediums act +under real spiritual control. Omitting local oracles, and practices +apparently analogous to the use of planchette, Iamblichus regards +the heavenly _light_ as the great source of and evidence for the +_external_ and spiritual character and cause of divination (iii. +14). Iamblichus entirely rejects all Porphyry's psychological +theories of hallucinations, of the demon or 'genius' as 'subliminal +self,' and asserts the actual, objective, sensible action of +spirits, divine or daemonic. What effect Iamblichus produced on the +inquiring Porphyry is uncertain. In his De Abstinentia (ii. 39) he +gives in to the notion of deceitful spirits. + +In addition to the evidence of Porphyry, Iamblichus, Eusebius and +other authors of the fourth century, some recently published papyri +of the same period throw a little light on the late Greek +thaumaturgy. {73} Thus Papyrus cxxv. verso (about the fifth +century) 'contains elaborate instructions for a magical process, the +effect of which is to evoke a goddess, to transform her into the +appearance of an old woman, and to bind to her the service of the +person using the spell. . . .' + +Obviously we would much prefer a spell for turning an old woman into +a goddess. The document is headed, [Greek], 'the old serving woman +of Apollonius of Tyana,' and it ends, [Grrek], 'it is proved by +practice'. + +You take the head of an ibis, and write certain characters on it in +the blood of a black ram, and go to a cross-road, or the sea-shore, +or a river-bank at midnight: there you recite gibberish and then +see a pretty lady riding a donkey, and she will put off her beauty +like a mask and assume the appearance of old age, and will promise +to obey you: and so forth. + +Here is a 'constraint put on a god' as Porphyry complains. Reginald +Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft (1584), has a very similar +spell for alluring an airy sylph, and making her serve and be the +mistress of the wizard! There is another papyrus (xlvi.), of the +fourth century, with directions for divination by aid of a boy +looking into a bowl, says the editor (p. 64). There is a long +invocation full of 'barbarous words,' like the mediaeval nonsense +rhymes used in magic. There is a dubious reading, [Grrek] or +[Greek]; it is suggested that the boy is put into a pit, as it seems +was occasionally done. {74} It is clear that a spirit is supposed +to show the boy his visions. A spell follows for summoning a +visible deity. Then we have a recipe for making a ring which will +enable the owner to know the thoughts of men. The god is threatened +if he does not serve the magicians. All manner of fumigations, +plants, and stones are used in these idiotic ceremonies, and to +these Porphyry refers. The papyri do not illustrate the phenomena +described by Iamblichus, such as the 'light,' levitation, music of +unknown origin, the resistance of the medium to fire and sword +points, and all the rest of his list of prodigies. Iamblichus +probably looked down on the believers in these spells written on +papyri with extreme disdain. They are only interesting as folklore, +like the rhymes of incantation preserved in Reginald Scot's +Discovery of Witchcraft. + +There were other analogies between modern, ancient, and savage +spiritualism. The medium was swathed, or tied up, like the +Davenport Brothers, like Eskimo and Australian conjurers, like the +Highland seer in the bull's hide. {75a} The medium was understood +to be a mere instrument like a flute, through which the 'control,' +the god or spirit, spoke. {75b} This is still the spiritualistic +explanation of automatic speech. Eusebius goes so far as to believe +that 'earthbound spirits' do speak through the medium, but a much +simpler theory is obvious. {75c} Indeed where automatic +performances of any sort--by writing, by the kind of 'Ouija' or +table pointing to letters, as described by Ammianus Marcellinus +(xxix. 29)--or by speaking, are concerned, we have the aid of +psychology, and the theory of 'unconscious cerebration' to help us. +But when we are told the old tales of whirring noises, of +'bilocation,' of 'levitation,' of a mystic light, we are in contact +with more difficult questions. + +In brief, the problem of spiritualism in general presents itself to +us thus: in ancient, modern, and savage thaumaturgy there are +certain automatic phenomena. The conjurer, priest, or medium acts, +or pretends to act, in various ways beyond his normal consciousness. +Savages, ancient mystics, and spiritualists ascribe his automatic +behaviour to the control of spirits, gods or demons. No such +hypothesis is needed. + +On the other side, however, are phenomena not automatic, 'spiritual' +lights, and sounds; interferences with natural laws, as when bodies +are lifted in the air, or are elongated, when fire does not fasten +on them, and so on. These phenomena, in ancient times, followed on +the performance of certain mystic rites. They are now said to occur +without the aid of any such rites. Gods and spirits are said to +cause them, but they are only attained in the presence of certain +exceptional persons, mediums, saints, priests, conjurers. Clearly +then, not the rites, but the peculiar constitution of these +individuals is the cause (setting imposture aside) of the phenomena, +of the hallucinations, of the impressions, or whatever they are to +be styled. That is to say, witnesses, in other matters credible, +aver that they receive these peculiar impressions in the society of +certain persons and not in that of people in general. Now these +impressions are, everywhere, in every age and stage of civilisation, +essentially identical. Is it stretching probability almost beyond +what it will bear, to allege that all the phenomena, in the Arctic +circle as in Australia, in ancient Alexandria as in modern London, +are, always, the result of an imposture modelled on savage ideas of +the supernatural? + +If so we are reduced to the choice between actual objective facts of +unknown origin (frequently counterfeited of course), and the +theory,--which really comes to much the same thing,--of identical +and collective hallucinations in given conditions. On either +hypothesis the topic is certainly not without interest for the +student of human nature. Even if we could, at most, establish the +fact that people like Iamblichus, Mr. Crookes, Lord Crawford, +Jesuits in Canada, professional conjurers in Zululand, Spaniards in +early Peru, Australian blacks, Maoris, Eskimo, cardinals, +ambassadors, are similarly hallucinated, as they declare, in the +presence of priests, diviners, Home, Zulu magicians, Biraarks, +Jossakeeds, angakut, tohungas, and saints, and Mr. Stainton Moses, +still the identity of the false impressions is a topic for +psychological study. Or, if we disbelieve this cloud of witnesses, +if they voluntarily fabled, we ask, why do they all fable in exactly +the same fashion? Even setting aside the animistic hypothesis, the +subject is full of curious neglected problems. + +Once more, if we admit the theory of intentional imposture by +saints, angakut, Zulu medicine-men, mediums, and the rest, we must +grant that a trick which takes in a professional conjurer, like Mr. +Kellar, is a trick well worthy of examination. How did his Zulu +learn the method of Home, of the Egyptian diviners, of St. Joseph of +Cupertino? {78a} Each solution has its difficulties, while +practical investigation is rarely possible. We have no Home with +us, at present, and the opportunity of studying his effects +carefully was neglected. It was equally desirable to study them +whether he caused collective hallucinations, or whether his effects +were merely those of ordinary, though skilful, conjuring. For Home, +whatever his moral character may have been, was a remarkable +survival of a class of men familiar to the mystic Iamblichus, to the +savage races of the past and present, and (as far as his marvels +went) to the biographers of the saints. 'I am one of those,' says +the Zulu medicine-man, in Mr. Rider Haggard's Allan's Wife, 'who can +make men see what they do not see.' The class of persons who are +said to have possessed this power appear, now and then, in all human +history, and have at least bequeathed to us a puzzle in +anthropology. This problem has recently been presented, in what may +be called an acute form, by the publication of the 'Experiences of +Mr. Stainton Moses'. {78b} Mr. Moses was a clergyman and +schoolmaster; in both capacities he appears to have been +industrious, conscientious, and honourable. He was not devoid of +literature, and had contributed, it is said, to periodicals as +remote from mysticism as Punch, and the Saturday Review. He was a +sportsman, at least he was a disciple of our father, Izaak Walton. +'Most anglers are quiet men, and followers of peace, so simply wise +as not to sell their consciences to buy riches, and with them +vexation, and a fear to die,' says Izaak. + +In early middle age, about 1874, Mr. Moses began to read such books +as Dale Owen's, and to sit 'attentive of his trembling' table, by +way of experiment. He soon found that tables bounded in his +presence, untouched. Then he developed into a regular 'medium'. +Inanimate objects came to him through stone walls. Scent of all +sorts, and, as in the case of St. Joseph of Cupertino, of an unknown +sort, was scattered on people in his company. He floated in the +air. He wrote 'automatically'. Knocks resounded in his +neighbourhood, in the open air. 'Lights' of all varieties hovered +in his vicinity. He spoke 'automatically,' being the mouth-piece of +a 'spirit,' and very dull were the spirit's sermons. After a +struggle he believed in 'spirits,' who twanged musical notes out in +his presence. He became editor of a journal named Light; he joined +the Psychical Society, but left it when the society pushed +materialism so far as to demonstrate that certain professional +mediums were convicted swindlers. + +The evidence for his marvels is the testimony of a family, perfectly +respectable, named Speer, and of a few other witnesses whom nobody +can suspect of conscious inaccuracy. There remain, as documents, +his books, his MS. notes, and other corroborative notes kept by his +friend Dr. Speer, a sceptic, and other observers. + +It is admitted that Mr. Moses was not a cautious logician, his +inferences are problematic, his generalisations hasty. As to the +facts, it is equally difficult to believe in them, and to believe +that Mr. Moses was a conscious impostor, and his friends easy dupes. +He cannot have been an impostor _unconsciously_ in a hypnotic state, +in a 'trance,' because his effects could not have been improvised. +If they were done by jugglery, they required elaborate preparations +of all sorts, which must have been made in full ordinary +consciousness. If we fall back on collective hallucination, then +that hallucination is something of world-wide diffusion, ancient and +continuous, for the effects are those attributed by Iamblichus to +his mystics, by the Church to her saints, by witnesses to the +'possessed,' by savages to medicine-men, and by Mr. Crookes and Lord +Crawford to D. D. Home. Of course we may be told that all lookers- +on, from Eskimo to Neoplatonists and men of science, know what to +expect, and are hallucinated by their own expectant attention. But, +when they expect nothing, and are disappointed by having to witness +prodigies, the same old prodigies, what is the explanation? + +The following tabular statement, altered from that given by Mr. +Myers in his publication of Mr. Moses and Dr. Speer's MS. notes, +will show the historical identity of the phenomena. Mr. Moses was +the agent in all; those exhibited by other ancient and modern agents +are marked with a cross. + + Rev. D. D. Iamblichus St. Eskimo Australian +'Spontaneous + + Stainton Home Joseph of +(Glanvil, + + Moses Cupertino +Bovet, + + +Telfair, + + Kirk) + +1. X X ? +X +2. X X X X +X +3. X X X X X X +X +4. X +X +5. X +6. X X +7. X X +8. X X X +X +9. X X X +10. X X X X +X +11. X X +12. X X +X + +1. 'Intelligent Raps.' +2. 'Movement of objects untouched.' +3. 'Levitation' (floating in air of seer). +4. Disappearance and Reappearance of objects. The 'object' being +the medium in some cases. +5. Passage of Matter through Matter. +6. Direct writing. That is, not by any detected human agency. +7. Sounds made on instruments supernormally. +8. Direct sounds. That is, by no detected human agency. +9. Scents. +10. Lights. +11. Objects 'materialised.' +12. Hands materialised, touched or seen. + +There are here twelve miracles! Home and Iamblichus add to Mr. +Moses's repertoire the alteration of the medium's height or bulk. +This feat still leaves Mr. Moses 'one up,' as regards Home, in whose +presence objects did not disappear, nor did they pass through stone +walls. The questions are, to account for the continuity of +collective hallucinations, if we accept that hypothesis, and to +explain the procedure of Mr. Moses, if he were an impostor. He did +not exhibit before more than seven or eight private friends, and he +gained neither money nor dazzling social success by his +performances. + +This page in the chapter of 'demoniac affections' is thus still in +the state of ebauche. Mr. Moses believed his experiences to be +'demoniac affections,' in the Neoplatonic sense. Could his +phenomena have been investigated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, +Dr. Parker, Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook, and Professor Huxley, the +public mind might have arrived at some conclusion on the subject. +But Mr. Moses's chief spirit, known in society as 'Imperator,' +declined to let strangers look on. He testified his indignation in +a manner so bruyant, he so banged on tables, that Mr. Moses and his +friends thought it wiser to avoid an altercation. + +This exclusiveness of 'Imperator' certainly donne furieusement a +penser. If spirits are spirits they may just as well take it for +understood that performances 'done in a corner' are of no scientific +value. But we are still at a loss for a 'round' and satisfactory +hypothesis which will colligate all the alleged facts, and explain +their historical continuity. We merely state that continuity as a +historical fact. Marvels of savages, Neoplatonists, saints of +Church or Covenant, 'spontaneous' phenomena, Mediumistic phenomena, +all hang together in some ways. Of this the Church has her own +explanation. + + + + + +COMPARATIVE PSYCHICAL RESEARCH + + +A Party at Ragley Castle. The Miraculous Conformist. The +Restoration and Scepticism. Experimental Proof of Spiritual +Existence. Glanvill. Boyle. More. The Gentleman's Butler. +'Levitation.' Witchcraft. Movements of Objects. The Drummer of +Tedworth. Haunted Houses. Rerrick. Glenluce. Ghosts. 'Spectral +Evidence.' Continuity and Uniformity of Stories. St. Joseph of +Cupertino, his Flights. Modern Instances. Theory of Induced +Hallucination. Ibn Batuta. Animated Furniture. From China to +Peru. Rapping Spirit at Lyons. The Imposture at Orleans. The +Stockwell Mystery. The Demon of Spraiton. Modern Instances. The +Wesleys. Theory of Imposture. Conclusion. + +In the month of February, 1665, there was assembled at Ragley Castle +as curious a party as ever met in an English country-house. The +hostess was the Lady Conway, a woman of remarkable talent and +character, but wholly devoted to mystical speculations. In the end, +unrestrained by the arguments of her clerical allies, she joined the +Society of Friends, by the world called Quakers. Lady Conway at the +time when her guests gathered at Ragley, as through all her later +life, was suffering from violent chronic headache. The party at +Ragley was invited to meet her latest medical attendant, an +unlicensed practitioner, Mr. Valentine Greatrakes, or Greatorex; his +name is spelled in a variety of ways. Mr. Greatrakes was called +'The Irish Stroker' and 'The Miraculous Conformist' by his admirers, +for, while it was admitted that Dissenters might frequently possess, +or might claim, powers of miracle, the gift, or the pretension, was +rare among members of the Established Church. The person of Mr. +Greatrakes, if we may believe Dr. Henry Stubbe, physician at +Stratford-on-Avon, diffused a pleasing fragrance as of violets. +Lord Herbert of Cherbury, it will be remembered, tells the same +story about himself in his memoirs. Mr. Greatrakes 'is a man of +graceful personage and presence, and if my phantasy betrayed not my +judgement,' says Dr. Stubbe, 'I observed in his eyes and meene a +vivacitie and spritelinesse that is nothing common'. + +This Miraculous Conformist was the younger son of an Irish squire, +and a person of some property. After the Restoration--_and not +before_--Greatrakes felt 'a strong and powerful impulse in him to +essay' the art of healing by touching, or stroking. He resisted the +impulse, till one of his hands having become 'dead' or numb, he +healed it by the strokes of the other hand. From that moment +Greatrakes practised, and became celebrated; he cured some diseased +persons, failed wholly with others, and had partial and temporary +success with a third class. The descriptions given by Stubbe, in +his letter to the celebrated Robert Boyle, and by Foxcroft, Fellow +of King's College, Cambridge, leave little doubt that 'The Irish +Stroker' was most successful with hypochondriacal and hysterical +patients. He used to chase the disease up and down their bodies, if +it did not 'fly out through the interstices of his fingers,' and if +he could drive it into an outlying part, and then forth into the +wide world, the patient recovered. So Dr. Stubbe reports the method +of Greatrakes. {86} He was brought over from Ireland, at a charge +of about 155 pounds, to cure Lady Conway's headaches. In this it is +confessed that he entirely failed; though he wrought a few miracles +of healing among rural invalids. To meet this fragrant and +miraculous Conformist, Lady Conway invited men worthy of the +privilege, such as the Rev. Joseph Glanvill, F.R.S., the author of +Sadducismus Triumphatus, his friend Dr. Henry More, the Cambridge +Platonist, and other persons interested in mystical studies. Thus +at Ragley there was convened the nucleus of an unofficial but active +Society for Psychical Research, as that study existed in the +seventeenth century. + +The object of this chapter is to compare the motives, methods, and +results of Lady Conway's circle, with those of the modern Society +for Psychical Research. Both have investigated the reports of +abnormal phenomena. Both have collected and published narratives of +eye-witnesses. The moderns, however, are much more strict on points +of evidence than their predecessors. They are not content to watch, +but they introduce 'tests,' generally with the most disenchanting +results. The old researchers were animated by the desire to +establish the tottering faith of the Restoration, which was +endangered by the reaction against Puritanism. Among the fruits of +Puritanism, and of that frenzied state of mind which accompanied the +Civil War, was a furious persecution of 'witches'. In a rare little +book, Select Cases of Conscience, touching Witches and Witchcraft, +by John Gaule, 'preacher of the Word at Great Staughton in the +county of Huntington' (London, 1646), we find the author not denying +the existence of witchcraft, but pleading for calm, learned and +judicial investigation. To do this was to take his life in his +hand, for Matthew Hopkins, a fanatical miscreant, was ruling in a +Reign of Terror through the country. The clergy of the Church of +England, as Hutchinson proves in his Treatise of Witchcraft (second +edition, London, 1720), had been comparatively cautious in their +treatment of the subject. Their record is far from clean, but they +had exposed some impostures, chiefly, it is fair to say, where +Nonconformists, or Catholics, had detected the witch. With the +Restoration the general laxity went so far as to scoff at +witchcraft, to deny its existence, and even, in the works of +Wagstaff and Webster, to minimise the leading case of the Witch of +Endor. Against the 'drollery of Sadducism,' the Psychical +Researchers within the English Church, like Glanvill and Henry More, +or beyond its pale, like Richard Baxter and many Scotch divines, +defended witchcraft and apparitions as outworks of faith in general. +The modern Psychical Society, whatever the predisposition of some of +its members may be, explores abnormal phenomena, not in the +interests of faith, but of knowledge. Again, the old inquirers were +dominated by a belief in the devil. They saw witchcraft and +demoniacal possession, where the moderns see hysterics and hypnotic +conditions. + +For us the topic is rather akin to mythology, and 'folk-psychology,' +as the Germans call it. We are interested, as will be shown, in a +most curious question of evidence, and the value of evidence. It +will again appear that the phenomena reported by Glanvill, More, +Sinclair, Kirk, Telfair, Bovet, are identical with those examined by +Messrs. Gurney, Myers, Kellar (the American professional conjurer), +and many others. The differences, though interesting, are rather +temporary and accidental than essential. + +A few moments of attention to the table talk of the party assembled +at Ragley will enable us to understand the aims, the methods, and +the ideas of the old informal society. By a lucky accident, +fragments of the conversation may be collected from Glanvill's +Sadducismus Triumphatus, {88a} and from the correspondence of +Glanvill, Henry More, and Robert Boyle. Mr. Boyle, among more +tangible researches, devoted himself to collecting anecdotes, about +the second sight. These manuscripts are not published in the six +huge quarto volumes of Boyle's works; on the other hand, we possess +Lord Tarbet's answer to his questions. {88b} Boyle, as his letters +show, was a rather chary believer in witchcraft and possession. He +referred Glanvill to his kinsman, Lord Orrery, who had enjoyed an +experience not very familiar; he had seen a gentleman's butler float +in the air! + +Now, by a great piece of good fortune, Mr. Greatrakes the fragrant +and miraculous, had also been an eye-witness of this miracle, and +was able to give Lady Conway and her guests the fullest information. +As commonly happened in the seventeenth century, though not in ours, +the marvel of the butler was mixed up with ordinary folklore. In +the records and researches of the existing Society for Psychical +Research, folklore and fairies hold no place. The Conformist, +however, had this tale to tell: the butler of a gentleman unnamed, +who lived near Lord Orrery's seat in Ireland, fell in, one day, with +the good people, or fairies, sitting at a feast. The fairies, +therefore, endeavoured to spirit him away, as later they carried off +Mr. Kirk, minister of Aberfoyle, in 1692. Lord Orrery, most kindly, +gave the butler the security of his castle, where the poor man was +kept, 'under police protection,' and watched, in a large room. +Among the spectators were Mr, Greatrakes himself, and two bishops, +one of whom may have been Jeremy Taylor, an active member of the +society. Late in the afternoon, the butler was 'perceived to rise +from the ground, whereupon Mr. Greatrix and another lusty man clapt +their hands over his shoulders, one of them before, and the other +behind, and weighed him down with all their strength, but he was +forcibly taken up from them; for a considerable time he was carried +in the air to and fro, over their heads, several of the company +still running under him, to prevent him receiving hurt if he should +fall;' so says Glanvill. Faithorne illustrates this pleasing +circumstance by a picture of the company standing out, ready to +'field the butler, whose features display great concern.' {90a} + +Now we know that Mr. Greatrakes told this anecdote, at Ragley, first +to Mrs. Foxcroft, and then to the company at dinner. Mr. Alfred +Wallace, F.R.S., adduces Lord Orrery and Mr. Greatrakes as witnesses +of this event in private life. Mr. Wallace, however, forgets to +tell the world that the fairies, or good people, were, or were +believed to be, the agents. {90b} Fairies still cause levitation in +the Highlands. Campbell of Islay knew a doctor, one of whose +patients had in vain tried to hold down a friend who was seized and +carried to a distance of two miles by the sluagh, the fairy folk. +{90c} Glanvill admits that Lord Orrery assured Lady Roydon, one of +the party at Ragley, that the Irish tale was true: Henry More had +it direct from Mr. Greatrakes. + +Here is a palpably absurd legend, but the reader is requested to +observe that the phenomenon is said to have occurred in all ages and +countries. We can adduce the testimony of modern Australian blacks, +of Greek philosophers, of Peruvians just after the conquest by +Pizarro, of the authors of Lives of the Saints, of learned New +England divines, of living observers in England, India, and America. +The phenomenon is technically styled 'levitation,' and in England +was regarded as a proof either of witchcraft or of 'possession'; in +Italy was a note of sanctity; in modern times is a peculiarity of +'mediumship'; in Australia is a token of magical power; in Zululand +of skill in the black art; and, in Ireland and the West Highlands, +was attributed to the guile of the fairies. Here are four or five +distinct hypotheses. Part of our business, therefore, is to examine +and compare the forms of a fable current in many lands, and reported +to the circle at Ragley by the Miraculous Conformist. + +Mr. Greatrakes did not entertain Lady Conway and her friends with +this marvel alone. He had been present at a trial for witchcraft, +in Cork, on September 11, 1661. In this affair evidence was led to +prove a story as common as that of 'levitation'--namely, the +mysterious throwing or falling of stones in a haunted house, or +around the person of a patient bewitched. Cardan is expansive about +this manifestation. The patient was Mary Longdon, the witch was +Florence Newton of Youghal. Glanvill prints the trial from a +document which he regards as official, but he did not take the +trouble to trace Mr. Aston, the recorder or clerk (as Glanvill +surmises), who signed every page of the manuscript. Mr. Alfred +Wallace quotes the tale, without citing his authority. The +witnesses for the falling of stones round the bewitched girl were +the maid herself, and her master, John Pyne, who deposed that she +was 'much troubled with little stones that were thrown at her +wherever she went, and that, after they had hit her, would fall on +the ground, and then vanish, so that none of them could be found'. +This peculiarity beset Mr. Stainton Moses, when he was fishing, and +must have 'put down' the trout. Objects in the maid's presence, +such as Bibles, would 'fly from her,' and she was bewitched, and +carried off into odd places, like the butler at Lord Orrery's. +Nicholas Pyne gave identical evidence. At Ragley, Mr. Greatrakes +declared that he was present at the trial, and that an awl would not +penetrate the stool on which the unlucky enchantress was made to +stand: a clear proof of guilt. + +Here, then, we have the second phenomenon which interested the +circle at Ragley; the flying about of stones, of Bibles, and other +movements of bodies. Though the whole affair may be called +hysterical imposture by Mary Longdon (who vomited pins, and so +forth, as was customary), we shall presently trace the reports of +similar events, among people of widely remote ages and countries, +'from China to Peru'. + +Among the guests at Ragley, as we said, was Dr. Joseph Glanvill, who +could also tell strange tales at first hand, and from his own +experience. He had investigated the case of the disturbances in Mr. +Mompesson's house at Tedworth, which began in March, 1661. These +events, so famous among our ancestors, were precisely identical with +what is reported by modern newspapers, when there is a 'medium' in a +family. The troubles began with rappings on the walls of the house, +and on a drum taken by Mr. Mompesson from a vagrant musician. This +man seems to have been as much vexed as Parolles by the loss of his +drum, and the Psychical Society at Ragley believed him to be a +magician, who had bewitched the house of his oppressor. While Mrs. +Mompesson was adding an infant to her family the noise ceased, or +nearly ceased, just as, at Epworth, in the house of the Rev. Samuel +Wesley, it never vexed Mrs. Wesley at her devotions. Later, at +Tedworth, 'it followed and vexed the younger children, beating their +bedsteads with that violence, that all present expected when they +would fall in pieces'. . . . It would lift the children up in their +beds. Objects were moved: lights flitted around, and the Rev. +Joseph Glanvill could assure Lady Conway that he had been a witness +of some of these occurrences. He saw the 'little modest girls in +the bed, between seven and eight years old, as I guessed'. He saw +their hands outside the bed-clothes, and heard the scratchings above +their heads, and felt 'the room and windows shake very sensibly'. +When he tapped or scratched a certain number of times, the noise +answered, and stopped at the same number. Many more things of this +kind Glanvill tells. He denies the truth of a report that an +imposture was discovered, but admits that when Charles II. sent +gentlemen to stay in the house, nothing unusual occurred. But these +researchers stayed only for a single night. He denied that any +normal cause of the trouble was ever discovered. Glanvill told +similar tales about a house at Welton, near Daventry, in 1658. +Stones were thrown, and all the furniture joined in an irregular +corroboree. Too late for Lady Conway's party was the similar +disturbance at Gast's house of Little Burton June, 1677. Here the +careful student will note that 'they saw a hand holding a hammer, +which kept on knocking'. This _hand_ is as familiar to the research +of the seventeenth as to that of the nineteenth century. We find it +again in the celebrated Scotch cases of Rerrick (1695), and of +Glenluce, while 'the Rev. James Sharp' (later Archbishop of St. +Andrews), vouched for it, in 1659, in a tale told by him to +Lauderdale, and by Lauderdale to the Rev. Richard Baxter. {94} +Glanvill also contributes a narrative of the very same description +about the haunting of Mr. Paschal's house in Soper Lane, London: +the evidence is that of Mr. Andrew Paschal, Fellow of Queen's +College, Cambridge. In this case the trouble began with the arrival +and coincided with the stay of a gentlewoman, unnamed, 'who seemed +to be principally concerned'. As a rule, in these legends, it is +easy to find out who the 'medium' was. The phenomena here were +accompanied by 'a cold blast or puff of wind,' which blew on the +hand of the Fellow of Queen's College, just as it has often blown, +in similar circumstances, on the hands of Mr. Crookes, and of other +modern amateurs. It would be tedious to analyse all Glanvill's +tales of rappings, and of volatile furniture. We shall see that, +before his time, as after it, precisely similar narratives attracted +the notice of the curious. Glanvill generally tries to get his +stories at first hand and signed by eye-witnesses. + +Lady Conway was not behind her guests in personal experiences. Her +ladyship was concerned with a good old-fashioned ghost. We say +'old-fashioned' of set purpose, because while modern tales of +'levitation' and flighty furniture, of flying stones, of rappings, +of spectral hands, of cold psychical winds, are exactly like the +tales of old, a change, an observed change, has come over the ghost +of the nineteenth century. Readers of the Proceedings of the +Psychical Society will see that the modern ghost is a purposeless +creature. He appears nobody knows why; he has no message to +deliver, no secret crime to reveal, no appointment to keep, no +treasure to disclose, no commissions to be executed, and, as an +almost invariable rule, he does not speak, even if you speak to him. +The recent inquirers, notably Mr. Myers, remark with some severity +on this vague and meaningless conduct of apparitions, and draw +speculative conclusions to the effect that the ghost, as the Scotch +say, 'is not all there'. But the ghosts of the seventeenth century +were positively garrulous. One remarkable specimen indeed behaved, +at Valogne, more like a ghost of our time than of his own. {95} +But, as a common rule, the ghosts in whom Lady Conway's friends were +interested had a purpose: some revealed the spot where a skeleton +lay; some urged the payment of a debt, or the performance of a +neglected duty. One modern spectre, reported by Mr. Myers, wandered +disconsolate till a debt of three shillings and tenpence was +defrayed. {96} This is, perhaps, the lowest figure cited as a +pretext for appearing. The ghost vouched for by Lady Conway was +disturbed about a larger sum, twenty-eight shillings. She, an +elderly woman, persecuted by her visits David Hunter, 'neat-herd at +the house of the Bishop of Down and Connor, at Portmore, in 1663'. +Mr. Hunter did not even know the ghost when she was alive; but she +made herself so much at home in his dwelling that 'his little dog +would follow her as well as his master'. The ghost, however, was +invisible to Mrs. Hunter. When Hunter had at last executed her +commission, she asked him to lift her up in his arms. She was not +substantial like fair Katie King, when embraced by Mr. Crookes, but +'felt just like a bag of feathers; so she vanished, and he heard +most delicate music as she went off over his head'. Lady Conway +cross-examined Hunter on the spot, and expressed her belief in his +narrative in a letter, dated Lisburn, April 29, 1663. It is true +that contemporary sceptics attributed the phenomena to potheen, but, +as Lady Conway asks, how could potheen tell Hunter about the ghost's +debt, and reveal that the money to discharge it was hidden under her +hearthstone? + +The scope of the Ragley inquiries may now be understood. It must +not be forgotten that witchcraft was a topic of deep interest to +these students. They solemnly quote the records of trials in which +it is perfectly evident that girls and boys, either in a spirit of +wicked mischief, or suffering from hysterical illusions, make +grotesque charges against poor old women. The witches always prick, +pinch, and torment their victims, being present to them, though +invisible to the bystanders. This was called 'spectral evidence'; +and the Mathers, during the fanatical outbreaks at Salem, admit that +this 'spectral evidence,' unsupported, is of no legal value. +Indeed, taken literally, Cotton Mather's cautions on the subject of +evidence may almost be called sane and sensible. But the Protestant +inquisitors always discovered evidence confirmatory. For example, a +girl is screaming out against an invisible witch; a man, to please +her, makes a snatch at the empty air where she points, and finds in +his hand a fragment of stuff, which again is proved to be torn from +the witch's dress. It is easy to see how this trick could be +played. Again, a possessed girl cries that a witch is tormenting +her with an iron spindle, grasps at the spindle (visible only to +her), and, lo, it is in her hand, and is the property of the witch. +Here is proof positive! Again, a girl at Stoke Trister, in +Somerset, is bewitched by Elizabeth Style, of Bayford, widow. The +rector of the parish, the Rev. William Parsons, deposes that the +girl, in a fit, pointed to different parts of her body, 'and where +she pointed, he perceived a red spot to arise, with a small black in +the midst of it, like a small thorn'; and other evidence was given +to the same effect. The phenomenon is akin to many which, according +to medical and scientific testimony, occur to patients in the +hypnotic state. The so-called stigmata of Louise Lateau, and of the +shepherd boy put up by the Archbishop of Reims as a substitute for +Joan of Arc, are cases in point. But Glanvill, who quotes the +record of the trial (January, 1664), holds that witchcraft is proved +by the coincidence of the witch's confession that she, the devil, +and others made an image of the girl and pierced it with thorns! +The confession is a piece of pure folklore: poor old Elizabeth +Style merely copies the statements of French and Scotch witches. +The devil appeared as a handsome man, and as a black dog! Glanvill +denies that she was tortured, or 'watched'--that is, kept awake till +her brain reeled. But his own account makes it plain that she was +'watched' after her confession at least, when the devil, under the +form of a butterfly, appeared in her cell. + +This rampant and mischievous nonsense was dear to the psychical +inquirers of the Restoration; it was circulated by Glanvill, a +Fellow of the Royal Society; by Henry More; by Sinclair, a professor +in the University of Glasgow; by Richard Baxter, that glory of +Nonconformity, who revels in the burning of an 'old reading parson'-- +that is, a clergyman who read the Homilies, under the Commonwealth. +This unlucky old parson was tortured into confession by being +'walked' and 'watched'--that is, kept from sleep till he was +delirious. Archbishop Spottiswoode treated Father Ogilvie, S. J., +in the same abominable manner, till delirium supervened. Church, +Kirk, and Dissent have no right to throw the first stone at each +other. + +Taking levitation, haunting, disturbances and apparitions, and +leaving 'telepathy' or second sight out of the list for the present, +he who compares psychical research in the seventeenth and nineteenth +centuries finds himself confronted by the problem which everywhere +meets the student of institutions and of mythology. The +anthropologist knows that, if he takes up a new book of travels in +the remotest lands, he will find mention of strange customs +perfectly familiar to him in other parts of the ancient and modern +world. The mythologist would be surprised if he encountered in +Papua or Central Africa, or Sakhalin, a perfectly _new_ myth. These +uniformities of myth and custom are explained by the identical +workings of the uncivilised intelligence on the same materials, and, +in some cases, by borrowing, transmission, imitation. + +Now, some features in witchcraft admit of this explanation. +Highland crofters, even now, perforate the image of an enemy with +pins; broken bottle-ends or sharp stones are put, in Russia and in +Australia, in the footprints of a foe, for the purpose of laming +him; and there are dozens of such practices, all founded on the +theory of sympathy. Like affects like. What harms the effigy hurts +the person whose effigy is burned or pricked. All this is perfectly +intelligible. But, when we find savage 'birraarks' in Australia, +fakirs in India, saints in mediaeval Europe, a gentleman's butler in +Ireland, boys in Somerset and Midlothian, a young warrior in +Zululand, Miss Nancy Wesley at Epworth in 1716, and Mr. Daniel Home +in London in 1856-70, all triumphing over the law of gravitation, +all floating in the air, how are we to explain the uniformity of +stories palpably ridiculous? + +The evidence, it must be observed, is not merely that of savages, or +of persons as uneducated and as superstitious as savages. The +Australian birraark, who flies away up the tree, we may leave out of +account. The saints, St. Francis and St. Theresa, are more +puzzling, but miracles were expected from saints. {100a} The +levitated boy was attested to in a court of justice, and is designed +by Faithorne in an illustration of Glanvill's book. He flew over a +garden! But witnesses in such trials were fanciful people. Lord +Orrery and Mr. Greatrakes may have seen the butler float in the air-- +after dinner. The exploits of the Indian fakirs almost, or quite, +overcome the scepticism of Mr. Max Muller, in his Gifford Lectures +on Psychological Religion. Living and honourable white men aver +that they have seen the feat, examined the performers, and found no +explanation; no wires, no trace of imposture. (The writer is +acquainted with a well vouched for case, the witness an English +officer.) Mr. Kellar, an American professional conjurer, and +exposer of spiritualistic pretensions, bears witness, in the North +American Review, to a Zulu case of 'levitation,' which actually +surpasses the tale of the gentleman's butler in strangeness. Cieza +de Leon, in his Travels, translated by Mr. Markham for the Hakluyt +Society, brings a similar anecdote from early Peru, in 1549. {100b} +Miss Nancy Wesley's case is vouched for (she and the bed she sat on +both rose from the floor) by a letter from one of her family to her +brother Samuel, printed in Southey's Life of Wesley. Finally, Lord +Lindsay and Lord Adare published a statement that they saw Home +float out of one window and in at another, in Ashley Place, S.W., on +December 16, 1868. Captain Wynne, who was also there, 'wrote to the +Medium, to say I was present as a witness'. {101} We need not heap +up more examples, drawn from classic Greece, as in the instances of +Abaris and Iamblichus. We merely stand speechless in the presence +of the wildest of all fables, when it meets us, as identical myths +and customs do--not among savages alone, but everywhere, practically +speaking, and in connection with barbarous sorcery, with English +witchcraft, with the saintliest of mediaeval devotees, with African +warriors, with Hindoo fakirs, with a little English girl in a quiet +old country parsonage, and with an enigmatic American gentleman. +Many living witnesses, of good authority, sign statements about +Home's levitation. In one case, a large table, on which stood a man +of twelve stone weight rose from the floor, and an eye-witness, a +doctor, felt under the castors with his hands. + +Of all persons subject to 'levitation,' Saint Joseph of Cupertino +(1603-1663) was the most notable. The evidence is partly derived +from testimonies collected with a view to his canonisation, within +two years after his death. There is a full account of his life and +adventures in Acta Sanctorum. {102} St. Joseph died, as we saw, in +1663, but the earliest biography of him, in Italian, was not +published till fifteen years later, in 1678. Unluckily the compiler +of his legend in the Acta Sanctorum was unable to procure this work, +by Nutius, which might contain a comparatively slight accretion of +myths. The next life is of 1722, and the author made use of the +facts collected for Joseph's beatification. There is another life +by Pastrovicchi, in 1753. He was canonised in that year, when all +the facts were remote by about a century. + +Joseph's parents were pauperes sed honesti; his father was a +carpenter, his mother a woman of almost virulent virtue, who kept +her son in great order. From the age of eight he was subject to +cataleptic or epileptic fits and convulsions. After his novitiate +he suffered from severe attacks of melancholia. His 'miracles' +attracting attention, he was brought before the Inquisition at +Naples, as an impostor. He was sent to an obscure and remote +monastery, and thence to Assisi, where he was harshly treated, and +fell into Bunyan's Slough of Despond, having much conflict with +Apollyon. + +He was next called to Rome, where cardinals testify that, on hearing +sacred names, he would give a yell, and fall into ecstasy. +Returning to Assisi he was held in high honour, and converted a +Hanoverian Prince. He healed many sick people, and, having fallen +into a river, came out quite dry. He could scarcely read, but was +inspired with wonderful theological acuteness. He always yelled +before falling into an ecstasy, afterwards, he was so much under the +dominion of anaesthesia that hot coals, if applied to his body, +produced no effect. Then he soared in air, now higher, now lower (a +cardinal vouches for six inches), and in aere pendulus haerebat, +like the gentleman's butler at Lord Orrery's. + +Seventy separate flights, in-doors and out of doors, are recorded. +In fact it was well to abstain from good words in conversation with +St. Joseph of Cupertino, for he would give a shout, on hearing a +pious observation, and fly up, after which social intercourse was +out of the question. He was, indeed, prevented by his superiors +from appearing at certain sacred functions, because his flights +disturbed the proceedings, indeed everything was done by the Church +to discourage him, but in vain. He explained his preliminary shout +by saying that 'guns also make a noise when they go off,' so the +Cardinal de Laurea heard him remark. He was even more fragrant than +the Miraculous Conformist, or the late Mr. Stainton Moses, to whose +seances scent was marvellously borne by 'spirits'. It must be +remembered that contemporary witnesses attest these singular +circumstances in the evidence taken two years after his death, for +the beatification of Joseph. From Assisi he was sent to various +obscure convents, where his miracles were as remarkable as ever. +One Christmas Eve, hearing sacred music, he flew up like a bird, +from the middle of the church to the high altar, where he floated +for a quarter of an hour, yet upset none of the candles. An insane +nobleman was brought to him to be healed. Seizing the afflicted +prince by the hair of the head, he uttered a shout, and soared up +with the patient, who finally came down cured! Once he flew over a +pulpit, and once more than eighty yards to a crucifix. This is +probably 'a record'. When some men were elevating a cross for a +Calvary, and were oppressed by the weight, Joseph uttered a shriek, +flew to them, and lightly erected the cross with his own hand. The +flight was of about eighty yards. He flew up into a tree once, and +perched on a bough, which quivered no more than if he had been a +bird. A rather commonplace pious remark uttered in his presence was +the cause of this exhibition. Once in church, he flew from his +knees, caught a priest, lifted him up, and gyrated, laetissimo +raptu, in mid air. In the presence of the Spanish ambassador and +many others, he once flew over the heads of the congregation. Once +he asked a priest whether the holy elements were kept in a +particular place. 'Who knows?' said the priest, whereon Joseph +soared over his head, remained kneeling in mid air, and came down +only at the request of his ecclesiastical superior. Joseph was +clairvoyant, and beheld apparitions, but on the whole (apart from +his moral excellence) his flights were his most notable +accomplishment. On one occasion he 'casual remarked to a friend,' +'what an infernal smell' (infernails odor), and then nosed out a +number of witches and warlocks who were compounding drugs: +'standing at some considerable distance, standing, in fact, in quite +another street'. + +Iamblichus, in the letter to Porphyry, describes such persons as St. +Joseph of Cupertino. 'They have been known to be lifted up into the +air. . . . The subject of the afflatus has not felt the application +of fire. . . . The more ignorant and mentally imbecile a youth may +be, the more freely will the divine power be made manifest.' Joseph +was ignorant, and 'enfeebled by vigil and fasts,' so Joseph was +'insensible of the application of fire,' and 'was lifted up into the +air'. Yet the cardinals, surgeons, and other witnesses were not +thinking of the pagan Iamblichus when they attested the +accomplishments of the saint. Whence, then, comes the uniformity of +evidence? + +The sceptical Calef did not believe in these things, because they +are 'miracles,' that is, contrary to experience. But here is +experience enough to which they are not contrary. + +There are dozens of such depositions, and here it is that the +student of testimony and of belief finds himself at a deadlock. +Believe the evidence we cannot, yet we cannot doubt the good faith, +the veracity of the attesting witnesses. Had we only savage, or +ancient and uneducated testimony, we might say that the uniformity +of myths of levitation is easily explained. The fancy wants a +marvel, it readily provides one by positing the infraction of the +most universally obvious law, that of gravitation. Men don't fly; +let us say that a man flew, like Abaris on his arrow! This is +rudimentary, but then witnesses whose combined testimony would prove +almost anything else, declare that they saw the feat performed. +Till we can find some explanation of these coincidences of +testimony, it is plain that a province in psychology, in the +relations between facts as presented to and as represented by +mankind, remains to be investigated. Of all persons who have been +levitated since St. Joseph, a medium named Eglinton was most subject +to this infirmity. In a work, named There is no Death, by Florence +Marryat, the author assures us that she has frequently observed the +phenomenon. But Mr. Eglinton, after being 'investigated' by the +Psychical Society, 'retired,' as Mr. Myers says, 'into private +life'. The tales told about him by spiritualists are of the kind +usually imparted to a gallant, but proverbially confiding, arm of +Her Majesty's service. As for Lord Orrery's butler, and the others, +there are the hypotheses that a cloud of honourable and sane +witnesses lied; that they were uniformly hallucinated, or +hypnotised, by a glamour as extraordinary as the actual miracle +would be; or again, that conjuring of an unexampled character could +be done, not only by Home, or Eglinton, in a room which may have +been prepared, but by Home, by a Zulu, by St. Joseph of Cupertino, +and by naked fakirs, in the open air. Of all these theories that of +glamour, of hypnotic illusion, is the most specious. Thus, when Ibn +Batuta, the old Arabian traveller, tells us that he saw the famous +rope-trick performed in India--men climbing a rope thrown into the +air, and cutting each other up, while the bodies revive and reunite-- +he very candidly adds that his companion, standing by, saw nothing +out of the way, and declared that nothing occurred. {107a} This +clearly implies that Ibn Batuta was hypnotised, and that his +companion was not. But Dr. Carpenter's attempt to prove that one +witness saw nothing, while Lord Lindsay and Lord Adare saw Home +float out of one window, and in by another, turns out to be +erroneous. The third witness, Captain Wynne, confirmed the +statement of the other gentlemen. + +We now approach the second class of marvels which regaled the circle +at Ragley, namely, 'Alleged movements of objects without contact, +occurring _not_ in the presence of a paid medium,' and with these we +shall examine rappings and mysterious noises. The topic began to +attract modern attention when table-turning was fashionable. But in +common table-turning there _was_ contact, and Faraday easily +demonstrated that there was conscious or unconscious pushing and +muscular exertion. In 1871 Mr. Crookes made laboratory experiments +with Home, using mechanical tests. {107b} He demonstrated, to his +own satisfaction, that in the presence of Home, even when he was not +in physical contact with the object, the object moved: e pur si +muove. He published a reply to Dr. Carpenter's criticism, and the +common-sense of ordinary readers, at least, sees no flaw in Mr. +Crookes's method and none in his argument. The experiments of the +modern Psychical Society, with paid mediums, produced results, in +Mr. Myers's opinion, 'not wholly unsatisfactory,' but far from +leading to an affirmative conclusion, if by 'satisfactory' Mr. Myers +means 'affirmative'. {108a} The investigations of Mrs. Sidgwick +were made under the mediumship of Miss Kate Fox (Mrs. Jencken). +This lady began the modern 'spiritualism' when scarcely older than +Mr. Mompesson's 'two modest little girls,' and was accompanied by +phenomena like those of Tedworth. But, in Mrs. Sidgwick's presence +the phenomena were of the most meagre; and the reasoning faculties +of the mind decline to accept them as other than perfectly normal. +The society tried Mr. Eglinton, who once was 'levitated' in the +presence of Mr. Kellar, the American conjurer, who has publicly +described feats like those of the gentleman's butler. {108b} But, +after his dealings with the society, Mr. Eglinton has left the +scene. {108c} The late Mr. Davey also produced results like Mr. +Eglinton's by confessed conjuring. + +Mr. Myers concludes that 'it does not seem worth while, as a rule, +to examine the testimony to physical marvels occurring in the +presence of professional mediums'. He therefore collects evidence +in the article quoted, for physical marvels occurring where there is +no paid medium. Here, as in the business of levitation, the +interest of the anthropologist and mythologist lies in the +uniformity and identity of narratives from all countries, climates, +and ages. Among the earliest rappings with which we chance to be +familiar are those reported by Froissart in the case of the spirit +Orthon, in the fourteenth century. The tale had become almost a +fabliau, but any one who reads the amusing chapter will see that it +is based on a belief in disturbances like those familiar to Glanvill +and the Misses Fox. Cieza de Leon (1549) in the passage already +quoted, where he describes the levitated Cacique of Pirza in Popyan, +adds that 'the Christians saw stones falling from the air' (as in +the Greatrakes tale of the Youghal witch), and declares that, 'when +the chief was sitting with a glass of liquor before him, the +Christians saw the glass raised up in the air and put down empty, +and a short time afterwards the wine was again poured into the cup +from the air'. Mr. Home once equalled this marvel, {109a} and Ibn +Batuta reports similar occurrences, earlier, at the court of the +King of Delhi. There is another case in Histoire Prodigieuse d'une +jeune Fille agitee d'un Esprit fantastique et invisible. {109b} A +bourgeois of Bonneval was beset by a rapping rattle of a sprite. +'At dinner, when he would lay his hand on a trencher, it was carried +off elsewhere, and the wineglass, when he was about drinking, was +snatched from his hand.' So Mr. Wesley's trencher was set spinning +on the table, when nobody touched it! In such affairs we may have +the origin of the story of the Harpies at the court of Phineus. + +In China, Mr. Dennys tells how 'food placed on the table vanished +mysteriously, and many of the curious phenomena attributed to +ghostly interference took place,' so that the householder was driven +from house to house, and finally into a temple, in 1874, and all +this after the death of a favourite but aggrieved monkey! {110a} +'Throwing down crockery, trampling on the floor, etc.--such pranks +as have attracted attention at home, are not unknown. . . . I must +confess that in China, as elsewhere, these occurrences leave a bona +fide impression of the marvellous which can neither be explained nor +rejected'. {110b} + +We have now noted these alleged phenomena, literally 'from China to +Peru'. Let us next take an old French case of a noisy sprite in the +nunnery of St. Pierre de Lyon. The account is by Adrien de +Montalembert, almoner to Francis I. {110c} The Bibliography of this +very rare tract is curious and deserves attention. When Lenglet +Dufresnoy was compiling, in 1751, his Dissertations sur les +Apparitions he reprinted the tract from the Paris quarto of 1528, in +black letter. This example had been in the Tellier collection, and +Dufresnoy seems to have borrowed it from the Royal Convent of St. +Genevieve. Knowing that Cardinal Tencin had some acquaintance with +the subject, Dufresnoy wrote to him, and publishes (vol. i. cxli.) +his answer, dated October 18, 1751, Lyons. The cardinal replied +that, besides the Paris edition of 1528, there was a Rouen reprint, +of 1529, by Rolin Gautier, with engravings. Brunet says, that there +are engravings in the Paris edition of 1528, perhaps these were +absent from the Tellier example. That of Rouen, which Cardinal +Tencin collated, was in the Abbey of St. Peter, in Lyons. Some +leaves had been thumbed out of existence, and their place was +supplied in manuscript. The only difference was in chapter xxviii. +where the printed Rouen text may have varied. In the MS. at all +events, it is stated that on March 21, the spirit of Sister Alix de +Telieux struck thirty-three great strokes on the refectory of her +convent, 'mighty and marvellous,' implying that her thirty-three +years of purgatory were commuted into thirty-three days. A bright +light, scarcely endurable, then appeared, and remained for some +eight minutes. The nuns then went into chapel and sang a Te Deum. + +At the end of the volume, a later hand added, in manuscript, that +the truth of the contemporary record was confirmed by the tradition +of the oldest sisters who had received it from eye-witnesses of the +earlier generation. The writer says that she had great difficulty +in finding the printed copy, but that when young, in 1630, she +received the tale from a nun, then aged ninety-four. This nun would +be born in 1536, ten years after these events. She got the story +from her aunt, a nun, Gabrielle de Beaudeduit, qui etoit de ce tems- +la. There is no doubt that the sisters firmly and piously believed +in the story, which has the contemporary evidence of Adrien de +Montalembert. Dufresnoy learned that a manuscript copy of the tract +was in the library of the Jesuits of Lyons. He was unaware of an +edition in 12mo of 1580, cited by Brunet. + +To come to the story, one of our earliest examples of a 'medium,' +and of communications by raps. The nunnery was reformed in 1516. A +pretty sister, Alix de Telieux, fled with some of the jewels, lived +a 'gay' life, and died wretchedly in 1524. She it was, as is +believed, who haunted a sister named Anthoinette de Grolee, a girl +of eighteen. The disturbance began with a confused half-dream. The +girl fancied that the sign of the cross was made on her brow, and a +kiss impressed on her lips, as she wakened one night. She thought +this was mere illusion, but presently, when she got up, she heard, +'comme soubs ses pieds frapper aucuns petis coups,' 'rappings,' as +if at the depth of four inches underground. This was exactly what +occurred to Miss Hetty Wesley, at Epworth, in 1716, and at Rio de +Janeiro to a child named 'C.' in Professor Alexander's narrative. +{112} Montalembert says, in 1528, 'I have heard these rappings many +a time, and, in reply to my questions, so many strokes as I asked +for were given'. Montalembert received information (by way of raps) +from the 'spirit,' about matters of importance, qui ne pourroient +estre cogneus de mortelle creature. 'Certainly,' as he adds, +'people have the best right to believe these things who have seen +and heard them.' + +The rites of the Church were conferred in the most handsome manner +on the body of Sister Alix, which was disinterred and buried in her +convent. Exorcisms and interrogations of the spirit were practised. +It merely answered questions by rapping 'Yes,' or 'No'. On one +occasion Sister Anthoinette was 'levitated'. Finally, the spirit +appeared bodily to her, said farewell, and disappeared after making +an extraordinary fracas at matins. Montalembert conducted the +religious ceremonies. One case of hysteria was developed; the +sufferer was a novice. Of course it was attributed to diabolical +possession The whole story in its pleasant old French, has an +agreeable air of good faith But what interests us is the remarkable +analogy between the Lyons rappings and those at Epworth, Tedworth, +and countless other cases, old or of yesterday. We can now +establish a catena of rappings and pour prendre date, can say that +communications were established, through raps, with a so-called +'spirit,' more than three hundred years before the 'Rochester +knockings' in America. Very probably wider research would discover +instances prior to that of Lyons; indeed, Wierus, in De Praestigiis +Daemonum, writes as if the custom was common. + +It is usual to explain the raps by a theory that the 'medium' +produces them through cracking his, or her, knee-joints. It may +thus be argued that Sister Anthoinette discovered this trick, or was +taught the trick, and that the tradition of her performance, being +widely circulated in Montalembert's quarto, and by oral report, +inspired later rappers, such as Miss Kate Fox, Miss 'C.' Davis, Miss +Hetty Wesley, the gentlewoman at Mr. Paschal's, Mr. Mompesson's +'modest little girls,' Daniel Home, and Miss Margaret Wilson of +Galashiels. Miss Wilson's uncle came one day to Mr. Wilkie, the +minister, and told him the devil was at his house, for, said he, +'there is an odd knocking about the bed where my niece lies'. +Whereupon the minister went with him, and found it so. 'She, rising +from her bed, sat down to supper, and from below there was such a +knocking up as bred fear to all that were present. This knocking +was just under her chair, where it was not possible for any mortal +to knock up.' When Miss Wilson went to bed, and was in a deep +sleep, 'her body was so lifted up that many strong men were not able +to keep it down'. {114a} The explanation about cracking the knee- +joints hardly covers the levitations, or accounts for the tremendous +noise which surrounded Sister Anthoinette at matins, or for the +bright light, a common spiritualistic phenomenon. Margaret Wilson +was about twelve years of age. If it be alleged that little girls +have a traditional method of imposture, even that is a curious and +interesting fact in human nature. + +As regards imposture, there exists a singular record of a legal +process in Paris, 1534. {114b} + +It may have been observed that the Lyons affair was useful to the +Church, as against 'the damnable sect of Lutherans,' because Sister +Alix attested the existence of purgatory. No imposture was +detected, and no reader of Montalembert can doubt his good faith, +nor the sincerity of his kindness and piety. But such a set of +circumstances might provoke imitation. Of fraudulent imitation the +Franciscans of Orleans were accused, and for this crime they were +severely punished. We have the Arrest des Commissaires du Conseil +d'Etat du Roi, from MS. 7170, A. of the Bibliotheque du Roi. {115} +We have also allusions in the Franciscanus, a satire in Latin +hexameter by George Buchanan. Finally, we have versions in +Lavaterus, and in Wierus, De Curat. Laes. Maleficio (Amsterdam, +1660, p. 422). Wierus, born 1515, heard the story when with Sleidan +at Orleans, some years after the events. He gives the version of +Sleidan, a notably Protestant version. Wierus is famous for his +spirited and valuable defence of the poor women then so frequently +burned as witches. He either does, or pretends to believe in +devils, diabolical possession, and exorcism, but the exorcist, to be +respectable, must be Protestant. Probably Wierus was not so +credulous as he assumes to be, and a point of irony frequently peeps +out. The story as told by Sleidan differs from that in the official +record. In this document Adam Fumee counsellor of the king, +announces that the Franciscans of Orleans have informed the king +that they are vexed by a spirit, which gives itself out by signs +(rappings), as the wife of Francois de St. Mesmin, Provost of +Orleans. They ask the king to take cognisance of the matter. On +the other side, St. Mesmin declares that the Franciscans have +counterfeited the affair in hope of 'black-mailing' him. The king, +therefore, appoints Fumee to inquire into the case. Thirteen friars +are lying in prison in Paris, where they have long been 'in great +wretchedness and poverty, and perishing of hunger,' a pretty example +of the law's delay. A commission is to try the case (November, +1534). The trouble had begun on February 22, 1533 (old style), when +Father Pierre d'Arras at five a.m. was called into the dormitory of +'les enfans,'--novices,--with holy water and everything proper. +Knocking was going on, and by a system of knocks, the spirit said it +wanted its body to be taken out of holy ground, said it was Madame +St Mesmin, and was damned for Lutheranism and extravagance! The +experiment was repeated before churchmen and laymen, but the lay +observers rushed up to the place whence the knocks came where they +found nothing. They hid some one there, after which there was no +knocking. On a later day, the noises as in Cock Lane and elsewhere, +began by scratching. "M. l'Official," the bishop's vicar, 'ouit +gratter, qui etoit le commencement de ladite accoutummee tumulte +dudit Esprit'. But no replies were given to questions, which the +Franciscans attributed to the disturbance of the day before, and the +breaking into various places by the people. One Alicourt seems to +have been regarded as the 'medium,' and the sounds were heard as in +Cock Lane and at Tedworth when he was in bed. Later experiments +gave no results, and the friars were severely punished, and obliged +to recant their charges against Madame de Mesmin. The case, +scratches, raps, false accusations and all, is parallel to that of +the mendacious 'Scratching Fanny,' examined by Dr. Johnson and +Douglas, Bishop of Salisbury. In that affair the child was driven +by threats to make counterfeit noises, but, as to the method of +imposture at Orleans, nothing is said in the contemporary legal +document. + +We now turn to the account by Sleidan, in Wierus. The provost's +wife had left directions for a cheap funeral in the Franciscan +Church. This economy irritated the Fathers, who only got six pieces +of gold, 'having expected much greater plunder'. 'Colimannus' +(Colimant), an exorcist named in the process, was the ringleader. +They stationed a lad in the roof of the church, who rapped with a +piece of wood, and made a great noise 'when they mumbled their +prayers at night'. St. Mesmin appealed to the king, the Fathers +were imprisoned, and the youth was kept in Fumee's house, and plied +with questions. He confessed the trick, and the friars were +punished. Of all this confession, and of the mode of imposture, +nothing is said in the legal process. From the whole affair came a +popular saying, c'est l'esprit d'Orleans, when any fable was told. +Buchanan talks of cauta parum pietas in fraude paranda. + +The evidence, it may be seen, is not very coherent, and the +Franciscans may have been the deceived, not the deceivers. {117} +Wierus himself admits that he often heard a brownie in his father's +house, which frightened him not a little, and Georgius Pictorius +avers that a noisy spirit haunted his uncle's house for thirty +years, a very protracted practical joke, if it was a practical joke. +{118} This was a stone-throwing demon. + +A large book might easily be filled with old stories of mysterious +flights of stones, and volatile chairs and tables. The ancient +mystics of the Levant were acquainted with the phenomena, as +Iamblichus shows. The Eskimo knew them well. Glanvill is rich in +examples, the objects flying about in presence of a solitary +spectator, who has called at a 'haunted house,' and sometimes the +events accompany the presence of a single individual, who may, or +may not be a convulsionary or epileptic. Sometimes they befall +where no individual is suspected of constitutional electricity or of +imposture. + +We may select a laughable example from a rare tract. 'An authentic, +candid, and circumstantial narrative of the astonishing transactions +at Stockwell, in the county of Surrey, on Monday and Tuesday, the +6th and 7th of January, 1772. Published with the consent and +approbation of the family and other parties concerned, to +authenticate which, the original copy is signed by them. London, +1772, printed for J. Marks, bookseller, in St. Martin's Lane.' + +The dramatis personae are old Mrs. Golding, of Stockwell parish, 'a +gentlewoman of unblemished honour and character'; Mrs. Pain, her +niece, a farmer's wife, 'respected in the parish'; Mary Martin, her +servant, previously with Mrs. Golding; Richard Fowler, a labourer, +living opposite Mrs. Pain; Sarah Fowler his wife--all these sign the +document,--and Ann Robinson, Mrs. Golding's maid, just entered on +her service. Ann does _not_ sign. + +The trouble began at ten a.m. on January 6, when Mrs. Golding heard +a great smash of crockery, an event 'most incident to maids'. The +lady went into the kitchen, when plates began to fall from the +dresser 'while she was there and nobody near them'. Then a clock +tumbled down, so did a lantern, a pan of salt beef cracked, and a +carpenter, Rowlidge, suggested that a recent addition of a room +above had shaken the foundation of the house. Mrs. Golding rushed +into the house of Mr. Gresham, her next neighbour, and fainted. +Meanwhile Ann Robinson was 'mistress of herself, though china fall,' +and seemed in no hurry to leave the threatened dwelling. The niece +of Mrs. Golding, Mrs. Pain, was sent for to Mr. Gresham's, Mrs. +Golding was bled, when, lo, 'the blood sprang out of the basin upon +the floor, and the basin broke to pieces!' A bottle of rum, of +sympathetic character, also burst. Many of Mrs. Golding's more +fragile effects had been carried into Mr. Gresham's: the glasses +and china first danced, and then fell off the side-board and broke. +Mrs. Golding, 'her mind one confused chaos,' next sought refuge at +Mr. Mayling's for three-quarters of an hour. Here nothing unusual +occurred, but, at Mr. Gresham's (where Ann Robinson was packing the +remains of her mistress's portable property) a 'mahogany waiter,' a +quadrille box, a jar of pickles and a pot of raspberry jam shared +the common doom. 'Their end was pieces.' Mrs. Pain now hospitably +conveyed her aunt to her house at Rush Common, 'hoping all was +over'. This was about two in the afternoon. + +At eight in the evening, the whole row of pewter dishes, bar one, +fell from a shelf, rolled about a little, and 'as soon as they were +quiet, turned upside down; they were then put upon the dresser, and +went through the same a second time'. Then of two eggs, one 'flew +off, crossed the kitchen, struck a cat on the head, and then burst +in pieces'. A pestle and a mortar presently 'jumped six feet from +the floor'. The glass and crockery were now put on the floor, 'he +that is down need fear no fall,' but the objects began to dance, and +tumble about, and then broke to pieces. A china bowl jumped eight +feet but was not broken. However it tried again, and succeeded. +Candlesticks, tea-kettles, a tumbler of rum and water, two hams, and +a flitch of bacon joined in the corroboree. 'Most of the genteel +families around were continually sending to inquire after them, and +whether all was over or not.' All this while, Ann was 'walking +backwards and forwards', nor could they get her to sit down, except +for half an hour, at prayers, 'then all was quiet'. She remarked, +with stoicism, 'these things could not be helped'. Fowler came in +at ten, but fled in a fright at one in the morning. By five, Mrs. +Golding summoned Mrs. Pain, who had gone to bed, 'all the tables, +chairs, drawers, etc., were tumbling about'. + +They rushed across to Fowler's where, as soon as Ann arrived, the +old game went on. Fowler, therefore, like the landlord in the poem, +'did plainly say as how he wished they'd go away,' at the same time +asking Mrs. Golding 'whether or not, she had been guilty of some +atrocious crime, for which providence was determined to pursue her +on this side the grave,' and to break crockery till death put an end +to the stupendous Nemesis. 'Having hitherto been esteemed a most +deserving person,' Mrs. Golding replied, with some natural warmth, +that 'her conscience was quite clear, and she could as well wait the +will of providence in her own house as in any other place,' she and +the maid went to her abode, and there everything that had previously +escaped was broken. 'A nine-gallon cask of beer that was in the +cellar, the door being open and nobody near it, turned upside down'; +'a pail of water boiled like a pot'. So Mrs. Golding discharged +Miss Ann Robinson and that is all. + +At Mrs. Golding's they took up three, and at Mrs. Pain's two pails +of the fragments that were left. The signatures follow, appended on +January 11. + +The tale has a sequel. In 1817 an old Mr. Braidley, who loved his +joke, told Hone that he knew Ann, and that she confessed to having +done the tricks by aid of horse-hairs, wires and other simple +appliances. We have not Mr. Braidley's attested statement, but +Ann's character as a Medium is under a cloud. Have all other +Mediums secret wires? (Every-day Book, i. 62.) + +Ann Robinson, we have seen, was a tranquil and philosophical maiden. +Not so was another person who was equally active, ninety years +earlier. + +Bovet, in his Pandaemonium (1684), gives an account of the Demon of +Spraiton, in 1682. His authorities were 'J. G., Esquire,' a near +neighbour to the place, the Rector of Barnstaple, and other +witnesses. The 'medium' was a young servant man, appropriately +named Francis Fey, and employed in the household of Sir Philip +Furze. Now, this young man was subject to 'a kind of trance, or +extatick fit,' and 'part of his body was, occasionally, somewhat +benumbed and seemingly deader than the other'. The nature of Fey's +case, physically, is clear. He was a convulsionary, and his head +would be found wedged into tight places whence it could hardly be +extracted. From such a person the long and highly laughable tale of +ghosts (a male ghost and a jealous female ghost) which he told does +not much win our acceptance. True, Mrs. Thomasin Gidley, Anne +Langdon, and a little child also saw the ghost in various forms. +But this was probably mere fancy, or the hallucinations of Fey were +infectious. But objects flew about in the young man's presence. +'One of his shoe-strings was observed (without the assistance of any +hand) to come of its own accord out of his shoe and fling itself to +the other side of the room; the other was crawling after it (!) but +a maid espying that, with her hand drew it out, and it clasp'd and +curl'd about her hand like a living eel or serpent. A barrel of +salt of considerable quantity hath been observed to march from room +to room without any human assistance,' and so forth. {122} + +It is hardly necessary to add more modern instances. The 'electric +girl' Angelique Cottin, who was a rival of Ann Robinson, had her +powers well enough attested to arouse the curiosity of Arago. But, +when brought from the country to Paris, her power, or her artifice, +failed. + +It is rather curious that tales of volatile furniture are by no +means very common in trials for witchcraft. The popular belief was, +and probably still is, that a witch or warlock could throw a spell +over an enemy so that his pots, and pans, tables and chairs, would +skip around. The disturbances of this variety, in the presbytery at +Cideville, in Seine Inferieure (1850), came under the eye of the +law, because a certain shepherd injudiciously boasted that he had +caused them by his magic art. {123a} The cure, who was the victim, +took him at his word, and the shepherd swain lost his situation. He +then brought an action for defamation of character, but was non- +suited, as it was proved that he had been the fanfaron of his own +vices. In Froissart's amusing story of Orthon, that noisy sprite +was hounded on by a priest. At Tedworth, the owner of the drum was +'wanted' on a charge of sorcery as the cause of the phenomena. The +Wesleys suspected that their house was bewitched. But examples in +witch trials are not usual. Mr. Graham Dalyell, however, gives one +case, 'the firlote rynning about with the stuff popling,' on the +floor of a barn, and one where 'the sive and the wecht dancit throw +the hous'. {123b} + +A clasped knife opened in the pocket of Christina Shaw, and her +glove falling, it was lifted by a hand invisible to several persons +present. One is reminded of the nursery rhyme,--'the dish it ran +after the spoon'. In the presence of Home, even a bookcase is said +to have forgotten itself, and committed the most deplorable +excesses. In the article of Mr. Myers, already cited, we find a +table which jumps by the bedside of a dying man. {124} A handbag of +Miss Power's flies from an arm-chair, and hides under a table; raps +are heard; all this when Miss Power is alone. Mr. H. W. Gore Graham +sees a table move about. A heavy table of Mr. G. A. Armstrong's +rises high in the air. A tea-table 'runs after' Professor +Alexander, and 'attempts to hem me in,' this was at Rio de Janeiro, +in the Davis family, where raps 'ranged from hardly perceptible +ticks up to resounding blows, such as might be struck by a wooden +mallet'. A Mr. H. falls into convulsions, during which all sorts of +things fly about. All these stories closely correspond to the tales +in Increase Mather's Remarkable Providences in New England, in which +the phenomena sometimes occur in the presence of an epileptic and +convulsed boy, about 1680. To take one classic French case, Segrais +declares that a M. Patris was lodged in the Chateau d'Egmont. At +dinner-time, he went into the room of a friend, whom he found lost +in the utmost astonishment. A huge book, Cardan's De Subtilitate, +had flown at him across the room, and the leaves had turned, under +invisible fingers! There are plenty of bogles in that book. M. +Patris laughed at this tale, and went into the gallery, when a large +chair, so heavy that two men could scarcely lift it, shook itself +and came at him. He remonstrated, and the chair returned to its +usual position. 'This made a deep impression on M. Patris, and +contributed in no slight degree to make him a converted character'-- +a le faire devenir devot. {125a} + +Tales like this, with that odd uniformity of tone and detail which +makes them curious, might be collected from old literature to any +extent. Thus, among the sounds usually called 'rappings,' Mr. +Crookes mentions, as matter within his own experience, 'a cracking +like that heard when a frictional machine is at work'. Now, as may +be read in Southey's Life of Wesley and in Clarke's Memoirs of the +Wesleys, this was the very noise which usually heralded the arrival +of 'Jeffrey,' as they called the Epworth 'spirit'. {125b} It has +been alleged that the charming and ill-fated Hetty Wesley caused the +disturbances. If so (and Dr. Salmon, who supports this thesis, does +not even hazard a guess as to the modus operandi), Hetty must have +been familiar with almost the whole extent of psychical literature, +for she scarcely left a single phenomenon unrepresented. It does +not appear that she supplied visible 'hands'. We have seen Glanvill +lay stress on the apparition of a hand. In the case of the devil of +Glenluce, 'there appeared a naked hand, and an arm from the elbow +down, beating upon the floor till the house did shake again'. {126a} +At Rerrick, in 1695, 'it knocked upon the chests and boards, as +people do at a door'. 'And as I was at prayer,' says the Rev. +Alexander Telfair, 'leaning on the side of a bed, I felt something +thrusting my arm up, and casting my eyes thitherward, perceived a +little white hand, and an arm from the elbow down, but it vanished +presently.' {126b} The hands viewed, grasped, and examined by +Home's clientele, hands which melted away in their clutch, are +innumerable, and the phenomenon, with the 'cold breeze,' is among +the most common in modern narratives. + +Our only conclusion is that the psychological conditions which begat +the ancient narratives produce the new legends. These surprise us +by the apparent good faith in marvel and myth of many otherwise +credible narrators, and by the coincidence, accidental or designed, +with old stories not generally familiar to the modern public. Do +impostors and credulous persons deliberately 'get up' the subject in +rare old books? Is there a method of imposture handed down by one +generation of bad little girls to another? Is there such a thing as +persistent identity of hallucination among the sane? This was +Coleridge's theory, but it is not without difficulties. These +questions are the present results of Comparative Psychological +Research. + + + + + +HAUNTED HOUSES + + +Reginald Scot on Protestant expulsion of Ghosts. His boast +premature. Savage hauntings. Red Indian example. Classical cases. +Petrus Thyraeus on Haunted Houses. His examples from patristic +literature. Three species of haunting spirits. Demons in +disguises. Hallucinations, visual, auditory, and tactile. Are the +sounds in Haunted Houses real or hallucinatory? All present do not +always hear them. Interments in houses to stop hauntings. Modern +example. The Restoration and Scepticism. Exceptional position of +Dr. Johnson. Frequency of Haunted Houses in modern Folklore. +Researches of the S. P. R. Failure of the Society to see Ghosts. +Uncertain behaviour of Ghosts. The Society need a 'seer' or +'sensitive' comrade. The 'type' or normal kind of Haunted Houses. +Some natural explanations. Historical continuity of type. Case of +Sir Walter Scott. A haunted curacy. Modern instances. Miss +Morton's case: a dumb ghost. Ghost, as is believed, of a man of +letters. Mr. Harry's ghost raises his mosquito curtains. Columns +of light. Mr. Podmore's theory. Hallucinations begotten by natural +causes are 'telepathically' transferred, with variations, to +strangers at a distance. Example of this process. Incredulity of +Mr. Myers. The spontaneous phenomena reproduced at 'seances'. A +ghost who followed a young lady. Singular experience of the writer +in Haunted Houses. Experience negative. Theory of 'dreams of the +dead'. Difficulties of this theory; physical force exerted in +dreams. Theory of Mr. James Sully. His unscientific method and +carelessness as to evidence. Reflections. + +Reginald Scot, the humane author who tried, in his Discovery of +Witchcraft, 1584 (xv. 39), to laugh witch trials away, has a +triumphant passage on the decline of superstition. 'Where are the +soules that swarmed in time past? where are the spirits? who heareth +their noises? who seeth their visions?' He decides that the spirits +who haunt places and houses, may have gone to Italy, because masses +are dear in England. Scot, as an ardent Protestant, conceived that +haunted houses were 'a lewd invention,' encouraged, if not +originated, by the priests, in support of the doctrine of purgatory. +As a matter of fact the belief in 'haunting,' dates from times of +savagery, when we may say that every bush has its bogle. The Church +had nothing to do with the rise of the belief, though, early in the +Reformation, some 'psychical phenomena' were claimed as experimental +proofs of the existence of purgatory. Reginald Scot decidedly made +his Protestant boast too soon. After 300 years of 'the Trewth,' as +Knox called it, the haunted houses are as much part of the popular +creed as ever. Houses stand empty, and are said to be 'haunted'. +Here not the fact of haunting, but only the existence of the +superstition is attested. Thus a house in Berkeley Square was long +unoccupied, for reasons perfectly commonplace and intelligible. But +the fact that it had no tenants needed to be explained, and was +explained by a myth,--there were ghosts in the house! On the other +hand, if Reginald Scot asked today, 'Who heareth the noises, who +seeth the visions?' we could answer, 'Protestant clergymen, officers +in the army, ladies, land-agents, solicitors, representatives of all +classes, except the Haunted House Committee of the Psychical +Society'. + +Before examining the researches and the results of this learned +body, we may glance at some earlier industry of investigators. The +common savage beliefs are too well known to need recapitulation, and +have been treated by Mr. Tylor in his chapter on 'Animism,' {129} +and by Mr. Herbert Spencer in Principles of Psychology. The points +of difference between these authors need not detain us here. As a +rule the spirits which haunt the bush, or the forest, are but +vaguely conceived of by the Australian blacks, or Red Men: they may +be ghosts of the dead, or they may be casual spirits unattached. An +example analogous to European superstition is given by John Tanner +in his Narrative of a Captivity among the Red Indians, 1830. In +this case one man had slain his brother, or, at least, a man of his +own Totem, and was himself put to death by the kindred. The +spectres of both haunted a place which the Indians shunned, but +Tanner (whose Totem was the same as that of the dead) passed a night +on the scene. His dreams, if not his waking moments, for his +account is indistinct, were disturbed by the ghosts. It is +impossible to ascertain how far this particular superstition was +coloured by European influences. {130} + +Over classical tales we need not linger. Pliny, Plutarch, +Suetonius, St. Augustine, Lucian, Plautus (in the Mostellaria), +describe, with more or less of seriousness, the apparitions and +noises which haunted houses, public baths, and other places. +Occasionally a slain man's phantom was anxious that his body should +be buried, and the reported phenomena were akin to those in modern +popular legends. Sometimes, in the middle ages, and later, the law +took cognisance of haunted houses, when the tenant wished to break +his lease. A collection of authorities is given elsewhere, in +Ghosts before the Law. It is to be noticed that Bouchel, in his +Bibliotheque du Droit Francais, chiefly cites classical, not modern, +instances. + +Among the most careful and exhaustive post-mediaeval writers on +haunted houses we must cite Petrus Thyraeus of the Society of Jesus, +Doctor in Theology. His work, published at Cologne in 1598, is a +quarto of 352 pages, entitled, 'Loca Infesta; That is, Concerning +Places Haunted by Mischievous Spirits of Demons and of the Dead. +Thereto is added a Tract on Nocturnal Disturbances, which are wont +to bode the deaths of Men.' Thyraeus begins, 'That certain places +are haunted by spectres and spirits, is no matter of doubt,' wherein +a modern reader cannot confidently follow him. + +When it comes to establishing his position Thyraeus most provokingly +says, 'we omit cases which are recent and of daily occurrence,' such +as he heard narrated, during his travels, in 'a certain haunted +castle'. A modern inquirer naturally prefers recent examples, which +may be inquired into, but the old scholars reposed more confidence +in what was written by respected authors, the more ancient the more +authoritative. However Thyraeus relies on the anthropological test +of evidence, and thinks that his belief is confirmed by the +coincident reports of hauntings, 'variis distinctissimisque locis et +temporibus,' in the most various times and places. There is +something to be said for this view, and the identity of the alleged +phenomena, in all lands and ages, does raise a presumption in favour +of some kind of abnormal occurrences, or of a common species of +hallucinations. Like most of the old authors Thyraeus quotes +Augustine's tale of a haunted house, and an exorcism in De Civitate +Dei (lib. xxii. ch. viii.). St. Gregory has also a story of one +Paschasius, a deacon, who haunted some baths, and was seen by a +bishop. {131a} There is a ghost who rode horses, and frightened the +religious in the Life of Gregory by Joannes Diaconus (iv. 89). In +the Life of Theodorus one Georgius, a disciple of his, mentions a +house haunted by stone-throwing sprites, a very common phenomenon in +the books of Glanvill, and Increase Mather, in witch trials, and in +rural disturbances. Omitting other examples Cardan {131b} is cited +for a house at Parma, in which during a hundred years the phantom of +an old woman was seen before the death of members of the family. +This is a rare case of an Italian Banshie. William of Paris, in +Bodin (iii. ch. vi.) tells of a stone-throwing fiend, very active in +1447. The bogey of Bingen, a rapping ghost of 856, is duly +chronicled; he also threw stones. The dormitory of some nuns was +haunted by a spectre who moaned, tramped noisily around, dragged the +sisters out of bed by the feet, and even tickled them nearly to +death! This annoyance lasted for three years, so Wierus says. {132} +Wodrow chronicles a similar affair at Mellantrae, in Annandale. +Thyraeus distinguishes three kinds of haunting sprites, devils, +damned souls, and souls in purgatory. Some are mites, mild and +sportive; some are truculenti ferocious. Brownies, or fauni, may +act in either character, as Secutores et joculatores. They rather +aim at teasing than at inflicting harm. They throw stones, lift +beds, and make a hubbub and crash with the furniture. Suicides, +murderers, and spirits of murdered people, are all apt to haunt +houses. The sprites occasionally appear in their proper form, but +just as often in disguise: a demon, too, can appear in human shape +if so disposed: demons being of their nature deceitful and fond of +travesty, as Porphyry teaches us and as Law (1680) illustrates. +Whether the spirits of the dead quite know what they are about when +they take to haunting, is, in the opinion of Thyraeus, a difficult +question. Thomas Aquinas, following St. Augustine, inclines to hold +that when there is an apparition of a dead man, the dead man is +unconscious of the circumstance. A spirit of one kind or another +may be acting in his semblance. Thyraeus rather fancies that the +dead man is aware of what is going on. + +Hauntings may be visual, auditory, or confined to the sense of +touch. Auditory effects are produced by flutterings of air, noises +are caused, steps are heard, laughter, and moaning. Lares domestici +(brownies) mostly make a noise. Apparitions may be in tactile form +of men or animals, or monsters. As for effects, some ghosts push +the living and drive them along, as the Bride of Lammermoor, in +Law's Memorialls, was 'harled through the house,' by spirits. The +spirits of an amorous complexion seem no longer to be numerous, but +are objects of interest to Thyraeus as to Increase Mather. Thyraeus +now raises the difficult question: 'Are the sounds heard in haunted +houses real, or hallucinatory?' Omnis qui a spiritibus fit, +simulatus est, specie sui fallit. The spirits having no vocal +organs, can only produce _noise_. In a spiritual hurly-burly, some +of the mortals present _hear nothing_ (as we shall note in some +modern examples), but may they not be prevented from hearing by the +spirits? Or again, the sounds may be hallucinatory and only some +mortals may have the power of hearing them. If there are visual, +there may also be auditory hallucinations. {133} On the whole +Thyraeus thinks that the sounds may be real on some occasions, when +all present hear them, hallucinatory on others. But the sounds need +not be produced on the furniture, for example, when they seem to be +so produced. 'Often we think that the furniture has been all tossed +about, when it really has not been stirred.' The classical instance +of the disturbances which aroused Scott at Abbotsford, on the death +of his agent Bullock, is in point here. 'Often a hammer is heard +rapping, when there is no hammer in the house' (p. 82). These are +curious references to phenomena, however we explain them, which are +still frequently reported. + +Thyraeus thinks that the air is agitated when sounds are heard, but +that is just the question to be solved. + +As for visual phantasms, these Thyraeus regards as hallucinations +produced by spirits on the human senses, not as external objective +entities. He now asks why the sense of _touch_ is affected usually +as if by a cold body. Beyond assuming the influence of spirits over +the air, and, apparently, their power of using dead bodies as +vehicles for themselves, Thyraeus comes to no distinct conclusion. +He endeavours, at great length, to distinguish between haunters who +are ghosts of the dead, and haunters who are demons, or spirits +unattached. The former wail and moan, the latter are facetious. He +decides that to bury dead bodies below the hearth does not prevent +haunting, for 'the hearth has no such efficacy'. Such bodies are +not very unfrequently found in old English houses, the reason for +this strange interment is not obvious, but perhaps it is explained +by the superstition which Thyraeus mentions. One might imagine that +to bury people up and down a house would rather secure haunting than +prevent it. And, indeed, at Passenham Rectory, where the Rev. G. M. +Capell found seven skeletons in his dining-room, in 1874, Mrs. +Montague Crackanthrope and her nurse were 'obsessed' by 'a feeling +that some one was in the room,' when some one was _not_. {135} +Perhaps seven burials were not sufficient to prevent haunting. The +conclusion of the work of Thyraeus is devoted to exorcisms, and +orthodox methods of expelling spirits. The knockings which herald a +death are attributed to the Lares, a kind of petty mischievous +demons unattached. Such is the essence of the learned Jesuit's +work, and the strange thing is that, in an age of science, people +are still discussing his problems, and, stranger still, that the +reported phenomena remain the same. + +That the Church in the case of Thyraeus, and many others; that +medical science, in the person of Wierus (b. 1515); that law, in the +book of Bouchel, should have gravely canvassed the topic of haunted +houses, was, of course, very natural in the dark ages before the +restoration of the Stuarts, and the founding of the Royal Society. +Common-sense, and 'drolling Sadduceeism,' came to their own, in +England, with the king, with Charles II. After May 29, 1660, +Webster and Wagstaffe mocked at bogles, if Glanvill and More took +them seriously. + +Before the Restoration it was distinctly dangerous to laugh at +witchcraft, ghosts and hauntings. But the laughers came in with the +merry monarch, and less by argument than by ridicule, by inveighing +against the horror, too, of the hideous witch prosecutions, the +laughers gradually brought hauntings and apparitions into contempt. +Few educated people dared to admit that their philosophy might not +be wholly exhaustive. Even ladies sneered at Dr. Johnson because +he, having no dread of common-sense before his eyes, was inclined to +hold that there might be some element of truth in a world-old and +world-wide belief; and the romantic Anna Seward told, without +accepting it, Scott's tale of 'The Tapestried chamber'. That a +hundred years after the highday and triumph of common-sense, people +of education should be found gravely investigating all that common- +sense had exploded, is a comfortable thought to the believer in +Progress. The world does not stand still. + +A hundred years after the blue stockings looked on Johnson as the +last survivor, the last of the Mohicans of superstition, the +Psychical Society can collect some 400 cases of haunted houses in +England. + +Ten years ago, in 1884, the society sifted out nineteen stories as +in 'the first class,' and based on good first-hand evidence. Their +analysis of the reports led them to think that there is a certain +genuine _type_ of story, and, that when a tale 'differs widely from +the type, it proves to be incorrect, or unattainable from an +authentic source'. This is very much the conclusion to which the +writer is brought by historical examination of stories about +hauntings. With exceptions, to be indicated, these tales all +approximate to a type, and that is not the type of the magazine +story. + +It may be well, in the first place, to make some negative statements +as to what the committee does _not_ discover. First, it has never +yet hired haunted house in which the sights and sounds continued +during the tenancy of the curious observers. {137} The most obvious +inference is that the earlier observers who saw and heard abnormal +things were unscientific, convivial, nervous, hysterical, or +addicted to practical joking. This, however, is not the only +possible explanation. As a celebrated prophet, by his own avowal +had been 'known to be steady for weeks at a time,' so, even in a +regular haunted house, the ghost often takes a holiday. A case is +well known to the writer in which a ghost began his manoeuvres soon +after a family entered the house. It made loud noises, it opened +doors, turning the handle as the lady of the house walked about, it +pulled her hair when she was in bed, plucked her dress, produced +lights, and finally appeared visibly, a hag dressed in grey, to +several persons. Then as if sated, the ghost struck work for years, +when it suddenly began again, was as noisy as ever, and appeared to +a person who had not seen it before, but who made a spirited if +unsuccessful attempt to run it to earth. + +The truth is, that magazine stories and superstitious exaggerations +have spoiled us for ghosts. When we hear of a haunted house, we +imagine that the ghost is always on view, or that he has a benefit +night, at certain fixed dates, when you know where to have him. +These conceptions are erroneous, and a house _may_ be haunted, +though nothing desirable occurs in presence of the committee. +Moreover the committee, as far as the writer is aware, have +neglected to add a seer to their number. This mistake, if it has +been made, is really wanton. It is acknowledged that not every one +has 'a nose for a ghost,' as a character of George Eliot's says, or +eyes or ears for a ghost. It is thought very likely that, where +several people see an apparition simultaneously, the spiritual or +psychical or imaginative 'impact' is addressed to one, and by him, +or her (usually her) handed on to the rest of the society. Now, if +the committee do not provide themselves with a good 'sensitive' +comrade, what can they expect, but what they get, that is, nothing? +A witch in an old Scotch trial says, of her 'Covin,' or 'Circle,' +'We could do no great thing without our Maiden'. The committee +needs a Maiden, as a Covin needed one, and among the visionaries of +the Psychical Society, there must be some young lady who should be +on the House Committee. Yet one writer in the Society's Proceedings +who has a very keen scent for an impostor, if not for a ghost, avers +that, from the evidence, she believes that they are examining facts, +and not the origin of fables. + +These facts, as was said, differ from the stories in 'Christmas +numbers'. The ghost in typical reports seldom or never _speaks_. +It has no message to convey, or, if it has a message, it does not +convey it. It does not unfold some tragedy of the past: in fact it +is very seldom capable of being connected with any definite known +dead person. The figure seen sometimes 'varies with the seer'. +{139} In other cases, however, different people attest having seen +the same phantasm. Finally a new house seems just as likely to be +haunted as an old house, and the committee appears to have no +special knowledge of very ancient family ghosts, such as Pearlin +Jean, the Luminous Boy of Corby, or the rather large company of +spectres popularly supposed to make themselves at home at Glamis +Castle. + +What then is the type, the typical haunted house, from which, if +narratives vary much, they are apt to break down under cross- +examination? + +The phenomena are usually phenomena of sight, or sound, or both. As +a rule the sounds are footsteps, rustling of dresses, knocks, raps, +heavy bangs, noises as of dragging heavy weights, and of +disarranging heavy furniture. These sometimes occur freely, where +nobody can testify to having _seen_ anything spectral. Next we have +phantasms, mostly of figures beheld for a moment with 'the tail of +the eye' or in going along a passage, or in entering a room where +nobody is found, or standing beside a bed, perhaps in a kind of +self-luminous condition. Sometimes these spectres are taken by +visitors for real people, but the real people cannot be found; +sometimes they are at once recognised as phantasms, because they are +semi-transparent, or look very malignant, or because they glide and +do not walk, or are luminous, or for some other excellent reason. +The combination, in due proportions, of pretty frequent inexplicable +noises, with occasional aimless apparitions, makes up the _type_ of +orthodox modern haunted house story. The difficulty of getting +evidence worth looking at (except for its uniformity) is obviously +great. Noises may be naturally caused in very many ways: by winds, +by rats, by boughs of trees, by water pipes, by birds. The writer +has known a very satisfactory series of footsteps in an historical +Scotch house, to be dispelled by a modification of the water pipes. +Again he has heard a person of distinction mimic the noises made by +_his_ family ghosts (which he preserved from tests as carefully as +Don Quixote did his helmet) and the performance was an admirable +imitation of the wind in a spout. There are noises, however, which +cannot be thus cheaply disposed of, and among them are thundering +whacks on the walls of rooms, which continue in spite of all efforts +to detect imposture. These phenomena, says Kiesewetter, were known +to the Acadians of old, a circumstance for which he quotes no +authority. {140a} + +Paracelsus calls the knocks pulsatio mortuorum, in his fragment on +'Souls of the Dead,' and thinks that the sounds predict misfortune, +a very common belief. {140b} Lavaterus says, that such +disturbances, in unfinished houses are a token of good luck! + +Again there is the noise made apparently by violent movement of +heavy furniture, which on immediate examination (as in Scott's case +at Abbotsford) is found not to have been moved. The writer is +acquainted with a dog, a collie, which was once shut up alone in a +room where this disturbance occurred. The dog was much alarmed and +howled fearfully, but it soon ceased to weigh on his spirits. When +phantasms are occasionally seen by respectable witnesses, where +these noises and movements occur, the haunted house is of a healthy, +orthodox, modern type. But the phenomena are nothing less than +modern, for Mather, Sinclair, Paracelsus, Wierus, Glanvill, Bovet, +Baxter and other old writers are full of precisely these +combinations of sounds and sights, while many cases occur in old +French literature, old Latin literature, and among races of the +lower barbaric and savage grades of culture. One or two curious +circumstances have rather escaped the notice of philosophers though +not of Thyraeus. First, the loudest of the unexplained sounds are +_occasionally_ not audible to all, so that (as when the noise seems +to be caused by furniture dragged about) we may conjecture with +Thyraeus, that there is no real movement of the atmosphere, that the +apparent crash is an auditory hallucination. The planks and heavy +objects at Abbotsford had _not_ been stirred, as the loud noises +overhead indicated, when Scott came to examine them. + +In a dreadfully noisy curacy vouched for by 'a well-known Church +dignitary,' who occupied the place, there was usually a frightful +crash as of iron bars thrown down, at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning. +All the boxes and heavy material in a locked set of attics, seemed +to be dancing about, but were never found to have been stirred. Yet +this clergyman discovered that 'the great Sunday crash might +manifest itself to some persons in the house without his wife or +himself being conscious of it. Knowing how overwhelming the sound +always appeared to me when I did hear it, I cannot but consider this +one of the most wonderful things in the whole business.' {142} + +In this case, in a house standing hundreds of yards apart from any +neighbour, and occupied only by a parson, his wife, and one servant, +these phenomena lasted for a year, with great regularity. There +were the usual footsteps, the ordinary rappings were angry when +laughed at, and the clergyman when he left at the end of a year, was +as far as ever from having detected any cause. Indeed it is not +easy to do so. A friend of the writer's, an accomplished man of +law, was once actually consulted, in the interests of an enraged +squire, as to how he could bring a suit against _somebody_ for a +series of these inexplicable disturbances. But the law contained no +instrument for his remedy. + +From the same report of the S. P. R. we take another typical case. +A lady, in an old house, saw, in 1873, a hideous hag watching her in +bed; she kept the tale to herself, but, a fortnight later, her +brother, a solicitor, was not a whit less alarmed by a similar and +similarly situated phenomenon. In this house dresses were plucked +at, heavy blows were struck, heavy footsteps went about, there were +raps at doors, and nobody was ever any the wiser as to the cause. +Here it may be observed that a ghost's power of making a noise, and +exerting what seems to be great physical energy, is often in inverse +ratio to his power of making himself generally visible, or, at all +events, to his inclination so to do. Thus there is a long record of +a haunted house, by the chief observer, Miss Morton, in P. S. P. R., +pt. xxii. p. 311. A lady had died of habits too convivial, in 1878. +In April, 1882, Miss Morton's family entered, but nobody saw the +ghost till Miss Morton viewed it in June. The appearance was that +of a tall lady in widow's weeds, hiding her face with a +handkerchief. From 1882 to 1884, Miss Morton saw the spectre six +times, but did not name it to her family. Her sister saw the +appearance in 1882, a maid saw it in 1883, and two boys beheld it in +the same year. Miss Morton used to follow the appearance downstairs +and speak to it, but it merely gave a slight gasp, and seemed unable +to converse. By way of testing the spectre, Miss Morton stretched +threads at night from the railing of the stair to the wall, but the +ghost descended without disturbing them. Yet her footsteps sounded +on the stairs. This is, in fact, a crucial difficulty about ghosts. +They are material enough to make a noise as they walk, but _not_ +material enough to brush away a thread! This ghost, whose visible +form was so much en evidence, could, or did, make no noise at all, +beyond light pushes at doors, and very light footsteps. In the +curacy already described, noises were made enough to waken a parish, +but no form was ever seen. Briefly, for this ghost there is a cloud +of witnesses, all solemnly signing their depositions. These two +examples are at the opposite poles between which ghostly +manifestations vary, in haunted houses. + +A brief precis of 'cases' may show how these elements of noise, on +one side, and apparitions, on the other, are commonly blended. In a +detached villa, just outside 'the town of C.,' Mrs. W. remarks a +figure of a tall dark-haired man peeping round the corner of a +folding door. She does not mention the circumstance. Two months +later she sees the same sorrowful face in the drawing-room. This +time she tells her husband. Later in the same month, when playing +cricket with her children, she sees the face 'peeping round from the +kitchen door'. Rather later she heard a deep voice say in a +sorrowful tone, 'I can't find it'; something slaps her on the back. +Her step-daughter who had not heard of the phantasm, sees the same +pale dark-moustached face, 'peeping round the folding doors'. She +is then told Mrs W.'s story. Her little brother, later, sees the +figure simultaneously with herself. She also hears the voice say, +'I can't find it,' at the same moment as Mrs. W. hears it. A year +later, she sees the figure at the porch, _in a tall hat_! Neither +lady had enjoyed any other hallucination. Nothing is known of the +melancholy spectre, probably the ghost of a literary person, +searching, always searching, for a manuscript poem by some total +stranger who had worried him into his grave, and not left him at +peace even there. This is a very solemn and touching story, and +appeals tenderly and sadly to all persons of letters who suffer from +the unasked for manuscripts of the general public. + +2. Some ladies and servants in a house in Hyde Park Place, see at +intervals a phantom housemaid: she is also seen by a Mr. Bird. +There is no story about a housemaid, and there are no noises. This +is _not_ an interesting tale. + +3. A Hindoo native woman is seen to enter a locked bath-room, where +she is not found on inquiry. A woman had been murdered there some +years before. The percipient, General Sir Arthur Becher, had seen +other uncanny visions. A little boy, wakened out of sleep, said he +saw an ayah. Perhaps he did. + +4. A Mr. Harry, in the South of Europe, saw a white female figure +glide through his library into his bedroom. Later, his daughters +beheld a similar phenomenon. Mr. Harry, a gentleman of sturdy +common-sense, 'dared his daughters to talk of any such nonsense as +ghosts, as they might be sure apparitions were only in the +imagination of nervous people'. He himself saw the phantasm seven +or eight times in his bedroom, and twice in the library. On one +occasion it lifted up the mosquito curtains and stared at Mr. Harry. +As in the case of meeting an avalanche, 'a weak-minded man would +pray, sir, would pray; a strong-minded man would swear, sir, would +swear'. Mr. Harry was a strong-minded man, and behaved 'in a +concatenation accordingly,' although Petrus Thyraeus says that there +is no use in swearing at ghosts. The phantasm seemed to be about +thirty-five, her features were described as 'rather handsome,' and +(unromantically) as 'oblong'. A hallucination, we need hardly say, +would not raise the mosquito curtains, this ghost had more heart in +it than most. + +5. Various people see 'a column of light vaguely shaped like a +woman,' moving about in a room of a house in Sussex. One servant, +who slept in the room in hopes of a private view, saw 'a ball of +light with a sort of halo round it'. Again, in a very pretty story, +the man who looked after an orphan asylum saw a column of light +above the bed of one of the children. Next morning the little boy +declared that his mother had come to visit him, probably in a dream. + +On this matter of lights {146} Mr. Podmore enters into argument with +Mr. Frederick Myers. Mr. Myers, on the whole, believes that the +phenomena of haunted houses are caused by influences of some sort +from the minds of the dead. Mr. Podmore, if we understand him holds +that some living person has had some empty hallucination, in a +house, and that this is 'telepathically' handed on, perhaps to the +next tenant, who may know nothing about either the person or the +vision. Thus, a Miss Morris, much vexed by ghostly experiences, +left a certain house in December, 1886. Nearly a year later, in +November, 1887, a Mrs. G. came in. Mrs. G. did not know Miss +Morris, nor had she heard of the disturbances. However sobs, and +moans, and heavy thumps, and noises of weighty objects thrown about, +and white faces, presently drove Mrs. G. to seek police protection. +This only roused the ghost's ambition, and he 'came' as a man with +freckles, also he walked about, shook beds, and exhibited lights. A +figure in black, with a white face, now displayed itself: +barristers and clergymen investigated, but to no purpose. They saw +figures, heard crashes, and the divine did a little Anglican +exorcism. The only story about the house showed that a woman had +hanged herself with a skipping rope in the 'top back bedroom,' in +1879. Here are plenty of phenomena, apparitions male and female. +But Miss Morris, in addition to hearing noises, only saw a pale +woman in black. + +Mr. Podmore's theory comes in thus: 'the later experiences may have +been started by thought transference from Miss Morris, whose +thoughts, no doubt, occasionally turned to the house in which she +had suffered so much agitation and alarm'. Moreover 'real noises' +may have 'suggested' the visual hallucinations to Miss Morris. {147} +Mr. Podmore certainly cannot be accused of ordinary superstition. +There is a house, and there is a tenant. She hears footsteps +pounding up- and down-stairs, and all through her room, she says +nothing and gets used to it. Let it be granted that these noises +are caused by rats. After conquering her dislike to the sounds, +three weeks after her entry to the house, Miss Morris meets a total +stranger, deadly pale, in deep black, who vanishes. This phantasm +has gathered round the nucleus which the rats provided by stamping +up- and down-stairs, and through Miss Morris's room. It is natural +that a person who hears rats, or wind, or waterpipes, and makes up +her mind not to mind it, should then see a phantasm of a pale woman +in black; also should hear loud knocks at the door of her chamber. +Miss Morris goes away, a year later comes Mrs. G., and Mrs. G., her +children, her servants, a barrister and an exorcist, are all +disturbed by + +Noises. + +Knocks. + +Sobs. + +Moans. + +Thumps. + +Dragging of heavy weights. + +One dreadful white face. + +One little woman. + +Lights. + +One white skirt hanging from the ceiling. + +One footfall which played two notes on the piano (!). + +One figure in brown. + +One man with freckles. + +Two human faces. + +One shadow. + +One 'part of the dress of a super-material being' (Barrister). + +One form (Exorcist). + +One small column of misty vapour. + +Now all this catalogue of prodigies which drove Mrs. G. into the +cold, bleak world, was caused, 'by thought transference from Miss +Morris,' who had been absent for a year, and whose own +hallucinations were caused by noises which may have been produced by +rats, or what not. + +This ingenious theory is too much for Mr. Myers's powers of belief: +'The very first effect of Miss Morris's ponderings was a heavy +thump, followed by a deep sob and moan, and a cry of, "Oh, do +forgive me," all disturbing poor Mrs. G. who had the ill luck to +find herself in a bedroom about which Miss Morris was possibly +thinking. . . . Surely the peace of us all rests on a very +uncertain tenure.' Meanwhile Mr. Myers prefers to regard the whole +trouble as more probably caused by the 'dreams of the dead' woman +who hanged herself with a skipping rope, than by the reflections of +Miss Morris. In any case the society seem to have occupied the +house, and, with their usual bad luck, were influenced neither by +the ponderings of Miss Morris, nor by the fredaines of the lady of +the skipping rope. {149} It may be worth noticing that the raps, +knocks, lights, and so forth of haunted houses, the 'spontaneous' +disturbances, have been punctually produced at savage, classical, +and modern seances. If these, from the days of the witch of Endor +to our own, and from the polar regions to Australia, have all been +impostures, at least they all imitate the 'spontaneous' phenomena +reported to occur in haunted houses. The lights are essential in +the seances described by Porphyry, Eusebius, Iamblichus: they were +also familiar to the covenanting saints. The raps are known to +Australian black fellows. The phantasms of animals, as at the +Wesleys' house, may be beasts who play a part in the dead man's +dream, or they may be incidental hallucinations, begotten of rats, +and handed on by Miss Morris or any one else. + +There remains a ghost who illustrates the story, spread all over +Europe, of the farmer who was driven from his house by a bogle. As +his carts went along the road, the bogle was heard exclaiming, +'We're flitting today,' and it faithfully stayed with the family. +This tale, current in Italy as well as in Northern England, might be +regarded as a mere piece of folklore, if the incident had not +reproduced itself in West Brompton. In 1870 the T.'s took a house +here: now mark the artfulness of the ghost, it did nothing for +eighteen months. In autumn, 1871, Miss T. saw a figure come out of +the dining-room, and the figure was often seen, later, by five +independent witnesses. It was tall, dressed in grey, and was +chiefly fond of haunting Miss T.'s own room. It did not walk, it +glided, making no noise. Mr. T. met it in the hall, once, when he +came in at night, and from the street he saw it standing in the +drawing-room window. It used to sigh and make a noise as of steps, +when it was not visible, it knocked and moved furniture about, and +dropped weights, but these sounds were sometimes audible only to +one, or a few of the observers. In 1877 the T.'s left for another +house, to which Miss T. did not repair till 1879. Then the noises +came back as badly as ever,--the bogle had flitted,--and, on +Christmas Day, 1879, Miss T. saw her old friend the figure. Several +members of the family never saw it at all. One lady, in another +case, Miss Nettie Vatas-Simpson, tried to flap a ghost away with a +towel, {150} but he was not thus to be exorcised. He presently went +out through a locked door. + +Such are the ordinary or typical phenomena of haunted houses. It is +plainly of no use to take a haunted house for a month and then say +it is not haunted because you see no ghosts. Even where they have +been seen there are breaks of years without any 'manifestations'. +Besides, the evidence shows that it is not every one who can see a +ghost when he is there: Miss Morton's father could not see the lady +in black, when she was visible to Miss Morton. + +It is difficult to write with perfect seriousness about haunted +houses. The writer will frankly confess that, when living in +haunted houses (as he has done at various times when suffering from +illness and overwork), he takes a very solemn view of the matter +about bed-time. If 'expectant attention' on a mind strained by the +schools, and a body enfeebled by bronchitis, could have made a man, +who was the only occupant of the haunted wing of an old Scotch +castle, see a ghost, the writer would have seen whatever there was +to see. To be sure he could not rationally have regarded a spectre +beheld in these conditions, as a well-authenticated ghost. {151} As +far as his experience of first-hand tales is concerned, the persons +known to him who say they have seen ghosts in haunted houses, were +neither unhealthy, nor, except in one solitary case, imaginative, +nor were they _expecting_ a ghost. The apparition was 'a little +pleasant surprise'. The usual seer is not an invalid, nor a +literary person who can always be dismissed as 'imaginative,' though +he is generally nothing of the kind. But it cannot be denied that +ladies either see more ghosts than men or are less reluctant to +impart information. The visionary lady who keeps up a regular +telepathic correspondence with several friends is likely to see a +ghost, and should certainly be entered at 'fixed local ghosts,' but +there are slight objections to such evidence, as not free from +suspicion of fancifulness. + +Turning from the seers to the seen, it is difficult or impossible +even to suggest an hypothesis which will seem to combine the facts. +The most plausible fancy is that which likens the apparitions to +figures in a feverish dream. Could we imagine a more or less bad +man or woman dead, and fitfully living over again, 'in that sleep of +death,' old events among old scenes, could we go further and believe +that these dreams were capable of being made objective and visible +to the living, then we might find a kind of theory of the process. +But even if it were possible to demonstrate the existence of such a +process, we are as far as ever from accounting for the force which +causes noises, or hallucinations of noises, a force of considerable +vigour, according to observers. Still less could we explain the +rare cases in which a ghost produces a material effect on the +inanimate or animate world, as by drawing curtains, or pulling +people's hair and clothes,--all phenomena as well vouched for as the +others. A picture projected by one mind on another, cannot +conceivably produce these effects. They are such as ghosts have +always produced, or been said to produce. Since the days of ancient +Egypt, ghosts have learned, and have forgotten nothing. Unless we +adopt the scientific and popular system of merely saying 'Fudge!' we +find no end to the conundrums of the ghostly world. Ghosts seem to +know as little about themselves as we do, so that, if we are to +discover anything, we must make haste, before we become ghosts +ourselves. + +Writers on Psychology sometimes make a push at a theory of haunted +houses. Mr. James Sully, for example, has done so in his book +styled Illusions. {153} Mr. Sully appears well pleased with his +hypothesis, and this, granting the accuracy of a tale for which he +is indebted to a gentleman who need not be cited here, argues an +easily contented disposition. Here is the statement:-- + +'A lady was staying at a country house. During the night and +immediately on waking up she had (sic) an apparition of a strange- +looking man in mediaeval costume, a figure by no means agreeable, +and which seemed altogether unfamiliar to her. The next morning, on +rising, she recognised the original of her hallucinatory image in a +portrait hanging on the wall of her bedroom, which must have +impressed itself on her brain before the occurrence of the +apparition, though she had not attended to it. Oddly enough, she +now learned for the first time that the house at which she was +staying had the reputation of being haunted, and by the very same +somewhat repulsive-looking mediaeval personage that had troubled her +inter-somnolent moments. The case seems to me to be typical with +respect to the genesis of ghosts, and of the reputation of haunted +houses.' + +This anecdote affords much joy to the superstitious souls who deal +in Psychical Research, or Ghost Hunting. Mr. Sully's manner of +narrating it clearly proves the difference between Science and +Superstition. For a Ghost Hunter or Psychical Researcher would not +venture to publish a modern ghost story (except for mere amusement), +if he had it not at first hand, or at second hand with corroboration +at first hand. Science, however, can adduce a case without +indicating the evidence on which it rests, as whether Mr. Sully's +informant had the tale from the lady, or at third, fourth, fifth, or +a hundredth hand. So much for the matter of evidence. Next, Mr. +Sully does not tell us whether the lady 'had an apparition,' when +she supposed herself to be awake, or asleep, or 'betwixt and +between'. From the phrase 'inter-somnolent,' he appears to prefer +the intermediate condition. But he does not pretend to have +interrogated the lady, the 'percipient'. Again, the figure wore a +'mediaeval costume,' the portrait represented a 'mediaeval +personage'. Does Mr. Sully believe that the portrait was an +original portrait of a real person? and how many portraits of +mediaeval people does he suppose to exist in English country houses? +Taking the Middle Ages as lasting till the beginning of the reign of +Henry VIII., say till Holbein, we can assure Mr. Sully that they +have left us very few portraits indeed. But perhaps it was a modern +picture, a fanciful study of a man in mediaeval costume. In that +event, Mr. Sully's case is greatly strengthened, but he does not +tell us whether the work of art was, or was not, contemporary with +the Middle Ages. Neither does he tell us whether the lady was in +the habit of seeing hallucinations. + +The weakest point in the whole anecdote and theory is in the +statement, 'oddly enough, she now learned for the first time that +the house at which she was staying had the reputation of being +haunted' by the mediaeval personage. It certainly would be very odd +if one picture in a house troubled 'the inter-somnolent moments' of +a succession of people, who, perhaps, had never seen, or, like the +lady, never attended to it. Such 'troubles' are very rare: very +few persons have seen a dream which, in Mr. Sully's words, 'left +behind, for an appreciable interval after waking, a vivid after- +impression, and in some cases, even the semblance of a sense +perception'. Mathematicians may calculate the chances against a +single unnoticed portrait producing this very rare effect, in a +series of cases, so as to give rise to a belief in haunting, by mere +casual coincidence. In the records of the Psychical Society, one +observer speaks of seeing a face and figure at night, which he +recognises next morning in a miniature on his chimney-piece. But, +in this case, there was no story of haunting, there had been no +series of similar impressions on successive occupants of the room, +_that_ is the circumstance which Mr. Sully finds 'odd enough,' a +sentiment in which we may all agree with him. This is exactly the +oddity which his explanation does not explain. + +While psychological science, in this example, seems to treat matters +of evidence rather laxly, psychical conjecture, on the other hand, +leaves much unexplained. Thus Mr. Myers puts forward a theory which +is, in origin, due to St. Augustine. The saint had observed that +any one of us may be seen in a dream by another person, while our +intelligence is absolutely unconscious of any communication. Apply +this to ghosts in haunted houses. We may be affected by a +hallucination of the presence of a dead man or woman, but he, or she +(granting their continued existence after death), may know nothing +of the matter. In the same way, there are stories of people who +have consciously tried to make others, at a distance, think of them. +The subjects of these experiments have, it is said, had a +hallucination of the presence of the experimenter. But _he_ is +unaware of his success, and has no control over the actions of what +old writers, and some new theosophists, call his 'astral body'. +Suppose, then, that something conscious endures after death. +Suppose that some one thinks he sees the dead. It does not follow +that the surviving consciousness (ex hypothesi) of the dead person +who seems to be seen, is aware that he is 'manifesting' himself. As +Mr. Myers puts it, 'ghosts must therefore, as a rule, represent--not +conscious or central currents of intelligence--but mere automatic +projections from consciousnesses which have their centres +elsewhere,' [Greek]: as Homer makes Achilles say, 'there is no +heart in them.' {156} All this is not inconceivable. But all this +does not explain the facts, namely, the noises, often very loud, and +the movements of objects, and the lights which are the common or +infrequent accompaniments of apparitions in haunted houses. Now we +have (always on much the same level of evidence) accounts of similar +noises, and movements of untouched objects, occurring where living +persons of peculiar constitution are present, or in haunted houses. +These things we discuss in an essay on 'The Logic of Table-turning'. +By parity of reasoning, or at least by an obvious analogy, we are +led to infer that more than 'an automatic projection from the +consciousness' of a dead man is present where he is not only seen, +but heard, making noises, and perhaps moving objects. If this be +admitted then psychical conjecture is pushed back on something very +like the old theory of haunted houses, namely, that a ghost, or +spiritual entity, is present and active there. + +Long ago, in a little tale called 'Castle Perilous' (published in a +volume named The Wrong Paradise), the author made an affable sprite +explain all these phenomena. 'We suffer, we ghosts,' he said in +effect, 'from a malady akin to aphasia in the living. We know what +we want to say, and how we wish to appear, but, just as a patient in +aphasia uses the wrong word, we use the wrong manifestation.' This +he illustrated by a series of apparitions on his own part, which, he +declared, were involuntary and unconscious: when they were +described to him by the percipient, he admitted that they were +vulgar and distressing, though, as far as he was concerned, merely +automatic. + +These remarks of the ghost, were, at least, explicit and +intelligible. The theory which he stated with an honourable +candour, and in language perfectly lucid, appears to have been +adopted by Mr. Frederick Myers, but he puts it in a different style. +'I argue that the phantasmogenetic agency at work--whatever that may +be--may be able to produce effects of light more easily than +definite figures. . . . A similar argument will hold good in the +case of the vague hallucinatory noises which frequently accompany +definite veridical phantasms, and frequently also occur apart from +any definite phantasm in houses reputed haunted.' {158a} Now where +Mr. Myers says 'phantasmogenetic agency,' we say 'ghost'. J'appelle +un chat, un chat, et Rollet un fripon. We urge that the ghost +cannot, as it were, express himself as plainly as he would like to +do, that he suffers from aphasia. Now he shows as a black dog, now +as a green lady, now as an old man, and often he can only rap and +knock, or display a light, or tug the bed-clothes. Thus the Rev. F. +G. Lee tells us that a ghost first sat on his breast invisibly, then +glided about his room like a man in grey, and, finally, took to +thumping on the walls, the bed and in the chimney. Dr. Lee kindly +recited certain psalms, and was greeted with applause, 'a very +tornado of knocks . . . was the distinct and intelligible response'. +{158b} Now, on our theory, the ghost, if he could, would have said, +'Thank you very much,' or the like, but he could not, so his +sentiments translated themselves into thumps. On another occasion, +he might have merely shown a light, or he might have sat on Dr. +Lee's chest, 'pressed unduly on my chest,' says the learned divine,-- +or pulled his blankets off, as is not unusual. Such are the +peculiarities of spectral aphasia, or rather asemia. The ghost can +make signs, but not the right signs. + +Very fortunately for science, we have similar examples of imperfect +expression in the living. Thus Dr. Gibotteau, formerly interne at a +hospital in Paris, published, in Annales des Sciences, Psychiques +(Oct. and Dec, 1892), his experiments on a hospital nurse, and her +experiments on him. She used to try to send him hallucinations. +Once at 8 p.m. in summer as he stood on a balcony, he saw a curious +reflet blanc, 'a shining shadow' like that in The Strange Story. It +resembled the reflection of the sun from a window, 'but there was +neither sun, nor moon, nor lighted lamps'. This white shadow was +the partial failure of Berthe, the nurse, 'to show herself to me on +the balcony'. In precisely the same way, lights in haunted houses +are partial failures of ghosts to appear in form As for the knocks, +Dr. Binns, in his Anatomy of Sleep, mentions a gentleman who could +push a door at a distance,--if he could push, he could knock. +Perhaps a rather larger collection of such instances is desirable, +still, these cases illustrate our theory. That theory certainly +does drive the cold calm psychical researcher back upon the +primitive explanation: 'A ghaist's a ghaist for a' that!' We must +come to this, we must relapse into savage and superstitious +psychology, if once we admit a 'phantasmogenetic agency.' But +science is in quest of Truth, regardless of consequences. + + + + +COCK LANE AND COMMON-SENSE + + +Cock Lane Ghost discredited. Popular Theory of Imposture. Dr. +Johnson. Story of the Ghost. The Deceased Wife's Sister. +Beginning of the Phenomena. Death of Fanny. Recurrence of +Phenomena. Scratchings. Parallel Cases. Ignorance and Malevolence +of the Ghost. Possible Literary Sources. Investigation. Imitative +Scratchings: a Failure. Trial of the Parsonses. Professor +Barrett's Irish parallel. Cause undetected. The Theories of +Common-sense. The St. Maur Affair. The Amiens Case. The Sportive +Highland Fox. The Brightling Case. + +If one phantom is more discredited than another, it is the Cock Lane +ghost. + +The ghost has been a proverb for impudent trickery, and stern +exposure, yet its history remains a puzzle, and is a good, if vulgar +type, of all similar marvels. The very people who 'exposed' the +ghost, were well aware that their explanation was worthless, and +frankly admitted the fact. Yet they, no more than we, were prepared +to believe that the phenomena were produced by the spiritual part of +Miss Fanny L.--known after her decease, as 'Scratching Fanny'. We +still wander in Cock Lane, with a sense of amused antiquarian +curiosity, and the same feeling accompanies us in all our +explorations of this branch of mythology. It may be easy for some +people of common-sense to believe that all London was turned upside +down, that Walpole, the Duke of York, Lady Mary Coke, and two other +ladies were drawn to Cock Lane (five in a hackney coach), that Dr. +Johnson gave up his leisure and incurred ridicule, merely because a +naughty child was scratching on a little wooden board. + +The matter cannot have been so simple as that, but from the true +solution of the problem we are as remote as ever. We can, indeed, +study even the Cock Lane Ghost in the light of the Comparative, or +Anthropological Method. We can ascertain that the occurrences which +puzzled London in 1762, were puzzling heathen philosophers and +Fathers of the Church 1400 years earlier. We can trace a chain of +'Scratching Fannies' through the ages, and among races in every +grade of civilisation. And then the veil drops, or we run our heads +against a blank wall in a dark alley. Chaldeans, Egyptians, Greeks, +Eskimo, Red Men, Dyaks, Fellows of the Royal Society, Inquisitors, +Saints, have perlustrated Cock Lane, and have come away nothing the +wiser. Some, of course, have thought they had the secret, have +recognised the work of God, 'daemons,' 'spirits,' 'ghosts,' +'devils,' 'fairies' and of ordinary impostors: others have made a +push at a theory of disengaged nervous force, or animal magnetism. +We prefer to leave theory alone, not even accepting with enthusiasm, +the hypothesis of Dr. Johnson. 'He expressed great indignation at +the imposture of the Cock Lane ghost, and related, with much +satisfaction, how he had assisted in detecting the cheat, and had +published an account of it in the newspapers. Upon this subject I +incautiously offended him, by pressing him with too many questions,' +says Boswell,--questions which the good doctor was obviously unable +to answer. + +It is in January, 1762, that the London newspapers begin to be full +of a popular mystery, the Cock Lane ghost. Reports, articles, +letters, appeared, and the ghost made what is now called a +'sensation'. Perhaps, the most clear, if the most prejudiced +account, is that given in a pamphlet entitled The Mystery Revealed, +published by Bristow, in St. Paul's Churchyard (1762). Comparing +this treatise (which Goldsmith is said to have written for three +guineas) with the newspapers, The Gentleman's Magazine and the +Annual Register, we get a more or less distinct view of the subject. +But the various newspapers repeat each other's versions, with slight +alterations; The Gentleman's Magazine, and Annual Register, follow +suit, the narratives are 'synoptic,' while Goldsmith's tract, if it +be Goldsmith's, is obviously written in defence of the unlucky Mr. +K., falsely accused of murder by the ghost. + +Mr. K.'s version is the version given by Goldsmith, and thus leads +up to the 'phenomena' through a romance of middle-class life. In +1756, this Mr. K., a person of some means, married Miss E. L. of L. +in Norfolk. In eleven months the young wife died, in childbed, and +her sister, Miss Fanny, came to keep house for Mr. K. The usual +passionate desire to marry his deceased wife's sister assailed Mr. +K., and Fanny shared his flame. According to Goldsmith, the canon +law would have permitted the nuptials, if the wife had not born a +child which lived, though only for a few minutes. However this may +be, Mr. K. honourably fled from Fanny, who, unhappily, pursued him +with letters, and followed him to town. Here they took lodgings +together, but when Mr. K. left the rooms, being unable to recover +some money which he had lent his landlord, the pair looked out for +new apartments. These they found in Cock Lane, in the house of Mr. +Parsons, clerk of St. Sepulchre's. + +It chanced (here we turn to the Annual Register for 1762) that Mr. +K. left Fanny alone in Cock Lane while he went to a wedding in the +country. She asked little Elizabeth Parsons, her landlord's +daughter, to share her bed, and both of them were disturbed by +strange scratchings and rappings. These were attributed by Mrs. +Parsons to the industry of a neighbouring cobbler, but when they +occurred on a Sunday, this theory was abandoned. Poor Fanny, +according to the newspapers, thought the noises were a warning of +her own death. Others, after the event, imagined that they were +caused by the jealous or admonishing spirit of her dead sister. +Fanny and Mr. K. (having sued Mr. Parsons for money lent) left his +rooms in dudgeon, and went to Bartlet Court, Clerkenwell. Here +Fanny died on February 2, 1760, of a disease which her physician and +apothecary certified to be small-pox, and her coffin was laid in the +vault of St. John's Church. Now the noises in Cock Lane had ceased +for a year and a half after Fanny left the house, but they returned +in force in 1761-62. Mr. Parsons in vain took down the +wainscotting, to see whether some mischievous neighbour produced the +sounds. {165} The raps and scratches seemed to come on the bed of +little Elizabeth Parsons, just as in the case of the Tedworth +drummer, investigated by Glanvill, a hundred years earlier; and in +the case at Orleans, 230 years earlier. The Orleans case is +published, with full legal documents, from MS. 40, 7170, 4, +Bibliotheque du Roi, in Recueil de Dissertations Anciennes et +Nouvelles sur les Apparitions, ii. 90 (a Avignon, 1751). +'Scratching' was usually the first manifestation in this affair, and +the scratches were heard in the bedroom occupied by certain +children. The Cock Lane child 'was always affected with tremblings +and shiverings at the coming and going of the ghost'. It was stated +that the child had seen a shrouded figure without hands; two other +witnesses (one of them a publican) had seen a luminous apparition, +_with_ hands. This brilliant being lit up the figures on the dial +of a clock. 'The noises followed the child to other houses,' and +multitudes of people, clergy, nobles, and princes, also followed the +child. A certain Mr. Brown was an early investigator, and published +his report. Like Adrien de Montalembert, in 1526, like the +Franciscans about 1530, he asked the ghost to reply, affirmatively +or negatively, to questions, by one knock for 'yes,' two for 'no'. +This method was suggested, it seems, by a certain Mary Frazer, in +attendance on the child. Thus it was elicited that Fanny had been +poisoned by Mr. K. with 'red arsenic,' in a draught of purl to which +she was partial. She added that she wished to see Mr. K. hanged. + +She would answer other questions, now right, and now wrong. She +called her father John, while his real name was Thomas. In fact she +was what Porphyry, the Neoplatonist, would have called a 'deceitful +demon'. Her chief effects were raps, scratchings, and a sound as of +whirring wings, which filled the room. This phenomenon occurs in a +'haunted house' mentioned in the Journal of the Psychical Society. +It is infinitely more curious to recall, that, when Mr. Im Thurn, in +British Guiana, submitted to the doctoring of a peayman (see p. 39), +he heard a sound, 'at first low and indistinct, and then gathering +in volume as if some big winged thing came from far toward the +house, passed through the roof, and then settled heavily on the +floor, and again, after an interval, as if the same winged thing +rose and passed away as it had come'. Mr. Im Thurn thinks the +impression was caused by the waving of boughs. These Cock Lane +occurrences were attributed to ventriloquism, but, after a surgeon +had held his hand on the child's stomach and chest while the noises +were being produced, this probable explanation was abandoned. 'The +girl was said to be constantly attended by the usual noises, though +bound and muffled hand and foot, and that without any motion of her +lips, and when she appeared to be asleep.' {166} This binding is +practised by Eskimo Angakut, or sorcerers, as of old, by mediums +([Greek]) in ancient Greece and Egypt, so we gather from Iamblichus, +and some lines quoted from Porphyry by Eusebius. {167} A kind of +'cabinet,' as modern spiritualists call a curtain, seems to have +been used. In fact the phenomena, luminous apparition, 'tumultuous +sounds,' and all, were familiar to the ancients. Nobody seems to +have noted this, but one unusually sensible correspondent of a +newspaper quoted cases of knockings from Baxter's Certainty of the +Worlds of Spirits, and thought that Baxter's popular book might have +suggested the imposture. Though the educated classes had buried +superstition, it lived, of course, among the people, who probably +thumbed Baxter and Glanvill. + +Thus things went on, crowds gathering to amuse themselves with the +ghost. On February 1, Mr. Aldrich, a clergyman of Clerkenwell, +assembled in his house a number of gentlemen and ladies, having +persuaded Parsons to let his child be carried thither and tested. +Dr. Johnson was there, and Dr. Macaulay suggested the admission of a +Mrs. Oakes. Dr. Johnson supplied the newspapers with an account of +what happened. The child was put to bed by several ladies, about +ten o'clock, and the company sat 'for rather more than an hour,' +during which nothing occurred. The men then went down-stairs and +talked to Parsons, when they were interrupted by some of the ladies, +who said that scratching and knocking had set in. The company +returned, and made the child hold her hands outside the bedclothes. +No phenomena followed. Now the sprite had promised to rap on its +own coffin in the vault of St. John's, so thither they adjourned +(without the medium), but there was never a scratch! + +'It is therefore the opinion of the whole assembly, that the child +has some art of making or counterfeiting particular noises, and that +there is no agency of any higher cause.' + +In precisely the same way the judges in the Franciscan case of 1533, +visited the bed of the child where the spirit had been used to +scratch and rap, heard nothing, and decided that the affair was a +hoax. The nature of the fraud was not discovered, but the +Franciscans were severely punished. At Lyons, the bishop and some +other clerics could get no response from the rapping spirit which +was so familiar with the king's chaplain, Adrien de Montalembert +(1526-7). Thus 'the ghost in some measure remains undetected,' says +Goldsmith, and, indeed, Walpole visited Cock Lane, but could not get +in, apparently _after_ the detection. But, writing on February 2, +he may speak of an earlier date. + +Meanwhile matters were very uncomfortable for Mr. K. Accused by a +ghost, he had no legal remedy. Goldsmith, like most writers, +assumes that Parsons undertook the imposture, in revenge for having +been sued for money lent by Mr. K. He adds that Mr. K. was engaged +in a Chancery suit by his relations, and seems to suspect their +agency. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was being 'tested' in various ways. +Finally the unlucky child was swung up in a kind of hammock, 'her +hands and feet extended wide,' and, for two nights, no noises were +heard. Next day she was told that, if there were no noises, she and +her father would be committed to Newgate. She accordingly concealed +a little board, on which a kettle usually stood, a piece of wood six +inches by four. She managed this with so little art that the maids +saw her place the wood in her dress, and informed the investigators +of the circumstances. Scratches were now produced, but the child +herself said that they were not like the former sounds, and 'the +concurrent opinion of the whole assembly was that the child had been +frightened by threats into this attempt. . . . The master of the +house and his friend both declared that the noises the girl had made +this morning _had not the least likeness to the former noises_.' In +the same way the Wesleys at Epworth, in 1716, found that they could +not imitate the perplexing sounds produced in the parsonage. The +end of the affair was that Parsons, Mary Frazer, a clergyman, a +tradesman, and others were tried at the Guildhall and convicted of a +conspiracy, on July 10, 1762. Parsons was pilloried, and 'a +handsome collection' was made for him by the spectators. His later +fortunes, or misfortunes, and those of the miserable little +Elizabeth, are unknown. One thing is certain, the noises did not +begin in an attempt at imposture on Parsons's part; he was on good +terms with his lodgers, when Fanny was first disturbed. Again, the +child could not counterfeit the sounds successfully when she was +driven by threats to make the effort. The seance of rather more +than an hour, in which Johnson took part, was certainly inadequate. +The phenomena were such as had been familiar to law and divinity, at +least since 856, A.D. {170a} The agencies always made accusations, +usually false. The knocking spirit at Kembden, near Bingen, in 856 +charged a priest with a scandalous intrigue. The raps on the bed of +the children examined by the Franciscans, about 1530, assailed the +reputation of a dead lady. When the Foxes, at Rochester, in 1848- +49, set up alphabetic communication with the knocks, they told a +silly tale of a murder. The Cock Lane ghost lied in the same way. +The Fox girls started modern spiritualism on its wild and +mischievous career, as Elizabeth Parsons might have done, in a more +favourable environment. There was never anything new in all these +cases. The lowest savages have their seances, levitations, bindings +of the medium, trance-speakers; Peruvians, Indians, have their +objects moved without contact. Simon Magus, or St. Paul under that +offensive pseudonym, was said to make the furniture move at will. +{170b} + +There is a curious recent Cock Lane case in Ireland where 'the +ghost' brought no accusations against anybody. The affair was +investigated by Mr. Barrett, a Professor in the Royal College of +Science, Dublin, who published the results in the Dublin University +Magazine, for December, 1877. The scene was a small lonely farm +house at Derrygonnelly, near Enniskillen. The farmer's wife had +died a few weeks before Easter, 1877, leaving him with four girls, +and one boy, of various ages, the eldest, Maggie, being twenty. The +noises were chiefly heard in her neighbourhood. When the children +had been put to bed, Maggie lay down, without undressing, in the +bedroom off the kitchen. A soft pattering noise was soon heard, +then raps, from all parts of the room, then scratchings, as in Cock +Lane. When Mr. Barrett, his friend, and the farmer entered with a +candle, the sounds ceased, but began again 'as if growing accustomed +to the presence of the light'. The hands and feet of the young +people were watched, but nothing was detected, while the raps were +going on everywhere around, on the chairs, on the quilt, and on the +big four-post wooden bedsteads where they were lying. Mr. Barrett +now played Moro with the raps, that is, he extended so many fingers, +keeping his hand in the pocket of a loose great-coat, and the sounds +always responded the right number. Four trials were made. Then +came a noise like the beating of a drum, 'with violent scratching +and tearing sounds'. + +The trouble began three weeks after the wife's death. Once a number +of small stones were found on Maggie's bed. All the family suffered +from sleeplessness, and their candles, even when concealed, were +constantly stolen. 'It took a boot from a locked drawer,' and the +boot was found in a great chest of feathers in a loft. A Bible was +spirited about, and a Methodist teacher (the family were Methodists) +made no impression on the agency. They tried to get some +communication by an alphabet, but, said the farmer, 'it tells lies +as often as truth, and oftener, I think'. + +Mr. Barrett, and a friend, on two occasions, could detect no method +of imposture, and, as the farmer did not believe that his children, +sorely distressed by the loss of their mother, would play such +tricks, at such a time, even if they could, the mystery remains +unsolved. The family found that the less attention they paid to the +disturbances, the less they were vexed. Mr. Barrett, examining some +other cases, found that Dr. Carpenter's and other theories did not +account for them. But it is certain that the children, as +Methodists, had read Wesley's account of the spirit at Epworth, in +1716. Mr. Barrett was aware of this circumstance, but was unable to +discover how the thing was managed, on the hypothesis of fraudulent +imitation. The Irish household seems to have reaped no profit by +the affair, but rather trouble, annoyance, and the expense of +hospitality to strange visitors. + +The agency was mendacious, as usual, for Porphyry complains that the +'spirits' were always as deceitful as the Cock Lane ghost, feigning +to be gods, heroes, or the souls of the dead. It is very +interesting to note how, in Greece, as Christianity waxed, and +paganism waned, such inquiring minds as that of Porphyry fell back +on seances and spiritualism, or superstitions unmentioned by Homer, +and almost unheard of in the later classical literature. Religion, +which began in Shamanism, in the trances of Angakut and Birraark, +returned to these again, and everywhere found marvel, mystery, +imposture, conscious, or unconscious. The phenomena have never +ceased, imposture has always been detected or asserted, but that +hypothesis rarely covers the whole field, and so, if we walk in Cock +Lane at all, we wander darkling, in good and bad company, among +diviners, philosophers, saints, witches, charlatans, hypnotists. +Many a heart has been broken, like that of Mr. Dale Owen, by the +late discovery of life-long delusion, for we meet in Cock Lane, as +Porphyry says, [Greek]. Yet this 'deceptive race' has had its +stroke in the making of creeds, and has played its part in human +history, while it contributes not a little to human amusement. +Meanwhile, of all wanderers in Cock Lane, none is more beguiled than +sturdy Common-sense, if an explanation is to be provided. When once +we ask for more than 'all stuff and nonsense,' we speedily receive a +very mixed theory in which rats, indigestion, dreams, and of late, +hypnotism, are mingled much at random, for Common-sense shows more +valour than discretion, when she pronounces on matters (or spirits) +which she has never studied. + +Beautiful instances of common-sense explanations, occur in two +stories of the last century, the St. Maur affair (1706), and the +haunted house of Amiens, (1746). The author of 'Ce qu'on doit +penser de l'aventure arrivee a Saint Maur,' was M. Poupart, canon of +St. Maur, near Paris. The good canon, of course, admits Biblical +apparitions, which are miraculous, and admits hallucination caused +by the state of the visual organs and by fever, while he believes in +something like the Lucretian idea, that bodies, dead bodies, at +least, shell off a kind of peel, which may, on occasion, be visible. +Common ghosts he dismisses on grounds of common-sense; if spirits in +Purgatory _could_ appear, they would appear more frequently, and +would not draw the curtains of beds, drag at coverlets, turn tables +upside down, and make terrible noises, all of which feats are +traditional among ghosts. + +M. Poupart then comes to the adventure at St. Maur. The percipient, +M. de S., was a man of twenty-five: his mother seems to have been a +visionary, and his constitution is described as 'melancholic'. He +was living alone, however, and his mother has no part in the +business. The trouble began with loud knocks at his door, and the +servant, when she went to open it, found nobody there. The curtains +of his bed were drawn, when he was alone in the room, and here, of +course, we have only his evidence. One evening about eleven, he and +his servants heard the papers on a table being turned over, and, +though they suspected the cat, no cat could be found. When S. went +to bed, the same noise persisted in his sitting-room, where the cat, +no doubt, could easily conceal herself, for it is not easy to find a +cat who has motives for not being found. S. again hunted for the +animal, but only heard a great rap on the wall. No sooner had S. +gone back to bed, than the bed gave a violent leap, and dashed +itself against the wall: the jump covered four feet. He called his +servants, who replaced the bed, but the curtains, in their sight, +were drawn, and the bed made a wild rush at the fireplace. This +happened again twice, though the servants held on gallantly to the +bed. Monsieur S. had no sleep, his bed continued to bound and run, +and he sent on the following day, for a friend. In that gentleman's +presence the leaps made by the bed ended in its breaking its left +foot, on which the visitor observed that he had seen quite enough. +He is said, later, to have expressed sorrow that he spoke, but he +may have had various motives for this repentance. + +On the following night, S. slept well, and if his bed did rise and +fall gently, the movement rather cradled him to repose. In the +afternoon, the bolts of his parlour door closed of their own accord, +and the door of a large armoire opened. A voice then bade S. do +certain things, which he was to keep secret, go to a certain place, +and find people who would give him further orders. S. then fainted, +hurt himself, and with difficulty unbolted his door. A fortnight +later, S., his mother, and a friend heard more rapping, and a heavy +knock on the windows. + +M. Poupart now gives the explanations of common-sense. The early +noises might have had physical causes: master, servants, and +neighbours all heard them, but that proves nothing. As to the +papers, a wind, or a mouse may have interfered with _them_. The +movements of the bed are more serious, as there are several +witnesses. But 'suppose the bed was on castors'. The inquirer does +not ask whether it really was on castors, or not, he supposes the +case. Then suppose S., that melancholy man, wants a lark (a envie +de se rejouir), he therefore tosses about in bed, and the bed +rushes, consequently, round the room. This experiment may be +attempted by any philosopher. Let him lie in a bed with castors, +and try how far he can make it run, while he kicks about in it. +This explanation, dear to common-sense, is based on a physical +impossibility, as any one may ascertain for himself. Then the +servants tried in vain to hold back the excited couch, well, these +servants may have lied, and, at most, could not examine 'les +ressorts secrets qui causaient ce mouvement'. Now, M. Poupart +deserts the theory that we can make a bed run about, by lying +kicking on it, and he falls back on hidden machinery. The +independent witness is said to have said that he was sorry he spoke, +but this evidence proves nothing. What happened in the room when +the door was bolted, is not evidence, of course, and we may imagine +that S. himself made the noises on walls and windows, when his +friend and mother were present. Thus M. S. was both melancholy, and +anxious se donner un divertissement, by frightening his servants, to +which end he supplied his bed with machinery that made it jump, and +drew the curtains. What kind of secret springs would perform these +feats, M. Poupart does not explain. It would have been wiser in him +to say that he did not believe a word of it, than to give such silly +reasons for a disbelief that made no exact inquiry into the +circumstances. The frivolities of the bed are reported in the case +of Home and others, nor can we do much more than remark the +conservatism of the phenomena; the knocks, and the animated +furniture. + +The Amiens case (1746) is reported and attested by Father Charles +Louis Richard, Professor in Theology, a Dominican friar. The +haunted house was in the Rue de l'Aventure, parish of St. Jacques. +The tenant was a M. Leleu, aged thirty-six. The troubles had lasted +for fourteen years, and there was evidence for their occurrence +earlier, before Leleu occupied the house. The disturbances were of +the usual kind, a sound of heavy planks being tossed about, as in +the experience of Scott at Abbotsford, raps, the fastening of doors +so that they could not be opened for long, and then suddenly gave +way (this, also, is frequent in modern tales), a sound of sweeping +the floor, as in the Epworth case, in the Wesleys' parsonage, heavy +knocks and thumps, the dragging of heavy bodies, steps on the +stairs, lights, the dancing of all the furniture in the room of +Mlle. Marie de Latre, rattling of crockery, a noise of whirring in +the air, a jingling as of coins (familiar at Epworth), and, briefly, +all the usually reported tintamarre. Twenty persons, priests, +women, girls, men of all sorts, attest those phenomena which are +simply the ordinary occurrences still alleged to be prevalent. + +The narrator believes in diabolical agency, but he gives the +explanations of common-sense. 1. M. Leleu is a visionary. But, as +no one says that all the other witnesses are visionaries, this helps +us little. 2. M. Leleu makes all the noise himself. That is, he +climbs to the roof with a heavy sack of grain on his shoulder, and +lets it fall; he runs up and down the chimneys with his heavy sack +on his shoulder, he frolics with weighty planks all over the house, +thumps the walls, makes furniture dance, and how? What is his +motive? His tenants leave him, he is called a fool, a devil, a +possessed person: his business is threatened, they talk of putting +him in jail, and that is all he has got by his partiality for making +a racket. 3. The neighbours make the noises, and again the +narrator asks 'how?' and 'why?' 4. Some priests slept in the house +once and heard nothing. But nobody pretends that there is always +something to hear. The Bishop of Amiens licenses the publication +'with the more confidence, as we have ourselves received the +depositions of ten witnesses, a number more than sufficient to +attest a fact which nobody has any interest in feigning'. + +In a tale like this, which is only one out of a vast number, exactly +analogous, Common-sense is ill-advised in simply alleging imposture, +so long maintained, so motiveless, and, on the whole, so very +difficult to execute. M. Leleu brought in the Church, with its +exorcisms, but our Dominican authority does not say whether or not +the noises ceased after the rites had been performed. Dufresnoy, in +whose Dissertations {178} these documents are republished, mentions +that Bouchel, in his Bibliotheque du Droit Francois, d. v. 'Louage,' +treats of the legal aspect of haunted houses. Thus the profession +has not wholly disdained the inquiry. + +Of all common sensible explanations, the most sporting and good- +humoured is that given by the step-daughter of Alexander Dingwall, a +tenant in Inverinsh, in 1761. Poor Dingwall in his cornyard 'heard +very grievous lamentations, which continued, as he imagined, all the +way to the seashore'. These he regarded as a warning of his end, +but his stepdaughter sensibly suggested that, as the morning was +cold, 'the voice must be that of a fox, to cause dogs run after him +to give him heat'. Dingwall took to bed and died, but the +suggestion that the fox not only likes being hunted, but provokes it +as a form of healthy exercise, is invaluable. The tale is in +Theophilus Insulanus, on the second sight. + +There is no conclusion to be drawn from this mass of Cock Lane +stories. Occasionally an impostor is caught, as at Brightling, in +1659. Mr. Joseph Bennet, a minister in that town, wrote an account +of the affair, published in Increase Mather's Remarkable +Providences. 'Several things were thrown by an invisible hand,' +including crabs! 'Yet there was a seeming blur cast, though not on +the whole, yet upon some part of it, for their servant girl was at +last found throwing some things.' She averred that an old woman had +bidden her do so, saying that 'her master and dame were bewitched, +and that they should hear a great fluttering about their house for +the space of two days'. This Cock Lane phenomenon, however, is not +reported to have occurred. The most credulous will admit that the +maid is enough to account for the Brightling manifestations; some of +the others are more puzzling and remain in the region of the +unexplained. + + + + +APPARITIONS, GHOSTS, AND HALLUCINATIONS. + + +Apparitions appear. Apparitions are not necessarily Ghosts. +Superstition, Common-sense, and Science. Hallucinations: their +kinds, and causes. Aristotle. Mr. Gurney's definition. Various +sources of Hallucination, external and internal. The Organ of +Sense. The Sensory Centre. The Higher Tracts of the Brain. Nature +of Evidence. Dr. Hibbert. Claverhouse. Lady Lee. Dr. Donne. Dr. +Hibbert's complaint of want of evidence. His neglect of +contemporary cases. Criticism of his tales. The question of +coincidental Hallucinations. The Calculus of Probabilities: M. +Richet, MM. Binet et Fere; their Conclusions. A step beyond +Hibbert. Examples of empty and unexciting Wraiths. Our ignorance +of causes of Solitary Hallucinations. The theory of 'Telepathy'. +Savage metaphysics of M. d'Assier. Breakdown of theory of +Telepathy, when hallucinatory figure causes changes in physical +objects. Animals as Ghost-seers: difficult to explain this by +Telepathy. Strange case of a cat. General propriety and lack of +superstition in cats. The Beresford Ghost, well-meaning but +probably mythical. Mrs. Henry Sidgwick: her severity as regards +conscientious Ghosts. Case of Mr. Harry. Case of Miss Morton. A +difficult case. Examples in favour of old-fashioned theory of +Ghosts. Contradictory cases. Perplexities of the anxious inquirer. + +Only one thing is certain about apparitions, namely this, that they +do appear. They really are perceived. Now, as popular language +confuses apparitions with ghosts, this statement sounds like an +expression of the belief that ghosts appear. It has, of course, no +such meaning. When Le Loyer, in 1586, boldly set out to found a +'science of spectres,' he carefully distinguished between his +method, and the want of method observable in the telling of ghost +stories. He began by drawing up long lists of apparitions which are +_not_ spectres, or ghosts, but the results of madness, malady, +drink, fanaticism, illusions and so forth. It is true that Le +Loyer, with all his deductions, left plenty of genuine spectres for +the amusement of his readers. Like him we must be careful not to +confound 'apparitions,' with 'ghosts'. + +When a fist, applied to the eye, makes us 'see stars'; when a liver +not in good working order makes us see muscae volitantes, or +'spiders'; when alcohol produces 'the horrors,'--visions of +threatening persons or animals,--when a lesion of the brain, or +delirium, or a disease of the organs of sense causes visions, or +when they occur to starved and enthusiastic ascetics, all these +false perceptions are just as much 'apparitions,' as the view of a +friend at a distance, beheld at the moment of his death, or as the +unrecognised spectre seen in a haunted house. + +In popular phrase, however, the two last kinds of apparitions are +called 'ghosts,' or 'wraiths,' and the popular tendency is to think +of these, and of these alone, when 'apparitions' are mentioned. On +the other hand the tendency of common-sense is to rank the two last +sorts of apparition, the wraith and ghost, with all the other kinds, +which are undeniably caused by accident, by malady, mental or +bodily, or by mere confusion and misapprehension, as when one, +seeing a post in the moonlight, takes it for a ghost. Science, +following a third path, would class all perceptions which 'have not +the basis in fact that they seem to have' as 'hallucinations'. The +stars seen after a blow on the eye are hallucinations,--there are no +real stars in view,--and the friend, whose body seems to fill space +before our sight when his body is really on a death-bed far away;-- +and again, the appearance of the living friend whom we see in the +drawing-room while he is really in the smoking-room or in +Timbuctoo,--are hallucinations also. The common-sense of the matter +is stated by Aristotle. 'The reason of the hallucinations is that +appearances present themselves, not only when the _object of sense_ +is itself in motion, but also when the _sense_ is stirred, as it +would be by the presence of the object' (De Insomn., ii. 460, b, 23- +26). + +The ghost in a haunted house is taken for a figure, say, of a monk, +or of a monthly nurse, or what not, but no monthly nurse or monk is +in the establishment. The 'percept,' is a 'percept,' for those who +perceive it; the apparition is an apparition, for _them_, but the +perception is hallucinatory. + +So far, everybody is agreed: the differences begin when we ask what +causes hallucinations, and what different classes of hallucinations +exist? Taking the second question first, we find hallucinations +divided into those which the percipient (or percipients) believes, +at the moment, and perhaps later, to be real; and those which his +judgment pronounces to be _false_. Famous cases of the latter class +are the idola which beset Nicolai, who studied them, and wrote an +account of them. After a period of trouble and trial, and neglect +of blood-letting, Nicolai saw, first a dead man whom he had known, +and, later, crowds of people, dead, living, known or unknown. The +malady yielded to leeches. {183} Examples of the first sort of +apparitions taken by the judgment to be _real_, are common in +madness, in the intemperate, and in ghost stories. The maniac +believes in his visionary attendant or enemy, the drunkard in his +rats and snakes, the ghost-seer often supposes that he has actually +seen an acquaintance (where no mistaken identity is possible) and +only learns later that the person,--dead, or alive and well,--was at +a distance. Thus the writer is acquainted with the story of a +gentleman who, when at work in his study at a distance from England, +saw a colleague in his profession enter the room. 'Just wait till I +finish this business,' he said, but when he had hastily concluded +his letter, or whatever he was engaged on, his friend had +disappeared. That was the day of his friend's death, in England. +Here then the hallucination was taken for a reality; indeed, there +was nothing to suggest that it was anything else. Mr. Gurney has +defined a hallucination as 'a percept which lacks, but which can +only by distinct reflection be recognised as lacking, the objective +basis which it suggests'--and by 'objective basis,' he means 'the +possibility of being shared by all persons with normal senses'. +Nobody but the 'percipient' was present on the occasion just +described, so we cannot say whether other people would have seen the +visitor, or not. But reflection could not recognise the unreality +of this 'percept,' till it was found that, in fact, the visitor had +vanished, and had never been in the neighbourhood at all. + +Here then, are two classes of hallucinations, those which reflection +shows us to be false (as if a sane man were to have the +hallucination of a crocodile, or of a dead friend, entering the +room), and those which reflection does not, at the moment, show to +be false, as if a friend were to enter, who could be proved to have +been absent. + +In either case, what causes the hallucination, or are there various +possible sorts of causes? Now defects in the eye, or in the optic +nerve, to speak roughly, may cause hallucinations _from without_. +An injured external organ conveys a false and distorted message to +the brain and to the intelligence. A nascent malady of the ear may +produce buzzings, and these may develop into hallucinatory voices. +Here be hallucinations _from without_. But when a patient begins +with a hallucination of the intellect, as that inquisitors are +plotting to catch him, or witches to enchant him, and when he later +comes to _see_ inquisitors and witches, where there are none, we +have, apparently, a hallucination _from within_. Again, some +persons, like Blake the painter, _voluntarily_ start a +hallucination. 'Draw me Edward I.,' a friend would say, Blake +would, _voluntarily_, establish a hallucination of the monarch on a +chair, in a good light, and sketch him, if nobody came between his +eye and the royal sitter. Here, then, are examples of +hallucinations begotten _from within_, either voluntarily, by a +singular exercise of fancy, or involuntarily, as the suggestion of +madness, of cerebral disease, or abnormal cerebral activity. + +Again a certain amount of intensity of activity, at a 'sensory +centre' in the brain, will start a 'percept'. Activity of the +necessary force at the right place, may be _normally_ caused by the +organ of sense, say the eye, when fixed on a real object, say a +candlestick. (1) Or the necessary activity at the sensory centre +may be produced, _abnormally_, by irritation of the eye, or along +the line of nerve from the eye to the 'sensory centre'. (2) Or +thirdly, there may be a morbid, but spontaneous activity in the +sensory centre itself. (3) In case one, we have a natural +sensation converted into a perception of a real object. In case +two, we have an abnormal origin of a perception of something unreal, +a hallucination, begotten _from without_, that is by a vice in an +external organ, the eye. In case three, we have the origin of an +abnormal perception of something _unreal_, a hallucination, begotten +by a vicious activity _within_, in the sensory centre. But, while +all these three sets of stimuli set the machinery in motion, it is +the 'highest parts of the brain' that, in response to the stimuli, +create the full perception, real or hallucinatory. + +But there remains a fourth way of setting the machinery in motion. +The first way, in normal sensation and perception, was the natural +action of the organ of sense, stimulated by a material object. The +second way was by the stimulus of a vice in the organ of sense. The +third way was a vicious activity in a sensory centre. All three +stimuli reach the 'central terminus' of the brain, and are there +created into perceptions, the first real and normal, the second a +hallucination from an organ of sense, _from without_, the third a +hallucination from a sensory centre, _from within_. The fourth way +is illustrated when the machinery is set a-going from the 'central +terminus' itself, 'from the higher parts of the brain, from the +seats of ideation and memory'. Now, as long as these parts only +produce and retain ideas or memories in the usual way, we think, or +we remember, but we have no hallucination. But when the activity +starting from the central terminus 'escapes downwards,' in +sufficient force, it reaches the 'lower centre' and the organ of +sense, and then the idea, or memory, stands visibly before us as a +hallucination. + +This, omitting many technical details, and much that is matter of +more dispute than common, is a statement, rough, and as popular as +possible, of the ideas expressed in Mr. Gurney's remarkable essay on +hallucinations. {186} Here, then, we have a rude working notion of +various ways in which hallucinations may be produced. But there are +many degrees in being hallucinated, or enphantosme, as the old +French has it. If we are interested in the most popular kind of +hallucinations, ghosts and wraiths, we first discard like Le Loyer, +the evidence of many kinds of witnesses, diversely but undeniably +hallucinated. A man whose eyes are so vicious as habitually to give +him false information is not accepted as a witness, nor a man whose +brain is drugged with alcohol, nor a man whose 'central terminus' is +abandoned to religious excitement, to remorse, to grief, to anxiety, +to an apprehension of secret enemies, nor even to a habit of being +hallucinated, though, like Nicolai, he knows that his visionary +friends are unreal. Thus we would not listen credulously to a ghost +story out of his own experience from a man whose eyes were +untrustworthy, nor from a short-sighted man who had recognised a +dead or dying friend on the street, nor from a drunkard. A tale of +a vision of a religious character from Pascal, or from a Red Indian +boy during his Medicine Fast, or even from a colonel of dragoons who +fell at Prestonpans, might be interesting, but would not be evidence +for our special purpose. The ghosts beheld by conscience-stricken +murderers, by sorrowing widowers, by spiritualists in dark rooms, +haunted by humbugs, or those seen by lunatics, or by children, or by +timid people in lonely old houses, or by people who, though sane at +the time, go mad twenty years later, or by sane people habitually +visionary, these and many other ghosts, we must begin, like Le +Loyer, by rejecting. These witnesses have too much cerebral +activity at the wrong time and place. They start their +hallucinations from the external terminus, the unhealthy organ of +sense; from the morbid central terminus; or from some dilapidated +cerebral station along the line. But, when we have, in a sane man's +experience, say one hallucination whether that hallucination does, +or does not coincide with a crisis in the life, or perhaps with the +death of the person who seems to be seen, what are we to think? Or +again, when several witnesses simultaneously have the same +hallucination,--not to be explained as a common misinterpretation of +a real object,--what are we to think? This is the true question of +ghosts and wraiths. That apparitions, so named by the world, do +appear, is certain, just as it is certain that visionary rats appear +to drunkards in delirium tremens. But, as we are only to take the +evidence of sane and healthy witnesses, who were neither in anxiety, +grief, or other excitement, when they perceived their one +hallucination, there seems to be a difference between their +hallucinations and those of alcoholism, fanaticism, sorrow, or +anxiety. Now the common mistakes in dealing with this topic have +been to make too much, or to make too little, of the coincidences +between the hallucinatory appearance of an absent person, and his +death, or some other grave crisis affecting him. Too little is made +of such coincidences by Dr. Hibbert, in his Philosophy of +Apparitions (p. 231). He 'attempts a physical explanation of many +ghost stories which may be considered most authentic'. So he says, +but he only touches on three, the apparition of Claverhouse, on the +night of Killiecrankie, to Lord Balcarres, in an Edinburgh prison; +the apparition of her dead mother to Miss Lee, in 1662; and the +apparition of his wife, who had born a dead child on that day in +England, to Dr. Donne in Paris, early in the seventeenth century. + +Dr. Hibbert dedicated his book, in 1825, to Sir Walter Scott, of +Abbotsford, Bart., President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Sir +Walter, at heart as great a ghost-hunter as ever lived, was +conceived to have a scientific interest in the 'mental principles to +which certain popular illusions may be referred'. Thus Dr. +Hibbert's business, if he would satisfy the President of the Royal +Society of Edinburgh, was to 'provide a physical explanation of many +ghost stories which may be considered most authentic'. In our +prosaic age, he would have begun with those most recent, such as the +tall man in brown, viewed by Sir Walter on the moor near Ashestiel, +and other still remembered contemporary hallucinations. Far from +that, Dr. Hibbert deliberately goes back two centuries for all the +three stories which represent the 'many' of his promise. The +Wynyard ghost was near him, Mrs Ricketts's haunted house was near +him, plenty of other cases were lying ready to his hand. {189} But +he went back two centuries, and then,--complained of lack of +evidence about 'interesting particulars'! Dr. Hibbert represents +the science and common-sense of seventy years ago, and his criticism +probably represents the contemporary ideas about evidence. + +The Balcarres tale, as told by him, is that the Earl was 'in prison, +in Edinburgh Castle, on the suspicion of Jacobitism'. 'Suspicion' +is good; he was the King's agent for civil, as Dundee was for +military affairs in Scotland. He and Dundee, and Ailesbury, stood +by the King in London, to the last. Lord Balcarres himself, in his +memoirs, tells James II. how he was confined, 'in close prison,' in +Edinburgh, till the castle was surrendered to the Prince of Orange. +In Dr. Hibbert's tale, the spectre of Dundee enters Balcarres's room +at night, 'draws his curtain,' looks at him for some time, and walks +out of the room, Lord Balcarres believing it to be Dundee himself. + +Dr. Hibbert never even asks for the authority on which this legend +reposes, certainly Balcarres does not tell the tale in his own +report, or memoirs, for James II. (Bannatyne Club, 1841). The +doctor then grumbles that he does not know 'a syllable of the state +of Lord Balcarres's health at the time'. The friend of Bayle and of +Marlborough, an honourable politician, a man at once loyal and +plain-spoken in dealings with his master, Lord Balcarres's word +would go for much, if he gave it. {190} But Dr. Hibbert asks for no +authority, cites none. He only argues that, 'agreeably to the well- +known doctrine of chances,' Balcarres might as well have this +hallucination at the time of Dundee's death as at any other (p. +232). Now, that is a question which we cannot settle, without +knowing whether Lord Balcarres was subject to hallucinations. If he +was, cadit quaestio, if he was _not_, then the case is different. +It is, manifestly, a problem in statistics, and only by statistics +of wide scope, can it be solved. {191} But Dr. Hibbert was content +to produce his easy solution, without working out the problem. + +His second case is of 1662, and was taken down, he says, by the +Bishop of Gloucester, from the lips of the father of Miss Lee. This +young lady, in bed, saw a light, then a hallucination which called +itself her mother. The figure prophesied the daughter's death at +noon next day and at noon next day the daughter died. A physician, +when she announced her vision, attended her, bled her, and could +find nothing wrong in her health. Dr. Hibbert conjectures that her +medical attendant did not know his business. 'The coincidence was +_a fortunate one_,' that is all his criticism. Where there is no +coincidence, the stories, he says, are forgotten. For that very +reason, he should have collected contemporary stories, capable of +being investigated, but that did not occur to Dr. Hibbert. His last +case is the apparition of Mrs. Donne, with a dead child, to Dr. +Donne, in Paris, as recorded by Walton. As Donne was a poet, very +fond of his wife, and very anxious about her health, this case is +not evidential, and may be dismissed for 'a fortuitous coincidence' +(p. 332). + +Certainly Dr. Hibbert could come to no conclusion, save his own, on +the evidence he adduces. But it was by his own fault that he chose +only evidence very remote, incapable of being cross-examined, and +scanty, while we know that plenty of contemporary evidence was +within his reach. Possibly the possessors of these experiences +would not have put them at his disposal, but, if he could get no +materials, he was in no position to form a theory. All this would +have been recognised in any other matter, but in this obscure branch +of psychology, beset, as it is, by superstition, science was content +to be casual. + +The error which lies at the opposite pole from Dr. Hibbert's mistake +in not collecting instances, is the error of collecting only +affirmative instances. We hear constantly about 'hallucinations of +sight, sound, or touch, which suggest the presence of an absent +person, and which occur simultaneously with some exceptional crisis +in that person's life, or, most frequently of all, with his death'. +{192} Now Mr. Gurney himself was much too fair a reasoner to avoid +the collection of instantiae contradictoraes, examples in which the +hallucination occurs, but does not coincide with any crisis whatever +in the life of the absent person who seems to be present. Of these +cases, Dr. Hibbert could find only one on record, in the Mercure +Gallant, January, 1690. The writer tells us how he dreamed that a +dead relation of his came to his bedside, and announced that he must +die that day. Unlike Miss Lee, he went on living. Yet the dream +impressed him so much that he noted it down in writing as soon as he +awoke. Dr. Johnson also mentions an instantia contradictoria. A +friend of Boswell's, near Kilmarnock, heard his brother's voice call +him by name: now his brother was dead, or dying, in America. +Johnson capped this by his tale of having, when at Oxford, heard his +name pronounced by his mother. She was then at Lichfield, but +nothing ensued. In Dr. Hibbert's opinion, this proves that +coincidences, when they do occur, are purely matters of chance. +{193a} There are many hallucinations, a death may correspond with +one of them, that case is noted, the others are forgotten. Yet the +coincidences are so many, or so striking, that when a Maori woman +has a hallucination representing her absent husband, she may marry +without giving him recognised ground for resentment, if he happens +to be alive. This curious fact proves that the coincidence between +death and hallucinatory presence has been marked enough to suggest a +belief which can modify savage jealousy. {193b} + +By comparing coincidental with non-coincidental hallucinations known +to him, Mr. Gurney is said to have decided that the chances against +a death coinciding with a hallucination, were forty to one,--long +odds. {194a} But it is clear that only a very large collection of +facts would give us any materials for a decision. Suppose that some +20,000 people answer such questions as:-- + +1. Have you ever had any hallucination? + +2. Was there any coincidence between the hallucination and facts at +the time unknown to you? + +The majority of sane people will be able to answer the first +question in the negative. + +Of those who answer both questions in the affirmative, several +things are to be said. First, we must allow for jokes, then for +illusions of memory. Corroborative contemporary evidence must be +produced. Again, of the 20,000, many are likely to be selected +instances. The inquirer is tempted to go to a person who, as he or +she already knows, has a story to tell. Again, the inquirers are +likely to be persons who take an interest in the subject on the +_affirmative_ side, and their acquaintances may have been partly +chosen because they were of the same intellectual complexion. {194b} + +All these drawbacks are acknowledged to exist, and are allowed for, +and, as far as possible, provided against, by the very fair-minded +people who have conducted this inquisition. Thus Mr. Henry +Sidgwick, in 1889, said, 'I do not think we can be satisfied with +less than 50,000 answers'. {195} But these 50,000 answers have not +been received. When we reflect that, to our knowledge, out of +twenty-five questions asked among our acquaintances in one place, +_none_ would be answered in the affirmative: while, by selecting, +we could get twenty-five affirmative replies, the delicacy and +difficulty of the inquisition becomes painfully evident. Mr. +Sidgwick, after making deductions on all sides of the most +sportsmanlike character, still holds that the coincidences are more +numerous by far than the Calculus of Probabilities admits. This is +a question for the advanced mathematician. M. Richet once made some +experiments which illustrate the problem. One man in a room thought +of a series of names which, ex hypothesi, he kept to himself. Three +persons sat at a table, which, as tables will do, 'tilted,' and each +tilt rang an electric bell. Two other persons, concealed from the +view of the table tilters, ran through an alphabet with a pencil, +marking each letter at which the bell rang. These letters were +compared with the names secretly thought of by the person at neither +table. + +He thought of The answers were + +1. Jean Racine 1. Igard + +2. Legros 2. Neghn + +3. Esther 3. Foqdem + +4. Henrietta 4. Higiegmsd + +5. Cheuvreux 5. Dievoreq + +6. Doremond 6. Epjerod + +7. Chevalon 7. Cheval + +8. Allouand 8. Iko + +Here the non-mathematical reader will exclaim: 'Total failure, +except in case 7!' And, about that case, he will have his private +doubts. But, arguing mathematically, M. Richet proves that the +table was right, beyond the limits of mere chance, by fourteen to +two. He concludes, on the whole of his experiments, that, probably, +intellectual force in one brain may be echoed in another brain. But +MM. Binet and Fere, who report this, decide that 'the calculation of +chances is, for the most part, incapable of affording a peremptory +proof; it produces uncertainty, disquietude, and doubt'. {196} 'Yet +something is gained by substituting doubt for systematic denial. +Richet has obtained this important result, that henceforth the +possibility of mental suggestion cannot be met with contemptuous +rejection.' + +Mental suggestion on this limited scale, is a phenomenon much less +startling to belief than the reality, and causal nature, of +coincidental hallucinations, of wraiths. But it is plain that, as +far as general opinion goes, the doctrine of chances, applied to +such statistics of hallucinations as have been collected, can at +most, only 'produce uncertainty, disquietude, and doubt'. Yet if +even these are produced, a step has been made beyond the blank +negation of Hibbert. + +The general reader, even if credulously inclined, is more staggered +by a few examples of non-coincidental hallucinations, than confirmed +by a pile of coincidental examples. Now it seems to be a defect in +the method of the friends of wraiths, that they do not publish, with +full and impressive details, as many examples of non-coincidental as +of coincidental hallucinations. It is the _story_ that takes the +public: if we are to be fair we must give the non-coincidental +story in all its features, as is done in the matter of wraiths with +a kind of message or meaning. + +Let us set a good example, by adducing wraiths which, in slang +phrase, were 'sells'. Those which we have at first hand are marked +'(A),' those at second-hand '(B)'. But the world will accept the +story of a ghost that failed on very poor evidence indeed. + +1. (A) A young lady, in the dubious state between awake and +asleep, unable, in fact, to feel certain whether she was awake or +asleep, beheld her late grandmother. The old lady wept as she sat +by the bedside. + +'Why do you weep, grandmamma, are you not happy where you are?' +asked the girl. + +'Yes, I am happy, but I am weeping for your mother.' + +'Is she going to die?' + +'No, but she is going to lose you.' + +'Am _I_ going to die, grandmamma?' + +'Yes, my dear.' + +'Soon?' + +'Yes, my dear, very soon.' + +The young lady, with great courage, concealed her dream from her +mother, but confided it to a brother. She did her best to be good +while she was on earth, where she is still, after an interval of +many years. + +Except for the conclusion, and the absence of a mystic bright light +in the bedroom, this case exactly answers to that of Miss Lee, in +1662. Dr. Hibbert would have liked this example. + +2. (B) A lady, staying with a friend, observed that one morning +she was much depressed. The friend confided to her that, in the +past night, she had seen her brother, dripping wet. He told her +that he had been drowned by the upsetting of a boat, which was +attached by a rope to a ship. At this time, he was on his way home +from Australia. The dream, or vision, was recorded in writing. +When next the first lady met her friend, she was entertaining her +brother at luncheon. He had never even been in a boat dragged +behind a ship, and was perfectly safe. + +3. (B) A lady, residing at a distance from Oxford wrote to tell +her son, who was at Merton College, that he had just entered her +room and vanished. Was he well? Yes, he was perfectly well, and +bowling for the College Eleven. + +4. (B) A lady in bed saw her absent husband. He announced his +death by cholera, and gave her his blessing, she, of course, was +very anxious and miserable, but the vision was a lying vision. The +husband was perfectly well. + +In all these four cases, anxiety was caused by the vision, and in +three at least, action was taken, the vision was recorded orally, or +in writing. In the following set, the visions were waking +hallucinations of sane persons never in any other instance +hallucinated. + +5. (A) A person of distinction, walking in a certain Cambridge +quadrangle, met a very well-known clergyman. The former held out +his hand, but there was before him only open space. No feeling of +excitement or anxiety followed. + +6. (A) The writer, standing before dinner, at a table in a large +and brilliantly lit hall, saw the door of the drawing-room open, and +a little girl, related to himself, come out, and run across the hall +into another room. He spoke to her, but she did not answer. He +instantly entered the drawing-room, where the child was sitting in a +white evening-dress. When she ran across the hall, the moment +before, she was dressed in dark blue serge. No explanation of the +puzzle could be discovered, but it is fair to add that no anxiety +was excited. + +7. (A) A young lady had a cold, and was wearing a brown shawl. +After lunch she went to her room. A few minutes later, her sister +came out, saw her in the hall, and went upstairs after her, telling +her an anecdote. At the top of the stairs, the brown-shawled sister +vanished. The elder sister was in her room, in a white shawl. She +was visible, when absent on another occasion, to another spectator. + +In two other cases (A) ladies, in their usual health, saw their +husbands in their rooms, when, in fact, they were in the drawing- +room or study. Here then are eight cases of non-coincidental +hallucination, some of people awake, some of people probably on the +verge of sleep, which are wholly without 'coincidence,' wholly +unveridical. None of the 'percipients' was addicted to seeing +'visions about.' {199} + +On the other side, though the writer knows several people who have +'seen ghosts' in haunted houses, and other odd phenomena, he knows +nobody, at first hand, who has seen a 'veridical hallucination,' or +rather, knows only one, a very young one indeed. Thus, between +these personally collected statistics of spectral 'sells' on one +part, and the world-wide diffusion of belief in 'coincidental' +hallucination on the other, the human mind is left in a balance +which mathematics, and the Calculus of Probabilities (especially if +one does not understand it) fail to affect. + +Meanwhile, we still do not know what causes these solitary +hallucinations of the sane. They can hardly come from diseased +organs of sense, for these would not confine themselves to a single +mistaken message of great vivacity. And why should either the +'sensory centre' or the 'central terminus' just once in a lifetime +develop this uncanny activity, and represent to us a person to whom +we may be wholly indifferent? The explanation is less difficult +when the person represented is a husband or child, but even then, +why does the activity occur once, and only once, and _not_ in a +moment of anxiety? + +The coincidental hallucinations are laid to the door of 'telepathy,' +to 'a telepathic impact from the mind of an absent agent,' who is +dying, or in some other state of rare or exciting experience, +perhaps being married, as in Col. Meadows Taylor's case. This is a +theory as old as Lavaterus, and was proclaimed by Mayo in the middle +of the century; while, substituting 'angels' for human agents, +Frazer of Tiree used it, in 1700, to explain second sight. Nay, it +is the Norse theory of a 'sending' by a sorcerer, as we read in the +Icelandic sagas. But, admitting that telepathy may be a cause of +hallucinations, we often find the effect where the cause is not +alleged to exist. Nobody, perhaps, will explain our nine empty +hallucinations by 'telepathy,' yet, from the supposed effects of +telepathy they were indistinguishable. Are all such cases of casual +hallucination in the sane to be explained by telepathy, by an impact +of force from a distant brain on the central terminus of our own +brains? At all events, a casual hallucination of the presence of an +absent friend need obviously cause us very little anxiety. We need +not adopt the hypothesis of the Maoris. + +The telepathic theory has the advantage of cutting down the +marvellous to the minimum. It also accounts for that old puzzle, +the clothes worn by the ghosts. These are reproduced by the +'agent's' theory of himself, perhaps with some unconscious +assistance from 'the percipient'. For lack of this light on the +matter, M. d'Assier, a positivist, who believed in spectres had to +suggest that the ghosts wear the ghosts of garments! Thus +positivism, in this disciple, returned to the artless metaphysics of +savages. Telepathy saves the believer from such a humiliating +relapse, and, perhaps, telepathy also may be made to explain +'collective' hallucinations, when several people see the same +apparition. If a distant mind can thus demoralise the central +terminus of one brain, it may do as much for two or more brains, or +they may demoralise each other. + +All this is very promising, but telepathy breaks down when the +apparition causes some change in the relations of material objects. +If there be a physical effect which endures after the phantasm has +vanished, then there was an actual agent, a real being, a 'ghost' on +the scene. For instance, the lady in Scott's ballad, 'The Eve of +St. John,' might see and might hear the ghost of her lover by a +telepathic hallucination of two senses. But if + +The sable score, of fingers four, +Remained on the board impressed + +by the spectre, then there was no telepathic hallucination, but an +actual being of an awful kind was in Smailholm Tower. Again, the +cases in which dogs and horses, as Paracelsus avers, display terror +when men and women behold a phantasm, are not easily accounted for +by telepathy, especially when the beast is alarmed _before_ the man +or woman suspects the presence of anything unusual. There is, of +course, the notion that the horse shies, or the dog turns craven, in +sympathy with its master's exhibition of fear. Owners of dogs and +horses may counterfeit horror and see whether their favourites do +sympathise. Cats don't. In one of three cases known to us where a +cat showed consciousness of a spectral presence, the apparition +_took the form of a cat_. The evidence is only that of Richard +Bovet, in his Pandemonium; or, the Devil's Cloyster (1684). In Mr. +J. G. Wood's Man and Beast, a lady tells a story of being alone, in +firelight, playing with a favourite cat, Lady Catherine. Suddenly +puss bristled all over, her back rose in an arch, and the lady, +looking up, saw a hideously malignant female watching her. Lady +Catherine now rushed wildly round the room, leaped at the upper +panels of the door, and seemed to have gone mad. This new terror +recalled the lady to herself. She shrieked, and the phantasm +vanished. She saw it on a later day. In a third case, a cat merely +kept a watchful eye on the ghost, and adopted a dignified attitude +of calm expectancy. If beasts can be telepathically affected, then +beasts have more of a 'psychical' element in their composition than +they usually receive credit for; whereas if a ghost is actually in +view, there is no reason why beasts should not see it. + +The best and most valid proof that an abnormal being is actually +present was that devised by the ghost of Sir Richard of Coldinghame +in the ballad, and by the Beresford ghost, who threw a heavy curtain +over the bed-pole. Unluckily, Sir Richard is a poetical figment, +and the Beresford ghost is a myth, like William Tell: he may be +traced back through various mediaeval authorities almost to the date +of the Norman Conquest. We have examined the story in a little book +of folklore, Etudes Traditionistes. Always there is a compact to +appear, always the ghost burns or injures the hand or wrist of the +spectator. A version occurs in William of Malmesbury. + +What we need, to prove a ghost, and disprove an _exclusively_ +telepathic theory, is a ghost who is not only seen, heard, or even +touched, but a ghost who produces some change in physical objects. +Most provokingly, there are agencies at every successful seance, and +in every affair of the Poltergeist, who do lift tables, chairs, +beds, bookcases, candles, and so forth, while others play +accordions. But then nobody or not everybody _sees_ these agencies +at work, while the spontaneous phantasms which are _seen_ do not so +much as lift a loo-table, generally speaking. In the spiritualistic +cases, we have the effect, with no visible cause; in ghost stories, +we have the visible presence, but he very seldom indeed causes any +physical change in any object. No ghost who does not do this has +any strict legal claim to be regarded as other than a telepathic +hallucination at best, though, as we shall see, some presumptions +exist in favour of some ghosts being real entities. + +These rare facts have not escaped a ghost-hunter so intelligent as +Mrs. Henry Sidgwick. This lady is almost too sportsmanlike, for a +psychical researcher, in her habit of giving an apparition the +benefit of every imaginable doubt which may absolve him from the +charge of being a real genuine ghost. 'It is true,' she says, 'that +ghosts are alleged sometimes to produce a physical effect on the +external world;' but to admit this is 'to come into prima facie +collision with the physical sciences' (an awful risk to run), so +Mrs. Sidgwick, in a rather cavalier manner leaves ghosts who produce +physical effects to be dealt with among the phenomena alleged to +occur at seances. Now this is hardly fair to the spontaneous +apparition, who is doing his very best to demonstrate his existence +in the only convincing way. The phenomena of seances are looked on +with deserved distrust, and, generally, may be regarded as an +outworn mode of swindling. Yet it is to this society that Mrs. +Sidgwick relegates the most meritorious and conscientious class of +apparitions. + +Let us examine a few instances of the ghost who visibly moves +material objects. We take one (already cited) from Mrs. Sidgwick's +own article. {205} In this case a gentleman named John D. Harry +scolded his daughters for saying that _they_ had seen a ghost, with +which he himself was perfectly familiar. 'The figure,' a fair woman +draped in white, 'on seven or eight occasions appeared in my +bedroom, and twice in the library, and on one occasion _it lifted up +the mosquito-curtains_, and looked closely into my face'. Now, +could a hallucination lift a mosquito-curtain, or even produce the +impression that it did so, while the curtain was really unmoved? +Clearly a hallucination, however artful, and well got up, could do +no such thing. Therefore a being--a ghost with very little maidenly +reserve--haunted the bedroom of Mr. Harry, if he tells a true tale. +Again (p. 115), a lady (on whose veracity I am ready to pledge my +all) had doors opened for her frequently, 'as if a hand had turned +the handle'. And once she not only saw the door open, but a grey +woman came in. Another witness, years afterwards, beheld the same +figure and the same performance. Once more, Miss A. M.'s mother +followed a ghost, who _opened a door_ and entered a room, where she +could not be found when she was wanted (p. 121). Again, {206} a +lady saw a ghost which, 'with one hand, the left, _drew back the +curtain_'. There are many other cases in which apparitions are seen +in houses where mysterious thumps and raps occur, especially in +General Campbell's experience (p. 483). If the apparition gave the +thumps then he (or, in this instance, she) was material, and could +produce effects on matter. Indeed, this ghost was seen to take up +and lay down some books, and to tuck in the bed-clothes. +Hallucinations (which are all in one's eye or sensory centre, or +cerebral central terminus), cannot draw curtains, or open doors, or +pick up books, or tuck in bed-clothes, or cause thumps--not real +thumps, hallucinatory thumps are different. Consequently, if the +stories are true, _some apparitions are ghosts_, real objective +entities, filling space. The senses of a hallucinated person may be +deceived as to touch, and as to feeling the breath of a phantasm (a +likely story), as well as in sight and hearing. But a visible ghost +which produces changes in the visible world cannot be a +hallucination. On the other hand Dr. Binns, in his Anatomy of Sleep +tells us of 'a gentleman who, in a dream, pushed against a door in a +distant house, so that those in the room were scarcely able to +resist the pressure'. {207a} Now if this rather staggering anecdote +be true, the spirit of a living man, being able to affect matter, is +also, so to speak, material, and is an actual entity, an astral +body. Moreover, Mrs. Frederica Hauffe, when in the magnetic sleep, +'could rap at a distance'. + +These arguments, then, make in favour of the old-fashioned theory of +ghosts and wraiths, as things objectively existing, which is very +comforting to a conservative philosopher. Unluckily, just as many, +or more, anecdotes look quite the other way. For instance, General +Barter sees, hears, and recognises the dead Lieutenant B., wearing a +beard which he had grown since the general saw him in life. He also +sees the hill-pony ridden by Mr. B., and killed by him--a steed with +which, in its mortal days, the general had no acquaintance. This is +all very well: a dead pony may have a ghost, like Miss A. B.'s dog +which was heard by one Miss B., and seen by the other, some time +after its decease. On mature reflection, as both ladies were well- +known persons of letters, we suppress their names, which would carry +the weight of excellent character and distinguished sense. But +Lieutenant B. was also accompanied by two grooms. Now, it is too +much to ask us to believe that he had killed two grooms, as he +killed the pony. {207b} Consequently, they, at least, were +hallucinations; so what was Lieutenant B.? When Mr. K., on board +the Racoon, saw his dead father lying in his coffin (p. 461), there +was no real coffin there, at all events; and hence, probably, no +real dead father's ghost,--only a 'telepathic hallucination'. Miss +Rose Morton could never _touch_ the female ghost which she often +chased about the house, nor did this ghost break or displace the +threads stretched by Miss Morton across the stairs down which the +apparition walked. Yet its footsteps did make a noise, and the +family often heard the ghost walking downstairs, followed by Miss +Morton. Thus this ghost was both material and immaterial, for +surely, only matter can make a noise when in contact with matter. +On the whole, if the evidence is worth anything, there are real +objective ghosts, and there are also telepathic hallucinations: so +that the scientific attitude is to believe in both, if in either. +And this was the view of Petrus Thyraeus, S.J., in his Loca Infesta +(1598). The alternative is to believe in neither. + +We have thus, according to the advice of Socrates, permitted the +argument to lead us whither it would. And whither has it led us? +The old, savage, natural theory of ghosts and wraiths is that they +are spirits, yet not so immaterial but that they can fill space, be +seen, heard, touched, and affect material objects. Mediaeval and +other theologians preferred to regard them as angelic or diabolic +manifestations, made out of compressed air, or by aid of bodies of +the dead, or begotten by the action of angel or devil on the +substance of the brain. Modern science looks on them as +hallucinations, sometimes morbid, as in madness or delirium, or in a +vicious condition of the organ of sense; sometimes abnormal, but not +necessarily a proof of chronic disease of any description. The +psychical theory then explains a sifted remnant of apparitions; the +coincidental, 'veridical' hallucinations of the sane, by telepathy. +There is a wide chasm, however, to be bridged over between that +hypothesis, and its general acceptance, either by science, or by +reflective yet unscientific inquirers. The existence of thought- +transference, especially among people wide awake, has to be +demonstrated more unimpeachably, and then either the telepathic +explanation must be shown to fit all the cases collected, or many +interesting cases must be thrown overboard, or these must be +referred to some other cause. That cause will be something very +like the old-fashioned ghosts. Perhaps, the most remarkable +collective hallucination in history is that vouched for by Patrick +Walker, the Covenanter; in his Biographia Presbyteriana. {209} In +1686, says Walker, about two miles below Lanark, on the water of +Clyde 'many people gathered together for several afternoons, where +there were showers of bonnets, hats, guns, and swords, which covered +the trees and ground, companies of men in arms marching in order, +upon the waterside, companies meeting companies. . . . and then all +falling to the ground and disappearing, and other companies +immediately appearing in the same way'. This occurred in June and +July, in the afternoons. Now the Westland Whigs were then, as +usual, in a very excitable frame of mind, and filled with fears, +inspired both by events, and by the prophecies of Peden and other +saints. Patrick Walker himself was a high-flying Covenanter, he was +present: 'I went there three afternoons together'--and he saw +nothing unusual occur. About two-thirds of the crowd did see the +phenomena he reckons, the others, like himself, saw nothing strange. +'There was a fright and trembling upon them that did see,' and, at +least in one case, the hallucination was contagious. A gentleman +standing next Walker exclaimed: 'A pack of damned witches and +warlocks, that have the second sight, the deil ha't do I see'. 'And +immediately there was a discernable change in his countenance, with +as much fear and trembling as any woman I saw there, who cried out: +"O all ye that do not see, say nothing; for I perswade you it is +matter of fact, and discernable to all that is not stone-blind".' +Those who did see minutely described 'what handles the swords had, +whether small or three-barred, or Highland guards, and the closing +knots of the bonnets, black or blue. . . . I have been at a loss +ever since what to make of this last,' says Patrick Walker, and who +is not at a loss? The contagion of the hallucination, so to speak, +did not affect him, fanatic as he was, and did affect a cursing and +swearing cavalier, whose prejudices, whose 'dominant idea,' were all +on the other side. The Psychical Society has published an account +of a similar collective hallucination of crowds of people, +'appearing and disappearing,' shared by two young ladies and their +maid, on a walk home from church. But this occurred in a fog, and +no one was present who was not hallucinated. Patrick Walker's +account is triumphantly honest, and is, perhaps, as odd a piece of +psychology as any on record, thanks to his escape from the prevalent +illusion, which, no doubt, he would gladly have shared. Wodrow, it +should be said, in his History of the Sufferings of the Kirk, +mentions visions of bonnets, which, he thinks, indicated a future +muster of militia! But he gives the date as 1684. + + + + + +SCRYING OR CRYSTAL-GAZING + + +Revival of crystal-gazing. Antiquity of the practice. Its general +harmlessness. Superstitious explanations. Crystal-gazing and +'illusions hypnagogiques'. Visualisers. Poetic vision. Ancient +and savage practices analogous to crystal-gazing. New Zealand. +North America. Egypt. Sir Walter's interest in the subject. Mr. +Kinglake. Greek examples. Dr. Dee. Miss X. Another modern +instance. Successes and failures. Revival of lost memories. +Possible thought-transference. Inferences from antiquity and +diffusion of practice. Based on actual experience. Anecdotes of +Dr. Gregory. Children as visionaries. Not to be encouraged. + +The practice of 'scrying,' 'peeping,' or 'crystal-gazing,' has been +revived in recent years, and is, perhaps, the only 'occult' +diversion which may be free from psychological or physical risk, and +which it is easy not to mix with superstition. The antiquity and +world-wide diffusion of scrying, in one form or other, interests the +student of human nature. Meanwhile the comparatively few persons +who can see pictures in a clear depth, may be as innocently employed +while so doing, as if they were watching the clouds, or the embers. +'May be,' one must say, for crystal-seers are very apt to fall back +on our old friend, the animistic hypothesis, and to explain what +they see, or fancy they see, by the theory that 'spirits' are at the +bottom of it all. In Mrs. de Morgan's work From Matter to Spirit, +suggestions of this kind are not absent: 'As an explanation of +crystal-seeing, a spiritual drawing was once made, representing a +spirit directing on the crystal a stream of influence,' and so +forth. Mrs. de Morgan herself seemed rather to hold that the act of +staring at a crystal mesmerises the observer. The person who looks +at it often becomes sleepy. 'Sometimes the eyes close, at other +times tears flow.' People who become sleepy, or cry, or get +hypnotised, will probably consult their own health and comfort by +leaving crystal balls alone. + +There are others, however, who are no more hypnotised by crystal- +gazing than tea-drinking, or gardening, or reading a book, and who +can still enjoy visions as beautiful as those of the opium eater, +without any of the reaction. Their condition remains perfectly +normal, that is, they are wide awake to all that is going on. In +some way their fancy is enlivened, and they can behold, in the +glass, just such vivid pictures as many persons habitually see +between sleeping and waking, illusions hypnagogiques. These +'hypnagogic illusions' Pontus de Tyard described in a pretty sonnet, +more than three hundred years ago. Maury, in his book on dreams has +recorded, and analysed them. They represent faces, places, a page +of print, a flame of fire, and so forth, and it is one of their +peculiarities that the faces rapidly shift and alter, generally from +beautiful to ugly. A crystal-seer seems to be a person who can see, +in a glass, while awake and with open eyes, visions akin to those +which perhaps the majority of people see with shut eyes, between +sleeping and waking. {214} It seems probable that people who, when +they think, see a mental picture of the subject of their thoughts, +people who are good 'visualisers,' are likely to succeed best with +the crystal, some of them can 'visualise' purposely, in the crystal, +while others cannot. Many who are very bad 'visualisers,' like the +writer, who think in words, not in pictures, see bright and distinct +hypnagogic illusions, yet see nothing in the crystal, however long +they stare at it. And there are crystal-seers who are not subject +to hypnagogic illusions. These facts, like the analogous facts of +the visualisation of arithmetical figures, analysed by Mr. Galton, +show interesting varieties in the conduct of mental operations. +Thus we speak of 'vision' in a poet, or novelist, and it seems +likely that men of genius 'see' their fictitious characters and +landscapes, while people of critical temperament, if they attempt +creative work, are conscious that they do not create, but construct. +On the other hand many incompetent novelists are convinced that they +have 'vision,' that they see and hear their characters, but they do +not, as genius does, transfer the 'vision' to their readers. + +This is a digression from the topic of hallucinations caused by +gazing into a clear depth. Forms of crystal-gazing, it is well +known, are found among savages. The New Zealanders, according to +Taylor, gaze in a drop of blood, as the Egyptians do in a drop of +ink. In North America, the Pere le Jeune found that a kind of +thought reading was practised thus: it was believed that a sick +person had certain desires, if these could be gratified, he would +recover. The sorcerers, therefore, gazed into water in a bowl +expecting to see there visions of the desired objects. The Egyptian +process with the boy and the ink, is too familiar to need +description. In Scott's Journal (ii. 419) we read of the excitement +which the reports of Lord Prudhoe {215} and Colonel Felix, caused +among the curious. A boy, selected by these English gentlemen, saw +and described Shakspeare, and Colonel Felix's brother, who had lost +an arm. The ceremonies of fumigation, and the preliminary visions +of flags, and a sultan, are not necessary in modern crystal-gazing. +Scott made inquiries at Malta, and wished to visit Alexandria. He +was attracted, doubtless, by the resemblance to Dr. Dee's tales of +his magic ball, and to the legends of his own Aunt Margaret's +Mirror. The Quarterly Review (No. 117, pp. 196-208) offers an +explanation which explains nothing. The experiments of Mr. Lane +were tolerably successful, those of Mr. Kinglake, in Eothen, were +amusingly the reverse. Dr. Keate, the flogging headmaster of Eton, +was described by the seer as a beautiful girl, with golden hair and +blue eyes. The modern explanation of successes would apparently be +that the boy does, occasionally, see the reflection of his +interrogator's thoughts. + +In a paper in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research +(part xiv.), an anonymous writer gives the results of some +historical investigation into the antiquities of crystal-gazing. +The stories of cups, 'wherein my lord divines,' like Joseph, need +not necessarily indicate gazing into the deeps of the cup. There +were other modes of using cups and drops of wine, not connected with +visions. At Patrae, in Greece, Pausanias describes the dropping of +a mirror on to the surface of a well, the burning of incense, and +the vision of the patient who consults the oracle in the deeps of +the mirror. {216a} A Christian Father asserts that, in some cases, +a basin with a glass bottom was used, through which the gazer saw +persons concealed in a room below, and took them for real visions. +{216b} In mirror-magic (catoptromancy), the child seer's eyes were +bandaged, and he saw with the top of his head! The Specularii +continued the tradition through the Middle Ages, and, in the +sixteenth century Dr. Dee ruined himself by his infatuation for +'show-stones,' in which Kelly saw, or pretended to see, visions +which Dr. Dee interpreted. Dee kept voluminous diaries of his +experiments, part of which is published in a folio by Meric +Casaubon. The work is flighty, indeed crazy; Dee thought that the +hallucinations were spirits, and believed that his 'show-stones' +were occasionally spirited away by the demons. Kelly pretended to +hear noises in the stones, and to receive messages. + +In our own time, while many can see pictures, few know what the +pictures represent. Some explain them by interpreting the +accompanying 'raps,' or by 'automatic writing'. The intelligence +thus conveyed is then found to exist in county histories, +newspapers, and elsewhere, a circumstance which lends itself to +interpretation of more sorts than one. Without these very dubious +modes of getting at the meaning of the crystal pictures, they +remain, of course, mere picturesque hallucinations. The author of +the paper referred to, is herself a crystal-seer, and (in Borderland +No. 2) mentions one very interesting vision. She and a friend +stared into one of Dr. Dee's 'show-stones,' at the Stuart +exhibition, and both beheld the same scene, not a scene they could +have guessed at, which was going on at the seer's own house. As +this writer, though versed in hallucinations, entirely rejects any +'spiritual' theory, and conceives that, she is dealing with purely +psychological curiosities, her evidence is the better worth notice, +and may be compared with that of a crystal-seer for whose evidence +the present writer can vouch, as far as one mortal may vouch for +that of another. + +Miss X., the writer in the Psychical Proceedings, has been able to +see pictures in crystals and other polished surfaces, or, indeed, +independently of these, since childhood. She thinks that the +visions are:-- + +1. After-images, or recrudescent memories (often memories of things +not consciously noted). + +2. Objectivations of ideas or images, consciously or unconsciously +present to the mind. + +3. Visions, possibly telepathic or clairvoyant, implying +acquirement of knowledge by supernormal means. The first class is +much the most frequent in this lady's experience. She can +occasionally refresh her memory by looking into the crystal. + +The other seer, known to the writer, cannot do this, and her +pictures, as far as she knows, are purely fanciful. Perhaps an +'automatic writer' might interpret them, in the rather dubious +manner of that art. As far as the 'scryer' knows, however, her +pictures of places and people are not revivals of memory. For +example, she sees an ancient ship, with a bird's beak for prow, come +into harbour, and behind it a man carrying a crown. This is a mere +fancy picture. On one occasion she saw a man, like an Oriental +priest, with a white caftan, contemplating the rise and fall of a +fountain of fire: suddenly, at the summit of the fire, appeared a +human hand, pointing downwards, to which the old priest looked up. +This was in August, 1893. Later in the month the author happened to +take up, at Loch Sheil, Lady Burton's Life of Sir Richard Burton. +On the back of the cover is a singular design in gold. A woman in +widow's weeds is bowing beneath rays of light, over which appears a +human hand, marked R. F. B. on the wrist. The author at once wrote +asking his friend the crystal-gazer if she had seen this work of +art, which might have unconsciously suggested the picture. The +lady, however, was certain that she had not seen the Life of Sir +Richard Burton, though her eye, of course, may have fallen on it in +a bookseller's shop, while her mind did not consciously take it in. +If this was a revival of a sub-conscious memory in the crystal, it +was the only case of that process in her experience. + +On the other hand Miss X. can trace many of her visions to memories, +as Maury could in his illusions hypnagogiques. Thus, Miss X. saw in +the crystal, the printed announcement of a friend's death. She had +not consciously read the Times, but remembered that she had held it +up before her face as a firescreen. This kind of revival, as she +says, corresponds to the writing, with planchette, of scraps from +the Chanson de Roland, by a person who had never _consciously_ read +a line of it, and who did not even know what stratum of Old French +was represented by the fragments. Miss X. seems not to know either; +for she calls it 'Provencal'. Similar instances of memory revived +are not very uncommon in dreams. Miss X. can consciously put a +group of fanciful characters into the crystal, while this is beyond +the power of the seer known to the writer, who has attempted to +perceive what a friend is doing at a distance, but with no success. +Thus she tried to discover what the writer might be about, and +secured a view of two large sunny rooms, with a shadowy figure +therein. Now it is very probable that the writer was in just such a +room, at --- Castle, but the seer saw, on the library table, a +singular mirror, which did not exist there, and a model of a castle, +also non-existent. The knowledge that the person sought for was +staying at a 'castle,' may have unconsciously suggested this model +in the picture. + +A pretty case of revived memory is given by Miss X. She wanted the +date of Ptolemy Philadelphus. Later, in the crystal, she saw a +conventional old Jew, writing in a book with massive clasps. Using +a magnifying glass, she found that he was writing Greek, but the +lines faded, and she only saw the Roman numerals LXX. These +suggested the seventy Hebrews who wrote the Septuagint, with the +date, 277 B.C., which served for Ptolemy Philadelphus. Miss X. +later remembered a memoria technica which she had once learned, with +the clue, 'Now Jewish elders indite a Greek copy'. It is obvious +that these queer symbolical reawakenings of memory explain much of +the (apparently) 'unknown' information given by 'ghosts,' and in +dreams. A lady, who had long been in very bad health, was one +evening seized by a violent recrudescence of memory, and for hours +poured out the minutest details of the most trivial occurrences; the +attack was followed by a cerebral malady from which she fortunately +recovered. The same phenomenon of awakened memory has occasionally +been reported by people who were with difficulty restored after +being seven-eighths drowned. + +The crystal ball, in the proper hands, merely illustrates the +possibility of artificially reviving memory, while the fanciful +visions, akin to illusions hypnagogiques, have, in all ages, been +interpreted by superstition as revelations of the distant or the +future. Of course, if there is such a thing as occasional +transference of thought, so that the idea in the inquirer's mind is +reflected in the crystal-gazer's vision, the hypothesis of the +superstitious will fix on this as a miracle, still more will that +hypothesis be strengthened, if future or distant events, not +consciously known, are beheld. Such things must occasionally occur, +by chance, in the myriad confusions of dreams, and, to the same +extent, in crystal visions. Miss X.'s three cases of possible +telepathy in her own experience are trivial, and do not seem to rise +beyond the possibility of fortuitous coincidence: and her possible +clairvoyant visions she leaves to the judgment of the reader, 'to +interpret as clairvoyance, or coincidence, or prevision, or whatever +else he will'. The crystal-gazer known to the author once managed +to see the person (unknown to her) who was in the mind of the other +party in the experiment. But she has made scarcely any experiments +of this description. + +The inferences to be drawn from crystal-gazing are not unimportant. +First, we note that the practice is very ancient and widely +diffused, among civilised and uncivilised people. In this diffusion +it answers to the other practices, the magical rites of Australian +blacks, Greeks, Eskimo; to the stories of 'death-bed wraiths,' of +rappings, and so forth. Now this uniformity, as far as regards the +latter phenomena, may be explained by transmission of ideas, or by +the uniformity of human nature, while the phenomena themselves may +be mere inventions like other myths. In the case of crystal-gazing, +however, we can scarcely push scepticism so far as to deny that the +facts exist, that hallucinations are actually provoked. The +inference is that a presumption is raised in favour of the actuality +of the other phenomena universally reported. They, too, may +conceivably be hallucinatory; the rappings and haunting noises may +be auditory, as the crystal visions are ocular hallucinations. The +sounds so widely attested may not cause vibrations in the air, just +as the visions are not really _in_ the crystal ball. As the +unconscious self suggests the pictures in the ball, so it may +suggest the unexplained noises. But while, as a rule, only one +gazer sees the visions, the sounds (usually but not invariably) are +heard by all present. On the whole, the one case wherein we find +facts, if only facts of hallucination, at the bottom of the belief +in a world-wide and world-old practice, rather tends in the +direction of belief in the other facts, not less universally +alleged. We know too much about mythology to agree with Dr. +Johnson, in holding that 'a belief, which prevails as far as human +nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth,' that +'those who never heard of one another would not have agreed in a +tale which nothing but experience could make credible'. But, on the +other hand, a belief is not necessarily untrue, because it is +universally diffused. + +In the second place, crystal-gazing shows how a substratum of fact +may be so overlaid with mystic mummeries, incantations, fumigations, +pentacles: and so overwhelmed in superstitious interpretations, +introducing fairies and spirits, that the facts run the risk of +being swept away in the litter and dust of nonsense. Science has +hardly thought crystal-gazing worthy even of contempt, yet it +appears to deserve the notice of psychologists. To persons who can +'scry,' and who do not see hideous illusions, or become hypnotised, +or superstitious, or incur headaches, scrying is a harmless gateway +into Les Paradis Artificiels. 'And the rest, they may live and +learn.' {223} + +A very few experiments will show people whether they are scryers, or +not. The phenomena, it seems, are usually preceded by a mistiness, +or milkiness, of the glass: this clears off, and pictures appear. +Even the best scryers often fail to see anything in the crystal +which maintains its natural 'diaphaneity,' as Dr. Dee says. Thus +the conditions under which the scryer can scry, are, as yet, +unascertained. + +The phenomena of scrying were not unknown to Dr. Gregory, Professor +of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Gregory believed +in 'odylic fluid' on the evidence of Reichenbach's experiments, +which nobody seems to have repeated successfully under strict tests. +Clairvoyance also was part of Dr. Gregory's faith, and, to be fair, +phenomena were exhibited at his house, in the presence of a learned +and distinguished witness known to the writer, which could only be +accounted for either by thought transference, or by an almost, or +quite incredible combination of astuteness, and imposture on the +side of Dr. Gregory himself. In presence of the _clairvoyants_ the +nobleman of whom we speak thought not of his own house, but of a +room in the house of a friend. It possessed a very singular feature +which it is needless to describe here, but which was entirely out of +the experience of the clairvoyante. She described it, however, +expressing astonishment at what she 'saw'. This, unless Dr. Gregory +guessed what was likely to be thought of, and was guilty of +collusion, can only be explained by thought transference. In other +cases the doctor was convinced that he had evidence of actual +clairvoyance, and it is difficult to estimate the amount of evidence +which will clear such a belief of the charge of credulity. As to +'scrying' the doctor thought it could be done in 'mesmerised water,' +water bewitched. There is no reason to imagine that 'mesmerised' is +different from ordinary water. {224} He knew that folklore retained +the belief in scrying in crystal balls, and added some superfluous +magical incantations. The doctor himself was lucky enough to buy an +old magical crystal in which some boys, after long staring, saw +persons unknown to themselves, but known to the professor, and also +persons known to neither. A little girl, casually picking up a +crystal ball, cried, 'There's a ship in it, with its cloth all in +rags. Now it tumbles down, and a woman is working at it, and holds +her head in her hand.' This is a very fair example of a crystal +fancy picture. The child's mother, not having heard what the child +said, saw the same vision (p. 165). But this is a story at third +hand. The doctor has a number of cases, and held that crystal +possesses an 'odylic' quality. But a ball of glass serves just as +well as a ball of crystal, and is much less expensive. + +Children are naturally visionaries, and, as such, are good subjects +for experiment. But it may be a cruel, and is a most injudicious +thing, to set children a-scrying. Superstition may be excited, or +the half-conscious tendency to deceive may be put in motion. + +Socrates and Joan of Arc were visionaries as children. Had Joan's +ears been soundly boxed, as Robert de Baudricourt advised, France +might now be an English province. But they were not boxed, happily +for mankind. Certainly much that is curious may be learned by any +one who, having the confidence of a child, will listen to his, or +her, accounts of spontaneous visions. The writer, as a boy, knew a +child who used to lie prone on the grass watching fairies at play in +the miniature forest of blades and leaves. This child had a +favourite familiar whom he described freely, but as his remarks were +received with good-humoured scepticism, no harm came to him. He +would have made a splendid scryer, still, 'I speak of him but +brotherly,' his revelations would have been taken with the largest +allowances. If scrying, on examination, proves to be of real +psychological interest, science will owe another debt to folklore, +to the folk who kept alive a practice which common-sense would not +deign even to examine. + + + + + +THE SECOND SIGHT + + +The Gillie and the fire-raising. Survival of belief in second +sight. Belief in ancient Greece and elsewhere. Examples in +Lapland. Early evidence as to Scotch second sight. Witches burned +for this gift. Examples among the Covenanting Ministers. Early +investigations by English authors: Pepys, Aubrey, Boyle, Dicky +Steele, De Foe, Martin, Kirk, Frazer, Dr. Johnson. Theory of +visions as caused by Fairies. Modern example of Miss H. Theory of +Frazer of Tiree (1700). 'Revived impressions of sense.' Examples. +Agency of Angels. Martin. Modern cases. Bodily condition of the +seer. Not epileptic. The second-sighted Minister. The visionary +Beadle. Transference of vision by touch. Conclusion. + +Some years ago, the author was fishing in a river of Inverness- +shire. He drove to the stream, picked up an old gillie named +Campbell, and then went on towards the spot where he meant to begin +angling. A sheep that lay on the road jumped up suddenly, almost +under the horse's feet, the horse shied, and knocked the dogcart +against a wall. On the homeward way we observed a house burning, +opposite the place where the horse shied, and found that a farmer +had been evicted, and his cottage set on fire. This unhappy person, +it seems, was in debt to all his tradesmen, not to his landlord +only. The fire-raising, however, was an excessively barbaric method +of getting him to leave the parish, and the view justified the +indignation of the gillie. The old gillie, much excited, declared +that the horse had foreseen this event in the morning, and had, +consequently, shied. In a more sceptical spirit the author reminded +Campbell of the sheep which started up. 'That sheep was the devil,' +Campbell explained, nor could this rational belief of his be shaken. +The affair led to a conversation on the second sight, and Campbell +said, 'he had it not,' 'but his sister (or sister-in-law) had it'. + +Campbell was a very agreeable companion, interested in old events, +and a sympathiser, as he said, in spite of his name, with the great +Montrose. His remarks led the author to infer that, contrary to +what some inquirers wrote in the last, and Graham Dalyell in the +present century, the belief in the second sight is still quite +common in the Highlands. As will be shown later, this inference was +correct. + +We must not, from this survival only, draw the conclusion that the +Highlanders are more superstitious than many educated people south +of the Highland line. Second sight is only a Scotch name which +covers many cases called telepathy and clairvoyance by psychical +students, and casual or morbid hallucinations by other people. In +second sight the percipient beholds events occurring at a distance, +sees people whom he never saw with the bodily eye, and who +afterwards arrive in his neighbourhood; or foresees events +approaching but still remote in time. The chief peculiarity of +second sight is, that the visions often, though not always, are of a +_symbolical_ character. A shroud is observed around the living man +who is doomed; boding animals, mostly black dogs, vex the seer; +funerals are witnessed before they occur, and 'corpse-candles' (some +sort of light) are watched flitting above the road whereby a burial +procession is to take its way. {228} Though we most frequently hear +the term 'second sight' applied as a phrase of Scotch superstition, +the belief in this kind of ominous illusion is obviously universal. +Theoclymenus, in the Odyssey, a prophet by descent, and of the same +clan as the soothsayer Melampus, beholds the bodies and faces of the +doomed wooers, 'shrouded in night'. The Pythia at Delphi announced +a similar symbolic vision of blood-dripping walls to the Athenians, +during the Persian War. Again, symbolic visions, especially of +blood-dripping walls, are so common in the Icelandic sagas that the +reader need only be referred to the prodigies before the burning of +Njal, in the Saga of Burnt Njal. Second sight was as popular a +belief among the Vikings as among the Highlanders who retain a large +share of their blood. It may be argued by students who believe in +the borrowing rather than in the independent evolution of ideas, +that the Gaelic second sight is a direct inheritance from the +Northmen, who have left so many Scandinavian local names in the +isles and along the coasts. + +However this may be, the Highland second sight is different, in many +points, from the clairvoyance and magic of the Lapps, those famous +sorcerers. On this matter the History of Lapland, by Scheffer, +Professor of Law in Upsala, is generally cited (Oxford, 1674). +'When the devil takes a liking to any person in his infancy,' says +Scheffer, 'he presently seizes on him by a disease, in which he +haunts him with several apparitions.' This answers, in magical +education, to Smalls, or Little Go. + +Some Lapps advance to a kind of mystic Moderations, and the great +sorcerers attain to Final Schools, and are Bachelors in Black Arts. +'They become so knowing that, _without_ the drum they can see things +at the greatest distances; and are so possessed by the devil that +they see things even against their will.' The 'drum' is a piece of +hollow wood covered with a skin, on which rude pictures are drawn. +An index is laid on the skin, the drum is tapped, and omens are +taken from the picture on which the index happens to rest. But this +practice has nothing to do with clairvoyance. In Scheffer's account +of Lapp seers we recognise the usual hysterical or epileptic lads, +who, in various societies become saints, mediums, warlocks, or +conjurers. But Scheffer shows that the Lapp experts try, +voluntarily, to see sights, whereas, except when wrapped in a bull's +hide of old, or cowering in a boiler at the present day, the +Highland second-sighted man lets his visions come to him +spontaneously and uninvoked. Scheffer wished to take a magical drum +from a Lapp, who confessed with tears, that, drum or no drum, he +would still see visions, as he proved by giving Scheffer a minute +relation 'of whatever particulars had happened to me in my journey +to Lapland. And he further complained, that he knew not how to make +use of his eyes, since things altogether distant were presented to +them.' When a wizard is consulted he dances round till he falls, +lies on the ground as if dead, and, finally, rises and declares the +result of his clairvoyance. His body is guarded by his friends, and +no living thing is allowed to touch it. Tornaeus was told many +details of his journey by a Lapp, 'which, although it was true, +Tornaeus dissembled to him, lest he might glory too much in his +devilish practices'. Olaus Magnus gives a similar account. The +whole performance, except that the seer is not bound, resembles the +Eskimo 'sleep of the shadow,' more than ordinary Highland second +sight. The soul of the seer is understood to be wandering away, +released from his body. + +The belief in clairvoyance, in the power of seeing what is distant, +and foreseeing what is in the future, obviously and undeniably +occurs everywhere, in ancient Israel, as in Mexico before the +Spanish Conquest, and among the Red Indian tribes as among the +Zulus. It is more probable that similar hallucinatory experiences, +morbid, or feigned, or natural, have produced the same beliefs +everywhere, than that the beliefs were evolved only by 'Aryans,'-- +Greeks or Scandinavians--and by them diffused all over the world, to +Zulus, Lapps, Indians of Guiana, Maoris. + +One of the earliest references to Scotch second sight is quoted by +Graham Dalyell from Higden's Polychronicon (i. lxiv.). {231a} +'There oft by daye tyme, men of that islonde seen men that bey dede +to fore honde, byheded' (like Argyll, in 1661), 'or hole, and what +dethe they deyde. Alyens setten theyr feet upon feet of the men of +that londe, for to see such syghtes as the men of that londe doon.' +This method of communicating the hallucination by touch is described +in the later books, such as Kirk's Secret Commonwealth (1691), and +Mr. Napier, in his Folklore, mentions the practice as surviving in +the present century. From some records of the Orkneys, Mr. Dalyell +produces a trial for witchcraft on Oct. 2, 1616. {231b} This case +included second sight. The husband of Jonka Dyneis being in a +fishing-boat at Walls, six miles from her residence at Aith, and in +peril, she was 'fund and sein standing at hir awin hous wall, in ane +trans, that same hour he was in danger; and being trappit, she could +not give answer, bot stude as bereft of hir senssis: and quhen she +was speirit at quhy she wes so movit, she answerit, "Gif our boit be +not tynt, she is in great hazard,"--and wes tryit so to be'. + +Elspeth Reoch, in 1616, was tried as a witch for a simple piece of +clairvoyance, or of charlatanism, as we may choose to believe. The +offence is styled 'secund sicht' in the official report. Again, +Issobell Sinclair, in 1633, was accused, almost in modern +spiritualistic phrase, of 'bein _controlled_ with the phairie, and +that be thame, shoe hath the second sight'. {232a} Here, then, we +find it officially recorded that the second-sighted person is +entranced, and more or less unconscious of the outer world, at the +moment of the vision. Something like le petit mal, in epilepsy, +seems to be intended, the patient 'stude as bereft of hir senssis'. +{232b} Again, we have the official explanation of the second sight, +and that is the spiritualistic explanation. The seer has a fairy +'control'. This mode of accounting for what 'gentle King Jamie' +calls 'a sooth dreame, since they see it walking,' inspires the +whole theory of Kirk (1691), but he sees no harm either in 'the +phairie,' or in the persons whom the fairies control. In Kirk's own +time we shall find another minister, Frazer of Tiree, explaining the +visions as 'revived impressions of sense' (1705), and rejecting +various superstitious hypotheses. + +The detestable cruelty of the ministers who urged magistrates to +burn second-sighted people, and the discomfort and horror of the +hallucinations themselves, combined to make patients try to free +themselves from the involuntary experience. As a correspondent of +Aubrey's says, towards the end of the sixteenth century: 'It is a +thing very troublesome to them that have it, and would gladly be rid +of it . . . they are seen to sweat and tremble, and shreek at the +apparition'. {232c} 'They are troubled for having it judging it a +sin,' and they used to apply to the presbytery for public prayers +and sermons. Others protested that it was a harmless accident, +tried to teach it, and endeavoured to communicate the visions by +touch. + +As usual among the Presbyterians a minister might have abnormal +accomplishments, work miracles of healing, see and converse with the +devil, shine in a refulgence of 'odic' light, or be second-sighted. +But, if a layman encroached on these privileges, he was in danger of +the tar-barrel, and was prosecuted. On the day of the battle of +Bothwell Brig, Mr. Cameron, minister of Lochend, in remote Kintyre, +had a clairvoyant view of the fight. 'I see them (the Whigs) flying +as clearly as I see the wall,' and, as near as could be calculated, +the Covenanters ran at that very moment. {233a} How Mr. Cameron +came to be thought a saint, while Jonka Dyneis was burned as a +sinner, for precisely similar experiences, is a question hard to +answer. But Joan of Arc, the saviour of France, was burned for +hearing voices, while St. Joseph of Cupertino, in spite of his +flights in the air, was canonised. Minister or medium, saint or +sorcerer, it was all a question of the point of view. As to +Cameron's and Jonka's visions of distant contemporary events, they +correspond to what is told of Apollonius of Tyana, that, at Ephesus, +he saw and applauded the murder of Domitian at Rome; that one +Cornelius, in Padua, saw Caesar triumph at Pharsalia; that a maniac +in Gascony beheld Coligny murdered in Paris. {233b} In the whole +belief there is nothing peculiarly Scotch or Celtic, and Wodrow +gives examples among the Dutch. + +Second Sight, in the days of James VI. had been a burning matter. +After the Restoration, a habit of jesting at everything of the kind +came in, on one hand; on the other, a desire to investigate and +probe the stories of Scotch clairvoyance. Many fellows of the Royal +Society, and learned men, like Robert Boyle, Henry More, Glanvill, +Pepys, Aubrey, and others, wrote eagerly to correspondents in the +Highlands, while Sacheverell and Waldron discussed the topic as +regarded the Isle of Man. Then came special writers on the theme, +as Aubrey, Kirk, Frazer, Martin, De Foe (who compiled a catch-penny +treatise on Duncan Campbell, a Highland fortune-teller in London), +Theophilus Insulanus (who was urged to his task by Sir Richard +Steele), Wodrow, a great ghost-hunter: and so we reach Dr. Johnson, +who was 'willing to be convinced,' but was not under conviction. In +answer to queries circulated for Aubrey, he learned that 'the godly' +have not the faculty, but 'the virtuous' may have it. But Wodrow's +saint who saw Bothwell Brig, and another very savoury Christian who +saw Dundee slain at Killiecrankie, may surely be counted among 'the +godly'. There was difference of opinion as to the hereditary +character of the complaint. A correspondent of Aubrey's vouches for +a second-sighted man who babbled too much 'about the phairie,' and +'was suddenly removed to the farther end of the house, and was there +almost strangled'. {234} This implies that spirits or 'Phairies' +lifted him, as they did to a seer spoken of by Kirk, and do to the +tribal medicine-men of the Australians, and of course, to 'mediums'. + +Contemporary with Aubrey was the Rev. Robert Kirk of Aberfoyle, a +Celtic scholar who translated the Bible into Gaelic. In 1691 he +finished his Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Faunes and Fairies, +whereof only a fragment has reached us. It has been maintained that +the book was printed in 1691, but no mortal eye has seen a copy. In +1815 Sir Walter Scott printed a hundred copies from a manuscript in +the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh. He did not put his name on the +book, but Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in a note on his own copy, +affirms that Sir Walter was the editor. {235} Another edition was +edited, for Mr. Nutt, by the present writer, in 1893. In the year +following the completion of his book Mr. Kirk died, or, as local +tradition avers, was carried away to fairyland. + +Mr. Kirk has none of the Presbyterian abhorrence of fairies and +fauns, though, like the accusers of the Orkney witches, he believes +that 'phairie control' inspires the second-sighted men, who see them +eat at funerals. The seers were wont to observe doubles of living +people, and these doubles are explained as 'co-walkers' from the +fairy world. This 'co-walker' 'wes also often seen of old to enter +a hous, by which the people knew that the person of that liknes wes +to visite them within a few days'. + +Now this belief is probably founded on actual hallucinatory +experience, of which we may give a modern example. In the early +spring of 1890, a lady, known to the author, saw the 'copy, echo, or +living picture,' of a stranger, who intended (unknown to her) to +visit her house, but who did not carry out his intention. The +author can vouch for her perfect integrity, and freedom both from +superstition, and from illusions, except in this case. Miss H. +lives in Edinburgh, and takes in young men as boarders. At the time +of this event, she had four such inmates. Two, as she believed, +were in their study on the second floor; two were in the drawing- +room on the first floor, where she herself was sitting. The hour +was seven o'clock in the evening, and the lamp on the stair was lit. +Miss H. left the drawing-room, and went into a cupboard on the +landing, immediately above the lamp. She saw a young gentleman, of +fair complexion, in a suit of dark blue, coming down the staircase +from the second floor. Supposing him to be a friend of her boarders +whose study was on that floor, she came out of the cupboard, closed +the door to let him pass, and made him a slight bow. She did not +hear him go out, nor did the maid who was standing near the street +door. She did not see her two friends of the upstairs study till +nine o'clock: they had been at a lecture. When they met, she said: +'Did you take your friend with you?' + +'What friend?' + +'The fair young man who left your rooms at seven.' + +'We were out before seven, we don't know whom you mean.' + +The mystery of the young man, who could not have entered the house +without ringing, was unsolved. Next day a lady living exactly +opposite Miss H.'s house, asked that lady if she could give +hospitality to a young man who was coming to Edinburgh from the +country. Miss H. assented, and prepared a room, but the visitor, +she was informed, went to stay with a relation of his own. Two days +later Miss H. was looking out of her dining-room window after +luncheon. + +'Why, there's my ghost!' she exclaimed, and her friends, running to +the window, allowed that he answered to the description. The +'ghost' went into the house of Miss H.'s friend on the other side of +the street, and Miss H., with natural curiosity, sallied out, and +asked who he was. He was the young man for whom she had prepared a +room. During his absence in the country, his 'co-walker' had +visited the house at which he intended to stay! + +Coincidences of this kind, then, gave rise to the belief in this +branch of second sight. + +Though fairies are the 'phantasmogenetic agencies' in second sight, +a man may acquire the art by magic. A hair rope which has bound a +corpse to a bier is wound about him, and then he looks backward +'through his legs' till he sees a funeral. The vision of a seer can +be communicated to any one who puts his left foot under the wizard's +right foot. + +This is still practised in some parts of the Highlands, as we shall +see, but, near Inverness, the custom only survives in the memory of +some old people. {237} Mr. Kirk's wizards defended the lawfulness +of their clairvoyance by the example of Elisha seeing Gehazi at a +distance. {238} The second sight was hereditary in some families: +this is no longer thought to be the case. Kirk gives some examples +of clairvoyance, and prescience: he then quotes and criticises Lord +Tarbatt's letters to Robert Boyle. Second sight 'is a trouble to +most of them, and they would be rid of it at any rate, if they +could'. One of our own informants says that the modern seers are +anxious when they feel the vision beginning: they do not, however, +regard the power as unholy or disreputable. Another informant +mentions a belief that children born between midnight and one +o'clock will be second-sighted. People attempt to hasten or delay +the birth, so as to avoid the witching hour; clearly then they +regard the second sight as an unenviable accomplishment. 'It is +certane' says Kirk, 'he sie more fatall and fearfull things, than he +do gladsome.' For the physical condition of the seer, Kirk +describes it as 'a rapture, transport, and sort of death'. Our +contemporary informants deny that, in their experience, any kind of +convulsion or fit accompanies the visions, as in Scott's account of +Allan Macaulay, in the Legend of Montrose. + +Strangely unlike Mr. Kirk, in style and mode of thought, is his +contemporary, the Rev. Mr. Frazer of Tiree and Coll; Dean of the +Isles. We cannot call a clergyman superstitious because, 200 years +ago, he believed in good and bad angels. Save for this element in +his creed, Mr. Frazer may be called strictly and unexpectedly +scientific. He was born in Mull in 1647, being the son of the Rev. +Farquhard Frazer, a cadet of the house of Lovat. The father was one +of the first Masters of Arts who ever held the living of Coll and +Tiree: in his time only three landed gentlemen of the McLeans could +read and write. The son, John, was educated at Glasgow University, +and succeeded to his father's charge, converting the lairds and +others 'to the true Protestant faith' (1680). At the Revolution, or +later, being an Episcopalian and Jacobite, he was deprived of his +stipend, but was not superseded and continued the exercise of his +ministry till his death in 1702. Being in Edinburgh in 1700, he met +Andrew Symson, a relation of his wife: they fell into discourse on +the second sight, and he sent his little manuscript to Symson who +published it in 1707. There is an Edinburgh reprint, by Webster, in +1820. The work is dedicated to Lord Cromartie, the Lord Tarbatt of +Kirk's book, and the correspondent of Pepys. Symson adds a preface, +apologising for Mr. Frazer's lack of books and learned society, and +giving an example of transference of second sight: the seer placed +his foot on that of the person interested, who then saw a ship +labouring in a storm. The tale was not at first hand. + +Mr. Frazer, in his tractate, first deals with the question of fact, +of the hallucinations called second sight: 'That such +representations are made to the eyes of men and women, is to me out +of all doubt, and that affects follow answerable thereto, as little +questionable'. But many doubt as to the question of fact, +'wherefore so little has been written about it'. Four or five +instances, he thinks, will suffice, 1. A servant of his left a barn +where he slept, 'because nightly he had seen a dead corps in his +winding sheet, straighted beside him'. In about half a year a young +man died _and was buried_ in the barn. 2. Mr. Frazer went to stay +in Mull with Sir William Sacheverell, who wrote on second sight in +the Isle of Man, and was then engaged in trying to recover treasures +from the vessel of the Armada sunk in Tobermory Bay. The Duke of +Argyll has a cannon taken from Francis I. at Pavia, which was raised +from this vessel, and, lately, the fluke of a ship's anchor brought +up a doubloon. But the treasure still lies in Tobermory Bay. Mr. +Frazer's tale merely is that a woman told a sailor to bid him leave +a certain boy behind. The sailor did not give the message, the boy +died, and the woman said that she had seen the lad 'walking with me +in his winding sheets, sewed up from top to toe,' that this portent +never deceived her. 3. A funeral was seen by Duncan Campbell, in +Kintyre, he soon found himself at the real funeral. + +4. John Macdonald saw a sea-captain all wet, who was drowned, +'about a year thereafter'. The seer 'was none of the strictest +life'. 5. A man in Eigg foretold an invasion and calamities. The +vision was fulfilled by a landing of English forces in 1689, when +Mr. Frazer himself was a prisoner of Captain Pottinger's, in Eigg. +He next mentions an old woman who, in a syncope or catalepsy, +believed she had been in heaven. She had a charm of barbarous +words, whereby she could see the answers to questions 'in live +images before her eyes, or upon the wall, but the images were not +tractable (tangible), which she found by putting to her hand, but +could find nothing'. In place of burning this poor crone, Mr. +Frazer reasoned with her, 'taught her the danger and vanity of her +practice,' and saw her die peacefully in extreme old age. + +Seeking for an explanation Mr. Frazer gives a thoroughly modern +doctrine of visual and auditory hallucinations, as revived +impressions of sense. The impressions, 'laid up in the brain, will +be reversed back to the retiform coat and crystalline humour,' hence +'a lively seeing, as if, de novo, the object had been placed before +the eye'. He illustrates this by experiments in after-images. He +will not deny, however, that angels, good or bad, may intentionally +cause the revival of impressions, and so, for their own purposes, +produce the hallucinations from within. The coincidence of the +hallucination with future events may arise from the fore-knowledge +of the said angels, who, if evil, are deceptive, like Ahab's false +prophets. The angel then, who, through one channel or another, +fore-knows, or anticipates an event, 'has no more to do than to +reverse the species of these things from a man's brain to the organ +of the eye'. Substitute telepathy, the effect produced by a distant +mind, for angels, and we have here the very theory of some modern +inquirers. Mr. Frazer thinks it unlikely that _bad_ angels delude +'several men that I have known to be of considerable sense, and +pious and good conversation'. He will not hear of angels making +bodies of 'compressed air' (an old mystic idea), which they place +before men's eyes. His own hypothesis is more economical of marvel. +He has not observed second sight to be hereditary. If asked why it +is confined to ignorant islanders, he denies the fact. It is as +common elsewhere, but is concealed, for fear of ridicule and odium. +He admits that credulity and ignorance give opportunities to evil +spirits 'to juggle more frequently than otherwise they would have +done'. So he 'humbly submits himself to the judgment of his +betters'. Setting aside the hypothesis of angels, Mr. Frazer makes +only one mistake, he does not give instantiae contradictoriae, where +the hallucination existed without the fulfilment. He shows a good +deal of reading, and a liking for Sir Thomas Browne. The difference +between him and his contemporary, Mr. Kirk, is as great as that +between Herodotus and Thucydides. + +Contemporary with Frazer is Martin Martin, whose Description of the +Western Isles (1703, second edition 1716) was a favourite book of +Dr. Johnson's, and the cause of his voyage to the Hebrides. Martin +took his M.A. degree at Edinburgh University in 1681. He was a +curious observer, political and social, and an antiquarian. He +offers no theory of the second sight, and merely recounts the +current beliefs in the islands. The habit is not, in his opinion, +hereditary, nor does he think that the vision can be communicated by +touch, except by one to another seer. Where several seers are +present, all do not necessarily see the vision. 'At the sight of a +vision, the eyelids of the person are erected, and the eyes continue +staring until the object vanish,' as Martin knew by observing seers +at the moment of the experience. Sometimes it was necessary to draw +down the eyelids with the fingers. Sickness and swooning +occasionally accompanied the hallucination. The visions were +usually symbolical, shrouds, coffins, funerals. Visitors were seen +before their arrival. 'I have been seen thus myself by seers of +both sexes at some 100 miles distance; some that saw me in this +manner had never seen me personally, and it happened according to +their visions, without any previous design of mine to go to those +places, my coming there being purely accidental.' Children are +subject to the vision, the horse of a seer, or the cow a second- +sighted woman is milking, receives the infection, at the moment of a +vision, sweats and trembles. Horses are very nervous animals, cows +not so much so. + +As to objections, the people are very temperate, and madness is +unknown, hence they are not usually visionary. That the learned +'are not able to oblige the world with a satisfying account of those +visions,' is no argument against the fact of their occurrence. The +seers are not malevolent impostors, and there are cases of second- +sighted folk of birth and education, 'nor can a reasonable man +believe that children, horses, and cows could be pre-engaged in a +combination to persuade the world of the reality of the second +sight'. The gift is not confined to the Western Islands, and Martin +gives a Dutch example, with others from the Isle of Man. His +instances are of the usual sort, the fulfilment was sometimes long +deferred. He mentions a case, but not that given by Mr. Frazer, in +the Isle of Eigg. The natives had been at Killiecrankie, and one of +them murdered an English soldier in Skye, hence the English invasion +of 1689, in which a pretty girl (as had been prophesied by a seer) +was brutally ill-treated. The most interesting cases are those in +which strangers are seen, and peculiarities in their dress observed +before their arrival. In the Pirate Scott shows how Norna of the +Fitful Head managed to utter such predictions by aid of early +information; and so, as Cleveland said, 'prophesied on velvet'. +There are a few cases of a brownie being seen, once by a second- +sighted butler, who observed brownie directing a man's game at +chess. Martin's book was certainly not calculated to convince Dr. +Johnson; his personal evidence only proves that a kind of +hallucinatory trance existed, or was feigned. + +Later than Martin we have the long work of Theophilus Insulanus, +which contains many 'cases,' of more or less interest or absurdity. +But Theophilus is of no service to the framer of philosophical or +physiological theories of the second sight. The Presbyterian clergy +generally made war on the belief, but one of them, as Mrs. Grant +reports in her Essays, {244} had an experience of his own. This +good old pastor's 'daidling bit,' or lounge, was his churchyard. In +an October twilight, he saw two small lights rise from a spot +unmarked by any stone or memorial. These 'corpse-candles' crossed +the river, stopped at a hamlet, and returned, attended by a larger +light. All three sank into the earth on the spot whence the two +lights had risen. The minister threw a few stones on the spot, and +next day asked the sexton who lay there. The man remembered having +buried there two children of a blacksmith who lived at the hamlet on +the opposite side of the water. The blacksmith died next day! This +did more for second sight, probably, than all the minister's sermons +could do against the belief. + +As we began by stating, it is a popular superstition among the +learned that the belief in second sight has died out among the +Highlanders. Fifty years ago, Dr. McCulloch, in his Description of +the Western Islands, wrote thus: 'Second sight has undergone the +fate of witchcraft; ceasing to be believed, it has ceased to exist'. +{245} Now, as to whether second sight exists or not, we may think +as we please, but the belief in second sight is still vivacious in +the Highlands, and has not altered in a single feature. A well- +known Highland minister has been kind enough to answer a few +questions on the belief as it is in his parish He first met a +second-sighted man in his own beadle, 'a most respectable person of +entirely blameless life'. After citing a few examples of the +beadle's successful hits, our informant says: 'He told me that he +felt the thing coming on, and that it was always preceded by a sense +of discomfort and anxiety. . . . There was no epilepsy, and no +convulsion of any kind. He felt a sense of great relief when the +vision had passed away, and he assured me repeatedly that the gift +was an annoyance rather than a pleasure to him,' as the Lapp also +confessed to Scheffer. 'Others who had the same gift have told me +the same thing.' Out of seven or eight people liable to this +malady, or whatever we are to call it, only one, we learn, was other +than robust, healthy, and steady. In two instances the seers were +examined by a physician of experience, and got clean bills of mental +and bodily health. An instance is mentioned in which the beadle, +alone in a boat with a friend, on a salt-water loch, at night, saw a +vision of a man drowning in a certain pool of a certain river. A +shepherd's plaid lay on the bank. The beadle told his companion +what he saw, and set his foot on his friend's, who then shared his +experience. This proves the continuity of the belief that the +hallucination can be communicated by contact. {246} As a matter of +evidence, it would have been better if the beadle had not first told +his friend what he saw. Both men told our informant next day, and +the vision was fulfilled 'scarcely a week afterwards'. This vision, +granting the honesty of the seers, was a case of 'clairvoyance,' but +'symbolical hallucinations' frequently occur. In our informant's +experience the gift is not hereditary. + +On the whole subject Dr. Stewart, of Nether Lochaber, wrote several +articles in the Inverness Courier, during the autumn of 1893. The +Highland clergy have, doubtless, some difficulty in dealing with the +belief among their parishioners. But, as the possession of the +accomplishment is no longer regarded as criminal, and as the old +theories of diabolical possession, or fairy inspiration, are not +entertained, at least by the educated, the seers are probably to be +regarded as merely harmless visionaries. At most we may say, with +the poet:-- + +Lo, the sublime telepathist is here. + +The belief in witchcraft is also as lively in the Highlands, as in +Devonshire, but, while the law takes no cognisance of it, no great +harm is done. The witchcraft mainly relies on 'sympathetic magic,' +on perforating a clay image of an enemy with needles and so forth. +There is a very recent specimen in the Pitt Rivers collection, at +the museum in Oxford. It was presented, in a scientific spirit, by +the victim, who was 'not a penny the worse,' unlike Sir George +Maxwell of Pollok, two centuries ago. + +Though second sight is so firmly rooted in Celtic opinion, the +tourist or angler who 'has no Gaelic' is not likely to hear much of +it. But, when trout refuse to rise, and time hangs heavy in a boat +on a loch, it is a good plan to tell the boatman some ghostly +Sassenach tales. Then, perhaps, he will cap them from his own +store, but point-blank questions from an inquiring southron are of +very little use. Nobody likes to be cross-examined on such matters. +Unluckily the evidence, for facts not for folklore, is worthless +till it has stood the severest cross-examination. + + + + +GHOSTS BEFORE THE LAW + + +Sir Walter Scott on rarity of ghostly evidence. His pamphlet for +the Bannatyne Club. His other examples. Case of Mirabel. The +spectre, the treasure, the deposit repudiated. Trials of Auguier +and Mirabel. The case of Clenche's murder. The murder of Sergeant +Davies. Acquittal of the prisoners. An example from Aubrey. The +murder of Anne Walker. The case of Mr. Booty. An example from +Maryland, the story of Briggs and Harris. The Valogne phantasm. +Trials in the matter of haunted houses. Cases from Le Loyer. +Modern instances of haunted houses before the law. Unsatisfactory +results of legal investigations. + +'What I do not know is not knowledge,' Sir Walter Scott might have +said, with regard to bogles and bar-ghaists. His collection at +Abbotsford of such works as the Ephesian converts burned, is +extensive and peculiar, while his memory was rich in tradition and +legend. But as his Major Bellenden sings, + +Was never wight so starkly made, +But time and years will overthrow. + +When Sir Walter in 1831, wrote a brief essay on ghosts before the +law, his memory was no longer the extraordinary engine, wax to +receive, and marble to retain, that it had been. It is an example +of his dauntless energy that, even in 1831, he was not only toiling +at novels, and histories, and reviews, to wipe out his debts, but +that, as a pure labour of love, he edited, for the Bannatyne Club, +'The trial of Duncan Terig alias Clerk, and Alexander Bane +Macdonald, for the murder of Arthur Davis, sergeant in General +Guise's regiment of foot, June, 1754'. + +The trial, as Sir Walter says, in his dedication to the Bannatyne +Club, 'involves a curious point of evidence,' a piece of 'spectral +evidence' as Cotton Mather calls it. In another dedication (for +there are two) Scott addresses Sir Samuel Shepherd, remarking that +the tract deals with 'perhaps the only subject of legal inquiry +which has escaped being investigated by his skill, and illustrated +by his genius'. That point is the amount of credit due to the +evidence of a ghost. In his preface Sir Walter cites the familiar +objection of a learned judge that 'the ghost must be sworn in usual +form, but in case he does not come forward, he cannot be heard, as +now proposed, through the medium' (medium indeed!) 'of a third +party'. It seems to be a rule of evidence that what a dead man said +may be received, on the report of the person with whom he +communicated. A ghost is a dead man, and yet he is deprived, +according to the learned judge's ruling, of his privilege. Scott +does not cite the similar legend in Hibernian Tales, the chap book +quoted by Thackeray in his Irish Sketch-book. In that affair, when +the judge asked the ghost to give his own evidence: 'Instantly +there came a dreadful rumbling noise into the court--"Here am I that +was murdered by the prisoner at the bar"'. The Hibernian Tales are +of no legal authority, nor can we give chapter and verse for another +well-known anecdote. A prisoner on a charge of murder was about to +escape, when the court observed him looking suspiciously over his +shoulder. 'Is there no one present,' the learned judge asked in +general, 'who can give better testimony?' 'My lord,' exclaimed the +prisoner, 'that wound he shows in his chest is twice as big as the +one I gave him.' In this anecdote, however, the prisoner was +clearly suffering from a hallucination, as the judge detected, and +we do not propose to consider cases in which phantasms bred of +remorse drove a guilty man to make confession. + +To return to Scott; he remarks that believers in ghosts must be +surprised 'to find how seldom in _any_ country an allusion hath been +made to such evidence in a court of justice'. Scott himself has +only 'detected one or two cases of such apparition evidence,' which +he gives. Now it is certain, as we shall see, that he must have +been acquainted with several other examples, which did not recur to +his memory: the memory of 1831 was no longer that of better years. +Again, there were instances of which he had probably never possessed +any knowledge, while others have occurred since his death. We shall +first consider the cases of spectral evidence (evidence that is of a +dead man's ghost, not of a mere wraith) recorded by Sir Walter, and +deal later with those beyond his memory or knowledge. {250} Sir +Walter's first instance is from Causes Celebres, (vol. xii., La +Haye, 1749, Amsterdam, 1775, p. 247). Unluckily the narrator, in +this collection, is an esprit fort, and is assiduous in attempts to +display his wit. We have not a plain unvarnished tale, but +something more like a facetious leading article based on a trial + +Honore Mirabel was a labouring lad, under age, near Marseilles. His +story was that, in May (year not given), about eleven at night, he +was lying under an almond tree, near the farm of a lady named Gay. +In the moonlight he saw a man at an upper window of a building +distant five or six paces, the house belonged to a Madame Placasse. +Mirabel asked the person what he was doing there; got no answer, +entered, and could see nobody. Rather alarmed he went to a well, +drew some water, drank, and then heard a weak voice, bidding him dig +there for treasure, and asking that masses might be said for the +soul of the informant. A stone then fell on a certain spot; stone- +throwing is a favourite exercise with ghosts everywhere. + +With another labourer, one Bernard, Mirabel dug, found a packet of +dirty linen, and, fearing that it might hold the infection of +plague, dipped it in wine, for lack of vinegar. The parcel +contained more than a thousand Portuguese gold coins. Bernard and +his mistress were present at the opening of the parcel, but Mirabel +managed to conceal from them the place where he hid it, not a very +likely story. He was grateful enough to pay for the desired masses, +and he had himself bled four times to relieve his agitation. +Mirabel now consulted a merchant in Marseilles, one Auguier, who +advised him to keep his old coins a mystery, as to put them into +circulation would lead to inquiry and inconvenience. He lent +Mirabel some ready money, and, finally, induced Mirabel to entrust +the Portuguese hoard to his care. The money was in two bags, one +fastened with gold-coloured ribbon, the other with linen thread. +Auguier gave a receipt, and now we get a date, Marseilles, September +27, 1726. Later Auguier (it seems) tried to murder Mirabel, and +refused to return the deposit. Mirabel went to law with him: +Auguier admitted that Mirabel had spoken to him about having found a +treasure which he would entrust to Auguier, but denied the rest. In +his house was found a ribbon of a golden hue, such as Mirabel used +to tie up his bag, and a little basket which has no obvious +connection with the matter. The case was allowed to come on, there +were sixteen witnesses. A woman named Caillot swore to Mirabel's +having told her about the ghost: she saw the treasure excavated, +saw the bags, and recognised the ribbon. A man had seen Mirabel on +his way to give Auguier his bags, and, indeed, saw him do so, and +receive a piece of paper. He also found, next day, a gold coin on +the scene of the interview. A third witness, a woman, was shown the +treasure by Mirabel. + +The narrator here makes the important reflection that Providence +could not allow a ghost to appear merely to enrich a foolish +peasant. But, granting ghosts (as the narrator does), we can only +say that, in ordinary life, Providence permits a number of +undesirable events to occur. Why should the behaviour of ghosts be +an exception? + +Other witnesses swore to corroborating circumstances. Auguier +denied everything, experts admitted that the receipt was like his +writing, but declared it to be forged; the ribbon was explained as +part of his little daughter's dress. The judge decided--no one will +guess what--_that Auguier should be put to the torture_! + +Auguier appealed: his advocate urged the absurdity of a ghost-story +on a priori grounds: if there was no ghost, then there was no +treasure: if there was a treasure, would not the other digger have +secured his share? That digger, Bernard, was not called. Then +Auguier pled an alibi, he was eight leagues away when he was said to +have received the treasure. Why he did not urge this earlier does +not appear. + +Mirabel's advocate first defended from the Bible and the Fathers, +the existence of ghosts. The Faculty of Theology, in Paris, had +vouched for them only two years before this case, in 1724. The +Sorbonne had been as explicit, in 1518. 'The Parliament of Paris +_often_ permitted the tenant of a haunted house to break his +contract.' {253} Ghosts or no ghosts, Mirabel's counsel said, there +_was_ a treasure. In his receipt Auguier, to deceive a simple +peasant, partially disguised his hand. Auguier's alibi is +worthless, he might easily have been at Marseilles and at Pertuis on +the same day: the distance is eight leagues. + +Bernard was now at last called in; he admitted that Mirabel told him +of the ghost, that they dug, and found some linen, but that he never +saw any gold. He had carried the money from Mirabel to pay for the +masses due to the ghost. Mirabel had shown him a document, for +which he said he had paid a crown, and Bernard (who probably could +not read) believed it to be like Auguier's receipt. Bernard, of +course, having been denied his share, was not a friendly witness. A +legal document was put in, showing that Madame Placasse (on whose +land the treasure lay) summoned Mirabel to refund it to her. The +document was a summons to him. But this document was forged, and +Mirabel, according to a barrister whom he had consulted about it, +said it was handed to him by a man unknown. Why the barrister +should have betrayed his client is not clear. Mirabel and +Marguerite Caillot, his first witness, who had deposed to his +telling her about the ghost, and to seeing the excavation of the +packet, were now arrested, while Auguier remained in prison. +Marguerite now denied her original deposition, she had only spoken +to oblige Mirabel. One Etienne Barthelemy was next arrested: he +admitted that he had 'financed' Mirabel during the trial, but denied +that he had suborned any witnesses. Two experts differed, as usual, +about Auguier's receipt; a third was called in, and then they +unanimously decided that it was not in his hand. On February 18, +1729, Auguier was acquitted, Mirabel was condemned to the torture, +and to the galley, for life. Marguerite Caillot was fined ten +francs. _Under torture_ Mirabel accused Barthelemy of having made +him bring his charge against Auguier, supplying him with the forged +receipt and with the sham document, the summons to restore the gold +to Madame Placasse. Oddly enough he still said that he had handed +sacks of coin to Auguier, and that one of them was tied up with the +gold-coloured ribbon. Two of his witnesses, _under torture_, stuck +to their original statements. They were sentenced to be hung up by +the armpits, and Barthelemy was condemned to the galleys for life. + +It is a singular tale, and shows strange ideas of justice. Once +condemned to the galleys, Mirabel might as well have made a clean +breast of it; but this he did not do: he stuck to his bags and +gold-coloured ribbon. Manifestly Mirabel would have had a better +chance of being believed in court if he had dropped the ghost +altogether. It is notable that Sir Walter probably gave his version +of this affair from memory: he says that Mirabel 'was non-suited +upon the ground that, if his own story was true, the treasure, by +the ancient laws of France, belonged to the crown'. + +Scott's next case is very uninteresting, at least as far as it is +given in Howell's State Trials, vol. xii. (1692), p. 875. + +A gentleman named Harrison had been accused of beguiling a Dr. +Clenche into a hackney coach, on pretence of taking him to see a +patient. There were two men in the coach, besides the doctor. They +sent the coachman on an errand, and when he came back he found the +men fled and Clenche murdered. He had been strangled with a +handkerchief. On evidence which was chiefly circumstantial, +Harrison was found guilty, and died protesting his innocence. Later +a Mrs. Milward declared that her husband, before his death, +confessed to her that he and a man named Cole were the murderers of +Dr. Clenche. The ghost of her husband persecuted her, she said, +till Cole was arrested. Mr. Justice Dolben asked her in court for +the story, but feared that the jury would laugh at her. She +asserted the truth of her story, but, if she gave any details, they +are not reported. Cole was acquitted, and the motives of Mrs. +Milward remain obscure. + +Coming to the tract which he reprints, Sir Walter says that his +notice was first drawn to it, in 1792, by Robert McIntosh, Esq., one +of the counsel in the case, which was heard in Edinburgh, June 10, +1754. Grant of Prestongrange, the Lord Advocate well known to +readers of Mr. Stevenson's Catriona, prosecuted Duncan Terig or +Clerk, and Alexander Bain Macdonald, for the murder of Sergeant +Arthur Davies on September 28, 1749. They shot him on Christie +Hill, at the head of Glenconie. There his body remained concealed +for some time, and was later found with a hat marked with his +initials, A. R. D. They are also charged with taking his watch, two +gold rings, and a purse of gold, whereby Clerk, previously +penniless, was enabled to take and stock two farms. + +Donald Farquharson, in Glendee, deposes that, in June, 1750, +Alexander Macpherson sent for him, and said that he was much +troubled by the ghost of the serjeant, who insisted that he should +bury his bones, and should consult Farquharson. Donald did not +believe this quite, but trembled lest the ghost should vex him. He +went with Macpherson, who showed the body in a peat-moss. The body +was much decayed, the dress all in tatters. Donald asked Macpherson +whether the apparition denounced the murderers: he replied that the +ghost said it would have done so, had Macpherson not asked the +question. They buried the body on the spot, Donald attested that he +had seen the Serjeant's rings on the hand of Clerk's wife. For +three years the prisoners had been suspected by the country side. + +Macpherson declared that he had seen an apparition of a man in blue, +who said, 'I am Serjeant Davies,' that he at first took this man for +a brother of Donald Farquharson's, that he followed the man, or +phantasm, to the door, where the spectre repeated its assertions, +and pointed out the spot where the bones lay. He found them, and +then went, as already shown, to Donald Farquharson. Between the +first vision and the burying, the ghost came to him naked, and this +led him to inter the remains. On the second appearance, the ghost +denounced the prisoners. Macpherson gave other evidence, not +spectral, which implicated Clerk. But, when asked what language the +ghost spoke in, he answered, 'as good Gaelic as he had ever heard in +Lochaber'. 'Pretty well,' said his counsel, Scott's informant, +McIntosh, 'for the ghost of an English serjeant.' This was probably +conclusive with the jury, for they acquitted the prisoners, in the +face of the other incriminating evidence. This was illogical. +Modern students of ghosts, of course, would not have been staggered +by the ghost's command of Gaelic: they would explain it as a +convenient hallucinatory impression made by the ghost on the mind of +the 'percipient'. The old theologians would have declared that a +good spirit took Davies's form, and talked in the tongue best known +to Macpherson. Scott's remark is, that McIntosh's was 'no sound +jest, for there was nothing more ridiculous in a ghost speaking a +language which he did not understand when in the body, than there +was in his appearing at all'. But jurymen are not logicians. +Macpherson added that he told his tale to none of the people with +him in the sheiling, but that Isobel McHardie assured him she 'saw +such a vision'. Isobel, in whose service Macpherson had been, +deponed that, while she lay at one end of the sheiling and +Macpherson at the other, 'she saw something naked come in at the +door, which frighted her so much that she drew the clothes over her +head'. Next day she asked Macpherson what it was, and he replied +'she might be easy, for that it would not trouble them any more'. + +The rest of the evidence went very strongly against the accused, but +the jury unanimously found them 'Not Guilty'. + +Scott conjectures that Macpherson knew of the murder (as indeed he +had good reason, if his non-spectral evidence is true), but that he +invented the ghost, whose commands must be obeyed, that he might +escape the prejudice entertained by the Celtic race against citizens +who do their duty. Davies, poor fellow, was a civil good-humoured +man, and dealt leniently (as evidence showed) with Highlanders who +wore the tartan. Their national costume was abolished, as we all +know, by English law, after the plaid had liberally displayed +itself, six miles south of Derby, in 1745. + +So far it is plain that 'what the ghost said is not evidence,' and +may even ruin a very fair case, for there can be little doubt as to +who killed Serjeant Davies. But examples which Scott forgot, for of +course he knew them, prove that, in earlier times, a ghost's +testimony was not contemned by English law. Cases are given, with +extracts from documents, in a book so familiar to Sir Walter as +Aubrey's Miscellanies. Aubrey (b. 1626, d. 1697) was a F.R.S., and, +like several other contemporary Fellows of the Royal Society, was a +keen ghost hunter. He published {259} 'A full and true Relation of +the Examination and Confession of William Barwick, and Edward +Mangall, of two horrid murders'. + +Barwick killed his wife, who was about to bear a child, near Cawood +in Yorkshire, on April 14, 1690. Barwick had intrigued with his +wife before marriage, and perhaps was 'passing weary of her love'. +On April 14, Palm Monday, he went to his brother-in-law, Thomas +Lofthouse, near York, who had married Mrs. Barwick's sister. He +informed Lofthouse that he had taken Mrs. Barwick, for her +confinement, to the house of his uncle, Harrison, in Selby. On +September 17, at York assizes, Lofthouse swore that on Easter +Tuesday (eight days after Palm Monday, namely April 22), he was +watering a quickset hedge, at mid-day, when he saw 'the apparition +in the shape of a woman walking before him'. She sat down opposite +the pool whence he drew water, he passed her as he went, and, +returning with his pail filled, saw her again. She was dandling on +her lap some white object which he had not observed before. He +emptied his pail, and, 'standing in his yard' looked for her again. +She was no longer present. She wore a brown dress and a white hood, +'such as his wife's sister usually wore, and her face looked extream +pale, her teeth in sight, no gums appearing, her visage being like +his wife's sister'. + +It certainly seems as if this resemblance was an after-thought of +Lofthouse's, for he dismissed the matter from his mind till prayers, +when it 'discomposed his devotions'. He then mentioned the affair +to his wife, who inferred that her sister had met with foul play. +On April 23, that is the day after the vision, he went to Selby, +where Harrison denied all knowledge of Mrs. Barwick. On April 24, +Lofthouse made a deposition to this effect before the mayor of York, +but, in his published statement of that date, he only avers that +'hearing nothing of the said Barwick's wife, he imagined Barwick had +done her some mischief'. There is not a word hereof the phantasm +sworn to by Lofthouse at the assizes on September 17. Nevertheless, +on April 24, Barwick confessed to the mayor of York, that 'on Monday +was seventh night' (there seems to be an error here) he 'found the +conveniency of a pond' (as Aubrey puts it) 'adjoining to a quickwood +hedge,' and there drowned the woman, and buried her hard by. At the +assizes, Barwick withdrew his confession, and pleaded 'Not Guilty'. +Lofthouse, his wife, and a third person swore, however, that the +dead woman was found buried in her clothes by the pond side, and on +the prisoner's confession being read, he was found guilty, and +hanged in chains. Probably he was guilty, but Aubrey's dates are +confused, and we are not even sure whether there were two ponds, and +two quickset hedges, or only one of each. Lofthouse may have seen a +stranger, dressed like his sister-in-law, this may have made him +reflect on Barwick's tale about taking her to Selby; he visited that +town, detected Barwick's falsehood, and the terror of that discovery +made Barwick confess. + +Surtees, in his History of Durham, published another tale, which +Scott's memory did not retain. In 1630, a girl named Anne Walker +was about to have a child by a kinsman, also a Walker, for whom she +kept house. Walker took her to Dame Care, in Chester le Street, +whence he and Mark Sharp removed her one evening late in November. +Fourteen days afterwards, late at night, Graime, a fuller, who lived +six miles from Walker's village, Lumley, saw a woman, dishevelled, +blood-stained, and with five wounds in her head, standing in a room +in his mill. She said she was Anne Walker, that Mark Sharp had +slain her with a collier's pick, and thrown her body into a coal- +pit, hiding the pick under the bank. After several visitations, +Graime went with his legend to a magistrate, the body and pick-axe +were discovered, Walker and Sharp were arrested, and tried at +Durham, in August, 1631. Sharp's boots, all bloody, were found +where the ghost said he had concealed them 'in a stream'; how they +remained bloody, if in water, is hard to explain. Against Walker +there was no direct evidence. The prisoners, the judge summing up +against them, were found guilty and hanged, protesting their +innocence. + +It is suggested that Graime himself was the murderer, else, how did +he know so much about it? But Walker and Sharp were seen last with +the woman, and the respectable Walker was not without a motive, +while, at this distance, we can conjecture no motive in the case of +Graime. {262} Cockburn's Voyage up the Mediterranean is the +authority (ii. 35) for a very odd trial in the Court of King's +Bench, London. The logs of three ships, under Captains Barnaby, +Bristow and Brown, were put in to prove that, on Friday, 15th May, +1687, these men, with many others, were shooting rabbits on +Stromboli: that when beaters and all were collected, about a +quarter to four, they _all_ saw a man in grey, and a man in black +run towards them, the one in grey leading, that Barnaby exclaimed, +'The foremost is old Booty, my next door neighbour,' that the +figures vanished into the flames of the volcano. This occurrence, +by Barnaby's desire, they noted in their journals. They were all +making merry, on October 6, 1687, at Gravesend, when Mrs. Barnaby +remarked to her husband: 'My dear, old Booty is dead!' The captain +replied: 'We all saw him run into hell'. Mrs. Booty, hearing of +this remark, sued Barnaby for libel, putting her damages at 1000 +pounds. The case came on, the clothes of old Booty were shown in +court: the date and hour of his death were stated, and +corresponded, within two minutes, to the moment when the mariners +beheld the apparition in Stromboli, 'so the widow lost her cause'. +A mediaeval legend has been revived in this example. + +All these curious legal cases were, no doubt, familiar to Sir Walter +Scott. He probably had no access to an American example which was +reprinted four years after his death, by a member of the club which +he founded, the Bannatyne Club, {263} in 1836. + +The evidence of the ghost-seer was republished by Mrs. Crowe, in her +Night Side of Nature. But Mrs. Crowe neither gives the facts of the +trial correctly, nor indicates the sources of the narrative. The +source was a periodical, The Opera Glass, February 3, 1827, thirty +years after the date of the trial. The document, however, had +existed 'for many years,' in the possession of the anonymous +contributor to The Opera Glass. He received it from one of the +counsel in the case, Mr. Nicholson, afterwards a judge in Maryland, +who compiled it from attested notes made by himself in court. + +The suit was that of James, Fanny, Robert, and Thomas Harris, +devisees of Thomas Harris, v. Mary Harris, relict and administratrix +of James Harris, brother of Thomas, aforesaid (1798-99). Thomas +Harris had four illegitimate children. He held, as he supposed, a +piece of land in fee, but, in fact, he was only seized in tail. +Thus he could not sell or devise it, and his brother James was heir +in tail, the children being bastards. These legal facts were +unknown both to James and Thomas. Thomas made a will, leaving James +his executor, and directing that the land should be sold, and the +money divided among his own children. James, when Thomas died, sold +the land, and, in drawing the conveyance, it was discovered that he +had no right to do so for Thomas, as it was held by Thomas in tail. +James then conveyed his right to the purchaser, and kept the money +as legal heir. Why James could sell, if Thomas could not, the +present writer is unable to explain. In two years, James died +intestate, and the children of Thomas brought a suit against James's +widow. Before James's death, the ghost of Thomas had appeared +frequently to one Briggs, an old soldier in the Colonial Revolt, +bidding James 'return the proceeds of the sale to the orphans' +court, and when James heard of this from Briggs he did go to the +orphans' court, and returned himself to the estate of his brother, +to the amount of the purchase money of the land'. + +Now, before the jury were sworn, the counsel, Wright and Nicholson +for the plaintiffs, Scott and Earle for the defendant, privately +agreed that the money could not be recovered, for excellent legal +reasons. But they kept this to themselves, and let the suit go on, +merely for the pleasure of hearing Briggs, 'a man of character, of +firm, undaunted spirit,' swear to his ghost in a court of law. He +had been intimate with Thomas Harris from boyhood. It may be said +that he invented the ghost, in the interest of his friend's +children. He certainly mentioned it, however, some time before he +had any conversation with it. + +Briggs's evidence may be condensed very much, as the learned Mrs. +Crowe quotes it correctly in her Night Side of Nature. In March, +1791, about nine a.m., Briggs was riding a horse that had belonged +to Harris. In a lane adjoining the field where Harris was buried, +the horse shied, looked into the field where the tomb was, and +'neighed very loud'. Briggs now saw Harris coming through the +field, in his usual dress, a blue coat. Harris vanished, and the +horse went on. As Briggs was ploughing, in June, Harris walked by +him for two hundred yards. A lad named Bailey, who came up, made no +remark, nor did Harris tell him about the hallucination. In August, +after dark, Harris came and laid his arms on Briggs's shoulder. +Briggs had already spoken to James Harris, 'brither to the corp,' +about these and other related phenomena, a groan, a smack on the +nose from a viewless hand, and so forth. In October Briggs saw +Harris, about twilight in the morning. Later, at eight o'clock in +the morning, he was busy in the field with Bailey, aforesaid, when +Harris passed and vanished: Bailey saw nothing. At half-past nine, +the spectre returned, and leaned on a railing: Briggs vainly tried +to make Bailey see him. Briggs now crossed the fence, and walked +some hundreds of yards with Harris, telling him that his will was +disputed. Harris bade Briggs go to his aforesaid brother James, and +remind him of a conversation they had held, 'on the east side of the +wheat-stacks,' on the day when Harris's fatal illness began. James +remembered the conversation, and said he would fulfil his brother's +desire which he actually did. There was a later interview between +Briggs and Harris, the matter then discussed Briggs declined to +impart to the court, and the court overruled the question. 'He had +never related to any person the last conversation, and never would.' + +Bailey was sworn, and deposed that Briggs had called his attention +to Harris, whom _he_ could not see, had climbed the fence, and +walked for some distance, 'apparently in deep conversation with some +person. Witness saw no one.' + +It is plain that the ghost never really understood the legal +question at issue. The dates are difficult to reconcile. Thomas +Harris died in 1790. His ghost appeared in 1791. Why was there no +trial of the case till 'about 1798 or 1799'? Perhaps research in +the Maryland records would elucidate these and other questions; we +do but give the tale, with such authority as it possesses. Possibly +it is an elaborate hoax, played off by Nicholson, the plaintiffs' +counsel, on the correspondent of The Opera Glass, or by him on the +editor of that periodical. + +The hallucinations of Briggs, which were fortunate enough, it is +said, to get into a court of justice, singularly resemble those of +M. Bezuel, in July and August, 1697, though these were not matter of +a sworn deposition. The evidence is in Histoire d'une Apparition +Arrivee a Valogne. {267} The narrator of 1708, having heard much +talk of the affair, was invited to meet Bezuel, a priest, at dinner, +January 7, 1708. He told his one story 'with much simplicity'. + +In 1695, when about fifteen, Bezuel was a friend of a younger boy, +one of two brothers, Desfontaines. In 1696, when Desfontaines minor +was going to study at Caen, he worried Bezuel into signing, in his +blood, a covenant that the first who died should appear to the +survivor. The lads corresponded frequently, every six weeks. On +July 31, 1697, at half-past two, Bezuel, who was hay-making, had a +fainting fit. On August 1, at the same hour, he felt faint on a +road, and rested under a shady tree. On August 2, at half-past two, +he fainted in a hay-loft, and vaguely remembered seeing a half-naked +body. He came down the ladder, and seated himself on a block, in +the Place des Capucins. Here he lost sight of his companions, but +did see Desfontaines, who came up, took his left arm, and led him +into an alley. The servant followed, and told Bezuel's tutor that +he was talking to himself. The tutor went to him, and heard him +asking and answering questions. Bezuel, for three-quarters of an +hour, conversed, as he believed, with Desfontaines, who said that he +had been drowned, while bathing, at Caen, about half-past two on +July 31. The appearance was naked to the waist, his head bare, +showing his beautiful yellow locks. He asked Bezuel to learn a +school task that had been set him as a penalty, the seven +penitential psalms: he described a tree at Caen, where he had cut +some words; two years later Bezuel visited it and them; he gave +other pieces of information, which were verified, but not a word +would he say of heaven, hell, or purgatory; 'he seemed not to hear +my questions'. There were two or three later interviews, till +Bezuel carried out the wishes of the phantasm. + +When the spectral Desfontaines went away, on the first occasion, +Bezuel told another boy that Desfontaines was drowned. The lad ran +to the parents of Desfontaines, who had just received a letter to +that effect. By some error, the boy thought that the _elder_ +Desfontaines had perished, and said so to Bezuel, who denied it, +and, on a second inquiry, Bezuel was found to be right. + +The explanation that Bezuel was ill (as he certainly was), that he +had heard of the death of his friend just _before_ his +hallucination, and had forgotten an impressive piece of news, which, +however, caused the apparition, is given by the narrator of 1708. +The kind of illusion in which a man is seen and heard to converse +with empty air, is common to the cases of Bezuel and of Briggs, and +the writer is acquainted, at first hand, with a modern example. + +Mrs. Crowe cites, on the authority of the late Mr. Maurice Lothian, +solicitor for the plaintiff, a suit which arose out of 'hauntings,' +and was heard in the sheriff's court, at Edinburgh, in 1835-37. But +we are unable to discover the official records, or extracts of +evidence from them. This is to be regretted, but, by way of +consolation, we have the pleadings on both sides in an ancient +French case of a haunted house. These are preserved in his Discours +des Spectres, a closely printed quarto of nearly 1000 pages, by +Pierre le Loyer, Conseiller du Roy au Siege Presidial d'Angers. +{269} Le Loyer says, 'De gayete de coeur semble m'estre voulu +engager au combat contre ceux qui impugnent les spectres!' As Le +Loyer observes, ghosts seldom come into court in civil cases, except +when indicted as nuisances, namely, when they make a hired house +uninhabitable by their frolics. Then the tenant often wants to quit +the house, and to have his contract annulled. The landlord resists, +an action is brought, and is generally settled in accordance with +the suggestion of Alphenus, in his Digests, book ii. Alphenus says, +in brief, that the fear must be a genuine fear, and that reason for +no ordinary dread must be proved. Hence Arnault Ferton, in his +Customal of Burgundy, advises that 'legitimate dread of phantasms +which trouble men's rest and make night hideous' is reason good for +leaving a house, and declining to pay rent after the day of +departure. Covarruvias, a Spanish legist, already quoted, agrees +with Arnault Ferton. The Parliament of Grenada, in one or two +cases, decided in favour of the tenant, and against the landlord of +houses where spectres racketed. Le Loyer now reports the pleadings +in a famous case, of which he does not give the date. Incidentally, +however, we learn that it can hardly have been earlier than 1550. +The cause was heard, on appeal, before the Parlement de Paris. + +Pierre Piquet, guardian of Nicolas Macquereau (a minor), let to +Giles Bolacre a house in the suburbs of Tours. Poor Bolacre was +promptly disturbed by a noise and routing of _invisible_ spirits, +which suffered neither himself nor his family to sleep o' nights. +He then cited Piquet, also Daniel Macquereau, who was concerned in +the letting of the house, before the local seat of Themis. The case +was heard, and the judge at Tours broke the lease, the hauntings +being insupportable nuisances. But this he did without letters +royal. The lessors then appealed, and the case came before the Cour +de Parlement in Paris. Maitre Chopin was for the lessors, Nau +appeared for the tenant. Chopin first took the formal point, the +Tours judge was formally wrong in breaking a covenant without +letters royal, a thing particularly bad in the case of a minor, +Nicolas Macquereau. + +So much for the point of form; as to the matter, Maitre Chopin +laughed at the bare idea of noisy spirits. This is notable because, +in an age when witches were burned frequently, the idea of a haunted +house could be treated by the learned counsel as a mere waggery. +Yet the belief in haunted houses has survived the legal prosecution +of witches. 'The judge in Tours has merely and mischievously +encouraged superstition.' All ghosts, brownies, lutins, are mere +bugbears of children; here Maitre Chopin quotes Plato, and Philo +Judaeus in the original, also Empedocles, Marcus Aurelius, +Tertullian, Quintilian, Dioscorides. Perhaps Bolacre and his family +suffer from nightmare. If so, a physician, not a solicitor, is +their man. Or again, granting that their house _is_ haunted, they +should appeal to the clergy, not to the law. + +Manifestly this is a point to be argued. Do the expenses of +exorcism fall on landlord or tenant? This, we think, can hardly be +decided by a quotation from Epictetus. Alexis Comnenus bids us seek +a bishop in the case of psychical phenomena ([Greek]). So Maitre +Chopin argues, but he evades the point. Is it not the business of +the owner of the house to 'whustle on his ain parten,' to have his +own bogie exorcised? Of course Piquet and Macquereau may argue that +the bogie is Bolacre's bogie, that it flitted to the house with +Bolacre; but that is a question of fact and evidence. + +Chopin concludes that a lease is only voidable in case of material +defect, or nuisance, as of pestilential air, not in a case which, +after all, is a mere vice d'esprit. Here Maitre Chopin sits down, +with a wink at the court, and Nau pleads for the tenant. First, why +abuse the judge at Tours? The lessors argued the case before him, +and cannot blame him for credulity. The Romans, far from rejecting +such ideas (as Chopin had maintained), used a ritual service for +ejecting spooks, so Ovid testifies. Greek and Roman hauntings are +cited from Pliny, Plutarch, Suetonius; in the last case (ghost of +Caligula), the house had to be destroyed, like the house at Wolflee +where the ghost, resenting Presbyterian exorcism, killed the Rev. +Mr. Thomson of Southdean, father of the author of The Castle of +Indolence. 'As to Plato, cited by my learned brother, Plato +believed in hauntings, as we read in the Phaedo,' Nau has him here. +In brief, 'the defendants have let a house as habitable, well +knowing the same to be infested by spirits'. The Fathers are then +cited as witnesses for ghosts. The learned counsel's argument about +a vice d'esprit is a pitiable pun. + +The decision of the court, unluckily, is not preserved by Le Loyer. +The counsel for Bolacre told Le Loyer that the case was adjourned on +the formal point, but, that, having obtained letters royal for his +client, he succeeded in getting the remainder of the lease declared +void. Comparing, however, Bouchel, s. v. Louage, in his +Bibliotheque du droit Francois, one finds that the higher court +reversed the decision of the judge at Tours. In the Edinburgh case, +1835, the tenant, Captain Molesworth, did not try to have his lease +quashed, but he did tear up floors, pull down wainscots, and bore a +hole into the next house, that of his landlord, Mr. Webster, in +search of the cause of the noises. Mr. Webster, therefore, brought +an action to restrain him from these experiments. + +Le Loyer gives two cases of ghosts appearing to denounce murderers +in criminal cases. He possessed the speech of the President Brisson +(at that time an advocate), in which he cited the testimony of the +spectre of Madame de Colommiers, mysteriously murdered in full day, +with her children and their nurse. Her ghost appeared to her +husband, when wide awake, and denounced her own cousins. As there +was no other evidence, beyond the existence of motive, the accused +were discharged. In another well-known case, before the Parlement +de Bretagne, the ghost of a man who had mysteriously vanished, +guided his brother to the spot where his wife and her paramour had +buried him, after murdering him. Le Loyer does not give the date of +this trial. The wife was strangled, and her body was burned. + +Modern times have known dream-evidence in cases of murder, as in the +Assynt murder, and the famous Red Barns affair. But Thomas Harris's +is probably the last ghost cited in a court of law. On the whole, +the ghosts have gained little by these legally attested appearances, +but the trials do throw a curious light on the juridical procedure +of our ancestors. The famous action against the ghosts in the +Eyrbyggja Saga was not before a Christian court, and is too well +known for quotation. {273} + + + + + +A MODERN TRIAL FOR WITCHCRAFT + + +Thorel v. Tinel. Action for libel in 1851. Mr. Dale Owen's +incomplete version of this affair. The suit really a trial for +witchcraft. Spectral obsession. Movements of objects. Rappings. +Incidental folklore. Old G. Thorel and the cure. The wizard's +revenge. The haunted parlour boarder. Examples of magical tripping +up, and provoked hallucinations. Case of Dr. Gibotteau and Berthe +the hospital nurse. Similar case in the Salem affair, 1692. +Evidence of witnesses to abnormal phenomena. Mr. Robert de Saint +Victor. M. de Mirville. Thorel non-suited. Other modern French +examples of witchcraft. + +Perhaps the last trial for witchcraft was the case of Thorel v. +Tinel, heard before the juge de paix of Yerville, on January 28, and +February 3 and 4, 1851. The trial was, in form, the converse of +those with which old jurisprudence was familiar. Tinel, the Cure of +Cideville, did not accuse the shepherd Thorel of sorcery, but Thorel +accused Tinel of defaming his character by the charge of being a +warlock. Just as when a man prosecutes another for saying that he +cheated at cards, or when a woman prosecutes another for saying that +the plaintiff stole diamonds, it is really the guilt or innocence of +the plaintiff that is in question, so the issue before the court at +Yerville was: 'Is Thorel a warlock or not?' The court decided that +he himself had been the chief agent in spreading the slander against +himself, he was non-suited, and had to pay costs, but as to the real +cause of the events which were attributed to the magic of Thorel, +the court was unable to pronounce an opinion. + +This curious case has often been cited, as by Mr. Robert Dale Owen, +in his Footfalls on the Boundary of Another World, {275} but Mr. +Owen, by accident or design, omitted almost all the essential +particulars, everything which connects the affair with such +transactions as the witch epidemic at Salem, and the trials for +sorcery before and during the Restoration. Yet, in the events at +Cideville, and the depositions of witnesses, we have all the +characteristics of witchcraft. First we have men by habit and +repute sorcerers. Then we have cause of offence given to these. +Then we have their threats, malum minatum, then we have evil +following the threats, damnum secutum. Just as of old, that damnum, +that damage, declares itself in the 'possession' of young people, +who become, more or less, subject to trances and convulsions. One +of them is haunted, as in the old witchcraft cases, by the phantasm +of the sorcerer. The phantasm (as in Cotton Mather's examples) is +wounded, a parallel wound is found on the suspected warlock. +Finally, the house where the obsessed victims live is disturbed by +knocks, raps, flight of objects, and inexplicable movements of heavy +furniture. Thus all the notes of a bad affair of witchcraft are +attested in a modern trial, under the third Empire. Finally, some +curious folklore is laid bare, light is cast on rural life and +superstition, and a singular corroboration of a singular statement, +much more recent than the occurrences at Cideville, is obtained. A +more astonishing example of survival cannot be imagined, of +survival, or of disconnected and spontaneous revival and +recrudescence. {276} + +There was at Auzebosc, near famous Yvetot, an old shepherd named G---: +he was the recognised 'wise man,' or white witch of the +district, and some less noted rural adepts gave themselves out as +his pupils. In March, 1849, M. Tinel, Cure of Cideville, visited a +sick peasant, and advised him to discard old G., the shepherd +magical, and send for a physician. G. was present, though +concealed, heard the cure's criticisms, and said: 'Why does he +meddle in my business, I shall meddle in his; he has pupils in his +house, we'll see how long he keeps them.' In a few days, G. was +arrested, as practising medicine unauthorised, was imprisoned for +some months, and fancied that the cure had a share in this +persecution. All this, of course, we must take as 'the clash of the +country side,' intent, as there was certainly damnum secutum, on +establishing malum minatum. + +On a farm near the cure's house in Cideville was another shepherd, +named Thorel, a man of forty, described as dull, illiterate, and +given to boasting about his powers as a disciple of the venerable G. +Popular opinion decided that G. employed Thorel to procure his +vengeance; it was necessary that a sorcerer should _touch_ his +intended victim, and G. had not the same conveniency for doing so as +Thorel. In old witch trials we sometimes find the witch kissing her +destined prey. {277} Thorel, so it was said, succeeded in touching, +on Nov. 25, 1850, M. Tinel's two pupils, in a crowd at a sale of +wood. The lads, of fifteen and twelve, were named Lemonier and +Bunel. For what had gone before, we have, so far, only public +chatter, for what followed we have the sworn evidence in court of +the cure's pupils, in January and February, 1851. According to +Lemonier, on Nov. 26, while studying, he heard light blows of a +hammer, these recurred daily, about 5. p.m. When M. Tinel, his +tutor, said plus fort, the noises were louder. To condense evidence +which becomes tedious by its eternal uniformity, popular airs were +beaten on demand; the noise grew unbearable, tables moved untouched, +a breviary, a knife, a spit, a shoe flew wildly about. Lemonier was +buffeted by a black hand, attached to nobody. 'A kind of human +phantasm, clad in a blouse, haunted me for fifteen days wherever I +went; none but myself could see it.' He was dragged by the leg by a +mysterious force. On a certain day, when Thorel found a pretext for +visiting the house, M. Tinel made him beg Lemonier's pardon, clearly +on the ground that the swain had bewitched the boy. 'As soon as I +saw him I recognised the phantasm which had haunted me for a +fortnight, and I said to M. Tinel: "There is the man who follows +me".' Thorel knelt to the boy, asked his pardon, and pulled +violently at his clothes. As defendant, perhaps, the cure could not +be asked to corroborate these statements. The evidence of the other +boy, Bunel, was that, on Nov. 26, he heard first a rush of wind, +then tappings on the wall. He corroborated Lemonier's testimony to +the musical airs knocked out, the volatile furniture, and the +recognition in Thorel of the phantom. 'In the evening,' said Bunel, +'Lemonier en eut une crise de nerfs dans laquelle il avait perdu +connaissance.' + +Leaving the boys' sworn evidence, and returning to the narrative +with its gossip, we learn that Thorel boasted of his success, and +said that, if he could but touch one of the lads again, the +furniture would dance, and the windows would be broken. Meanwhile, +we are told, nails were driven into points in the floor where +Lemonier saw the spectral figure standing. One nail became red hot, +and the wood round it smoked: Lemonier said that this nail had hit +'the man in the blouse' on the cheek. Now, when Thorel was made to +ask the boy's pardon, and was recognised by him as the phantom, +after the experiment with the nail, Thorel bore on his cheek the +mark of the wound! + +This is in accordance with good precedents in witchcraft. A witch- +hare is wounded, the witch, in her natural form, has the same wound. +At the trial of Bridget Bishop, in the court of Oyer and Terminer, +held at Salem, June 2, 1692, there was testimony brought in that a +man striking once at the place where a bewitched person said the +_shape_ of Mrs. Bishop stood, the bewitched cried out, _that he had +tore her coat_, in the place then particularly specified, and +Bishop's coat was found to be torn in that very place. {279a} Next +day, after Thorel touched the boy, the windows broke, as he had +prophesied. Then followed a curious scene in which Thorel tried, in +presence of the maire, to touch the cure, who retreated to the end +of the room, and struck the shepherd with his cane. Thereupon +Thorel brought his action for libel and assault against the cure. +Forty-two witnesses were heard, it was proved that Thorel had, in +fact, frequently accused himself, and he was non-suited: his +counsel spoke of appealing, but, unluckily, the case was not carried +to a higher court. In a few weeks the boys were sent to their +homes, when (according to the narrative) there were disturbances at +the home of the younger lad. Thus the cure lost his pupils. + +A curious piece of traditional folklore came out, but only as +hearsay, in court. M. Cheval, Maire of Cideville, deposed that a M. +Savoye told him that Thorel had once been shepherd to a M. Tricot. +At that time Thorel said to one of two persons in his company: +'Every time I strike my cabin (a shelter on wheels used by +shepherds) you will fall,' and, at each stroke, the victim felt +something seize his throat, and fell! {279b} This anecdote is +curious, because in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical +Research is a long paper by Dr. Gibotteau, on his experiments with a +hospital nurse called Berthe. This woman, according to the doctor, +had the power of making him see hallucinations, of a nature more or +less horrible, from a distance. She had been taught some +traditional feats of rural sorcery, among others that of making a +man stumble, or fall, as he walked. The doctor does not make any +allusion to the Cideville affair, and it seems probable that this +trick is part of the peasant's magical repertoire, or, rather, that +the peasant warlocks boast of being able to perform the trick. But, +if we can accept the physician's evidence, as 'true for him,' at +least, then a person like Berthe really might affect, from a +distance, a boy like Lemonier with a haunting hallucination. To do +this is witchcraft, and for crimes of this kind, or on false charges +of this kind, poor Mrs. Bishop was burned at Salem in 1692. + +At the lowest, we have all the notes of sorcery as our rude +ancestors knew it, in this modern affair. Two hundred years +earlier, Thorel would have been burned, and G., too, probably, for +the Maire of Cideville swore that before the disturbances, and three +weeks after G. was let out of prison, Thorel had warned him of the +trouble which G. would bring on the cure. Meanwhile the evidence +shows no conscious malignity on the part of the two boys. They at +first took very little notice of the raps, attributing the noises to +mice. Not till the sounds increased, and showed intelligence, as by +drumming tunes, did the lads concern themselves, much about the +matter. At no time (it seems) did they ask to be sent home, and, of +course, to be relieved from their lessons and sent home would be +their motive, if they practised a fraud. We may admit that, from +rural tradition, the boys might have learned what the customary +phenomena are, knocks, raps, moving tables, heavy objects sailing +tranquilly about a room. It would be less easy for them to produce +these phenomena, nor did the people of all classes who flocked to +Cideville detect any imposture. + +A land surveyor swore that the raps went on when he had placed the +boy in an attitude which made fraud (in his opinion) impossible. A +gentleman M. de B. 'took all possible precautions' but, +nevertheless, was entertained by 'a noise which performed the tunes +demanded'. He could discover no cause of the noise. M. Huet, +touching a table with his finger, received responsive raps, which +answered questions, 'at the very place where I struck, and beneath +my finger. I cannot explain the fact, which, I am convinced, was +not caused by the child, nor by any one in the house.' M. Cheval +saw things fly about, he slept in the boy's room, and his pillow +flew from under his head. He lay down between the children, holding +their hands, and placing his feet on theirs, when the coverlet of +the bed arose, and floated away. The Marquis de Mirville had a +number of answers by raps, which staggered him very much, but the +force was quite feeble when he asked for portions of Italian music. +Madame de St. Victor felt herself pushed, and her clothes pulled in +the cure's house, when no one was near her. She also saw furniture +behave in a fantastic manner, and M. Raoul Robert de St. Victor had +many such experiences. M. Paul de St. Victor was not present. A +desk sailed along: paused in air, and fell: 'I had never seen a +movement of this kind, and I admit that I was alarmed'. Le +Seigneur, a farmer, saw 'a variety of objects arise and sail about': +he was certain that the boys did not throw them, and when in their +company, in the open air, between Cideville and Anzooville, 'I saw +stones come to us, without striking us, hurled by some invisible +force'. There was other confirmatory evidence, from men of physic, +and of the law. + +The juge de paix, as we have seen, pronounced that the clearest +point in the case was 'the absence of known cause for the effects,' +and he non-suited Thorel, the plaintiff. + +The cause of the phenomena is, of course, as obscure for us as for +the worthy magistrate. We can only say that, when precisely similar +evidence was brought before judges and juries in England and New +England, at a period when medicine, law, and religion all recognised +the existence of witchcraft, magic, and diabolical possession, they +had scarcely any choice but to condemn the accused. Causa patet, +they said: 'The devil is at the bottom of it all, and the witch is +his minister'. + +The affair of Cideville by no means stands alone in modern France. +In 1853, two doctors and other witnesses signed a deposition as to +precisely similar phenomena attending Adelaide Francoise Millet, a +girl of twelve, at Songhien, in Champagne. The trouble, as at Cock +Lane, began by a sound of scratching on the wood of her bed. The +clerk of the juge de la paix, the master of the Douane, two doctors, +and others visited her, and tied her hands and feet. The noise +continued. Mysterious missiles pursued a girl in Martinique, in +1854. The house, which was stormed by showers of stone, in Paris +(1846), entirely baffled the police. {283a} There is a more +singular parallel to the Cideville affair, the account was printed +from the letter of a correspondent in the Abeille of Chartres, March +11, 1849. {283b} At Gaubert, near Guillonville, a man was +imprisoned for thefts of hay, the property of a M. Dolleans. Two +days after his arrest, namely, on December 31, 1848, the servant of +M. Dolleans had things of all sorts thrown at her from all +directions. She fell ill, and went into hospital for five days, +_where she was untroubled_. On her return, in the middle of a +conversation, ribbons and bits of string would fly at her, and twist +themselves round her neck, as in the case of Francis Fey, of +Spraiton, given by Aubrey and Bovet. Mademoiselle Dolleans +carefully watched the girl for a fortnight, and never let her out of +her sight, but could not discover any fraud. After about a month +the maid was sent home, where she was not molested. Naturally we +see in her the half-insane cunning of hysteria, but that explanation +does not apply to little Master Dolleans, a baby of three months +old. The curse fell on _him_: however closely his parents watched +him, pots and pans showered into his cradle, the narrator himself +saw a miscellaneous collection of household furniture mysteriously +amassed there. + +The Abeille of Chartres held this letter over, till two of its +reporters had visited the scene of action, and interviewed doctors, +priests, and farmers, who all attested the facts. Happily, in this +case, an exorcism by a priest proved efficacious. At Cideville, +holy water and consecrated medals were laughed at by the sprite, +who, by the way, answered to the name of Robert. + + + + + +PRESBYTERIAN GHOST HUNTERS. + + +Religious excitement and hallucination. St. Anthony. Zulu +catechumens. Haunted Covenanters. Strange case of Thomas Smeaton. +Law's 'Memorialls'. A deceitful spirit. Examples of insane and +morbidly sensitive ghosts. 'Le revenant qui s'accuse s'excuse.' +Raising the devil in Irvine. Mode of evocation. Wodrow. His +account of Margaret Lang, and Miss Shaw of Bargarran. The unlucky +Shaws. Lord Torphichen's son. Cases from Wodrow. Lord Middleton's +story. Haunted house. Wraiths. Lord Orrery's ghost no +metaphysician. The Bride of Lammermoor. Visions of the saints. +Their cautiousness. Ghost appearing to a Jacobite. Ghost of a +country tradesman. Case of telepathy known to Wodrow. Avenging +spectres. Lack of evidence. Tale of Cotton Mather. + +In spite of a very general opinion to the opposite effect, it is not +really easy to determine in what kind of age, and in what conditions +of thought and civilisation, ghosts will most frequently appear, and +ghostly phenomena will chiefly abound. We are all ready to aver +that 'ghaists and eldritch fantasies' will be most common 'in the +dark ages,' in periods of ignorance or superstition. But research +in mediaeval chronicles, and in lives of the saints makes it +apparent that, while marvels on a large and imposing scale were +frequent, simple ordinary apparitions and haunted houses occur +comparatively seldom. Perhaps they were too common to be thought +worth noticing, yet they are noticed occasionally, and, even in +these periods of superstition, were apparently regarded as not quite +everyday phenomena. + +One thing in this matter is tolerably certain, namely, that intense +religious excitement produces a tendency to believe in marvels of +all sorts, and also begets a capacity for being hallucinated, for +beholding spectres, strange lights, dubious miracles. Thus every +one has heard of the temptation of St. Anthony, and of other early +Christian Fathers. They were wont to be surrounded by threatening +aspects of wild beasts, which had no real existence. In the same +way the early Zulu converts of Bishop Callaway, when they retired to +lonely places to pray, were haunted by visionary lions, and +phantasms of enemies with assegais. They, probably, had never heard +of St. Anthony's similar experiences, nor, again, of the diabolical +attacks on the converts of Catholic missionaries in Cochin China, +and in Peru. + +Probably the most recent period of general religious excitement in +our country was that of the Covenant in Scotland. Not a mere +scattered congregation or two, as in the rise of Irvingism, but a +vast proportion of a whole people lived lives of prolonged ecstatic +prayer, and often neglected food for days. Consequently devout +Covenanters, retired in lonely places to pray, were apt to be +infested by spectral animals, black dogs as a rule, and they doubted +not at all that the black dog was the Accuser of the Brethren. We +have Catholic evidence, in Father Piatti's Life of Father +Elphinstone, S. J., to black dogs haunting Thomas Smeaton, the +friend of Andrew Melville (1580). But Father Piatti thinks that the +dogs were avenging devils, Smeaton being an apostate (MS. Life of +Elphinstone). Again Covenanters would see mysterious floods of +light, as the heathen also used, but, like the heathen, they were +not certain as to whether the light was produced by good or bad +spirits. Like poor bewildered Porphyry, many centuries earlier, +they found the spirits 'very deceitful'. You never can depend on +them. This is well illustrated by the Rev. Mr. Robert Law, a +Covenanting minister, but _not_ a friend of fanaticism and sedition. + +In his Memorialls, a work not published till long after his death, +he gives this instance of the deceitfulness of sprites. The Rev. +Mr. John Shaw, in Ireland, was much troubled by witches, and by +'cats coming into his chamber and bed'. He died, so did his wife, +'and, as was supposed, witched'. Before Mr. Shaw's death his groom, +in the stable, saw 'a great heap of hay rolling toward him, and then +appeared' (the hay not the groom) 'in the shape and lykness of a +bair. He charges it to appear in human shape, which it did.' The +appearance made a tryst to meet the groom, but Mr. Shaw forbade this +tampering with evil in the lykness of a bair. However a stone was +thrown at the groom, which he took for a fresh invitation from the +bair, so he went to the place appointed. 'The divill appears in +human shape, with his heid running down with blood,' and explains +that he is 'the spirit of a murdered man who lay under his bed, and +buried in the ground, and who was murdered by such a man, naming him +by name'. The groom, very naturally, dug in the spot pointed out by +this versatile phantom, 'but finds nothing of bones or anything lyke +a grave, and shortly after this man dyes,' having failed to discover +that the person accused of murder had ever existed at all. + +Many ghosts have a perfect craze for announcing that bodies or +treasures, are buried where there is nothing of the sort. Glanvill +has a tale of a ghost who accused himself of a murder, and led a man +to a place in a wood where the corpse of the slain was to be found. +There was no corpse, the ghost was mad. The Psychical Society have +published the narratives of a housemaid and a butler who saw a lady +ghost. She, later, communicated through a table her intention to +appear at eleven p.m. The butler and two ladies saw her, the +gentlemen present did _not_. The ghost insisted that jewels were +buried in the cellar; the butler dug, but found none. The writer is +acquainted with another ghost, not published, who labours under +morbid delusions. For reasons wholly unfounded on fact she gave a +great deal of trouble to a positive stranger. Now there was +literally no sense in these proceedings. Such is ghostly evidence, +ever deceitful! + +'It's not good,' says Mr. Law, 'to come in communing terms with +Satan, there is a snare in the end of it;' yet people have actually +been hanged, in England, on the evidence of a ghost! On the +evidence of the devil, some other persons were accused of theft, in +1682. This is a remarkable instance; we often hear of raising the +ghostly foe, but we are seldom told how it can be done. This is how +it was done in February, 1682, at the house of the Hon. Robert +Montgomery, in Irvine. Some objects of silver plate were stolen, a +maid was suspected, she said 'she would raise the devil, but she +would know who the thief was'. Taking, therefore, a Bible, she went +into a cellar, where she drew a circle round her, and turned a sieve +on end twice, from right to left. In her hand she held nine +feathers from the tail of a black cock. She next read Psalm li. +forwards, and then backwards Revelations ix. 19. 'He' then +appeared, dressed as a sailor with a blue cap. At each question she +threw three feathers at him: finally he showed as a black man with +a long tail. Meanwhile all the dogs in Irvine were barking, as in +Greece when Hecate stood by the cross-ways. The maid now came and +told Mrs. Montgomery (on information received) that the stolen plate +was in the box of a certain servant, where, of course, she had +probably placed it herself. However the raiser of the devil was +imprisoned for the spiritual offence. She had learned the rite 'at +Dr. Colvin's house in Ireland, who used to practise this'. + +The experiment may easily be repeated by the scientific. + +Though Mr. Law is strong in witches and magic, he has very few ghost +stories; indeed, according to his philosophy, even a common wraith +of a living person is really the devil in that disguise. The +learned Mr. Wodrow, too, for all his extreme pains, cannot be called +a very successful amateur of spectres. A mighty ghost hunter was +the Rev. Robert Wodrow of Eastwood, in Renfrewshire, the learned +historian of the sufferings of the Kirk of Scotland (1679-1734). +Mr. Wodrow was an industrious antiquarian, a student of geology, as +it was then beginning to exist, a correspondent for twenty years of +Cotton Mather, and a good-hearted kind man, that would hurt nobody +but a witch or a Papist. He had no opportunity to injure members of +either class, but it is plain, from his four large quarto volumes, +called Analecta, that he did not lack the will. In his Analecta Mr. +Wodrow noted down all the news that reached him, scandals about 'The +Pretender,' Court Gossip, Heresies of Ministers, Remarkable +Providences, Woful Apparitions, and 'Strange Steps of Providence'. +Ghosts, second sight, dreams, omens, premonitions, visions, did +greatly delight him, but it is fair to note that he does not vouch +for all his marvels, but merely jots them down, as matters of +hearsay. Thus his pages are valuable to the student of +superstition, because they contain 'the clash of the country' for +about forty years, and illustrate the rural or ecclesiastical +aberglaube of our ancestors, at the moment when witchcraft was +ceasing to be a recognised criminal offence. + +A diary of Wodrow's exists, dating from April 3, 1697, when he was +but nineteen years of age. On June 10, 1697, he announces the +execution of some witches at Paisley: seven were burned, among them +one, Margaret Lang, who accused herself of horrible crimes. The +victim of the witches burned in 1697 was a child of eleven, daughter +of John Shaw of Bargarran. This family was unlucky in its spiritual +accidents. The previous laird, as we learn from the contemporary +Law, in his Memorialls, rode his horse into a river at night, and +did not arrive at the opposite bank. Every effort was made to find +his body in the stream, which was searched as far as the sea. The +corpse was at last discovered in a ditch, two miles away, shamefully +mutilated. The money of the laird, and other objects of value, were +still in his pockets. This was regarded as the work of fiends, but +there is a more plausible explanation. Nobody but his groom saw the +laird ride into the river; the chances are that he was murdered in +revenge,--certain circumstances point to this,--and that the servant +was obliged to keep the secret, and invent the story about riding +the ford. + +The daughter of Bargarran's successor and heir was probably a +hysterical child, who was led, by the prevailing superstition, to +believe that witches caused her malady. How keen the apprehensions +were among children, we learn from a document preserved by Wodrow. +An eminent Christian of his acquaintance thought in boyhood that an +old woman looked crossly at him, and he went in dread of being +bewitched for a whole summer. The mere terror might have caused +fits, he would then have denounced the old woman, and she would +probably have been burned. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in his +preface to Law's Memorialls (p. xcii.), says that Miss Shaw was +'antient in wickedness,' and thus accounts for her 'pretending to be +bewitched,' by way of revenging herself on one of the maid-servants. +Twenty people were finally implicated, several were executed, and +one killed himself. The child, probably hysterical, and certainly +subject to convulsions, was really less to blame than 'the absurd +credulity of various otherwise worthy ministers, and some topping +professors in and about Glasgow,' as Sharpe quotes the MS. 'Treatise +on witchcraft' of the Rev. Mr. Bell. Strangely enough the great +thread manufactories of Renfrewshire owed their origin to this Miss +Shaw, aided by a friend who had acquired some technical secrets in +Holland. She married a minister in 1718, and probably her share in +an abominable crime lay light on her conscience. Her fellow- +sufferer from witchcraft, a young Sandilands, son of Lord Torphichen +(1720), became a naval officer of distinguished gallantry. + +Wodrow does not appear to have witnessed the execution at Paisley, +one of the last in Scotland, but he had no doubt that witches should +be put to death. In 1720, when the son of Lord Torphichen exhibited +some curious phenomena, exaggerated by report into clairvoyance and +flying in the air, nobody was punished. In spite of his +superstition in regard to witches, Wodrow (September 20, 1697) +sensibly explains a death-wraith by the anxiety of the lady who +beheld it. He also, still in the diary, records a case of second +sight, but that occurred in Argyleshire. It will be found, in fact, +that all the second-sighted people except some ministers during the +sufferings (and they reckoned as prophets) were Highlanders. +Considering his avidity for ghost-stories, it is remarkable that he +scarcely ever receives them at even second hand, and that most of +them are remote in point of time. On the other side, he secures a +few religious visions, as of shining lights comforting devout +ladies, from the person concerned. His narratives fall into regular +categories, Haunted Houses, Ghosts, Wraiths, Second Sight, +Consolatory Divine Visions. Thus Mr. Stewart's uncle, Harry, 'ane +eminent Christian, and very joviall,' at a drinking party saw +himself in bed, and his coffin at his bed-foot. This may be +explained as a case of 'the horrors,' a malady incident to the +jovial. He died in a week, In vino veritas. + +Lord Middleton's ghost-story Wodrow got from the son of a man who, +as Lauderdale's chaplain, heard Middleton tell it at dinner. He had +made a covenant with the Laird of Babigni that the first who died +should appear to the survivor. Babigni was slain in battle, +Middleton was put in the Tower, where Babigni appeared to him, sat +with him for an hour by the clock, and predicted the Restoration. +'His hand was hote and soft,' but Middleton, brave in the field, was +much alarmed. He had probably drunk a good deal in the Tower. This +anecdote was very widely rumoured. Aubrey publishes a version of it +in his Miscellanies, and Law gives another in his Memorialls (p. +162). He calls 'Babigni'--'Barbigno,' and 'Balbegno'. According to +Law, it was not the laird's ghost that appeared, but 'the devil in +his lykness'. Law and Aubrey make the spirit depart after uttering +a couplet, which they quote variously. + +For a haunted house, Wodrow provides us with that of Johnstone of +Mellantae, in Annandale (1707). The authority is Mr. Cowan, who had +it from Mr. Murray, minister of St. Mungo's, who got it from +Mellantae himself, the worthy gentleman weeping as he described his +misfortunes. His daughter, Miss Johnstone, was milking a cow in the +byre, by daylight, when she saw a tall man, almost naked, probably a +tramp, who frightened her into a swoon. The house was then +'troubled and disturbed' by flights of stones, and disappearance of +objects. Young Dornock, after a visit to Mellantae, came back with +a story that loud knockings were heard on the beds, and sounds of +pewter vessels being thrown about, though, in the morning, all were +found in their places. The ghost used also to pull the medium, Miss +Johnstone, by the foot, and toss her bed-clothes about. + +Next, at first hand from Mr. Short, we have a death-wraith beheld by +him of his friend Mr. Scrimgeour. The hour was five a.m. on a +summer morning, and Mr. Scrimgeour expired at that time in +Edinburgh. Again, we have the affair of Mr. Blair, of St. Andrews, +the probationer, and the devil, who, in return for a written +compact, presented the probationer with an excellent sermon. On the +petition of Mr. Blair, the compact fell from the roof of the church. +The tale is told by Increase Mather about a French Protestant +minister, and, as Increase wrote twenty years before Wodrow, we may +regard Wodrow's anecdote as a myth; for the incident is of an +unusual character, and not likely to repeat itself. We may also set +aside, though vouched for by Lord Tullibardine's butler, 'ane litle +old man with a fearful ougly face,' who appeared to the Rev. Mr. +Lesly. Being asked whence he came, he said, 'From hell,' and, being +further interrogated as to _why_ he came, he observed: 'To warn the +nation to repent'. This struck Mr. Lesly as improbable on the face +of it; however, he was a good deal alarmed. + +Lord Orrery is well known in ghostly circles, as the evidence for a +gentleman's butler being levitated, and floating about a room in his +house. It may be less familiar that his lordship's own ghost +appeared to his sister. She consulted Robert Boyle, F.R.S., who +advised her, if Orrery appeared again, to ask him some metaphysical +questions. She did so, and 'I know these questions come from my +brother,' said the appearance. 'He is too curious.' He admitted, +however, that his body was 'an aerial body,' but declined to be +explicit on other matters. This anecdote was told by Mr. Smith, who +had it from Mr. Wallace, who had it from 'an English gentleman'. +Mr. Menzies, minister of Erskine, once beheld the wraith of a friend +smoking a pipe, but the owner of the wraith did not die, or do +anything remarkable. To see a friendly wraith smoking a pipe, even +if he take the liberty of doing so in one's bedroom, is not very +ill-boding. To be sure Mr. Menzies' own father died not long after, +but the attempt to connect the wraith of a third person with that +event is somewhat desperate. + +Wodrow has a tame commonplace account of the Bride of Lammermoor's +affair. On the other hand, he tells us concerning a daughter of +Lord Stair, the Countess of Dumfries, that she 'was under a very odd +kind of distemper, and did frequently fly from one end of the room +to the other, and from the one side of the garden to the other. . . +. The matter of fact is certain.' At a garden party this +accomplishment would have been invaluable. + +We now, for a change, have a religious marvel. Mrs. Zuil, 'a very +judiciouse Christian,' had a friend of devout character. This lady, +being in bed, and in 'a ravishing frame,' 'observed a pleasant +light, and one of the pleasantest forms, like a young child, +standing on her shoulder'. Not being certain that she was not +delirious, she bade her nurse draw her curtains, and bring her some +posset. Thrice the nurse came in with posset, and thrice drew back +in dread. The appearance then vanished, and for the fourth time the +nurse drew the curtains, but, on this occasion, she presented the +invalid with the posset. Being asked why she had always withdrawn +before, she said she had seen 'like a boyn (halo?) above her +mistress's head,' and added, 'it was her wraith, and a signe she +would dye'. 'From this the lady was convinced that she was in no +reverie.' A similar halo shone round pious Mr. Welsh, when in +meditation, and also (according to Patrick Walker) round two of the +Sweet Singers, followers of Meikle John Gibb, before they burned a +Bible! Gibb, a raving fanatic, went to America, where he was +greatly admired by the Red Indians, 'because of his much converse +with the devil'. The pious of Wodrow's date distrusted these +luminous appearances, as they might be angelical, but might also be +diabolical temptations to spiritual pride. Thus the blasphemous +followers of Gibb were surrounded by a bright light, no less than +pious Mr. Welsh, a very distinguished Presbyterian minister. +Indeed, this was taken advantage of by Mr. Welsh's enemies, who, +says his biographer Kirkton, 'were so bold as to call him no less +than a wizard'. When Mr. Shields and Mr. John Dickson were +imprisoned on the Bass Rock, and Mr. Shields was singing psalms in +his cell, Mr. Dickson peeping in, saw 'a figure all in white,' of +whose presence Mr. Shields was unconscious. He had only felt 'in a +heavenly and elevated frame'. + +A clairvoyant dream is recorded on the authority of 'Dr. Clerk at +London, who writes on the Trinity, and may be depended on in such +accounts'. The doctor's father was Mayor of Norwich, 'or some other +town,' and a lady came to him, bidding him arrest a tailor for +murdering his wife. The mayor was not unnaturally annoyed by this +appeal, but the lady persisted. She had dreamed twice: first she +saw the beginning of the murder, then the end of it. As she was +talking to the mayor, the tailor came in, demanding a warrant to +arrest his wife's murderers! He was promptly arrested, tried, and +acquitted, but later confessed, and 'he was execut for the fact'. +This is a highly improbable story, and is capped by another from +Wodrow's mother-in-law. A man was poisoned: later his nephew slept +in his room, and heard a voice cry, 'Avenge the blood of your +uncle'. This happened twice, and led to an inquiry, and the +detection of the guilty. The nephew who received the warning was +Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, ancestor of Sir Walter Scott's friend. + +We next have a Mahatma-like tale about Cotton Mather, from Mr. +Stirling, who had it from a person who had it from the doctor's own +mouth. Briefly, Cotton lost his sermon as he was riding to a place +where he had to preach. He prayed for better luck, and 'no sooner +was his prayer over, but his papers wer conveyed to him, flying in +the air upon him when riding, which was very surprizing'. It was, +indeed! Wodrow adds: 'Mind to write to the doctor about this'. +This letter, if he ever wrote it, is not in the three portly volumes +of his correspondence. + +The occurrence is more remarkable than the mysterious dispensation +which enabled another minister to compose a sermon in his sleep. +Mr. James Guthrie, at Stirling, 'had his house haunted by the devil, +which was a great exercise to worthy Mr. Guthrie,' and, indeed, +would have been a great exercise to almost any gentleman. Details +are wanting, and as Mr. Guthrie had now been hanged for sixty years +(1723), the facts are 'remote'. Mr. Guthrie, it seems, was +unpopular at Stirling, and was once mobbed there. The devil may +have been his political opponent in disguise. Mr. John Anderson is +responsible for the story of a great light seen, and a melodious +sound heard over the house of 'a most singular Christian of the old +sort,' at the moment of her death. Her name, unluckily, is +uncertain. + +A case of 'telepathy' we have, at first hand, from Mrs. Luke. When +in bed 'a horror of darknes' came upon her about her daughter +Martha, who was in Edinburgh. 'Sometimes she began to think that +her daughter was dead, or had run away with some person.' She +remained in this anxiety till six in the morning, when the cloud +lifted. It turned out that Martha had been in some peril at sea, +but got safe into Leith Roads at six in the morning. A clairvoyant +dream was also vouchsafed to Dr. Pitcairn, though 'a Jacobite, and a +person of considerable sense,' as Wodrow quaintly remarks about +another individual. + +The doctor was at Paris when a friend of his, 'David' (surname +unknown), died in Edinburgh. The doctor dreamed for several nights +running that David came to him, and that they tried to enter several +taverns, which were shut. David then went away in a ship. As the +doctor was in the habit of frequenting taverns with David, the +dreams do not appear to deserve our serious consideration. To be +sure David 'said he was dead'. 'Strange vouchsafments of Providence +to a person of the doctor's temper and sense,' moralises Wodrow. + +Curiously enough, a different version of Dr. Pitcairn's dream is in +existence. Several anecdotes about the doctor are prefixed, in +manuscript, to a volume of his Latin poems, which was shown to Dr. +Hibbert by Mr. David Laing, the well-known historian and +antiquarian. Dr. Hibbert says: 'The anecdotes are from some one +obviously on terms of intimacy with Pitcairn'. According to this +note Robert Lindsay, a descendant of Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, +was at college with the doctor. They made the covenant that +'whoever dyed first should give account of his condition if +possible'. This was in 1671, in 1675 Lindsay died, while Pitcairn +was in Paris. On the night of Lindsay's death, Pitcairn dreamed +that he was in Edinburgh, where Lindsay met him and said, 'Archie, +perhaps ye heard I'm dead?' 'No, Roben.' The vision said he was to +be buried in the Grey Friars, and offered to carry Pitcairn to a +happy spiritual country, 'in a well sailing small ship,' like +Odysseus.. Pitcairn said he must first see his parents. Lindsay +promised to call again. 'Since which time A. P. never slept a night +without dreaming that Lindsay told him he was alive. And, having a +dangerous sickness, anno 1694, he was told by Roben that he was +delayed for a time, and that it was properly his task to carry him +off, but was discharged to tell when.' {300} Dr. Hibbert thinks +that Pitcairn himself dictated this account, much more marvellous +than the form in which Wodrow received the story. + +Leaving a solitary Jacobite vision, for a true blue Presbyterian +'experience,' we learn that Wodrow's own wedded wife had a pious +vision, 'a glorious, inexpressible brightness'. The thought which +came presently was, 'This perhaps may be Satan, transforming himself +into an angel of light'. 'It mout or it moutn't.' In 1729, Wodrow +heard of the ghost of the Laird of Coul, which used to ride one of +his late tenants, transformed into a spectral horse. A chap-book +containing Coul's discourse with Mr. Ogilby, a minister, was very +popular in the last century. Mr. Ogilby left an account in +manuscript, on which the chap-book was said to be based. Another +ghost of a very moral turn appeared, and gave ministers information +about a case of lawless love. This is said to be recorded in the +registers of the Presbytery of Fordoun, but Wodrow is vague about +the whole affair. + +We next come to a very good ghost of the old and now rather +unfashionable sort. The authority is Mr. William Brown, who had it +from the Rev. Mr. Mercer of Aberdalgie, 'as what was generally +belived as to Dr. Rule, Principal at Edinburgh'. Such is Wodrow's +way, his ideas of evidence are quite rudimentary. Give him a ghost, +and he does not care for 'contemporary record,' or 'corroborative +testimony'. To come to the story. Dr. Rule, finding no room at an +inn near Carnie Mount, had a fire lit in a chamber of a large +deserted house hard by. He went to bed, leaving a bright fire +burning, when 'the room dore is opened, and an apparition, _in shape +of a country tradsman_, came in, and opened the courtains without +speaking a word'. The doctor determined not to begin a +conversation, so the apparition lighted the candles, brought them to +the bedside, and backed to the door. Dr. Rule, like old Brer +Rabbit, 'kept on a-saying nothing'. 'Then the apparition took an +effectuall way to raise the doctor. He caryed back the candles to +the table, and, _with the tongs_, took doun the kindled coals, and +laid them on the deal chamber floor.' Dr. Rule now 'thought it was +time to rise,' and followed the appearance, who carried the candles +downstairs, set them on the lowest step, and vanished. Dr. Rule +then lifted the candles, and went back to bed. Next morning he went +to the sheriff, and told him there 'was murder in it'. The sheriff +said, 'it might be so,' but, even if so, the crime was not recent, +as the house for thirty years had stood empty. The step was taken +up, and a dead body was found, 'and bones, to the conviction of +all'. The doctor then preached on these unusual events, and an old +man of eighty fell a-weeping, confessing that, as a mason lad, he +had killed a companion, and buried him in that spot, while the house +was being built. Consequently the house, though a new one, was +haunted from the first, and was soon deserted. The narrator, Mr. +Mercer, had himself seen two ghosts of murdered boys frequently in +Dundee. He did not speak, nor did they, and as the rooms were +comfortable he did not leave them. To have talked about the +incident would only have been injurious to his landlady. 'The +longer I live, the more unexpected things I meet with, and even +among my own relations,' says Mr. Wodrow with much simplicity. But +he never met with a ghost, nor even with any one who had met with a +ghost, except Mr. Mercer. + +In the same age, or earlier, Increase Mather represents apparitions +as uncommonly scarce in New England, though diabolical possession +and witchcraft were as familiar as influenza. It has been shown +that, in nearly forty years of earnest collecting, Mr. Wodrow did +not find a single supernatural occurrence which was worth +investigating by the curious. Every tale was old, or some simple +natural cause was at the bottom of the mystery, or the narrative +rested on vague gossip, or was a myth. Today, at any dinner party, +you may hear of bogles and wraiths at first or at second hand, in an +abundance which would have rejoiced Wodrow. Charles Kirkpatrick +Sharpe vainly brags, in Law's Memorialls, that 'good sense and +widely diffused information have driven our ghosts to a few remote +castles in the North of Scotland' (1819). But, however we are to +explain it, the ghosts have come forth again, and, like golf, have +crossed the Tweed. Now this is a queer result of science, common- +sense, cheap newspapers, popular education, and progress in general. +We may all confess to a belief in ghosts, because we call them +'phantasmogenetic agencies,' and in as much of witchcraft as we +style 'hypnotic suggestion'. So great, it seems, is the force of +language! {303} + + + + + +THE LOGIC OF TABLE-TURNING + + +Bias in belief. Difficulty of examining problems in which unknown +personal conditions are dominant. Comte Agenor de Gasparin on +table-turning. The rise of modern table-turning. Rapping. French +examples. A lady bitten by a spirit. Flying objects. The 'via +media' of M. de Gasparin. Tables are turned by recondite physical +causes: not by muscular or spiritual actions. The author's own +experiments. Motion without contact. Dr. Carpenter's views. +Incredulity of M. de Gasparin as to phenomena beyond his own +experience. Ancient Greek phenomena. M. de Gasparin rejects +'spirits'. Dr. Carpenter neglects M. de Gasparin's evidence. +Survival and revival. Delacourt's case. Home's case. Simon Magus. +Early scientific training. Its results. Conclusion. + +While reason is fondly supposed to govern our conduct, and direct +our conclusions, there is no doubt that our opinions are really +regulated by custom, temperament, hope, and fear. We believe or +disbelieve because other people do so, because our character is +attracted to, or repelled by the unusual, the mysterious; because, +from one motive or another, we wish things to be thus, or fear that +they may be thus, or hope that they may be so, and cannot but dread +that they are otherwise. Again, the laws of Nature which have been +ascertained are enough for the conduct of life, and science +constantly, and with excellent reason, resists to the last gasp +every attempt to recognise the existence of a new law, which, after +all, can apparently do little for the benefit of mankind, and may +conceivably do something by no means beneficial. Again, science is +accustomed to deal with constant phenomena, which, given the +conditions, will always result. The phenomena of the marvellous are +not constant, or, rather, the conditions cannot be definitely +ascertained. When Mr. Crookes made certain experiments on Home's +power of causing a balance to move without contact he succeeded; in +the presence of some Russian savants a similar experiment failed. +Granting that Mr. Crookes's tests were accurate (and the lay mind, +at least, can see no flaw in them), we must suppose that the +personal conditions, in the Russian case, were not the same. + +Now an electric current will inevitably do its work, if known and +ascertained conditions are present; a personal current, so to speak, +depends on personal conditions which are unascertainable. It is +inevitable that science, accustomed to the invariable, should turn +away from phenomena which, if they do occur, seem, so far, to have a +will of their own. That they have a will of their own is precisely +their attraction for another class of minds, which recognises in +them the action of unknown intelligences. There are also people who +so dislike our detention in the prison house of old unvarying laws, +that their bias is in favour of anything which may tend to prove +that science, in her contemporary mood, is not infallible. As the +Frenchman did not care what sort of scheme he invested money in, +'provided that it annoys the English,' so many persons do not care +what they invest belief in, provided that it irritates men of +science. Just as rationally, some men of science denounce all +investigation of the abnormal phenomena of which history and rumour +are so full, because the research may bring back distasteful +beliefs, and revive the 'ancestral tendency' to superstition. Yet +the question is not whether the results of research may be +dangerous, but whether the phenomena occur. The speculations of +Copernicus, of Galileo, of the geologists, of Mr. Darwin, were +'dangerous,' and it does not appear that they have added to the sum +of human delight. But men of science are still happiest when +denouncing the 'obscurantism' of those who opposed Copernicus, Mr. +Darwin, and the rest, in dread of the moral results. We owe the +strugforlifeur of M. Daudet to Mr. Darwin and Mr. Alfred Wallace, +and the strugforlifeur is as dangerous and disagreeable as the half- +crazy spiritualist. Science is only concerned with truth, not with +the mischievous inferences which people may draw from truth. And +yet certain friends of science, quite naturally and normally, fall +back on the attitude of the opponents of Copernicus: 'These +things,' they say, 'should not even be examined'. + +Such are the hostile and distracting influences, the contending +currents, in the midst of which Reason has to operate as well as she +can. Meanwhile every one of us probably supposes himself to be a +model of pure reason, and if people would only listen to him, the +measure of the universe. This happy and universal frame of mind is +agreeably illustrated in a work by the late Comte Agenor de +Gasparin, Les Tables Tournantes (Deuxieme edition: Levy, Paris, +1888). The first edition is of 1854, and was published at a time of +general excitement about 'table-turning' and 'spirit-rapping,' an +excitement which only old people remember, and which it is amazing +to read about. + +Modern spirit-rapping, of which table-turning is a branch, began, as +we know, in 1847-48. A family of Methodists named Fox, entered, in +1847, on the tenancy of a house in Hydesville, in the State of New +York. The previous occupants had been disturbed by 'knocking,' this +continued in the Fox regime, one of the little girls found that the +raps would answer (a discovery often made before) a system of +alphabetic communication was opened, and spiritualism was launched. +{307} In March, 1853, a packet of American newspapers reached +Bremen, and, as Dr. Andree wrote to the Gazette d'Augsbourg (March +30, 1853), all Bremen took to experiments in turning tables. The +practice spread like a new disease, even men of science and +academicians were puzzled, it is a fact that, at a breakfast party +in Macaulay's rooms in the Albany, a long and heavy table became +vivacious, to Macaulay's disgust, when the usual experiment was +tried. Men of science were, in some cases, puzzled, in others +believed that a new force must be recognised, in others talked of +unconscious pushing or of imposture. M. Babinet, a member of the +Institute, writing in the Revue des Deux Mondes (May, 1854), +explained the 'raps' or percussive noises, as the result of +ventriloquism! A similar explanation was urged, and withdrawn, in +the case of the Cock Lane ghost, and it does not appear that M. +Babinet produced a ventriloquist who could do the trick. Raps may +be counterfeited in many ways, but hardly by ventriloquism. The +raps were, in Europe, a later phenomenon than the table-turning, and +aroused far more interest. The higher clergy investigated the +matter, and the Bishop of Mans in a charge, set down the phenomena +to the agency of some kind of spirits, with whom Christian men +should have no commerce. Granting the facts, the bishop was +undeniably right. + +There was published at that time a journal called La Table Parlante, +which contained recitals of phenomena, correspondence, and so forth. +Among the narratives, that of a M. Benezet was typical, and is +curious. In recent years, about 1872-80, the Rev. Mr. Stainton +Moses, a clergyman and scholar of the best moral reputation, +believed himself to be the centre of extraordinary, and practically +incredible, occurrences, a belief shared by observers among his +friends. M. Benezet's narrative is full of precisely parallel +details. M. Benezet lived at Toulouse, in 1853; and his experiences +had for their scene his own house, and that of his relations, M. and +Mme. L. The affair began in table-turning and table-tilting: the +tilts indicated the presence of 'spirits,' which answered questions, +right or wrong: under the hands of the L.'s the table became +vivacious, and chased a butterfly. Then the spirit said it could +appear as an old lady, who was viewed by one of the children. The +L.'s being alarmed, gave up making experiments, but one day, at +dinner, thumps were struck on the table. M. Benezet was called in, +and heard the noises with awe. He went away, but the knocks sounded +under the chair of Mme. L., she threw some holy water under the +chair, when _her thumb was bitten_, and marks of teeth were left on +it. Presently her shoulder was bitten, whether on a place which she +could reach with her teeth or not, we are not informed. Raps went +on, the L.'s fled to M. Benezet's house, which was instantly +disturbed in the same fashion. Objects were spirited away, and +reappeared as oddly as they had vanished. Packets of bonbons turned +up unbeknown, sailed about the room, and suddenly fell on the table +at dinner. The L.'s went back to their own house, where their hats +and boots contracted a habit of floating dreamily about in the air. +Things were hurled at them, practical jokes were played, and in +September these monstrous annoyances gradually ceased. The most +obvious explanation is that Mme. L. demoralised by turning tables, +took, consciously or unconsciously, to imitating the tricks of which +history and legend are full. Her modus, operandi, in some +phenomena, is difficult to conjecture. + +While opinion was agitated by these violent events, and contending +hypotheses, while La Table Parlante took a Catholic view, and +Science a negative view, M. Agenor de Gasparin, a Protestant, chose +a via media. + +M. de Gasparin, the husband of the well-known author of The Near and +the Heavenly Horizons, was a table-turner, without being a +spiritualist. His experiments were made in Switzerland, in 1853; he +published a book on them, as we said; M. Figuier attacked it in Les +Mysteres de la Science, after M. de Gasparin's death, and the widow +of the author replied by republishing part of the original work. M. +de Gasparin, in the early Empire, was a Liberal, an anti-Radical, an +opponent of negro slavery, a Christian, an energetic honest man, +absolu et ardent, as he confesses. + +His purpose was to demonstrate that tables turn, that the phenomenon +is purely physical, that it cannot be explained by the mechanical +action of the muscles, nor by that of 'spirits'. His allies were +his personal friends, and it is pretty clear that two ladies were +the chief 'agents'. The process was conducted thus: a 'chain' of +eight or ten people surrounded a table, lightly resting their +fingers, all in contact, on its surface. It revolved, and, by +request, would raise one of its legs, and tap the floor. All this, +of course, can be explained either by cheating, or by the +_unconscious_ pushes administered. If any one will place his hands +on a light table, he will find that the mere come and go of pulse +and breath have a tendency to agitate the object. It moves a +little, accompanying it you unconsciously move it more. The +experiment is curious because, on some days, the table will not +budge, on others it instantly sets up a peculiar gliding movement, +in which it almost seems to escape from the superimposed hands, +while the most wakeful attention cannot detect any conscious action +of the muscles. If you try the opposite experiment, namely +conscious pushing of the most gradual kind, you find that the +exertion is very distinctly sensible. The author has made the +following simple experiment. + +Two persons for whom the table would _not_ move laid their hands on +it firmly and flatly. Two others (for whom it danced) just touched +the hands of the former pair. Any pressure or push from the upper +hands would be felt, of course, by the under hands. No such +pressure was felt, yet the table began to rotate. In another +experiment with another subject, the pressure _was_ felt (indeed the +owner of the upper hands was conscious of pressing), yet the table +did _not_ move. These experiments are, physiologically, curious, +but, of course, they demonstrate nothing. Muscles can move the +table, muscles can apparently act without the consciousness of their +owner, therefore the movement is caused, or may be irrefutably said +to be caused, by unconscious muscular action. + +M. de Gasparin, of course, was aware of all this; he therefore aimed +at producing movement _without_ contact. In his early experiments +the table was first set agoing by contact; all hands were then +lifted at a signal, to half an inch above the table, and still the +table revolved. Of course it will not do this, if it is set agoing +by conscious muscular action, as any one may prove by trying. As it +was possible that some one might still be touching the table, and +escaping in the crowd the notice of the observers outside the +circle, two ladies tried alone. The observer, Mr. Thury, saw the +daylight between their hands and the table, which revolved four or +five times. To make assurance doubly sure, a thin coating of flour +was scattered over the whole table, and still it moved, while the +flour was unmarked. M. de Gasparin was therefore convinced that the +phenomena of movement without mechanical agency were real. His +experiments got rid of Mr. Faraday's theory of unconscious pressure +and pushing, because you cannot push with your muscles what you do +not touch with any portion of your body, and De Gasparin had assured +himself that there was _no_ physical contact between his friends and +this table. + +M. de Gasparin now turned upon Dr. Carpenter, to whom an article in +the Quarterly Review, dealing with the whole topic of abnormal +occurrences, was attributed. Dr. Carpenter, at this time, had +admitted the existence of the hypnotic state, and the amenability of +the hypnotised person to the wildest suggestions. He had also begun +to develop his doctrine of 'unconscious cerebration,' that is, the +existence of mental processes beneath, or apart from our +consciousness. {312} An 'ideational change' may take place in the +cerebrum. The sensorium is 'unreceptive,' so the idea does not +reach consciousness. Sometimes, however, the idea oozes out from +the fingers, through muscular action, also unconscious. This moves +the table to the appropriate tilts. These two ideas are capable, if +we admit them, of explaining many singular psychological facts, but +they certainly do not explain the movements of tables which nobody +is touching. In face of M. de Gasparin's evidence, which probably +was not before him, Dr. Carpenter could only have denied the facts, +or alleged that the witnesses, including observers outside the +chaine, or circle, were all self-hypnotised, all under the influence +of self-suggestion, and all honestly asserting the occurrence of +events which did not occur. His essay touched but lightly on this +particular marvel. He remarked that 'the turning of tables, and the +supposed communications of spirits through their agency' are due 'to +the mental state of the performers themselves'. Now M. de Gasparin, +in his via media, repudiated 'spirits' energetically. Dr. Carpenter +then explained witchcraft, and the vagaries of 'camp-meetings' by +the 'dominant idea'. But M. de Gasparin could reply that persons +whose 'dominant idea' was incredulity attested many singular +occurrences. At the end of his article, Dr. Carpenter decides that +table-turners push unconsciously, as they assuredly do, but they +cannot push when not in contact with the object. The doctor did not +allege that table-turners are 'biologised' as he calls it, and under +a glamour. But M. de Gasparin averred that no single example of +trance, rigidity, loss of ordinary consciousness, or other morbid +symptoms, had ever occurred in his experiments. There is thus, as +it were, no common ground on which he and Dr. Carpenter can meet and +fight. He dissected the doctor's rather inconsequent argument with +a good deal of acuteness and wit. + +M. de Gasparin then exhibited some of the besetting sins of all who +indulge in argument. He accepted all his own private phenomena, but +none of those, such as 'raps' and so forth, for which other people +were vouching. Things must occur as he had seen them, and not +otherwise. What he had seen was a chaine of people surrounding a +table, all in contact with the table, and with each other. The +table had moved, and had answered questions by knocking the floor +with its foot. It had also moved, when the hands were held close to +it, but not in contact with it. Nothing beyond that was orthodox, +as nothing beyond hypnotism and unconscious cerebration was orthodox +with Dr. Carpenter. Moreover M. de Gasparin had his own physical +explanation of the phenomena. There is, in man's constitution, a +'fluid' which can be concentrated by his will, and which then, given +a table and a chaine, will produce M. de Gasparin's phenomena: but +no more. He knows that 'fluids' are going out of fashion in +science, and he is ready to call the 'fluid' the 'force' or +'agency,' or 'condition of matter' or what you please. 'Substances, +forces, vibrations, let it be what you choose, as long as it is +something.' The objection that the phenomena are 'of no use' was +made, and is still very common, but, of course, is in no case +scientifically valid. Electricity was 'of no use' once, and the +most useless phenomenon is none the less worthy of examination. + +M. de Gasparin now examines another class of objections. First, the +phenomena were denied; next, they were said to be as old as history, +and familiar to the Greeks. We elsewhere show that this is quite +true, that the movement of objects without contact was as familiar +to the Greeks as to the Peruvians, the Thibetans, the Eskimo, and in +modern stories of haunted houses. But, as will presently appear, +these wilder facts would by no means coalesce with the hypothesis of +M. de Gasparin. To his mind, tables turn, but they turn by virtue +of the will of a 'circle,' consciously exerted, through the means of +some physical force, fluid, or what not, produced by the imposition +of hands. Now these processes do not characterise the phenomena +among Greeks, Thibetans, Eskimo, Peruvians, in haunted houses, or in +presence of the late Mr. Home,--granting the facts as alleged. In +these instances, nobody is 'circling' round a chair, a bed, or what +not, yet the chair or bed moves, as in the story of Monsieur S. at +St. Maur (1706), and in countless other examples. All this would +not, as we shall see, be convenient for the theory of M. de +Gasparin. + +His line of argument is that the Greek and Latin texts are +misunderstood, but that, if the Greeks did turn tables, that is no +proof that tables do not turn, but rather the reverse. A favourite +text is taken from Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xxix. ch. i. M. de +Gasparin does not appear to have read the passage carefully. About +371 A.D. one Hilarius was tortured on a charge of magical operations +against the Emperor Valens. He confessed. A little table, made of +Delphic laurel, was produced in court. 'We made it,' he said, 'that +confounded little table, under strange rites and imprecations, and +we set it in movement, thus: it was placed in a room charged with +perfumes, above a round plate fashioned of various metals. The edge +of the plate was marked with the letters of the alphabet separated +by certain spaces. A priest, linen clad, bowed himself over the +table, balancing a ring tied to a thin thread. The ring, bounding +from letter to letter, picks out letters forming hexameters, like +those of Delphi.' This is confusing. Probably the movements of the +table, communicated to the thread, caused the bounds of the ring, +otherwise there was no use in the table moving. At all events the +ring touched THEO (which is not a word that could begin a hexameter) +when they asked who was to succeed Valens. Some one called out +'Theodore' and they pursued the experiment no farther. A number of +Theodores and Theophiles were put to death, but when Theodosius was +joined with Gratian in the Empire, the believers held that the table +had been well inspired. Here there was no chaine, or circle, the +table is not said to lever le pied legerement, as the song advises, +therefore M. de Gasparin rules the case out of court. The object, +however, really was analogous to planchette, Ouija, and other modern +modes of automatic divination. The experiment of Hilarius with the +'confounded little table' led to a massacre of Neoplatonists, +martyrs of Psychical Research! In Hilarius's confession we omit a +set of ritual invocations; as unessential as the mystic rites used +by savages in making curari. + +The spiritus percutiens, 'rapping spirit' (?) conjured away by old +Catholic formulae at the benediction of churches, was brought +forward by some of M. de Gasparin's critics. As _his_ tables did +not rap, he had nothing to do with the spiritus percutiens, who +proves, however, that the Church was acquainted with raps, and +explained them by the spiritualistic hypothesis. {317} + +A text in Tertullian's Apologetic was also cited. Here tabulae and +capae, 'tables and she-goats,' are said to divine. What have she- +goats to do in the matter? De Morgan wished to read tabulae et +crepae, which he construes 'tables and raps,' but he only finds +crepae in Festus, who says, that goats are called crepae, quod +cruribus crepent, 'because they rattle with their legs'. De +Morgan's guess is ingenious, but lacks confirmation. We are not, so +far, aware of communication with spirits by raps before 856 A.D. + +Finally, M. de Gasparin denies that his researches are +'superstitious'. Will can move my limbs, if it also moves my table, +what is there superstitious in that? It is a new fact, that is all. +'Tout est si materiel, si physique dans les experiences des tables.' +It was not so at Toulouse! + +Meanwhile M. de Gasparin, firm in his 'Trewth,'--the need of a +chaine of persons, the physical origin of the phenomena, the entire +absence of spirits,--was so unlucky, when he dealt with 'spirits,' +as to drop into the very line of argument which he had been +denouncing. 'Spirits' are 'superstitious,'--well, his adversaries +had found superstition in his own experiments and beliefs. To +believe that spirits are engaged, is 'to reduce our relations with +the invisible world to the grossest definition'. But why not, as we +know nothing about our relations with the invisible world? The +theology of the spirits is 'contrary to Scripture'; very well, your +tales of tables moved without contact are contrary to science. 'No +spiritualistic story has ever been told which is not to be classed +among the phenomena of animal magnetism. . . . ' This, of course, +is a mere example of a statement made without examination, a sin +alleged by M. de Gasparin against his opponents. Vast numbers of +such stories, not explicable by the now rejected theory of 'animal +magnetism,' have certainly been _told_. + +In another volume M. de Gasparin demolished the tales, but he was +only at the beginning of his subject. The historical and +anthropological evidence for the movement of objects without +contact, not under his conditions, is very vast in bulk. The modern +experiments are sometimes more scientific than his own, and the +evidence for the most startling events of all kinds is quite as good +as that on which he relies for his prodigies, themselves +sufficiently startling. His hypothesis, at all events, of will +directing a force or fluid, by no means explains phenomena quite as +well provided with evidence as his own. So M. de Gasparin disposes +of the rival miracles as the result of chance, imposture, or +hallucination, the very weapons of his scientific adversaries. His +own prodigies he has seen, and is satisfied. His opponents say: +'You cannot register your force sur l'inclinaison d'une aiguille'. +He could not, but Home could do so to the satisfaction of a +scientific expert, and probably M. de Gasparin would have believed +it, if he had seen it. M. de Gasparin is horrified at the idea of +'trespassing on the territory of acts beyond our power'. But, if it +were possible to do the miracles of Home, it would be possible +because it is _not_ beyond our power. 'The spiritualistic opinion +is opposed to the doctrine of the resurrection: it merely announces +the immortality of the soul.' But that has nothing to do with the +matter in hand. + +The theology of spirits, of course, is neither here nor there. A +'spirit' will say anything or everything. But Mr. C. C. Massey when +he saw a chair move at a word (and even without one), in the +presence of such a double-dyed impostor as Slade, had as much right +to believe his own eyes as M. de Gasparin, and what he saw does not +square with M. de Gasparin's private 'Trewth'. The chair in Mr. +Massey's experience, was 'unattached' to a piece of string; it fell, +and, at request, jumped up again, and approached Mr. Massey, 'just +as if some one had picked it up in order to take a seat beside me'. +{319a} + +Such were the idola specus, the private personal prepossessions of +M. de Gasparin, undeniably an honourable man. Now, in 1877, his old +adversary, Dr. Carpenter, C.B., M.D., LL.D, F.R.S., F.G.S., +V.P.L.S., corresponding member of the Institute of France, tout ce +qu'il y a de plus officiel, de plus decore, returned to the charge. +He published a work on Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc. {319b} Perhaps +the unscientific reader supposes that Dr. Carpenter replied to the +arguments of M. de Gasparin? This would have been sportsmanlike, +but no, Dr. Carpenter firmly ignored them! He devoted three pages +to table-turning (pp. 96, 97, 98). He exhibited Mr. Faraday's +little machine for detecting muscular pressure, a machine which +would also detect pressure which is _not_ muscular. He explained +answers given by tilts, answers not consciously known to the +operators, as the results of unconscious cerebration. People may +thus get answers which they do expect, or answers which they do not +expect, as may happen. But not one word did Dr. Carpenter say to a +popular audience at the London Institution about M. de Gasparin's +assertion, and the assertion of M. de Gasparin's witnesses, that +motion had been observed without any contact at all. He might, if +he pleased, have alleged that M. de Gasparin and the others fabled; +or that they were self-hypnotised, or were cheated, but he +absolutely ignored the evidence altogether. Now this behaviour, if +scientific, was hardly quite _sportsmanlike_, to use a simple +British phrase which does credit to our language and national +character. Mr. Alfred Wallace stated a similar conclusion as to Dr. +Carpenter's method of argument, in language of some strength. 'Dr. +Carpenter,' he said, 'habitually gives only one side of the +question, and completely ignores all facts which tell against his +theory.' {320} Without going so far as Mr. Wallace, and alleging +that what Dr. Carpenter did in the case of M. de Gasparin, he did +'habitually,' we may briefly examine some portions of his book +which, perhaps, leave something to be desired. It is written with +much acuteness, with considerable fairness, and is certainly +calculated to convince any reader who has not been perplexed by +circumstances on which Dr. Carpenter throws little light. + +Our own chief perplexity is the continuity and uniformity of the +historical and anthropological evidence for certain marvels. We +have already shown the difficulty of attributing this harmony of +evidence, first to savage modes of thought, and then to their +survival and revival. The evidence, in full civilisation, ancient +and modern, of educated and even sceptical witnesses to phenomena, +which are usually grotesque, but are always the same everywhere, in +every age and land, and the constant attendance of these phenomena +on persons of a peculiar temperament, are our stumbling-blocks on +the path to absolute negation. Epilepsy, convulsions, hysterical +diseases are startling affairs, we admit. It was natural that +savages and the ignorant should attribute them to diabolical +possession, and then look out for, and invent, manifestations of the +diabolical energy outside the body of the patient, say in movements +of objects, knocks, and so forth. As in these maladies the patient +may be subject to hallucinations, it was natural that savages or +ignorant men, or polytheists, or ardent Catholics, or excitable +Covenanters, should regard these hallucinations as 'lucid' or +'clairvoyant'. A few lucky coincidences would establish this +opinion among such observers as we have indicated, while failures of +lucidity would not be counted. The professional epileptic medicine- +man, moreover, would strengthen his case by 'prophesying on velvet,' +like Norna of the Fitful Head, on private and early information. +Imposture would imitate the 'spiritual' feats of 'raps,' 'physical +movements of objects,' and 'luminous forms'. All this would +continue after savagery, after paganism, after 'Popery' among the +peasants who were for so long, and in superstition are even now, a +conservative class. + +All that 'expectancy,' hysterics, 'the dominant idea' and rude +hypnotism, 'the sleep of the shadow,' could do, would be done, as +witch trials show. All these elements in folklore, magic and belief +would endure, in the peasant class, under the veneer of +civilisation. Now and again these elements of superstition would +break through the veneer, would come to the surface among the +educated classes, and would 'carry silly women captive,' and silly +men. They, too, though born in the educated class, would attest +impossible occurrences. + +In all this, we might only see survival, wonderfully vivacious, and +revival astonishingly close to the ancient savage lines. + +We are unable to state the case for survival and revival more +strenuously, and the hypothesis is most attractive. This hypothesis +appears to be Dr. Carpenter's, though he does not, in the limits of +popular lectures, unfold it at any length. After stating (p. 1) +that a continuous belief in 'occult agencies' has existed, he adds:-- + +'While this very continuity is maintained by some to be an evidence +of the real existence of such [occult] agencies, it will be my +purpose to show you that it proves nothing more than the wide-spread +diffusion, alike amongst minds of the highest and lowest culture, of +certain tendencies to thought, which have either created ideal +marvels possessing no foundation whatever in fact, or have, by +exaggeration and distortion, invested with a preternatural character +occurrences which are perfectly capable of a natural explanation'. + +Here Dr. Carpenter does not attempt to show cause why the +'manifestations' are always the same, for example, why spirits rap +in the Australian Bush, among blacks not influenced by modern +spiritualism: why tables moved, untouched, in Thibet and India, +long before 'table-turning' was heard of in modern Europe. We have +filled up the lacuna in the doctor's argument, by suggesting that +the phenomena (which are not such as a civilised taste would desire) +were invented by savages, and handed on in an unbroken catena, a +chain of tradition. + +But, in following Dr. Carpenter, we are brought up short at one of +our old obstacles, we trip on one of our old stumbling-blocks. +Granting that an epileptic patient made strange bounds and springs, +we can conceive savages going farther in fancy, and averring that he +flew, or was levitated, or miraculously transported through space. +Let this become matter of traditional belief, as a thing possible in +epilepsy, i.e., in 'diabolical,' or 'angelical possession'. Add the +honest but hallucinatory persuasion of the patient that he was so +levitated, and let him be a person of honour and of sanctity, say +St. Theresa, St. Francis, or St. Joseph of Cupertino. Granting the +survival of a savage exaggeration, granting the hallucinated saint, +we may, perhaps, explain the innumerable anecdotes about miraculous +levitation of which a few are repeated in our paper on 'Comparative +Psychical Research.' The witnesses in witch trials, and in +ecclesiastical inquiries, and Lord Orrery, and Mr. Greatrakes, and +the Cromwellian soldiery in Scotland, the Spanish in Peru, Cotton +Mather in New England, saw what they expected to see, what tradition +taught them to look for, in the case of a convulsionary, or a saint, +or a catechumen. The consensus in illusion was wonderful, but let +us grant, for the sake of argument, that it was possible. Let us +add another example, from Cochin China. + +The witness and narrator is Delacourt, a French missionary. The +source is a letter of his of November 25, 1738, to Winslow the +anatomist, Membre de l'Academie des Sciences a Paris. It is printed +in the Institutiones Theologicae of Collet, who attests the probity +of the missionary. {324} + +In May or June, 1733, Delacourt was asked to view a young native +Christian, said by his friends to be 'possessed'. + +'Rather incredulous,' as he says, Delacourt went to the lad, who had +communicated, as he believed, unworthily, and was therefore a prey +to religious excitement, which, as Bishop Callaway found among his +Zulu converts, and as Wodrow attests among 'savoury Christians,' +begets precisely such hallucinations as annoyed the early hermits +like St. Anthony. Delacourt addressed the youth in Latin: he +replied, Ego nescio loqui Latine, a tag which he might easily have +picked up, let us say. Delacourt led him into church, where the +patient was violently convulsed. Delacourt then (remembering the +example set by the Bishop of Tilopolis) ordered the demon _in +Latin_, to carry the boy to the ceiling. 'His body became stiff, he +was dragged from the middle of the church to a pillar, and there, +his feet joined, his back fixed (colle) against the pillar, he was +transported in the twinkling of an eye to the ceiling, like a weight +rapidly drawn up, without any apparent action on his part. I kept +him in the air for half an hour, and then bade him drop without +hurting himself,' when he fell 'like a packet of dirty linen'. +While he was up aloft, Delacourt preached at him in Latin, and he +became, 'perhaps the best Christian in Cochin China'. + +Dr. Carpenter's explanation must either be that Delacourt lied; or +that a tradition, surviving from savagery, and enforced by the +example of the Bishop of Tilopolis, made a missionary, un peu +incredule, as he says, believe that he saw, and watched for half an +hour, a phenomenon which he never saw at all. But then Dr. +Carpenter also dismisses, with none but the general theory already +quoted, the experience of 'a nobleman of high scientific +attainments,' who 'seriously assures us' that he saw Home 'sail in +the air, by moonlight, out of one window and in at another, at the +height of seventy feet from the ground.' {326} + +Here is the stumbling-block. A nobleman of high scientific +attainment, in company with another nobleman, and a captain in the +army, all vouched for this performance of Home. Now could the +savage tradition, which attributes flight to convulsive and +entranced persons, exercise such an influence on these three +educated modern witnesses; could an old piece of folklore, in +company with 'expectancy,' so wildly delude them? Can 'high +scientific attainments' leave their possessor with such humble +powers of observation? But, to be sure, Dr. Carpenter does not tell +his readers that there were _three_ witnesses. Dr. Carpenter says +that, if we believe Lord Crawford (and his friends), we can 'have no +reason for refusing credit to the historical evidence of the +demoniacal elevation of Simon Magus'. Let us point out that we have +no contemporary evidence at all about Simon's feat, while for +Home's, we have the evidence of three living and honourable men, +whom Dr. Carpenter might have cross-examined. The doings of Home +and of Simon were parallel, but nothing can be more different than +the nature of the evidence for what they are said to have done. +This, perhaps, might have been patent to a man like Dr. Carpenter of +'early scientific training'. But he illustrated his own doctrine of +'the dominant idea'; he did not see that he was guilty of a fallacy, +because his 'idea' dominated him. Stumbling into as deep a gulf, +Dr. Carpenter put Lord Crawford's evidence (he omitted that of his +friends) on a level with, or below, the depositions of witnesses as +to 'the aerial transport of witches to attend their demoniacal +festivities'. But who ever swore that he _saw_ witches so +transported? The evidence was not to witnessed facts, but only to a +current belief, backed by confessions under torture. No testimony +could be less on a par with that of a living 'nobleman of high +scientific attainments,' to his own experience. + +In three pages Dr. Carpenter has shown that 'early scientific +training' in physiology and pathology, does not necessarily enable +its possessor to state a case fully. Nor does it prompt him to +discriminate between rumours coming, a hundred and fifty years after +the date of the alleged occurrences, from a remote, credulous, and +unscientific age: and the statements of witnesses all living, all +honourable, and, in one case, of 'high scientific attainments.' +{327} + +It is this solemn belief in his own infallibility as a judge of +evidence combined with his almost incredible ignorance of what +evidence is, that makes Dr. Carpenter such an amusing +controversialist. + +If any piece of fact is to be proved, it is plain that the +concurrent testimony of three living and honourable men is worth +more than a bit of gossip, which, after filtering through a century +or two, is reported by an early Christian Father. In matters wholly +marvellous, like Home's flight in the air, the evidence of three +living and honourable men need not, of course, convince us of the +fact. But this evidence is in itself a fact to be considered--'Why +do these gentlemen tell this tale?' we ask; but Dr. Carpenter puts +the testimony on the level of patristic tattle many centuries old, +written down, on no authority, long after the event. Yet the worthy +doctor calmly talks about 'want of scientific culture preventing +people from appreciating the force of scientific reasoning,' and +that after giving such examples of 'scientific reasoning' as we have +examined. {328} It is in this way that Science makes herself +disliked. By aid of ordinary intelligence, and of an ordinary +classical education, every one (however uncultivated in 'science') +can satisfy himself that Dr. Carpenter argued at random. Yet we do +not assert that 'early scientific training' _prevents_ people from +understanding the nature of evidence. Dr. Carpenter had the +training, but he was impetuous, and under a dominant idea, so he +blundered along. + +Dr. Carpenter frequently invoked for the explanation of marvels, a +cause which is vera causa, expectancy. 'The expectation of a +certain result is often enough to produce it' (p. 12). This he +proves by cases of hypnotised patients who did, or suffered, what +they expected to be ordered to suffer or do, though no such order +was really given to them. Again (p. 40) he urges that imaginative +people, who sit for a couple of hours, 'especially if in the dark,' +believing or hoping to see a human body, or a table, rise in the +air, probably 'pass into a state which is neither sleeping nor +waking, but between the two, in which they see, hear, or feel by +touch, anything they have been led to expect will present itself.' + +This is, indeed, highly probable. But we must suppose that _all_ +present fall into this ambiguous state, described of old by +Porphyry. One waking spectator who sees nothing would make the +statements of the others even more worthless than usual. And it is +certain that it is not even pretended that all, always, see the same +phenomena. + +'One saw an arm, and one a hand, and one the waving of a gown,' in +that seance at Branxholme, where only William of Deloraine beheld +all, + +And knew, but how it mattered not, +It was the wizard, Michael Scott. {329} + +Granting the ambiguous state, granting darkness, and expectancy, +anything may seem to happen. But Dr. Carpenter wholly omits such +cases as that of Mr. Hamilton Aide, and of M. Alphonse Karr. Both +were absolutely sceptical. Both disliked Home very much, and +thought him an underbred Yankee quack and charlatan. Both were in +the 'expectancy' of seeing no marvels, were under 'the dominant +idea' that nothing unusual would occur. Both, in a brilliantly +lighted room of a villa near Nice, saw a chair make a rush from the +wall into the middle of the room, and saw a very large and heavy +table, untouched, rise majestically in the air. M. Karr at once got +under the table, and hunted, vainly, for mechanical appliances. +Then he and Mr. Aide went home, disconcerted, and in very bad +humour. How do 'expectancy' and the 'dominant idea' explain this +experience, which Mr. Aide has published in the Nineteenth Century? +The expectancy and dominant ideas of these gentlemen should have +made them see the table and chair sit tight, while believers +observed them in active motion. Again, how could Mr. Crookes's lack +of 'a special training in the bodily and mental constitution, +abnormal as well as normal,' of 'mediums,' affect his power of +observing whether a plank of wood did, or did not, move to a certain +extent untouched, or slightly touched, and whether the difference of +position was, or was not, registered mechanically? (p. 70). It was +a pure matter of skilled and trained observation in mechanics. Dr. +Huggins was also present at this experiment in a mode of motion. +Him Dr. Carpenter gracefully discredited as an 'amateur,' without 'a +broad basis of _general_ scientific culture'. He had devoted +himself 'to a branch of research which tasks the keenest powers of +_observation_'. Now it was precisely powers of _observation_ that +were required. 'There are _moral_ sources of error,' of which a +mere observer like Dr. Huggins would be unaware. And 'one of the +most potent of these is a proclivity to believe in the reality of +spiritual communications,' particularly dangerous in a case where +'spiritual communications,' were not in question! The question was, +did an indicator move, or not, under a certain amount of pressure? +Indiscreetly enough, to be sure, the pressure was attributed to +'psychic force,' and perhaps that was what Dr. Carpenter had in his +mind, when he warned Dr. Huggins against 'the proclivity to believe +in the reality of spiritual communications'. + +About a wilderness of other phenomena, attested by scores of sane +people, from Lord Crawford to Mr. S. C. Hall, Dr. Carpenter 'left +himself no time to speak' (p. 105). This was convenient, but the +lack of time prevented Dr. Carpenter from removing our stumbling- +block, the one obstacle which keeps us from adopting, with no shadow +of doubt, the theory that explains all the marvels by the survival +and revival of savage delusions. Dr. Carpenter's hypothesis of +expectancy, of a dominant idea, acting on believers, in an ambiguous +state, and in the dark, can do much, but it cannot account for the +experience of wide-awake sceptics, under the opposite dominant idea, +in a brilliant light. + +Dr. Carpenter exposed and exploded a quantity of mesmeric +spiritualistic myths narrated by Dr. Gregory, by Miss Martineau, and +by less respectable if equally gullible authorities. But, speaking +merely as perplexed and unconvinced students of argument and +evidence, we cannot say that he removed the difficulties which have +been illustrated and described. + +Table-turning, after what is called a 'boom' in 1853-60, is now an +abandoned amusement. It is deserted, like croquet, and it is even +less to be regretted. But its existence enabled disputants to +illustrate the ordinary processes of reasoning; each making +assertions up to the limit of his personal experience; each +attacking, as 'superstitious,' all who had seen, or fancied they had +seen, more than himself, and each fighting gallantly for his own +explanatory hypothesis, which never did explain any phenomena beyond +those attested by his own senses. The others were declared not to +exist, or to be the result of imposture and mal-observation,--and +perhaps they were. + +The truly diverting thing is that Home did not believe in the other +'mediums,' nor in anything in the way of a marvel (such as matter +passing through matter) which he had not seen with his own eyes. +Whether Home's incredulity should be reckoned as a proof of his +belief in his own powers, might be argued either way. + + + + +THE GHOST THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION + + +Evolutionary Theory of the Origin of Religion. Facts misunderstood +suggest ghosts, which develop into gods. This process lies behind +history and experience. Difficulties of the Theory. The Theory of +Lucretius. Objections Mr. Tyler's Theory. The question of abnormal +facts not discussed by Mr. Tylor. Possibility that such 'psychical' +facts are real, and are elements in development of savage religion. +The evidence for psychical phenomena compared with that which, in +other matters, satisfies anthropologists. Examples. Conclusion. + +Among the many hypotheses as to the origin of religion, that which +we may call the evolutionary, or anthropological, is most congenial +to modern habits of thought. The old belief in a sudden, miraculous +revelation is commonly rejected, though, in one sense, religion was +none the less 'revealed,' even if man was obliged to work his way to +the conception of deity by degrees. To attain that conception was +the necessary result of man's reflection on the sum of his relations +to the universe. The attainment, however, of the monotheistic idea +is not now generally regarded as immediate and instinctive. A slow +advance, a prolonged evolution was required, whether we accept Mr. +Max Muller's theory of 'the sense of the Infinite,' or whether we +prefer the anthropological hypothesis. The latter scheme, with +various modifications, is the scheme of Epicurus, Lucretius, Hume, +Mr. Tylor, and Mr. Herbert Spencer. Man half consciously +transferred his implicit sense that he was a living and rational +being to nature in general, and recognised that earth, sky, wind, +clouds, trees, the lower animals, and so on, were persons like +himself, persons perhaps more powerful and awful than himself. This +transference of personality can scarcely be called the result of a +conscious process of reasoning. Man might recognise personality +everywhere, without much more thought or argument than a kitten +exerts when it takes a cork or a ball for a living playmate. But +consciousness must have reached a more explicit stage, when man +began to ask himself what a _person_ is, what life is, and when he +arrived at the conclusion that life is a spirit. To advance from +that conclusion; to explain all life as the manifestation of +indwelling spirits; then to withdraw the conception of life and +personality from inanimate things, to select from among spirits One +more powerful than the rest, to recognise that One as disembodied, +as superior, then as supreme, then as unique, and so to attain the +monotheistic conception, has been, according to the evolutionary +hypothesis, the tendency of human thought. + +Unluckily we cannot study the process in its course of action. +Perhaps there is no savage race so lowly endowed, that it does not +possess, in addition to a world of 'spirits,' something that answers +to the conception of God. Whether that is so, or not, is a question +of evidence. We have often been told that this or the other people +'has no religious ideas at all'. But later we hear that they do +possess a belief in spirits, and very often better information +proves that, in one stage or other of advance or degradation, the +theistic conception of a Maker and Judge of the world is also +present. Meanwhile even civilised and monotheistic peoples also +admit the existence of a world of spirits of the dead, of 'demons' +(as in Platonism), of saints (as in Catholicism), of devils, of +angels, or of subordinate deities. Thus the elements of religion +are universally distributed in all degrees of culture, though one +element is more conspicuous in one place or mood, another more +conspicuous in another. In one mood the savage, or the civilised +man, may be called monotheistic, in another mood atheistic, in a +third, practically polytheistic. Only a few men anywhere, and they +only when consciously engaged in speculation, assume a really +definite and exclusive mental attitude on the subject. The orthodox +monotheistic Mussulman has his afreets, and djinns; the Jew, or the +Christian, has his angels, the Catholic has his saints; the +Platonist has his demons; Superstition has its ghosts. The question +is whether all these spiritual beings are only ghosts raised to +higher powers: or (in the case of deity), to the highest +conceivable power, while, even when this last process has been +accomplished, we ask whether other ghosts, on lower grades, continue +to be recognised. Meanwhile the whole anthropological hypothesis, +whether valid or invalid, lies behind history, behind the experience +of even the most backward races at present extant. If it be urged, +as by Hume, that the conception of a supreme deity is only a +reflection of kingship in human society, we must observe that some +monarchical races, like the Aztecs, seem to have possessed no +recognised monarchical Zeus; while something very like the +monotheistic conception is found among races so remote from the +monarchical state of society as to have no obvious distinctions of +rank, like the Australian blacks. Moreover the evidence, on such +difficult points, is obscure, and fluctuating, and capable of +various interpretation. Even among the most backward peoples, the +traceable shadow of a monotheistic idea often seems to bear marks of +degradation and disuse, rather than of nascent development. There +is a God, but He is neglected, and tribal spirits receive prayer and +sacrifice. Just as in art there is a point where we find it +difficult to decide whether an object is decadent, or archaic, so it +is in the study of religious conceptions. + +These are a few among the inevitable difficulties and obscurities +which haunt the anthropological or evolutionary theory of the origin +of religion. Other difficulties meet us at the very beginning. The +theory regards gods as merely ghosts or spirits, raised to a higher, +or to the highest power. Mankind, according to the system, was +inevitably led, by the action of reason upon apparent facts, to +endow all things, from humanity itself to earth, sky, rain, sea, +fire, with conscious personality, life, spirit; and these attributes +were as gradually withdrawn again, under stress of better knowledge, +till only man was left with a soul, and only the universe was left +with a God. The last scientific step, then, it may be inferred, is +to deprive the universe of a God, and mankind of souls. + +This step may be naturally taken by those who conceive that the +whole process of ghost and god-making is based on a mere set of +natural and inevitable fallacies, and who decline to recognise that +these progressive fallacies (if fallacies they are) may be steps on +a divinely appointed road towards truth; that He led us by a way +that we knew not, and a path we did not understand. Yet, of course, +it is plain that a conclusion may be correct, although it was +reached by erroneous processes. All scientific verities have been +attained in this manner, by a gradual modification and improvement +of inadequate working hypotheses, by the slow substitution of +correctness for error. Thus monotheism and the doctrine of the soul +may be in no worse case than the Copernican theory, or the theory of +the circulation of the blood, or the Darwinian theory; itself the +successor of innumerable savage guesses, conjectures of Empedocles, +ideas of Cuvier, of the elder Darwin, of Lamarck, and of Chambers. + +At present, of course, the theistic hypothesis, and the hypothesis +of a soul, do not admit of scientific verification. The difficulty +is to demonstrate that 'mind' may exist, and work, apart from +'matter'. But it may conceivably become verifiable that the +relations of 'mind' and 'matter' are, at all events, less obviously +and immediately interdependent, that will and judgment are less +closely and exclusively attached to physical organisms than modern +science has believed. Now, according to the anthropological theory +of the origin of religion, it was precisely from the opposite of the +scientific belief,--it was from the belief that consciousness and +will may be exerted apart from, at a distance from, the physical +organism,--that the savage fallacies began, which ended, ex +hypothesi, in monotheism, and in the doctrine of the soul. The +savage, it is said, started from normal facts, which he +misinterpreted. But suppose he started, not from normal facts +alone, but also from abnormal facts,--from facts which science does +not yet recognise at all,--then it is possible that the conclusions +of the savage, though far too sweeping, and in parts undeniably +erroneous, are yet, to a certain extent, not mistaken. He may have +had 'a sane spot in his mind,' and a sane impulse may have led him +into the right direction. Man may have faculties which savages +recognise, and which physical science does not recognise. Man may +be surrounded by agencies which savages exaggerate, and which +science disregards altogether, and these faculties and agencies may +point to an element of truth which is often cast aside as a survival +of superstition, as the 'after-image' of an illusion. + +The lowest known stage, and, according to the evolutionary +hypothesis, the earliest stage in religion, is the belief in the +ghosts of the dead, and in no other spiritual entities. Whether +this belief anywhere exists alone, and untempered by higher creeds, +is another question. These ghosts are fed, propitiated, receive +worship, and, to put it briefly, the fittest ghosts survive, and +become gods. Meanwhile the conception of ghosts of the dead is more +or less consciously extended, so that spirits who never were +incarnate as men become credible beings. They may inform inanimate +objects, trees, rivers, fire, clouds, earth, sky, the great natural +departments, and thence polytheism results. There are political +processes, the consolidation of a state, for example, which help to +blend these gods of various different origins into a divine +consistory. One of these gods, it may be of sky, or air becomes +king, and reflection may gradually come to recognise him not only as +supreme, but as, theoretically, unique, and thus Zeus, from a very +limited monarchy, may rise to solitary all-fatherhood. Yet Zeus +may, originally, have been only the ghost of a dead medicine-man who +was called 'Sky,' or he may have been the departmental spirit who +presided over the sky, or he may have been sky conceived of as a +personality, or these different elements may have been mingled in +Zeus. But the whole conception of spirit, in any case, was derived, +it is argued, from the conception of ghosts, and that conception may +be traced to erroneous savage interpretations of natural and normal +facts. + +If all this be valid, the idea of God is derived from a savage +fallacy, though, of course, it does not follow that an idea is +erroneous, _because_ it was attained by mistaken processes and from +false premises. That, however, is the inference which many minds +are inclined to draw from the evolutionary hypothesis. But if the +facts on which the savage reasoned are, some of them, rare, +abnormal, and not scientifically accepted; if, in short, they are +facts demonstrative of unrecognised human faculties, if these +faculties raise a presumption that will, mind, and organism are less +closely interdependent than science supposes, then the savage +reasoning may contain an important element of rejected truth. It +may even seem, at least, conceivable that certain factors in the +conception of 'spirit' were not necessarily evolved as the +anthropological hypothesis conceives them to have been. + +Science had scarcely begun her secular conflict with religion, when +she discovered that the battle must be fought on haunted ground, on +the field of the ghosts of the dead. 'There are no gods, or only +dei otiosi, careless, indolent deities. There is nothing conscious +that survives death, no soul that can exist apart from the fleshly +body.' Such were the doctrines of Epicurus and Lucretius, but to +these human nature opposed 'facts'; we see, people said, men long +dead in our dreams, or even when awake: the Homeric Achilles, +beholding Patroclus in a dream, instantly infers that there verily +_is_ a shadow, an eidolon, a shadowy consciousness, shadowy +presence, which outlasts the death of the body. To this Epicurus +and Lucretius reply, that the belief is caused by fallacious +inferences from facts, these facts, appearances beheld in sleep or +vision, these spectral faces of the long dead, are caused by 'films +peeled off from the surface of objects, which fly to and fro through +the air, and do likewise frighten our minds when they present +themselves to us _awake as well as in sleep_, what time we behold +strange shapes, and "idols" of the light-bereaved,' Lucretius +expressly advances this doctrine of 'films' (an application of the +Democritean theory of perception), 'that we may not believe that +souls break loose from Acheron, or that shades fly about among the +living, or that any part of us is left behind after death'. {341a} +Believers in ghosts must have replied that they do _not_ see, in +sleep or awake, 'films' representing a mouldering corpse, as they +ought to do on the Lucretian hypothesis, but the image, or idolon of +a living face. Plutarch says that if philosophers may laugh, these +long enduring 'films,' from a body perhaps many ages deep in dust, +are laughable. {341b} However Lucretius is so wedded to his 'films' +that he explains a purely fanciful being, like a centaur, by a +fortuitous combination of the film of a man with the film of a +horse. A 'ghost' then, is, to the mind of Lucretius, merely a +casual persistent film of a dead man, composed of atoms very light +which can fly at inconceivable speed, and are not arrested by +material obstacles. By parity of reasoning no doubt, if Pythagoras +is seen at the same moment in Thurii and Metapontum, only a film of +him is beheld at one of these two places. The Democritean theory of +ordinary perception thus becomes the Lucretian theory of dreams and +ghosts. Not that Lucretius denies the existence of a rational soul, +in living men, {341c} a portion of it may even leave the body during +sleep, and only a spark may be left in the embers of the physical +organism. If even that spark withdraws, death follows, and the +soul, no longer warmly housed in the body, ceases to exist. For the +'film' (ghost) is not the soul, and the soul is not the film, +whereas savage philosophy identifies the soul with the ghost. Even +Lucretius retains the savage conception of the soul as a thing of +rarer matter, a thing partly separable from the body, but that thing +is resolved for ever into its elements on the death of the body. +His imaginary 'film,' on the other hand, may apparently endure for +ages. + +The Lucretian theory had, for Lucretius, the advantages of being +physical, and of dealing a blow at the hated doctrine of a future +life. For the public it had the disadvantages of being incapable of +proof, of not explaining the facts, as conceived to exist, and of +being highly ridiculous, as Plutarch observed. Much later +philosophers explained all apparitions as impressions of sense, +recorded on the brain, and so actively revived that they seemed to +have an objective existence. One or two stock cases (Nicolai's, and +Mrs. A.'s), in which people _in a morbid condition_, saw +hallucinations which they knew to be hallucinations, did, and do, a +great deal of duty. Mr. Sully has them, as Hibbert and Brewster +have them, engaged as protagonists. Collective hallucinations, and +the hallucinations of the sane which coincide with the death, or +other crisis in the experience of the person who seemed to be seen, +were set down to imagination, 'expectant attention,' imposture, +mistaken identity, and so forth. + +Without dwelling on the causes, physical or psychological, which +have been said by Frazer of Tiree (1707), Ferrier, Hibbert, Scott, +and others, to account for the hallucinations of the sane, for +'ghosts,' Mr. Tylor has ably erected his theory of animism, or the +belief in spirits. Thinking savages, he says, 'were deeply +impressed by two groups of biological phenomena,' by the facts of +living, dying, sleep, trance, waking and disease. They asked: +'What is the difference between a living body and a dead one?' They +wanted to know the causes of sleep, trance and death. They were +also concerned to explain the appearances of dead or absent human +beings in dreams and waking visions. Now it was plain that 'life' +could go away, as it does in death, or seems to do in dreamless +sleep. Again, a phantasm of a living man can go away and appear to +waking or sleeping people at a distance. The conclusion was reached +by savages that the phantasm which thus appears is identical with +the life which 'goes away' in sleep or trance. Sometimes it +returns, when the man wakes, or escapes from his trance. Sometimes +it stays away, he dies, his body corrupts, but the phantasm endures, +and is occasionally seen in sleeping or waking vision. The general +result of savage thought is that man's life must be conceived as a +personal and rational entity, called his 'soul,' while it remains in +his body, his 'wraith,' when it is beheld at a distance during his +life, his 'ghost,' when it is observed after his death. Many +circumstances confirmed or illustrated this savage hypothesis Breath +remains with the body during life, deserts it at death. Hence the +words spiritus, 'spirit,' [Greek], anima, and, when the separable +nature of the shadow is noticed, hence come 'shade,' 'umbra,' +[Greek], with analogues in many languages. The hypothesis was also +strengthened, by the great difficulty which savages feel in +discriminating between what occurs in dreams, and what occurs to men +awake. Many civilised persons feel the same difficulty with regard +to hallucinations beheld by them when in bed, asleep or awake they +know not, on the dim border of existence. Reflection on all these +experiences ended in the belief in spirits, in souls of the living, +in wraiths of the living, in ghosts of the dead, and, finally, in +God. + +This theory is most cogently presented by Mr. Tylor, and is +confirmed by examples chosen from his wide range of reading. But, +among these normal and natural facts, as of sleep, dream, breath, +life, dying, Mr. Tylor includes (not as facts, but as examples of +applied animistic theory) cases of 'clairvoyance,' apparitions of +the dying seen by the living at a distance, second sight, ghostly +disturbances of knocking and rapping, movements of objects, and so +forth. It is not a question for Mr. Tylor whether clairvoyance ever +occurs: whether 'death-bed wraiths' have been seen to an extent not +explicable by the laws of chance, whether disturbances and movements +of objects not to be accounted for by human agency are matters of +universal and often well-attested report. Into the question of +fact, Mr. Tylor explicitly declines to enter; these things only +concern him because they have been commonly explained by the +'animistic hypothesis,' that is, by the fancied action of spirits. +The animistic hypothesis, again, is the result, naturally +fallacious, of savage man's reasonings on life, death, sleep, +dreams, trance, breath, shadow and the other kindred biological +phenomena. Thus clairvoyance (on the animistic hypothesis) is the +flight of the conscious 'spirit' of a living man across space or +time; the 'deathbed wraith' is the visible apparition of the newly- +emancipated 'spirit,' and 'spirits' cause the unexplained +disturbances and movements of objects. In fact it is certain that +the animistic hypothesis (though a mere fallacy) does colligate a +great number of facts very neatly, and has persisted from times of +low savagery to the present age of reason. So here is a case of the +savage origin and persistent 'survival' of a hypothesis,--the most +potent hypothesis in the history of humanity. + +From Mr. Tylor's point of view, his concern with the subject ceases +here, it is not his business to ascertain whether the abnormal facts +are facts or fancies. Yet, to other students, this question is very +important. First, if clairvoyance, wraiths, and the other alleged +phenomena, really do occur, or have occurred, then savage man had +much better grounds for the animistic hypothesis than if no such +phenomena ever existed. For instance, if a medicine-man not only +went into trances, but brought back from these expeditions knowledge +otherwise inaccessible, then there were better grounds for believing +in a consciousness exerted apart from the body than if there were no +evidence but that of non-veridical dreams. If merely the dream- +coincidences which the laws of chance permit were observed, the +belief in the soul's dream-flight would win less favourable and +general acceptance than it would if clairvoyance, 'the sleep of the +shadow,' were a real if rare experience. The very name given by the +Eskimos to the hypnotic state, 'the sleep of the shadow,' proves +that savages do make distinctions between normal and abnormal +conditions of slumber. + +In the same way a few genuine wraiths, or ghosts, or 'veridical +hallucinations,' would be enough to start the animistic hypothesis, +or to confirm it notably, if it was already started. As to +disturbances and movements of objects unexplained, these, in his own +experience, suggested, even to De Morgan, the hypothesis of a +conscious, active, and purposeful will, _not_ that of any human +being present. Now such a will is hardly to be defined otherwise +than as 'spiritual'. This order of phenomena, like those of +clairvoyance and wraiths, might either give rise to the savage +animistic hypothesis, or, at least, might confirm it greatly. In +fact, if the sets of abnormal phenomena existed, or were held to +exist, savage man scarcely needed the normal phenomena for the basis +of his spiritual belief. The normal phenomena lent him such terms +as 'spirit,' 'shadow,' but much of his theory might have been built +on the foundation of the abnormal phenomena alone. A 'veridical +hallucination,' of the dying would give him a 'wraith'; a recognised +hallucination of the dead would give him a ghost: the often +reported and unexplained movements and disturbances would give him a +vui, 'house spirit,' 'brownie,' 'domovoy,' follet, lar, or lutin. +Or these occurrences might suggest to the thinking savage that some +discontented influence survived from the recently dead. + +Four thousand years have passed since houses were haunted in Egypt, +and have left some sane, educated, and methodical men to meet the +same annoyances as the ancient Egyptians did, by the same measures. +We do not pretend to discover, without examination, the causes of +the sounds and sights which baffle trained and not superstitious +investigators. But we do say that similar occurrences, in a kraal +or an Eskimo hut, in a wigwam, in a cave, or under a gunyeh, would +greatly confirm the animistic hypothesis of savages. The theory of +imposture (in some cases) does undeniably break down, for the people +who hold it cannot even suggest a modus operandi within the reach of +the human beings concerned, as in the case of the Wesleys. The +theory of contagious hallucination of all the senses is the property +of Coleridge alone. The hypothesis of a nervous force which sets up +centres of conscious action is confined to Hartmann, and to certain +Highland philosophers, cavalierly dismissed by the Rev. Robert Kirk +as 'men illiterate'. Instead of making these guesses, the savage +thinkers merely applied the animistic hypothesis, which they had +found to work very well already, and, as De Morgan says, to +colligate the phenomena better than any other theory. We cannot +easily conceive men who know neither sleep nor dreams, but if the +normal phenomena of sleep and dreams had not existed, the abnormal +phenomena already described, if they occurred, as they are +universally said to do, could have given rise, when speculated upon, +to the belief in spirits. + +But, it may reasonably be urged, 'the natural familiar facts of +life, death, sleep, waking, dreams, breath, and shadows, are all +versae causae, do undeniably exist, and, without the aid of any of +your abnormal facts, afford basis enough for the animistic +hypothesis. Moreover, after countless thousands of years, during +which superstition has muttered about your abnormal facts, official +science still declines to hear a word on the topic of clairvoyance +or telepathy. You don't find the Royal Society investigating second +sight, or attending to legends about tables which rebel against the +law of gravitation.' + +These are cogent remarks. Normal facts, perhaps, may have suggested +the belief in spirits, the animistic hypothesis. But we do not find +the hypothesis (among the backward races) where abnormal facts are +not alleged to be matters of comparatively frequent experience. +Consequently we do not _know_ that the normal facts, alone, +suggested the existence of spirits to early thinkers, we can only +make the statement on a priori grounds. Like George Eliot's rural +sage we 'think it sounds a deal likelier'. But that, after all, +though a taking, is not a powerful and conclusive syllogism. + +Again, we certainly do not expect to see the Royal Society inquiring +into second sight, or clairvoyance, or thought transference. When +the Royal Society was first founded several of its members, Pepys, +F.R.S.; Mr. Robert Boyle, F.R.S.; the Rev. Joseph Glanvill, F.R.S., +went into these things a good deal. But, in spite of their title, +they were only amateurs. They had no professional dignity to keep +up. They were well aware that they, unlike the late Mr. Faraday, +did not know, by inspiration or by common-sense, the limits of the +possible. They tried all things, it was such a superstitious age. +Now men of science, or the majority of them, for there are some +exceptions, know what is, and what is not possible. They know that +germs of life may possibly come down on meteorites from somewhere +else, and they produced an argument for the existence of a +bathybius. But they also know that a man is not a bird to be in two +places at once, like Pythagoras, and that nobody can see through a +stone wall. These, and similar allegations, they reckon impossible, +and, if the facts happen, so much the worse for the facts. They can +only be due to imposture or mal-observation, and there is an end of +the matter. This is the view of official science. Unluckily, not +many years ago, official science was equally certain that the +ordinary phenomena of hypnotism were based on imposture and on mal- +observation. These phenomena, too, were tabooed. But so many +people could testify to them, and they could be so easily explained +by the suggestive force of suggestion, that they were reluctantly +admitted within the sacred citadel. Many people, sane, not +superstitious, healthy, and even renowned as scientific specialists, +attest the existence of the still rarer phenomena which are said, in +certain cases, to accompany the now more familiar incidents of +hypnotism. But these phenomena have never yet been explained by any +theory which science recognises, as she does recognise that +suggestion is suggestive. Therefore these rarer phenomena +manifestly do not exist, and cannot be the subject of legitimate +inquiry. + +These are unanswerable observations, and it is only the antiquarian +who can venture, in his humble way, to reply to them. His answer +has a certain force ad hominem, that is, as addressed to +anthropologists. They, too, have but recently been admitted within +the scientific fold; time was when their facts were regarded as mere +travellers' tales. Mr. Max Muller is now, perhaps, almost alone in +his very low estimate of anthropological evidence, and, possibly, +even that sturdy champion is beginning to yield ground. Defending +the validity of the testimony on which anthropologists reason about +the evolution of religion, custom, manners, mythology, law, Mr. +Tylor writes:-- + +'It is a matter worthy of consideration that the accounts of similar +phenomena of culture, recurring in different parts of the world, +actually supply incidental proof of their own authenticity. . . . +The test of recurrence comes in. . . . The possibility of +intentional or unintentional mystification is often barred by such a +state of things as that a similar statement is made in two remote +lands by two witnesses, of whom A lived a century before B, and B +appears never to have heard of A.' + +If for 'similar phenomena of culture' here, we substitute 'similar +abnormal phenomena' (such as clairvoyance, wraiths, unexplained +disturbances), Mr. Tylor's argument in favour of his evidence for +institutions applies equally well to our evidence for mysterious +'facts'. 'How distant are the countries,' he goes on, 'how wide +apart are the dates, how different the creeds and characters in the +catalogue of the facts of civilisation, needs no further showing'-- +to the student of Mr. Tylor's erudite footnotes. In place of 'facts +of civilisation' read 'psychical phenomena,' and Mr. Tylor's +argument applies to the evidence for these rejected and scouted +beliefs. + +The countries from which 'ghosts' and 'wraiths' and 'clairvoyance' +are reported are 'distant'; the dates are 'wide apart'; the 'creeds +and characters of the observers' 'are 'different'; yet the evidence +is as uniform, and as recurrent, as it is in the case of +institutions, manners, customs. Indeed the evidence for the +rejected and abnormal phenomena is even more 'recurrent' than the +evidence for customs and institutions. Polyandry, totemism, human +sacrifice, the taboo, are only reported as existing in remote and +semi-civilised countries. Clairvoyance, wraiths, ghosts, mysterious +disturbances and movements of objects are reported as existing, not +only in distant ages, but today; not only among savages or +barbarians, but in London, Paris, Milan. No ages can be more wide +apart, few countries much more distant, than ancient Egypt and +modern England: no characters look more different than that of an +old scribe under Pharaoh, and that of a distinguished soldier under +Queen Victoria. Yet the scribe of Khemi and General Campbell suffer +from the same inexplicable annoyance, attribute it to the same very +abnormal agency, and attempt (not unsuccessfully) to communicate +with that agency, in precisely the same way. + +This, though a striking, is an isolated and perhaps a casual example +of recurrence and uniformity in evidence. Mr. Tylor's Primitive +Culture is itself a store-house of other examples, to which more may +easily be added. For example, there is the old and savage belief in +a 'sending'. The medicine-man, or medium, or witch, can despatch a +conscious, visible, and intelligent agent, non-normal, to do his +bidding at a distance. This belief is often illustrated in the +Scandinavian sagas. Rink testifies to it among the Eskimo, Grinnell +among the Pawnees: Porphyry alleges that by some such 'telepathic +impact' Plotinus, from a distance, made a hostile magician named +Alexander 'double up like an empty bag,' and saw and reported this +agreeable circumstance. {352} Hardly any abnormal phenomenon or +faculty sounds less plausible, and the 'spectral evidence' for the +presence of a witch's 'sending,' when the poor woman could establish +an alibi for her visible self, appeared dubious even to Cotton +Mather. But, in their Phantasms of the Living, Messrs. Gurney and +Myers give cases in which a visible 'sending' was intentionally +emitted by Baron Schrenck Notzing, by a stock-broker, by a young +student of engineering, and by a French hospital nurse, to take no +other instances. The person visited frequently by the 'sendings' in +the last cases was a French physician engaged in the hospital, who +reports and attests the facts. All the cases are given at first +hand on the testimony of the senders and of the recipients of the +sendings. Bulwer Lytton was familiar with the belief, and uses the +'shining shadow' in A Strange Story. Now here is uniform recurrent +evidence from widely severed ages, from distant countries, from the +Polar North, the American prairie, Neoplatonic Egypt and Greece, +England and New England of the seventeenth century, and England and +Germany of today. The 'creeds and characters of the observers' are +as 'different' as Neoplatonism, Shamanism, Christianity of divers +sects, and probably Agnosticism or indifference. All these +conditions of unvarying testimony constitute good evidence for +institutions and customs; anthropologists, who eagerly accept such +testimony in their own studies, may decide as to whether they +deserve total neglect when adduced in another field of anthropology. + +Turning from 'sendings,' or 'telepathy' voluntarily brought to bear +on one living person by another, we might examine 'death-bed +wraiths,' or the telepathic impact--'if that hypothesis of theirs be +sound'--produced by a dying on a living human being. A savage +example, in which a Fuegian native on board an English ship saw his +father, who was expiring in Tierra del Fuego, has the respectable +authority of Mr. Darwin's Cruise of the Beagle. Instances, on the +other hand, in which Australian blacks, or Fijians, see the +phantasms of dead kinsmen warning them of their decease (which +follows punctually) may be found in Messrs. Fison and Howitt's +Kamilaroi and Kurnai. + +From New Zealand Mr. Tylor cites, with his authorities, the +following example: {353} 'A party of Maoris (one of whom told the +story) were seated round a fire in the open air, when there +appeared, seen only by two of them, the figure of a relative left +ill at home. They exclaimed, the figure vanished, and, on the +return of the party, it appeared that the sick man had died about +the time of the vision.' A traveller in New Zealand illustrates the +native belief in the death-wraith by an amusing anecdote. A +Rangatira, or native gentleman, had gone on the war-path. One day +he walked into his wife's house, but after a few moments could not +be found. The military expedition did not return, so the lady, +taking it for granted that her husband, the owner of the wraith, was +dead, married an admirer. The hallucination, however, was _not_ +'veridical'; the warrior came home, but he admitted that he had no +remedy and no feud against his successor. The owner of a wraith +which has been seen may be assumed to be dead. Such is Maori +belief. The modern civilised examples of death-wraiths, attested +and recorded in Phantasms of the Living, are numerous; but +statistics prove that a lady who marries again on the strength of a +wraith may commit an error of judgment, and become liable to the +penalty of bigamy. The Maoris, no statisticians, take a more +liberal and tolerant view. These are comparatively scanty examples +from savage life, but then they are corroborated by the wealth of +recurrent and coincident evidence from civilised races, ancient and +modern. + +On the point of clairvoyance, it is unnecessary to dwell. The +second-sighted man, the seer of events remote in space or not yet +accomplished in time, is familiar everywhere, from the Hebrides to +the Coppermine River, from the Samoyed and Eskimo to the Zulu, from +the Euphrates to the Hague. The noises heard in 'haunted houses,' +the knocking, routing, dragging of heavy bodies, is recorded, Mr. +Tylor says, by Dayaks, Singhalese, Siamese, and Esths; Dennys, in +his Folklore of China, notes the occurrences in the Celestial +Empire; Grimm, in his German Mythology, gives examples, starting +from the communicative knocks of a spirit near Bingen, in the +chronicle of Rudolf (856), and Suetonius tells a similar tale from +imperial Rome. The physician of Catherine de Medicis, Ambroise +Pare, describes every one of the noises heard by the Wesleys, long +after his day, as familiar, and as caused by devils. Recurrence and +conformity of evidence cannot be found in greater force. + +The anthropological test of evidence for faith in the rejected +phenomena is thus amply satisfied. Unless we say that these +phenomena are 'impossible,' whereas totemism, the couvade, +cannibalism, are possible, the testimony to belief in clairvoyance, +and the other peculiar occurrences, is as good in its way as the +evidence for the practice of wild customs and institutions. There +remains a last and notable circumstance. All the abnormal +phenomena, in the modern and mediaeval tales, occur most frequently +in the presence of convulsionaries, like the so-called victims of +witches, like the Hon. Master Sandilands, Lord Torphichen's son +(1720), like the grandson of William Morse in New England (1680), +and like Bovet's case of the demon of Spraiton. {355} + +The 'mediums' of modern spiritualism, like Francis Fey, are, or +pretend to be, subject to fits, anaesthesia, jerks, convulsive +movements, and trance. As Mr. Tylor says about his savage +jossakeeds, powwows, Birraarks, peaimen, everywhere 'these people +suffer from hysterical, convulsive, and epileptic affections'. Thus +the physical condition, all the world over, of persons who exhibit +most freely the accepted phenomena, is identical. All the world +over, too, the same persons are credited with the _rejected_ +phenomena, clairvoyance, 'discerning of spirits,' powers of +voluntary 'telepathic 'and 'telekinetic' impact. Thus we find that +uniform and recurrent evidence vouches for a mass of phenomena which +science scouts. Science has now accepted a portion of the mass, but +still rejects the stranger occurrences. Our argument is that their +invariably alleged presence, in attendance on the minor occurrences, +is, at least, a point worthy of examination. The undesigned +coincidences of testimony represent a great deal of smoke, and +proverbial wisdom suggests a presumption in favour of a few sparks +of fire. Now, if there are such sparks, the animistic hypothesis +may not, of course, be valid,--'spirits' may not exist,--but the +universal belief in their existence may have had its origin, not in +normal facts only, but in abnormal facts. And these facts, at the +lowest estimate, must suggest that man may have faculties, and be +surrounded by agencies, which physical science does not take into +account in its theory of the universe and of human nature. + +We have already argued that the doctrines of theism and of the soul +need not to be false, even if they were arrived at slowly, after a +succession of grosser opinions. But if the doctrines were reached +by a process which started from real facts of human nature, observed +by savages, but not yet recognised by physical science, then there +may have been grains of truth even in the cruder and earlier ideas, +and these grains of gold may have been disengaged, and fashioned, +not without Divine aid, into the sacred things of spiritual +religion. + +The stories which we have been considering are often trivial, +sometimes comic; but they are universally diffused, and as well +established as universally coincident testimony can establish +anything. Now, if there be but one spark of real fire to all this +smoke, then the purely materialistic theories of life and of the +world must be reconsidered. They seem very well established, but so +have many other theories seemed, that are long gone the way of all +things human. + + + + + +Footnotes: + + +{0a} Fortnightly Review, February 1866, and in a lecture, 1895. + +{0b} This diary was edited for private circulation, by a son of Mr. +Proctor's, who remembers the disturbances. + +{0c} See essays here on Classical and Savage Spiritualism. + +{0d} This was merely a cheerful obiter dictum by the learned +President. + +{4} Not the house agent. + +{9} Porphyry, Epistola xxi. Iamblichus, De Myst., iii. 2. + +{11} The Port Glasgow story is in Report of the Dialectical +Society, p. 200. The flooring was torn up; walls, ceilings, +cellars, were examined by the police, and attempts were made to +imitate the noises, without success. In this case, as at Rerrick in +the end of the seventeenth century, and elsewhere, 'the appearance +of a hand moving up and down' was seen by the family, 'but we could +not catch it: it quietly vanished, and we only felt cold air'. The +house was occupied by a gardener, Hugh McCardle. Names of +witnesses, a sergeant of police, and others, are appended. + +{12} Report of Dialectical Society, p. 86. + +{17a} For ourselves, we have never seen or heard a table give any +responses whatever, any more than we have seen the ghosts, heard the +raps, or viewed the flights of men in the air which we chronicle in +a later portion of this work. + +{17b} Report on Spiritualism, Longmans, London, 1871. + +{18} Report, p. 229. + +{21} Mr. Wallace may be credited with scoring a point in argument. +Dr. Edmunds had maintained that no amount of evidence would make him +believe in certain obvious absurdities, say the lions in Trafalgar +Square drinking out of the fountains. Mr. Wallace replied: 'The +asserted fact is either possible or not possible. If possible, such +evidence as we have been considering would prove it; if not +possible, such evidence could not exist.' No such evidence exists +for the lions; for the phenomena of so-called spiritualism, we have +consentient testimony in every land, period and stage of culture. +That certainly makes a difference, whatever the weight and value of +the difference may be. + +{26a} This illustration is not Mr. Lecky's. + +{26b} We have here thrown together a crowd of odd experiences. The +savages' examples are dealt with in the next essay; the Catholic +marvels in the essay on 'Comparative Psychical Research'. For +Pascal, consult L'Amulette de Pascal, by M. Lelut; for Iamblichus, +see essay on 'Ancient Spiritualism'. As to Welsh, the evidence for +the light in which he shone is printed in Dr. Hill Burton's Scot +Abroad (i. 289), from a Wodrow MS. in Glasgow University. Mr. Welsh +was minister of Ayr. He was meditating in his garden late at night. +One of his friends 'chanced to open a window towards the place where +he walked, and saw clearly a strange light surround him, and heard +him speak strange words about his spiritual joy'. Hill Burton +thinks that this verges on the Popish superstition. The truth is +that eminent ministers shared the privileges of Mediums and of some +saints. Examples of miraculous cures by ministers, of clairvoyance +on their part, of spirit-raps attendant on them, and of prophecy, +are current on Presbyterian hagiology. No ministers, to our +knowledge, were 'levitated,' but some _nearly_ flew out of their +pulpits. Patrick Walker, in his Biographia Presbyteriana, vol. ii. +p. 21, mentions a supernatural light which floated round The Sweet +Singers, Meikle John Gibb and his friends, before they burned a +bible. Mr. Gibb afterwards excelled as a pow-wow, or Medicine Man, +among the Red Indians. + +{30} Teutonic Mythology, English translation, vol. ii. p. 514. He +cites Pertz, i. 372. + +{31} A very early turning table, of 1170, is quoted from Giraldus +Cambrensis by Dean Stanley in his Canterbury Memorials, p. 103. The +table threw off the weapons of Becket's murderers. This was at +South Malling. See the original in Wharton's Anglia Sacra, ii. 425. + +{35} See Mr. Tylor's Primitive Culture, chap, xi., for the best +statement of the theory. + +{38} Petitot, Traditions Indiennes du Canada Nord-Ouest, p. 434. + +{40} Very possibly the whirring roar of the turndun, or [Greek], in +Greek, Zuni, Yoruba, Australian, Maori and South African mysteries +is connected with this belief in a whirring sound caused by spirits. +See Custom and Myth. + +{41a} Proc. S. P. R., xix. 180. + +{41b} Brough Smyth, i. 475. + +{42} Auckland, 1863, ch. x. + +{45a} [Greek].--Iamblichus. + +{45b} Kohl, Kitchi-Gami, p. 278. + +{48} Hind's Explorations in Labrador, ii. 102. + +{50a} Rowley, Universities' Mission to Central Africa, p. 217: +cited by Mr. Tylor. + +{50b} Quoted in La Table Parlante, a French serial, No. I, p. 6. + +{51} Colonel A. B. Ellis, in his work on the Yorubas (1894), +reports singular motions of a large wooden cylinder. It is used in +ordeals. + +{52} The Natural and Morall History of the East and West Indies, p. +566, London, 1604. + +{53} February 9, 1872. Quoted by Mr. Tylor, in Primitive Culture, +ii. 39, 1873. + +{57} Revue des Deux Mondes, 1856, tome i. p. 853. + +{60} Hallucinations, English translation, p. 182, London, 1859. + +{62} Laws, xi. + +{63} Records of the Past, iv. 134-136. + +{65a} The references are to Parthey's edition, Berlin, 1857. + +{65b} [Greek], 4, 3. + +{65c} All are, for Porphyry, 'phantasmogenetic agencies'. + +{66a} Jean Brehal, par P.P. Belon et Balme, Paris, s.a., p. 105. + +{66b} Proces de Condemnation, i. 75. + +{67a} Appended to Beaumont's work on Spirits, 1705. + +{67b} See Mr. Lillie's Modern Mystics, and, better, Mr. Myers, in +Proceedings S. P. R., Jan., 1894. + +{68a} Origen, or whoever wrote the Philosophoumena, gives a recipe +for producing a luminous figure on a wall. For moving lights, he +suggests attaching lighted tow to a bird, and letting it loose. +Maury translates the passages in La Magie, pp. 58-59. +Spiritualists, of course, will allege that the world-wide theory of +spectral lights is based on fact, and that the hallucinations are +not begotten by subjective conditions, but by a genuine +'phantasmogenetic agency'. Two men of science, Baron Schrenk- +Notzing, and Dr. Gibotteau, vouch for illusions of light +accompanying attempts by _living_ agents to transfer a hallucinatory +vision of themselves to persons at a distance (Journal S. P. R., +iii. 307; Proceedings, viii. 467). It will be asserted by +spiritualists that disembodied agencies produce the same effect in a +higher degree. + +{68b} [Greek]. + +{69} [Greek]. + +{70a} Damascius, ap. Photium. + +{70b} [Greek]. + +{71} Life of Hugh Macleod (Noble, Inverness). As an example of the +growth of myth, see the version of these facts in Fraser's Magazine +for 1856. Even in a sermon preached immediately after the event, it +was said that the dreamer _found_ the pack by revelation of his +dream! + +{72} iii. 2. [Greek]. + +{73} Greek Papyri in the British Museum; edited by F. G. Kenyon, +M.A., London, 1893. + +{74} See notice in Classical Review, February, 1894. + +{75a} See oracles in Eusebius, Praep. Evang., v. 9. The medium was +tied up in some way, he had to be unloosed and raised from the +ground. The inspiring agency, in a hurry to be gone, gave +directions for the unbinding. [Greek]. The binding of the Highland +seer in a bull's hide is described by Scott in the Lady of the Lake. +A modern Highland seer has ensconced himself in a boiler! The +purpose is to concentrate the 'force'. + +{75b} Praep. Evang., v. 8. + +{75c} Ibid., v. 15, 3. + +{78a} Dr. Hodgson, in Proceedings S. P. R., Jan., 1894, makes Mr. +Kellar's evidence as to Indian 'levitation' seem far from +convincing! As a professional conjurer, and exposer of +spiritualistic imposture, Mr. Kellar has made statements about his +own experiences which are not easily to be harmonised. + +{78b} Proceedings S. P. R. Jan., 1894. + +{86} The Miraculous Conformist. A letter to the Honourable Robert +Boyle, Esq. Oxford: University Press, 1666. + +{88a} Fourth edition, London, 1726. + +{88b} In Kirk's Secret Commonwealth, 1691. London: Nutt, 1893. + +{90a} In the Salem witch mania, a similar case of levitation was +reported by the Rev. Cotton Mather. He produced a cloud of +witnesses, who could not hold the woman down. She would fly up. +Mr. Mather sent the signed depositions to his opponent, Mr. Calef. +But Calef would not believe, for, said he, 'the age of miracles is +past'. Which was just the question at issue! See Beaumont's +Treatise of Spirits, p. 148, London, 1705. + +{90b} Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, p. 7. London: Burns, +1875. + +{90c} Popular Tales, iv. 340. + +{94} The anecdote is published by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in a +letter of Lauderdale's, affixed to Sharpe's edition of Law's +Memorialls. + +{95} See Ghosts before the Law. + +{96} Proceedings S. P. R., xv. 33. + +{100a} See many examples in Li Fiorette de Misser Santo Francesco. + +{100b} Ch. cxviii. + +{101} D. D. Home; his Life and Mission, p. 307, London, 1888. + +{102} Sept. 18, vol. v., 1866. + +{107a} See Colonel Yule's Marco Polo. + +{107b} Quarterly Journal of Science, July, 1871. + +{108a} Proceedings S. P. R., xix. 146. + +{108b} North American Review, 1893. + +{108c} Proceedings S. P. R., x. 45-100; xix. 147. + +{109a} Incidents in my Life, i. 170. + +{109b} A Paris, chez la Veuve du Carroy, 1621. + +{110a} Folklore of China, 1876, p. 79. + +{110b} Op. cit., p. 74. + +{110c} Paris. Quarto. Black letter. 1528. The original is +extremely rare. We quote from a copy once in the Tellier +collection, reprinted in Recueil de Dissertations Anciennes et +Nouvelles sur les Apparitions. Leloup: Avignon, 1751, vol. ii. pp. +1-87. + +{112} Proceedings S. P. R., xix. 186. 'C.' is a Miss Davis, +daughter of a gentleman occupying 'a responsible position as a +telegraphist'. The date was 1888. + +{114a} Satan's Invisible World Discovered. Edinburgh: Reid, 1685. +Pp. 67-69. + +{114b} Manuscript 7170, A, de la Bibliotheque du Roi. +Dissertations, ut supra, vol. i. pp. 95-129. + +{115} Dufresnoy, op. cit., i. 95-129. + +{117} Compare Bastian, Mensch., ii. 393, cited by Mr. Tylor. + +{118} De Materia Daemon. Isagoge, p. 539. Ap. Corn. Agripp., De +Occult. Philosoph. Lyons, 1600. + +{122} Aubrey gives a variant in his Miscellanies, on the authority +of the Vicar of Barnstaple. He calls Fey 'Fry'. + +{123a} The Devonshire case, 'Story of a Something,' in Miss +O'Neill's Devonshire Idylls, is attested by a surviving witness. + +{123b} Trials of Isobell Young, 1629, and of Jonet Thomson, Feb. 7, +1643. Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 593. + +{124} Witness Rev. E. T. Vaughan, King's Langley. 1884. + +{125a} Segraisiana, p. 213. + +{125b} Crookes's Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena usually +called Spiritual. 86. London: Burns (second edition). + +{126a} Satan's Invisible World Discovered, p. 75. + +{126b} A New Confutation of Sadducism, p. 5, writ by Mr. Alexander +Telfair, London, 1696. + +{129} Primitive Culture, vol. i. 368; ii. 304. + +{130} The reader may also consult Notes on the Spirit Basis of +Belief and Custom, a rough draft printed for the Indian Government. +While rich in curious facts, the draft contains very little about +'manifestations,' except in 'possession'. + +{131a} Gregory, Dialogues, iv. 39. + +{131b} De Rerum Varietate, xvi. cap. xciii. + +{132} De Praestigiis Daemon. + +{133} Si fallere possunt, ut quis videre se credat, cum videat +revera extra se nihil: non poterunt fallere, ut credat quis se +audire sonos, quos revera non audit? (p. 81). + +{135} Proceedings S. P. R., xv. 42. + +{137} There is one possible exception to this rule. + +{139} S. P. R., viii. 81. + +{140a} Geschichte des Neueren Occultismus, p. 451. + +{140b} Opera, 1605. + +{142} S. P. R., vi. 149. + +{146} Proc. S. P. R., viii. 133. + +{147} Proc. S. P. R., Nov., 1889, p. 269. + +{149} This is rather overstated; there were knocks, and raps, and +footsteps (Proc. S. P. R., Nov., 1889, p. 310). + +{150} Proc. S. P. R., April, 1885, p. 144. + +{151} To be frank, in a haunted house the writer did once see an +appearance, which was certainly either the ghost or one of the +maids; 'the Deil or else an outler quey,' as Burns says. + +{153} London, 1881, pp. 184-185. + +{156} S. P. R., xv. 64. + +{158a} Proceedings S. P. R., xvi. 332. + +{158b} Sights and Shadows, p. 60. + +{165} British Chronicle, January 18, 1762. + +{166} Annual Register. + +{167} Praep. Evang., v. ix. 4. + +{170a} Rudolfi Fuldensis, Annal., 858, in Pertz, i. 372. See +Grimm's Teutonic Mythology, Engl. transl., p. 514. + +{170b} Pseudo-Clemens, Homil., ii. 32, 638. In Mr. Myers's +Classical Essays, p. 66. + +{178} Avignon, 1751. + +{183} Compare the case of John Beaumont, F.R.S., in his Treatise of +Spirits (1705). + +{186} Proceedings S. P. R., viii. 151-189. + +{189} Mrs. Ricketts was a sister of Lord St. Vincent, who tried, in +vain, to discover the cause of the disturbances. Scott says +(Demonology and Witchcraft, p. 360): 'Who has heard or seen an +authentic account from Lord St. Vincent?' There is a full account +in the Journal of the S. P. R. It appeared much too late for Sir +Walter Scott also complains of lack of details for the Wynyard +story. They are now accessible. People were, in his time, afraid +to make their experiences public. + +{190} The story is told by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in his +Introduction to Law's Memorialls, p. xci. Sharpe cites no source of +the tradition. + +{191} We are not discussing Dreams, which are many, but waking +hallucinations, which are, relatively rare, and are remembered, +unlike Dreams, whether they are coincidental or not. + +{192} Gurney, op. cit., p. 187. + +{193a} The writer knows a case in which a gentleman, who had gone +to bed about eleven p.m., in Scotland, was roused by hearing his own +name loudly called. He searched his room in vain. His brother died +suddenly, at the hour when he heard the voice, in Canada. But the +difference of time proves that the voice was heard several hours +_before_ the death. Here, then, is a chance coincidence, which +looked very like a case of Telepathy. Another will be found in Mr. +Dale Owen's Debatable Land, p. 364. A gentleman died 'after +breakfast' in Rhenish Prussia, and appeared, before noon, in New +York. Thus he appeared hours after he died. + +{193b} Polack, New Zealand, i. 269. + +{194a} Proceedings S. P. R., xv. 10. + +{194b} The writer has known a case in which a collector of these +statistics, disdained non-coincidental hallucinations as 'of no use' + +{195} Proceedings S. P. R., xv. 7. + +{196} Animal Magnetism, pp. 61-64, 1887. + +{199} The Psychical Society has published the writer's encounter +with Professor Conington, at Oxford, in 1869, when the professor was +lying within one or two days of his death at Boston, a circumstance +wholly unknown to the percipient. But no jury would accept this as +anything but a case of mistaken identity, natural in a short-sighted +man's vague experiences. Mr. Conington was not a man easily to be +mistaken for another, nor were many men likely to be mistaken for +Mr. Conington. Yet this is what must have occurred. There was no +conceivable reason why the professor should 'telepathically' +communicate with the percipient, who had never exchanged a word with +him, except in an examination. + +{205} Proceedings of Society for Psychical Research, viii. 111. + +{206} Proceedings of Society for Psychical Research, xiv. 442. + +{207a} Modern Spirit Manifestations. By Adin Ballou. Liverpool, +1853. + +{207b} Proceedings of Society for Psychical Research, xiv. 469. + +{209} Edinburgh, 1827, vol. i. p. xxxii. + +{214} In the author's case the hypnagogic phantasms seem to be +created out of the floating spots of light which remain when the +eyes are shut. Some crystal-gazers find that similar points de +repere in the glass, are the starting-points of pictures in the +crystal. Others cannot trace any such connection. + +{215} Compare Blackwood, August, 1831, in Noctes Ambrosianae. + +{216a} Paus., ii. 24, I. + +{216b} Bouche Leclercq, i. 339. + +{223} The accomplished scryer can see as well in a crystal +ringstone, or in a glass of water, as in a big crystal ball. The +latter may really be dangerous, if left on a cloth in the sun it may +set the cloth on fire. + +{224} Animal Magnetism, second edition, p. 135. + +{228} Thus an educated gentleman, a Highlander, tells the author +that he once saw a light of this kind 'not a meteor,' passing in air +along a road where a funeral went soon afterwards. His companions +could see nothing, but one of them said: 'It will be a death- +candle'. It seems to have been hallucinatory, otherwise all would +have shared the experience. + +{231a} Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 481, Edinburgh, 1834. + +{231b} Op. cit., p. 473. + +{232a} Op. cit., p. 470 + +{232b} It is, perhaps, needless to add that the unhappy patients +were executed. + +{232c} Miscellanies, 1857, p. 184. + +{233a} Wodrow, i. 44. + +{233b} Aulus Gellius, xv. 18. Dio Cassius, lib. lxvii. Crespet, +De la Hayne de Diable, cited by Dalyell. + +{234} Miscellanies, 177. + +{235} A copy presented by Scott to Sir Alexander Boswell of +Auchinleck is in the author's possession; it bears Scott's +autograph. + +{237} Information from Mr. Mackay, Craigmonie. + +{238} 2 Kings, v. 26. + +{244} i. 259. Longmans, London, 1811. + +{245} Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 143. + +{246} This belief is not confined to the Highlands. Mr. Podmore +quotes Ghost 636 in the Psychical Society's collections: 'The +narrator's mother is said to have seen the figure of a man'. The +father saw nothing till his wife laid her hand on his shoulder, when +he exclaimed, 'I see him now' (S. P. R., Nov., 1889, p. 247). + +{250} 'Spectral evidence' was common in witch trials. Wierus (b. +1515) mentions a woman who confessed that she had been at a witch's +covin, or 'sabbath,' when her body was in bed with her husband. If +there was any confirmatory testimony, if any one chose to say that +he saw her at the 'sabbath,' that was 'spectral evidence'. This +kind of testimony made it vain for a witch to take Mr. Weller's +advice, and plead 'a halibi,' but even Cotton Mather admits that +'spectral evidence' is inconclusive. + +{253} Papon. Arrets., xx. 5, 9. Charondas, Lib. viii. Resp. 77. +Covarruvias, iv. 6. Mornac, s. v., Habitations, 27 ff., Locat. and +Conduct. Other doctors do not deny hauntings, but allege that a +brave man should disregard them, and that they do not fulfil he +legal condition, Metus cadens in constantem virim. These doctors +may never have seen a ghost, or may have been unusually courageous. +They held that a man might get accustomed to the annoyances of +bogles, s'apprivoiser avec cette frayeur, like the Procter family at +Willington. + +{259} Miscellanies, p. 94, London, 1857. + +{262} Hibbert, Philosophy of Apparitions, second edition, p. 224. +Hibbert finds Graime guilty, but only because he knew where the body +lay. + +{263} Notices Relative to the Bannatyne Club, 1836, p. 191. +Remarkable Trial in Maryland. + +{267} Paris, 1708. Reprinted by Lenglet Dufresnoy, in his +Dissertations sur les Apparitions. Avignon, 1751, vol. iii. p. 38. + +{269} Second edition, Buon, Paris, 1605. First edition, Angers, +1586. + +{273} Dr. Lee, in Sights and Sounds (p. 43), quotes an Irish +lawsuit in 1890. The tenants were anxious not to pay rent, but were +non-suited. No reference to authorities is given. There was also a +case at Dublin in 1885. Waldron's house was disturbed, 'stones were +thrown at the windows and doors,' and Waldron accused his neighbour, +Kiernan, of these assaults. He lost his case (Evening Standard, +February 23, 1885, is cited). + +{275} p. 195, London, 1860. + +{276} The account followed here is that of the narrator in La Table +Parlante, p. 130, who differs in some points from the Marquis de +Mirville in his Fragment d'un Ouvrage Inedit, Paris, 1852. + +{277} For bewitching by touch see Cotton Mather's Wonders of the +Invisible World, p. 150. 'Library of Old Authors,' London, 1862. + +{279a} Cotton Mather, op. cit., p. 131. + +{279b} Table Parlante, p. 151. A somewhat different version is +given p. 145. The narrator seems to say that Cheval himself deposed +to having witnessed this experiment. + +{283a} Gazette des Tribunaux, February 2, 1846, quoted in Table +Parlante, p. 306. + +{283b} Table Parlante, p. 174. + +{300} Hibbert, Apparitions, p. 211. + +{303} Mather's own account of the lost sermon (p. 298) is in his +Life, by Mr. Barrett Wendell, p. 118. It is by no means so romantic +as Wodrow's version. + +{307} An account of the method by which the Miss Foxes rapped is +given, by a cousin of theirs, in Dr. Carpenter's Mesmerism (p. 150). + +{312} See Dr. Carpenter's brief and lucid statement about 'Latent +Thought' and 'Unconscious Cerebration,' in the Quarterly Review, +vol. cxxxi. pp. 316-319. + +{317} A learned priest has kindly looked for the alleged spiritus +percutiens in dedicatory and other ecclesiastical formulae. He only +finds it in benedictions of bridal chambers, and thinks it refers to +the slaying spirit in the Book of Tobit. + +{319a} S. P. R., x. 81. + +{319b} London: Longmans, Green, & Co., 1877. + +{320} Quoted by Dr. Carpenter, op. cit., p. vii. + +{324} Tom. ii. pp. 312, 435, edition of 1768. + +{326} In the Quarterly Review, vol. cxxxi. pp. 336-337, Dr. +Carpenter criticises an account given by Lord Crawford of this +performance. He asks for the evidence of the other witnesses. This +was supplied. He detects a colloquial slovenliness in a phrase. +This was cleared up. He complains that the light was moonlight. +'The moon was shining full into the room.' A minute philosopher has +consulted the almanack and denies that there was any moon! + +{327} Lord Crawford's evidence is in the Report of the Dialectical +Society, p. 214 + +{328} Quarterly Review, vol. cxxxi. p. 303. + +{329} Observe the caution of the Mosstrooper, even in that +agitating moment! How good it is, and how wonderfully Sir Walter +forecasts a seance. + +{341a} Lucretius, iv. 26-75, Munro's translation. + +{341b} Def. Orac., 19. + +{341c} Ibid., iv. 193. + +{352} Porphyry, Vita Plotini. + +{353} Primitive Culture, i. 404. + +{355} In the Pandemonium, or Devil's Cloyster, of Richard Bovet, +Gent. (1684). + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COCK LANE AND COMMON-SENSE*** + + +******* This file should be named 12674.txt or 12674.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/7/12674 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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