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-Title: Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites
-       Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief
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-
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-
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-Project Gutenberg's Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, by John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-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/license
-
-
-Title: Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites
-       Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief
-       in the Supernatural
-
-Author: John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-Release Date: August 29, 2012 [EBook #40616]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the
-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
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-
-
-  FIENDS, GHOSTS,
-  AND
-  SPRITES.
-
-  INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF
-  THE ORIGIN AND NATURE
-  OF
-  BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL.
-
-  BY JOHN NETTEN RADCLIFFE.
-
-  LONDON:
-  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
-  1854.
-
-  PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS,
-  LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.
-
-
-A belief in the supernatural has existed in all ages and among all
-nations.
-
-To trace the origin of this belief, the causes of the various
-modifications it has undergone, and the phases it has assumed, is,
-perhaps, one of the most interesting researches to which the mind can be
-given,--interesting, inasmuch as we find pervading every part of it the
-effects of those passions and affections which are most powerful and
-permanent in our nature.
-
-So general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling Power, possessing
-attributes altogether different from and superior to human powers, and
-bending these and the forces of nature to its will, that the thought
-has been entertained by many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine
-is, however, refuted by an acquaintance with the inlets and modes of
-obtaining knowledge; by the fact that reason is necessary to its
-discovery; and by its uselessness.[1] "There are neither innate ideas
-nor innate propositions; but there is an innate power of understanding
-that shows itself in primitive notions, which, when put into speech, are
-expressed in propositions, which propositions, decomposed, produce,
-under the influence of abstraction and analysis, distinct ideas."[2]
-
-Others have asserted and maintained that man derives his knowledge of
-the existence of Deity, and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the
-exercise of reason upon himself and his own powers by self-reflection.
-If he reflects upon the wonderful power of liberty and free-will which
-he possesses, on his relation to surrounding beings and things, and
-particularly on his imperfect, limited, and finite powers, it is argued
-that the antithetical proposition of infinite must of necessity be
-admitted. "I cannot have the idea of the finite and of imperfection
-without having that of perfection and of infinite. These two ideas are
-logically correlative."[3] Or if man extends his reasoning powers to the
-study or the contemplation "of the beauty, the order, the intelligence,
-the wisdom, and the perfection displayed throughout the universe; and as
-there must of necessity be in the cause what is witnessed in the effect,
-you reason from nature to its author, and from the existence of the
-perfection of the one you conclude the existence and perfection of the
-other."[4]
-
-But many theologists maintain that the knowledge of a Deity, and of the
-existence of supernatural beings, is derived solely from revelation; and
-stern and prolonged have been the struggles in this country between the
-upholders of the rival tenets.
-
-That no idea of a Deity, such as that which the Christian entertains, is
-to be found among the vague and undefined notions of supernatural power
-which are contained in the mythologies of pagan nations; that even the
-conceptions of Plato are to be summed up in the phrase "the unknown
-God;" and that the perfect idea of the Godhead is to be derived solely
-from Scripture, can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion sought
-to be established from this, that all our ideas of the supernatural are
-derived from this source, does not necessarily follow.
-
-The postulate that man can derive a knowledge of the supernatural from
-the exercise of his mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or
-denied, but it is not improbable.
-
-Perhaps the nearest approach to correctness which we are as yet capable
-of on this subject is as follows:--
-
-After the creation of man, God revealed himself. The perfect knowledge
-of the Deity thus obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the human
-race, notwithstanding the baneful effects of the fall; and at the epoch
-of the deluge, the solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm,
-formed a centre from which anew the attributes and powers of the Godhead
-were made known in all their truth and purity. But again sin prevailed,
-and with the exception of one race, who alone treasured the true
-knowledge of the Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of their
-fathers; and as they receded from the light, the idea of the Godhead
-became obscured, and in the progress of time well nigh lost, and the
-vague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power derived from
-tradition, prompted to a terror and awe of some invisible yet mighty
-influence, unknown and inexplicable, but which was manifested to man in
-the more striking objects and the incomprehensible phenomena of nature,
-which were regarded and worshipped as the seats of this unknown Power,
-forming the substratum of those wonderful systems of mythology which
-have characterised successive eras and races.
-
-"Once," writes Plato, referring to the earlier traditions of the Greeks,
-"one God governed the universe; but a great and extraordinary change
-taking place in the nature of men and things, infinitely for the worse
-(for originally there was perfect virtue and perfect happiness on
-earth), the command then devolved on Jupiter, with many inferior deities
-to preside over different departments under him."[5]
-
-To state the influence which each of the elements indicated
-above--tradition and reason--have had in the development of mythology,
-is doubtless impossible.
-
-The existence of the first element, _tradition_, is, to those who admit
-the truth of Scripture, undeniable, and it gives a clue to the
-elucidation of the leading principle in the belief in those gods,
-dæmons, fiends, sprites, &c., which, summed up, have constituted the
-objects of worship of different nations.
-
-
-I. As in the course of generations the pristine revelation of the
-Godhead to man became obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief
-alone remained,--the conceptions, the thoughts and imaginations of each
-generation being implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing it by
-the force of habit, education, and authority,--man, impressed with an
-imperfect notion of a supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of
-the material world, on seeking to unfold the source of those changes
-which he beheld in the budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of
-summer, the maturity of autumn, and the stern grandeur of winter,
-conceived that the wonderful phenomena ever going on around him owed
-their origin and effects to the influence of supernatural agency, and
-marking their apparent dependence upon the sun and other orbs in space,
-he offered adoration to those luminaries. But when he still further
-analysed the changes occurring on the surface of the globe, and
-comprehended the influence of the more palpable forces and elements, and
-the inexhaustible variety and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena
-which he witnessed, incapable of otherwise solving the mysteries which
-surrounded him, he deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling
-Spirit.[6]
-
-Thus man concluded that he was surrounded by a world of supernatural
-beings, of different powers, attributes, and passions. The sun and moon,
-the planets and stars, were conceived to be the abodes of spiritual
-existences; and the effects caused by those orbs which more immediately
-influence our earth, were considered as the indications of the powers of
-their respective deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents; the
-ocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and rivers; and the earth, its
-hills, dales, and organic forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.
-Every object of beauty shadowed forth the operations of a beneficent
-Spirit; while devastating storms, barren places and deserts, and the
-convulsions of nature, betokened the malignancy of dæmons or fiends.
-According as a country's surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and
-storm-tossed, or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the rays of
-a fervid sun, so do we find the principal characters of its mythology;
-stern, gigantic, and fierce gods or dæmons, or spirits more kind towards
-man, and full of beauty and grace. The passions and affections of man,
-for the same reasons, were considered to be under the sway of
-supernatural beings; in short, every operation of nature in the organic
-or inorganic, in the mental or physical worlds, was deemed an indication
-of the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled and governed it.[7]
-
-These powers in the progress of time were personified and represented as
-possessed of passions and propensities similar to those of man; for the
-same finite and imperfect reason which had concluded that they dwelt in
-the phenomena they were supposed to explain, also deemed, being unable
-to conceive any higher type of existence than was seen in man himself,
-that they differed simply in degree of power, and were alike subject to
-those appetites and passions which characterised humanity.
-
-This source of belief in spiritual existences is found dominant in the
-systems of mythology of all nations; and as it arises from causes which
-are inherant in man, it can easily be understood why there is so great a
-similarity in the primary mythological conceptions of different races.
-
-The mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome furnish a very perfect
-illustration of the influence which this cause has exercised in the
-development of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better method
-of illustration can be adopted, than a sketch of the physical
-signification of the principal deities, and classes of deities, of those
-countries.
-
-The primitive religion of the Greeks and Romans would appear to have
-consisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):--the Titans
-are nearly all personifications of the celestial orbs. Subsequently,
-their mythology assumed a more physical character, and the offspring of
-Cronos (Saturn, _time_), or the personifications of the firmament,
-atmosphere, sea, &c., formed the leading deities of the more developed
-system of religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.
-
-In this system, the god Jupiter is symbolical of the upper regions of
-the atmosphere (_Æther_). Euripides writes:--
-
-    "The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,
-    See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;
-    This own the chief of deities above,
-    And this acknowledge by the name of Jove."[8]
-
-At a later period this god was conceived to represent the soul of the
-world, diffused alike through animate and inanimate nature; or, as
-Virgil poetically describes it in the Æneid--(Book vi.):
-
-        "The heaven and earth's compacted frame,
-    And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
-    And both the radiant lights, one common soul
-    Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.
-    This active mind infused through all the space,
-    Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
-    Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain,
-    And birds of air, and monsters of the main."
-
-The god Apollo signifies the sun,--his prophetic power being symbolical
-of its influence in dispelling darkness; his knowledge of medicine and
-healing, signifies the influence of that luminary in revivifying and
-restoring the powers of organic life; his skill in music is symbolical
-of the central position of the sun among the seven planets, and its
-making harmony with them; and the harp upon which this god is depicted
-as playing, is furnished with seven strings, in emblem of the seven
-planets. _Pan_ represents the universal world, and he is the emblem of
-fecundity. Hence this god is depicted in his upper part as a man, in his
-lower parts as a beast; "because the superior and celestial part of the
-world is beautiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this god, whose
-horns resemble the rays of the sun, and the horns of the moon. The
-redness of his face is like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted
-skin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament. In his lower
-parts he is shagged and deformed, which represents the shrubs, and wild
-beasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's feet signify the
-solidity of the earth; and his pipe of seven reeds, that celestial
-harmony which is made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's hook,
-crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the turning of the year
-into itself."[9]
-
-The goddess _Cybele_ was symbolical of the earth; _Juno_, of the
-air--the link between earthly and heavenly natures; _Vulcan_, of fire;
-_Æolus_, of the winds; _Diana_, of the moon; _Neptune_, of the sea;
-_Rusina_, of the country; _Ceres_, of the fruits of the earth;
-_Collina_, of the hills; _Vallonia_, of the valleys; _Silvanus_, of the
-woods, which teemed also with inferior deities--_satyrs_ and _fauns_;
-_Seia_ presided over all seed; _Flora_, flowers; _Proserpina_ cherished
-the corn when it had sprung above the earth; _Volasia_ folded the blade
-round it ere the beard broke out; _Nodosus_ watched over the joints and
-knots of the stalk; _Patelina_ governed the opened ear; _Lactusa_ took
-charge when it became milky; _Matura_ guarded and conducted it to
-maturity; _Hostilina_ presided over the crop; and _Tutelina_, over the
-cutting.
-
-_Nymphs_, goddesses of lovely form, and light and airy beauty, sported
-about the earth; a _Dryad_ presided over every tree; a _Hamadryad_ was
-born, lived, and died with each oak; _Oreads_ dwelt on the mountains;
-_Napëæ_, in the groves and valleys; _Lemoniads_, in the meadows and
-fields; _Nereiads_, in the ocean; _Naiads_, at the fountains;
-_Fluviales_, by the rivers: and _Lirinades_, by lakes and ponds.
-
-_Vesta_ presided over the vital heat of the body; _Janus_ opened the
-gate of life to infant man; _Opis_ assisted him when he came into the
-world; _Nascio_ presided over the moment of birth; _Cunia_ watched over
-the cradle, and while he lay and slept; _Vagitanus_, or _Vaticanus_,
-took care while the infant cried; _Rumina_ presided while the child
-sucked the breast; _Potina_ guarded the infant drinking; _Educa_ watched
-over it while it received food; _Ossilago_ "knit its bones" and hardened
-its body; _Carna_ presided over the safety of the inward parts; the
-goddess _Nundina_ had charge of the child on the ninth day--the day of
-purification; _Statilinus_ taught the infant to stand and walk, and
-preserved it from falling; _Fabulinus_ looked after the child when it
-began to speak; _Paventia_ preserved it from fright; _Juventus_
-protected the beginning of youth; _Agenoria_ excited man to action;
-_Strenua_ encouraged him to behave bravely on all occasions; _Stimula_
-urged him to extraordinary exertions; _Horta_ exhorted him to noble
-actions; _Quis_ gave peace and quietude; _Murcia_ rendered man lazy,
-idle, and dull; _Adeona_ protected him in his outgoings and incomings;
-_Vibilia_ guarded wanderers; _Vacuna_ protected the lazy and idle;
-_Fessonia_ refreshed the weary; _Meditrina_ healed injuries; _Vitula_
-presided over and gave mirth; _Volupia_ governed pleasures; _Orbona_ was
-a goddess supplicated that she might not leave parents destitute of
-children; _Pellonia_ drove away enemies; _Numeria_ endued men with the
-power of casting numbers; _Sentia_ gave just and honourable sentiments;
-_Augerona_ removed anguish from the mind; and _Consus_ presided over
-good counsels.
-
-_Virtue_ also was worshipped as a goddess; and the several species of
-virtue were considered each as emanating from some godlike power, and
-_Faith_, _Hope_, _Justice_, _Piety_, _Peace_, _Fidelity_, _Liberty_, and
-_Money_, were worshipped as good deities; while, on the other hand,
-_Envy_, _Contumely_, _Impudence_, _Calumny_, _Fraud_, _Discord_, _Fury_,
-_Fame_, _Fortune_, _Fever_, and _Silence_, were supplicated as evil
-deities.
-
-_Minerva_ was symbolical of wisdom and chastity; _Mercury_, of
-eloquence--speech; _Venus_ of ungovernable passions and desire;
-_Saturn_, time; _Momus_, mockery; _Silenus_, jesting; _Mars_, war; and
-_Bacchus_, wine. The _Muses_ each represented an accomplishment. Thus,
-_Calliope_ presided over epic poetry; _Clio_, history; _Erato_, elegy
-and amorous song; _Thalia_, comedy, gay, light, and pleasing song;
-_Melpomene_, tragedy; _Terpsichore_, dancing; _Euterpe_, music;
-_Polyhymnia_, religious song; and _Urania_, the knowledge of celestial
-events.
-
-_Themis_ taught mankind what was honest, just, and right; _Astræa_ was
-the goddess of justice; _Nemesis_ punished vice, rewarded virtue, and
-taught mankind their duty.
-
-Every action of man, both in his collective and individual
-capacity--everything in relation to his household and domestic
-affairs--was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which
-were classed under the names of _Penates_ and _Lares_.
-
-The _Penates_, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they
-may be divided into three classes: 1st, those which presided over
-kingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and
-3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an
-extent this belief was carried, a penate named _Ferculus_ looked after
-the door; the goddess _Cardua_ after the hinges; and _Limentius_
-protected the threshold.
-
-The _Lares_ were of human origin, and they presided also over houses,
-streets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country
-and the sea.
-
-To each person was also assigned two deities, termed _genii_. These
-spirits were subsidiary to the gods already mentioned, it being one of
-their duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in
-nature and disposition, and were divided into two classes--the _good_
-and the _bad_. The _good genius_ excited men to all actions of honour
-and virtue; the _evil genius_ excited him to all manner of wickedness.
-The Greeks termed these genii _dæmons_, either from the terror and dread
-they created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned
-when consulted as oracles.
-
-The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of
-the evil passions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed
-the _Furies_--_Alecto_, _Tisiphone_, and _Megæra_--who became symbolical
-of the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and
-Death--_Nox_, _Mors_, and _Somnus_--were elevated among the gods.
-
-This brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into
-the formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology--a mythology containing
-more than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate how every hidden power of
-nature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every
-equally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an
-explanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the
-progress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a
-form as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.
-
-This source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already
-stated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their
-primary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the
-difference of climate, habits, &c.
-
-Thus, of the gods of the ancient Britons--_Belin_, _Plennyd_, or
-_Granwyn_, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo;
-_Gwydion_, or _Teutath_, had all the attributes of Mercury; _Daronwy_,
-_Taranwy_, or _Taranis_, the thunderer, of Jove; _Anras_, or _Andraste_,
-of Bellona; _He-us_, _Hesus_, _Hugadarn_, or _Hu-ysgwn_, united the
-characters of Bacchus and Mars; _Ked_ and _Keridwen_ answered to Ceres;
-_Llenwy_ to Proserpine; _Olwen_ and _Dwynwen_ to Venus; and _Neivion_ to
-Neptune.[10]
-
-In the Scandinavian mythology the principal gods are personifications of
-physical and mental powers. _Odin_, the most powerful of the three
-beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of
-Mercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, _Vili_ is the personification
-of light; _Ve_, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting
-constantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of
-the principal gods, we find that _Thor_ is symbolical of thunder;
-_Baldur_ of the sun; _Njord_ rules over the winds, sea, &c.; _Frey_ is
-the god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; _Tyr_, of war;
-_Bragi_, of wisdom and poetry; _Vidar_, of silence; _Forseti_, of law
-and justice; _Loki_ is the personification of evil; _Frigga_ is the
-goddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the
-past, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance, love, courtesy,
-wisdom, and every form and passion and power of nature which the
-Scandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and
-worshipped god.
-
-The original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly
-bodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers,
-which form the principal part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the
-firmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most
-frequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the
-elements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary
-poems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the
-Sanhitâ of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly
-addressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons,
-the sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices,
-or are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities.
-The personified attributes of _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_, signifying
-respectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later
-and more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities
-ranking next in order to the _Trimurti_, and termed _Lokapalas_, are all
-personifications of natural objects and powers. Thus _Indra_ is the god
-of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm,
-and rain; _Agni_, of fire; _Yama_, of the infernal regions; _Surya_, of
-the sun; _Varuna_, of water; _Parana_, of wind; _Kuvera_, of wealth; and
-_Soma_, or _Chandra_, of the moon.
-
-The celebrated line which it is enjoined should be repeated without
-intermission, and which is the most holy passage in the Vedas, reads
-literally, "Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri (the
-sun--the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects." This, it is
-asserted, is addressed to the sun as the symbol of a divine and
-all-powerful being, and it is regarded as a proof of the monotheism of
-the Vedas. This explanation is, however, considered by some to be far
-from satisfactory, and to offer greater difficulties than the text ever
-can when taken in a natural light.
-
-The creed of Buddha contains similar traces of elemental worship. The
-five Buddhas and the five Bodhisattwas would appear to be
-personifications of the principal natural elements and phenomena.
-
-In Persian mythology we find a similar deification of natural phenomena.
-In the creed of Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing
-beliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being, _Zernane Akherene_
-(illimitable, uncreated time), who created _Ormuzd_ (light, goodness);
-and _Ahrimann_ (darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe, and the
-genii, or deities of light, of whom there are three classes.
-
-_1st Class._ The seven _Amshaspands_, including _Ormuzd_ himself. The
-remaining are _Bahman_, the genius of the region of light;
-_Ardibehesht_, of ethereal fire; _Sharwir_, of metals; _Sarpandomad_, of
-fruitfulness; _Khudad_, of time; _Amerdad_, of the vegetable world,
-flocks, and herds.
-
-_2nd Class._ The twenty-seven _Izeds_, male and female--the _elementary_
-deities: e.g. _Khorsid_, the deity of the sun; _Mah_, of the moon;
-_Tashter_, of the dog-star, and of rain; _Rapitan_, the deity of heat,
-&c. These deities were probably worshipped before the belief was reduced
-to a system.
-
-_3rd Class._ The _Fervers_--the vivifying principles of nature, the
-ideal types of the material universe, corresponding in general with the
-_ideas_ of Plato. Every one, even Ormuzd, has his Ferver. "An Iranite
-has thus constantly by his side his ideal type, or uncorrupted material
-image, to guide him through life and preserve him from evil."[12]
-
-The Iranite worships light, fire, and water, as emblems of Ormuzd, in
-whom these elements are united; he does not worship the elementary
-spirits attached to them.
-
-In China, the state religion--the religious system of
-Confucius--embodies the following objects of worship, arranged in three
-classes:--
-
-_1st Class._ _Ta sze_, or _great sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-the heavens (_Yâng_), and the earth (_Yin_); and while worshipping the
-material heaven, they appear to consider that there exists an animating
-_intelligence_ (_Tae-keih_) which presides over the world, rewarding
-virtue and vice. This class includes also deified sovereigns.
-
-_2nd Class._ _Choong-sze_, _medium sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-gods of the land and grain, the sun and moon, genii, sages, gods of
-letters, inventors of agriculture, manufacturers, and useful arts.
-
-_3rd Class._ _Seaon-sze_, or _lesser sacrifices_, includes the worship
-of the ancient patron of the healing art; innumerable spirits of
-deceased statesmen, eminent scholars, martyrs to virtue, &c.; the
-principal phenomena of nature, as the clouds, rain, wind, thunder, each
-of which has its presiding god; the military banners (like the Romans);
-the god of war; _Loong-wang_, the dragon-king; the gods of rain and the
-watery elements; and _Tien-how_, the queen of heaven and goddess of the
-weather. The Chinese also believe in good and evil genii, and in tutelar
-spirits presiding over families, houses, and towns.[13]
-
-In Africa, the mythology of its different nations is based on natural
-objects and phenomena. The natives of Ashanti and the neighbouring
-districts worship water, lakes, rivers, mountains, rocks and stones,
-leopards, panthers, wolves, crocodiles, &c., all of which are more or
-less powerful "fetishes;" and the Nubian worships the moon. The natives
-of Tahiti and the islands of the South Sea also derive their principal
-ideas of supernatural beings from material objects. In Mangareva, the
-largest of the Gambier Islands, the gods adored by the natives were
-principally personifications of natural objects. A god named _Tea_ was
-the deity and creator of the sun, wind, and water; _Rongo_ was the god
-of rain; _Tairi_, of thunder; _Arikitenow_, of the ocean; _A-nghi_, of
-storms and famine; _Napitoiti_, of death, &c. The Tahitan conceives also
-that animals, trees, stones, &c., possess souls which, like his own,
-after destruction will have a subsequent existence. On the vast
-continent of South America we find numerous traces of elemental and
-natural worship. The aborigines of Paraguay supplicate the sun, moon,
-stars, thunder, lightning, groves, &c. In the district bounded by the
-Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassequiare, including an
-extent of about 8000 square miles, and scattered also over a still
-greater extent of this continent, are found rocks covered with colossal
-symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, household utensils, and of
-the sun and moon,--doubtless objects of adoration to nations of whose
-existence even tradition has not preserved a trace. It is also probable
-that the rocks thus engraved were regarded as sacred; for the Macusi
-Indians, inhabiting one portion of the districts where these sculptures
-are found, have the tradition that "the sole survivor of a general
-deluge repeopled the earth by changing stones into human beings."[14]
-The Incas of Peru--the children of the sun--built magnificent temples,
-and adored that luminary; and the sculptures on the walls of the
-colossal temples and buildings of the Aztecs, the ancient inhabitants of
-Mexico, as well as the remains of the pyramids of the sun and moon at
-Teotihuacan, teach the same lesson with regard to that extinct race. The
-Pueblo Indians of New Mexico still perpetuate the holy fire "by the side
-of which the Aztecan kept a continual watch for the return to earth of
-Quetzalcoatl, the god of air." In a solitary cave of the mountains is
-preserved the undying fire, and its dim light is seen by the hunter if,
-by chance, led by the chase, he passes near to this lonely temple.[15]
-Among the tribes which inhabit the more northerly parts of the American
-continent, we find also similar traces of the important influence which
-natural phenomena have exercised in the development of their ideas of
-supernatural existences.
-
-We could not well close this sketch without allusion to the Shaman
-religion, which is diffused throughout the principal nations of Asiatic
-Russia, a great part of the Tartars, the Eins, Samoiedes, Ostiaks,
-Mandshurs, Burats, and Tungsees; and it is even professed among the
-Coriaks and Techuks, and people of the eastern islands. This system of
-religion is essentially founded upon the observation of natural
-phenomena: it teaches that the gods (_Burchans_) arose from the general
-mass of matter and spirit; and while inculcating the existence of a
-spiritual world, it instils the belief in the self-existence of matter.
-
-These remarks will sufficiently show the important influence which the
-observation of natural phenomena has had in the development of the
-belief in the Supernatural of most nations; and it will fully indicate
-the primary reason of the correspondence of their principal mythological
-conceptions. A consideration of the different habits, degree of
-civilization, locality, &c., will also indicate the principal reason of
-the various modifications which the same mythological conception is
-found to present among different nations.
-
-There was one Jupiter for Europe, and another for Africa; and the varied
-forms under which this god was worshipped, derived from the locality,
-habits, and other peculiarities of his worshippers, were very numerous.
-At Athens, the great Jupiter was the Olympian; at Rome, the Capitoline.
-There was the mild and the thundering Jupiter, the Jupiter Nicephorus,
-Opitulus, Fulminator, &c., all differing in some subordinate characters.
-
-Ammon, of Egypt; Belus, of the Babylonians; Ibis, of the Phoenicians;
-Allah, of the Arabians; Beel, Baal, Beelphagor, Beelzebub, Beelzemer,
-&c., all possess the attributes of Jupiter, and are the same with that
-god.
-
-The Buddha of India; Fohi, of the Chinese; Odin, or Woden, of the
-Scandinavians; and Gwydion, of the Ancient Britons, correspond with
-Mercury.
-
-Vishnu, Brahma, Siva, and Krishna, the latter both of the Irish and
-Sanscrit, correspond with Apollo; whilst Arun, of the Irish and Hindoo
-superstitions, corresponds with the Aurora of the Greeks.
-
-It is peculiarly interesting to mark in the writings of classic authors
-the earlier traces of a correct explanation of the causes operating in
-the changes observed in nature, and their influence in modifying the
-mythological ideas of the period. Socrates penetrated so far in the
-interpretation of certain physical phenomena as to discover that they
-might be explained without having recourse to the idea of supernatural
-agency. This is most interestingly shown in Aristophanes' comedy of "The
-Clouds" (B.C. 440). In this comedy, written for the purpose of throwing
-ridicule and contempt on the sophistical philosophy of Socrates,
-Strepsiades, an aged and ignorant man, is represented as suffering from
-the excesses and expenses of his son Phidippides. He conceives the idea
-of studying logic, in order, by mere subtle reasoning, to overcome and
-cheat his creditors. He enrols himself as a pupil of Socrates, and in
-Act I, Scene 2, the following scene occurs:--
-
-  _Str._  Is not Olympian Jupiter our God?
-
-  _Soc._  What Jupiter? nay, jest not--there is none.
-
-  _Str._  How say'st thou? who then rains?--this first of all
-          Declare to me.
-
-  _Soc._              Why these (_the clouds_): by mighty signs
-          This I will prove to thee. Hast ever seen
-          Jove raining without clouds?--if it were so,
-          Through the clear fields of ether must he rain,
-          While these were far away.
-
-  _Str._                          Now by Apollo,
-          Full well hast thou discours'd upon this point;
-          Till now, in truth, I thought 'twas Jupiter,
-          Distilling through a sieve. But tell me next,
-          Who is the thunderer?--this awakes my dread.
-
-  _Soc._  They thunder as they roll.
-
-  _Str._                          But how, I pray?
-          Say, thou who darest all.
-
-  _Soc._                        When they are fill'd
-          With water, and perforce impell'd along,
-          Driven precipitate, all full of rain,
-          They meet together, bursting with a crash.
-
-  _Str._  But who compels them thus to move along?
-          Is not this Jove?
-
-  _Soc._                  No, but th'ætherial whirl.
-
-In a subsequent part of the comedy (Act III, Scene 1) Strepsiades is
-represented as speaking of this idea of a whirlwind as a deified being,
-thus admirably showing the tendency of man to consider that which he
-could not comprehend as the result of supernatural agency, and to
-personify it.
-
-  _Str._  Thou swearest now, by Jove.
-
-  _Phid._ I do.
-
-  _Str._      Thou see'st how good it is to learn,
-          There is no Jove, Phidippides.
-
-  _Phid._                           Who then?
-
-  _Str._  A whirlwind reigns; having driven him, Jove, away.
-
-It would seem, also, that Socrates himself was subject to the influence
-of this feeling; for a passage in Act V, Scene 1,[16] has led to the
-conclusion "that in the school of Socrates was placed an earthen image
-(#dinos#, the name of an earthen vessel as well as of the
-_whirlwind_, who has usurped the honours and attributes of Jove). (See
-Schol. ad Vesp. 617.) This, probably, was done by the philosopher as a
-sort of compensation for having expelled Jupiter (#ton Dia#)
-from his mythological system."[17]
-
-
-II. But the ideas derived from the contemplation of natural phenomena
-were not the sole sources of mythology, such as we have received it.
-Other and most powerful causes operated, and of those next in degree of
-importance were those feelings which prompted to the deification of men.
-
-Persæus, a disciple of Zeno, "says, that they who have made discoveries
-advantageous to the life of man, should be esteemed as gods; and the
-very things, he says, which are healthful and beneficial, should have
-divine appellations; so that he thinks it not sufficient to call them
-the discoverers of gods, but that they themselves should be deemed
-divine."[18]
-
-The author of the "Book of Wisdom" in the Apocrypha, details other
-causes which tended to the same result. He writes, (Chapter xiv, v.
-15-21):--
-
-"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a son who hath been taken from
-him, makes an image of his child: and him who before was _to his family_
-as a dead man, they now begin to worship as a god; rites and sacrifices
-being instituted, to be observed by his dependents. And in process of
-time, custom having established these as a law, an image set up by an
-impious tyrant receives divine honours. A man being unable to render
-such respect in their presence to those who dwelt remote from them, and
-having received their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded to
-make a conspicuous image of any king to whom they inclined to pay divine
-honours, by which means, though absent, the ruler receives their
-solicitous homage, as though present with them. The exquisite pains
-bestowed by the artist has likewise contributed to this worship of the
-absent by ignorant men; for being willing to give perfect satisfaction
-to him for whom he doth it, he avails himself of all the resources of
-his art to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude, allured by
-the beauty of the statue, come to regard as a god him whom before they
-honoured but as a man. And this hath been the great delusion of
-humanity, that out of affection for the dead, or subserviency to their
-rulers, men have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable name of
-God."
-
-Most systems of mythology contain examples of deities which have been
-derived from this source.
-
-"It has been a general custom, likewise," writes Cicero,[19] "that men
-who have done important service to the public should be exalted to
-heaven by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux,
-Æsculapius and Liber, became gods; * * * thus, likewise, Romulus, or
-Quirinus--for they are thought to be the same--became a god. They are
-justly esteemed as deities, since their souls subsist and enjoy
-eternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings."
-
-The Chinese, at the present day, deify and adore their deceased
-emperors, as well as the spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs
-to virtue, &c.
-
-It has occasionally happened that some great sage, on his apotheosis,
-had attributed to him that which he had simply expounded during life,
-and thus became the personification of the religious ideas he had
-entertained. Buddha, who lived, as nearly as can be ascertained, about
-1000 years before Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India. After
-death he was deified by his converts, and became the embodiment of the
-principles he had advocated when on earth; and his name, with various
-modifications, was applied to the system of cosmogony and religion which
-he had advocated. The Grand Lamas (_Chaberons_) of Thibet are regarded
-as incarnations (_avatars_) of Buddha, and as such are adored by the
-Thibetians and the various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast
-district which extends from the banks of the Volga to Corea, in the Sea
-of Japan.
-
-After the persecution which terminated in the expulsion of the followers
-of Buddha from Hindostan, the Hindoos, not content with their celestial
-gods or heroes, extended their adoration to various living individuals,
-particularly to the Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight years of
-age are worshipped by them as forms of the goddess Bhavani (_Venus_);
-and at certain seasons of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his
-wife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.
-
-Some writers have thought that all the gods of the ancients consisted of
-deified men. This is, however, an error; for the deification of men was
-an act second in order to the worship of natural objects and phenomena.
-The chronological position of this element of mythology has, among other
-reasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting conclusions on the
-respective ages of the palaces of Nineveh.
-
-On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are found sculptured the winged
-and human-headed bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged
-figures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed divinities, and other
-figures, which are conceived to be symbolical of constellations, and of
-astronomical phenomena. From these nobler and simpler ideas of Divinity
-it is inferred, that when this palace was built the worship of the
-Assyrians was comparatively pure. But on the walls of Nimroud, in
-addition to the symbolical representations found at Khorsabad, there are
-also indications of an increased number of divinities, from the presence
-of deified men; hence a reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the
-system of religion at the period when this palace was built, and
-consequently its more recent date.[20]
-
-
-III. Another element has also exercised a considerable influence upon
-the mythologies of some nations, namely, _Scriptural narrative and
-traditions_. It is not improbable that several of the heathen myths have
-been derived from this source. Many, indeed, believe that all mythology
-arises from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that Deucalion is
-merely another name for Noah; Hercules for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and
-Bacchus is either Nimrod or Moses--for the former supposition the
-similarity of name being assigned; for the latter, among others, one of
-the names and some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus was named
-_Bicornis, double-horned_; and the face of Moses appeared double-horned
-when he came down from the mountain where he had spoken to God,--the
-rays of glory darting from his brow having the semblance of radiant
-horns. The Bacchæ drew waters from the rocks by striking them with their
-thyrsi; and wherever they went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and
-wine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes to dry up, by
-striking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,--an
-action similar to that of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, &c. That
-Scripture narrative has had an important influence in determining the
-formation of mythology, is highly probable; and we have already shown
-that the primary revelation of a Godhead at the creation of man supplied
-an important initial excitement to that development of the belief in the
-supernatural which occurred subsequent to the fall of man. The influence
-of Scriptural traditions on the myths of various nations it is probably
-impossible to unravel satisfactorily.
-
-
-IV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths of the ancients, and of
-modern pagan nations, were allegorical; and that they were designed to
-represent a philosophical, moral, or religious truth under a fabulous
-form. Thus, the myth of the giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off
-the sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards stolen from him by
-Mercury, and restored to Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful
-rebellions, by which the sinews of kings--their revenue and
-authority--are cut off; but by mildness of address, and wisdom of
-edicts, influencing the people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they
-recover their power and reconcile their subjects. And in the myth of the
-expedition of the gods against the giants, when the ass Silenus became
-of great service in dispersing them, on account of the terror excited by
-his braying, it is considered to be an allegory of those vast projects
-of rebels, which are mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain
-consternation. Minerva was fabled to have been born out of the head of
-Jupiter, because it was deemed that man did not in himself possess
-wisdom, but he derived it from divine inspiration; and this goddess was
-born armed, because a wise man clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified
-against all the harms of life.
-
-This element has undoubtedly had an important influence in the formation
-of the various myths, but it refers rather to an advanced stage in
-mythology, and to that period of development when a nation has made some
-progress in arts and literature.
-
-These elements, and doubtless also others of which the effects are less
-easily unfolded, _e.g._ intercourse between various nations, dispersion
-of tribes, &c., have all exercised a greater or less degree of influence
-on the development and formation of the mythologies of different
-nations.
-
-If we contemplate a race in the earlier phases of its existence, or one
-degraded in the scale of being, we find that its ideas of the
-supernatural are confined to the deification and worship of the simplest
-and most striking of the objects and phenomena of nature: as it has
-increased in civilization and learning, those deities have been
-represented in symbolical forms; and as civilization and the cultivation
-of the mind advances, and the knowledge of surrounding nature has become
-increased, so have the number of deities been multiplied by the
-deification of the less evident powers of nature, of kings, and of
-distinguished men, and then also allegory has come into play. Every
-variation in the character of a nation, and every era, has impressed
-more or less distinct marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we
-receive it now, is the sum of all those changes which have been
-impressed upon it from its earliest formation.
-
-When Christianity dawned upon the world, its effect was not the
-immediate eradication or dispersion of the superstitious beliefs and
-observances then entertained: it induced a change in the form and
-nature of those beliefs.
-
-At the commencement of the Christian era, certain men, inspired by the
-Holy Ghost, were enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings
-derived from habit, education, and authority, and to receive at once, in
-all its purity and fulness, the light of the gospel--perhaps the most
-wonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ. Such was not the case,
-however, with the majority of the earlier Christians. They did not thus
-throw off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin, but modified them
-so as to concur, as they thought, with Scripture.
-
-Thus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of one sole, omnipotent,
-and omniscient God; and it fully defined a power of evil, and denounced
-idolatry. Hence the early Christian fathers were led to conceive, and
-teach, that the gods of the heathen were devils; and further, that their
-history, attributes, and worship, had been taught to mankind by the
-devils themselves.
-
-    "Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones;
-    Though of their names in heavenly records now
-    Be no memorial,--blotted out and razed,
-    By their rebellion from the book of life,--
-    ... wandering o'er the earth,
-    Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
-    By falsities and lies the greatest part
-    Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake
-    God their Creator, and the invisible
-    Glory of Him that made them to transform
-    Oft to the image of a brute adorn'd
-    With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,
-    And devils to adore for deities;
-    Then were they known to man by various names,
-    And various idols through the heathen world."[21]
-
-This phase being given to the existing superstitions, it will readily be
-understood how, under the form of devils, most of the principal classes
-of deities in pagan mythology were retained and believed in. Thus the
-elemental and primary gods of paganism were perpetuated under the name
-of _fiends_, _dæmons_, _genii_, &c.; and the terms _salamanders_,
-_undines_, &c., expressed certain spirits of fire and of water; in the
-form of _fairies_, _elves_, _sylphs_, &c., were retained the graceful
-Nymphs--Oreads, Dryads, &c.--of antiquity,--
-
-    "The light militia of the lower sky;"
-
-the hidden parts of the earth were peopled with _dwarfs_, and other
-spirits of a more powerful nature; and spectral apparitions frighted the
-midnight hours of the watcher.
-
-It is, therefore, to the retention of certain pagan superstitions in a
-modified form, that we are to attribute the origin of the belief in
-those unnumbered spirits, which, under the names of fiends, dæmons,
-genii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs, sprites, &c., have been supposed to
-surround us, and have hampered the imaginations of all Christian
-nations, and of which, to use the words of Pope--
-
-    "Some in the fields of purest æther play,
-    And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;
-    Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,
-    Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;
-    Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light,
-    Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,
-    Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
-    Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
-    Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
-    Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;
-    Others on earth o'er human race preside,
-    Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide."[22]
-
-The belief that the heathen deities were devils, naturally led to the
-further conclusion, that the priests who sacrificed to those gods, and
-who were regarded as the medium of communication between the gods and
-man, held immediate converse with devils,--a belief subsequently
-extended to idolators in general, and to all those practising magic and
-sorcery. Instances of the natural alliance of a mythological idea to a
-Christian belief might be multiplied.
-
-The power of evil, enunciated by the Scriptures, and spoken of as the
-"_Devil_," was early reputed to have appeared in a visible form,
-assuming the aspect of the god Pan, or of a faun or satyr, that is, a
-horned figure, with hirsute frame, and the lower extremities of a goat,
-which indeed, until recently, was considered to be the most orthodox
-form of visibility for his Satanic Majesty. The connection of the power
-of evil with the gods of the most gloomy and hidden parts of nature is
-obvious: Pan, indeed, was the god of terror.
-
-Frequently, also, Satan appeared under the form of a goat. The goat is
-an emblem of the sin-offering, and of the wicked at the day of judgment;
-hence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness, and in this form
-the devil most commonly appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins.
-In Leviticus (xvii. 7), where it is written "they shall no more offer
-sacrifices to devils," it is literally, to "hairy-ones"--goats. The
-symbol of the goat prompted to the nature of the form given to Pan in
-the Grecian and Roman mythology. Indeed, the Greeks derived their
-worship of that god from Egypt, where he was adored under the form of a
-goat; and it is fabled that he captivated Diana under the aspect of a
-white goat.
-
-A singular superstition of the connection of the goat with Satan is
-entertained in some districts of this island. It is asserted that a goat
-is never visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as once in that
-time it must visit Satan to have its beard combed![23]
-
-Another example of the wedding of a pagan myth to the Christian religion
-is this:--Most heathen nations believed in the existence of deities
-whose especial duty was to guard the threshold of the house, and prevent
-the entrance of evil spirits.
-
-The Grecians and Romans had their Penates and Lars, and the Genoese
-retain the superstition at the present day.
-
-The Lars (_familiares_) were the souls of men, who lingered about the
-dwellings and places they had formerly inhabited and frequented. They
-were represented by small images resembling monkeys, and covered with
-dog's skin; and these images were placed in a niche behind the door, or
-around the hearth. At the feet of the Lar was placed the figure of a
-dog, to intimate vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to them
-in the month of May, when offerings of fruit were presented, and the
-images were crowned with flowers.
-
-Plautus (_Aulularia_) represents a Lar as using the following words:--
-
-              "I am the family Lar
-    Of this house whence you see me coming out.
-    'Tis many years now that I keep and guard
-    This family; both father and grandsire
-    Of him that has it now, I aye protected."
-
-Beneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found
-images of a foul and ugly appearance (_teraphim_), some having a lynx's
-head and human body, others a lion's body and human head. Sentences were
-also inscribed on the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures were
-placed on each side of the portal. The intention was, doubtless, the
-prevention of the entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the
-household.[24]
-
-The Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti, believe in the existence
-of similar deities. The Bhûtas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent
-spirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities. Every house and each
-family has its particular Bhûta, which is often represented by a
-shapeless stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order to
-propitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to defend the house from
-the machinations of neighbouring Bhûtas. The native of Ashanti offers
-also daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which, under the form of a
-stone painted red, is placed upon a platform within his hut.
-
-There are several remnants of this ancient superstition still in vogue
-in England. The common practice of nailing a horse-shoe behind the door,
-to terrify witches and prevent the entrance of evil spirits, is familiar
-to most persons. Formerly it was the custom to nail the horse-shoe to
-the threshold. Aubrey writes, in his _Miscellanies_: "Most houses of the
-west end of London have the horse-shoe on the threshold." In Monmouth
-Street, in 1797, many horse-shoes were to be seen fastened to the
-threshold. In 1813, Sir Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes in
-this position in that street, but in 1841 the number had diminished to
-five or six.
-
-In some parts of England, naturally perforated stones are suspended
-behind the doors, with the same intention;[25] in others, jugs, of
-singular and often frightful form, are built into the walls of the
-cottages--an interesting approximation to the Assyrian teraphim; and in
-Glamorganshire the walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to
-terrify wandering spirits,--a mode of prevention which we should like to
-see more generally adopted, as it would doubtless prove of some effect
-in impeding the access of those roaming spirits of evil with which we
-have to contend most at the present day--cholera and fever.
-
-According to Durandus, the dedication-crosses of the Roman Catholic
-churches were adopted under the influence of a feeling in every respect
-analogous to this ancient superstition. He writes that the crosses were
-used, "first, as a terror to evil spirits, that they, having been
-driven forth thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of the
-cross, and may not presume to enter therein again. Secondly, as a mark
-of triumph, for crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of his
-triumph.... Thirdly, that such as look on them may call to mind the
-passion of Christ, by which He hath consecrated his church; and their
-belief in his passion."[26]
-
-But the influence of mythology on Christianity did not terminate with
-the mere natural results of previous education, habits, &c. The church,
-under and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing in the
-protection of the civil power, and not content with the natural
-veneration due to those early Christians who had struggled for the
-cross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves by their long and
-protracted sufferings, insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced
-by the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to deify his
-benefactors, indulged a degree of reverence to the memory of those holy
-men, which soon ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately
-to their canonization and invocation. The Fathers of that
-period--Athanasius, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.--encouraged the belief;
-and a rage was developed for the search of the remains and
-resting-places of the holy dead, to whom prayers were offered; and, in
-its encouragement of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles,
-prophetic dreams, relics, &c., the Roman church at this time rivalled
-the omens, divinations, oracles, and hero-worship of one of the later
-phases of mythology.
-
-The church even sought to promote the spread of Christianity by the
-adoption of certain pagan rites and ceremonies. No more remarkable and
-interesting example of this is to be found than in the annals of our own
-country. In the year of our Lord 601, in a letter "sent to the Abbot
-Mellitus, then going into Britain," Pope Gregory wrote as follows:--
-
-"I have, upon mature deliberation on the affairs of the English,
-determined ... that the temples of the idols of that nation ought not to
-be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed, let holy
-water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected,
-and relics placed. For if those temples be well built, it is requisite
-that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the
-true God; that the nation, seeing that the temples are not destroyed,
-may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true
-God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have
-been accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen
-in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for these
-on this account, as that on the day of dedication, or the nativities of
-the holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may build
-themselves huts of the boughs of trees about those churches which have
-been turned to that use from temples, and no more offer beasts to the
-devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return
-thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end that,
-whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the
-more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God."[27]
-
-In A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II expressed his approval of image-worship,
-and because the Greek emperor refused to accede to this form of
-idolatry, he caused the tribute paid to him by Rome to be suspended, and
-even went to the extent of excommunicating him; and in 789, the second
-Nicene council re-established and confirmed the adoration of images.
-
-Examples of the influence of these doctrines in the Roman and other
-churches may be multiplied.
-
-The censers and lustration vessels of the priesthood are copied from the
-sacrificial vessels which were used in the pagan temples; the woollen
-fillet was transformed into the priest's amice; and the _lituus_, or
-curved staff of the soothsayer, became the crozier of the bishop.
-
-The sacred fountains of antiquity were perpetuated in a Christian form
-by dedication to a saint. Examples of this are afforded by the wells of
-St. Elian, in Denbighshire; St. Winifred, in Flintshire, &c.
-
-In no respect, however, has the Romish church so closely followed the
-example of pagan nations, and borrowed from mythology, as in the
-deification of men, and the adoption of tutelary divinities.
-
-As the mythology of ancient Rome and Greece had its gods who presided
-over countries, cities, towns, and the numerous actions and duties of
-man in his civil and religious life, to each of whom worship was offered
-and altars erected, so also the Romish church encouraged the belief in
-guardian saints, and in this respect its calendar rivals the Pantheon.
-
-As fully did this church adopt the principle of the deification
-(_canonization_) of men--one of the most prominent of the
-characteristics of idolatry.
-
-Thus the Romish calendar contains guardian saints of countries: St.
-George is the tutelary saint of England; St. Andrew, of Scotland; St.
-Patrick, of Ireland; St. Denis, of France; and St. Peter, of Flanders.
-Austria possesses two guardian saints, St. Colman and St. Leopold;
-Germany has _three_, St. Martin, St. Boniface, and St. George
-Cataphrastus; and so on of all the countries of Europe.
-
-There are also guardian saints of cities. St. Egidius presides over
-Edinburgh, St. Nicholas, Aberdeen; St. Peter succeeded Mars at Rome; St.
-Frideswide, Oxford; St. Genevieve, Paris; St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
-Januarius, Naples, &c.
-
-Of the general body of tutelary saints the following list will afford an
-illustration:--
-
-St. Agatha presides over nurses; St. Catherine and St. Gregory over
-studious persons; St. Christopher, St. Hermus, and St. Nicholas, over
-mariners; St. Cecilia, over musicians; St. Cosmos and Damian, over
-physicians, surgeons, and philosophers; St. Dismas and St. Nicholas,
-over thieves; St. Eustace and St. Hubert, over hunters; St. Felicitas,
-over young children; St. Julian, over pilgrims; St. Leonard and St.
-Barbara, over captives; St. Luke, painters; St. Martin and St. Urban
-over ale-knights, to prevent them falling in the kennel; St. Æthelbert
-and Ælian are invoked against thieves, &c.
-
-St. Agatha presides over valleys; St. Anne, riches; St. Barbara, hills;
-St. Florian, fire; St. Sylvester, woods, &c.
-
-St. Thomas presides over divines; St. Thomas à-Becket, blind men; St.
-Valentine, lovers; St. Winifred, virgins; St. Joseph, carpenters; St.
-Anthony, swineherds and grocers; St. Arnhold, millers; St. Blaise,
-wool-combers; St. Catherine, spinners; St. Clement, tanners; St. Cloud,
-nailsmiths; St. Dunstan, goldsmiths; St. Elry, blacksmiths, farriers,
-&c.; St. Florian, mercers; St. Francis, butchers; St. George, clothiers;
-St. Goodman and St. Ann, tailors; St. Gore, potters; St. Hilary,
-coopers; St. Leodager, drapers; St. Crispin, shoemakers, &c.
-
-St. Anthony protects hogs; St. Ferriol, geese; St. Gertrude, mice and
-eggs; St. Hubert, dogs; St. Joy, horses, &c.
-
-Numerous saints were invoked against diseases: _e.g._, St. Clara against
-sore eyes; St. Genow, gout; St. Marus, palsies and convulsions; St.
-Sigismund, fevers, &c.
-
-"There be many miracles assigned to saints," writes Barnaby Rich, in
-1619, "that they say are good for all diseases: they can give sight to
-the blind, make the deafe to hear; they can restore limbs that be
-crippled, and make the lame go upright; they be good for horse, swine,
-and many other beasts. And women, also, have shee-saints.... They have
-saints to pray to when they be grieved with a third-day ague, when they
-be pained with toothache, or when they would be revenged on their angry
-husbands.
-
-"They have saints that be good amongst poultry when they have the pip,
-for geese when they do sit, to have a happy success in goslings; and, to
-be short, there is no disease, no sickness, no griefe, either amongst
-men or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints."[28]
-
-The Romish church also adopted the pagan belief in apparitions, and as
-the latter had supported the argument in favour of the existence of the
-gods by the fiction of their occasional manifestations in a visible
-form, so the former endeavoured to sustain its dogmas by fables of the
-apparition, from time to time, of its saints.
-
-It is needless to dwell upon the manner in which this church pandered to
-the credulity of the people in this respect, for an example is before
-the world even at the present time in the apparition of the Blessed
-Virgin near La Salette, a village about four miles from Corps, a small
-town situated on the road between Grenoble and Gap.
-
-The story is as follows:--On the 19th September, 1846, the Blessed
-Virgin appeared to two children, the one a boy aged 11, and the other a
-girl aged 14 years, who were watching cows near a fountain, in the
-hollow of a ravine in the mountains, about four miles from the church
-of La Salette. When first seen, she was in a sitting position, the head
-resting upon the hands, and she "had on white shoes, with roses about
-her shoes. The roses were of all colours. Her socks were yellow, her
-apron yellow, and her gown white, with pearls all over it. She had a
-white neckerchief, with roses round it; a high cap, a little bent in
-front; a crown round her cap with roses. She had a very small chain, to
-which was attached a crucifix; on the right were some pincers, on the
-left a hammer; at the extremities of the cross was another huge chain,
-which fell, like the roses, round her handkerchief. Her face was white
-and long."
-
-Addressing the children, tears coursing down her cheeks, she spoke to
-them on the wickedness of the peasantry, particularly their neglect of
-the Sabbath and of the duties of Lent, when they "go like dogs to the
-butchers' stalls." Then she foretold that if the men would not be
-converted, there should be no potatoes at Christmas, all the corn should
-be eaten up by animals, or if any did grow up, it should fall to dust
-when thrashed. There should be a great famine, preceding which "children
-below seven years of age should have convulsions, and die in the arms of
-those who held them; and the rest should do penance by hunger. Nuts and
-grapes also should perish. But if men were converted, then the rocks and
-stones shall be changed into heaps of corn, and potatoes shall be sown
-all over the land." "The lady," in addition, confided to each of the
-children a secret which was not to be told to the other, but which they
-confided to the Pope in 1851. Then, after a little gossiping
-conversation, "the lady" vanished.
-
-Soon after this apparition had been noised abroad, it was discovered
-that the waters of the fountain were possessed of marvellous healing
-properties, and many miraculous cures were effected by its use. Pilgrims
-flocked to the scene of the vision, and it is affirmed that in one day
-60,000 of the faithful ascended the mountain.
-
-Among others, the present Bishop of Orleans made a pilgrimage to the
-"holy mountain," and he was so impressed by the solemn feelings excited
-by treading on such holy ground, that he often ejaculated, "It cannot be
-but that the finger of God is here." Other ecclesiastics of rank also
-visited the spot, and the whole affair was officially sanctioned.
-
-Nor did the matter rest here, for churches are being built, and
-dedicated to "Our Lady of Salette," in different countries; and a
-society has been established in England bearing her name.
-
-We have already alluded to the sacred fountains of heathen nations, and
-in the holy fountain of Salette we witness the modern development of a
-similar superstition. So also in the apparition of the Virgin the same
-credulity is traced which prompted the ancients to believe in the
-occasional appearance of their deities.
-
-It is related that Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter, by Leda the
-wife of Tyndarus, were seen fighting at the battle of Regillus; and
-that, subsequently, mounted on white horses, they appeared to P.
-Vatienus, as he journeyed by night to Rome, from his government of
-Reate, and told him that King Perses had that day been taken prisoner.
-
-On these legends Cicero remarks; "Do you believe that the Tyndaridæ, as
-you called them, that is, men sprung from men, and buried in Lacedemon,
-as we learn from Homer, who lived in the next age,--do you believe, I
-say, that they appeared to Vatienus on the road, mounted on white
-horses, without any servant to attend them, to tell the victory of the
-Romans to a country fellow rather than to M. Cato, who was that time the
-chief person of the senate? Do you take that print of a horse's hoof,
-which is now to be seen on a stone at Regillus, to be made by Castor's
-horse? Should you not believe, what is probable, that the souls of
-eminent men, such as the Tyndaridæ, are divine and immortal, rather than
-that those bodies, which had been reduced to ashes, should mount on
-horses and fight in an army? If you say that was possible, you ought to
-show how it is so, and not amuse us with fabulous stories."
-
-"Do you take these for fabulous stories?" says Balbus. "Is not the
-temple built by Posthumius in honour of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in
-the Forum? Is not the decree of the senate concerning Vatienus still
-subsisting?... Ought not such authorities to move you?"
-
-"You oppose me," replies Cotta, "with stories, but I ask reasons of
-you."[29]
-
-It would seem then that the parallelism is perfect, even to the building
-of temples, and the official recognition of the truth of the event.
-
-Of the individual personages of ancient mythology very few traces remain
-in England, and these principally belong to the fairy belief. This
-superstition, of which the analogue is found in the Nymphs, Oreads,
-Dryads, Naiads, Lemoniads, and Nerieds, of ancient Greece and Rome, is
-still prevalent in certain districts of this country; and the extinction
-of the general belief, among the lower orders, of one of the most noted
-of the personages which are met with in fairy lore, the _hobgoblin_, is
-comparatively of recent date. The name is, however, still familiar, and
-in use for certain vague manifestations of the supernatural, although
-the actual signification of the term is, to a great extent, lost sight
-of.
-
-The hobgoblin is worthy of notice not only for its intrinsic interest,
-but also for the illustration which it affords of the intimate
-relationship which is often found to exist between the superstitions of
-different and even far distant nations.
-
-This spirit, in his palmy days, was that fairy which attached itself to
-houses, and the neighbourhood of dwellings and churches (for even sacred
-edifices were not exempted from its influence). In disposition it was
-mischievous and sportive, although it often deigned, during the night,
-to perform many menial offices, and whatsoever building it attached
-itself to prospered. It was apt to take offence, particularly if, as a
-reward, money or clothes were placed for it in that part of the house it
-most frequented; but it was partial to cream, or some delicately
-prepared eatable, and any housewife who was careful to conciliate the
-spirit by administering to this taste, was certain to be well rewarded.
-As might be anticipated, it was a favourite character with poets, and
-descriptions of its propensities and actions abound. Thus, in the
-"Midsummer Night's Dream" (Act II, Sc. 1), one of the Fairies is
-represented as addressing this spirit, and saying:--
-
-          "Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
-          Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
-          Called Robin Goodfellow. Are you not he
-          That frights the maidens of the villagery,
-          Skims milk, and labours in the quern,
-          And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn;
-          And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm;
-          Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
-          Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
-          You do their work and they shall have good luck,
-          Are not you he?
-
-  _Puck._           Thou speakest aright,
-          I am that merry wanderer of the night.
-          I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
-          When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
-          Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;
-          And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
-          In very likeness of a roasted crab,
-          And when she drinks against her lips I bob,
-          And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
-          The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,
-          Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
-          Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
-          And _tailor_ cries, and falls into a cough;
-          And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,
-          And waxen in their mirth, and reeze, and swear
-          A merrier hour was never wasted there."
-
-Milton, in the "L'Allegro," writes of him in a different office, and--
-
-    "Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,
-    To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
-    When in one night ere glimpse of morn,
-    His shadowy flail has thrashed the corn,
-    That ten day-lab'rers could not end:
-    Then lies him down the lubber-fiend,
-    And stretched out all the chimney's length,
-    Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
-    And cropfull out of doors he flings,
-    Ere the first cock his matin rings."
-
-Another noted characteristic of this fairy is mentioned in the fine old
-song of Ben Johnson's:--
-
-    "When house or hearth doth sluttish lye,
-      I pinch the maidens black and blue;
-    The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
-      And lay them naked all to view.
-          Twixt sleepe and wake
-          I do them take
-    And on the key-cold floor them throw:
-          If out they cry
-          Then forth I fly,
-    And loudly laugh out, ho! ho! ho!"
-
-The hobgoblin is one of the widest-spread forms of fairy belief. In
-England it is also termed _Boggard_, _Puck_, _Robin Goodfellow_, and
-_Robin Hood_; it is the _Brownie_ of Scotland; the _Cluricaune_,
-_Luricaune_, _Leprochaune_, &c., of Ireland; the _Kobold_ of Germany;
-the _Servant_ of Switzerland; the _Nis_ of Denmark and Norway; the
-_Niägruiser_ of the Feroes; the _Tomt-gubbe_, or _Tont_, of Sweden; the
-_Phynnoderee_ of the Isle of Man; the _Monaciello_ of Naples; the
-_Duende_ of Spain; the _Lutin_, or _Gobelin_, of France; and the _Para_
-of Finland appears to have some affinity with it.
-
-The derivation of some of the principal names of this fairy is also of
-interest. From the Sclavonic _Bôg_, signifying _God_, come the words
-_boggard_ and _boggart_; the Scottish _Bogle_, a hill-fairy; and
-probably, also, the words _Bug-bear_ and _Bugaboo_; and from the
-Icelandic _Puki_, an evil spirit, come the English _Puke_, a devil, as
-also _Puck_; the Friesland _Puk_; the German _Putz_, or _Butz_; the
-Devonshire _Pixie_; the Irish _Pouke_; the Welsh _Pwcca_, and the words
-_big_ and _bug_,--all names of certain varieties of the fairy-belief,
-and having the signification of an evil spirit.
-
-Certain forms of pagan worship would appear to have been perpetuated
-unmodified in Christian countries even to the present time. A remarkable
-and singular illustration of this is found in Ireland.
-
-Off the north-west coast of that kingdom are situated the islands of
-Inniskea, containing a population of about 400 human beings. Nominally
-the inhabitants are Christians, and under Roman Catholic tuition; in
-reality, they observe the ancient forms of Irish clan government, and
-are idolaters, worshipping rocks and stones. Their chief god is a stone
-idol termed _Nee-vougi_, which has been preserved from time immemorial.
-It is clothed in homespun flannel, which arises from the custom of its
-votaries offering portions of their dress when addressing it. These
-fragments are sewed upon it by an old woman who has charge of the idol,
-and who officiates as priestess. It is invoked, among other things, to
-dash helpless ships upon the coast, and to calm the sea in order that
-the fishing may be successful.[30]
-
-The adoration of rocks and stone pillars is one of the most ancient
-forms of idolatry on record. It probably took its origin from the custom
-of erecting stone pillars as a memorial, and consecrating them as altars
-on any extraordinary event or occasion. The earliest mention of this
-custom is found in Genesis (cxxviii, v. 10):--
-
-"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took up the stone he had
-put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the
-top of it.
-
-"And he called the name of that place Beth-El ... saying ... this stone
-which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house."
-
-Stones thus erected as memorials, and consecrated as altars, in the
-course of time were considered to be the abode of, or rather to be
-filled with, the divine power, which had manifested itself there; and
-ultimately stone pillars were used as symbols of the Deity. Singularly
-formed rocks and stones were also regarded in a similar light; and
-traces of this very ancient form of idolatry may be found in all parts
-of the world.
-
-The "_animated stones_" of antiquity, which received divine honours,
-derived their names from Beth-El, as for example, Baithulia, Bethyllia,
-and #Baitolia#, signifying consecrated or living stones; and one
-of the modifications of Jupiter, _Jupiter Lapis_ (a stone), was derived
-from this form of idolatry, and the most solemn of the Roman oaths was
-that taken in the name of this god.
-
-Numerous traces of superstition are found scattered throughout England,
-and the countries of Western Europe, which are the lineal, although
-degenerated descendants of the superstitions of the mythological era of
-the respective nations, or rather races, dwelling there.
-
-There are few large towns in Great Britain which do not contain one or
-more persons who profess to practise astrology, magic, or
-divination--_wise men_, as they are popularly designated; and the belief
-in charms and omens is far from being eradicated among a large mass of
-the population, particularly among those who dwell in secluded or
-mountainous districts.
-
-Not unfrequently events happen by which we may gauge the extent to which
-these superstitions are still entertained. Those who marked the effect
-which the appearance of the late comet had on the minds of many in this
-country, would perceive that a somewhat powerful feeling of
-superstitious dread, on the occurrence of remarkable celestial events,
-remained. The alarm excited among the credulous in England was, however,
-if anything, less marked than that caused in many parts of the
-continent[31] and in America.
-
-Three years ago we had an opportunity of witnessing a singular
-exhibition of fear, which was excited in the inhabitants of the most
-impoverished districts of Leeds, by the prevalence of a brilliant
-display of the aurora borealis. The scene paralleled the descriptions
-recorded of the effects produced by similar phenomena in the Middle
-Ages. The prevailing impression was, that the world was on the point of,
-if not in, the actual process of destruction; and in many the alarm
-became extreme, when, during the most magnificent period of the
-phenomena, several of the streamers became of a deep crimson and blue
-tint.
-
-This display of the aurora extended over a vast extent of country, and a
-singular example of the feelings with which it was regarded in Spain was
-recorded at the time in the daily papers.
-
-On the evening on which it occurred, it so happened that the subject of
-the homily in one of the churches of Madrid was the destruction of the
-world, and the day of judgment. At the conclusion of the service, and as
-the congregation were issuing from the church, the northern heavens were
-glowing with the brilliant and ever-varying light of the aurora.
-Startled by a phenomenon which is of somewhat rare occurrence in Spain,
-the idea at once occurred that the terrible events upon which the priest
-had been descanting were about to come to pass; the people rushed back
-to the steps of the altar, and while the aurora continued, the terror
-and confusion beggared all description.
-
-Another indication of the influence which the superstitions we have
-named exercise on the minds of certain classes, is the number of works
-on astrology, principally reprints, which have issued from the press
-during the last eight or nine years.
-
-This ancient superstition, which is still practised by the Mahomedans,
-Chinese, &c., retains a hold upon the minds of many, even now. Its
-practice in this country is, however, most frequently combined with some
-of the minor forms of magic and divination; and those who profess a
-knowledge of these arts chiefly direct them to the ignoble purpose of
-detecting stolen articles.
-
-In America, it would seem, from the advertisements which from time to
-time appear in the newspapers, that this superstition is flourishing
-with some vigour. We subjoin, in a note, specimens of these
-advertisements.[32]
-
-The belief in charms and omens, which was one of the most important of
-the superstitions of antiquity, is still entertained by the lower orders
-in many counties, and it forms one of the most striking features of the
-current folk-lore.
-
-The Devonshire peasant will recite the 8th Psalm on three consecutive
-days, for three weeks, over his child, in order to prevent its being
-attacked with the thrush; and should the disease, notwithstanding this
-precaution, occur, he either plucks three rushes from a running stream,
-passes them through the mouth of the child, and then casts them into the
-stream, believing that the disease will decrease and disappear as the
-rushes float away; or seizing a duck, he will force it to open wide its
-bill, and then placing it close to the mouth of the child, he hopes to
-see the affection vanish as the duck inhales the infant's breath.
-
-The peasantry of Norfolk, Northampton, &c. have, for the prevention of
-epileptic fits, implicit confidence in a ring made from nine sixpences,
-obtained, by gift, from persons of the opposite sex, or from the money
-contributed at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
-
-There is a charm for cramp in the leg which must be familiar to most
-persons. It runs thus:--
-
-    "The devil is tying a knot in my leg!
-    Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it, I beg!
-    Crosses three we make to ease us,
-    Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus."
-
-This formula, with a little modification, was applicable also to other
-fleeting but painful affections. Coleridge states that when he was at
-the Blue-coat School there was a charm for one's foot when asleep, which
-ran thus:--
-
-    "Foot, foot, foot! is fast asleep!
-    Thumb, thumb, thumb! in spittle we steep;
-    Crosses three we make to ease us," &c.
-
-We have seen a charm for the toothache, which we believe has now fallen
-into desuetude, but which, from its singularity, is worthy of
-preservation. It is as follows:--
-
-"In the name of God: Amen.
-
-"As Jesus Christ passed through the gates of Jerusalem, he heard one of
-his disciples weeping and wailing. Jesus saith unto him, Simon Peter,
-why weepest and wailest thou? Simon Peter saith unto him: Lord, the pain
-in my tooth is so grievous, I can do nothing. Jesus saith unto him:
-Arise, Simon, and the pain in thy tooth shall be eased; and whosoever
-shall keep those words in remembrance or writing shall never be
-troubled with the pain in the tooth:--
-
-"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."
-
-The coral and bells which are suspended round the necks of children for
-their amusement, were originally used with very different intentions.
-
-Those who professed the occult sciences attributed several very
-wonderful properties to coral, it being regarded by them as a
-preservative against evil spirits, poison, and certain diseases.
-
-The ringing of bells was also, formerly, considered to be of great
-effect in terrifying and causing evil spirits to fly away. Nor did their
-influence cease there; they were esteemed efficacious for the dispersion
-of tempests; or, it would be more correct to say, that a cotemporary
-superstition was, that tempests, thunder and lightning, and high winds,
-were caused by evil spirits, or devils, who in this manner endeavoured
-to wreak their rage on man; hence, in the Golden Legend of Wynken de
-Worde, it is said that "evil spirytes that ben in the region of th'
-ayre, dowt much when they hear the bells rongen, an this is the cause
-why the bells ben rongen when it thondreth, and whanne great tempests
-and outrages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked
-spirytes should be abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of
-tempest." This superstition probably dates from the period when it
-became customary to exorcise, bless, and baptize the bells suspended in
-churches,--a custom which originated in the tenth century.
-
-The use of the coral and bells was derived from these superstitions, and
-they were at first suspended from the neck as an amulet which was
-protective from the influence of evil spirits.
-
-Certain events are still regarded as omens by the peasantry in many
-districts.
-
-If a magpie cross our path, it is said that we shall prove unlucky,
-unless we immediately cross ourselves; and an old rhyme says of the
-magpie:--
-
-    "One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth;
-    Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of a birth."
-
-In Devonshire, if a person sees four magpies, it is regarded as an omen
-of death in his family. If a pigeon is seen sitting on a tree, or comes
-into the house; or if a swarm of bees alight on a dead tree, or the dead
-bough of a living tree, it forebodes death in the family of the owner.
-In Derbyshire, if the sun shines through the boughs of the apple-trees
-on Christmas day, it is considered as a presage of a good crop the
-ensuing year.
-
-Of all the superstitions entertained previous to the advent of Christ,
-none have, however, been more fully perpetuated among Christian nations
-than that of spectral apparitions,--the visible appearance of the
-deities worshipped, or of the disembodied spirits of the dead--_ghosts_.
-
-This was due not only to the nature of the causes inducing spectral
-apparitions (causes which are inseparable from the physical constitution
-of man), but also to the confirmation which the belief was thought to
-receive from Holy Writ.
-
-The character of the superstition, as it has been retained down to the
-verge of the present period in our own country, and as it is still
-entertained in many countries, is very similar to that which it bore in
-the remotest periods of antiquity.
-
-The deities of those nations who had distinct and defined ideas
-respecting their gods, are reputed to have appeared from time to time to
-their votaries, assuming the form in which they were most commonly
-pourtrayed in the temples.
-
-Thus the gods which Æneas bore from the destruction of Troy and carried
-into Crete, appeared to him in that island:
-
-    "'Twas night, when every creature, void of cares,
-    The common gift of balmy slumbers shares;
-    The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),
-    Those gods whom I from flaming Troy redeem'd,
-    Before me stood, majestically bright,
-    Full in the beams of Phoebe's entering light.
-    Then thus they spoke and eased my troubled mind:
-    'What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,
-    He tells thee here, and sends us to relate.
-    Those powers are we, companions of thy fate,
-    Who from the burning town by thee were brought,
-    Thy fortune follow'd, and thy safety wrought.
-    Through seas and lands, as we thy steps attend,
-    So shall our care thy glorious race befriend.
-    An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain,
-    A town that o'er the conquer'd world shall reign.
-    Thou, mighty walls for mighty nations build;
-    Nor let thy weary mind to labours yield:
-    But change thy seat; for not the Delian god
-    Nor we have given thee Crete for our abode.
-    A land there is, Hesperia call'd of old,
-    (The soil is fruitful, and the natives bold--
-    Th' Oeotrians held it once), by later fame
-    Now call'd Italia from the leader's name.
-    Iasius there, and Dardanus, were born;
-    From thence we came and thither must return.
-    Rise, and thy sire with these glad tidings greet:
-    Search Italy; for Jove denies thee Crete.'
-    Astonished at their voices and their sight,
-    (Nor were they dreams, but visions of the night;
-    I saw, I knew their faces, and descry'd,
-    In perfect view, their hair with fillets tied),
-    I started from my couch; a clammy sweat
-    On all my limbs, and shivering body, sate.
-    To heaven I lift my hands with pious haste,
-    And sacred incense in the flames I cast."[33]
-
-Among Christian nations visions of this character have also been common;
-and the religious writings of every age of the Church contain numerous
-instances of apparitions of the Trinity, of our Lord, of the canonized,
-and the powers of evil.
-
-But the most familiar phase of the ghost-belief is that of the visible
-manifestation of the spirits of the dead; and probably few, if any,
-races are without a superstition of this nature.
-
-The Grecians and Romans believed that the souls of the dead (_manes_)
-roamed about the earth, having power to interfere with the affairs of
-man and inflict evil. The spirits of those who had been virtuous during
-life were distinguished by the name of _lares_ (under which name we have
-in a previous page alluded to them as tutelary deities) or _manes_; and
-the spirits of the wicked were termed _larvæ_, or _lemures_, and often
-terrified the good, and haunted the wicked and impious. These ghosts
-were also deified, and they were known as the _Dii Manes_; and the
-stones erected over the graves in Roman burial-grounds had usually
-inscribed upon them the letters D.M., or D.M.S., that is, _Dîs Manibus_,
-or _Dîs Manibus Sacrum_,--"Sacred to the Manes Gods." Sacrifices were
-offered to these deities, the offerings being termed _religiosæ_, in
-contradistinction to those offered to the superior gods, which were
-denominated _sacræ_; and during the festivals held in honour of the
-ghosts (_Lemuria_ or _Lemuralia_), it was customary to burn black beans
-over the graves, and to beat kettles and drums, in order that, by the
-noxious odour of the former, and the noise of the latter, the ghosts
-might be frightened away, and no longer terrify their relations.
-
-We have already given several examples illustrative of the parallelism
-which exists between the accounts we possess of the apparitions of
-Grecian and Roman deities, and those manifestations of celestial
-personages which are recorded to have occurred in more modern times. A
-similar resemblance exists between the accounts given of the spectral
-appearance of the spirits of the dead.
-
-In the Odyssey (B. XI), Ulysses, previous to descending into hell, is
-described as offering "solemn rites and holy vows" to the dead:--
-
-    "When lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts,
-    Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts;
-    Fair, pensive youths, and soft, enamour'd maids;
-    And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades
-    Ghastly with wounds, the form of warriors slain
-    Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train:
-    These and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the ground,
-    And all the dire assembly shriek'd around."
-
-A striking illustration of the similarity of ancient and modern
-ghost-stories, in all essential points, is contained in the description
-given in the Æneis (B. II) of the apparition of the ghost of Hector to
-Æneas, at the destruction of Troy:--
-
-    "'Twas in the dead of night, when sleep repairs
-    Our bodies worn with toils, our minds with cares,
-    When Hector's ghost before my sight appears:
-    A bloody shroud he seem'd, and bath'd in tears;
-    Such as he was when by Pelides slain,
-    Thessalian coursers dragg'd him o'er the plain;
-    Swoll'n were his feet, as when the thongs were thrust
-    Through the bored holes; his body black with dust;
-    Unlike that Hector, who return'd from toils
-    Of war, triumphant in Æacians' spoils,
-    Or him, who made the fainting Greeks retire,
-    And launch'd against their navy Phrygian fire.
-    His hair and beard stood stiffen'd with his gore,
-    And all the wounds he for his country bore
-    Now streamed afresh, and with new purple ran."
-
-An equally, if not more marked example, is recorded by Pliny, the consul
-at Sura.
-
-A house at Athens was grievously haunted by a spirit, which, during the
-night, restlessly roamed through the apartments, dragging, apparently, a
-heavy chain after it. Athenodorus, the philosopher, hired the house,
-determined to reduce the spirit to order and silence. In the depth of
-the night, while pursuing his studies, the silence was broken by the
-noise of rattling chains, which approached the room where he sat.
-Presently, a spectre entered, and beckoned to him, but the philosopher
-took no notice. The spectre agitated its chains anew, and then he arose
-and, following his ghostly guide, he was led into the court-yard of the
-house, to a certain spot, when the spectre vanished. He marked the
-place, and on the following day caused the ground to be dug up and
-searched, when beneath it they found the skeleton of a man in chains.
-The bones were publicly burned, and from that time the spirit ceased to
-haunt the mansion.
-
-A belief in ghosts was one of the most prominent of the superstitions of
-the ancient inhabitants of Northern Europe. It was customary with the
-Scandinavians, as with the Grecians, to perform certain ceremonies at
-the tombs of the dead, to propitiate the ghosts, and facilitate their
-entrance into the halls of bliss.
-
-The ghosts of the departed warriors, after they had entered their airy
-halls, were supposed to pursue pleasures similar in character to those
-which had engaged their attention on earth. They listened to the strains
-of immortal bards; followed the chase over the illimitable fields of
-heaven; visited the scenes of their former glories; and when resting
-within their tombs, they would talk of mortal men, and sing the songs of
-other worlds. Airy and unsubstantial as a wreath of mist, they often
-wandered on the surface of the earth. The ghost of a mighty hero,
-clothed in a panoply of lurid clouds, and armed with a meteor, might be
-seen brooding o'er his tomb, or attended "by a ridge of formless
-shades," it swept across former battle-fields. The men of bygone days,
-wreathed in their vapoury robes, and reposing on clouds, hovered on the
-midnight blast, which bore in its mighty cadences the echoing sounds of
-the voices of the dead; or "like the new moon seen through the gathered
-mist, when the sky pours down its flaky snow, and the world is silent
-and dark,"[34] the spirits of the maidens glided over the rugged hills,
-or roamed on the pebbly shore.
-
-The early Scandinavian traditions and historical writings, are pregnant
-with ghosts and other supernatural agents. Mr. Howitt[35] quotes from
-one of the Eddaic songs, which records the lives of a hero named Helge
-and his wife Sigrun, the following singularly interesting scene.
-
-Helge died, and the body was laid in its cairn. In the evening Sigrun's
-maid passed the cairn, and saw the ghost of Helge ride into it with a
-numerous train. Addressing the ghost, the maid said, "Is it an illusion
-that I see, or the Eve of the Mighty, that ye ride your horses and urge
-them with your spurs? Or are the heroes bound for their homes?" The
-ghost replied, "It is no illusion which thou seest, nor the Eve of the
-Mighty; though thou seest us, and we urge our horses with our spurs;
-neither are the heroes bound for their homes."
-
-The maid then went to her mistress and said, "Haste thee, Sigrun, from
-the hill of Seva, if the leader of the battle thou desirest to see. Open
-is the cairn; Helge is come; the war-scars bleed. Helge bade thee to
-still his dripping wound." Sigrun went to the cairn, and entering it,
-said to the shade of her dead husband, "Now am I as joyful of our
-meeting as Odin's ravens when, long-fasting, they scent the warm food,
-or the day-wearied when they behold the close of day. I will kiss my
-lifeless king before thou throwest off thy bloody cuirass. Thy hair, O
-Helge! is pierced through with frost, or with the dew of death is the
-hero slain. Cold are the hands of the friend of Högne. How, therefore,
-King, shall I find a cure for thee?"--"Thou only, Sigrun! on the hill of
-Seva," replied the ghost, "art the cause that Helge is here, slain by
-the dew of sorrow. Thou weepest, gold-adorned one! burning tears, maid
-of the sun-glowing south! Before thou sleepest, every tear shall fall
-bloody on the breast of the Prince, pierced through with the cold of thy
-grief. But we will drink the precious mead together, though we have lost
-gladness and lands. Yet no one sings a song of woe, though he sees a
-wound in my breast. Now are the brides closed in the cairns, and the
-princely maidens are laid beside us."
-
-Sigrun made a bed in the cairn, and said, "Here have I, Helge, prepared
-rest for thee; rest free from all trouble. Son of the Ylfinga! I will
-sleep in thy arms as formerly, when my hero lived." The ghost answered,
-"No longer will I say that thou art unfaithful on the hill of Seva.
-Since thou sleepest in the embrace of the dead in the cairn, thou fair
-daughter of Högur! And yet thou livest, offspring of kings! Time is to
-ride the red ways. Let the pale steed tramp the steeps of the air. In
-the west must we be, by the bridge Vindhjalen, ere the cock in Walhalla
-wakes the sons of victory."
-
-In the Eyrbyggja Saga (written before A.D. 1264; period when the events
-recorded occurred, A.D. 883) is an account of certain spectral
-apparitions which followed the death of a lady whose commands upon the
-death-bed had not been obeyed. This story is almost unique in character,
-and it is a singularly interesting example of the ghost-belief of
-Iceland at an early period.
-
-On the evening of the day when the corpse was being removed to a distant
-place of sepulture, an apparition of the lady was seen busily preparing
-victuals in the kitchen of the house where the bearers reposed for the
-night. On the night when the conductors of the funeral returned home, a
-spectral appearance resembling a half-moon glided around the boarded
-walls of the mansion, in a direction opposite to that of the sun, and
-continued its revolutions until the domestics retired to rest. "This
-apparition was renewed every night during the whole week, and was
-pronounced by Thorer with the wooden leg to presage pestilence and
-mortality." Shortly after, a herdsman showed signs of being persecuted
-by demons, and one morning he was found dead in bed, "and then" (to
-quote literally from Sir Walter Scott's abstract of the Saga) "commenced
-a scene of ghost-seeing unheard of in the annals of superstition. The
-first victim was Thorer, who had presaged the calamity. Going out of
-doors one evening, he was grappled by the spectre of the deceased
-shepherd as he attempted to re-enter the house. His wooden leg stood him
-in poor stead in such an encounter; he was hurled to the earth and so
-fearfully beaten that he died in consequence of the bruises. Thorer was
-no sooner dead than his ghost associated itself to that of the herdsman,
-and joined him in pursuing and assaulting the inhabitants of Froda.
-Meantime an infectious disorder spread fast amongst them, and several of
-the bondsmen died one after the other. Strange portents were seen
-within doors, the meal was displaced and mingled, and the dried fish
-flung about in a most alarming manner, without any visible agent. At
-length, while the servants were forming their evening circle around the
-fire, a spectre resembling the head of a seal-fish was seen to emerge
-out of the pavement of the room, bending its round black eyes full on
-the tapestried bed-curtains of Thorgunna (the deceased lady). Some of
-the domestics ventured to strike at the figure; but, far from giving
-way, it rather erected itself further from the floor, until Kiartan, who
-seemed to have a natural predominance over these supernatural prodigies,
-seizing a huge forge-hammer, struck the seal repeatedly on the head, and
-compelled it to disappear, forcing it down into the floor, as if he had
-driven a stake into the earth. This prodigy was found to intimate a new
-calamity. Thorodd, the master of the family, had some time before set
-forth on a voyage to bring home a cargo of dried fish; but, in crossing
-the river Enna, the skiff was lost, and he perished with the servants
-who attended him. A solemn funeral feast was held at Froda, in memory of
-the deceased, when, to the astonishment of the guests, the apparition of
-Thorodd and his followers seemed to enter the apartment dripping with
-water. Yet this vision excited less horror than might have been
-expected; for the islanders, though nominally Christians, retained,
-among other superstitions, a belief that the spectres of such drowned
-persons as had been favourably received by the goddess Rana were wont to
-show themselves at their funeral feast. They saw, therefore, with some
-composure, Thorodd and his dripping attendants plant themselves by the
-fire, from which all mortal guests retreated to make room for them. It
-was supposed this apparition would not be renewed after the conclusion
-of the festival. But so far were their hopes disappointed, that, so soon
-as the mourning guests had departed, the fires being lighted, Thorodd
-and his comrades marched in on one side, drenched as before with water;
-on the other entered Thorer, heading all those who had died in the
-pestilence, and who appeared covered with dust. Both parties seized the
-seats by the fire, while the half-frozen and terrified domestics spent
-the night without either light or warmth. The same phenomenon took place
-the next night, though the fires had been lighted in a separate house,
-and at length Kiartan was obliged to compound matters with the spectres
-by kindling a large fire for them in the principal apartment, and one
-for the family and domestics in a separate hut. This prodigy continued
-during the whole feast of Jol. Other portents also happened to appal
-this devoted family; the contagious disease again broke forth, and when
-any one fell a sacrifice to it, his spectre was sure to join the troop
-of persecutors, who had now almost full possession of the mansion of
-Froda. Thorgrima Galldrakinna, wife of Thorer, was one of these victims;
-and, in short, of thirty servants belonging to the household, eighteen
-died, and five fled for fear of the apparitions, so that only seven
-remained in the service of Kiartan."
-
-The trouble and annoyance from the spectres had now reached so serious a
-pitch that, by the advice of a maternal uncle, Kiartan instituted
-judicial measures against the spectres.
-
-"A tribunal being then constituted, with the usual legal solemnities, a
-charge was preferred by Kiartan against Thorer with the wooden leg, by
-Thordo Kausa against Thorodd, and by others chosen as accusers against
-the individual spectres present, accusing them of molesting the mansion,
-and introducing death and disease among its inhabitants. All the solemn
-rites of judicial procedure were observed on this singular occasion;
-evidence was adduced, charges given, and the cause formally decided. It
-does not appear that the ghosts put themselves on their defence, so that
-sentence of ejectment was pronounced against them individually in due
-and legal form. When Thorer heard the judgment, he arose, and saying,
-'I have sat while it was lawful for me to do so,' left the apartment by
-the door opposite to that at which the judicial assembly was
-constituted. Each of the spectres, as they heard their individual
-sentence, left the place, saying something which indicated their
-unwillingness to depart, until Thorodd himself was solemnly appointed to
-depart. 'We have here no longer,' said he, 'a peaceful dwelling,
-therefore will we remove.' Kiartan then entered the hall with his
-followers, and the priest, with holy water, and celebration of a solemn
-mass, completed the conquest over the goblins, which had been commenced
-by the power and authority of the Icelandic law."
-
-The spectral phenomena of the ancient Swedish folk-lore differs in no
-respect from the current histories of recent date. An interesting
-example of this is found in the beautiful ballad of Sir Ulf and Lady
-Sölfverlind.
-
-Sir Ulf was a nobleman who had married a wife from a foreign country.
-After they had lived together eight years, and had had a family of three
-children, the Lady Sölfverlind died. In a short time he married again,
-and by his second wife, the Lady Stineborg, he had also several
-children. This lady, however, proved a cruel step-mother; for, as the
-ballad reads:--
-
-    "Lady Stineborg's children went out to play,
-    Lady Sölfverlind's children sate weeping all day.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    The youngest child it wept so loud,
-    That it woke its mother beneath the sod.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    Lady Sölfverlind spoke to the angel-band:
-    'Is it granted to visit the earthly land?'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'It is granted from heaven to earth to go,
-    But thou must return ere the first cock crow.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    She came to the door, she tirled at the pin;
-    'Rise up, my children, and let me in.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'On sticks and stones why lie you thus?'
-    'Nothing besides is given to us.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Why look ye, my children, so grim and so grey?'
-    'We have not been washed since thou went away.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Rise up, Lady Stineborg, hearken to me,
-    For I have a few words to speak unto thee!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both upland and low,
-    Yet now my children must supperless go.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both oxen and kine,
-    Yet now they go barefoot, these children of mine.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left soft down pillows, full many a one,
-    Now hard sticks and stones are the bed they lie on!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Hadst thou to my children shown tenderness sweet,
-    God the Father in heaven had found thee a seat!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Have thy children in me a hard step-mother known?
-    Henceforth will I love them as well as my own!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    There ne'er was a lovelier sight in the sky,
-    Than Sölfverlind taking her children on high.
-                This know we of Ulf."[36]
-
-The ghost-belief of Hindostan is one of the most important of the
-popular superstitions of that country. It differs from that of more
-westerly countries in the degree of reality with which the natives have
-invested it; for while the former look upon the interference of the
-spirits of the dead in the events of ordinary life as a circumstance of
-rare occurrence, and regard manifestations of this nature with an awe
-befitting their solemnity and supernatural character, the latter lives
-in an atmosphere of spectral beings, which are the spirits of those who
-have lived a wicked life on earth, and retain their malignant
-disposition unabated after death, if indeed it is not increased in
-intensity by the devil-like nature they assume, and exercise their evil
-powers in all the affairs of life, haunting the localities which they
-previously inhabited, and terrifying and tormenting alike friend and
-foe. Neither are their terrors confined to mere occasional apparition,
-and to the fear excited by this, but to the power which they possess of
-interference by physical force; for they belabour with blows, or
-grievously affect with bodily ailments, the unhappy individuals whom
-they haunt, and often subject to inexpressible tortures those who have
-had the ill-hap to offend them. Hence the Hindoo dreads a ghost not so
-much on account of its supernatural character, abstractedly considered,
-as for the physical evil it may inflict upon him.
-
-The ghosts of the wicked, and of the unmarried (as it is thought in some
-provinces), are alone permitted to wander on earth, and they have a
-partiality, like our own ghosts, for frequenting solitary places, woods,
-caverns, and ruins, from which they issue to exercise their baleful
-powers on man.
-
-Sometimes a ghost will haunt a certain house, or a plot of ground, and
-become so obstreperous, that the occupier of the house is obliged to
-desert it, and the proprietor of the land to allow it to become waste.
-But it has happened that if the spirit was that of an old proprietor, a
-deed executed in its name has appeased it, and it has no more troubled
-the place.
-
-These spirits are called, in the Deccan, _Vîrikas_, and in the more
-southerly parts of India, _Paisâchi_. It is customary to erect small
-shrines to them, formed of a pile of stones, on the top of which is a
-sheltered cavity, containing an image, or a rough, shapeless stone, to
-which offerings of cloth, rice, &c., are presented from time to time.
-This propitiatory sacrifice is, in general, found to be an efficient
-method of obtaining immunity from the malignant pranks of the ghosts;
-but if it be neglected, they will visit the unfortunate sinner with
-torments and misfortune, or, appearing to him by night, intimate the
-miseries hanging over his head, unless he quickly amends himself, and
-offers up the necessary gifts.
-
-Dr. Buchanan relates a story of the apparition of a _Paisâchi_ which
-occurred during his journey in Mysore. His cook had been taken ill, and
-died; orders had been given to secure his effects for the benefit of his
-wife and children, "but on inspection, after his death, no money could
-be found. Whether he had been plundered as soon as he became insensible,
-and that a guilty conscience occasioned fears among his companions, or
-whether the sudden manner of his death occasioned suspicions, I cannot
-say; but it was immediately believed that he would become a _Paisâchi_,
-and all my people were filled with terror. The butler imagined that the
-_Paisâchi_ appeared to him at night with a black silk handkerchief tied
-round its head, and gave him instructions to take all the effects of the
-deceased to his family; upon this, the latter, being a man of courage,
-put his shoes on the right side of the door, which he considered to be a
-sure preventive against such intruders. Next night a cattle-driver,
-lying in all the agonies of nocturnal terror, saw the appearance of a
-dog enter, and smell round the place where the man had died; when, to
-his utter dismay, the spectre gradually grew larger and larger, and at
-length, having assumed the form of the cook, vanished with a shriek. The
-poor man had not the courage to use the slippers, but lay till morning
-in a kind of stupor. After this, even the minds of the _sepoys_ were
-appalled, and when I happened to be awake I heard the sentries, by way
-of keeping up their courage, singing with a tremulous voice."
-
-There is a class of men called _Cani_, or _Shaycana_, who are supposed
-to have the power of ejecting and frightening away troublesome spirits
-by the performance of certain mystic ceremonies. It is requisite, first,
-to ascertain whether the offending ghost is that of a stranger, or if it
-belong to any deceased member of the family; for it would seem that much
-more powerful incantations are required to get rid of a family ghost,
-which seems to have the opinion that it has a right to haunt its
-relations in the flesh, than to eject the ghost of a stranger. The
-latter, according to Dr. Buchanan, may be got rid of for a fanam, or
-about ninepence sterling; the former requires expensive sacrifices and
-many prayers, therefore the fee is much larger.
-
-The Chinese have a great dread of ghosts, particularly of the ghosts of
-those who have come to an untimely end. They suspend in their houses,
-for the purpose of preventing the entrance of these spirits, and of
-defending themselves from their influence, a cruciform piece of iron, to
-which is attached pieces of perforated money, the coinage of emperors
-who have been deified, and who are conceived to exercise a protective
-power over their votaries.
-
-The superstitions of the modern Egyptians and of the Arabs are rich in
-ghosts.
-
-The term _éfreet_ is applied to the ghosts of dead persons, as well as
-to evil genii, by the Egyptians; and the following story, related by Mr.
-Lane, will illustrate the nature of this superstition as it is
-entertained by that people.
-
-"I had once a humorous cook, who was somewhat addicted to the
-intoxicating hhasheesh: soon after he had entered my service, I heard
-him, one evening, muttering and exclaiming on the stairs, as if in
-surprise at some event; and then politely saying, "But why are you
-sitting here in the draught? Do me the favour to come up into the
-kitchen, and amuse me with your conversation a little." The civil
-address not being answered, was repeated and varied several times, till
-I called out to the man, and asked him to whom he was speaking. "The
-éfreet of a Turkish soldier," he replied, "is sitting on the stairs,
-smoking his pipe, and refuses to move; he came up from the well below:
-pray step and see him." On my going to the stairs, and telling the
-servant that I could see nothing, he only remarked that it was because I
-had a clear conscience. He was told afterwards that the house had long
-been haunted; but asserted that he had not been previously informed of
-the supposed cause; which was the fact of a Turkish soldier having been
-murdered there. My cook professed to see this éfreet frequently
-after."[37]
-
-The Arabs entertain a considerable degree of fear and respect for
-ghosts.
-
-Mr. Bayle St. John states that when travelling through the Libyan
-desert, in 1847, he saw a burial-place of the Bedouin Arabs, in the
-centre of which were confusedly scattered "camel-howdahs"
-(_tachterwans_), stirrups, household utensils, small ploughs, &c.,
-which had been left there by the Arabs, when commencing a journey, under
-the care of the ghost of a defunct sheikh, who had been interred
-there.[38]
-
-Some of the aboriginal tribes of South America believe in the occasional
-apparition of the souls of the dead.
-
-Soon after the Roman Catholic mission was established at Bahia, an
-eclipse of the moon occurred; the savages, fully armed, rushed in terror
-to the mission, and when the priest inquired the cause of their alarm,
-they responded that the moon was the abode of the souls of the dead, and
-that on that night they had collected there in such numbers that they
-darkened its surface: this was a sure sign of evil.
-
-Such is a brief sketch of the ghost-belief of several nations, ancient
-and modern.
-
-This belief, in its essential characteristics, was the same in the
-remote periods of antiquity as in more recent times; and a similar
-analogy exists between the modifications of it which are now entertained
-in different and widely separated countries.
-
-The variations which it is found to possess are dependent upon those
-peculiarities of habit, religion, and social life which characterize
-each nation. This fact gives an important clue by which we may unravel
-the actual nature of the phenomena which are embodied in the belief. But
-previously to entering upon this task it is requisite to point out a
-remote consequence of mythological and legendary lore which exercises a
-highly important influence on the minds of most if not all persons at
-the present time.
-
-The numerous myths which were retained, the implicit faith reposed in
-them, and the great extent to which the practice of the occult sciences
-was carried in the Middle Ages, fostered ideas respecting the influence
-which supernatural beings exercised in the ordinary affairs of life,
-which rivalled in extent and variety those entertained before the
-Christian era; but they received perhaps a more gloomy character from
-the doctrine of the agency of devils.
-
-The prevalence of these superstitions throws a wild and weird-like
-shadow over the history of those periods, and one of the chief results
-was that the records of local and general events became pregnant with
-mysterious occurrences and supernatural interpositions; and a mass of
-legends, teeming with remnants of ancient myths, more or less modified,
-giants, demons, witches, wizards, ghosts, portents, &c., have been
-perpetuated to modern times, and have formed an inexhaustible mine to
-the novelist and romance-writer.
-
-There are few localities in England which do not possess legends or
-tradition of this nature; and the standard nursery and children's tales
-are full of supernatural personages and occurrences in which are set
-aside all the known laws of matter and force, and time and space are
-alike annihilated. Many of these tales are of great interest, for in
-them we find degenerated forms of some of the most ancient traditions
-and myths of our own and other races.
-
-The adventures of _Jack the Giant-Killer_, the most celebrated of all
-celebrated nursery heroes, are for the most part derived from the
-fabulous era of our own country, and from Scandinavian mythology; and
-the whole tale is a degraded and vitiated tradition in which the deeds
-of Corineus, a celebrated personage in the mythical history of Britain,
-and Prince Arthur; the adventures of Thor, the god of thunder, and other
-Scandinavian deities, are jumbled together in strange confusion.
-
-Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his British History[39] states that the early
-inhabitants of this island were giants. Brutus, a grandson of Ascanius,
-the companion of Æneas in his flight from Troy, and Corineus, also of
-Trojan descent, guided by a dream, discovered Britain, and delighted
-with "the pleasant situation of the place, the plenty of rivers
-abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods," they
-became desirous of fixing their habitation in so desirable a country,
-and landing, drove the giants into the fastnesses of the mountains, and
-divided the country.
-
-To Corineus was apportioned that part of the island which we call
-Cornwall, and it is recorded that he had selected this portion of the
-island for his share, because "it was a diversion to him to encounter
-the said giants, which were in greater numbers there than in all the
-other provinces that fell to the share of his companions."
-
-Corineus is described as being "an ardent man in matters of council, and
-of great courage and boldness; who in an encounter with any person, even
-of gigantic stature, would immediately overthrow him as if he were a
-child."
-
-In the same fabulous history (B. X, ch. 3) it is stated, that a giant
-who had invaded our shores, and taken refuge at the top of St. Michael's
-Mount, was attacked by King Arthur in the night and killed; the country
-being thus freed "from a most destructive and voracious monster."
-
-Some of Jack's principal adventures are derived from the ancient Eddas
-and Sagas of Scandinavia.
-
-The incident which represents Jack as having overheard a giant, upon
-whose hospitality he had intruded, muttering--
-
-    "Though you lodge with me this night,
-    You shall not see the morning light;
-    My club shall dash your brains out quite;"
-
-and in which he had evaded the catastrophe by placing a log of wood in
-the bed, he lying quietly in a corner, while the giant furiously beat
-with his club the inanimate object, thinking to dash him to pieces; and
-the delightfully cool response of Jack to the wonder-struck giant when
-he beheld him safe and sound in the morning, and inquired if he had not
-been disturbed in the night,--"No, nothing worth mentioning, I believe a
-rat struck me with his tail two or three times:"--this incident is a
-modification of an adventure which occurred to Thor on his journey to
-the land of giants, and it is found in some form or other in the
-folk-lore of every nation in the north of Europe.
-
-Thor, while journeying to the land of giants, met with one of that race
-named Skrymir. They formed a companionship, and the whole of the
-provisions were placed in the giant's wallet. At night, when they
-stopped to rest, Skrymir at once lay down and fell asleep, previously
-handing the wallet to Thor in order that he might refresh himself. Thor
-was unable to open it, and wroth with the giant for his apparent
-insensibility and the mode in which he had tied the knots, he seized his
-mighty hammer and flung it at the giant's head. Skrymir awaking, asked
-whether a leaf had fallen on his head, and then he fell asleep again.
-Thor again struck him with his hammer, and it apparently sank deep into
-his skull; and the giant again awoke, and asked, "Did an acorn fall on
-my head? How fares it with thee, Thor?" Thor, incensed beyond measure,
-waited until the giant again slept, and then exerting all his power,
-dashed his hammer at the head of the sleeping monster, into which it
-sank up to the handle. Skrymir, rising up, rubbed his cheek and said,
-"Are there any birds perched on this tree? Methought, when I awoke, some
-moss from the branches fell on my head."
-
-Skrymir, distrusting Thor, had before he slept interposed a huge rock
-betwixt himself and the god, and upon this Thor had unwittingly
-exercised his strength.
-
-The adventure in which Jack is represented as outwitting a giant in
-eating, by placing his food in a large leathern receptacle beneath his
-vesture, and then ripping it up, and defying the giant to do the same,
-whereupon the giant seizes a knife, plunges it into his breast and
-kills himself, is contained also in stories which are prevalent among
-the Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Servians, and Persians.
-
-The Swedish version is as follows:--"In the evening, when the giant and
-his boy were about to sup, the crone placed a large dish of porridge
-before them. "That would be excellent," said the boy, "if we were to try
-which could eat the most, father or I." The giant was ready for the
-trial, and they began to eat with all their might. But the boy was
-crafty: he had tied his wallet before his chest, and for every spoonful
-that entered his mouth, he let two fall into the wallet. When the giant
-had despatched seven bowls of porridge, he had taken his fill, and sat
-puffing and blowing, and unable to swallow another spoonful; but the boy
-continued with just as much good-will as when he began. The giant asked
-him how it was, that he who was so little could eat so much. "Father, I
-will soon show you: when I have eaten as much as I can contain, I slit
-up my stomach, and then I can take in as much again." Saying these
-words, he took a knife and ripped up the wallet, so that the porridge
-ran out. The giant thought this a capital plan, and that he would do the
-like. But when he stuck the knife in his stomach, the blood began to
-flow, and the end of the matter was that it proved his death."[40]
-
-The sword of sharpness, and the cloak which rendered the wearer
-invisible, and by the aid of which Jack won so many important victories,
-are two of the principal supernatural elements in the _Nibelungenlied_.
-In this ancient legend, which contains the same tragical story as the
-still more ancient Scandinavian poem, the _Völundar-Kvida_, the sword
-"Balmurg" is described:--
-
-                    "a broad and mighty blade,
-    With such keen-cutting edges, that straight its way it made,
-    Where'er it smote on helmet:"
-
-and the cloud-cloak which Siegfried took from the dwarf Albric, is
-pourtrayed as--
-
-    "A vesture that hight cloud-cloak, marvellous to tell,
-    Whoever has it on him, may keep him safe and well
-    From cuts and stabs of foemen; him none can hear or see,
-    As soon as he is in it, but see and hear can he
-    Whate'er he will around him, and thus must needs prevail;
-    He grows besides far stronger; so goes the wondrous tale."[41]
-
-The story of _Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper_, is of great antiquity,
-and versions of it are found in many countries.
-
-Ælian, who lived about A.D. 225, relates that, as Rhodope, a celebrated
-Greek courtezan, who had been carried into Egypt, was bathing one day,
-an eagle carried off one of her slippers, and as it flew over Memphis,
-where king Psammetichus was at that time sitting in tribunal, it let
-fall the sandal into his bosom. Astonished at the occurrence, and at the
-smallness of the sandal, he caused inquiries to be made for its owner,
-whom, when he had discovered, he married.
-
-Old versions of this story are found in Norway, Germany, Sweden,
-Denmark, France, Italy, Wallachia, Servia, Russia, Poland, and
-Wales.[42]
-
-In _Jack and the Bean-stalk_, the bean is evidently a version of the ash
-Ygdrasil of the Edda, reaching from hell to heaven; and the golden hen,
-harp, &c., are familiar features in northern stories.
-
-_Puss in Boots_, the _Seven-league Boots_, &c., have their prototypes in
-Scandinavian folk-lore; and the two last-mentioned tales, as well as
-others, are probably of considerable antiquity.
-
-Tales derived from these sources and composed of such elements, and
-fables in which beasts, birds, and fishes are represented as speaking
-and reasoning in a manner that puts man to the blush, are among the
-earliest things engrafted in the infant mind; and ever now
-
-                  "By night
-    The village-matron round the blazing hearth,
-    Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,
-    Breathing astonishment--of witching rhymes,
-    Of evil spirits: of the death-bed call
-    Of him who robb'd the widow, and devoured
-    The orphan's portion: of unquiet souls
-    Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt
-    Of deeds in life concealed; of shapes that walk
-    At dead of night, and clank their chains and wave
-    The torch of hell around the murderer's bed.
-    At every solemn pause the crowd recoil,
-    Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd
-    With shiv'ring sighs; till eager for the event,
-    Around the beldam all erect they hang,
-    Each trembling heart with grateful terror quell'd."
-
-Ideas of mysterious and supernatural powers, vague, undefined, and
-frightful, are thus instilled into the child, and influence it unchecked
-and uncontrolled by the Scriptural doctrines of the invisible which are
-taught to it. At first the two trains of thought derived from these
-antithetical sources go on separately and distinctly; the more frightful
-and wonderful events of legendary lore and fable having a much greater
-influence, and forming a deeper impression on the mind of the child,
-whose reasoning powers are still in abeyance to the emotions, than the
-Scriptural doctrines of the supernatural. As it advances in years these
-trains of thought insensibly blend; the more rampant absurdities of the
-supernatural framework of legendary and ghost-lore are discarded; but
-the less obvious and more insidious portions remain to a greater or
-less extent, and they are so graven in the mind, that they become part
-and parcel of it, and in whatever manner they may be subsequently
-modified in form, it is probable that they are never eradicated, but
-form a medium which gives a false and deceptive gloss to all our ideas
-upon those matters which are not immediately within the ken of reason,
-or which are more clearly attributable to other agency than the forces
-of the material word--such matters, for example, as are contained in
-Holy Writ.
-
-Hence our ideas of the supernatural are derived from two sources--from
-legendary lore and from Scripture; and this results, that although in
-after-life the more glaring errors and absurdities of the former are
-removed, those only being retained which are thought to be compatible
-with Holy Writ, yet the idea of the supernatural thus obtained, foreign
-from revelation, is retained in a vague and undefined form, and its
-origin and sources being lost sight of, it is regarded as an innate
-consciousness of the existence of supernatural beings, and prompts to
-the ready reception and belief of mysterious and not readily explicable
-phenomena being the result of supernatural agency.
-
-That proclivity to the belief in supernatural interpositions, that vague
-notion of spiritual beings, that so-called innate consciousness of the
-existence of the supernatural, which most persons possess more or less
-of, and which is totally inconsistent with the clear and perfect
-doctrine of the invisible taught in the Gospel, is, we believe, derived
-solely from the infant mind and earlier periods of youth being poisoned
-by the supernatural events and phenomena detailed in fabulous,
-legendary, and ghost-lore.[43]
-
-This substratum of superstition is the prime cause of the retention of
-those figments of degenerated and christianized mythology which are yet
-found among us, and for the persistence of the most generally received
-of these figments--_ghosts_. It is also a highly important element in
-the formation of that state of the mind which is from time to time
-manifested in singular and wide-spreading delusions respecting the
-communication of the spirit-world with man, and of which we have
-examples before us at the present time in the prevalent follies of
-"spirit-rapping" and "table-talking."
-
-The belief in ghosts does not now possess those glaring features which
-were attached to it at the commencement of the present century, hence it
-is less obtrusive; but it is very far from being extinguished, as some
-would teach, and its "etiology" is of interest, because it leads to the
-elucidation of the principal causes and sources of the fallacies to
-which the senses of man are subject, and by which he has been led in
-the remotest periods of antiquity, as well as at the present time, to
-frame those mighty trammels of superstition from which the mind in vain
-strives to disentangle itself completely.
-
-The doctrine that the spirits of the dead return to visit the scenes
-which were dear to them during the body's existence, is in itself
-awfully solemn and sublime. Man, prone to believe in supernatural
-interpositions (from causes already explained), and trusting altogether
-to the evidence of his senses, for many ages received this doctrine
-unquestioned; and aided by a fertile imagination, he clothed it with
-attributes which, although absurd in the main, yet as appealing to some
-of the deepest and warmest affections and passions of our nature, cannot
-even now be contemplated without exciting sensations of awe, if not
-fear.
-
-The thought that the spirits of those who, during life, were bound
-to us by the closest ties of affection, are ever near, scrutinizing
-our actions and thoughts, and prompting us ever and anon to that
-course which would most tend to our profit here and our joy
-hereafter[44]--shielding us, like guardian angels, from the wiles
-of those wandering spirits who, like the "Wicked One" that came
-softly up to Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and
-"whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he
-verily thought had proceeded from his own mind,"[45] seek to tempt
-us to destruction,--such a thought thrills through the soul of every
-one, and fills it with strange and undefined emotions of blended joy
-and fear.
-
-Few can free themselves altogether from the emotion of terror which is
-almost necessarily connected with scenes polluted by murder, or by other
-outbreaks of man's foulest passions. This feeling acting on the minds
-of the superstitious and ignorant, has led them to people with spectres
-all those places which have obtained notoriety from being the scene of
-some terrible ebullition of human frailty and wickedness.
-
-Thus, the glen where murder had been committed; the pond in which the
-mother had immersed her new-born infant; the hoary ruin pregnant with
-horrid legends of the past; the rocks over which the inebriated drunkard
-fell; the four cross roads where the suicide was impaled; the dwelling
-of the miser, or of him who did unjustly to the orphan; and the
-willow-banks of the still-flowing river into which the love-lorn maiden
-had cast herself,--each had its spectre, and at the midnight hour the
-ghost of the murdered bared to the moon the mementos of its foul and
-most unnatural end; the spectre of the murderer, writhing in agony,
-rattled its gibbet-chains; the suffocating sobs of the drowning infant
-were borne on the fitful breeze; hideous spectres hovered o'er the
-deserted ruin; the ghost of the miser guarded its quondam treasures; the
-cruel guardian and the suicide shrieked forth the agonies of the damned;
-and the phantom of the deceived maiden gliding on the banks of her
-watery grave, mingled its plaintive wails with each sough of the
-midnight wind.
-
-But, alas! this prolific source of terror and romance must be consigned
-to the delusions of the past; and the churchyard--erst pregnant with
-"thin-sheeted phantoms"--is now also shorn of its gloomy horrors, and
-regarded alone as the last quiet resting-place of man on earth.
-
-Even when glimpses of the spirit-world are vouchsafed to those who still
-firmly believe in occasional visitations from its inhabitants, it would
-seem that the fashion of their appearance has become more in accordance
-with the quiet well-regulated ideas of the age. The major part of those
-terrible attributes of the nether world, that of old were delighted in,
-are no longer exhibited, and they are numbered with the things that have
-been. The form which appertained to Satan himself--the cloven foot, the
-forked tail, the hirsute frame, and the horned head--must also vanish
-before the march of civilisation; hence Mephistopheles, in the "Faust"
-of Goëthe, is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Refinement too, which smoothens all
-      O'er which it in the world has pass'd,
-    Has been extended in its call,
-      And reached the devil, too, at last.
-    That northern phantom found no more can be,
-    Horns, tail, and claws, we now no longer see,
-      As for the foot--I cannot spare it,
-      But were I openly to wear it,
-      It might do greater harm than good
-      To me among the multitude.
-    And so like many a youth beside,
-      Who bravely to the eye appears,
-    Yet something still contrives to hide,
-      I've worn false calves for many years!"
-
-The phenomena upon which the belief of the occasional manifestation of
-disembodied spirits to man is founded, may be accounted for without
-having recourse to the doctrine of supernatural interposition.
-
-Our senses and our reasoning powers are apt to err. We may deceive
-ourselves, and are liable to be deceived by an erroneous appreciation of
-the sensations which we receive from the objects surrounding
-us--_illusions_--but of the nature of which we may readily convince
-ourselves.
-
-Illusions of the _sight_ may arise either from an error of judgment, or
-from a disordered state of the eye.
-
-Of those illusions arising from an error of judgment, perhaps none bear
-directly upon our subject. Examples of this kind of illusion are the
-broken appearance of a stick partially immersed in water; the apparent
-movement of trees, houses, &c., past a train in motion, or the banks of
-a river past a steamboat.
-
-Illusions arising from a disordered condition of the eye, prompting the
-imagination, are a prolific source of ghost-seeing.
-
-In the obscurity of the evening, or during the darkness of the night
-(particularly on those nights which are cloudy, and the darkness seems
-to rest on the ground), the difficulty with which we distinguish any
-object to which the attention is directed, is liable to induce a
-disordered state of the eye, the effects of which are very startling.
-
-"The imperfect view which we obtain of such objects forces us to fix the
-eye more steadily upon them; but the more exertion we make to ascertain
-what they are, the greater difficulties do we encounter to accomplish
-our object. The eye is actually thrown into a state of the most painful
-agitation, the object will swell and contract, and partly disappear, and
-it will again become visible when the eye has recovered from the
-delirium into which it has been thrown."[46]
-
-This illusion is increased by a disturbed condition of the pupil of the
-eye.
-
-The pupil is surrounded by a muscle called the _iris_, by the
-contraction and dilatation of which the size of the opening is increased
-or diminished, and a greater or less amount of light admitted to the
-eye. On a dark night, or during the twilight, the pupil is dilated to
-its utmost extent, so that every available ray of light may enter. In
-this condition the eye is not able to accommodate itself to near
-objects, and they become more indistinct; shadowy, and confused.
-
-Under these circumstances, an object to which the attention is strongly
-attracted, may appear to assume strange variations in form,--now
-increasing, now diminishing in size, now approaching nearer, now going
-further off, or anon disappearing altogether; and a bush, a guide-post,
-a stoop, &c., will seem as though it assumed the most startling changes
-in size and appearance. Add the effects of the imagination, and we shall
-at once perceive a source of the various goblins, boggards, and other
-strange sights which have been supposed to haunt many of our byeways and
-deserted places.
-
-To illustrate this form of illusion: a man with whom we were acquainted
-tells the following tale:--When young, he, one evening, had a quarrel
-with his mother about some trifling affair, and in defiance of her grief
-and supplications he left home late at night, intending to enter the
-army. It was very dark and stormy, and as he proceeded along a bye-path,
-suddenly a tall object arrested his attention; startled, he stood still,
-when, to his utter horror and astonishment, the object increased in
-size, and seemed as though about to pounce upon him; it then vanished,
-and anon appeared again. Terrified beyond measure, and conceiving that
-Satan had waylaid him for forsaking his mother, the poor man fell on
-his knees, and exclaimed: "O good Lord Devil, do not take me, and I'll
-go back to my mother, and be a good lad!" It is unnecessary to dwell
-upon the goggle eyes burning with flames which he imagined Satan to
-possess; suffice it that he remained before the supposed devil some
-time, overcome with terror, when a blink of the rising moon showed that
-he was laid at the foot of the stump of a tree. Heartily ashamed of his
-fear, he rose up, slunk back home, and made peace with his mother.[47]
-
-This will suffice as an example of the most degraded form of ghost-life
-with which our highways and byeways have been peopled by the
-superstitious and illiterate,--illusions which have arisen from the
-effects of a disturbed condition of the visual organ on an excited
-imagination. Burns humorously describes this variety of ghost in his
-"Address to the Deil:"
-
-    "Ae dreary, windy, winter night,
-    The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light,
-    Wi' you, mysel, I gat a fright,
-              Ayont the lough:
-    Ye like a rash-bush stood in sight
-              Wi' waving sugh.
-
-    "The cudgel in my nieve did shake,
-    Each bristled hair stood like a stake,
-    When wi' an eldricht stour, quaick--quaick--
-              Amang the springs,
-    Awa ye squatter'd like a drake,
-              On whistling wings."
-
-Another form of illusion is induced by objects seen indistinctly when
-the mind is disturbed and pre-occupied by some powerful and painful
-emotion.
-
-"A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening twilight of a
-stormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching over a dying child.
-The clouds were thick, the rain beginning to fall; darkness was
-increasing; the wind was moaning mournfully through the trees. The
-lady's heart almost failed her as she saw that she had a mile to walk
-through the woods in the gathering gloom. But the reflection of the
-situation of her friend forbade her turning back. Excited and trembling,
-she called to her aid a nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She had
-not proceeded far, when she beheld in the path before her the movement
-of some very indistinct object. It appeared to keep a little distance in
-advance of her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see what it
-was, it seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather
-unpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly discernable
-before her, and it appeared mysteriously to float along at a regular
-distance without any effort at motion. Notwithstanding the lady's good
-sense and unusual resolution, a cold chill began to come over her; she
-made every effort to resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing
-nearer the mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the
-features of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in its shroud. She
-gazed earnestly, and then it remained distinct and clear before her
-eyes. She considered it a monition that her friend's child was dead, and
-that she must hasten on to her aid; but there was the apparition
-directly in her path; she must pass it. Taking up a little stick, she
-forced herself along to the object, and behold, some little animal
-scampered away. It was this that her excited imagination had transformed
-into the corpse of an infant in its winding-sheet."[48]
-
-Sir Walter Scott relates an interesting case of illusion occasioned by
-an accidental arrangement of some articles of clothing:--
-
-"Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had filled,
-while living, a great station in the eye of the public, a literary
-friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged, during
-the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of the
-publications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of the
-distinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had enjoyed
-the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he was deeply
-interested in the publication, which contained some particulars relating
-to himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the apartment who
-was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into an
-entrance-hall rather fantastically fitted up with articles of armour,
-skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his book,
-and passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning to
-shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw, right before him, and in
-a standing position, the exact representation of his departed friend,
-whose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He
-stopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with
-which fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of
-dress and posture of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the
-delusion, he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary
-accuracy of the resemblance, and stepped onwards towards the figure,
-which resolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of
-which it was composed. These were merely a screen, occupied by
-great-coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles as usually are
-found in a country entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot
-from which he had seen the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his
-power, to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this
-was beyond his capacity; and the person who had witnessed the
-apparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the means of
-raising it, had only to return, and tell the young friend he had left,
-under what a striking hallucination he had for a moment laboured."[49]
-
-The liability to illusion or hallucination in that transitional state of
-the mind when it reverts to surrounding objects, after it has been
-pre-occupied with some absorbing and intense thought, is very strikingly
-shown in the above case. It is very similar to that condition of the
-mind which obtains between sleeping and waking, when it is well known
-that our dreams are most vivid and brilliant.
-
-Dr. Ferriar relates the following interesting case of illusion
-occasioned by a ray of moonlight acting upon the mind of an individual
-just awaking from a horrid dream.
-
-"A gentleman was benighted while travelling alone in a remote part of
-the highlands of Scotland, and was compelled to ask shelter for the
-night at a small lonely hut. When he was conducted to his bedroom, the
-landlady observed with mysterious reluctance, that he would find the
-window very insecure. On examination, part of the wall appeared to have
-been broken down to enlarge the opening. After some inquiry, he was
-told, that a pedlar, who had lodged in the room a short time before, had
-committed suicide, and was found hanging behind the door in the morning.
-
-"According to one of the superstitions of the country, it was deemed
-improper to remove the body through the door of the house; and to convey
-it through the window was impossible without removing part of the wall.
-Some hints were dropped that the room had been subsequently haunted by
-the poor man's spirit.
-
-"My friend laid his arms, properly prepared against intrusion of any
-kind, by the bedside, and retired to rest, not without some degree of
-apprehension. He was visited in a dream by a frightful apparition, and
-awaking in agony, found himself sitting up in bed with a pistol grasped
-in his right hand. On casting a fearful glance round the room, he
-discovered, by the moonlight, a corpse dressed in a shroud, leaned
-against the wall close by the window. With much difficulty he summoned
-up resolution to approach the dismal object, the features of which, and
-the minutest parts of the funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly. He
-passed one hand over it, felt nothing, and staggered back to the bed.
-After a long interval, and much reasoning with himself, he renewed his
-investigation, and at length discovered that the object of his terrors
-was produced by the moonbeams forming a long bright image through the
-broken window, on which his fancy, impressed by his dream, had produced
-with mischievous accuracy, the lineaments of a body prepared for
-interment."
-
-There are some illusions which arise from certain of the laws of action
-of impressions on the _retina_--that tissue of the eye in which the
-changes necessary to the excitation of the sensation of light by
-luminous rays are induced.
-
-A sensation excited in the retina is not momentary, or during the
-continuance of the exciting cause alone, but it persists some seconds
-after that has been withdrawn. Thus if the end of a burning stick be
-rapidly moved in a circle before the eyes, it gives rise to the
-sensation of an uninterrupted circle of light; the sensation excited on
-each part of the retina enduring for a certain period after the luminous
-point has passed.
-
-The following instance is an example of an illusion, having relation to
-our subject, from this cause.
-
-A gentleman had been earnestly regarding a small and very beautiful
-painting of the Virgin and Child. On turning round from the
-contemplation of it, he was surprised at finding a woman of the full
-size, with an infant in her arms, standing before him. On examining the
-figures more closely he, however, found that the woman wanted the lower
-fourth of the body, and this at once led to a correct appreciation of
-the nature of the phantom. The painting he had been viewing was a
-three-parts length, and it was the persistence of the image upon the
-retina for a short period after he had turned from it, which had given
-rise to the phantom.
-
-A species of divination is made use of in India which has its origin in
-an illusion of this nature, and of which the following is an interesting
-example:--
-
-A lady who was about to undertake a long journey, was persuaded by a
-Moonshee to walk on the verandah and consult her fate.
-
-"It was a clear calm night, the moon was full, and not the faintest
-speck in the sky disturbed her reign. The Ganges was like a flood of
-silver light, hastening on in charmed silence; while on the green smooth
-sward on which they walked a tall shrub here and there stood erect and
-motionless. The young lady, whose impressions were probably deepened by
-the mystical words of the Moonshee, felt a kind of awe stealing over
-her; she looked round upon the accustomed scene as if in some new and
-strange world; and when the old man motioned her to stop, as they
-reached an open space on the sward, she obeyed with an indescribable
-thrill.
-
-"'Look there,' said he, pointing to her shadow, which fell tall and dark
-upon the grass. 'Do you see it?'
-
-"'Yes,' said she faintly, yet beginning to be ashamed. 'How sharply
-defined are its edges! It looks like something you could touch!'
-
-"'But look longer, look better, look steadfastly. Is it still definite?'
-
-"'A kind of halo begins to gather round it: my eyes dazzle.'
-
-"'Then raise them to the heavens; fix them on yonder blue sky. What do
-you see?'
-
-"'I see it still; but it is as white as mist, and of a gigantic size.'
-
-"'Has it a head?' asked the Moonshee in an anxious whisper.
-
-"'Yes, it is complete in all its parts; but now it
-melts--floats--disappears.'
-
-"'Thank God!' said the old man: 'your journey shall be prosperous, such
-is the will of Heaven.'"[50]
-
-When a steady gaze is maintained upon an object until the retina is
-exhausted, which is shown by the imperfect vision, or "dazzling," and
-the eyes are then suddenly directed away from it to an uniformly
-coloured surface, an image of the object, from the persistence of the
-impression, as already stated, will still remain for a short period upon
-the retina; but another phenomenon is also observed, for the exhausted
-condition of the retina renders it incapable of responding, during its
-continuation, to the impression of the original colour of the object,
-and the spectrum appears of a different colour. To this spectral colour
-the term _complementary_ or _accidental_ is applied; and if the colour
-of the object be red, the complementary colour will be green; if yellow,
-deep purple; if black, white, &c., and _vice versâ_. Thus then the
-spectral apparition witnessed in the above relation receives a ready
-and intelligible explanation.
-
-The sense of _hearing_ is also subject to illusions: for example, when a
-timid person mistakes the rustling of leaves in a forest for the voices
-of robbers; or the soughing of the wind among the trees, in some place
-of evil repute, for the moaning of a wandering and unhappy spirit.
-
-The varied and undefined noises often produced by the wind when sweeping
-over an irregular surface, among rocks and trees, on the surface of
-water, in forests, or secluded and deep glens; and the mysterious sounds
-occasioned by the rushing of the water in the hollows and caverns of a
-rock-bound coast, have been fertile sources of illusion among the
-superstitious.
-
-The ancient Romans listening to the inexplicable sounds which assailed
-the ear in solitary and wooded places, fabled that they were the voices
-of the wood deities, or as Lucretius beautifully expresses it:--
-
-    "The neighbouring swains believe, or fondly vaunt,
-    Satyrs and nymphs the rural regions haunt;
-    That fauns with wanton revel and delight
-    Disturb the sober silence of the night:
-    That music's blended notes are heard around,
-    The plaintive voice, and harp's according sound:
-    And well they know when Pan, the sylvan god,
-    (While o'er his brows the piny honours nod,)
-    With bending lip awakes the vocal reeds,
-    And the charmed ears of listening satyrs feeds.
-    With joy these tales they tell, or tales like these,
-    And fill the woods with fabled deities."[51]
-
-As the winds swept over the wild heaths of the north, or roared amid the
-mountain passes, bearing upon their bosom the heavy mantling clouds
-which enwreathed the ghosts of the heroes of old, often in their varied
-tones did the ancient Celt conceive that he heard the voices of the
-dead; and he who was stricken with misery deemed that his forefathers
-called upon him to hasten to the land of shadows. "The ghosts of
-fathers," they say, "call away the souls of their race while they behold
-them lonely in the midst of woe." Or when an eddy of wind sweeping into
-the hall awoke a cadence of music as it played over the strings of the
-harps suspended there, the hearers shrunk as the notes thrilled through
-them, and fearfully whispered that the ghosts of the dead touched the
-strings, and asked whose death of all the mighty the ghostly music
-portended. "The harps of the bards, untouched, sound mournful over the
-hill."[52]
-
-The supernatural framework of many legends depends upon illusions of the
-hearing of a similar character.
-
-At Crosmere, near Ellesmere, in Shropshire, there is a tradition that a
-chapel once stood on the borders of the lake, and it was long believed
-that when the waters were ruffled by the wind the sound of the bells
-might be heard beneath the surface; and an old story records that, long
-ago, a church and village were entombed by an earthquake, near the spot
-where Raleigh, in Nottinghamshire, now stands; and that at Christmas,
-even now, the bells may be heard solemnly tolling deep in the bosom of
-the earth.
-
-Among the Cornish miners a very singular superstition prevails, which is
-due to the sounds occurring in old and deserted workings, from the
-dropping of water and other causes. These noises are supposed to be
-produced by certain spirits, which are termed "_Knockers_," and,
-according to the author of "Yeast; a Problem," the miners hold that
-"they are _the ghosts of the old Jews that crucified our Lord, and were
-sent for slaves by the Roman Emperors to work the mines_; and we find
-their old smelting-houses, which we call _Jews' houses_, and their
-blocks, at the bottom of the great bogs, which we call _Jews' tin_; and
-there is a town among us, too, which we call _Market Jew_, but the old
-name was _Marazion_, that means the Bitterness of Zion, they tell me;
-and bitter work it was for them, no doubt, poor souls! We used to break
-into the old shafts and adits which they had made, and find old
-stags'-horn pickaxes that crumbled to pieces when we brought them to
-grass. And they say that, if a man will listen of a still night about
-those old shafts, he may hear the ghosts of them at working, knocking,
-and picking, as clear as if there was a man at work in the next
-level."[53]
-
-But the most common cause of illusion from sound arises from the
-difficulty which all more or less experience, of tracing the direction
-of a sound, particularly if it be indistinct. The ascertainment of the
-direction of a sound, and the distance of the sonorous body, is an act
-of judgment, and it is the result of experience. The power may be
-cultivated to a great extent, and many savage tribes possess it in a
-very high degree; but among civilized nations, where the sounds
-requisite to be attended to are principally of a point-blank character,
-and where the necessity for the cultivation of that nicety of hearing
-which is required in forest life does not exist, the power of
-distinguishing the direction and distance of sounds is very imperfect.
-
-The intensity of the sound, and the position of the ears, contribute to
-the formation of a correct judgment; but if the two ears have precisely
-the same relation to the point from which the sound issues, as when it
-occurs directly before or behind, it is impossible to distinguish by
-the sensation alone whether the sound arises in the front or the rear.
-
-The most familiar and striking illustration of the difficulty
-experienced in determining the direction of sound, is _ventriloquism_.
-By a cultivation of the power of speaking without the aid of the lips,
-and by keeping the muscles of the face in a state of passiveness, the
-ventriloquist, on giving the mind of the listener a certain leading
-idea, will induce him to think that he hears voices issuing from the
-floor, from the ceiling, from within him, or from any position but the
-correct one; and by a modification of the intensity of the sound, it may
-be made to appear as if it arose at different distances, as when voices
-are heard in the distance, which gradually approach the listener, come
-close to him, pass by, and are again lost in the distance. Although
-perfectly aware of the deception, there are few who can correct the
-impressions received, and trace them to their legitimate source.
-
-This uncertainty of distinguishing the direction and the nature of
-sounds has been a prolific source of belief in supernatural occurrences,
-and the majority, if not all, of those mysterious noises which are so
-common in old houses, and which it was customary, from inability to
-discover their origin, to attribute to spiritual agency, have been due
-to this cause. The yielding of wood-work, the scouring of vermin, the
-sighing of the wind in chinks and crannies, have been transformed by
-excited and superstitious imaginations into the sighing, or whispering,
-or knocking of wandering ghosts, and there is, perhaps, not a town or
-village in England which has not at one time or other had one or more
-houses reputed to be haunted by incorporeal visitants who have thus
-announced their presence.
-
-Sir David Brewster relates an interesting example of illusion arising
-from this source. "A gentleman devoid of all superstitious feelings, and
-living in a house free from any gloomy associations, heard, night after
-night, in his bedroom, a singular noise, unlike any ordinary sound to
-which he was accustomed. He had slept in the same room for years without
-hearing it, and he attributed it at first to some change of
-circumstances in the roof or in the walls of the room; but after the
-strictest examination no cause could be found for it. It occurred only
-once in the night; it was heard almost every night with few
-interruptions. It was over in an instant, and it never took place till
-after the gentleman had gone to bed. It was always distinctly heard by
-his companion, to whose time of going to bed it had no relation. It
-depended on the gentleman alone, and it followed him into another
-apartment with another bed, on the opposite side of the house.
-Accustomed to such investigations, he made the most diligent but
-fruitless search into its cause. The consideration that the sound had a
-special reference to him alone, operated upon his imagination, and he
-did not scruple to acknowledge that the recurrence of the mysterious
-sound induced a superstitious feeling at the moment. Many months
-afterwards it was found that the sound arose from the partial opening of
-the door of a wardrobe which was within a few feet of the gentleman's
-head, and which had been taken into the other apartment. This wardrobe
-was almost always opened before he retired to bed, and the door being a
-little too tight, it gradually forced itself open with a sort of dull
-sound, resembling the note of a drum. As the door had only started half
-an inch out of its place, its change of position never attracted
-attention. The sound, indeed, seemed to come in a different direction,
-and from a greater distance.
-
-"When sounds so mysterious in their origin are heard by persons
-predisposed to a belief in the marvellous, their influence over the mind
-must be very powerful. An inquiry into their origin, if made at all,
-will be made more in the hope of confirming than of removing the
-original impression, and the unfortunate victim of his own fears will
-also be the willing dupe of his own judgment."[54]
-
-Not unfrequently the difficulty of distinguishing the direction of sound
-has been made the basis of imposition upon the credulous; and when it is
-considered how readily the judgment is led into error in this respect,
-even when aware of the deception practised, as in ventriloquism, the
-easy facility with which it is imposed upon when superstitious feelings
-are excited, and the wide-spread delusions which have thus arisen,
-cannot be wondered at.
-
-The Cock-lane ghost is a familiar example of a deception of this
-nature: but this, and every other delusion of a similar character,
-sink into insignificance before a delusion of our own day and
-times--_Spirit-rapping_.
-
-The idea of a communication of the spiritual world with man by the
-intervention of _raps_, is not new. A writer in a recent number of
-"Notes and Queries,"[55] gives the following example of an early
-instance of this kind in England.
-
-"Rushton Hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire, was long the
-residence of the ancient and distinguished family of Treshams. In the
-reign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion was occupied by Sir Thomas
-Tresham, who was a pedant and a fanatic; but who was an important
-character in his time by reason of his great wealth and powerful
-connections. There is a lodge at Rushton, situate about half-a-mile from
-the old hall, now in ruins, but covered all over within and without with
-emblems of the Trinity. This lodge is known to have been built by Sir
-Thomas Tresham; but his precise motive for selecting this mode of
-illustrating his favourite doctrine was unknown until it appeared from a
-letter written by himself about the year 1584, and discovered in a
-bundle of books and papers inclosed since 1605, in a wall of the old
-mansion, and brought to light about twenty years ago. The following
-relation of a "rapping" or "knocking" is extracted from this letter:--
-
-"If it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity and Passion of
-Christ to depaint in this chamber, this is the principal instance
-thereof; that at my last being hither committed"--(referring to his
-commitments for recusancy, which had been frequent)--"and I usually
-having my servants here allowed me, to read nightly an hour to me after
-supper, it fortuned that Fulcis, my then servant, reading in the
-"Christian Resolution," in the treatise of "Proof that there is a God,
-&c.," there was upon a wainscot table at that instant three loud knocks
-(as if it had been with an iron hammer) given; to the great amazing of
-me and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton."
-
-Another example of early "spirit-rapping" is the celebrated ghost of
-"_Old Jeffreys_," at the Epworth Parsonage, during the childhood of the
-Revds. John and Charles Wesley.
-
-The conception of a familiar correspondence between the spirit-world and
-man by means of knocks and raps is, however, an idea of modern times,
-and for which we are indebted to America, although it would seem that in
-1835 we were on the eve of making this unenviable discovery in our own
-country, for the invisible cause of certain noisy disturbances in a
-house occupied by a Captain Molesworth at Trinity, near Edinburgh, in
-that year, would, it is asserted, respond to a question by knocks, if it
-could be answered numerically; as, for example, "How many people are
-there in the room?" when it would answer by as many knocks. This
-so-called spirit seemed at times to be drumming a certain tune. The
-knocks in this case had some very intimate connection with a sick girl,
-a daughter of Captain Molesworth; for they accompanied her, and
-wherever she was there they prevailed most.
-
-In 1846, or 1847, a house in the village of Hydesville, State of New
-York, America, was reported to be haunted by certain noises, as
-knockings on the doors, panels, floors, ceilings, &c., of which the
-source could not be ascertained; and chairs and tables were occasionally
-displaced, and crockery broken by some invisible power. When the noises
-and disturbances first commenced, it is stated that the house was
-occupied by a man named Weekman; but subsequently it passed into the
-possession of a person called Fox, who had two daughters, Catherine and
-Margaretta, and during their residence in it, not only did the knockings
-and irregular motions of the furniture persist, but they increased in
-intensity, variety, and frequency of occurrence, and it was ascertained
-by the young women that the knocks would mimic sounds which they made,
-and even respond to questions put orally. A code of signals in the
-affirmative and negative was next arranged, and by going over the
-letters of the alphabet, and the affirmative signal duly occurring at
-certain letters, which were recorded, a system of correspondence was
-established with the invisible, but apparently intelligent, source of
-the disturbances. By this method it was ascertained that the cause of
-the noises, and other indications of invisible power, professed to be
-the spirit of a man named Charles Ryan, who, while in the flesh, had
-resided in that house; had been foully murdered there; the corpse
-interred in a certain part of the cellar; and had left a family of five
-children, all of whom were then alive. These revelations caused, as may
-well be imagined, a great sensation in the village, and, notwithstanding
-that no such person as Charles Ryan had ever lived there, or in that
-house, and that on searching the cellar carefully no remains of a corpse
-were found, the imposition and delusion was persisted in. It is scarcely
-necessary to add that as yet no one has come forward to claim kindred
-with the first of the disembodied spirits that held communication with
-man.
-
-Several committees were appointed to investigate the matter, but they
-failed to ascertain the cause of the sounds, and by common consent, no
-natural cause being evident, it was assumed, _therefore_, that the cause
-was supernatural.
-
-Subsequently, the Fox family removed to Rochester, and singular to say,
-the spirit-sounds followed them. Noises began also to be heard in other
-houses and towns, and it was soon found that many females, equally with
-the Misses Fox, possessed the power of communicating familiarly through
-the medium of sounds, with the spirit-world. In an almost incredibly
-brief space of time, this delusion swept over the United States, and
-multitudes from all ranks and conditions of society gave in their
-accession to the system of belief into which it was quickly moulded.
-
-Certain persons only were found to possess the power of summoning the
-spiritual knocks at pleasure; these were principally females, and they
-were termed "_mediums_." The belief itself was spoken of under the
-simple term of "_Spirit-rapping_," and its advocates and believers as
-"_Rappers_," or "_Rappites_."
-
-Each "medium," somehow or other, managed to interweave his or her own
-views with the spirit-revelations, and the spirits themselves did not
-hesitate in simple set phrase to give the lie to one another;
-consequently, the revelations and doctrines inculcated are somewhat
-varied and inconsistent. The most generally received doctrine at the
-present time may, however, be summed up as follows:--The "knocks,"
-"raps," and other manifestations of invisible power, are caused by the
-spirits of the dead, who, by direct permission of the Almighty
-(according to the more religious), or by self-discovery on the part of
-the spirits (according to a statement made by the spirit of Benjamin
-Franklin), are enabled to communicate with their fellow-men by various
-sounds and exhibitions of physical power. This correspondence was
-permitted by God in consequence of the great advance which the Americans
-in particular, and mankind in general, had made towards perfection; and
-it is intimated that if the present rate of progression towards
-perfection continue, we shall soon be able to have intercourse by voice
-and sight with the spirit-world. As it is, certain persons possess these
-privileges in full, and the mass of Christians, _if believers_, have so
-grown in goodness that the religion of the present day--Biblical
-religion--is no longer needed, and Christianity is to be regarded as a
-state of probation that _was_ requisite to attain the perfection now
-arrived at; but this transition state being passed, from the elevation
-of the spirit-world we can see that many of its doctrines form now a
-mighty and dangerous slough, in which we are in danger of being
-smothered.
-
-The ideas entertained by mankind respecting spiritual existences are
-singularly incorrect; notwithstanding this, however, most of the
-spirits, as when in the body, entertain some peculiarity of doctrine,
-which shows that even in the "spheres" opinions are divided on this
-point. The most general opinion states that the spirit-world surrounds
-the earth, and is divided into seven spheres, which are subdivided into
-seven other spheres, and these again admit of still further
-division,--a geography evidently derived from Mahomedanism, and the old
-monkish legends of the septate division of hell, purgatory, and
-paradise. In the first of the spheres the lowest orders of spirits
-reside. These form the most degraded class of spirit-life, and are
-unhappy compared with those in the higher spheres; but the lowest degree
-of their unhappiness exceeds the highest degree of man's pleasures. Into
-this sphere pass all those who have had an unsatisfactory character on
-earth; while those who have been more correct in their conduct pass
-immediately into the sphere which approximates to their degree of
-goodness. The residence of any spirit in the lower spheres is not
-constant; for, exposed to heavenly influences, it goes on gradually
-improving, and as it sublimes, it ascends through the higher spheres,
-until at last the seventh sphere is attained, where it is fulfilled with
-bliss, and enters the presence of God. Hence we find St. Paul and Tom
-Paine, Calvin and Napoleon, Wesley and Shelley, united in friendly
-brotherhood. There is no hell, such as is taught in the Scriptures, and
-no eternal punishment, and man carries into the spirit-world his
-passions and propensities, and relative degrees of ignorance and
-knowledge. The spirit of Calvin stated that the spirits understood all
-languages intuitively; but this has been refuted by an immense majority
-of spirits, and it is certain that they know no other languages than
-those they were acquainted with on earth. Indeed, it is requisite to
-have rudimental education in our own language in heaven. "I have no
-friends to teach me how to spell," said a spirit named Jack Waters.
-Another, named Frank Copland, was unable to make any satisfactory
-communication, from being "an illiterate youth" when he died; and the
-"medium" to whom this communication was made, kindly advised the spirit
-to get the soul of a deceased sister to teach him. He did so, and in
-three months it was ascertained that he had made very creditable
-progress in spelling, &c. The amusements of the "spirits" consist of
-music, concerts, dancing, card-playing, &c., and they live in a species
-of concubinage. They dress according to fancy, but the male spirits
-generally wear trousers, hats or turbans, and beards. They have also
-condescended to teach certain celestial architectural vagaries. They
-_lie_ like mortals, and coolly admit it; and it is occasionally
-necessary to put the spirits on oath! They are very liable to error, and
-the spirit of General Washington, equally careless of grammar and
-orthography, revealed, that they "many times make mistakes, and so we
-are called liars; but this is owing to our neglect of the records that
-are given us, and also to evel spirits; but we will try to be more
-careful or correct after we have becom more use to writing for our
-friends." The spirits speak with the utmost contempt and abhorrence of
-the religious beliefs of the present day, and regard the Bible as unfit
-for general perusal, from the errors (due to the translators) which it
-contains; and this assertion is fittingly crowned by the statement that
-it emanates under a special communication from St. Paul himself.
-
-Notwithstanding the painful absurdity and frightful blasphemy of these
-doctrines (which satisfactorily show the class of persons by whom the
-delusion is fostered, and the flagrant character of the imposition),
-clergymen, judges, and persons distinguished in literature have
-permitted themselves to be led away by the delusion, each establishing
-some conscientious clause or giving a peculiar phase to the belief, in
-order to exculpate themselves from the charge of contributing to some of
-the more outrageous dogmas of this strange delusion.
-
-The phenomena which led to the delusion were sounds of various kinds and
-intensity, which were called up by the "medium" at will, apparently in
-various parts of the room in which the "_séances_" were held, but
-principally beneath the table at which she sat; and the movement of
-certain articles of furniture. The intelligent correspondence with the
-"raps" (for the furniture-moving was merely indicative of the _power_ of
-the suppositious spirits) was by questions uttered audibly, mentally, or
-in writing, to which replies were given by repeated raps--an
-affirmative; or by silence--a negative; or the words of the response
-were spelled out by running over the alphabet--the affirmative knocks
-taking place when the finger or pencil rested on the letters required to
-form the sentence. Some more highly-gifted mediums, pervaded by a
-spiritual afflatus, were enabled to write the answers; and others
-shadowed them forth in dancing.
-
-If we reflect for a moment upon the difficulty which most persons
-experience in detecting the direction and position of sounds,
-particularly when the mind is under the dominion of certain ideas, we
-may readily imagine how at the first the delusion of spirit-rapping
-obtained credence among the credulous and ignorant. It was, however,
-soon ascertained that an imposition was being practised; and very
-shortly after the development of the mania, a "medium" came forward and
-confessed the deception practised, and the mode in which she had carried
-it out. This "medium," named Mrs. Norman Culvers, had been taught the
-mode of deception by Margaretta Fox, one of the original "mediums;" and
-she stated that the raps were produced by the toes, the listener's mind
-being distracted by directing the attention, by a fixed gaze or
-otherwise, to certain parts of the room, from which he was instructed
-that the sounds came. By the confession of other "mediums," and by
-observation, it was ascertained that, in addition to the rapping by the
-toes, raps were produced by a lateral movement of the knee-joint, and
-the joints of the thumb and fingers (the "cracking" of the joints, a
-familiar phenomenon); by the action of the feet against the leg of the
-table, or by the movement of the soles of the shoes one against another;
-and lastly, by a hammer ingeniously fixed in the woodwork of the table.
-It was further shown to demonstration, that in no case when the
-"mediums" were placed in positions where none of the before-mentioned
-methods of rapping could occur, did the raps take place; that in no case
-could the "spirits" reply correctly to a single question, when the
-querist, by an impassibility of countenance and scrupulous care over his
-actions, did not betray his thoughts, or indicate the letters
-constituting the words he required; and that the "spirits" might be led
-to answer the most absurd and incorrect questions, utterly unconscious
-of imposition or error.
-
-Notwithstanding this exposure, the delusion is persisted in; and it is
-principally maintained by the occasional correct replies which are given
-by the medium to questions of which none present could be acquainted
-with the answer, but the querist; and many men, even of considerable
-literary attainments, have been led into the delusion by this simple
-phenomenon alone.
-
-A careful examination of the details of the spirit-communications, and
-the confessions of the mediums already alluded to, will show that in no
-case was there a correct response given to questions when precautions
-were taken to guard against the indication given by the countenance or
-by the actions to the medium, and even this was not sufficient to
-prevent a multitude of errors being fallen into.
-
-The pure spirit-communications which have been received from the
-Apostles, Franklin, Washington, &c., vary according to the mediums to
-which they have been vouchsafed, and often flatly contradict each other;
-in itself a sufficient indication of the glaring character of the
-delusion.
-
-Some, admitting the spiritual origin of the "raps" have gone a
-little further, and enunciated the opinion that the "rappings" occur
-through the influence of electricity or magnetism which the spirits
-wield; "and if," writes N. P. Willis, "disembodied spirits are still
-moving consciously among us, and have thus _found an agent at
-last--electricity--by which they can communicate with the world they
-have left_, it must soon, in the progressive nature of things, ripen
-to an intercourse between this and the spirit-world." Surely an
-electric condition that would cause sonorous "raps," and tables,
-chairs, &c., to dance jigs, and imitate ships tossed in a storm,
-would be within reach of the test of experiment. Such a test,
-however, has never been attempted; and thus it is men, even of high
-standing in literature, with the utmost coolness plunge into
-conjectures respecting the operations of forces of which they seem
-to be unacquainted even with the signification of the terms. For
-electricity and magnetism are no vague names, but terms applied to
-certain phenomena which are readily ascertained, and without the
-presence of which we are not justified in using them.
-
-We have already sufficiently shown the illusions to which the sense of
-hearing is liable, and the influence they have had in the formation of
-the belief in spirit-rapping is evident. The disposition of the mind in
-contributing towards this and allied delusions requires a brief comment.
-
-The substratum of superstition which is found to prevail more or less in
-most persons, is a never-failing source of delusion; and it is the
-groundwork upon which the impostor acts. Readily excited and brought
-into play by phenomena of which the origin is not palpably evident, it
-seizes with avidity upon doctrines which pander to its taste for mystery
-and wonder; and a suggestion, whether direct or implied, induces a
-condition of the mind that interposes an almost insuperable bar to the
-healthy action of the reason. This unconscious action of the mind, under
-the influence of leading ideas, is the prime foundation of those
-illusions of the senses of which we have illustrations in the pseudo
-sciences of "mesmerism," "electro-biology," &c., all the phenomena of
-which may be produced by simply inducing certain trains of thought.
-
-When Goëthe represented Mephistopheles as saying--
-
-    "_Whispered suggestions_ are the devil's rôle,"
-
-it was with a profound perception of the powerful influence they
-exercise in the creation of delusions.
-
-The throngs which crowd around the table of the "medium," go pregnant
-with a desire to see a mystery, and filled with a vague fear of the
-supernatural influences to which they may be subjected. This is
-increased by the interval of from five minutes to half an hour which is
-allowed to intervene between the commencement of the _séance_, and the
-first "rap" from the spirits; and during this period the mind is kept to
-the utmost tension by listening, or is well exercised by attending to
-the anecdotes illustrative of the power of the spirits which are
-detailed by the medium, and it is thus brought into the state that is
-requisite for the perfection of the delusion. In the condition of the
-mind thus induced, the medium has little difficulty in leading her
-credulous hearer to whatever length it may be desired, and a careful
-examination of the countenance and the hand will suffice for a correct
-response to the majority of the questions which may be proposed.
-
-The want of discrimination of the facts from the theories invented to
-explain them, is another and great source of delusion; for the majority
-it suffices that if the "raps" occur, or the table moves, it is
-sufficiently demonstrative that it is by the influence of spirits; and
-it is a much less difficult matter to them to believe that the phenomena
-arises from supernatural than natural agency.
-
-Certain luminous phenomena, phosphorescent flames, luminous clouds,
-glistening stars, &c., have been observed when the spirit-manifestations
-have occurred in profound darkness. These appearances were dependent upon
-a disordered condition of the eye, which will be fully dwelt upon in a
-subsequent part of this work.
-
-The irregular and violent movements of the furniture which occurred when
-the _séances_ were held in _darkened_ apartments, were the result of the
-most palpable collusion. There were certain movements of the tables,
-however, around which the experimenters sat when eliciting the
-spirit-rappings, that could not be attributed to this source; and an
-examination of these motions showed that if several persons arranged
-themselves around a table, and rested their hands slightly upon it,
-after a longer or shorter period motion would occur, which was to a
-great extent under the control of the will, although the experimenters
-were not aware that they exerted any force whatever upon the table; and
-further, it was ascertained that a table thus set in motion would
-respond by rapping with the legs, to questions propounded to it, and
-that with a facility equal to the most perfect "medium."
-
-This interesting phenomenon soon attracted considerable attention, for
-it was certain that neither collusion nor wilful deception were
-concerned in it; and it could be produced by persons who did not pretend
-to the character of "mediums;" indeed, out of a company of several
-individuals it was pretty certain that some could be found capable of
-inducing the phenomenon.
-
-The "Rappites" looked upon it simply as another and more general
-manifestation of the spirit-world; others, imbued with the
-pseudo-scientific dogmas of animal magnetism, odylism, &c., sought an
-explanation in the principles of their respective theories; some
-regarded it as the result of Satanic agency; and lastly, those best
-capable of judging on the question, looked upon the motion as the result
-of muscular force exerted unconsciously by the experimenters, and in
-accordance with certain well-known laws of muscular and mental action.
-
-The doctrine of Satanic agency has excited great attention in this
-country, from the fact of its being propounded and advocated by certain
-clergymen of our Established Church, who not content with regarding it
-as one of those "great wonders" which are to prelude the reign of
-Anti-christ, have even sought by this agency to verify the truths of the
-immortality of the soul, eternity, the existence of a hell; thus seeking
-a confirmation of the Scripture from the devil himself, and comically
-identifying themselves with the principles so pithily expressed by
-Ralpho:--
-
-    "Those principles I've quoted late,
-    Prove that the godly may allege
-    For anything their privilege,
-    And to the devil himself may go,
-    If they have motives thereunto:
-    For as there is a war between
-    The dev'l and them, it is no sin
-    If they, by subtle stratagem,
-    Make use of him, as he does them."[56]
-
-The answer to this explication, as well as to those other explications
-based on the doctrines of the "Rappites," and the principles of the
-pseudo-sciences, is found in the simple fact, that if care be taken to
-ascertain the sources of motion which arise from the experimenters
-themselves, and to obviate their influence in the experiment, neither
-movements nor responses occur; and by a careful examination of the
-conditions requisite for the perfection of the experiment, and an
-experimental illustration of them, we arrive at the conclusion that
-"table-moving" and "table-talking" are the result solely of muscular
-action exercised unconsciously under the influence of certain expectant
-ideas.
-
-If we proceed in the examination of this question as in that of every
-other physical question, by seeking the conditions requisite for the
-fulfilment of the experiment, and examining their nature, we observe
-that the position of the persons who perform it is one that would give
-rise to certain easily understood and comprehensible results. The hands
-are placed upon the table in such a position that the experimenter
-exercises the least degree of pressure of which he can be conscious, and
-in this position they are kept for a longer or shorter period, but
-generally averaging from twenty to thirty minutes. Whether the
-individual be sitting or standing, the protracted exertion of the
-muscles to keep the hand in so constrained a position, gives rise to
-considerable fatigue, which is manifested by the usual painful
-sensations in the over-exercised parts; and these sensations have been
-sagely compared by the advocates of the pseudo-sciences to those
-experienced by electric or electro-magnetic currents. As the muscular
-fatigue and the painful state of tension into which the muscles are
-thrown increase, the sensations by which we judge of the amount of
-pressure exercised upon a given object diminishes, and unless the degree
-of pressure exercised is checked by information derived through some
-other sense, it goes on ever increasing in a direct ratio until the
-whole weight of the hand, the arm, and even the shoulders of the person
-so standing is unconsciously thrown upon the table, and a degree of
-force exercised, which is sufficient to induce the movements we witness
-in the table experimented on.
-
-The inertia of the table is as thoroughly destroyed by the amount of
-force thus brought to bear upon it, as if a more intense force had acted
-momentarily. The period of suspense which occurs previous to the first
-movement taking place, is that during which the force communicated by
-the hand is equally diffused through the table, and the moment this
-happens, as no body can be set in motion until the motion has been
-imparted to every integral particle of that body, a slight additional
-force will be sufficient to overcome the resistence of surrounding
-media, and cause it to change its position. Hence a comparatively slight
-force exercised over a long period will not unfrequently induce effects
-equal to those caused by a greater degree of force exercised during a
-short period of time.
-
-We often witness the practical application of this principle. If we
-observe two men endeavouring to move a railway carriage upon the line,
-we shall notice that they do not at the first exert all their strength
-in one powerful, and what would probably prove exhaustive and futile,
-effort, but placing their backs against the carriage, they will push
-with a continuous and gradually increasing effort for several seconds,
-or even longer, when a slight movement will be perceived in the
-carriage, and a slight additional exercise of force will set it in
-motion. So also, as we have seen in quarries, when several men have
-endeavoured to move a large mass of stone with a lever, they have not
-used one long and powerful effort, but a succession of slighter ones,
-until a tremulous motion has been seen in the mass, when by one exertion
-of force they have hurled it from its place.
-
-The degree of pressure exercised by any given persons will be in the
-inverse ratio of the degree of control which they can exercise over the
-muscular system, and over their ideas; hence the phenomena of
-table-turning and table-talking are most fully developed by those who
-are possessed of but a low degree of volitional power, and in whom the
-passions and emotions are paramount, as in young females, boys, or those
-who are influenced by certain dominant ideas: and as these conditions
-vary in different persons to an almost endless extent, it would follow
-that the power of exciting the movements of the table and responses, as
-well as the nature and degree of the responses, would vary in a similar
-degree, which is found to be the case; and the rule of response is, as
-one of the supporters of the Satanic theory (the Rev. N. S. Godfrey)
-very naïvely remarks, "whatever the investigator wishes it to be."
-
-The directive force in the phenomena of table-moving is derived from
-certain habitual actions of the muscles, as in the direction from right
-to left, from the customary use of the right hand; and the influence
-which our ideas exercise upon the muscular system, unwittingly and
-involuntarily on our part.
-
-This, as well as the preceding remarks, are all capable of being
-experimentally illustrated and demonstrated; and Professor Faraday,[57]
-by a rigorous series of experiments, has shown that it is upon these
-principles that the phenomena depend.
-
-By the use of a most ingenious and simple piece of mechanism connected
-with an index, he showed the extent to which we exercise a certain
-degree of force and directive power unconsciously, and the nature of
-this directive power; and the result was:--
-
-"That when the parties saw the index it remained very steady; when it
-was hidden from them, or they looked away from it, it wavered about,
-though they believed that they always pressed directly downwards; and
-when the table did not move, there was still a resultant hand-force in
-the direction in which it was wished the table should move, which,
-however, was exercised quite unwittingly by the party operating. This
-resultant it is which, in the course of the waiting-time, while the
-fingers and hands become stiff, numb, and insensible by continued
-pressure, grows up to an amount sufficient to move the table or the
-substances pressed upon. But the most valuable effect of this
-test-apparatus is the corrective power it possesses over the mind of the
-table-turner. As soon as the index is placed before the most earnest,
-and they perceive--as in my presence they have always done--that it
-tells truly whether they are pressing downwards only or obliquely, then
-all effects of table-turning cease, even though the parties persevere,
-earnestly desiring motion, till they become weary and worn-out. No
-prompting or checking of the hand is heeded; _the power is gone_; and
-this only because the parties are made conscious of what they are really
-doing mechanically, and so are unable unwittingly to deceive
-themselves."
-
-An experiment is familiar to many persons by which a ring, being
-suspended by means of a piece of thread to one of the fingers, may be
-caused to beat responses against a glass surface (as that of a tumbler),
-in answer to certain queries put audibly; or, if the ring be held by the
-questioner, it is requisite merely that the questions be conceived
-mentally. This, to many, a puzzling phenomenon is dependent upon
-precisely the same cause as "table-talking"--a movement caused by
-muscular action developed unconsciously under the influence of certain
-ideational states of the mind.
-
-It is an interesting fact, that a species of divination is mentioned by
-Ammianus Marcellinus, in which a ring, used after the above fashion, and
-a table, consecrated by mystic rites, were used. We are indebted to the
-Rev. J. W. Thomas, of Dewsbury, for the following quotation from the
-works of this author, who lived about the middle of the fourth century.
-The quotation is taken from the first chapter of the twenty-ninth book
-("Construximus, magnifici judices, ad cortinæ similitudinem Delphicæ,"
-&c.):--
-
-"Noble judges, this unfortunate little table which you see, we
-constructed of laurel-rods with fearful rites (or ill-omened signs),
-after the likeness of the Delphic tripod; and (it having been) virtually
-consecrated with imprecations of mystic incantations (secret hymns), and
-many splendid and long-continued preparations, we at length used (_lit._
-moved) it; and of using (moving) it, as often as it was consulted about
-secret things, this was the method. It was placed in the middle of a
-clean house, with a round plate made of divers metallic materials,
-correctly (_lit._ purely) put upon it, on whose extreme circumference
-the twenty-four letters of the alphabet were learnedly engraven,
-separated by spaces accurately measured. A person [gifted] with
-ceremonial science stood at it, clothed in linen garments, his feet in
-linen socks, a wreath round his head, bearing branches of a lucky tree,
-a fortunate omen having been obtained from the deity who is the author
-of predictions, by hymns conceived (Apollo); weighing with scales a
-pensile ring, formed (or furnished) with very fine Carpathian thread,
-consecrated with mystic rites, which (or who) by distinct intervals
-falling by leaps on every letter retained, makes heroic verses agreeing
-with (or answering to) the interrogatories, to the completed numbers and
-metres, such as the Delphic ones are read, or those given by the oracles
-of the Branchidæ. Thus then to those who inquired of us who should
-succeed to the present imperial government, for being swept in every
-part [as] it has been mentioned, and the ring leaping touched (went
-through) two syllables, #THEO#; with the addition of the last
-letter (last additional letter), one present cried out 'Theodorus!' (as
-the name portended) by the decree of fate (by castal necessity)."
-
-This paragraph embodies the defence of one Hilarius, who, together with
-a certain Patricius, was charged with having spread abroad prophecies
-adverse to the throne of the Emperor Valens.
-
-A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (Vol. IX., p. 201) quotes the
-following interesting passage from the "Apologeticus" of Tertullian,
-cap. xxiii.: ("Porro si et magi phantasmata," &c.):--
-
-"Moreover, if magical professors also exhibit phantoms and defame the
-souls of the departed; if they press oracles out of childrens' talk; if
-they play many miracles with mountebank tricks, and if they send dreams,
-having once the power assisting them, of inviting angels and demons, _by
-whom_, and she-goats, _and tables, they were accustomed to divine_; how
-much more, &c."
-
-The correspondent remarks: "Here table-divination, by means of angels
-and demons, seems distinctly alluded to. How like the modern system! The
-context of this passage, as well as the extract itself, will suggest
-singular coincidence between modern and ancient pretensions of this
-class."
-
-The sense of _touch_ rarely leads to illusions which are referred to the
-supernatural, except under the influence of powerful superstitious
-feelings, when it is generally connected with illusions of the other
-senses.
-
-The influence of fear in developing illusions of the senses of sight,
-hearing, and touch, has been well pourtrayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's
-comedy of "The Beggar's Bush" (Act V, Scene 1):
-
-  _Boor._ Mistress, it grows somewhat pretty and dark.
-
-  _Gertrude._                                       What then?
-
-  _Boor._ Nay, nothing. Do not think I am afraid,
-          Although, perhaps, you are.
-
-  _Ger._                          I am not. Forward!
-
-  _Boor._ Sure but you are. Give me your hand; fear nothing.
-          There's one leg in the wood; do not fall backwards!
-          What a sweat one on's are in; you or I!
-          Pray God it do not prove the plague. Yet sure
-          It has infected me; for I sweat too:
-          It runs out at my knees. Feel, feel, I pray you!
-
-  _Ger._  What ails the fellow?
-
-  _Boor._                     Hark! hark! I beseech you:
-          Do you hear nothing?
-
-  _Ger._                      No.
-
-  _Boor._                       List! a wild hog;
-          He grunts! now 'tis a bear; this wood is full of 'em!
-          And now a wolf, mistress; a wolf! a wolf!
-          It is the howling of a wolf.
-
-  _Ger._  The braying of an ass, is it not?
-
-  _Boor._                                 Oh, now one has me!
-          Oh my left ham! farewell!
-
-  _Ger._                                  Look to your shanks,
-          Your breech is safe enough; the wolf's a fern-brake.
-
-  _Boor._ But see, see, see! there is a serpent in it!
-          'T has eyes as broad as platters; it spits fire!
-          Now it creeps tow'rds us; help me and say my prayers!
-          'T hath swallowed me almost; my breath is stopt:
-          I cannot speak! Do I speak, mistress?--tell me.
-
-  _Ger._  Why thou strange timorous sot, canst thou perceive
-          Anything i' th' bush but a poor glowworm.
-
-  _Boor._ It may be 'tis but a glowworm now; but 'twill
-          Grow to a fire-drake presently.
-
-  _Ger._                              Come then from it!
-          I have a precious guide of you, and courteous,
-          That gives me leave to lead myself the way thus. [_Holla._
-
-  _Boor._ It thunders; you hear that now?
-
-  _Ger._                                I hear one holla.
-
-  _Boor._ 'Tis thunder! thunder! see a flash of lightning
-          Are you not blasted, mistress? Pull your mask off;
-          'T has play'd the barber with me here: I have lost
-          My beard, my beard! Pray God you be not shaven;
-          'T will spoil your marriage, mistress.
-
-  _Ger._  What strange wonders fear fancies in a coward!
-
-  _Boor._ Now the earth opens!
-
-  _Ger._                      Prithee hold thy peace.
-
-We have now glanced at the principal illusions to which the senses of
-sight and hearing are liable, and the bearing which they have on the
-subject of spectral apparitions and other phenomena which it has been
-customary to regard as manifestations of the supernatural.
-
-But a false appreciation of sensations excited by natural objects is not
-the only mode in which we are liable to be deceived, for we are apt to
-regard sensations excited by the action of the mind, or by a disordered
-condition of the nervous system, or both combined--subjective
-sensations--as sensations excited by natural objects--objective
-sensations.
-
-To the erroneous perceptions arising from this source the term
-_hallucination_ has been given, and the phantasmata to which they give
-rise are more important than those arising from illusions, since the
-judgment is often unable to correct them, and they may impose equally on
-the wisest and the most ignorant.
-
-It is a law in physiology that a nerve of special sensation, (including
-in that term its central as well as its peripheral terminations,) in
-whatever manner it may be excited, can only produce that sensation to
-which it is appointed. Thus the nerve of sight, whether it be excited by
-natural or artificial light, or mechanical stimulus from without, or by
-morbid changes within, can only give rise to the sensation of light; the
-nerve of hearing, sound; the nerve of smell, odours; and so on.
-
-If the ball of the eye is pressed upon (say by the finger at the inner
-angle) when the eyelids are closed, or the light otherwise excluded,
-certain luminous figures will be perceived. This arises from the
-pressure exciting the inner coat of the eye (the _retina_), which is
-formed principally by the expansion of the nerve of light (the _optic
-nerve_), and is the tissue in which the changes necessary for the
-production of the sensation of light are induced by the rays of light
-from without.
-
-The luminous figures caused by mechanical excitation of this, the
-peripheral termination of the nerve of sight, vary in intensity in
-different individuals and at different times. They are sometimes very
-brilliant, and have been observed to be iridescent. In form they are
-circular, radiating, or regularly divided into squares, which have been
-compared by Purkinje to the figures produced by the vibrations
-communicated to a fine powder scattered on a plate of glass, along one
-edge of which a violin-bow is drawn; or to the rhomboidal figures formed
-on the surface of water in a glass, thrown into vibration by the same
-means.
-
-A familiar illustration of the excitation of a sensation of light by
-mechanical stimulus is the brilliant sparks of light, starlike figures,
-&c., caused by a blow on the eye, or by a fall on the head.
-
-A sensation of light may also be caused by the passage of a current of
-electricity through the eyeball; by mental emotion, as grief, passion,
-&c.; and by a morbid state of the brain or optic nerve. It is often also
-induced by a disordered state of the health, and under this condition
-the luminous appearance occasionally assumes a bluish, green, yellow, or
-even red tint.
-
-When an excess of blood is determined in the vessels of the eye, either
-from position or other cause, a luminous arborescent figure is
-occasionally observed in the field of vision on entering a dark
-apartment. This, according to Purkinje, is due to pressure on the retina
-by the distended blood-vessels. A luminous spot is also sometimes
-observed isochronous with the pulse.
-
-In ourselves, in ordinary health a lambent bluish coloured cloud of
-light constantly floats before the eyes in a darkened apartment; and
-there are probably few who would not perceive a greater or less
-sensation of light on being shut up in profound darkness.
-
-On the spontaneous appearance of light in the field of vision when it is
-darkened, Müller, the distinguished Prussian physiologist, writes:--"If
-we observe the field of vision, keeping the eyes closed, it occasionally
-happens that we perceive not only a certain degree of luminousness, but
-further, that we discover a more marked glimmering of light, affecting
-even, in certain cases, the form of circular waves, which are developed
-from the centre towards the periphery, where they disappear. Sometimes
-the faint light resembles a nebulosity, spots, and more rarely, in
-myself, it is reproduced with a certain rhythm. To this spontaneous
-appearance of light in the eye, which is always very vague, are related
-the more clearly delineated forms which show themselves at the moment we
-are about to fall asleep, and which depend upon the influence of the
-imagination isolating the nebulous glimmerings one from the other, and
-clothing them with more distinct forms."[58]
-
-The degree to which this sensation of light is produced in health, and
-the power which the imagination has over it, vary greatly in different
-individuals.
-
-Müller writes:--
-
-"I had occasion, in 1828, to converse with Göethe upon this subject,
-which had an equal interest for both of us. Knowing that when I was
-tranquilly extended in bed, the eyes closed, but not asleep, I
-frequently perceived figures that I could observe distinctly, he was
-curious to know what I experienced then: I told him that my will had not
-any influence either upon the production or the metamorphoses of these
-figures, and that I never distinguished anything symmetrical, anything
-that had the character of vegetation. Göethe, on the contrary, was able
-to appoint at will a theme, which afterwards transformed itself, after a
-fashion apparently involuntary, but always in obedience to the laws of
-harmony and symmetry: a difference between two men, of which one
-possessed the poetical imagination in the highest degree of development,
-whilst the other devoted his life to the study of reality and of nature.
-
-"Göethe says, 'When I close the eyes, on lowering the head, I imagine
-that I see a flower in the middle of my visual organ; this flower does
-not for a moment preserve its form: it is quickly decomposed, and from
-its interior are born other flowers with coloured or sometimes green
-petals; these are not natural flowers, but fantastic, nevertheless
-regular, figures, such as the roses of sculptors. It was impossible for
-me to regard this creation fixedly, but it continued as long as I
-wished, without increasing or diminishing. Even when I figured to me a
-disc charged with various colours, I saw continually borne from the
-centre towards the circumference, new forms comparable to those that I
-could perceive in a kaleidoscope."[59]
-
-Illusions arising from the production of the sensation of light, whether
-by pressure, mental emotion, or a disordered state of the health, have
-been a most prolific source of ghosts.
-
-Imagine a person suffering from severe grief occasioned by the loss of a
-friend or relative; or one subject to superstitious terrors. On retiring
-to rest in a darkened apartment, the attention is attracted and wonder
-raised by the appearance of a cloud of pale white, or blueish coloured
-light (the colours which ghosts love to deck themselves in, and which
-are most readily excited) floating before the eyes. Unacquainted with
-its nature and source, he is naturally startled, and his superstitious
-fears are awakened. The imagination next coming into play, the luminous
-cloud is moulded into the form of the person recently dead, or of the
-superstitious ideas most prominent in the mind of the individual at the
-time.
-
-Or suppose a superstitious person passing, in the obscurity of the
-night, a place where some foul crime had been perpetrated. Terror gives
-rise to the production of a vivid sensation of light in the field of
-vision, and the imagination, as in the previous case, works out the
-rest.
-
-The following cases are examples of the influence which the spontaneous
-appearance of light in the field of vision exercises in the development
-of spectral apparitions.
-
-A gentleman who had lost his wife from a painful and protracted disease,
-for some time subsequently was troubled by her phantom, which remained
-before his eyes so long as he was in obscurity. On a light being
-brought, or during the day, this spectre vanished, but no sooner was he
-placed in darkness than it appeared vividly limned before him, and was a
-source of constant terror.[60]
-
-This phantom was evidently due to the production of the sensation of
-light in the field of vision, and the subsequent effects of the
-imagination.
-
-A gentleman with whom we are acquainted happened, when young, to have a
-severe fall on the head. After this accident and until he attained the
-age of eleven years, he was subject to visions of brilliant and
-variously coloured light, when he retired to bed at night, and all light
-in his room had been extinguished. Occasionally these visions were so
-gorgeous and resplendent that he is accustomed to compare them to the
-jewelled decorations of the palaces of the genii in the Arabian Nights'
-Entertainment. When about eleven years of age he got possession of a
-volume of legends and romances, which were pregnant with supernatural
-events and personages; and a friend injudiciously gave him a work full
-of ghost-stories, and entitled, "News from the Invisible World." These
-works he read with avidity, and the effect upon the mind was such that
-henceforth his nightly visions were transformed into foul, horrid, and
-often variously coloured spectres, rendering the period of time
-intervening between retiring to rest and sleep, one of unmitigated
-terror, and it became necessary to have a light constantly burning in
-the room until sleep occurred. After the twelfth year the intensity of
-the visions rapidly diminished, and at length only occurred when he
-turned himself upon his face in bed. In this position a sensation as if
-the bed had passed from under him occurred, and his eye formed the
-centre of a circle of imps which whirled rapidly round it. The number of
-these spectres next began to diminish, and by the time he was fifteen
-years of age, but one remained, and this appeared only occasionally.
-This solitary spectre gradually lost its fiend-like form, and assumed
-that of a respectable-looking old Roman, clothed in a toga; and it at
-length vanished to re-appear no more.
-
-This gentleman has for many years been free from any spectral
-apparition; but hard study, mental emotion, a disordered state of the
-health, or pressure with the finger on the eyeball, is apt to occasion a
-brilliant evolution of coloured light in the field of vision.
-
-The spontaneous appearance of light in the visual field, in this case,
-formed the substratum upon which the mind moulded the spectres; and it
-is interesting to remark the influence which the perusal of a volume of
-legends and ghost-stories, and subsequent classical studies, had in
-determining the form of the phantasma.
-
-To the same cause--the subjective phenomena of vision--are due the
-various coloured lights or luminous appearances which, in the
-experiments of Reichenbach, the believers in animal magnetism,
-mesmerism, and electro-biology, are supposed to have been seen issue, by
-the "susceptible," from the poles of magnets placed in darkened
-apartments, from so-called magnetised bodies, or from bodies placed in
-the conditions which the respective theories demand.
-
-All the sensations of light that are experienced under these
-circumstances, and which have been sought to be explained by the
-assumption of the "od" force, or by the influence of magnetism, &c., are
-dependent on that excitation of a sensation of light in the eye when
-plunged into darkness, or when under certain mental emotions which we
-have fully explained.
-
-This has been demonstrated by positive experiment; for if we take any of
-the "susceptibles," and, indeed, others, and place them in a darkened
-apartment, we may by simple suggestions excite all the luminous
-sensations attributed to the supposititious "od" force, or to "animal
-magnetism."
-
-The luminous appearances which certain "sensitives" have averred that
-they witnessed over graves, were due also to the subjective phenomena of
-vision, excited by an expectant idea.
-
-A young clergyman named Billing, who acted as an amanuensis to Pfeffer,
-the blind poet, asserted that he constantly saw, at night, a luminous
-cloud resting in one position in the poet's garden; and on search being
-made beneath the surface of the ground, at the spot occupied by this
-phantasm, the remains of a skeleton were found.
-
-Reichenbach concluded from this that the process of decomposition of a
-corpse going on in the grave, probably like what is observed in other
-forms of chemical action, gave rise to luminous appearances which were
-visible to highly "sensitive" persons.
-
-"It appeared possible," he writes, "that such a person might see over
-graves in which mouldering bodies lie, something similar to that which
-Billing had seen. Mademoiselle Reichel had the courage, rare in her sex,
-to gratify this wish of the author. On two very dark nights she allowed
-herself to be taken from the Castle of Reisenberg, where she was living
-with the author's family, to the neighbouring churchyard of Grunzing.
-The result justified his anticipation in the most beautiful manner. She
-very soon saw a light, and observed on one of the graves, along its
-length, a delicate breathing flame; she also saw the same thing, only
-weaker, on a second grave. But she saw neither witches nor ghosts. She
-described the fiery appearance as a shining vapour, one to two spans
-high, extending as far as the grave, and floating near its surface.
-Sometime afterwards she was taken to two large cemeteries near Vienna,
-where several burials occur daily, and graves lie about by thousands.
-Here she saw numerous graves provided with similar lights. Wherever she
-looked she saw luminous masses scattered about. But this appearance was
-most vivid over the newest graves, while on the oldest it could not be
-perceived. She described the appearance less as a clear flame than as a
-dense vaporous mass of fire, intermediate between fog and flame. On many
-graves the flame was four feet high, so that when she stood on them it
-surrounded her up to the neck. If she thrust her hand into it, it was
-like putting it into a dense fiery cloud. She betrayed no uneasiness,
-because she had all her life been accustomed to such emanations, and had
-seen the same, in the author's experiments, often produced by natural
-causes."[61]
-
-The total neglect of those precautions which are requisite to obviate
-the influence of expectant ideas and the subjective phenomena of vision
-in this experiment is most strange, and it is painful to witness men
-like Reichenbach, Gregory, and others, thus stumbling over some of the
-simplest facts of physiology and psychology, and utterly prostituting
-the name and calling of science.
-
-Singular and fallacious as are the pseudo-scientific doctrines just
-mentioned, they are exceeded by the extraordinary speculations of other
-writers, who also appear to hold in utter contempt the ordinary laws of
-action of the senses. For example, Mrs. Crowe writes of the sensation of
-light perceived by somnambules and dreamers, and of the still more
-simple phenomenon of the sensation of light induced by the inhalation of
-ether, in the following manner:--
-
-"All somnambules of the highest order,--and when I make use of this
-expression, I repeat that I do not allude to the subjects of mesmeric
-experiments, but to those extraordinary cases of disease, the
-particulars of which have been recorded by various continental
-physicians of eminence,--all persons in that condition describe
-themselves as hearing and seeing, not by the ordinary organs, but by
-some means the idea of which they cannot convey further than that they
-are pervaded by light; and that this is not the _ordinary_ physical
-light is evident, inasmuch as they generally see best in the dark,--a
-remarkable instance of which I myself witnessed.
-
-"I never had the slightest idea of this internal light till, in the way
-of experiment, I inhaled the sulphuric ether; but I am now very well
-able to conceive it; for, after first feeling an agreeable warmth
-pervading my limbs, my next sensation was to find myself--I cannot say
-in this heavenly light, for the light was in _me_--I was pervaded by it;
-it was not perceived by my eyes, which were closed, but perceived
-internally, I cannot tell how. Of what nature this heavenly light was--I
-cannot forbear calling it _heavenly_, for it was like nothing on
-earth--I know not,"[62] &c.
-
-The sense of _hearing_, like that of sight, in whatever manner it may be
-excited, only gives rise to the sensation of sound; _e.g._, when an
-electric current is passed through it, or a severe blow is struck upon
-it, and causes it "to ring," as it is expressed in common parlance. The
-rushing and other sounds--as of the ringing of bells, rustling of
-leaves, &c.--caused by a disordered state of the circulation in the
-head, are other examples; and there are perhaps few persons who have not
-at some time or other, started, and responded to their name, or to calls
-which they suppose they have heard, in the voice of persons who were at
-a distance, or who had not spoken.
-
-A similar excitation of the nerves of _taste_ and _smell_ will also give
-rise to their special sensations; but disorder of these nerves and their
-centres will rarely excite hallucinations, except in connection with a
-disturbed condition of the senses of sight and hearing.
-
-Such are the simplest forms of hallucination of the senses of sight,
-hearing, taste, and smell; and we have seen that all the phenomena of
-light, colour, sound, taste, and smell, can occur in man without the
-presence of natural or artificial light, sonorous undulations of the
-air, sapid or odorous substances.
-
-We are now in a position to comprehend more fully that, by the action of
-the imagination and emotions alone, the changes going on in the nervous
-centres may be so far disturbed that the whole of those sensations which
-are generally excited by agents external to the body may be called into
-play, and the mental idea assume, in light, colour and shade, sound,
-taste and touch, all the distinctness and definitiveness which
-appertains to an actual object within the sphere of the respective
-senses, and be considered as such.
-
-If the mind revert to any of the varied sensations which are stored up
-in the memory, and are within the power of the will to recall, an image
-is conjured up before the "mind's eye," such that we can describe it as
-though a real object stood before us; and if it be that of a person--a
-parent, a friend, or one bound by even still stronger ties--every
-lineament, every peculiarity, is depicted with a fidelity but little
-less than that we should be capable of were the individual actually
-present before us; or should it be a scene which has been treasured up
-for its grandeur, its loveliness, or for its being endeared to us by
-still stronger feelings, every characteristic feature, every object, is
-minutely and truly described; and did we possess the power of limning,
-not unfrequently we should find little difficulty in transferring the
-mental image to the canvass. "I think I see him now"--"She might be
-before me"--"I can call to mind every tree and stone, so vivid is the
-memory"--are forms of expression in constant use, and they contain the
-germ of the simplest form of ideal hallucination to which we are
-subject.
-
-Under the influence of love, grief, remorse, or other powerful and
-protracted emotion, the ideas upon which the mind is concentrated assume
-a vividness, in many persons little short of the reality; and when
-Victorian, addressing Preciosa in the "Spanish Student" (Act I, Scene
-3), is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Thou comest between me and those books too often;
-    I see thy face in everything I see;
-    The paintings on the chapel wear thy looks,
-    The canticles are changed to sarabands;
-    And with the learned doctors of the schools,
-    I see thee dance cachucas;"
-
-he makes use of no exaggerated poetical tropes or figures, but speaks
-the simple fact.[63]
-
-A painful illustration of the vividness of the mental image under
-powerful emotion is afforded by a passage in "The Dream" of Lord Byron,
-in which he describes the images of the object and scenes of his
-youthful and only love, that occupied his mind, and rendered him
-insensible to the ceremony of his marriage until he was aroused from his
-abstraction by the congratulations of the bystanders.
-
-                      "He spoke
-    The fitting vows, but heard not his own words,
-    And all things reel'd around him; he could see
-    Not that which was, nor that which should have been,--
-    But the old mansion, and the accustom'd hall,
-    And the remember'd chambers, and the place,
-    The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,
-    All things pertaining to that place and hour,
-    And her who was his destiny, came back,
-    And thrust themselves between him and the light."
-
-The protracted devotion of the thoughts to the memory of those whom the
-grave has severed from us, or from whom we are separated by distance,
-and which is induced by grief, gives also to the mental image great
-vividness. Exquisitely beautiful and true is the sentence placed in the
-mouth of Constance, when blamed for the grief she entertained on being
-separated from Prince Arthur:--
-
-    "Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
-    Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;
-    Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
-    Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
-    Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
-    Then have I reason to be fond of grief."
-
-In direct proportion to the concentration of the mind in the
-contemplation of its own actions, is the brilliancy and distinctness of
-the ideas which pass athwart it; and in the state of abstraction or of
-reverie, when from intense meditation, or from mere inactivity, the
-sensations derived from surrounding objects are not attended to, the
-ideas are so defined that they differ but little from actual objects in
-the sensations they excite. So also in sleep, if, from any cause,
-physical or mental, we are roused into a state of semi-consciousness, as
-in dreaming, the phantasms of former events, stored up in the memory,
-and by certain sensations or trains of thought thrown to the surface,
-differ in no respect--light, colour, shade, or sound--from the
-sensations derived from the objects represented.
-
-Should, therefore, the concentration of the mind upon any subject be
-such as to disturb the natural functions of the brain, the mental image
-is liable to excite sensations, and to be pourtrayed with a distinctness
-and "outness" which approximates to, or equals, that of a real object,
-and it is regarded as such.
-
-In the majority of individuals the concentration and intensity of
-feeling necessary for the production of hallucinations is of rare
-occurrence, and it is found only under such conditions as profound grief
-caused by death under painful or peculiar circumstances; from terror,
-excited by causes bringing powerful superstitious feelings into
-play--under which circumstances the hallucinations induced are generally
-transitory--or by emotions inordinately protracted; hence it is that we
-find visions of the dead among the most common of the temporary
-hallucinations. In the studious, and men of powerful thought, the mind
-being habituated to absorption in its own ideas, it not unfrequently
-happens that hallucinations occur from a disordered state of the brain
-induced by continued mental labour. These hallucinations are generally
-very vivid, and may arise either voluntarily or involuntarily, and may
-become habitual without the health being seriously disturbed.
-
-It will be seen, therefore, that the action of the mental powers alone
-is sufficient to give rise to sensations which are regarded as resulting
-from actual objects; and that from the simple vividness of the mental
-image, which is common to most persons, we may trace their effects, in a
-gradually ascending scale, in inducing mental conditions in which the
-brilliancy of the image is such that, for the time, it completely
-occupies the attention, and shuts out, as it were, the sensations
-derived from objects before the field of vision,--and in the formation
-of ideas so vivid and defined, that they take their position among
-surrounding, and excite the sensations proper to external, objects.
-
-We have thus far spoken of the effects of the imagination on the healthy
-frame, but in certain disordered conditions of the nervous system,
-occurring either alone, or in connection with other and more general
-morbid alterations in the economy, hallucinations are more apt to occur
-than in health. The system in this state is more susceptible of the
-effects of emotion, and the images arising in the mind are more vivid
-than would happen from the same degree of excitement in health, and are
-readily converted into hallucinations. This is witnessed in certain
-forms of hysteria, febrile diseases, &c.; hence, in these disordered
-conditions of the system, the hallucinations are not to be attributed to
-the action of the mind, so much as to a morbid susceptibility to undergo
-those changes requisite to the production of hallucinations; and these
-are, consequently, induced by grades of emotion and by influences which
-would not have caused that in ordinary health.
-
-On the other hand, the action of the mind in the development of
-hallucinations equally induces certain diseased states, either special
-or general. Even simple and temporary hallucination, in whatever manner
-caused, must be regarded as an indication that the changes going on in
-the nervous centres have passed the bounds of health; and according as
-the causes inducing hallucinations are more or less protracted, or the
-hallucinations are more or less persistent or frequent, so we may mark a
-greater or less deterioration in the mental powers, the nervous or the
-general system, or indications of more acute disease, to progress along
-with them, until the acme is reached in insanity, idiocy, or some more
-rapidly progressive and equally formidable disease.
-
-To illustrate these remarks: Blake, the artist, who, after the death of
-Sir Joshua Reynolds, enjoyed great fame as a portrait-painter, owed his
-celebrity, in great part, to the singular fact that he required but one
-or, at the most, two sittings, from those whose portraits he painted. He
-was accustomed to regard the person who sat to him attentively for about
-half an hour, sketching from time to time on the canvas, and he would
-then pass on to another subject. When he wished to continue the first
-portrait, on placing the canvas before him, he had the power of calling
-up so vivid a mental image of the personage, the outline of whose face
-was depicted upon it, that it assumed all the appearance of reality, and
-he perceived it in the position in which he required it to be. From this
-phantasm he painted, turning from the canvas and regarding it as he
-would have done had the representative of the phantom been there in
-person. By degrees he began to lose the distinction between the real and
-the imaginary objects, and at length a complete confusion of the mind
-occurred, rendering it necessary for him to be confined in an asylum.
-During his residence there, his insanity was marked by an exaggeration
-of that vivid power of imagination he had possessed previously; for he
-at will could summon before him the phantoms of any of the personages of
-history, and he held long and sensible conversations with Michael
-Angelo, Moses, Semiramis, Richard III, &c., all of whom appeared to him,
-when he desired, in the vivid hues and distinct outlines of reality.
-
-Talma, the great French tragedian, had the power, when upon the stage,
-of causing the vestments of his audience to disappear, and of depicting
-them as skeletons. When the hallucination was complete, and he had
-filled the theatre with these ghastly auditors, he was enabled to give
-the fullest and most surprising force to his performance.
-
-Examples of the influence of powerful and protracted emotions in
-inducing hallucinations are numerous. Dr. Conolly relates the case of a
-gentleman who, when at one time in great danger of being wrecked in a
-small boat on the Eddystone rocks, in the moment of greatest peril saw
-his family before him.
-
-M. Boismont quotes the case of a world-known general who, when in a
-combat one day, was surrounded by the enemy, and in so great danger that
-escape seemed impossible. He, nevertheless, contrived to escape; but the
-impression made upon him was such, that afterwards, until a late period
-of life, he occasionally suffered from an hallucination in which the
-scene of danger was again presented before him and re-enacted; and when
-subsequently on a throne, sometimes the silence of the palace would be
-disturbed by his cries, as he struggled and fought with his phantom
-foes. The hallucination was momentary.
-
-The intense emotion which Sir Richard Croft experienced on being
-summoned to attend the Princess Charlotte of Wales on her death-bed was
-such, that he saw her form, habited in white, glide along before his
-carriage.
-
-A case is related by Boismont of a lady who, while suffering from the
-depression occasioned by receiving information that her daughter was
-seriously ill, heard a voice which addressed to her the words, "Lovest
-thou me?" The lady responded immediately, "Lord, thou knowest that I
-have placed all my confidence in thee, and that I love thee with all my
-soul." The voice then said, "Dost thou give her to me?" The lady
-trembled with fear, but summoning courage, she replied, "However painful
-the sacrifice may be, let Thy will be accomplished." This lady was
-deeply pious, and the hallucination arose from the powerful and painful
-emotion caused by the sudden news of her daughter's illness, inducing
-that disordered state of the nervous system, in which the thoughts
-naturally engendered in one who submitted everything to the Almighty,
-became audible.
-
-The combined influence of love and sorrow has been a powerful source of
-hallucinations, and many of those wild and beautiful legends and tales
-which are scattered throughout the kingdom, recording the apparition of
-a deceased or distant lover to his betrothed, have been due to this
-cause.
-
-Thus, as in the old ballad:--
-
-    "When it was grown to dark midnight,
-      And all were fast asleep,
-    In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
-      And stood at William's feet."
-
-Or in the story of "Isabella," by Boccacio, so beautifully rendered by
-Keats:--
-
-    "It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,
-      The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot
-    Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb
-      Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot
-    Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom
-      Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute
-    From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears
-    Had made a miry channel for his tears.
-
-    Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;
-      For there was striving in its piteous tongue,
-    To speak as when on earth it was awake,
-      And Isabella on its music hung:
-    Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,
-      As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;
-    And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,
-    Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briers among.
-
-    Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright
-      With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof
-    From the poor girl by magic of their light,
-      The while it did unthread the horrid woof
-    Of the late darken'd time--the murd'rous spite
-      Of pride and avarice--the dark pine roof
-    In the forest--and the sodden turfed dell,
-    When, without any word, from stabs it fell.
-
-    Saying moreover, "Isabel, my sweet!
-      Red whortle-berries droop above my head,
-    And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;
-      Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed
-    Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat
-      Comes from beyond the river to my bed:
-    Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,
-    And it shall comfort me within the tomb.
-
-    "I am a shadow now, alas! alas!
-      Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling
-    Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,
-      While little sounds of life are round me knelling,
-    And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,
-      And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,
-    Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,
-    And thou art distant in humanity."
-
-Some of these apparitions have, in all probability, been illusions
-caused by an object indistinctly seen in the pale moonlight, or by an
-accidental arrangement of the furniture of the apartment, transformed by
-an imagination devoted to the subject of its own sorrows, or influenced
-by a vivid dream, into the idea at the moment most prominent in the
-mind.
-
-The influence of remorse, or of those terrible emotions which accrue to
-the murderer on the perpetration of the foul deed, in causing
-hallucinations, is well known.
-
-The ghost of Banquo (Macbeth, Act III, Scene 3) is a type of many
-wondrous histories:--
-
-    "Prythee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo!--How say you?
-    Why what can I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
-    If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send
-    Those that we bury, back, our monuments
-    Shall be the maws of kites."
-
-Vanderkiste[64] relates the story of a convict who had murdered an
-overseer, and taken to the bush:--
-
-"He lived in the woods, and came armed to the huts to demand provisions
-for some time, but imagined he was continually haunted by the spirit of
-the man he had murdered. At last he delivered himself up to the
-authorities, declaring his life a burden. He was seen for days, dogged,
-as he conceived, by the spectre of his victim, and escaping from tree to
-tree."
-
-Sir Walter Scott records the story, that the captain of a slaver, in a
-fit of anger, shot at, and mortally wounded, one of his sailors. As the
-man was dying, he fixed his eyes upon the captain, and said, "Sir, you
-have done for me, but I will never leave you." The captain became grave
-and moody, and some time after he invited the mate into the cabin, and
-addressing him, said, "I need not tell you, Jack, what sort of hand we
-have got on board with us. He told me he would never leave me, and he
-has kept his word. You only see him now and then, but he is always by my
-side, and never out of my sight. At this very moment I see him. I am
-determined to bear it no longer, and I have resolved to leave you."
-Soon after this, the captain, watching an opportunity when he was
-unobserved, plunged into the sea: the mate rushed to the side of the
-ship, and the captain perceiving him, extended his hands upwards,
-exclaimed; "By ----, Bill is with me now!" and sunk.
-
-One of the most remarkable examples of hallucination arising from the
-feelings excited by cold-blooded murder is recorded by Boismont:--
-
-"A duellist, who had killed sixteen persons in single combat, was
-constantly accompanied by their phantoms; they never left him night or
-day."
-
-The solitary hours of Charles IX were made frightful by the shrieks and
-cries which had reached him during the massacre of the Eve of St.
-Bartholomew, and he was haunted for many days subsequent to its
-occurrence by hideous and bloody faces. Taking Ambrose Paré aside, at
-one time, he remarked that he wished they had not comprised in the
-massacre the aged and children.
-
-No cause is, however, so apt to engender hallucinations as religious
-enthusiasm, or an inordinate or rather fanatical occupation of the mind
-in the contemplation of religious subjects.
-
-In the saint-visions which are so numerously scattered in the annals of
-Christian churches and which were so common under the self-denying and
-ascetic rules of some of the monastic orders, we have examples; and
-Spenser's "Hermit" furnishes the type of this species of
-hallucination:--
-
-    "Thence forward by that painfull way they pas
-    Forth to an hill, that was both steepe and hy;
-    On top whereof a sacred chapel was,
-    And eke a little hermitage thereby,
-    Wherein an aged holy man did lie,
-    That day and night said his devotion,
-    Ne other worldly busines did apply:
-    His name was Heavenly Contemplation;
-    Of God and goodness, was his meditation.
-
-    Great grace that old man to him given had;
-    For God he often saw from heavens hight:
-    All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,
-    And through great age had lost their kindly sight,
-    Yet wondrous quick and persaunt was his spright,
-    As eagles eie, that can behold the sunne."
-
-The Virgin appeared to Ignatius Loyola, and confirming his designs,
-urged him to the enterprise he had in view for the establishment of the
-Roman Catholic church on a surer basis. Satan came visibly to Luther and
-contended with him, sometimes worsting him in argument. Swedenborg
-beheld in visions the heavenly scenes which his imagination had
-pourtrayed; while Pascal wrote he beheld an abyss of flames beside his
-writing-table; and Symeon Stylites conceived that Satan had appeared to
-him under the form of Jesus Christ, and invited him to ascend to heaven
-in a chariot drawn by cherubim. Symeon put out his foot to enter the
-chariot, when the whole vanished; and, as a punishment for his
-presumption, the offending thigh was affected with an ulcer, which
-obliged him to rest upon one leg for the remainder of his life.
-
-It is important to comprehend fully the influence of the imagination in
-developing visions of this nature, particularly in a disordered state of
-the health, from the important effects which they have exercised and
-still exercise upon mankind.
-
-The following example is an interesting illustration of the nature and
-source of these hallucinations:
-
-Some years ago considerable attention was excited in Germany by the
-publication of a series of visions which a lady of considerable literary
-attainments and high character had beheld, and for which she believed
-that she was indebted to divine favour.
-
-The hallucinations which she experienced had first been noted in the
-fourth year of her age, when one day, as she was dressing a doll, and
-for greater convenience had placed a large folio Bible beneath her feet,
-she heard a voice exclaim: "Put the book where you found it!" She did
-not immediately obey the order, as she saw no one, but in a few moments
-the mandate was repeated, and she thought some one took hold of her
-face. This hallucination, according to Dr. Hibbert, is to be regarded as
-a renovated feeling arising from some prior remonstrances regarding the
-holy volume; and, we would add, together with the altered sensation
-experienced in the face, was evidently due to the earlier stages of a
-disease which occasioned the more fully developed visions. After this
-period, she devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures; and her
-labours, in this respect, were incessant and protracted. In her seventh
-year she saw, when playing, a vision of a clear flame which entered the
-chamber door, in the centre of which was a strong bright light,
-described as about the size of a child six years old. This vision
-endured about half an hour. No other vision is mentioned until the
-period of her marriage, which proved unfortunate, embittering her life
-and causing her constantly to meditate on death. It was in this state of
-mind that the principal visions to which she was subjected occurred. On
-one occasion, after receiving some ill-treatment from her husband,
-broken down in spirits, and thinking the Lord had forsaken her, she made
-a resolution to desist from prayer. On retiring to bed, she repented the
-decision she had made, and prayed fervently. She awoke in the morning
-before daybreak, and was surprised to find the room vividly
-illuminated, and that at the bedside was seated a heavenly figure, in
-the form of an old man. This phantom was dressed in a blueish robe, and
-had bright hair; and the countenance shone like the clearest red and
-white crystal. It regarded her benignantly, and said, "_Proceed,
-proceed, proceed!_" At first the words were unintelligible to her, but a
-young and beautiful angel, which appeared on the other side of the bed,
-exclaimed: "_Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith, proceed in trials!_"
-After this the devil appeared, pulled her by the hair, and tormented her
-in other ways, until the angel interfered, and drove him away. Satan in
-this case assumed his usual hideous garb. Subsequently one of the angels
-exclaimed, three times: "Lord, this is sufficient;" and while saying
-these words, the lady beheld large wings on his shoulders, and knew him
-to be an angel of God. The light and the angels then vanished, and the
-lady felt eased of her grief, and arose.
-
-If the nature of the figures and the mode of action in these visions had
-not sufficed to show how completely they were dependent upon dominant
-ideas and a disordered state of the nervous system, the history of the
-case would demonstrate it. The early, protracted, and inordinate study
-of religious beliefs, similar to that which laid the basis of
-Swedenborg's visions; the painful state of the mind induced by her
-unhappy marriage, and disease, were the source of the hallucinations to
-which she was subject; for it was ascertained that when the visions
-occurred she always suffered from slight attacks of epilepsy.
-
-Intense and protracted mental exertion frequently gives rise to
-hallucinations.
-
-A medical gentleman in Edinburgh, while seated one evening in his
-library, after a period of excessive study, on raising his head, was
-startled by perceiving at the opposite side of the table the spectre of
-a gentleman who had died under melancholy circumstances some days
-previously, and at whose post-mortem examination he had assisted.
-
-That excessive action of the imagination, and consequent absorption of
-the mind in its own workings, to exclusion of external sensations, which
-is common in men of genius, has been a fertile source of hallucinations.
-
-In some instances the hallucinations have been "counterfeit
-presentments" of the ideas which have been most prominent in the mind;
-in others they have had no relation to that condition.
-
-Spinello, who had painted the Fall of the Angels, thought that he was
-haunted by the frightful devils which he had depicted. He was rendered
-so miserable by this hallucination that he destroyed himself. One of
-our own artists, who was much engaged in painting caricatures, became
-haunted by the distorted faces he drew; and the deep melancholy and
-terror which accompanied these apparitions caused him to commit suicide.
-Müller, who executed the copper-plate of the Sixtine Madonna, had more
-lovely visions. Towards the close of his life the Virgin appeared to
-him, and thanking him for the affection he had shown towards her,
-invited him to follow her to heaven. To achieve this, the artist starved
-himself to death. Beethoven, who became completely deaf in the decline
-of life, often heard his sublime compositions performed distinctly.
-
-It is related of Ben Jonson, that he spent the whole of one night in
-regarding his great toe, around which he saw Tartars, Turks, Romans, and
-Catholics climbing up, and struggling and fighting. Goëthe, when out
-riding one day, was surprised to see an exact image of himself on
-horseback, dressed in a light-coloured coat, riding towards him.
-
-A similar kind of hallucination to this of Goëthe's has been observed as
-a precursor of certain forms of insanity, and in the delirium of fever.
-
-Boismont records the case of a gentleman who was troubled with a
-spectral image of himself, which he had the power of calling before him
-voluntarily. This, for several years, was a source of amusement to him;
-but by degrees this phantom became more persistent, arose involuntarily,
-and addressed him. The hallucination then assumed a still graver
-character, for his double would dispute with him, and often foil him in
-argument; and coincidently with this phase of the disease the gentleman
-became melancholy, and he ultimately committed suicide.
-
-The imagination rarely gives rise to hallucinations of the senses of
-touch, taste, or smell alone. The sweet-smelling odours which are stated
-to have been experienced during the visions of angels and saints; and
-the foul and sulphurous fumes which have accompanied apparitions of the
-infernals, are, however, to be attributed to this cause.
-
-Thus far our illustrations and remarks have been confined to that class
-of hallucinations which are induced principally by the action of the
-imagination, mental emotion, or excessive exertion of the reasoning
-powers.
-
-There is, however, another class of hallucinations dependent upon
-certain disordered states of the general health and nervous system,
-which have an important bearing upon the belief in the supernatural.
-
-The simplest forms of hallucination of this class are those occasionally
-observed during the initiatory stages of some diseases, after the
-termination of exhausting affections, or during temporary morbid
-conditions of the brain.
-
-The following examples will illustrate the nature of the hallucinations
-arising from these sources.
-
-A lady, with whom we are acquainted, was walking early one morning in a
-lonely and unfrequented path, which was open to the eye for some
-distance. On approaching its termination, she was surprised to see a
-lady advancing towards her, dressed in deep mourning, and reading a
-book. Struck by the peculiar beauty of the lady's face, she turned round
-to gaze upon her as she passed; but, to her surprise, the figure
-vanished. Startled and alarmed, she hurried home, and almost immediately
-afterwards was seized with shiverings, and suffered from a violent
-attack of fever, characterised by severe cerebral disturbance. The
-hallucination in this case was caused by the changes induced in the
-nervous system by the initiatory stages of the disease.
-
-A young lady recovering from a severe attack of fever, was left in
-charge of the house during a fine Sunday evening in autumn, the
-remainder of the family having gone to church. A thunder-storm came on,
-with heavy rain, and she became very anxious about her aged father. On
-going into the room generally occupied by the family, there, to her
-great astonishment, she beheld, as she thought, her father sitting in
-his usual position. Supposing that he must have returned from church
-unwell, she advanced, placed her hand upon the semblance, and found
-nothing. Although startled, she attributed the vision to its proper
-cause, anxiety and weakness; but though she went in and out of the room
-several times, the spectre persisted for a considerable period.
-
-A merchant, while sitting in his counting-house, was annoyed by hearing
-voices outside the door conversing freely respecting his character, and
-speaking of him as a dishonoured man. Thinking it was some trick of his
-friends, he quietly opened the door, and was astonished to find no one.
-On closing it the voices again began in a similar strain; and on
-re-opening the door he still found no one. Alarmed, he left his office,
-and proceeded home, but the voices followed him, threatening punishment
-for imaginary crimes. This hallucination was accompanied by other signs
-of a disordered state of the brain, and it was not until after a period
-of entire relaxation from business, and a daily game at cricket, that
-the phantom-voices ceased.
-
-There are certain formidable disorders of the nervous system in which
-hallucinations affect all the senses.
-
-The following is an example of the diseases of this class, and it will
-show the influence which they are liable to exert in the development of
-certain forms of superstition.
-
-A maiden lady, aged forty years, who from early youth had been of a very
-susceptible and restless disposition, suffered from hallucinations which
-persisted for many years.
-
-At first the sight alone was affected, and she saw numerous persons of
-singular and fantastic form. Subsequently she heard voices, which
-professed to have taken up their abode in her stomach, and addressed her
-from thence. These voices tormented her; commanded all her actions;
-informed her of what took place within the body; gave her instructions
-upon diseases, and even prescribed for them. The voices gave her
-information respecting the characters of divers persons, and
-occasionally endowed her with the power of expressing herself in terms
-more florid and fluent than she was accustomed to. Often the voices
-conversed on geography, grammar, rhetoric, &c.; and they would reprove
-her when she had done amiss. They told her that she was possessed, and
-although she was not superstitious, and fully recognized the
-hallucinations she suffered from, she at this time sought a priest to
-exorcise her, thought much of eternity, and sometimes gave herself up to
-despair. At one time the voices told her she would become queen; often
-they conversed with her upon strange, and sometimes even abominable
-subjects; then they would say things extremely comical, and make her
-laugh. They would please, and then mock her, and then assail her more
-violently than ever, and spoil like harpies everything she touched or
-did. If she took a glass of water, the voices would call out that it was
-poisoned; and frequently they urged her to destroy herself. When she
-walked out, if she passed a female, the voices would cry out that she
-carried musk (the odour of which the lady abominated) and immediately
-she smelt this odour; if a man passed her, she was affected with the
-smell of tobacco. The voices often gave her no rest until she did what
-they liked, and they even ordered her to Paris, to place herself under
-the care of physicians there.
-
-The visions she suffered from were very singular. Her apartment was
-filled with persons of all characters and descriptions; numerous
-processions defiled before her, and some of the figures had but one half
-the body, a profile, or one eye; they were large or small, and
-occasionally underwent singular and fantastic changes of form.
-
-The food she took did not possess its natural taste, and the voices
-often gave unpleasant savours, to prevent her eating.
-
-When she journeyed, she felt as if soaked with water, and she would
-attempt to wring her clothes.
-
-Addressing one of her physicians, when the malady was fully developed,
-she said, "I know that it is monomania, but the voices are stronger than
-my will. I wish you to prescribe for me, it is impossible for me to
-remain in one place."[65]
-
-This case is an interesting illustration of a form of disease, which,
-when developed in persons who are subject to religious enthusiasm, has
-given rise to the belief of possession with devils (_demonomania_).
-Instances of this disease are frequently met with in the French asylums.
-
-Many other forms of hallucination occur in insanity, monomania, fever,
-hysteria, and other diseases, in dreams, and from the influence of
-certain poisonous substances taken into the system. Some of these
-hallucinations are of considerable interest, since they have been the
-prime cause of many superstitions.
-
-In addition to the hallucinations of the hearing already mentioned, in
-certain diseases, words spoken in the right ear have been heard in the
-left, and _vice versâ_; and under the influence of opium or haschish
-(prepared from the Indian hemp), the sense becomes, occasionally, so
-developed, that a word pronounced low, or a slight movement, sounds like
-a peal of thunder. Hallucinations of the sight have occasionally
-presented figures of colossal stature, or of extreme diminutiveness; or
-the patient has conceived the idea that he was so tall that he was
-unable to walk erect in a lofty apartment, or so diminutive that he
-dreaded the movements of any near to him, lest they should do him harm.
-Pleasant or fetid odours are sometimes constantly present to the smell.
-Feuchtersleben states the case of a lady who was long haunted with the
-effluvia as of a charnel-house. The taste is subjected to hallucinations
-of exquisitely flavoured viands and wines; or the reverse, no food being
-taken; or everything taken presents one undeviating flavour, which may
-be pleasant or unpleasant, or it has no taste at all. A sensation of
-_flying_ is not uncommon. Boismont has a friend who frequently
-experiences this sensation, and it often occurs in dreams. A friend of
-ours is in the habit of dreaming that he is suspended about a foot above
-the surface of the earth, and is carried along by simple volition,
-without movement of the limbs; and St. Jerome states, that often in
-dreams he flew from the earth over mountains and seas. Our ideas of
-depth and space are sometimes increased in dreams to an extent that is
-inexpressible and almost bewildering; and the sensation of falling into
-an abyss is common to the dreamer. The idea of time is often extended
-indefinitely; in the space of a single night, days, weeks, years, and
-even ages, have appeared to elapse. Transformation of the figure is
-occasionally met with among the hallucinations of insanity; and in the
-state induced by haschish, the singular and fantastic forms which those
-under its influence, and the parties surrounding them, have appeared to
-undergo, are of great interest. "The eyelashes," writes one gentleman,
-"lengthened themselves indefinitely, and rolled themselves as threads of
-gold on little ivory bobbins, which turned unassisted, with frightful
-rapidity.... I still saw my comrades at certain moments, but _deformed_,
-half men, half plants, with the pensive airs of an ibis standing on one
-foot, of ostriches flapping their wings, &c."--"I imagined that I was
-the parroquet of the Queen of Sheba, and I imitated as well as I was
-able the cries of this praiseworthy bird."
-
-In the state caused by haschish it occasionally also happens that the
-person under its influence may be caused to speak or act in any manner
-that is suggested to him. This phenomenon is also seen in dreams; in
-both conditions the half-awakened mind automatically pursues the train
-of thought which has been suggested to it either by the voice or by
-certain sensations.
-
-Lastly, in certain disordered conditions of the system, the person has
-the power of looking, as it were, into himself, and ascertaining what is
-going on there, or of extending his sensual powers beyond the bounds of
-their ordinary sphere, and ascertaining what transpires in other places,
-or at a distance of many miles (_clairvoyance_). The gentleman from
-whose experience of the effects of haschish we have already quoted,
-thought he could look at will into his stomach, and that he saw there,
-in the form of an emerald, from which escaped millions of sparkles, the
-drug he had swallowed.
-
-By a careful consideration of the illusions and hallucinations to which
-we are liable, we obtain a clue to unravel the wild fantasies which
-constitute the greater part of the most prominent superstitions.
-
-If we reflect on the superstitious ideas which filled the minds of our
-forefathers, and follow them back, in their deepening intensity, into
-the middle ages, we can easily imagine how the irregular and fantastic
-figures which an indistinct and disordered vision gave rise to in the
-gloom of the night, were transformed into fiends and demons; how
-spectres, clothed in their horrid white and blue panoply, were seen
-stalking over the earth, and haunting the murder-stained castle, glade,
-and forest; how the dimly illuminated mists of the evening and morning
-shadowed forth the forms of the dead, and the spirits of the waters and
-the air; how in the mist of Killarney, an O'Donoghue, mounted on his
-milk-white steed, and attended by a host of fairy forms, swept over the
-beautiful lake; and a spectral array arose night after night from the
-bed of the rushing Moldau, and besieged the walls of Prague; how the
-moonbeams chequering the deep recesses of the woods, and the banks and
-meadows overhung with foliage, were metamorphised into fairies; how the
-wind howling among the rocks and mountains, sweeping through the
-valleys, or whispering amid the trees and about the nooks and corners of
-the turretted castle and ruinous mansion, bore on its bosom the sounds
-of spectre-horsemen, demon-hunters, and fiend-like hounds, or the wail
-and lamentations of wandering and lost spirits, and the shrieks of the
-infernals; and how the billows, rushing into the caverns and deep
-fissures in the cliffs of a rock-bound coast, filled the air with the
-mysterious and incomprehensible language of the spirits of the deep.
-
-A clue also is obtained to other forms of superstition.
-
-The power which the witch was supposed to possess of transporting
-herself from place to place, and which those self-deluded wretches
-themselves believed; and the orgies of the witch-sabbath, which were
-again and again deposed to, were hallucinations due to a form of
-insanity--for we may so call it--prevailing at the period, which was
-determined by the nature of the superstitious beliefs entertained. The
-real character of this superstition is well shown by an incident which
-is recorded by Jung-Stilling.
-
-He writes:--"I am acquainted with a tale, for the truth of which I can
-vouch, because it is taken from the official documents of an old
-witch-process. An old woman was imprisoned, put to the torture, and
-confessed all that witches are generally charged with. Amongst others,
-she also denounced a neighbour of hers, who had been with her on the
-Blocksberg, the preceding Walpurgis night. This woman was called, and
-asked if it were true what the prisoner said of her? On which she stated
-that, on Walpurgis eve she had called upon this woman, because she had
-something to say to her. On entering her kitchen, she found the prisoner
-busy in preparing a decoction of herbs. On asking her what she was
-boiling, she said, with a smiling and mysterious mien, "Wilt thou go
-with me to the Brocken?" From curiosity, and in order to ascertain what
-there was in the matter, she answered, "Yes: I should like to go well
-enough." On which the prisoner chattered some time about the feast, and
-the dance, and the enormous goat. She then drank of the decoction, and
-offered it to her, saying: "There, take a hearty drink of it, that thou
-mayest be able to ride through the air:" she likewise put the pot to her
-mouth, and made as if she drank of it, but did not taste a drop. During
-this, the prisoner had put a pitchfork between her legs, and placed
-herself upon the hearth; that she soon sunk down, and began to sleep and
-snore: after having looked on for some time, she was at length tired of
-it, and went home.
-
-The next morning, the prisoner came to her, and said, "Well, how dost
-thou like being at the Brocken? Sith, there were glorious doings." On
-which she had laughed heartily, and told her that she had not drunk of
-the potion, and that she, the prisoner, had not been at the Brocken, but
-had slept with her pitchfork upon the hearth. That the woman, on this,
-became angry, and said to her, that she ought not to deny having been at
-the Brocken, and having danced and kissed the goat."[66]
-
-Gassendi relates an experiment to the same effect. He anointed some
-peasants with a pomade made of belladonna or opium, persuading them that
-the operation would convey them to the witch-sabbath. After a profound
-sleep, they awoke, and told how they had been present at the sabbath,
-and the pleasures they had enjoyed.
-
-Stupifying and intoxicating drugs were, in all probability, freely used
-by sorcerers, and in the ancient mysteries, and to their use is to be
-attributed many of the illusions and hallucinations which are familiar
-in the details of the practice of the occult sciences.
-
-Jung-Stilling quotes a singularly interesting example of a method of
-practising one of the most important processes of magic; and an
-examination of it satisfactory shows the manner in which some of the
-most striking of the deceptions of that art were brought about, and how
-it happened that the professor, as well as the student, was equally
-deluded.
-
-In Eckhartshausen's "Key to Magic" there is an account of a young
-Scotsman "who, though he meddled not with the conjuration of spirits,
-and such like charlatanry, had learned, however, a remarkable piece of
-art from a Jew, which he communicated also to Eckhartshausen, and made
-the experiment with him,--which is surprising, and worthy of perusal. He
-that wishes to raise and see any particular spirit, _must prepare
-himself for it, for some days together, both spiritually and
-physically_. There are also particular and remarkable requisites and
-relations necessary betwixt such a spirit and the person who wishes to
-see it--relations which cannot otherwise be explained, than on the
-ground of the intervention of some secret influence from the invisible
-world. After all these precautions, a vapour is produced in a room, from
-certain materials which Eckhartshausen, with propriety, does not
-divulge, on account of the dangerous abuse which might be made of it,
-which visibly forms itself into a figure which bears a resemblance to
-that which the person wishes to see. In this there is no question of any
-magic-lantern or optical artifice; but the vapour really forms a human
-figure, similar to that which the individual desires to behold. I will
-now insert the conclusion of the story in Eckhartshausen's own words:--
-
-"Some time after the departure of the stranger, that is, the Scotsman, I
-made the experiment for one of my friends. He saw as I did, and had the
-same sensations.
-
-"The observations that we made were these. As soon as the ingredients
-were thrown into the chafing-dish, a whitish body forms itself, that
-seems to hover above the chafing-dish, as large as life.
-
-"It possesses the likeness of the person whom we wished to see, only the
-visage is of an ashy paleness.
-
-"On approaching the figure, one is conscious of a resistance, similar to
-that which is felt when going against a strong wind, which drives one
-back.
-
-"If one speaks with it, one remembers no more distinctly what is spoken;
-and when the appearance vanishes, one feels as if awakening from a
-dream. The head is stupified, and a contraction is felt about the
-abdomen. It is also very singular that the same appearance presents
-itself when one is in the dark, or when looking upon dark objects.
-
-"The unpleasantness of this sensation was the reason why I was unwilling
-to repeat the experiment, although often urged to do so by many
-individuals."[67]
-
-It would be difficult to conceive any more powerful method of inducing
-hallucinations than that detailed in this instructive and interesting
-recital. The previous schooling of the imagination, in order thoroughly
-to imbue it with the train of ideas requisite for the full development
-of the phenomenon, and the subsequent intoxication induced by the
-inhalation of powerful narcotic vapours--an intoxication which, as we
-have already seen in the example of haschish, is peculiarly apt to the
-development of hallucinations--will sufficiently account for the
-illusion of the smoke of the chafing-dish presenting any figure which
-the mind desires to see. The difficulty which the experimenter
-experienced in approaching the phantom, and which he compares to the
-resistance which is felt when contending against a strong wind, was
-evidently due to the powerful emotion which he experienced depriving him
-of that control of the voluntary muscles, such as we find in a person
-paralyzed by fear or astonishment; or perhaps it was rather a feeling
-similar to that experienced in nightmare, when, whatever effort we may
-make, we feel almost incapable of motion.
-
-The action of the narcotic vapour alone was sufficient to induce
-hallucinations; for, persuaded by a very experienced physician, who
-"maintained that the narcotic ingredients which formed the vapour must
-of necessity violently affect the imagination, and might be very
-injurious, according to circumstances," Eckhartshausen made the
-experiment on himself without previous preparation; "but," he writes,
-"scarcely had I cast the quantum of ingredients into the chafing-dish,
-when a figure presented itself. I was, however, seized with such a
-horror, that I was obliged to leave the room. I was very ill during
-three hours, and thought I saw the figure always before me. Towards
-evening, after inhaling the fumes of vinegar, and drinking it with
-water, I was better again; but for three weeks afterwards I felt a
-debility: and the strangest part of the matter is, that when I remember
-the circumstance, and look for some time upon any dark object, this ashy
-pale figure still presents itself very vividly to my sight. After this I
-no longer dared to make any experiments with it."
-
-The use of intoxicating and stupifying drugs doubtless contributed also
-to the development of those ideas of strange and wonderful
-transformations and anomalies of form with which the legends and
-romances of Oriental and European nations teem. In the examples of
-hallucinations we have already given from this source, we find the key
-to the explanation of several of these transformations; and the
-elaborated supernatural framework of fairy tales, in which men are
-changed without compunction into inferior animals, trees, or vegetables,
-has probably had a similar origin.
-
-The state of "clairvoyance," and that condition of the nervous system
-which is found in certain diseases, dreams, and under the influence of
-narcotic poisons, in which, by suggestions, in whatever manner given,
-certain actions and trains of thought may be excited at the will of the
-suggestor, is seen also, and may be induced at will in those conditions
-of the system which are summed up under the terms "mesmerism," "animal
-magnetism," "electro-biology," &c.; and the theories which have been
-invented to explain them, and which are expressed in the above names,
-are not only needless, but inconsistent with the facts observed. The
-so-called mesmeric and electro-biological trance is strictly allied to
-certain forms of dreaming; and the whole of the results witnessed may be
-explained by certain admitted physiological and physical laws of action,
-and are due to leading trains of thought which are excited by
-suggestions direct or indirect. As to the higher faculty of prevision
-claimed in this state, we are not aware that, as yet, a single
-trustworthy instance has been established.
-
-There is a class of spectral apparitions which differ from those which
-we have already dwelt upon, inasmuch as they have appeared to
-foreshadow, or have occurred coincidently with, the death of an
-individual; or they have made known events occurring at a distance, or
-have brought to light things else hidden by the grave.
-
-In the deepening gloom of twilight the seer of Scotland often witnessed
-the _wraiths_ of those who were about to die, wreathed in the ascending
-mists of the night, troop in ghostly silence before his horror-stricken
-vision; and the _Bodach Glas_ crossed the path of the death-laden Mac
-Ivor; the _Bodac au Dun_, or Ghost of the Hill, warned the Rothmurchan
-of approaching calamity; the spectre of the Bloody Hand scared the
-Kincardines; the _Bodach Gartin_ glided in significant horror through
-the gloomy passages of Gartnibeg House; and the Girl with the Hairy Left
-Hand--_Manch Monlach_--pointed to the death-bolt about to carry weeping
-and wailing into the halls of Tulloch Gorus.
-
-The spectral _fetch_ shadowed forth in the sister isle the dark course
-of death; while the Banshee mourned with the frightful accents of the
-dead over the dying scions of the ancient families. Hovering near the
-sorrow-laden mansion, her robe flowing wide in the night air, and her
-tangled tresses borne upon the wind, she cried the keen of another world
-adown the vaulted passages, and sobbed in ghastly agony her bitter
-lamentations.
-
-The _Gwrâch y Rhibyn_--Hag of the Dribble--when the night had covered
-the earth, spread out her leathern-like wings, and flitting before the
-house of the death-stricken Cambrians, shrieked in harsh, broken, and
-prolonged tones their names.
-
-In our own land the spectres of all those who would die in the parish
-during the year might be seen walking in ghostly procession to the
-church, or entering its portals, by him who would watch, three years
-consecutively, during the last hour of the night and the first hour of
-the morning, in the porch, on the Eve of St. Mark, or would kneel and
-look through the keyhole of the door of the sanctuary at midnight on the
-Eve of St. John the Baptist.
-
-The _White Lady_, who haunts the ancient castle of the celebrated
-Bohemian family of Rosenberg-Neuhaus, and who also appears from time to
-time in the castles of the allied families of Brandenburg, Baden, and
-Darmstadt,--Trzebon, Islubocka, Bechin, and Tretzen, and even has been
-seen in Berlin, Bayreuth, and at Carlsrhue is of historical notoriety.
-Tall of stature, attired in white, and wearing a white widow's veil
-adorned with ribbons, through the folds of which, and from within her, a
-faint light has been seen to glimmer, she glides with a modest air
-through the corridors and apartments of those castles and palaces in
-which the death of one of her family is about to occur; and she has been
-seen at other times, and oft, with the aspect and air as though the
-spirit had a melancholy pleasure in visiting and hovering about her
-descendants. It is said to be the ghost of one Perchta Von Rosenberg,
-who was born between A.D. 1420 and 1430, and subsequently married to
-John Von Lichtenstein, a rich and profligate baron, who so embittered
-her life that she was obliged to seek relief from her relatives, and she
-died borne down with the insults and indescribable distress she endured.
-Among the old paintings of the family of Rosenberg was found a portrait
-of this lady, attired after the fashion of the times, and bearing an
-exact resemblance to the "_White Lady_." In December, 1628, she appeared
-in Berlin, and was heard to exclaim, "Veni, judica vivos et mortuos:
-judicium mihi adhuc superest!"--"Come, judge the living and the dead; my
-fate is not yet decided."
-
-The _Klage-weib_ (Mourning Woman) when the storm is driving the rift
-before it, and the moon shines fitfully and faintly on the earth, may be
-seen stalking along, her gigantic and shadowy form enveloped in dark
-flowing grave-clothes, her deathlike countenance and deep cavernous eyes
-freezing the unhappy spectator with horror, while, extending her vast
-arm, she sweeps it above the cottage marked out by death.
-
-In the Tyrol also, the phantom of a white woman looks in at the window
-of a house where a person must die.
-
-These are examples of spectral apparitions foreboding death and
-misfortune, which the lapse of ages and the influence of superstition
-have invested with a semblance of reality, approximating them in
-apparent truthfulness to historical facts.
-
-It is a needless, and would be a thankless task, to show how these
-notions were the legitimate result of the ideas of the supernatural
-entertained at the period when they were developed; and how when the
-superstitions once assumed a definite form, the slightest illusion
-during the period of sickness or calamity, whether observed in the
-castellated mansion, pregnant generally with deeds of darkness or blood,
-or in the twilight or the storm of a moon-lit night, were converted into
-these phantoms;[68] or the imperfectly remembered dream, or its vivid
-depiction of the superstition, shadowed forth the same.
-
-Scant of romance, and that wild and thrilling medium through which many
-of our old legends are seen, we have handed to us numerous business-like
-stories, some of very recent date, in which the same principles are
-involved as in the legends we have detailed, and which demand grave
-attention, from the honest truthfulness with which they are evidently
-detailed, and the events which they appear to have foreshadowed.
-
-Let us examine some of these instances, and endeavour to ascertain
-whether they come under the character of illusions or hallucinations; or
-whether they are to be placed in another category, and to be regarded as
-the results of supernatural agency, as is most frequently done.
-
-In "Blackwood's Magazine" for 1840, there is a letter which contains the
-following statement:--
-
-"The 'Hawk' being on her passage from the Cape of Good Hope towards the
-island of Java, and myself having the charge of the middle watch,
-between one and two in the morning I was taken suddenly ill, which
-obliged me to send for the officer next in turn; I then went down on the
-gun-deck, and sent my boy for a light. In the meanwhile, I sat down on a
-chest in the steerage, under the after-grating, when I felt a gentle
-squeeze by a very cold hand; I started, and saw a figure in white;
-stepping back, I said, 'God's my life! who is that?' It stood and gazed
-at me a short time, stooped its head to get a more perfect view, sighed
-aloud, repeated the exclamation 'Oh!' three times, and instantly
-vanished. The night was fine, though the moon afforded through the
-gratings but a weak light, so that little of feature could be seen,
-only a figure rather tall than otherwise, and white-clad. My boy
-returning now with a light, I sent him to the cabins of all the
-officers, when he brought me word that not one of them had been
-stirring. Coming afterwards to St. Helena, homeward-bound, hearing of my
-sister's death, and finding the time so nearly coinciding, it added much
-to my painful concern; and I have only to thank God, that when I saw
-what I now verily believe to have been her apparition (my sister Ann), I
-did not then know the melancholy occasion of it."
-
-The superstitious feelings which we find pervading the mind of the
-gentleman relating this incident, and which is evinced by its
-termination; the circumstances under which the apparition took place,
-namely, a dim uncertain light, that most favourable to illusion; an
-attack of indisposition leading to alteration of the natural sensations;
-and lastly, and most important of all, the after-conclusion arrived at
-on hearing of the sister's death, and under the influence of which the
-account was written, and which, it is evident from the nature of the
-details, gave rise to that definite statement which has been
-recorded,--all tend to the conclusion that the spectre was an illusion,
-and that its significance was a phase imparted to it by superstitious
-feelings alone.
-
-The influence of subsequent conclusions in warping the real history of
-an event, and giving a definite and precise character to what would
-otherwise have been vague and inconclusive, as is witnessed in the above
-story, is one of the most important fallacies pervading ghost-stories.
-There is no source of self-deception to which we are exposed, more
-insidious; and it is requisite to keep it constantly in view, not only
-in relations of this nature, but in the examination of events of any
-kind whatever. The colouring which facts receive from this source, too
-often hides their real character; and the reciter is perfectly
-unconscious of the erroneous light which he casts upon them. Hence the
-importance of ascertaining the peculiar bias and tendencies of thought
-which appertain to one who records occurrences upon which important
-conclusions or theories may be based.
-
-The vicious habit which has been common among the advocates of
-supernatural visitations, of supporting their opinions upon the
-assertions of men of known probity and honour, to the complete exclusion
-of an examination of the sources of delusion and error to which these
-men were liable from the character of their previous education, habits
-of thought, associations, &c., and from their imperfect acquaintance
-with the fallacies to which they may have been exposed, has been a
-fertile source of error.
-
-A so-called fact is not an abstract truth; it is simply a fact so far as
-it relates to the assertor, and the credence given to it by others
-depends upon the extent to which it agrees with their experience, or
-upon the knowledge that the assertor has by previous study or experience
-so far diminished the probability of error on the subject to which it
-relates, that the statement may be received without hesitation.
-
-Another form of ghost-story is that in which the spirit of the dead has
-been compelled to wander in misery on the earth, for some crime or
-error, small or great, committed during life, and which, unless it be
-atoned for or rectified, prevents its eternal repose.
-
-A story of this kind is given by Jung-Stilling, and however absurd it
-may be in some parts, it is interesting from the precision of its
-details enabling us to lay hold of a clue to the explanation of the
-majority of these tales.
-
-In 1756, M. Doerien, one of the proctors of Caroline College, Brunswick,
-was taken ill and died, shortly after "St. John's Day" (June 24th).
-Immediately before his death, he requested to see another of the
-proctors, M. Hoefer, having some communication of importance to make to
-him; but before that gentleman arrived, death had taken place. After
-some time a report became prevalent in the college that the ghost of the
-deceased proctor had been seen; but as this proceeded merely from the
-young, little attention had been given to it. At length, in October,
-upwards of three months after the death of M. Doerien, as M. Hoefer was
-proceeding on his accustomed nightly round, between the hours of eleven
-and twelve, in one of the corridors he saw the spectre of that
-professor, clothed in a common night-gown and white night-cap. This
-unexpected sight terrified M. Hoefer somewhat, but recollecting that he
-was in the path of duty, he recovered himself, and advancing to the
-spectre, endeavoured to examine it by the light of the candle he held in
-his hand; but such a horror came over him, that he could scarcely
-withdraw the hand in which he extended the light, and from that moment
-it was so swollen, "that some months elapsed before it was healed." The
-following night he was accompanied in his rounds by a philosopher,
-Professor Oeder, who was rather sceptical on the subject of apparitions;
-but on approaching the spot in which the spectre had been seen on the
-previous evening, there they beheld it again in the same position.
-
-Others attempted to gain a sight of the ghost, but it would not manifest
-itself, not even to MM. Oeder and Hoefer, until the former gentleman,
-wearied with his useless watching during a somewhat prolonged period,
-exclaimed, "I have gone after the spirit long enough to please him; if
-he now wants anything, let him come to me." But what followed? About
-fourteen days after, when he was thinking about anything else than of
-ghosts, he was suddenly and rudely awakened, between three and four
-o'clock in the morning, by some external motion. On opening his eyes, he
-saw an apparition opposite to the bed, standing by the clothes-press,
-which was only two paces from it, that presented itself in the same
-attire as the spirit. He raised himself up, and could then clearly
-discern the whole face. He fixed his eyes steadfastly upon the phantom,
-until, after a period of eight minutes, it became invisible.
-
-The next morning he was again awakened about the same time, and saw the
-same apparition, only with this difference, that the door of the press
-made a cracking noise, just as if some one leaned upon it. This time the
-spirit remained longer, so that Professor Oeder spoke to it as follows:
-"Get thee hence, thou evil spirit; what hast thou to do here?" At these
-words the phantom made all kinds of dreadful motions, waved its head,
-its hands, and its feet in such a manner, that the terrified Professor
-began to pray, "Who trusts in God, &c.," and "God the Father dwell with
-us, &c.," on which the spirit vanished.
-
-After eight days the spirit again appeared, "but with this difference,
-that it came from the press directly towards him, and inclined its head
-over him," whereupon the terrified Professor struck out at it, and the
-spirit retired; but no sooner had he laid down, than it again advanced,
-and he, noticing that its aspect was "more in sorrow than in anger,"
-observed it attentively, and saw that the ghost had a short tobacco-pipe
-in its mouth. This circumstance and the spirit's mild mien induced him
-to address the ghost, and ask, "Are you still owing anything." He knew
-beforehand that the deceased had left some debts, and the amount of a
-few dollars, _which occasioned the inquiry_. The spirit looked
-attentively at this query; and at length, guided by the tobacco-pipe,
-when the Professor asked, "Are you perhaps owing something for tobacco?"
-the spirit retreated and suddenly disappeared. Measures were immediately
-taken to liquidate the debt which was found to be owing for tobacco.
-
-The next night Professor Seidler remained with Oeder. The spirit again
-appeared, but not as formerly, at the press, but near it, close to the
-white wall. It was visible only to Oeder, his brother professor merely
-seeing "something white." From this night Oeder burnt a night-lamp, and
-he no longer saw the apparition; but for some nights, at the same time,
-from three to five, he was troubled with uneasy sensations, and
-frequently heard a noise at the clothes-press and knocking at the door.
-By degrees these sensations passed away, and he discontinued the
-night-lamp; but the second night after, the spectre again appeared "at
-the accustomed hour, but visibly darker." It had, moreover, a new sign
-in its hand--"It was like a picture, and had a hole in the centre, into
-which the spirit frequently put its hand. After long ruminating and
-inquiring what the deceased might mean by these signs, so much was at
-length elicited, that a short time before his illness he had taken some
-paintings in a magic lantern from a picture-dealer on trial, which had
-not been returned. The paintings were given to the rightful owner, and
-from that time Oeder continued undisturbed."
-
-In this story we notice, first, that a report was prevalent in the
-college, that the ghost of M. Doerien had been seen by several persons;
-and it is but natural to suppose that such a statement would exercise a
-powerful effect upon the mind of M. Hoefer, who had been placed in the
-painful position of being summoned to the death-bed of his friend, to
-receive a communication "necessary to mention to him," but had arrived
-in time only to witness the death-struggle. Upwards of three months
-after the death of M. Doerien, and when M. Hoefer was evidently in a
-disordered state of health, as is indicated by the swelling of the hand,
-and subsequent persistence of this swelling for some time, as this
-gentleman was making his usual rounds by the light of a taper in the
-dead of night, he witnesses the first apparition in a situation pregnant
-with associations of the deceased. The apparition may have been an
-illusion, suggested at first by some outlines indistinctly seen; or it
-may have been, and it is more probable to have been, an hallucination
-excited by the association of ideas in a person whose system was in a
-disordered state.
-
-That connection of ideas, similar or dissimilar, which is acquired by
-habit or otherwise, so that one of them, in whatever manner we may
-become conscious of it, will suggest and give rise to the others,
-without the intervention of a voluntary action of the mind, is familiar
-to most persons.
-
-The association which the mind habitually forms between certain objects
-and scenes, and persons connected with them, is most evident when a
-separation has been effected by death or removal to a distance; and, as
-is well-known, and has probably been painfully experienced by most
-persons, when the mind has been rallying from a state of abstraction or
-reverie, the sight of some object, or an indistinct sound, which during
-the full activity of the faculties would not have been regarded, or
-would simply have sufficed to arouse an ordinary reminiscence, will
-cause to flash athwart the mind, a vivid and startling image of the
-deceased or far distant one.
-
-We well remember some years ago, when a fellow-student, with whom we had
-been on very intimate terms, was cut off after a few days' illness. He
-had been in the habit of spending much time in our rooms. For some
-months after his death, particularly when wearied with study, a slight
-noise in the passage or at the door of the room has given rise to so
-vivid an impression that he was approaching, or at the door, that it has
-required an effort of the mind to quell the hallucination.
-
-The apparition which M. Hoefer witnessed, was most probably an
-hallucination of this kind; the corridor, and position in which it
-occurred, recalling to memory, in all the vividness of reality, the form
-and lineaments of that deceased friend who had formerly frequented it
-along with him.
-
-We have already seen an instance of a somewhat similar character, in the
-account given in a previous paper of the apparition of a father, then
-alive, but absent at church, to his daughter at home. In that case the
-apparition was excited by the sight of the arm-chair generally occupied
-by the old gentleman, and connected with it alone, the association of
-the ideas being obvious; and the state of the brain forming, so to
-speak, the substratum of the hallucination, was induced by uneasiness
-caused by a heavy thunder-storm acting on a frame debilitated by fever.
-
-The apparition of the following night, which was seen also by Professor
-Oeder, was, so far as M. Hoefer was concerned, a modification of the
-hallucination of the preceding night, prompted by the belief that the
-apparition he had witnessed was supernatural; and the precise similarity
-of the apparition professed to have been seen by M. Oeder, to that seen
-by M. Hoefer on that and the preceding night, would lead to the
-suspicion that in the former gentleman it was a trick of the imagination
-alone,--a suspicion confirmed by the subsequent progress of the tale.
-
-Professor Oeder brooded upon the apparition he had witnessed, and, it is
-important to mark, made every endeavour for some time to obtain a second
-sight of it, but failed, until wearied out with his fruitless research,
-he ceased to hunt after it. Fourteen days afterwards, he states that he
-was suddenly and rudely awakened "by some external motion" (which is
-evidently an after-conclusion derived from what followed), and saw the
-apparition of Doerien standing by the clothes-press.
-
-In other words, he awoke suddenly out of a troubled sleep, and in the
-transition state between sleeping and waking, in which the mental images
-are as bright and defined as in dreams, the subject which had occupied
-his mind so much of late was presented before him in a visible form. As
-it not unfrequently happens when a dream has made a powerful impression
-on the mind, it is repeated again, so on the following night M. Oeder's
-hallucination occurred, but with the addition of a slight creaking noise
-of the clothes-press door.
-
-Oeder was now fully convinced of the supernatural character of his
-visitant, and when the spectre again appeared to him, which was after a
-period of eight days, he having adopted the opinion at that period very
-prevalent, of troubled spirits, proceeded to inquire as to the cause of
-its visitations; and noticing a white tobacco-pipe in the spirit's
-mouth, and _knowing_ that the deceased Doerien had "left some debts to
-the amount of a few dollars," he asked, "Are you perhaps owing for
-tobacco?" whereupon the spirit disappeared. Here then we find an
-hallucination, either in the dreaming or waking state, presenting the
-precise similitude of the Professor's opinions and conceptions
-respecting the possible cause of the spectre.
-
-The following night, when the spectre appeared again, a friend was with
-Oeder, but this friend saw "nothing further than something white,"--no
-very extraordinary sight in a room which had white walls, and was not
-perfectly dark.
-
-From this time Oeder used a night-lamp, and the spectre no more
-appeared, but by certain sensations and noises he knew it was in the
-apartment.
-
-The invisibility of the spectre, when the light was present, would
-indicate that a sensation of light excited in the eye by a disordered
-state of the head, such as we have fully dwelt upon in a previous part
-of the work, played an important part of the hallucination; and the
-disturbed sleep for so many nights, and uneasy sensations, point to a
-circumstance which we have not yet alluded to, that the Professor's
-health was not in good condition,--the probable cause of the whole
-series of hallucinations.
-
-The uneasy sensations ceased, the light was dispensed with, the spectre
-again came, but it was darker, and contained a new sign in its hand,
-which, by following out a similar course of reasoning as upon the
-tobacco-pipe, and by long ruminating and inquiring, the Professor
-puzzled out to signify some paintings belonging to a magic lantern which
-Doerien had received on trial before his death, and which had not been
-returned. They were sought up, sent to their rightful owner, and the
-apparition vanished to return no more.
-
-It is to be remembered that this story, like most others of a similar
-nature, has been written under a full belief of the supernatural
-character of the apparitions, and it has received a colouring
-accordingly; and our comments suffice to show that no care, no attempt,
-has been made by the ghost-seer, to ascertain how much the apparitions
-might depend upon some illusion or hallucinations connected with his
-bodily health. The progress of the tale further shows that the
-apparitions occurred, in both M. Hoefer as well as Professor Oeder's
-case, in connection with symptoms of disordered health, and that they
-added nothing to what these gentlemen knew, or could work out, as M.
-Oeder did, by his own reason and judgment; in short, that they were
-simple images of ideas they already possessed or arrived at from the
-information they obtained.
-
-Other sources of error in the judgment could be pointed out, and other
-causes of illusion and hallucination in the above tale, but we have
-written sufficient to show its worthlessness.
-
-One of the most formidable objections to the majority of ghost-stories
-of this nature is the insufficiency of the authority upon which they are
-given. In many instances we cannot trace them satisfactorily to their
-origin; in others, we have received them after they have passed through
-the hands of several persons; and in still more (as in the tales we have
-just analysed) there is intrinsic evidence that no endeavour has been
-made to obviate or elicit the sources of fallacy to which the ghost-seer
-has been exposed, and diminish as much as possible the chances of error.
-
-The story of the "Last Hours of Lord Lyttleton" is a singularly
-interesting example of a ghost-story, based upon insufficient authority,
-and probably also upon a trivial circumstance, receiving almost
-universal credence; and it shows, moreover, how readily the
-superstitious feelings of the listeners will lead them to receive
-without due examination, tales which in themselves may be utterly void
-of satisfactory foundation; and induce them to retail subsequently an
-account which has probably received its precision and colouring from
-their imaginations alone.
-
-Oft as the story has been told, we are necessitated again to quote it in
-part, in order to show more fully the nature of the authority upon
-which it depends.
-
-A gentleman, who was on a visit to Lord Lyttleton, writes:--
-
-"I was at Pitt Place, Epsom, when Lord Lyttleton died; Lord Fortescue,
-Lady Flood, and the two Miss Amphletts, were also present. Lord
-Lyttleton had not long been returned from Ireland, and frequently had
-been seized with suffocating fits; he was attacked several times by them
-in the course of the preceding month, while he was at his house in Hill
-Street, Berkeley Square. It happened that he dreamt, three days before
-his death, that he saw a fluttering bird; and afterwards, that a woman
-appeared to him in white apparel, and said to him, 'Prepare to die, you
-will not exist three days.' His Lordship was much alarmed, and called to
-a servant from a closet adjoining, who found him much agitated, and in a
-profuse perspiration: the circumstance had a considerable effect all the
-next day on his Lordship's spirits. On the third day, while his Lordship
-was at breakfast with the above personages, he said, 'If I live over
-to-night, I shall have jockied the ghost, for this is the third day.'
-The whole party presently set off for Pitt Place, where they had not
-long arrived before his Lordship was visited by one of his accustomed
-fits; after a short interval, he recovered. He dined at five o'clock
-that day, and went to bed at eleven, when his servant was about to give
-him rhubarb and mint-water; but his Lordship perceiving him stir it with
-a tooth-pick, called him a slovenly dog, and bade him go and fetch a
-tea-spoon; but on the man's return, he found his master in a fit, and
-the pillow being placed high, his chin bore hard upon his neck, when the
-servant, instead of relieving his Lordship on the instant from his
-perilous situation, ran in his fright and called out for help, but on
-his return he found his Lordship dead."
-
-The circumstances attending the apparition, as related by Lord
-Lyttleton, according to the statement of a relative of Lady Lyttleton's,
-were as follows:
-
-"Two nights before, on his retiring to bed, after his servant was
-dismissed and his light extinguished, he had heard a noise resembling
-the fluttering of a dove at his chamber window. This attracted his
-attention to the spot; when, looking in the direction of the sound, he
-saw the figure of an unhappy female whom he had seduced and deserted,
-and who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence,
-standing in the aperture of the window from which the fluttering sound
-had proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed, the room was
-preternaturally light, the objects of the chamber were distinctly
-visible; raising her head and pointing to a dial which stood on the
-mantel-piece of the chimney, the figure, with a severe solemnity of
-voice and manner, announced to the appalled and conscience-stricken man
-that, at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation, his life
-and his sins would be concluded, and nothing but their punishment
-remain, if he availed himself not of the warning to repentance which he
-had received. The eye of Lord Lyttleton glanced upon the dial, the hand
-was upon the stroke of twelve; again the apartment was involved in total
-darkness, the warning spirit disappeared, and bore away at her departure
-all the lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit, ready flow of wit,
-and vivacity of manner, which had formerly been the pride and ornament
-of the unhappy being to whom she had delivered her tremendous summons."
-
-From a passage in the Memoirs of Sir Nathanial Wraxall, it would seem
-that the sole authority for the above story was his Lordship's
-_valet-de-chambre_, for he writes:--
-
-"Dining at Pitt Place, about four years after the death of Lord
-Lyttleton, in the year 1783, I had the curiosity to visit the
-bedchamber, where the casement-window, at which Lord Lyttleton asserted
-the dove appeared to flutter, was pointed out to me; and at his
-stepmother's, the Dowager Lady Lyttleton's, in Portugal Street,
-Grosvenor Square, I have frequently seen a painting, which she herself
-executed, in 1780, expressly to commemorate the event; it hung in a
-conspicuous part of her drawing-room. There the dove appears at the
-window, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the foot of
-the bed, announcing to Lord Lyttleton his dissolution. Every part of the
-picture was faithfully designed, _after the description given to her by
-the valet-de-chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all
-the circumstances_."
-
-In addition it would appear, according to Lord Fortescue, that the only
-foundation upon which this story rests, is as follows:--
-
-"I heard Lord Fortescue once say," writes a friend of Sir Walter Scott,
-"that he was in the house with him (Lord Lyttleton) at the time of the
-supposed visitation, and he mentioned the following circumstances as the
-only foundation for the extraordinary superstructure at which the world
-has wondered:--A woman of the party had one day lost a favourite bird,
-and all the men tried to recover it for her. Soon after, on assembling
-at breakfast, Lord Lyttleton complained of having passed a very bad
-night, and having been worried in his dreams by a repetition of the
-chase of the lady's bird. His death followed, as stated in the
-story."[69]
-
-It would seem highly probable, therefore, that this story has been
-framed much after the same fashion as that of the "three black crows,"
-and the singular differences which we find in the versions we have
-given, fully confirm this view.
-
-Connected with the foregoing story is another of the apparition of Lord
-Lyttleton, on the night of his death, to Miles Peter Andrews, one of his
-most intimate friends. This apparition occurred at Dartford Mills, where
-Mr. Andrews was then staying, and doubtless, in its origin and mode of
-development, the story is in every respect similar to that of Lord
-Lyttleton's.
-
-The March number of "_Household Words_,"[70] for 1853, contains a
-ghost-story which exhibits another form of the belief, differing from
-those which we have already dwelt upon, and it is interesting from its
-comparatively recent occurrence, and from its having to a certain extent
-received the confirmation of a law-court.
-
-In the colony of New South Wales, at a place called Penrith, distant
-from Sydney about thirty-seven miles, lived a farmer named Fisher. He
-was unmarried, about forty-five years old, and his lands and stock were
-worth not less than £4000. Suddenly Fisher disappeared, and a neighbour,
-named Smith, gave out that he had gone to England for two or three
-years, and produced a written document authorizing him to act as his
-agent during his absence. As Fisher was an eccentric man, this sudden
-departure did not create much surprise, and it was declared to be
-"exactly like him."
-
-About six months after Fisher's disappearance, an old man called Ben
-Weir, who had a small farm near Penrith, and who always drove his own
-cart to market, was returning from Sydney one night, when he beheld,
-seated on a rail which bounded the road--Fisher. _The night was very
-dark, and the distance of the fence from the middle of the road was at
-least twelve yards._ Weir, nevertheless, saw Fisher's figure seated on
-the rail. He pulled his old mare up, and called out, "Fisher, is that
-you?" No answer was returned, but there, still on the rail, sat the form
-of the man with whom he had been on the most intimate terms. Weir, who
-was not drunk, though he had had several glasses of strong liquor,
-jumped off his cart, and approached the rail. To his surprise, the form
-vanished.
-
-Weir noticed that the ghost was marked by "a cruel gash" on the
-forehead, and that there was the appearance of fresh blood about it;
-and before leaving the spot, he marked it by breaking several branches
-of a sapling close by.
-
-On returning home he told his story to his wife, who, however, told him
-that he was drunk, and ridiculed him.
-
-On the following Thursday night, when old Ben was returning from
-market,--again in his cart,--he saw seated upon the same rail, the
-identical apparition. He had purposely abstained from drinking that day,
-and was in the full possession of all his senses.
-
-Weir again told his wife of the apparition, to be again ridiculed by
-her, and he remarked, "Smith is a bad un! Do you think Fisher would ever
-have left this country without coming to bid you and me good-bye?"
-
-The next morning Ben waited on a Mr. Grafton, a justice of the peace,
-who lived near to him, and told his tale. The magistrate was at first
-disposed to treat the account lightly, but after consideration, he
-summoned one of the aboriginal natives, and at sunrise met Weir at the
-place where the apparition had occurred, and which was sufficiently
-marked by the dead and broken branches of the sapling.
-
-The rail was found to be stained in several places, and the native,
-without any previous intimation of the object of the search, was
-directed to examine them, and he shortly pronounced them to be "_white
-man's blood_," and searching about, he pointed out a spot whereon a body
-had been laid. "Not a single shower of rain had fallen for several
-months previously,--not sufficient to lay even the dust upon the roads.
-Notwithstanding this, however, the native succeeded in tracking the
-footsteps of one man to the unfrequented side of a pond at some
-distance. He gave it as his opinion that another man had been dragged
-thither. The savage walked round and round the pond, eagerly examining
-its borders, and the sedges and weeds springing up around it. At first
-he seemed baffled,--no clue had been washed ashore to show that anything
-unusual had been sunk in the pond; but having finished this examination,
-he laid himself down on his face, and looked keenly along the surface of
-the smooth and stagnant water. Presently he jumped up, uttered a cry
-peculiar to the natives when gratified by finding some long-sought
-object, clapped his hands, and pointing to the middle of the pond, to
-where the decomposition of some sunken substance had produced a slimy
-coating streaked with prismatic colours, he exclaimed, '_White man's
-fat!_' The pond was immediately searched; and, below the spot indicated,
-the remains of a body were discovered. A large stone and a rotted silk
-handkerchief were found near the body; these had been used to sink it."
-
-By the teeth, and buttons upon the waistcoat, the body was identified as
-that of Fisher. Smith was arrested, and, upon this evidence, tried
-before the late Sir Francis Forbes, found guilty, sentenced to death,
-and hung; but previous to the execution, "he confessed that he, and he
-alone, committed the murder, and that it was upon the very rail where
-Weir swore that he had seen Fisher's ghost sitting, and that he had
-knocked out Fisher's brains with a tomahawk."
-
-We quote this story as an interesting example of one of the best and
-most consistent of the tales of this kind, although it is probable that
-a more thorough investigation of the circumstances connected with it,
-would show an origin of a nature similar to that of the "Last Hours of
-Lord Lyttleton."
-
-Several statements in the story require confirmation, and throw doubt
-upon the whole.
-
-The assertion that Weir, on a "very dark" night, saw seated upon a rail,
-at a distance of _twelve yards_, a resemblance of Fisher which he took
-to be real, and was not aware of the actual nature of the appearance
-until he advanced towards it, is a statement too improbable to be
-worthy of credence unless supported by other and less objectionable
-evidence; and notwithstanding the extraordinary degree to which the
-visual and other senses of the aboriginal natives are, as we are aware,
-often developed, yet that they will enable them to state that an old
-blood-stain is produced by the blood of a white man, or that an
-iridescent scum floating at a distance on water is produced by the fat
-of the white man, are statements which cannot be admitted without strong
-confirmatory evidence.
-
-It not unfrequently happens that dreams appear to foreshadow events, the
-occurrence of which could not be anticipated by the reasoning faculties.
-Many of the instances recorded of this kind are after-conclusions
-founded upon imperfectly remembered dreams, and are consequently
-worthless. Such, for example, is the story stated by Mrs. Crowe of a
-gentleman "who has several times been conscious on awaking that he had
-been conversing with some one, whom he has been subsequently startled to
-hear had died at that period."[71]
-
-Other dreams have received a verification from the natural results of
-the dreamer's superstitious folly.
-
-Mrs. Crowe has quoted the following example from a continental
-newspaper:--
-
-"A letter from Hamburg contains the following curious story relative to
-the verification of a dream. It appears that a locksmith's apprentice,
-one morning lately, informed his master (Claude Soller), that on the
-previous night he dreamt that he had been assassinated on the road to
-Bergsdorff, a little town at about two hours' distance from Hamburg. The
-master laughed at the young man's credulity, and to prove that he
-himself had little faith in dreams, insisted upon sending him to
-Bergsdorff, with 140 rix dollars (£22 8_s._), which he owed to his
-brother-in-law who resided in the town. The apprentice, after in vain
-imploring his master to change his intention, was compelled to set out
-at about eleven o'clock. On arriving at the village of Billwaerder,
-about halfway between Hamburg and Bergsdorff, he recollected his dream
-with terror but perceiving the baillie of the village at a little
-distance talking to some of his workmen, he accosted him, and acquainted
-him with his singular dream, at the same time requesting, that as he had
-money about his person, one of his workmen might be allowed to accompany
-him for protection across a small wood which lay in his way. The baillie
-smiled, and in obedience to his orders, one of the men set out with his
-young apprentice. The next day the corpse of the latter was conveyed by
-some peasants to the baillie, along with a reaping-hook, which had been
-found by his side, and with which the throat of the murdered youth had
-been cut. The baillie immediately recognized the instrument as one which
-he had on the previous day given to the workman who had served as the
-apprentice's guide, for the purpose of pruning some willows. The workman
-was apprehended, and on being confronted with the body of his victim,
-made a full confession of his crime, adding that the recital of the
-dream had alone prompted him to commit the horrible act. The assassin,
-who is thirty-five years of age, was a native of Billwaerder, and
-previously to the perpetration of the murder, had always borne an
-irreproachable character."
-
-It is well known that sensations from without will not only frequently
-excite dreaming, but will also often determine the character of the
-dreams. The following story is evidently an example of a dream of this
-nature.
-
-On the 30th July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was discovered in
-a field at Littleport, in the Isle of Ely. There could be little doubt
-that the woman had been murdered; and at the adjourned inquest held
-before Mr. W. Marshall, one of the coroners for the isle, on the 29th
-August, the following extraordinary evidence was given:--
-
-"James Jessop, an elderly respectable-looking labourer, with a face of
-the most perfect stolidity, and who possessed a most curiously shaped
-skull, broad and flat at the top, and projecting greatly on each side
-over the ears, deposed: 'I live about a furlong and a half from where
-the body was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I had never
-seen her before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I
-dreamt three successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing
-from near the bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place
-where the body was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry, it
-woke me. I fell asleep again, and dreamt the same again. I then woke
-again, and told my wife. I could not rest; but I dreamt it again after
-that. I got up between four or five o'clock, but I did not go down to
-the Close, the wheat and barley in which have since been cut. I dreamt
-once, about twenty years ago, that I saw a woman hanging in a barn, and
-on passing the next morning the barn which appeared to me in my dream, I
-entered, and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down just in
-time to save her life. I never told my wife I heard any cries of murder,
-but I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body on the
-Saturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a day
-or two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream, and the trees
-thereon, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the wind
-lay from that spot to my house."
-
-"Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related
-his dreams to her, on the evening of the day the body was found."[72]
-
-It is highly probable, that in this instance, the screams of the
-unfortunate woman, borne upon the wind, were the exciting cause of the
-dreams, and the direction from which the sound came would be sufficient
-to call up the associated idea of the fields in which the murder
-occurred. The powerful impression made upon the mind of the man,
-according to his own account, will sufficiently account for the
-repetition of the dreams; and the statement that the particulars of the
-dream were not related until after the finding of the body, must induce
-a little caution to the reception of the above version as an actual
-detail of the facts of the case. This remark applies also to the dream
-interpolated in the evidence.
-
-Among the most vivid and connected dreams, are those excited by a
-dominant or absorbing train of thought, which has engaged the mind
-during waking hours, or by powerful or protracted emotion.
-
-M. Boismont relates a dream, which he conceives is to be classed among
-the inexplicable phenomena of this nature, but which, with all deference
-to that distinguished psychologist, is rather to be placed in the
-category we have just named.
-
-Miss R., gifted with an excellent judgment, and religious without
-bigotry, lived, before her marriage, at the house of an uncle, a
-celebrated physician, and a member of the Institute. She was at that
-time separated from her mother, who had been attacked, in the country,
-by a severe illness. One night, this young lady dreamed that she saw her
-mother before her, pale, disfigured, about to render the last breath,
-and showing particularly lively grief at not being surrounded by her
-children, of whom one, curé of one of the parishes in Paris, had
-emigrated to Spain, and the other was in Paris. Presently she heard her
-call upon her many times by her Christian name; whereupon the persons
-who surrounded her mother, supposing that she called her grand-daughter,
-who bore the same name, went to seek her in the neighbouring room, but a
-sign from the invalid apprised them that it was not the grand-daughter,
-but the daughter who resided in Paris, that she wished to see. Her
-appearance expressed the grief she felt at her absence; suddenly her
-features changed, became covered with the paleness of death, and she
-fell without life on the bed.
-
-The lady had died during that night; and it was subsequently
-ascertained, that the circumstances delineated in the dream, simulated
-those which had occurred by the death-bed.
-
-What are the circumstances of this case?--A mother dangerously ill--her
-children away from home. What more likely to occur to a child cognisant
-of these facts, than the train of thought which engendered and caused
-this dream? The events attending a death-bed scene under such
-circumstances were all but inevitable, and we cannot, justifiably,
-consider this case in any other light than that of a "simple
-coincidence."
-
-Many physiologists and metaphysicians are of opinion, and there is much
-ground for the belief, that every sensation which has been actually
-experienced, may become the subject of perception at some future time,
-although, in the interval, all trace of its existence may have been
-lost, and it is beyond the power of the will to recall.
-
-The phenomena upon which this opinion has been principally founded, have
-been observed in the delirium of certain febrile diseases, and in
-dreaming.
-
-There is a case on record of a woman, who, during the delirium of fever,
-repeated long passages in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongues. When in
-health she was perfectly ignorant of these languages; and it was
-ascertained, that the sentences she spoke in her delirium, were correct
-passages from known writers in them. It was subsequently discovered,
-that at one period of her life she had lived with a clergyman who was in
-the habit of walking up and down the passage, reading aloud from Hebrew
-and Chaldaic works, and it was the sensations thus derived, and retained
-unconsciously to herself, which had been revivified by the changes
-induced during the progress of the fever.
-
-A case is also recorded by Dr. Abercrombie, in which a servant-girl who
-had manifested no "ear" for, or pleasure in music, during sleep was
-heard to imitate the sounds of a violin, even the tuning, and to perform
-most complicated and difficult pieces of music. This girl had slept for
-some time, and much to her annoyance, in a room adjoining that occupied
-by an itinerant violinist who was somewhat of an enthusiast in his art,
-and was accustomed to spend a portion of the night in practising
-difficult pieces of music, often preventing this female from sleeping.
-The music she had thus heard, registered in the mind, so to speak, was
-repeated, unconsciously, during the disturbed action of the brain
-consequent upon imperfect health and dreaming.
-
-The principle which has been deduced from these and similar cases, gives
-a ready explanation to numerous stories which it has been customary to
-regard as coming within the pale of the supernatural.
-
-Those instances in which, during a dream, the places in which documents
-of value, which had been lost or misplaced, have been revealed, are
-examples of revivified sensations which had been lost sight of, and of
-which the return had been determined by the protracted exercise of the
-mind to recover the missing traces.
-
-Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to "The Antiquary," relates the following
-highly interesting illustration:--
-
-"Mr. R----d, of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of
-Gala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated
-arrears of tiend (or tithe), for which he was said to be indebted to a
-noble family, the titulars (lay improprietors of the tithes). Mr. R----d
-was strongly impressed with the belief, that his father had, by a form
-of process peculiar to the law of Scotland, purchased those lands from
-the titular; and therefore, that the present prosecution was
-groundless. But after an industrious search among his father's papers,
-an investigation of the public records, and a careful inquiry among all
-persons who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence
-could be recovered to support his defence. The period was now near at
-hand, when he conceived the loss of the lawsuit to be inevitable, and he
-had formed his determination to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the
-best bargain he could in the way of compromise. He even went to bed with
-this resolution, and with all the circumstances of the case floating
-upon his mind, had a dream to the following purpose.
-
-"His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to him, he thought,
-and asked him why he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams men are not
-supprised at such apparitions. Mr. R----d thought he informed his father
-of the cause of his distress, adding, that the payment of a considerable
-sum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he had a strong
-consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to acquire any
-evidence in support of his belief. 'You are right, my son,' replied the
-paternal shade; 'I did acquire right to these tiends, for payment of
-which you are now prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction
-are in the hands of Mr. ----, a writer (or attorney), who is now retired
-from professional business, and resides at Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He
-was a person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason,
-but who never, on any other occasion, transacted business on my account.
-It is very possible,' pursued the vision, 'that Mr. ---- may have
-forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may call it
-to his recollection by this token,--that when I came to pay his account,
-there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of gold, and
-that we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern.'
-
-"Mr. R----d awoke in the morning with all the words of the vision
-imprinted on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across the
-country to Inveresk, instead of going straight to Edinburgh. When he
-came there, he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very
-old man; without saying anything of the vision, he inquired whether he
-remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased father. The
-old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to his
-recollection, but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold, the whole
-returned upon his memory; he made an immediate search for the papers,
-and recovered them; so that Mr. R----d carried to Edinburgh the
-documents necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of
-losing.
-
-"The author's theory is, that the dream was only the recapitulation of
-information which Mr. R----d had really received from his father while
-in life, but which at first he merely recalled as a general impression
-that the claim was settled. It is not uncommon for persons to recover,
-during sleep, the thread of ideas which they have lost during waking
-hours.
-
-"It may be added, that this remarkable circumstance was attended with
-bad consequences to Mr. R----d, whose health and spirits were afterwards
-impaired by the attention which he thought himself obliged to pay to the
-visions of the night."
-
-An instance which is related by Mrs. Crowe, receives its explanation
-also from this source.
-
-"A case occurred not many years since in the North of Scotland, where a
-murder having been committed, a man came forward, saying, that he had
-dreamt that the pack of the murdered pedlar was hidden in a certain
-spot; whereon, a search being made, it was actually found. They at first
-concluded he was himself the assassin, but the real criminal was
-afterwards discovered; and it being asserted, though I have been told
-erroneously, that the two men had passed some time together, since the
-murder, in a state of intoxication, it was decided that the crime, and
-the place of concealment, had been communicated to the pretended
-dreamer," &c.
-
-If the statement that the murderer and the dreamer had spent some time
-together in a state of intoxication, after the murder had been
-committed, be correct, the supposition that the murder had been
-communicated to the dreamer, forgotten when the state of intoxication
-had passed away, but subsequently recalled during the progress of a
-dream, affords an easy and natural explanation of the whole matter.
-
-As an example of that class of dreams which are inexplicable, but which,
-unfortunately, are of little weight from the imperfect authority upon
-which they are given, and from the fact that they bear intrinsic
-evidence of having been received without inquiry into the circumstances
-under which they occurred, and the fallacies to which the dreamer and
-subsequent details had been exposed, we quote the following from the
-works of the Rev. John Wesley.[73]
-
-"Among the congregation at Ambleside were a gentleman and his wife, who
-gave me a remarkable relation. She said she had often heard her brother
-relate, what an intimate acquaintance had told her, that her husband was
-concerned in the rebellion of 1745. He was tried at Carlisle, and found
-guilty. The evening before he was to die, sitting and musing in her
-chair, she fell fast asleep. She dreamed one came to her and said, 'Go
-to such a part of the wall, and among the loose stones you will find a
-key, which you must carry to your husband.' She waked; but thinking it a
-common dream, paid no attention to it. Presently she fell asleep again,
-and dreamed the very same dream. She started up, put on her cloak and
-hat, and went to that part of the wall, and among the loose stones found
-a key. Having, with some difficulty, procured admission into the gaol,
-she gave this to her husband. It opened the door of his cell, as well as
-the lock of the prison door.(!) So at midnight he escaped for life."
-
-It is not uncommon to find persons asserting that they have had dreams
-which have prefigured events, often trivial, in the common run of life.
-
-Probably, without exception, these are irrelevant conclusions: the
-affirmative instances being marked, to the total neglect of the
-negative. For example:--A lady with whom we are acquainted was
-accustomed to relate a dream which she had had, in which she thought
-that she was in the nursery watching one of her children play, when
-suddenly it tripped over the fender, and fell against the ribs of the
-grate, and before it could be extricated, the face was severely burned.
-On the following day the child she had seen in her dream, happened to
-have an accident in the nursery very similar to that she had seen occur
-in the dream.
-
-On inquiry, however, it proved that dreams of this nature respecting her
-children were quite usual to the lady, and that at one time or other she
-had witnessed while sleeping almost all those accidents occur to which
-infant life is exposed. This was the only instance in which any one had
-apparently come true; and _until_ this had occurred she had very
-properly and correctly attributed her dreams to the anxiety she
-naturally entertained respecting her young family.
-
-Of all the divisions, or rather branches, of supernatural lore, none has
-obtained more universal credence, none has been more persistent, than
-that of _presentiments_.
-
-A history of _presentiments_ would form a curious, if not very
-instructive work, and it alone would almost suffice to indicate the
-absurdity of the belief in its main features.
-
-We have instances of _high spirits_ foreboding evil; _low spirits_
-foreboding the same; _sudden illness_ shadowing forth calamity, _not_
-to the person affected, but to a companion; _sudden dullness of sight_
-presaging death--indeed a collection of these instances would show that
-every obscure sensation, every variation of emotion or passion,
-preceding an evil occurrence, has at one time or other been regarded as
-a presentiment of that evil.
-
-Jung-Stilling has so well described the nature of the faculty of
-presentiment, and the circumstances under which it is most commonly
-developed, that we cannot do better than quote the words of that
-celebrated writer on this subject. He writes:--
-
-"As the developed faculty of presentiment is a capability of
-experiencing the arrangements which are made in the world of spirits,
-and executed in the visible world, second-sight certainly belongs also
-under this head. And as those who possess this capability are generally
-simple people, it again follows from hence, that a developed faculty of
-presentiment is by no means a quality which belongs solely to devout and
-pious people, or that it should be regarded as a divine gift; I take it,
-on the contrary, for a disease of the soul, which we ought rather to
-endeavour to heal than promote.
-
-"He that has a natural disposition for it, and then fixes his
-imagination long and intensely, and therefore _magically_, upon a
-certain object, may at length be able, with respect to this object, to
-foresee things which have reference to it. Grave-diggers, nurses, and
-such as are employed to undress and shroud the dead, watchmen, and the
-like, are accustomed to be continually reflecting on objects which stand
-in connexion with death and interment; what wonder, therefore, if their
-faculty of presentiment at length develop itself on these subjects; and
-I am inclined to maintain, that it may be promoted by drinking ardent
-spirits."[74]
-
-In addition to this, Mrs. Crowe remarks:--
-
-"It is worthy of observation that idiots often possess some gleams of
-this faculty of second-sight or presentiment; and it is probably on this
-account that they are in some countries held sacred. Presentiment, which
-I think may very probably be merely the vague and imperfect recollection
-of what we _knew_ in our sleep, is often observed in drunken
-people."[75]
-
-Cicero,[76] after relating the myth of the apparition of Tages, in
-Etruria, adds:--
-
-"But I should indeed be more foolish than they who credit these things,
-if I seriously argue the matter."
-
-Equally foolish it would be for us to attempt to show the absurdity of
-the foregoing opinions; and we fear it would be a bootless and inutile
-task to argue with those who regard the statements of the studiously and
-transcendentally superstitious and ignorant, the incoherence of the
-drunkard, the depressed feelings experienced after a debauch, or the
-vague gleams of understanding in an idiot, as evidences of communication
-with the spirit-world.
-
-We know two ladies gifted with the faculty of ordinary presentiment, and
-who boast (if we may use that expression) that they are members of a
-family of which no scion has died for years without some supernatural
-indication of its occurrence. We well remember _after_ the information
-had been received by them of the death of the last male representative
-of one branch of the family, that they told how on the night of the
-death they happened to be awake in bed, when certain strange noises were
-heard about the bed-curtains, "as of a mouse" scrambling upon them, and
-immediately afterwards a blow was struck upon a large chest of drawers
-which stood opposite the foot of the bed, and the sound was as though
-the chest had been broken to pieces. We did not draw the inference which
-the ladies did from this circumstance, namely, that it was an intimation
-of the death of their relative, for, unfortunately for the romantic view
-of the question, we knew that such nightly occurrences as these were
-somewhat common with them, and that a simple and comfortable house in a
-densely-populated manufacturing district had been peopled by them with
-nightly noises and sounds, audible alone to them, to such an extent,
-that the adaptation of a presentiment to any particular occurrence was a
-matter of little difficulty.
-
-We also well remember, some years ago, when an infant brother lay dying,
-that our mother and the nurse were startled in the dead of night by a
-strange fluttering at the window. On the curtain being raised, the light
-of the candle showed a bird fluttering and beating against one of the
-panes. Was it an omen of death, and an emblem of the happy transition of
-the baby-spirit to another world? A few moments' examination soon showed
-that it was no spectre bird, but apparently a robin, which had been
-disturbed in the darkness, and was attracted by the light, and no sooner
-was the window darkened than it flew away.
-
-Three days ago, we saw a woman who had been for some months in a
-delicate state of health. "Sir," she said, "what I have most to complain
-of is, that I always feel as if some great evil was about to befall
-myself or family." This feeling is common, in a greater or less degree,
-to that depressed state of the system preceding attacks of febrile and
-many other diseases, and is often marked in hypocondriacism. Who, when
-suffering from slight indisposition, has not often felt this feeling of
-foreboding, of which the lowest grade is expressed in the ordinary
-phrase, low-spirits? This feeling, and thus derived, has been the
-substratum for those vague, so-called presentiments, which constitute
-the great bulk of instances in that doctrine; and the fallacy has been,
-that the mind, more readily affected by affirmative than by negative
-examples, has held to the former and neglected the latter, and deluded
-itself by an imperfect and too contracted view of the facts.
-
-Boismont, the most recent writer on the doctrine of presentiments,
-writes:--
-
-"In the greatest number of cases, they are not realised; in those where
-the event justifies them, they are only a reminiscence--a simple
-coincidence;--we admit all this. It is not the less true, that an
-unforeseen event, a strong prepossession, great restlessness, a sudden
-change in habits, any fear whatsoever, gives rise, at the moment, to
-presentiments which it would be difficult to deny by systematic
-credulity."[77]
-
-Let us examine one or two of the cases which would lead so distinguished
-a psychologist to give a certain degree of credence to this belief.
-
-The Prince de Radzvil had adopted one of his nieces, an orphan. He
-inhabited a château in Gallicia, and this château had a large hall which
-separated the apartments of the Prince from those occupied by the
-children, and in order to communicate between the two suites of rooms it
-was necessary either to traverse the hall or the court.
-
-The young Agnes, aged from five to six years, always uttered piercing
-cries every time that they caused her to traverse the great hall. She
-indicated, with an expression of terror, an enormous picture which was
-suspended above the door, and which represented the Sibyl of Cuma. They
-endeavoured for a length of time to vanquish this repugnance, which they
-attributed to infant obstinacy; but as serious accidents happened from
-this violence, they ended by permitting her no more to enter the hall;
-and the young girl loved better, during ten or twelve years, to traverse
-in rain, snow, or cold, the vast court or the gardens, rather than pass
-under this door, which made so disagreeable an impression upon her.
-
-The young Countess being of age to marry, and already betrothed, there
-was a reception at the château. The company, in the evening, wished to
-have some noisy game; they went into the great hall, where, moreover,
-the nuptial ball would be held. Animated by the young people who
-surrounded her, Agnes did not hesitate to accompany the guests. But
-scarcely had she crossed the threshold of the door, than she wished to
-draw back, and she avowed her fear. They had caused her to pass first,
-according to custom, her betrothed, friends, and uncle, laughing at her
-childishness, closing the doors upon her. But the poor young girl wished
-to resist; and in shaking and beating the door, caused the picture to
-fall which was above it. This enormous mass bruised the head by one of
-its corners, and killed her immediately.
-
-The scene of this story is an old castle in Gallicia, doubtless, like
-all similar places, having attached to it many strange and wonderful
-legends, and many servants fully imbued with these legends, and with all
-the folk-lore which a district like Gallicia contains. We have no
-information as to what amount of this lore the nurse indoctrinated into
-the child, or what use she may have made of the painting in order to
-terrify her little charge into submission from time to time. That an
-inquiry, special and distinct, upon this point was necessary ere the
-main point of the story could be substantiated, is evident; for the
-establishment of this influence would at once destroy the presentiment
-sought to be established; and to suppose that the child was brought up
-without its mind being so poisoned, is to suppose a phenomenon uniquely
-rare. Again, the painting was a representation of the Sibyl of Cuma. In
-her early days, says classic history, this Sibyl was lovely; but after
-her short-sighted bargain with Apollo for a life as long in years as the
-number of grains of sand she held in her hand, forgetting to add the
-request for perennial beauty also, she shortly became old and decrepid,
-her form decayed, her countenance melancholy and pale, and her looks
-haggard; and it is as thus described, that we are generally accustomed
-to see her pourtrayed. But we are left in the dark as to whether the
-painting in question represented the Sibyl in early youth, in her
-decrepid maturity, or at the moment of inspiration, when, according to
-the Æneis (Book vi),--
-
-    "Her colour changed; her face was not the same,
-    And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.
-    Her hair stood up, convulsive rage possess'd
-    Her trembling limbs, and heaved her labouring breast.
-    Greater than human kind she seem'd to look,
-    And with an accent more than mortal spoke,
-    Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll;
-    When all the god came rushing on her soul."
-
-That the painting must have depicted the Sibyl in one of the two latter
-characters is almost certain, for in any other it would have been
-meaningless; and leaving the question of the extent to which her mind
-might be poisoned by folk-lore, or by the servants making the painting a
-bugbear to her,--leaving this in abeyance, what must the effect of a
-frightful-looking and gigantic picture, staring the child in the face,
-have been upon a young mind? Little doubt need be entertained of the
-feeling of terror with which an infant eye would regard it, and we have
-already shown how such a feeling, being implanted there, would become a
-part and parcel of its nature, and be never subsequently eradicated.
-
-We see this feeling manifested every day in the aversion which some
-individuals manifest to certain animals. From emotions taught during
-childhood and youth, and often lost sight of in mature years, a cat, a
-dog, a rat, a spider, a frog, &c., has become an object of such dread to
-some persons, that even in advanced life the presence of one has caused
-the utmost annoyance and terror.
-
-The powerful and persistent influence of ideas thus associated has been
-clearly and pithily expressed by Locke,[78] and his first instance has
-an immediate bearing upon our subject:--
-
-"The ideas of goblins and sprights have really no more to do with
-darkness than light, yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on
-the mind of a child, and raise them there together, probably he shall
-never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness
-shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they
-shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other."
-
-That the fall of the painting was caused by the vibrations occasioned by
-shaking and beating upon the door beneath it, seems certain; but that
-there was any _presentimental_ connection (if we may so word it) between
-the fall of the painting and the previous dread of it,--any
-foreshadowing in this dread of the subsequent fall and its fatal
-consequences,--there is no satisfactory evidence whatever.
-
-Another example of presentiment, quoted by Boismont, is the following:--
-
-Two French gentlemen, refugees, who resided together in New York on
-terms of great amity, freighted a ship for India. Everything was
-prepared for their departure, and they waited only a favourable wind.
-One of them, B----, of a calm and placid temperament, apparently excited
-by the uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began to manifest a
-degree of restlessness which surprised his companion. One day he entered
-the apartment where his friend was engaged in writing letters for
-Europe, and under the influence of an excitement so great that he had
-difficulty to suppress it, he exclaimed: "Why lose time in writing
-letters?--they will never go to their destination. Come with me and take
-a turn on the Battery. The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps,
-nearer the point of departure than we suppose!" Acceding to the request,
-his friend accompanied him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he was
-astonished at the rapid and excited manner in which B---- walked. On
-reaching the Battery, B---- precipitated his rate of walking still more,
-until they approached the parapet. He spoke in a high and quick tone,
-expressing in florid terms his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he
-arrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend separated from him. "I
-regarded him fixedly," to continue the narrative in the words of the
-narrator; "he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down. 'B----,' I
-cried, 'you intend to kill me, you wish to throw me from this height
-into the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The madman looked me in
-the face with haggard eyes for a moment, but I was careful not to lose
-his glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured some incoherent words,
-and sought to pass by me. I barred the way, extending my arms. After
-looking vaguely right and left, he threw himself on my neck, and melted
-into tears. 'It is true, it is true, my friend! The thought has haunted
-me night and day, as a torch of hell. It was for this end that I brought
-you here; had you been but a foot from the border of the parapet, the
-work had been done.' The demon had abandoned him, his eyes were without
-expression, a foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was passed. I
-reconducted him to the house. Some days of repose, together with
-bleeding and low diet, re-established him completely; and what is still
-more extraordinary, we never more spoke of this event."
-
-Are we, with Boismont, to regard this as an example of "sudden and
-mysterious inspiration?" Would it not have been still more mysterious if
-a minute examination of the countenance of a madman, who was talking
-incoherently near the verge of a precipitous descent, and big with
-intent to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his purpose? We
-think it would, and that there is no evidence here of anything beyond
-the pale of the laws of common observation.
-
-It would be needless to multiply instances of presentiment which have
-carried conviction to the minds of persons less accustomed to analyze
-the operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont, and in whom
-errors of observation are infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless
-there are instances on record which, if the authority upon which they
-are stated be admitted, receive no explanation from natural laws so far
-as we are yet acquainted with them.
-
-One of the best and most striking examples of this kind is given on the
-authority of Mrs. Crowe.
-
-She writes:--
-
-"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which
-occurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when
-lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a
-young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away
-his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table,
-covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The
-president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young
-men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to
-speak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a
-sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India
-was dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I
-am perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this
-conviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The
-young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned."[79]
-
-A singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress
-Josephine, which may fitly be detailed here.
-
-"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "and it
-had early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her
-first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards
-be greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is
-placed beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her
-first husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the
-Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on
-account of his belonging to the nobility; and she herself, who was also
-imprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the
-fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind,
-that while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every
-hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to
-her fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies
-of the bed-chamber,--a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one
-of their number."
-
-Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the
-prophecy:--
-
-"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long before Napoleon's
-elevation to the throne, from the late Countess of Bath and the late
-Countess of Ancrum, who were educated in the same convent with
-Josephine, and had repeatedly heard her mention the circumstance in
-early youth."[80]
-
-The most grave of the errors affecting the details of those occurrences
-which have been supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some
-inexplicable and supernatural connection with certain circumstances
-occurring coincidently with them, has been fully set forth by Lord
-Bacon, in the 46th Aphorism of the "Novum Organum," and to this _dictum_
-nothing needs to be added.
-
-"The human understanding, when any proposition has been once laid down
-(either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it
-affords) forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation,
-and although most cogent and abundant instances may exist to the
-contrary, yet either does not observe, or despises them, or gets rid of
-and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious
-prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.
-It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive
-tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was
-pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by
-an inquiry, "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in
-spite of their vows?" All superstition is much the same, whether it be
-that of astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the like; in
-all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled,
-but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more
-common.... Besides, even in the absence of that eagerness and want of
-thought (which we have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual
-error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by
-affirmatives than negatives, whereas it ought duly and regularly to be
-impartial; nay, in establishing any true axiom, the negative instance is
-the most powerful."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-We have now briefly examined the principal of those phenomena which it
-has been, and in many instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural
-interposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain how far they receive
-explanation from the known laws of action of the senses and reasoning
-faculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion that they mainly
-come within the category of those laws.
-
-Of the exceptions to this conclusion, it is unfortunate that the
-authority upon which they depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the
-details imperfect in many of the most important particulars; and they,
-to use the words of Mrs. Crowe, (whose evidence in this respect is of
-considerable importance), "as they now stand, can have no scientific
-value; they cannot, in short, enter into the region of science at all,
-still less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be led
-to form, cannot be founded on pure induction. We must confine ourselves
-wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we shall
-assuredly founder."[81]
-
-We are not aware that this imperfection of details necessarily
-appertains to facts of this nature, and we simply require the same care
-against error which is expected and is exercised in other departments of
-inquiry; and until the instances presented bear evidence of this, we
-must entertain doubts, and decline to receive them as facts establishing
-such theories as have been endeavoured to be founded upon them.
-
-The great progress of physiology and psychology is almost daily enabling
-us to grapple with sensuous phenomena which have hitherto been obscure;
-and it is never to be lost sight of in researches into the domains of
-the so-called supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of our own
-powers is as yet very imperfect and limited.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR FARADAY'S LETTER ON TABLE MOVING.
-
-_Athenæum, July 2, 1853, p. 801._
-
-"The object which I had in view in my inquiry was, not to satisfy
-myself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of
-those who had turned tables,--but that I might be enabled to give a
-strong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for it.
-Yet the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the
-inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should adopt
-in any other physical investigation. The parties with whom I have worked
-were very honourable, very clear in their intentions, successful
-table-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the existence
-of a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual. It is with
-me a clear point that the table moves when the parties, though they
-strongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe, that they move it
-by ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table draws their hands;
-that it moves first, and they have to follow it; that sometimes it even
-moves from under their hands. With some, the table will move to the
-right or left, according as they wish or will it; with others, the
-direction of the first move is uncertain;--but all agree that the table
-moves the hands, and not the hands the table. Though I believe the
-parties do not intend to move the table, but obtain the result by a
-quasi-involuntary action, still I had no doubt of the influence of
-expectation upon their minds, and, through that, upon the success or
-failure of their efforts.
-
-"The first point, therefore, was to remove all objections due to
-expectation--having relation to the substances which I might desire to
-use; so, plates of the most different bodies, electrically speaking,
-namely, sand-paper, mill-board, glue, glass, moist clay, tinfoil,
-card-board, gutta percha, vulcanized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a
-bundle, and placed on a table, under the hands of a turner. The table
-turned. Other bundles of other plates were submitted to different
-persons at other times,--and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore,
-these substances may be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither
-during their use, nor at any other times, could the slightest trace of
-electrical or magnetic effects be obtained. At the same trials, it was
-readily ascertained that one person could produce the effect; and that
-the motion was not necessarily circular, but might be in a straight
-line. No form of experiment or mode of observation that I could devise
-gave me the slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No
-attraction or repulsion, or signs of tangential power appeared; nor
-anything which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical
-pressure exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to
-analyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal
-direction; doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A
-soft cement, consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was
-prepared. Four or five pieces of smooth slippery card-board were
-attached one over the other by little pellets of the cement, and the
-lower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table; the edges
-of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil
-line was drawn over the laps, so as to indicate position. The upper
-card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from
-sight. Then the table-turner placed the hands upon the upper card, and
-we waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to offer
-considerable resistence to mechanical motion, and also to retain the
-cards in any new position which they might acquire, and yet weak enough
-to give way slowly to a continued force.
-
-"When at last the tables, cards, and hands, all moved to the left
-together, and so a true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On
-examination, it was easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the
-line, that the hand had moved further than the table, and that the
-latter had lagged behind;--that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper
-card to the left, and that the under cards and the table had followed
-and been dragged by it. In other similar cases, when the table had not
-moved, still the upper card was found to have moved, showing that the
-hand had carried it in the expected direction. It was evident,
-therefore, that the table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor
-had it moved simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things
-under it, behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the
-hand back.
-
-"The next step was, to arrange an index, which should show whether the
-table moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both moved or
-remained at rest together.... Two thin boards, nine and a-half by seven
-inches, were provided; a board, nine by five inches, was glued to the
-middle of the under side of one of these (to be called the table-board),
-so as to raise the edges free from the table; being placed on the
-table, near and parallel to its side, an upright pin was fixed close to
-the further edge of the board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum
-for the indicating lever. Then, four glass rods, seven inches long, and
-a quarter of an inch in diameter, were placed as rollers on different
-parts of this table-board, and the upper board placed on them; the rods
-permitted any required amount of pressure on the boards, with a free
-motion of the upper on the lower to the right and left. At the part
-corresponding to the pin in the lower board, a piece was cut out of the
-upper board, and a pin attached there, which, being bent downwards,
-entered the hole in the end of the short arm of the index lever: this
-part of the lever was of card-board: the indicating prolongation was a
-straight hay-stalk fifteen inches long. In order to restrain the motion
-of the upper board on the lower, two vulcanized rubber rings were passed
-round both, at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst they
-tied the boards together, acted also as springs--and whilst they allowed
-the first, feeblest tendency to motion to be seen by the index, exerted,
-before the upper board had moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power
-in pulling the upper board back from either side, to resist a strong
-lateral action of the hand.
-
-"All being thus arranged, except that the lever was away, the two boards
-were tied together with string running parallel to the vulcanised rubber
-springs, so as to be immoveable in relation to each other. They were
-then placed on the table, and a table-turner sat down to them. The table
-very shortly moved in due order, showing that the apparatus offered no
-impediment to the action. A like apparatus, with metal rollers, produced
-the same result under the hands of another person. The index was now put
-into its place, and the string loosened, so that the springs should come
-into play. It was soon seen with the party that could will the motion in
-either direction (from whom the index was purposely hidden), that the
-hands were gradually creeping up in the direction before agreed upon,
-though the party certainly thought they were pressing downwards only.
-When shown that it was so, they were truly surprised; but when they
-lifted up their hands and immediately saw the index return to its normal
-position, they were convinced. When they looked at the index, and could
-see for themselves whether they were pressing truly downwards, or
-obliquely, so as to produce a resultant in the right or left handed
-direction, then such an effect never took place. Several tried, for a
-long while together, and with the best will in the world, but no motion,
-right or left, of the table or hand, or anything else, occurred.
-
-"I think the apparatus I have described may be useful to many who really
-wish to know the truth of nature, and who would prefer that truth to a
-mistaken conclusion, desired perhaps only because it seems to be new or
-strange. Persons do not know how difficult it is to press directly
-downward, or in any given direction against a fixed obstacle, or even to
-know only whether they are doing so or not, unless they have some
-indicator which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall instruct them;
-and this is more especially the case when the muscles of the fingers and
-hand have been cramped and rendered either tingling or insensible or
-cold by long-continued pressure. If a finger be pressed constantly into
-the corner of a window-frame for ten minutes or more, and then,
-continuing the pressure, the mind be directed to judge whether the force
-at a given moment is all horizontal or all downwards, or how much is in
-one direction and how much in the other, it will find great difficulty
-in deciding, and will, at last, become altogether uncertain,--at least
-such is my case. I know that a similar result occurs with others, for I
-have had two boards arranged, separated, not by rollers, but by plugs of
-vulcanized rubber; and with the vertical index, when a person with his
-hands on the upper board is requested to press only downwards, and the
-index is hidden from his sight, it moves to the right, to the left, to
-him and from him, and in all horizontal directions; so utterly unable is
-he strictly to fulfil his intention without a visible and correcting
-indicator. Now, such is the use of the instrument with the horizontal
-index and rollers; the mind is instructed and the involuntary or
-quasi-involuntary motion is checked in the commencement, and, therefore,
-never rises up to the degree needful to move the table, or even
-permanently the index itself. No one can suppose that looking at the
-index can in any way interfere with the transfer of electricity, or any
-other power, from the hand to the board under it, or to the table. If
-the board tends to move, it may do so; the index does not confine it;
-and if the table tends to move, there is no reason why it should not. If
-both were influenced by any power to move together, they may do so, as
-they did, indeed, when the apparatus was tied, and the mind and muscles
-left unwatched and unchecked."
-
-PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS, LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-
-[1] Locke. Of Human Understanding, B. I, ch. 2.
-
-[2] Cousin. Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne, edit. 1847,
-T. III, p. 269.
-
-[3] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 368.
-
-[4] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 370.
-
-[5] Plato. Politicus. Mitford's Greece, Vol. I, p. 84.
-
-[6] "Vain indeed is the life of all men in whom there is not the true
-knowledge of God: who, from the things which are seen to be good, have
-not been able to conceive aright of that which is goodness itself; nor,
-while they viewed the work, to acknowledge the architect: but have
-thought that either fire, or the wind, the swift air, or the stars in
-their courses, or the vast deep, or the sun and moon, were the deities
-presiding over the world."--_Liber Sapientiæ_, ch. 13, v. 1, 2.
-_Translation by Luke Howard, F.R.S._
-
-[7] An interesting illustration of the tendency of mankind in a state of
-savageism to attribute striking phenomena to supernatural agency, and
-deify the means through which they are apparently exhibited, occurred on
-the march of Cortes from Mexico to Honduras. During a deer-hunt, the
-horse which Cortes rode was taken ill. "It did not then die, though it
-would have been better if it had," says the devout but ruthless
-conqueror, parenthetically. A little while afterwards, having been
-courteously received by the Itzalan Indians, Cortes "entrusted them with
-the care of his horse Morgillo, which had been lamed, charging them to
-take great care of it, and attend to its recovery, as he prized it very
-highly, and telling them that when he had found the Spaniards he was in
-search of, he should send for his steed again. It was from no want of
-care on the part of the Itzaex, but rather from an excess of it, that
-Morgillo lost his life under their management; for in their anxiety to
-effect a cure, and regarding the animal as one endowed with reason, they
-gave him poultry and other meat to eat, and presented him with bunches
-of flowers, as they were accustomed to do to persons of rank when they
-were sick; a species of attention somewhat similar to that which the
-fool laughed at in _King Lear_, when he speaks of the cockney who for 'a
-pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.' The consequence of this
-unaccustomed style of medical treatment was, that Morgillo languished
-and died, and then a worse evil befell, for, observes the pious
-Villagutierre, "though some people say Canek burnt his idols in the
-presence of Cortes, there was in reality no burning of idols or anything
-else in that city of Tayasal; on the contrary, by leaving the horse with
-the infidel Itzaex, they obtained a greater and still more abominable
-idol than the many they had before." The meaning of this sentence is
-subsequently explained by the worthy chronicler informing us that, on
-the death of Morgillo, the Itzaex raised its effigy "in stone and
-mortar, very perfect," and worshipped it as a divinity. It was seated on
-its hind-quarters, on the floor of one of the temples, rising on its
-fore legs, with its hind legs bent under it. These barbarians adored it
-as the god of thunder and thunderbolts, calling him Tzinachac, which
-means the bride of thunder, or the thunderbolt. They gave it this name
-from having seen some of the Spaniards who were with Cortes fire their
-muskets over the horses' heads when they were hunting deer, and they
-believed the horses were the cause of the noise that was made, which
-they took for thunder, and the flash of the discharge and the smoke of
-the gunpowder for a thunderbolt."--_Fancourt's History of Yucatan._
-_Athenæum._ 1854, p. 109.
-
-[8] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum, B. II, c. 25.
-
-[9] Servius. Tooke's Pantheon, p. 198.
-
-[10] Horæ Britannicæ. By Jno. Hughes, Vol. I., p. 235. 1818.
-
-[11] The Garrows, a number of wild tribes occupying the district lying
-between the N.E. frontier of Bengal and the kingdom of Assam, in
-addition to the worship of Mâhâdeva, or Siva, adore also the sun and
-moon; and the _Khatties_, or _Catties_, another wild tribe inhabiting
-the peninsula of Guzerat, worship the sun.
-
-[12] Blackwell. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Bohn, 1847, p. 473.
-
-[13] Davis. "The Chinese," Chap. xii.
-
-[14] Humboldt. "Aspects of Nature," Vol. I., p. 198, note 51. "Steppes
-and Deserts."
-
-[15] Ruxton. Adventures in Mexico and Rocky Mountains, p. 192.
-
-[16]
-
-  _Str._  That cursed Chærophon and Socrates,
-          Who have deceived both thee and me alike.
-
-  _Phid._ I must not act unjustly towards my teachers.
-
-  _Str._  Nay, nay, revere paternal Jupiter;
-
-  _Phid._ Paternal Jupiter! old fashion'd fool;
-          Is there a Jupiter?
-
-  _Str._                    There is.
-
-  _Phid._                           Not so,
-          Since having cast out Jove a whirlwind reigns.
-
-  _Str._  Not cast him out; but I imagin'd this,
-          Seeing the whirlwind here. O wretched ones,
-          To take thee, earthen image, for a god!
-
-[17] Wheelwright's Translation, p. 124, and note. Oxford, 1837.
-
-[18] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum. B. I., ch. 15.
-
-[19] Op. cit., B. II., c. 24.
-
-[20] Bonomi. "Nineveh and its Palaces," pp. 139-264, &c.; Dr.
-Grotefend, Athenæum, June 26, 1853; Ravenshaw, Athenæum, July 16, 1853.
-
-[21] Paradise Lost.
-
-[22] Rape of the Lock. Ch. 1.
-
-[23] The _black_ colour which is popularly ascribed to the devil, was
-probably derived from old monkish legends, which affirmed that he often
-appeared as an Ethiopian. (Jortin. Vol. II., p. 13, ed. 1805.)
-
-[24] Bonomi. Op. cit., p. 159. "The root, or the original word from
-which teraphim is derived, signifies, to relax with fear, to strike with
-terror, or 'Repheh,' an appaller, one who makes others faint or fail; a
-signification that singularly accords with the terrifying images found
-by Botta." The possible connection between these images and the images
-(_teraphim_) which Rachel had stolen from her father Laban, is of great
-interest.
-
-[25] This custom is probably a relic of old Scandinavian mythology. In
-the "Prose Edda," it is stated, that the gods having captured Loki (the
-personification of evil), who had fled from their justly excited anger,
-"dragged him without commiseration into a cavern, wherein they placed
-three sharp-pointed rocks, boring a hole through each of them."
-
-[26] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 200.--Eusebius, in his _Oration_
-in praise of the Emperor Constantine, writes, that the Emperor honoured
-"the triumphall signe of the crosse, having really experienced and found
-the divine virtue that is therein. For by it the multitudes of his
-enemies were put to flight; by it the vaine ostentation of the enemies
-of God was suppressed, the petulant tongues of evil speakers and wicked
-men were silenced; by it the barbarous people were subdued; by it the
-invisible powers of the divil were vanquished and driven away; and by it
-the superstitious errors were confuted and abolished."
-
-[27] Bede. Ecclesiastical History. B. I., ch. 30. Dr. Giles' Transl.
-Bohn.
-
-[28] Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. Vol. I. p. 201. Note.
-Michaelmas Day.
-
-[29] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum. B. III., ch. 5.
-
-[30] See "Notes and Queries." Sir J. E. Tennant, Vol. V., p. 121; W.
-Blood, &c., Vol. VIII., p. 413.
-
-[31] The Berlin correspondent of the _Times_ related the following
-incident:--
-
-"The comet which has lately been visible, has served a priest, not far
-from Warsaw, with materials for a very curious sermon. After having
-summoned his congregation together, although it was neither Sunday nor
-festival, and shown them the comet, he informed them that this was the
-same star that had appeared to the Magi at the birth of the Saviour, and
-that it was only visible now in the Russian Empire. Its appearance on
-this occasion was to intimate to the Russian eagle, that the time was
-now come for it to spread out its wings, and embrace all mankind in one
-orthodox and sanctifying church. He showed them the star now standing
-immediately over Constantinople, and explained that the dull light of
-the nucleus indicated its sorrow at the delay of the Russian army in
-proceeding to its destination."
-
-[32] "Madam Morrow, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and a
-descendant of a line of astrologers reaching back for centuries, will
-give ladies private lectures on all the events of life, in regard to
-health, wealth, love, courtship, and marriage. She is, without
-exception, the most wonderful astrologist in the world, or that has ever
-been known. She will even tell their very thoughts, and will show them
-the likenesses of their intended husbands and absent friends, which has
-astonished thousands during her absence in Europe. She will leave the
-city in a very short time. 76, Broome Street, between Cannon and
-Columbia. Gentlemen are not admitted."
-
-"Madame la Compt flatters herself that she is competent by her great
-experience in the art of astrology, to give true information in regard
-to the past, present, and future. She is able to see clearly any losses
-her visitors may have sustained, and will give satisfactory information
-in regard to the way of recovery. She has, and continues to give perfect
-satisfaction. Ladies and gentlemen 50 cents. 13, Howard Street."
-
-"Madame la Compt has been visited by over two hundred ladies and
-gentlemen the past week, and has given perfect satisfaction; and in
-consideration of the great patronage bestowed upon her, she will remain
-at 13, Howard Street, for four days more, when she will positively sail
-for the South."
-
-"Mrs. Alwin, renowned in Europe for her skill in foretelling the future,
-has arrived, and will furnish intelligence about all circumstances of
-life. She interprets dreams, law matters, and love, by astrology, books,
-and science, and tells to ladies and gentlemen the name of the persons
-they will marry; also the names of her visitors. Mrs. Alwin speaks the
-English, French, and German languages. Residence, 25, Rivington Street,
-upstairs, near the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"Mrs. Prewster, from Philadelphia, tenders her services to the ladies
-and gentlemen of this city in astrology, love, and law matters,
-interpreting dreams, &c., by books and science, constantly relied on by
-Napoleon; and will tell the name of the lady or gentleman they will
-marry; also the names of the visitors. No. 59, Great Jones Street,
-corner of the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"The celebrated Dr. F. Shuman, Swede by birth, just arrived in this
-city, offers his services in astrology, physiognomy, &c. He can be
-consulted in matters of love, marriage, past, present, and future events
-of life. Nativity calculated for ladies and gentlemen. Mr. S. has
-travelled through the greater part of the world in the last forty-two
-years, and is willing to give the most satisfactory information. Office,
-175, Chambers Street, near Greenwich."
-
-(From a recent number of the _New York Herald_. Notes and Queries,
-December 10, 1853, p. 561.)
-
-[33] The Æneis. B. III.
-
-[34] Carthon. Ossian.
-
-[35] "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe," by W. and Mary
-Howitt. Vol. I., p. 99.
-
-[36] Howitt. "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe." Vol. I.
-
-[37] An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians; by
-E. W. Lane, Vol. I, p. 311.
-
-[38] Adventures in the Libyan Desert, p. 22.
-
-[39] B. I, ch. 13 and 16.
-
-[40] Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Bohn, p. 248. And Table of Contents, p.
-XIII.
-
-[41] "The Fall of the Nibelungers," &c.; a Translation of the Nibelunge
-Nôt, or Nibelungenlied, by W. N. Lettsom, p. 59, St. 346, 347; p. 167,
-St. 983.
-
-[42] Thorpe. Op. cit. Table of Contents, p. IX.
-
-[43] "The marvellous stories, the frightful tales, the threats, which
-were so long the apanage of infancy, would dispose the naturally
-impressionable mind to receive all the fantastic creations of the
-period. Now, it is said, the system is completely changed, and they are
-taught to ridicule these ancient beliefs. This argument would be
-unanswerable if they spoke of colleges and boarding schools; but they
-forget the servants to whom are confided the early years of infants;
-thus is the nursery always reviving fooleries, terrors, and frightful
-stories, in the middle of which the infant grows. I will content me with
-one example, that of one of the celebrated poets of England, Robert
-Burns. 'I owed much in my infancy,' says this writer, 'to an old woman
-who lived with us, and who was extremely ignorant, and remarkably
-credulous and superstitious. No one in the country had a larger
-collection of tales and songs respecting devils, fairies, ghosts,
-sorcerers, magicians, jack-o'-lanterns, hobgoblins, phantoms,
-apparitions, charms, giants, dragons, &c.
-
-"'Not only did these tales cultivate in me the germs of poesy, but they
-had such an effect upon my imagination, that, even now, in my night
-journeys, I have often, in spite of myself, the eye upon certain
-suspicious places; and although no one can be more sceptical in such
-matters, an effort of the reason is occasionally necessary to chase away
-these vain terrors.'
-
-"'Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, solitariness, contribute
-strongly to develop the feeling of terror so wrongly cast in the minds
-of infants. Their eye readily perceives frightful figures which regard
-them in a menacing manner; their chamber is peopled with assassins,
-robbers, devils, and monsters of all kinds."--_A. Brierre de Boismont.
-"Des Hallucinations; ou Histoire Raisonnée des Apparitions,"_ &c. Ed.
-II, 1852, p. 362.
-
-[44] This idea has been beautifully expressed by Longfellow in the
-"Voices of the Night."
-
-    "When the hours of day are numbered,
-      And the voices of the night
-    Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
-      To a holy calm delight,
-
-    Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
-      And like phantoms grim and tall,
-    Shadows from the fitful firelight
-      Dance upon the parlour wall;
-
-    Then the forms of the departed
-      Enter at the open door;
-    The beloved, the true-hearted,
-      Come to visit us once more." &c.
-
-See also Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall. St. Martin's Eve.
-
-[45]
-
-    "I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
-      But or ever a prayer had gusht,
-    A wicked whisper came and made
-      My heart as dry as dust."
-
-                    Coleridge. "Ancient Mariner."
-
-[46] Brewster. Natural Magic, p. 15.
-
-[47] A few hundred feet from the place where this occurred, is a lane
-(Oldfield Lane, Wortley, near Leeds) which was noted, many years ago, as
-the beat of one of those somewhat rare spectres, a headless ghost. Some
-are living even now who have _known_ those who had seen this phantom.
-When last seen, it appeared as a comfortable-looking man, dressed in a
-drab-coat, and carried the head under the arm. As a Yorkshire version of
-a very ancient and wide-spread superstition, its memory is worth
-preserving. The belief in headless ghosts is found in many parts of
-England, Ireland (the _Dullahan_ or _Dulachan_), Wales, Scotland, Spain,
-France, and Germany.
-
-[48] Chambers' Miscellany. Art. "Spectral Apparitions," &c.
-
-[49] Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. 2nd Ed., p. 3.
-
-[50] "Phantoms of the Far East." Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Vol. XVII,
-p. 315.
-
-[51] Busby's Lucretius, B. IV.
-
-[52] Temora.
-
-[53] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 7.
-
-[54] Letters on Natural Magic. 5th Ed., p. 166.
-
-[55] D. Jardine, "Notes and Queries," Vol. VIII, p. 512, Nov. 26, 1853.
-
-[56] Hudibras. Can. III.
-
-[57] Athenæum. July 2, 1853, p. 801, and Appendix.
-
-[58] Müller. "Manuel de Physiologie." Traduit par A. J. L. Jourdan. 2nd
-ed., 1851, par E. Littré, T. II., p. 388. See also ¶ A. B. C. E. F.,
-Sect. V, "Phénomènes Subjectifs de Vision," p. 386.
-
-[59] Müller. Op. cit., T. II, p. 549.
-
-[60] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 74.
-
-[61] "Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, &c., in their Relations to
-the Vital Force," by Karl von Reichenbach, Pts. I & II.
-
-[62] "The Night Side of Nature," by Mrs. Crowe. Ed. 1853, p. 362.
-
-[63]
-
-    "I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,
-    Thy image steals between my God and me;
-    Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,
-    With every bead I drop too soft a tear."
-
-                       _Eloise and Abelard._ Pope.
-
-[64] Notes and Narrative of a Six Years' Mission principally among the
-Dens of London. By R. W. Vanderkiste, p. 182.
-
-[65] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 110.
-
-[66] "Theory of Pneumatology." By Dr. J. H. Jung-Stilling: translated by
-Saml. Jackson; p. 197, Lond., 1834.
-
-[67] Op. cit., p. 200.
-
-[68] The apparition of the "_White Lady_" was very irregular and
-uncertain, for many members of the family died without her spectre
-having been seen.
-
-[69] "Demonology and Witchcraft." 2nd Ed., p. 350, note.
-
-[70] "Household Words." Conducted by Charles Dickens, March, 1853, p. 6.
-
-[71] Op. cit., p. 142.
-
-[72] "Notes and Queries." Vol. VIII., p. 287.
-
-[73] Ed. 1829, Vol. IV., p. 271.
-
-[74] Op. cit., p. 182.
-
-[75] Op. cit., p. 470.
-
-[76] De. Divinatione et de Fato.
-
-[77] Op. cit. p. 243.
-
-[78] "Of Human Understanding." Bk. II, ch. 33, sect. 10.
-
-[79] Op. cit., p. 65.
-
-[80] "History of Europe," from 1789 to 1815. By Sir Archibald Alison,
-Bart. Chap. XX, Sect. 25, and notes.
-
-[81] Op. cit., p. 10.
-
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
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-quoted passages, have all been preserved. Inconsistencies in quotation
-mark usage, single quotes, double quotes, and quotes-within-quotes are
-all as in the original.
-
-
-
-
-
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-Project Gutenberg's Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, by John Nettin Radcliffe
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-Title: Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites
-       Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief
-       in the Supernatural
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-Author: John Nettin Radcliffe
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-
-
-
-
-
-  FIENDS, GHOSTS,
-  AND
-  SPRITES.
-
-  INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF
-  THE ORIGIN AND NATURE
-  OF
-  BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL.
-
-  BY JOHN NETTEN RADCLIFFE.
-
-  LONDON:
-  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
-  1854.
-
-  PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS,
-  LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.
-
-
-A belief in the supernatural has existed in all ages and among all
-nations.
-
-To trace the origin of this belief, the causes of the various
-modifications it has undergone, and the phases it has assumed, is,
-perhaps, one of the most interesting researches to which the mind can be
-given,--interesting, inasmuch as we find pervading every part of it the
-effects of those passions and affections which are most powerful and
-permanent in our nature.
-
-So general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling Power, possessing
-attributes altogether different from and superior to human powers, and
-bending these and the forces of nature to its will, that the thought
-has been entertained by many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine
-is, however, refuted by an acquaintance with the inlets and modes of
-obtaining knowledge; by the fact that reason is necessary to its
-discovery; and by its uselessness.[1] "There are neither innate ideas
-nor innate propositions; but there is an innate power of understanding
-that shows itself in primitive notions, which, when put into speech, are
-expressed in propositions, which propositions, decomposed, produce,
-under the influence of abstraction and analysis, distinct ideas."[2]
-
-Others have asserted and maintained that man derives his knowledge of
-the existence of Deity, and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the
-exercise of reason upon himself and his own powers by self-reflection.
-If he reflects upon the wonderful power of liberty and free-will which
-he possesses, on his relation to surrounding beings and things, and
-particularly on his imperfect, limited, and finite powers, it is argued
-that the antithetical proposition of infinite must of necessity be
-admitted. "I cannot have the idea of the finite and of imperfection
-without having that of perfection and of infinite. These two ideas are
-logically correlative."[3] Or if man extends his reasoning powers to the
-study or the contemplation "of the beauty, the order, the intelligence,
-the wisdom, and the perfection displayed throughout the universe; and as
-there must of necessity be in the cause what is witnessed in the effect,
-you reason from nature to its author, and from the existence of the
-perfection of the one you conclude the existence and perfection of the
-other."[4]
-
-But many theologists maintain that the knowledge of a Deity, and of the
-existence of supernatural beings, is derived solely from revelation; and
-stern and prolonged have been the struggles in this country between the
-upholders of the rival tenets.
-
-That no idea of a Deity, such as that which the Christian entertains, is
-to be found among the vague and undefined notions of supernatural power
-which are contained in the mythologies of pagan nations; that even the
-conceptions of Plato are to be summed up in the phrase "the unknown
-God;" and that the perfect idea of the Godhead is to be derived solely
-from Scripture, can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion sought
-to be established from this, that all our ideas of the supernatural are
-derived from this source, does not necessarily follow.
-
-The postulate that man can derive a knowledge of the supernatural from
-the exercise of his mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or
-denied, but it is not improbable.
-
-Perhaps the nearest approach to correctness which we are as yet capable
-of on this subject is as follows:--
-
-After the creation of man, God revealed himself. The perfect knowledge
-of the Deity thus obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the human
-race, notwithstanding the baneful effects of the fall; and at the epoch
-of the deluge, the solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm,
-formed a centre from which anew the attributes and powers of the Godhead
-were made known in all their truth and purity. But again sin prevailed,
-and with the exception of one race, who alone treasured the true
-knowledge of the Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of their
-fathers; and as they receded from the light, the idea of the Godhead
-became obscured, and in the progress of time well nigh lost, and the
-vague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power derived from
-tradition, prompted to a terror and awe of some invisible yet mighty
-influence, unknown and inexplicable, but which was manifested to man in
-the more striking objects and the incomprehensible phenomena of nature,
-which were regarded and worshipped as the seats of this unknown Power,
-forming the substratum of those wonderful systems of mythology which
-have characterised successive eras and races.
-
-"Once," writes Plato, referring to the earlier traditions of the Greeks,
-"one God governed the universe; but a great and extraordinary change
-taking place in the nature of men and things, infinitely for the worse
-(for originally there was perfect virtue and perfect happiness on
-earth), the command then devolved on Jupiter, with many inferior deities
-to preside over different departments under him."[5]
-
-To state the influence which each of the elements indicated
-above--tradition and reason--have had in the development of mythology,
-is doubtless impossible.
-
-The existence of the first element, _tradition_, is, to those who admit
-the truth of Scripture, undeniable, and it gives a clue to the
-elucidation of the leading principle in the belief in those gods,
-daemons, fiends, sprites, &c., which, summed up, have constituted the
-objects of worship of different nations.
-
-
-I. As in the course of generations the pristine revelation of the
-Godhead to man became obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief
-alone remained,--the conceptions, the thoughts and imaginations of each
-generation being implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing it by
-the force of habit, education, and authority,--man, impressed with an
-imperfect notion of a supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of
-the material world, on seeking to unfold the source of those changes
-which he beheld in the budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of
-summer, the maturity of autumn, and the stern grandeur of winter,
-conceived that the wonderful phenomena ever going on around him owed
-their origin and effects to the influence of supernatural agency, and
-marking their apparent dependence upon the sun and other orbs in space,
-he offered adoration to those luminaries. But when he still further
-analysed the changes occurring on the surface of the globe, and
-comprehended the influence of the more palpable forces and elements, and
-the inexhaustible variety and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena
-which he witnessed, incapable of otherwise solving the mysteries which
-surrounded him, he deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling
-Spirit.[6]
-
-Thus man concluded that he was surrounded by a world of supernatural
-beings, of different powers, attributes, and passions. The sun and moon,
-the planets and stars, were conceived to be the abodes of spiritual
-existences; and the effects caused by those orbs which more immediately
-influence our earth, were considered as the indications of the powers of
-their respective deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents; the
-ocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and rivers; and the earth, its
-hills, dales, and organic forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.
-Every object of beauty shadowed forth the operations of a beneficent
-Spirit; while devastating storms, barren places and deserts, and the
-convulsions of nature, betokened the malignancy of daemons or fiends.
-According as a country's surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and
-storm-tossed, or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the rays of
-a fervid sun, so do we find the principal characters of its mythology;
-stern, gigantic, and fierce gods or daemons, or spirits more kind towards
-man, and full of beauty and grace. The passions and affections of man,
-for the same reasons, were considered to be under the sway of
-supernatural beings; in short, every operation of nature in the organic
-or inorganic, in the mental or physical worlds, was deemed an indication
-of the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled and governed it.[7]
-
-These powers in the progress of time were personified and represented as
-possessed of passions and propensities similar to those of man; for the
-same finite and imperfect reason which had concluded that they dwelt in
-the phenomena they were supposed to explain, also deemed, being unable
-to conceive any higher type of existence than was seen in man himself,
-that they differed simply in degree of power, and were alike subject to
-those appetites and passions which characterised humanity.
-
-This source of belief in spiritual existences is found dominant in the
-systems of mythology of all nations; and as it arises from causes which
-are inherant in man, it can easily be understood why there is so great a
-similarity in the primary mythological conceptions of different races.
-
-The mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome furnish a very perfect
-illustration of the influence which this cause has exercised in the
-development of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better method
-of illustration can be adopted, than a sketch of the physical
-signification of the principal deities, and classes of deities, of those
-countries.
-
-The primitive religion of the Greeks and Romans would appear to have
-consisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):--the Titans
-are nearly all personifications of the celestial orbs. Subsequently,
-their mythology assumed a more physical character, and the offspring of
-Cronos (Saturn, _time_), or the personifications of the firmament,
-atmosphere, sea, &c., formed the leading deities of the more developed
-system of religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.
-
-In this system, the god Jupiter is symbolical of the upper regions of
-the atmosphere (_AEther_). Euripides writes:--
-
-    "The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,
-    See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;
-    This own the chief of deities above,
-    And this acknowledge by the name of Jove."[8]
-
-At a later period this god was conceived to represent the soul of the
-world, diffused alike through animate and inanimate nature; or, as
-Virgil poetically describes it in the AEneid--(Book vi.):
-
-        "The heaven and earth's compacted frame,
-    And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
-    And both the radiant lights, one common soul
-    Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.
-    This active mind infused through all the space,
-    Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
-    Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain,
-    And birds of air, and monsters of the main."
-
-The god Apollo signifies the sun,--his prophetic power being symbolical
-of its influence in dispelling darkness; his knowledge of medicine and
-healing, signifies the influence of that luminary in revivifying and
-restoring the powers of organic life; his skill in music is symbolical
-of the central position of the sun among the seven planets, and its
-making harmony with them; and the harp upon which this god is depicted
-as playing, is furnished with seven strings, in emblem of the seven
-planets. _Pan_ represents the universal world, and he is the emblem of
-fecundity. Hence this god is depicted in his upper part as a man, in his
-lower parts as a beast; "because the superior and celestial part of the
-world is beautiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this god, whose
-horns resemble the rays of the sun, and the horns of the moon. The
-redness of his face is like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted
-skin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament. In his lower
-parts he is shagged and deformed, which represents the shrubs, and wild
-beasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's feet signify the
-solidity of the earth; and his pipe of seven reeds, that celestial
-harmony which is made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's hook,
-crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the turning of the year
-into itself."[9]
-
-The goddess _Cybele_ was symbolical of the earth; _Juno_, of the
-air--the link between earthly and heavenly natures; _Vulcan_, of fire;
-_AEolus_, of the winds; _Diana_, of the moon; _Neptune_, of the sea;
-_Rusina_, of the country; _Ceres_, of the fruits of the earth;
-_Collina_, of the hills; _Vallonia_, of the valleys; _Silvanus_, of the
-woods, which teemed also with inferior deities--_satyrs_ and _fauns_;
-_Seia_ presided over all seed; _Flora_, flowers; _Proserpina_ cherished
-the corn when it had sprung above the earth; _Volasia_ folded the blade
-round it ere the beard broke out; _Nodosus_ watched over the joints and
-knots of the stalk; _Patelina_ governed the opened ear; _Lactusa_ took
-charge when it became milky; _Matura_ guarded and conducted it to
-maturity; _Hostilina_ presided over the crop; and _Tutelina_, over the
-cutting.
-
-_Nymphs_, goddesses of lovely form, and light and airy beauty, sported
-about the earth; a _Dryad_ presided over every tree; a _Hamadryad_ was
-born, lived, and died with each oak; _Oreads_ dwelt on the mountains;
-_Napeae_, in the groves and valleys; _Lemoniads_, in the meadows and
-fields; _Nereiads_, in the ocean; _Naiads_, at the fountains;
-_Fluviales_, by the rivers: and _Lirinades_, by lakes and ponds.
-
-_Vesta_ presided over the vital heat of the body; _Janus_ opened the
-gate of life to infant man; _Opis_ assisted him when he came into the
-world; _Nascio_ presided over the moment of birth; _Cunia_ watched over
-the cradle, and while he lay and slept; _Vagitanus_, or _Vaticanus_,
-took care while the infant cried; _Rumina_ presided while the child
-sucked the breast; _Potina_ guarded the infant drinking; _Educa_ watched
-over it while it received food; _Ossilago_ "knit its bones" and hardened
-its body; _Carna_ presided over the safety of the inward parts; the
-goddess _Nundina_ had charge of the child on the ninth day--the day of
-purification; _Statilinus_ taught the infant to stand and walk, and
-preserved it from falling; _Fabulinus_ looked after the child when it
-began to speak; _Paventia_ preserved it from fright; _Juventus_
-protected the beginning of youth; _Agenoria_ excited man to action;
-_Strenua_ encouraged him to behave bravely on all occasions; _Stimula_
-urged him to extraordinary exertions; _Horta_ exhorted him to noble
-actions; _Quis_ gave peace and quietude; _Murcia_ rendered man lazy,
-idle, and dull; _Adeona_ protected him in his outgoings and incomings;
-_Vibilia_ guarded wanderers; _Vacuna_ protected the lazy and idle;
-_Fessonia_ refreshed the weary; _Meditrina_ healed injuries; _Vitula_
-presided over and gave mirth; _Volupia_ governed pleasures; _Orbona_ was
-a goddess supplicated that she might not leave parents destitute of
-children; _Pellonia_ drove away enemies; _Numeria_ endued men with the
-power of casting numbers; _Sentia_ gave just and honourable sentiments;
-_Augerona_ removed anguish from the mind; and _Consus_ presided over
-good counsels.
-
-_Virtue_ also was worshipped as a goddess; and the several species of
-virtue were considered each as emanating from some godlike power, and
-_Faith_, _Hope_, _Justice_, _Piety_, _Peace_, _Fidelity_, _Liberty_, and
-_Money_, were worshipped as good deities; while, on the other hand,
-_Envy_, _Contumely_, _Impudence_, _Calumny_, _Fraud_, _Discord_, _Fury_,
-_Fame_, _Fortune_, _Fever_, and _Silence_, were supplicated as evil
-deities.
-
-_Minerva_ was symbolical of wisdom and chastity; _Mercury_, of
-eloquence--speech; _Venus_ of ungovernable passions and desire;
-_Saturn_, time; _Momus_, mockery; _Silenus_, jesting; _Mars_, war; and
-_Bacchus_, wine. The _Muses_ each represented an accomplishment. Thus,
-_Calliope_ presided over epic poetry; _Clio_, history; _Erato_, elegy
-and amorous song; _Thalia_, comedy, gay, light, and pleasing song;
-_Melpomene_, tragedy; _Terpsichore_, dancing; _Euterpe_, music;
-_Polyhymnia_, religious song; and _Urania_, the knowledge of celestial
-events.
-
-_Themis_ taught mankind what was honest, just, and right; _Astraea_ was
-the goddess of justice; _Nemesis_ punished vice, rewarded virtue, and
-taught mankind their duty.
-
-Every action of man, both in his collective and individual
-capacity--everything in relation to his household and domestic
-affairs--was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which
-were classed under the names of _Penates_ and _Lares_.
-
-The _Penates_, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they
-may be divided into three classes: 1st, those which presided over
-kingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and
-3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an
-extent this belief was carried, a penate named _Ferculus_ looked after
-the door; the goddess _Cardua_ after the hinges; and _Limentius_
-protected the threshold.
-
-The _Lares_ were of human origin, and they presided also over houses,
-streets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country
-and the sea.
-
-To each person was also assigned two deities, termed _genii_. These
-spirits were subsidiary to the gods already mentioned, it being one of
-their duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in
-nature and disposition, and were divided into two classes--the _good_
-and the _bad_. The _good genius_ excited men to all actions of honour
-and virtue; the _evil genius_ excited him to all manner of wickedness.
-The Greeks termed these genii _daemons_, either from the terror and dread
-they created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned
-when consulted as oracles.
-
-The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of
-the evil passions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed
-the _Furies_--_Alecto_, _Tisiphone_, and _Megaera_--who became symbolical
-of the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and
-Death--_Nox_, _Mors_, and _Somnus_--were elevated among the gods.
-
-This brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into
-the formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology--a mythology containing
-more than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate how every hidden power of
-nature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every
-equally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an
-explanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the
-progress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a
-form as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.
-
-This source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already
-stated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their
-primary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the
-difference of climate, habits, &c.
-
-Thus, of the gods of the ancient Britons--_Belin_, _Plennyd_, or
-_Granwyn_, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo;
-_Gwydion_, or _Teutath_, had all the attributes of Mercury; _Daronwy_,
-_Taranwy_, or _Taranis_, the thunderer, of Jove; _Anras_, or _Andraste_,
-of Bellona; _He-us_, _Hesus_, _Hugadarn_, or _Hu-ysgwn_, united the
-characters of Bacchus and Mars; _Ked_ and _Keridwen_ answered to Ceres;
-_Llenwy_ to Proserpine; _Olwen_ and _Dwynwen_ to Venus; and _Neivion_ to
-Neptune.[10]
-
-In the Scandinavian mythology the principal gods are personifications of
-physical and mental powers. _Odin_, the most powerful of the three
-beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of
-Mercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, _Vili_ is the personification
-of light; _Ve_, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting
-constantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of
-the principal gods, we find that _Thor_ is symbolical of thunder;
-_Baldur_ of the sun; _Njord_ rules over the winds, sea, &c.; _Frey_ is
-the god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; _Tyr_, of war;
-_Bragi_, of wisdom and poetry; _Vidar_, of silence; _Forseti_, of law
-and justice; _Loki_ is the personification of evil; _Frigga_ is the
-goddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the
-past, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance, love, courtesy,
-wisdom, and every form and passion and power of nature which the
-Scandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and
-worshipped god.
-
-The original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly
-bodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers,
-which form the principal part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the
-firmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most
-frequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the
-elements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary
-poems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the
-Sanhita of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly
-addressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons,
-the sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices,
-or are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities.
-The personified attributes of _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_, signifying
-respectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later
-and more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities
-ranking next in order to the _Trimurti_, and termed _Lokapalas_, are all
-personifications of natural objects and powers. Thus _Indra_ is the god
-of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm,
-and rain; _Agni_, of fire; _Yama_, of the infernal regions; _Surya_, of
-the sun; _Varuna_, of water; _Parana_, of wind; _Kuvera_, of wealth; and
-_Soma_, or _Chandra_, of the moon.
-
-The celebrated line which it is enjoined should be repeated without
-intermission, and which is the most holy passage in the Vedas, reads
-literally, "Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri (the
-sun--the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects." This, it is
-asserted, is addressed to the sun as the symbol of a divine and
-all-powerful being, and it is regarded as a proof of the monotheism of
-the Vedas. This explanation is, however, considered by some to be far
-from satisfactory, and to offer greater difficulties than the text ever
-can when taken in a natural light.
-
-The creed of Buddha contains similar traces of elemental worship. The
-five Buddhas and the five Bodhisattwas would appear to be
-personifications of the principal natural elements and phenomena.
-
-In Persian mythology we find a similar deification of natural phenomena.
-In the creed of Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing
-beliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being, _Zernane Akherene_
-(illimitable, uncreated time), who created _Ormuzd_ (light, goodness);
-and _Ahrimann_ (darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe, and the
-genii, or deities of light, of whom there are three classes.
-
-_1st Class._ The seven _Amshaspands_, including _Ormuzd_ himself. The
-remaining are _Bahman_, the genius of the region of light;
-_Ardibehesht_, of ethereal fire; _Sharwir_, of metals; _Sarpandomad_, of
-fruitfulness; _Khudad_, of time; _Amerdad_, of the vegetable world,
-flocks, and herds.
-
-_2nd Class._ The twenty-seven _Izeds_, male and female--the _elementary_
-deities: e.g. _Khorsid_, the deity of the sun; _Mah_, of the moon;
-_Tashter_, of the dog-star, and of rain; _Rapitan_, the deity of heat,
-&c. These deities were probably worshipped before the belief was reduced
-to a system.
-
-_3rd Class._ The _Fervers_--the vivifying principles of nature, the
-ideal types of the material universe, corresponding in general with the
-_ideas_ of Plato. Every one, even Ormuzd, has his Ferver. "An Iranite
-has thus constantly by his side his ideal type, or uncorrupted material
-image, to guide him through life and preserve him from evil."[12]
-
-The Iranite worships light, fire, and water, as emblems of Ormuzd, in
-whom these elements are united; he does not worship the elementary
-spirits attached to them.
-
-In China, the state religion--the religious system of
-Confucius--embodies the following objects of worship, arranged in three
-classes:--
-
-_1st Class._ _Ta sze_, or _great sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-the heavens (_Yang_), and the earth (_Yin_); and while worshipping the
-material heaven, they appear to consider that there exists an animating
-_intelligence_ (_Tae-keih_) which presides over the world, rewarding
-virtue and vice. This class includes also deified sovereigns.
-
-_2nd Class._ _Choong-sze_, _medium sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-gods of the land and grain, the sun and moon, genii, sages, gods of
-letters, inventors of agriculture, manufacturers, and useful arts.
-
-_3rd Class._ _Seaon-sze_, or _lesser sacrifices_, includes the worship
-of the ancient patron of the healing art; innumerable spirits of
-deceased statesmen, eminent scholars, martyrs to virtue, &c.; the
-principal phenomena of nature, as the clouds, rain, wind, thunder, each
-of which has its presiding god; the military banners (like the Romans);
-the god of war; _Loong-wang_, the dragon-king; the gods of rain and the
-watery elements; and _Tien-how_, the queen of heaven and goddess of the
-weather. The Chinese also believe in good and evil genii, and in tutelar
-spirits presiding over families, houses, and towns.[13]
-
-In Africa, the mythology of its different nations is based on natural
-objects and phenomena. The natives of Ashanti and the neighbouring
-districts worship water, lakes, rivers, mountains, rocks and stones,
-leopards, panthers, wolves, crocodiles, &c., all of which are more or
-less powerful "fetishes;" and the Nubian worships the moon. The natives
-of Tahiti and the islands of the South Sea also derive their principal
-ideas of supernatural beings from material objects. In Mangareva, the
-largest of the Gambier Islands, the gods adored by the natives were
-principally personifications of natural objects. A god named _Tea_ was
-the deity and creator of the sun, wind, and water; _Rongo_ was the god
-of rain; _Tairi_, of thunder; _Arikitenow_, of the ocean; _A-nghi_, of
-storms and famine; _Napitoiti_, of death, &c. The Tahitan conceives also
-that animals, trees, stones, &c., possess souls which, like his own,
-after destruction will have a subsequent existence. On the vast
-continent of South America we find numerous traces of elemental and
-natural worship. The aborigines of Paraguay supplicate the sun, moon,
-stars, thunder, lightning, groves, &c. In the district bounded by the
-Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassequiare, including an
-extent of about 8000 square miles, and scattered also over a still
-greater extent of this continent, are found rocks covered with colossal
-symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, household utensils, and of
-the sun and moon,--doubtless objects of adoration to nations of whose
-existence even tradition has not preserved a trace. It is also probable
-that the rocks thus engraved were regarded as sacred; for the Macusi
-Indians, inhabiting one portion of the districts where these sculptures
-are found, have the tradition that "the sole survivor of a general
-deluge repeopled the earth by changing stones into human beings."[14]
-The Incas of Peru--the children of the sun--built magnificent temples,
-and adored that luminary; and the sculptures on the walls of the
-colossal temples and buildings of the Aztecs, the ancient inhabitants of
-Mexico, as well as the remains of the pyramids of the sun and moon at
-Teotihuacan, teach the same lesson with regard to that extinct race. The
-Pueblo Indians of New Mexico still perpetuate the holy fire "by the side
-of which the Aztecan kept a continual watch for the return to earth of
-Quetzalcoatl, the god of air." In a solitary cave of the mountains is
-preserved the undying fire, and its dim light is seen by the hunter if,
-by chance, led by the chase, he passes near to this lonely temple.[15]
-Among the tribes which inhabit the more northerly parts of the American
-continent, we find also similar traces of the important influence which
-natural phenomena have exercised in the development of their ideas of
-supernatural existences.
-
-We could not well close this sketch without allusion to the Shaman
-religion, which is diffused throughout the principal nations of Asiatic
-Russia, a great part of the Tartars, the Eins, Samoiedes, Ostiaks,
-Mandshurs, Burats, and Tungsees; and it is even professed among the
-Coriaks and Techuks, and people of the eastern islands. This system of
-religion is essentially founded upon the observation of natural
-phenomena: it teaches that the gods (_Burchans_) arose from the general
-mass of matter and spirit; and while inculcating the existence of a
-spiritual world, it instils the belief in the self-existence of matter.
-
-These remarks will sufficiently show the important influence which the
-observation of natural phenomena has had in the development of the
-belief in the Supernatural of most nations; and it will fully indicate
-the primary reason of the correspondence of their principal mythological
-conceptions. A consideration of the different habits, degree of
-civilization, locality, &c., will also indicate the principal reason of
-the various modifications which the same mythological conception is
-found to present among different nations.
-
-There was one Jupiter for Europe, and another for Africa; and the varied
-forms under which this god was worshipped, derived from the locality,
-habits, and other peculiarities of his worshippers, were very numerous.
-At Athens, the great Jupiter was the Olympian; at Rome, the Capitoline.
-There was the mild and the thundering Jupiter, the Jupiter Nicephorus,
-Opitulus, Fulminator, &c., all differing in some subordinate characters.
-
-Ammon, of Egypt; Belus, of the Babylonians; Ibis, of the Phoenicians;
-Allah, of the Arabians; Beel, Baal, Beelphagor, Beelzebub, Beelzemer,
-&c., all possess the attributes of Jupiter, and are the same with that
-god.
-
-The Buddha of India; Fohi, of the Chinese; Odin, or Woden, of the
-Scandinavians; and Gwydion, of the Ancient Britons, correspond with
-Mercury.
-
-Vishnu, Brahma, Siva, and Krishna, the latter both of the Irish and
-Sanscrit, correspond with Apollo; whilst Arun, of the Irish and Hindoo
-superstitions, corresponds with the Aurora of the Greeks.
-
-It is peculiarly interesting to mark in the writings of classic authors
-the earlier traces of a correct explanation of the causes operating in
-the changes observed in nature, and their influence in modifying the
-mythological ideas of the period. Socrates penetrated so far in the
-interpretation of certain physical phenomena as to discover that they
-might be explained without having recourse to the idea of supernatural
-agency. This is most interestingly shown in Aristophanes' comedy of "The
-Clouds" (B.C. 440). In this comedy, written for the purpose of throwing
-ridicule and contempt on the sophistical philosophy of Socrates,
-Strepsiades, an aged and ignorant man, is represented as suffering from
-the excesses and expenses of his son Phidippides. He conceives the idea
-of studying logic, in order, by mere subtle reasoning, to overcome and
-cheat his creditors. He enrols himself as a pupil of Socrates, and in
-Act I, Scene 2, the following scene occurs:--
-
-  _Str._  Is not Olympian Jupiter our God?
-
-  _Soc._  What Jupiter? nay, jest not--there is none.
-
-  _Str._  How say'st thou? who then rains?--this first of all
-          Declare to me.
-
-  _Soc._              Why these (_the clouds_): by mighty signs
-          This I will prove to thee. Hast ever seen
-          Jove raining without clouds?--if it were so,
-          Through the clear fields of ether must he rain,
-          While these were far away.
-
-  _Str._                          Now by Apollo,
-          Full well hast thou discours'd upon this point;
-          Till now, in truth, I thought 'twas Jupiter,
-          Distilling through a sieve. But tell me next,
-          Who is the thunderer?--this awakes my dread.
-
-  _Soc._  They thunder as they roll.
-
-  _Str._                          But how, I pray?
-          Say, thou who darest all.
-
-  _Soc._                        When they are fill'd
-          With water, and perforce impell'd along,
-          Driven precipitate, all full of rain,
-          They meet together, bursting with a crash.
-
-  _Str._  But who compels them thus to move along?
-          Is not this Jove?
-
-  _Soc._                  No, but th'aetherial whirl.
-
-In a subsequent part of the comedy (Act III, Scene 1) Strepsiades is
-represented as speaking of this idea of a whirlwind as a deified being,
-thus admirably showing the tendency of man to consider that which he
-could not comprehend as the result of supernatural agency, and to
-personify it.
-
-  _Str._  Thou swearest now, by Jove.
-
-  _Phid._ I do.
-
-  _Str._      Thou see'st how good it is to learn,
-          There is no Jove, Phidippides.
-
-  _Phid._                           Who then?
-
-  _Str._  A whirlwind reigns; having driven him, Jove, away.
-
-It would seem, also, that Socrates himself was subject to the influence
-of this feeling; for a passage in Act V, Scene 1,[16] has led to the
-conclusion "that in the school of Socrates was placed an earthen image
-(#dinos#, the name of an earthen vessel as well as of the
-_whirlwind_, who has usurped the honours and attributes of Jove). (See
-Schol. ad Vesp. 617.) This, probably, was done by the philosopher as a
-sort of compensation for having expelled Jupiter (#ton Dia#)
-from his mythological system."[17]
-
-
-II. But the ideas derived from the contemplation of natural phenomena
-were not the sole sources of mythology, such as we have received it.
-Other and most powerful causes operated, and of those next in degree of
-importance were those feelings which prompted to the deification of men.
-
-Persaeus, a disciple of Zeno, "says, that they who have made discoveries
-advantageous to the life of man, should be esteemed as gods; and the
-very things, he says, which are healthful and beneficial, should have
-divine appellations; so that he thinks it not sufficient to call them
-the discoverers of gods, but that they themselves should be deemed
-divine."[18]
-
-The author of the "Book of Wisdom" in the Apocrypha, details other
-causes which tended to the same result. He writes, (Chapter xiv, v.
-15-21):--
-
-"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a son who hath been taken from
-him, makes an image of his child: and him who before was _to his family_
-as a dead man, they now begin to worship as a god; rites and sacrifices
-being instituted, to be observed by his dependents. And in process of
-time, custom having established these as a law, an image set up by an
-impious tyrant receives divine honours. A man being unable to render
-such respect in their presence to those who dwelt remote from them, and
-having received their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded to
-make a conspicuous image of any king to whom they inclined to pay divine
-honours, by which means, though absent, the ruler receives their
-solicitous homage, as though present with them. The exquisite pains
-bestowed by the artist has likewise contributed to this worship of the
-absent by ignorant men; for being willing to give perfect satisfaction
-to him for whom he doth it, he avails himself of all the resources of
-his art to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude, allured by
-the beauty of the statue, come to regard as a god him whom before they
-honoured but as a man. And this hath been the great delusion of
-humanity, that out of affection for the dead, or subserviency to their
-rulers, men have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable name of
-God."
-
-Most systems of mythology contain examples of deities which have been
-derived from this source.
-
-"It has been a general custom, likewise," writes Cicero,[19] "that men
-who have done important service to the public should be exalted to
-heaven by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux,
-AEsculapius and Liber, became gods; * * * thus, likewise, Romulus, or
-Quirinus--for they are thought to be the same--became a god. They are
-justly esteemed as deities, since their souls subsist and enjoy
-eternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings."
-
-The Chinese, at the present day, deify and adore their deceased
-emperors, as well as the spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs
-to virtue, &c.
-
-It has occasionally happened that some great sage, on his apotheosis,
-had attributed to him that which he had simply expounded during life,
-and thus became the personification of the religious ideas he had
-entertained. Buddha, who lived, as nearly as can be ascertained, about
-1000 years before Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India. After
-death he was deified by his converts, and became the embodiment of the
-principles he had advocated when on earth; and his name, with various
-modifications, was applied to the system of cosmogony and religion which
-he had advocated. The Grand Lamas (_Chaberons_) of Thibet are regarded
-as incarnations (_avatars_) of Buddha, and as such are adored by the
-Thibetians and the various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast
-district which extends from the banks of the Volga to Corea, in the Sea
-of Japan.
-
-After the persecution which terminated in the expulsion of the followers
-of Buddha from Hindostan, the Hindoos, not content with their celestial
-gods or heroes, extended their adoration to various living individuals,
-particularly to the Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight years of
-age are worshipped by them as forms of the goddess Bhavani (_Venus_);
-and at certain seasons of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his
-wife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.
-
-Some writers have thought that all the gods of the ancients consisted of
-deified men. This is, however, an error; for the deification of men was
-an act second in order to the worship of natural objects and phenomena.
-The chronological position of this element of mythology has, among other
-reasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting conclusions on the
-respective ages of the palaces of Nineveh.
-
-On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are found sculptured the winged
-and human-headed bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged
-figures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed divinities, and other
-figures, which are conceived to be symbolical of constellations, and of
-astronomical phenomena. From these nobler and simpler ideas of Divinity
-it is inferred, that when this palace was built the worship of the
-Assyrians was comparatively pure. But on the walls of Nimroud, in
-addition to the symbolical representations found at Khorsabad, there are
-also indications of an increased number of divinities, from the presence
-of deified men; hence a reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the
-system of religion at the period when this palace was built, and
-consequently its more recent date.[20]
-
-
-III. Another element has also exercised a considerable influence upon
-the mythologies of some nations, namely, _Scriptural narrative and
-traditions_. It is not improbable that several of the heathen myths have
-been derived from this source. Many, indeed, believe that all mythology
-arises from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that Deucalion is
-merely another name for Noah; Hercules for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and
-Bacchus is either Nimrod or Moses--for the former supposition the
-similarity of name being assigned; for the latter, among others, one of
-the names and some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus was named
-_Bicornis, double-horned_; and the face of Moses appeared double-horned
-when he came down from the mountain where he had spoken to God,--the
-rays of glory darting from his brow having the semblance of radiant
-horns. The Bacchae drew waters from the rocks by striking them with their
-thyrsi; and wherever they went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and
-wine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes to dry up, by
-striking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,--an
-action similar to that of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, &c. That
-Scripture narrative has had an important influence in determining the
-formation of mythology, is highly probable; and we have already shown
-that the primary revelation of a Godhead at the creation of man supplied
-an important initial excitement to that development of the belief in the
-supernatural which occurred subsequent to the fall of man. The influence
-of Scriptural traditions on the myths of various nations it is probably
-impossible to unravel satisfactorily.
-
-
-IV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths of the ancients, and of
-modern pagan nations, were allegorical; and that they were designed to
-represent a philosophical, moral, or religious truth under a fabulous
-form. Thus, the myth of the giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off
-the sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards stolen from him by
-Mercury, and restored to Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful
-rebellions, by which the sinews of kings--their revenue and
-authority--are cut off; but by mildness of address, and wisdom of
-edicts, influencing the people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they
-recover their power and reconcile their subjects. And in the myth of the
-expedition of the gods against the giants, when the ass Silenus became
-of great service in dispersing them, on account of the terror excited by
-his braying, it is considered to be an allegory of those vast projects
-of rebels, which are mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain
-consternation. Minerva was fabled to have been born out of the head of
-Jupiter, because it was deemed that man did not in himself possess
-wisdom, but he derived it from divine inspiration; and this goddess was
-born armed, because a wise man clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified
-against all the harms of life.
-
-This element has undoubtedly had an important influence in the formation
-of the various myths, but it refers rather to an advanced stage in
-mythology, and to that period of development when a nation has made some
-progress in arts and literature.
-
-These elements, and doubtless also others of which the effects are less
-easily unfolded, _e.g._ intercourse between various nations, dispersion
-of tribes, &c., have all exercised a greater or less degree of influence
-on the development and formation of the mythologies of different
-nations.
-
-If we contemplate a race in the earlier phases of its existence, or one
-degraded in the scale of being, we find that its ideas of the
-supernatural are confined to the deification and worship of the simplest
-and most striking of the objects and phenomena of nature: as it has
-increased in civilization and learning, those deities have been
-represented in symbolical forms; and as civilization and the cultivation
-of the mind advances, and the knowledge of surrounding nature has become
-increased, so have the number of deities been multiplied by the
-deification of the less evident powers of nature, of kings, and of
-distinguished men, and then also allegory has come into play. Every
-variation in the character of a nation, and every era, has impressed
-more or less distinct marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we
-receive it now, is the sum of all those changes which have been
-impressed upon it from its earliest formation.
-
-When Christianity dawned upon the world, its effect was not the
-immediate eradication or dispersion of the superstitious beliefs and
-observances then entertained: it induced a change in the form and
-nature of those beliefs.
-
-At the commencement of the Christian era, certain men, inspired by the
-Holy Ghost, were enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings
-derived from habit, education, and authority, and to receive at once, in
-all its purity and fulness, the light of the gospel--perhaps the most
-wonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ. Such was not the case,
-however, with the majority of the earlier Christians. They did not thus
-throw off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin, but modified them
-so as to concur, as they thought, with Scripture.
-
-Thus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of one sole, omnipotent,
-and omniscient God; and it fully defined a power of evil, and denounced
-idolatry. Hence the early Christian fathers were led to conceive, and
-teach, that the gods of the heathen were devils; and further, that their
-history, attributes, and worship, had been taught to mankind by the
-devils themselves.
-
-    "Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones;
-    Though of their names in heavenly records now
-    Be no memorial,--blotted out and razed,
-    By their rebellion from the book of life,--
-    ... wandering o'er the earth,
-    Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
-    By falsities and lies the greatest part
-    Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake
-    God their Creator, and the invisible
-    Glory of Him that made them to transform
-    Oft to the image of a brute adorn'd
-    With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,
-    And devils to adore for deities;
-    Then were they known to man by various names,
-    And various idols through the heathen world."[21]
-
-This phase being given to the existing superstitions, it will readily be
-understood how, under the form of devils, most of the principal classes
-of deities in pagan mythology were retained and believed in. Thus the
-elemental and primary gods of paganism were perpetuated under the name
-of _fiends_, _daemons_, _genii_, &c.; and the terms _salamanders_,
-_undines_, &c., expressed certain spirits of fire and of water; in the
-form of _fairies_, _elves_, _sylphs_, &c., were retained the graceful
-Nymphs--Oreads, Dryads, &c.--of antiquity,--
-
-    "The light militia of the lower sky;"
-
-the hidden parts of the earth were peopled with _dwarfs_, and other
-spirits of a more powerful nature; and spectral apparitions frighted the
-midnight hours of the watcher.
-
-It is, therefore, to the retention of certain pagan superstitions in a
-modified form, that we are to attribute the origin of the belief in
-those unnumbered spirits, which, under the names of fiends, daemons,
-genii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs, sprites, &c., have been supposed to
-surround us, and have hampered the imaginations of all Christian
-nations, and of which, to use the words of Pope--
-
-    "Some in the fields of purest aether play,
-    And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;
-    Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,
-    Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;
-    Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light,
-    Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,
-    Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
-    Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
-    Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
-    Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;
-    Others on earth o'er human race preside,
-    Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide."[22]
-
-The belief that the heathen deities were devils, naturally led to the
-further conclusion, that the priests who sacrificed to those gods, and
-who were regarded as the medium of communication between the gods and
-man, held immediate converse with devils,--a belief subsequently
-extended to idolators in general, and to all those practising magic and
-sorcery. Instances of the natural alliance of a mythological idea to a
-Christian belief might be multiplied.
-
-The power of evil, enunciated by the Scriptures, and spoken of as the
-"_Devil_," was early reputed to have appeared in a visible form,
-assuming the aspect of the god Pan, or of a faun or satyr, that is, a
-horned figure, with hirsute frame, and the lower extremities of a goat,
-which indeed, until recently, was considered to be the most orthodox
-form of visibility for his Satanic Majesty. The connection of the power
-of evil with the gods of the most gloomy and hidden parts of nature is
-obvious: Pan, indeed, was the god of terror.
-
-Frequently, also, Satan appeared under the form of a goat. The goat is
-an emblem of the sin-offering, and of the wicked at the day of judgment;
-hence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness, and in this form
-the devil most commonly appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins.
-In Leviticus (xvii. 7), where it is written "they shall no more offer
-sacrifices to devils," it is literally, to "hairy-ones"--goats. The
-symbol of the goat prompted to the nature of the form given to Pan in
-the Grecian and Roman mythology. Indeed, the Greeks derived their
-worship of that god from Egypt, where he was adored under the form of a
-goat; and it is fabled that he captivated Diana under the aspect of a
-white goat.
-
-A singular superstition of the connection of the goat with Satan is
-entertained in some districts of this island. It is asserted that a goat
-is never visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as once in that
-time it must visit Satan to have its beard combed![23]
-
-Another example of the wedding of a pagan myth to the Christian religion
-is this:--Most heathen nations believed in the existence of deities
-whose especial duty was to guard the threshold of the house, and prevent
-the entrance of evil spirits.
-
-The Grecians and Romans had their Penates and Lars, and the Genoese
-retain the superstition at the present day.
-
-The Lars (_familiares_) were the souls of men, who lingered about the
-dwellings and places they had formerly inhabited and frequented. They
-were represented by small images resembling monkeys, and covered with
-dog's skin; and these images were placed in a niche behind the door, or
-around the hearth. At the feet of the Lar was placed the figure of a
-dog, to intimate vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to them
-in the month of May, when offerings of fruit were presented, and the
-images were crowned with flowers.
-
-Plautus (_Aulularia_) represents a Lar as using the following words:--
-
-              "I am the family Lar
-    Of this house whence you see me coming out.
-    'Tis many years now that I keep and guard
-    This family; both father and grandsire
-    Of him that has it now, I aye protected."
-
-Beneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found
-images of a foul and ugly appearance (_teraphim_), some having a lynx's
-head and human body, others a lion's body and human head. Sentences were
-also inscribed on the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures were
-placed on each side of the portal. The intention was, doubtless, the
-prevention of the entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the
-household.[24]
-
-The Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti, believe in the existence
-of similar deities. The Bhutas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent
-spirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities. Every house and each
-family has its particular Bhuta, which is often represented by a
-shapeless stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order to
-propitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to defend the house from
-the machinations of neighbouring Bhutas. The native of Ashanti offers
-also daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which, under the form of a
-stone painted red, is placed upon a platform within his hut.
-
-There are several remnants of this ancient superstition still in vogue
-in England. The common practice of nailing a horse-shoe behind the door,
-to terrify witches and prevent the entrance of evil spirits, is familiar
-to most persons. Formerly it was the custom to nail the horse-shoe to
-the threshold. Aubrey writes, in his _Miscellanies_: "Most houses of the
-west end of London have the horse-shoe on the threshold." In Monmouth
-Street, in 1797, many horse-shoes were to be seen fastened to the
-threshold. In 1813, Sir Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes in
-this position in that street, but in 1841 the number had diminished to
-five or six.
-
-In some parts of England, naturally perforated stones are suspended
-behind the doors, with the same intention;[25] in others, jugs, of
-singular and often frightful form, are built into the walls of the
-cottages--an interesting approximation to the Assyrian teraphim; and in
-Glamorganshire the walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to
-terrify wandering spirits,--a mode of prevention which we should like to
-see more generally adopted, as it would doubtless prove of some effect
-in impeding the access of those roaming spirits of evil with which we
-have to contend most at the present day--cholera and fever.
-
-According to Durandus, the dedication-crosses of the Roman Catholic
-churches were adopted under the influence of a feeling in every respect
-analogous to this ancient superstition. He writes that the crosses were
-used, "first, as a terror to evil spirits, that they, having been
-driven forth thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of the
-cross, and may not presume to enter therein again. Secondly, as a mark
-of triumph, for crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of his
-triumph.... Thirdly, that such as look on them may call to mind the
-passion of Christ, by which He hath consecrated his church; and their
-belief in his passion."[26]
-
-But the influence of mythology on Christianity did not terminate with
-the mere natural results of previous education, habits, &c. The church,
-under and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing in the
-protection of the civil power, and not content with the natural
-veneration due to those early Christians who had struggled for the
-cross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves by their long and
-protracted sufferings, insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced
-by the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to deify his
-benefactors, indulged a degree of reverence to the memory of those holy
-men, which soon ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately
-to their canonization and invocation. The Fathers of that
-period--Athanasius, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.--encouraged the belief;
-and a rage was developed for the search of the remains and
-resting-places of the holy dead, to whom prayers were offered; and, in
-its encouragement of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles,
-prophetic dreams, relics, &c., the Roman church at this time rivalled
-the omens, divinations, oracles, and hero-worship of one of the later
-phases of mythology.
-
-The church even sought to promote the spread of Christianity by the
-adoption of certain pagan rites and ceremonies. No more remarkable and
-interesting example of this is to be found than in the annals of our own
-country. In the year of our Lord 601, in a letter "sent to the Abbot
-Mellitus, then going into Britain," Pope Gregory wrote as follows:--
-
-"I have, upon mature deliberation on the affairs of the English,
-determined ... that the temples of the idols of that nation ought not to
-be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed, let holy
-water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected,
-and relics placed. For if those temples be well built, it is requisite
-that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the
-true God; that the nation, seeing that the temples are not destroyed,
-may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true
-God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have
-been accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen
-in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for these
-on this account, as that on the day of dedication, or the nativities of
-the holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may build
-themselves huts of the boughs of trees about those churches which have
-been turned to that use from temples, and no more offer beasts to the
-devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return
-thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end that,
-whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the
-more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God."[27]
-
-In A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II expressed his approval of image-worship,
-and because the Greek emperor refused to accede to this form of
-idolatry, he caused the tribute paid to him by Rome to be suspended, and
-even went to the extent of excommunicating him; and in 789, the second
-Nicene council re-established and confirmed the adoration of images.
-
-Examples of the influence of these doctrines in the Roman and other
-churches may be multiplied.
-
-The censers and lustration vessels of the priesthood are copied from the
-sacrificial vessels which were used in the pagan temples; the woollen
-fillet was transformed into the priest's amice; and the _lituus_, or
-curved staff of the soothsayer, became the crozier of the bishop.
-
-The sacred fountains of antiquity were perpetuated in a Christian form
-by dedication to a saint. Examples of this are afforded by the wells of
-St. Elian, in Denbighshire; St. Winifred, in Flintshire, &c.
-
-In no respect, however, has the Romish church so closely followed the
-example of pagan nations, and borrowed from mythology, as in the
-deification of men, and the adoption of tutelary divinities.
-
-As the mythology of ancient Rome and Greece had its gods who presided
-over countries, cities, towns, and the numerous actions and duties of
-man in his civil and religious life, to each of whom worship was offered
-and altars erected, so also the Romish church encouraged the belief in
-guardian saints, and in this respect its calendar rivals the Pantheon.
-
-As fully did this church adopt the principle of the deification
-(_canonization_) of men--one of the most prominent of the
-characteristics of idolatry.
-
-Thus the Romish calendar contains guardian saints of countries: St.
-George is the tutelary saint of England; St. Andrew, of Scotland; St.
-Patrick, of Ireland; St. Denis, of France; and St. Peter, of Flanders.
-Austria possesses two guardian saints, St. Colman and St. Leopold;
-Germany has _three_, St. Martin, St. Boniface, and St. George
-Cataphrastus; and so on of all the countries of Europe.
-
-There are also guardian saints of cities. St. Egidius presides over
-Edinburgh, St. Nicholas, Aberdeen; St. Peter succeeded Mars at Rome; St.
-Frideswide, Oxford; St. Genevieve, Paris; St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
-Januarius, Naples, &c.
-
-Of the general body of tutelary saints the following list will afford an
-illustration:--
-
-St. Agatha presides over nurses; St. Catherine and St. Gregory over
-studious persons; St. Christopher, St. Hermus, and St. Nicholas, over
-mariners; St. Cecilia, over musicians; St. Cosmos and Damian, over
-physicians, surgeons, and philosophers; St. Dismas and St. Nicholas,
-over thieves; St. Eustace and St. Hubert, over hunters; St. Felicitas,
-over young children; St. Julian, over pilgrims; St. Leonard and St.
-Barbara, over captives; St. Luke, painters; St. Martin and St. Urban
-over ale-knights, to prevent them falling in the kennel; St. AEthelbert
-and AElian are invoked against thieves, &c.
-
-St. Agatha presides over valleys; St. Anne, riches; St. Barbara, hills;
-St. Florian, fire; St. Sylvester, woods, &c.
-
-St. Thomas presides over divines; St. Thomas a-Becket, blind men; St.
-Valentine, lovers; St. Winifred, virgins; St. Joseph, carpenters; St.
-Anthony, swineherds and grocers; St. Arnhold, millers; St. Blaise,
-wool-combers; St. Catherine, spinners; St. Clement, tanners; St. Cloud,
-nailsmiths; St. Dunstan, goldsmiths; St. Elry, blacksmiths, farriers,
-&c.; St. Florian, mercers; St. Francis, butchers; St. George, clothiers;
-St. Goodman and St. Ann, tailors; St. Gore, potters; St. Hilary,
-coopers; St. Leodager, drapers; St. Crispin, shoemakers, &c.
-
-St. Anthony protects hogs; St. Ferriol, geese; St. Gertrude, mice and
-eggs; St. Hubert, dogs; St. Joy, horses, &c.
-
-Numerous saints were invoked against diseases: _e.g._, St. Clara against
-sore eyes; St. Genow, gout; St. Marus, palsies and convulsions; St.
-Sigismund, fevers, &c.
-
-"There be many miracles assigned to saints," writes Barnaby Rich, in
-1619, "that they say are good for all diseases: they can give sight to
-the blind, make the deafe to hear; they can restore limbs that be
-crippled, and make the lame go upright; they be good for horse, swine,
-and many other beasts. And women, also, have shee-saints.... They have
-saints to pray to when they be grieved with a third-day ague, when they
-be pained with toothache, or when they would be revenged on their angry
-husbands.
-
-"They have saints that be good amongst poultry when they have the pip,
-for geese when they do sit, to have a happy success in goslings; and, to
-be short, there is no disease, no sickness, no griefe, either amongst
-men or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints."[28]
-
-The Romish church also adopted the pagan belief in apparitions, and as
-the latter had supported the argument in favour of the existence of the
-gods by the fiction of their occasional manifestations in a visible
-form, so the former endeavoured to sustain its dogmas by fables of the
-apparition, from time to time, of its saints.
-
-It is needless to dwell upon the manner in which this church pandered to
-the credulity of the people in this respect, for an example is before
-the world even at the present time in the apparition of the Blessed
-Virgin near La Salette, a village about four miles from Corps, a small
-town situated on the road between Grenoble and Gap.
-
-The story is as follows:--On the 19th September, 1846, the Blessed
-Virgin appeared to two children, the one a boy aged 11, and the other a
-girl aged 14 years, who were watching cows near a fountain, in the
-hollow of a ravine in the mountains, about four miles from the church
-of La Salette. When first seen, she was in a sitting position, the head
-resting upon the hands, and she "had on white shoes, with roses about
-her shoes. The roses were of all colours. Her socks were yellow, her
-apron yellow, and her gown white, with pearls all over it. She had a
-white neckerchief, with roses round it; a high cap, a little bent in
-front; a crown round her cap with roses. She had a very small chain, to
-which was attached a crucifix; on the right were some pincers, on the
-left a hammer; at the extremities of the cross was another huge chain,
-which fell, like the roses, round her handkerchief. Her face was white
-and long."
-
-Addressing the children, tears coursing down her cheeks, she spoke to
-them on the wickedness of the peasantry, particularly their neglect of
-the Sabbath and of the duties of Lent, when they "go like dogs to the
-butchers' stalls." Then she foretold that if the men would not be
-converted, there should be no potatoes at Christmas, all the corn should
-be eaten up by animals, or if any did grow up, it should fall to dust
-when thrashed. There should be a great famine, preceding which "children
-below seven years of age should have convulsions, and die in the arms of
-those who held them; and the rest should do penance by hunger. Nuts and
-grapes also should perish. But if men were converted, then the rocks and
-stones shall be changed into heaps of corn, and potatoes shall be sown
-all over the land." "The lady," in addition, confided to each of the
-children a secret which was not to be told to the other, but which they
-confided to the Pope in 1851. Then, after a little gossiping
-conversation, "the lady" vanished.
-
-Soon after this apparition had been noised abroad, it was discovered
-that the waters of the fountain were possessed of marvellous healing
-properties, and many miraculous cures were effected by its use. Pilgrims
-flocked to the scene of the vision, and it is affirmed that in one day
-60,000 of the faithful ascended the mountain.
-
-Among others, the present Bishop of Orleans made a pilgrimage to the
-"holy mountain," and he was so impressed by the solemn feelings excited
-by treading on such holy ground, that he often ejaculated, "It cannot be
-but that the finger of God is here." Other ecclesiastics of rank also
-visited the spot, and the whole affair was officially sanctioned.
-
-Nor did the matter rest here, for churches are being built, and
-dedicated to "Our Lady of Salette," in different countries; and a
-society has been established in England bearing her name.
-
-We have already alluded to the sacred fountains of heathen nations, and
-in the holy fountain of Salette we witness the modern development of a
-similar superstition. So also in the apparition of the Virgin the same
-credulity is traced which prompted the ancients to believe in the
-occasional appearance of their deities.
-
-It is related that Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter, by Leda the
-wife of Tyndarus, were seen fighting at the battle of Regillus; and
-that, subsequently, mounted on white horses, they appeared to P.
-Vatienus, as he journeyed by night to Rome, from his government of
-Reate, and told him that King Perses had that day been taken prisoner.
-
-On these legends Cicero remarks; "Do you believe that the Tyndaridae, as
-you called them, that is, men sprung from men, and buried in Lacedemon,
-as we learn from Homer, who lived in the next age,--do you believe, I
-say, that they appeared to Vatienus on the road, mounted on white
-horses, without any servant to attend them, to tell the victory of the
-Romans to a country fellow rather than to M. Cato, who was that time the
-chief person of the senate? Do you take that print of a horse's hoof,
-which is now to be seen on a stone at Regillus, to be made by Castor's
-horse? Should you not believe, what is probable, that the souls of
-eminent men, such as the Tyndaridae, are divine and immortal, rather than
-that those bodies, which had been reduced to ashes, should mount on
-horses and fight in an army? If you say that was possible, you ought to
-show how it is so, and not amuse us with fabulous stories."
-
-"Do you take these for fabulous stories?" says Balbus. "Is not the
-temple built by Posthumius in honour of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in
-the Forum? Is not the decree of the senate concerning Vatienus still
-subsisting?... Ought not such authorities to move you?"
-
-"You oppose me," replies Cotta, "with stories, but I ask reasons of
-you."[29]
-
-It would seem then that the parallelism is perfect, even to the building
-of temples, and the official recognition of the truth of the event.
-
-Of the individual personages of ancient mythology very few traces remain
-in England, and these principally belong to the fairy belief. This
-superstition, of which the analogue is found in the Nymphs, Oreads,
-Dryads, Naiads, Lemoniads, and Nerieds, of ancient Greece and Rome, is
-still prevalent in certain districts of this country; and the extinction
-of the general belief, among the lower orders, of one of the most noted
-of the personages which are met with in fairy lore, the _hobgoblin_, is
-comparatively of recent date. The name is, however, still familiar, and
-in use for certain vague manifestations of the supernatural, although
-the actual signification of the term is, to a great extent, lost sight
-of.
-
-The hobgoblin is worthy of notice not only for its intrinsic interest,
-but also for the illustration which it affords of the intimate
-relationship which is often found to exist between the superstitions of
-different and even far distant nations.
-
-This spirit, in his palmy days, was that fairy which attached itself to
-houses, and the neighbourhood of dwellings and churches (for even sacred
-edifices were not exempted from its influence). In disposition it was
-mischievous and sportive, although it often deigned, during the night,
-to perform many menial offices, and whatsoever building it attached
-itself to prospered. It was apt to take offence, particularly if, as a
-reward, money or clothes were placed for it in that part of the house it
-most frequented; but it was partial to cream, or some delicately
-prepared eatable, and any housewife who was careful to conciliate the
-spirit by administering to this taste, was certain to be well rewarded.
-As might be anticipated, it was a favourite character with poets, and
-descriptions of its propensities and actions abound. Thus, in the
-"Midsummer Night's Dream" (Act II, Sc. 1), one of the Fairies is
-represented as addressing this spirit, and saying:--
-
-          "Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
-          Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
-          Called Robin Goodfellow. Are you not he
-          That frights the maidens of the villagery,
-          Skims milk, and labours in the quern,
-          And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn;
-          And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm;
-          Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
-          Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
-          You do their work and they shall have good luck,
-          Are not you he?
-
-  _Puck._           Thou speakest aright,
-          I am that merry wanderer of the night.
-          I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
-          When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
-          Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;
-          And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
-          In very likeness of a roasted crab,
-          And when she drinks against her lips I bob,
-          And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
-          The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,
-          Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
-          Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
-          And _tailor_ cries, and falls into a cough;
-          And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,
-          And waxen in their mirth, and reeze, and swear
-          A merrier hour was never wasted there."
-
-Milton, in the "L'Allegro," writes of him in a different office, and--
-
-    "Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,
-    To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
-    When in one night ere glimpse of morn,
-    His shadowy flail has thrashed the corn,
-    That ten day-lab'rers could not end:
-    Then lies him down the lubber-fiend,
-    And stretched out all the chimney's length,
-    Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
-    And cropfull out of doors he flings,
-    Ere the first cock his matin rings."
-
-Another noted characteristic of this fairy is mentioned in the fine old
-song of Ben Johnson's:--
-
-    "When house or hearth doth sluttish lye,
-      I pinch the maidens black and blue;
-    The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
-      And lay them naked all to view.
-          Twixt sleepe and wake
-          I do them take
-    And on the key-cold floor them throw:
-          If out they cry
-          Then forth I fly,
-    And loudly laugh out, ho! ho! ho!"
-
-The hobgoblin is one of the widest-spread forms of fairy belief. In
-England it is also termed _Boggard_, _Puck_, _Robin Goodfellow_, and
-_Robin Hood_; it is the _Brownie_ of Scotland; the _Cluricaune_,
-_Luricaune_, _Leprochaune_, &c., of Ireland; the _Kobold_ of Germany;
-the _Servant_ of Switzerland; the _Nis_ of Denmark and Norway; the
-_Niaegruiser_ of the Feroes; the _Tomt-gubbe_, or _Tont_, of Sweden; the
-_Phynnoderee_ of the Isle of Man; the _Monaciello_ of Naples; the
-_Duende_ of Spain; the _Lutin_, or _Gobelin_, of France; and the _Para_
-of Finland appears to have some affinity with it.
-
-The derivation of some of the principal names of this fairy is also of
-interest. From the Sclavonic _Bog_, signifying _God_, come the words
-_boggard_ and _boggart_; the Scottish _Bogle_, a hill-fairy; and
-probably, also, the words _Bug-bear_ and _Bugaboo_; and from the
-Icelandic _Puki_, an evil spirit, come the English _Puke_, a devil, as
-also _Puck_; the Friesland _Puk_; the German _Putz_, or _Butz_; the
-Devonshire _Pixie_; the Irish _Pouke_; the Welsh _Pwcca_, and the words
-_big_ and _bug_,--all names of certain varieties of the fairy-belief,
-and having the signification of an evil spirit.
-
-Certain forms of pagan worship would appear to have been perpetuated
-unmodified in Christian countries even to the present time. A remarkable
-and singular illustration of this is found in Ireland.
-
-Off the north-west coast of that kingdom are situated the islands of
-Inniskea, containing a population of about 400 human beings. Nominally
-the inhabitants are Christians, and under Roman Catholic tuition; in
-reality, they observe the ancient forms of Irish clan government, and
-are idolaters, worshipping rocks and stones. Their chief god is a stone
-idol termed _Nee-vougi_, which has been preserved from time immemorial.
-It is clothed in homespun flannel, which arises from the custom of its
-votaries offering portions of their dress when addressing it. These
-fragments are sewed upon it by an old woman who has charge of the idol,
-and who officiates as priestess. It is invoked, among other things, to
-dash helpless ships upon the coast, and to calm the sea in order that
-the fishing may be successful.[30]
-
-The adoration of rocks and stone pillars is one of the most ancient
-forms of idolatry on record. It probably took its origin from the custom
-of erecting stone pillars as a memorial, and consecrating them as altars
-on any extraordinary event or occasion. The earliest mention of this
-custom is found in Genesis (cxxviii, v. 10):--
-
-"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took up the stone he had
-put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the
-top of it.
-
-"And he called the name of that place Beth-El ... saying ... this stone
-which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house."
-
-Stones thus erected as memorials, and consecrated as altars, in the
-course of time were considered to be the abode of, or rather to be
-filled with, the divine power, which had manifested itself there; and
-ultimately stone pillars were used as symbols of the Deity. Singularly
-formed rocks and stones were also regarded in a similar light; and
-traces of this very ancient form of idolatry may be found in all parts
-of the world.
-
-The "_animated stones_" of antiquity, which received divine honours,
-derived their names from Beth-El, as for example, Baithulia, Bethyllia,
-and #Baitolia#, signifying consecrated or living stones; and one
-of the modifications of Jupiter, _Jupiter Lapis_ (a stone), was derived
-from this form of idolatry, and the most solemn of the Roman oaths was
-that taken in the name of this god.
-
-Numerous traces of superstition are found scattered throughout England,
-and the countries of Western Europe, which are the lineal, although
-degenerated descendants of the superstitions of the mythological era of
-the respective nations, or rather races, dwelling there.
-
-There are few large towns in Great Britain which do not contain one or
-more persons who profess to practise astrology, magic, or
-divination--_wise men_, as they are popularly designated; and the belief
-in charms and omens is far from being eradicated among a large mass of
-the population, particularly among those who dwell in secluded or
-mountainous districts.
-
-Not unfrequently events happen by which we may gauge the extent to which
-these superstitions are still entertained. Those who marked the effect
-which the appearance of the late comet had on the minds of many in this
-country, would perceive that a somewhat powerful feeling of
-superstitious dread, on the occurrence of remarkable celestial events,
-remained. The alarm excited among the credulous in England was, however,
-if anything, less marked than that caused in many parts of the
-continent[31] and in America.
-
-Three years ago we had an opportunity of witnessing a singular
-exhibition of fear, which was excited in the inhabitants of the most
-impoverished districts of Leeds, by the prevalence of a brilliant
-display of the aurora borealis. The scene paralleled the descriptions
-recorded of the effects produced by similar phenomena in the Middle
-Ages. The prevailing impression was, that the world was on the point of,
-if not in, the actual process of destruction; and in many the alarm
-became extreme, when, during the most magnificent period of the
-phenomena, several of the streamers became of a deep crimson and blue
-tint.
-
-This display of the aurora extended over a vast extent of country, and a
-singular example of the feelings with which it was regarded in Spain was
-recorded at the time in the daily papers.
-
-On the evening on which it occurred, it so happened that the subject of
-the homily in one of the churches of Madrid was the destruction of the
-world, and the day of judgment. At the conclusion of the service, and as
-the congregation were issuing from the church, the northern heavens were
-glowing with the brilliant and ever-varying light of the aurora.
-Startled by a phenomenon which is of somewhat rare occurrence in Spain,
-the idea at once occurred that the terrible events upon which the priest
-had been descanting were about to come to pass; the people rushed back
-to the steps of the altar, and while the aurora continued, the terror
-and confusion beggared all description.
-
-Another indication of the influence which the superstitions we have
-named exercise on the minds of certain classes, is the number of works
-on astrology, principally reprints, which have issued from the press
-during the last eight or nine years.
-
-This ancient superstition, which is still practised by the Mahomedans,
-Chinese, &c., retains a hold upon the minds of many, even now. Its
-practice in this country is, however, most frequently combined with some
-of the minor forms of magic and divination; and those who profess a
-knowledge of these arts chiefly direct them to the ignoble purpose of
-detecting stolen articles.
-
-In America, it would seem, from the advertisements which from time to
-time appear in the newspapers, that this superstition is flourishing
-with some vigour. We subjoin, in a note, specimens of these
-advertisements.[32]
-
-The belief in charms and omens, which was one of the most important of
-the superstitions of antiquity, is still entertained by the lower orders
-in many counties, and it forms one of the most striking features of the
-current folk-lore.
-
-The Devonshire peasant will recite the 8th Psalm on three consecutive
-days, for three weeks, over his child, in order to prevent its being
-attacked with the thrush; and should the disease, notwithstanding this
-precaution, occur, he either plucks three rushes from a running stream,
-passes them through the mouth of the child, and then casts them into the
-stream, believing that the disease will decrease and disappear as the
-rushes float away; or seizing a duck, he will force it to open wide its
-bill, and then placing it close to the mouth of the child, he hopes to
-see the affection vanish as the duck inhales the infant's breath.
-
-The peasantry of Norfolk, Northampton, &c. have, for the prevention of
-epileptic fits, implicit confidence in a ring made from nine sixpences,
-obtained, by gift, from persons of the opposite sex, or from the money
-contributed at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
-
-There is a charm for cramp in the leg which must be familiar to most
-persons. It runs thus:--
-
-    "The devil is tying a knot in my leg!
-    Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it, I beg!
-    Crosses three we make to ease us,
-    Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus."
-
-This formula, with a little modification, was applicable also to other
-fleeting but painful affections. Coleridge states that when he was at
-the Blue-coat School there was a charm for one's foot when asleep, which
-ran thus:--
-
-    "Foot, foot, foot! is fast asleep!
-    Thumb, thumb, thumb! in spittle we steep;
-    Crosses three we make to ease us," &c.
-
-We have seen a charm for the toothache, which we believe has now fallen
-into desuetude, but which, from its singularity, is worthy of
-preservation. It is as follows:--
-
-"In the name of God: Amen.
-
-"As Jesus Christ passed through the gates of Jerusalem, he heard one of
-his disciples weeping and wailing. Jesus saith unto him, Simon Peter,
-why weepest and wailest thou? Simon Peter saith unto him: Lord, the pain
-in my tooth is so grievous, I can do nothing. Jesus saith unto him:
-Arise, Simon, and the pain in thy tooth shall be eased; and whosoever
-shall keep those words in remembrance or writing shall never be
-troubled with the pain in the tooth:--
-
-"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."
-
-The coral and bells which are suspended round the necks of children for
-their amusement, were originally used with very different intentions.
-
-Those who professed the occult sciences attributed several very
-wonderful properties to coral, it being regarded by them as a
-preservative against evil spirits, poison, and certain diseases.
-
-The ringing of bells was also, formerly, considered to be of great
-effect in terrifying and causing evil spirits to fly away. Nor did their
-influence cease there; they were esteemed efficacious for the dispersion
-of tempests; or, it would be more correct to say, that a cotemporary
-superstition was, that tempests, thunder and lightning, and high winds,
-were caused by evil spirits, or devils, who in this manner endeavoured
-to wreak their rage on man; hence, in the Golden Legend of Wynken de
-Worde, it is said that "evil spirytes that ben in the region of th'
-ayre, dowt much when they hear the bells rongen, an this is the cause
-why the bells ben rongen when it thondreth, and whanne great tempests
-and outrages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked
-spirytes should be abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of
-tempest." This superstition probably dates from the period when it
-became customary to exorcise, bless, and baptize the bells suspended in
-churches,--a custom which originated in the tenth century.
-
-The use of the coral and bells was derived from these superstitions, and
-they were at first suspended from the neck as an amulet which was
-protective from the influence of evil spirits.
-
-Certain events are still regarded as omens by the peasantry in many
-districts.
-
-If a magpie cross our path, it is said that we shall prove unlucky,
-unless we immediately cross ourselves; and an old rhyme says of the
-magpie:--
-
-    "One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth;
-    Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of a birth."
-
-In Devonshire, if a person sees four magpies, it is regarded as an omen
-of death in his family. If a pigeon is seen sitting on a tree, or comes
-into the house; or if a swarm of bees alight on a dead tree, or the dead
-bough of a living tree, it forebodes death in the family of the owner.
-In Derbyshire, if the sun shines through the boughs of the apple-trees
-on Christmas day, it is considered as a presage of a good crop the
-ensuing year.
-
-Of all the superstitions entertained previous to the advent of Christ,
-none have, however, been more fully perpetuated among Christian nations
-than that of spectral apparitions,--the visible appearance of the
-deities worshipped, or of the disembodied spirits of the dead--_ghosts_.
-
-This was due not only to the nature of the causes inducing spectral
-apparitions (causes which are inseparable from the physical constitution
-of man), but also to the confirmation which the belief was thought to
-receive from Holy Writ.
-
-The character of the superstition, as it has been retained down to the
-verge of the present period in our own country, and as it is still
-entertained in many countries, is very similar to that which it bore in
-the remotest periods of antiquity.
-
-The deities of those nations who had distinct and defined ideas
-respecting their gods, are reputed to have appeared from time to time to
-their votaries, assuming the form in which they were most commonly
-pourtrayed in the temples.
-
-Thus the gods which AEneas bore from the destruction of Troy and carried
-into Crete, appeared to him in that island:
-
-    "'Twas night, when every creature, void of cares,
-    The common gift of balmy slumbers shares;
-    The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),
-    Those gods whom I from flaming Troy redeem'd,
-    Before me stood, majestically bright,
-    Full in the beams of Phoebe's entering light.
-    Then thus they spoke and eased my troubled mind:
-    'What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,
-    He tells thee here, and sends us to relate.
-    Those powers are we, companions of thy fate,
-    Who from the burning town by thee were brought,
-    Thy fortune follow'd, and thy safety wrought.
-    Through seas and lands, as we thy steps attend,
-    So shall our care thy glorious race befriend.
-    An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain,
-    A town that o'er the conquer'd world shall reign.
-    Thou, mighty walls for mighty nations build;
-    Nor let thy weary mind to labours yield:
-    But change thy seat; for not the Delian god
-    Nor we have given thee Crete for our abode.
-    A land there is, Hesperia call'd of old,
-    (The soil is fruitful, and the natives bold--
-    Th' Oeotrians held it once), by later fame
-    Now call'd Italia from the leader's name.
-    Iasius there, and Dardanus, were born;
-    From thence we came and thither must return.
-    Rise, and thy sire with these glad tidings greet:
-    Search Italy; for Jove denies thee Crete.'
-    Astonished at their voices and their sight,
-    (Nor were they dreams, but visions of the night;
-    I saw, I knew their faces, and descry'd,
-    In perfect view, their hair with fillets tied),
-    I started from my couch; a clammy sweat
-    On all my limbs, and shivering body, sate.
-    To heaven I lift my hands with pious haste,
-    And sacred incense in the flames I cast."[33]
-
-Among Christian nations visions of this character have also been common;
-and the religious writings of every age of the Church contain numerous
-instances of apparitions of the Trinity, of our Lord, of the canonized,
-and the powers of evil.
-
-But the most familiar phase of the ghost-belief is that of the visible
-manifestation of the spirits of the dead; and probably few, if any,
-races are without a superstition of this nature.
-
-The Grecians and Romans believed that the souls of the dead (_manes_)
-roamed about the earth, having power to interfere with the affairs of
-man and inflict evil. The spirits of those who had been virtuous during
-life were distinguished by the name of _lares_ (under which name we have
-in a previous page alluded to them as tutelary deities) or _manes_; and
-the spirits of the wicked were termed _larvae_, or _lemures_, and often
-terrified the good, and haunted the wicked and impious. These ghosts
-were also deified, and they were known as the _Dii Manes_; and the
-stones erected over the graves in Roman burial-grounds had usually
-inscribed upon them the letters D.M., or D.M.S., that is, _Dis Manibus_,
-or _Dis Manibus Sacrum_,--"Sacred to the Manes Gods." Sacrifices were
-offered to these deities, the offerings being termed _religiosae_, in
-contradistinction to those offered to the superior gods, which were
-denominated _sacrae_; and during the festivals held in honour of the
-ghosts (_Lemuria_ or _Lemuralia_), it was customary to burn black beans
-over the graves, and to beat kettles and drums, in order that, by the
-noxious odour of the former, and the noise of the latter, the ghosts
-might be frightened away, and no longer terrify their relations.
-
-We have already given several examples illustrative of the parallelism
-which exists between the accounts we possess of the apparitions of
-Grecian and Roman deities, and those manifestations of celestial
-personages which are recorded to have occurred in more modern times. A
-similar resemblance exists between the accounts given of the spectral
-appearance of the spirits of the dead.
-
-In the Odyssey (B. XI), Ulysses, previous to descending into hell, is
-described as offering "solemn rites and holy vows" to the dead:--
-
-    "When lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts,
-    Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts;
-    Fair, pensive youths, and soft, enamour'd maids;
-    And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades
-    Ghastly with wounds, the form of warriors slain
-    Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train:
-    These and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the ground,
-    And all the dire assembly shriek'd around."
-
-A striking illustration of the similarity of ancient and modern
-ghost-stories, in all essential points, is contained in the description
-given in the AEneis (B. II) of the apparition of the ghost of Hector to
-AEneas, at the destruction of Troy:--
-
-    "'Twas in the dead of night, when sleep repairs
-    Our bodies worn with toils, our minds with cares,
-    When Hector's ghost before my sight appears:
-    A bloody shroud he seem'd, and bath'd in tears;
-    Such as he was when by Pelides slain,
-    Thessalian coursers dragg'd him o'er the plain;
-    Swoll'n were his feet, as when the thongs were thrust
-    Through the bored holes; his body black with dust;
-    Unlike that Hector, who return'd from toils
-    Of war, triumphant in AEacians' spoils,
-    Or him, who made the fainting Greeks retire,
-    And launch'd against their navy Phrygian fire.
-    His hair and beard stood stiffen'd with his gore,
-    And all the wounds he for his country bore
-    Now streamed afresh, and with new purple ran."
-
-An equally, if not more marked example, is recorded by Pliny, the consul
-at Sura.
-
-A house at Athens was grievously haunted by a spirit, which, during the
-night, restlessly roamed through the apartments, dragging, apparently, a
-heavy chain after it. Athenodorus, the philosopher, hired the house,
-determined to reduce the spirit to order and silence. In the depth of
-the night, while pursuing his studies, the silence was broken by the
-noise of rattling chains, which approached the room where he sat.
-Presently, a spectre entered, and beckoned to him, but the philosopher
-took no notice. The spectre agitated its chains anew, and then he arose
-and, following his ghostly guide, he was led into the court-yard of the
-house, to a certain spot, when the spectre vanished. He marked the
-place, and on the following day caused the ground to be dug up and
-searched, when beneath it they found the skeleton of a man in chains.
-The bones were publicly burned, and from that time the spirit ceased to
-haunt the mansion.
-
-A belief in ghosts was one of the most prominent of the superstitions of
-the ancient inhabitants of Northern Europe. It was customary with the
-Scandinavians, as with the Grecians, to perform certain ceremonies at
-the tombs of the dead, to propitiate the ghosts, and facilitate their
-entrance into the halls of bliss.
-
-The ghosts of the departed warriors, after they had entered their airy
-halls, were supposed to pursue pleasures similar in character to those
-which had engaged their attention on earth. They listened to the strains
-of immortal bards; followed the chase over the illimitable fields of
-heaven; visited the scenes of their former glories; and when resting
-within their tombs, they would talk of mortal men, and sing the songs of
-other worlds. Airy and unsubstantial as a wreath of mist, they often
-wandered on the surface of the earth. The ghost of a mighty hero,
-clothed in a panoply of lurid clouds, and armed with a meteor, might be
-seen brooding o'er his tomb, or attended "by a ridge of formless
-shades," it swept across former battle-fields. The men of bygone days,
-wreathed in their vapoury robes, and reposing on clouds, hovered on the
-midnight blast, which bore in its mighty cadences the echoing sounds of
-the voices of the dead; or "like the new moon seen through the gathered
-mist, when the sky pours down its flaky snow, and the world is silent
-and dark,"[34] the spirits of the maidens glided over the rugged hills,
-or roamed on the pebbly shore.
-
-The early Scandinavian traditions and historical writings, are pregnant
-with ghosts and other supernatural agents. Mr. Howitt[35] quotes from
-one of the Eddaic songs, which records the lives of a hero named Helge
-and his wife Sigrun, the following singularly interesting scene.
-
-Helge died, and the body was laid in its cairn. In the evening Sigrun's
-maid passed the cairn, and saw the ghost of Helge ride into it with a
-numerous train. Addressing the ghost, the maid said, "Is it an illusion
-that I see, or the Eve of the Mighty, that ye ride your horses and urge
-them with your spurs? Or are the heroes bound for their homes?" The
-ghost replied, "It is no illusion which thou seest, nor the Eve of the
-Mighty; though thou seest us, and we urge our horses with our spurs;
-neither are the heroes bound for their homes."
-
-The maid then went to her mistress and said, "Haste thee, Sigrun, from
-the hill of Seva, if the leader of the battle thou desirest to see. Open
-is the cairn; Helge is come; the war-scars bleed. Helge bade thee to
-still his dripping wound." Sigrun went to the cairn, and entering it,
-said to the shade of her dead husband, "Now am I as joyful of our
-meeting as Odin's ravens when, long-fasting, they scent the warm food,
-or the day-wearied when they behold the close of day. I will kiss my
-lifeless king before thou throwest off thy bloody cuirass. Thy hair, O
-Helge! is pierced through with frost, or with the dew of death is the
-hero slain. Cold are the hands of the friend of Hoegne. How, therefore,
-King, shall I find a cure for thee?"--"Thou only, Sigrun! on the hill of
-Seva," replied the ghost, "art the cause that Helge is here, slain by
-the dew of sorrow. Thou weepest, gold-adorned one! burning tears, maid
-of the sun-glowing south! Before thou sleepest, every tear shall fall
-bloody on the breast of the Prince, pierced through with the cold of thy
-grief. But we will drink the precious mead together, though we have lost
-gladness and lands. Yet no one sings a song of woe, though he sees a
-wound in my breast. Now are the brides closed in the cairns, and the
-princely maidens are laid beside us."
-
-Sigrun made a bed in the cairn, and said, "Here have I, Helge, prepared
-rest for thee; rest free from all trouble. Son of the Ylfinga! I will
-sleep in thy arms as formerly, when my hero lived." The ghost answered,
-"No longer will I say that thou art unfaithful on the hill of Seva.
-Since thou sleepest in the embrace of the dead in the cairn, thou fair
-daughter of Hoegur! And yet thou livest, offspring of kings! Time is to
-ride the red ways. Let the pale steed tramp the steeps of the air. In
-the west must we be, by the bridge Vindhjalen, ere the cock in Walhalla
-wakes the sons of victory."
-
-In the Eyrbyggja Saga (written before A.D. 1264; period when the events
-recorded occurred, A.D. 883) is an account of certain spectral
-apparitions which followed the death of a lady whose commands upon the
-death-bed had not been obeyed. This story is almost unique in character,
-and it is a singularly interesting example of the ghost-belief of
-Iceland at an early period.
-
-On the evening of the day when the corpse was being removed to a distant
-place of sepulture, an apparition of the lady was seen busily preparing
-victuals in the kitchen of the house where the bearers reposed for the
-night. On the night when the conductors of the funeral returned home, a
-spectral appearance resembling a half-moon glided around the boarded
-walls of the mansion, in a direction opposite to that of the sun, and
-continued its revolutions until the domestics retired to rest. "This
-apparition was renewed every night during the whole week, and was
-pronounced by Thorer with the wooden leg to presage pestilence and
-mortality." Shortly after, a herdsman showed signs of being persecuted
-by demons, and one morning he was found dead in bed, "and then" (to
-quote literally from Sir Walter Scott's abstract of the Saga) "commenced
-a scene of ghost-seeing unheard of in the annals of superstition. The
-first victim was Thorer, who had presaged the calamity. Going out of
-doors one evening, he was grappled by the spectre of the deceased
-shepherd as he attempted to re-enter the house. His wooden leg stood him
-in poor stead in such an encounter; he was hurled to the earth and so
-fearfully beaten that he died in consequence of the bruises. Thorer was
-no sooner dead than his ghost associated itself to that of the herdsman,
-and joined him in pursuing and assaulting the inhabitants of Froda.
-Meantime an infectious disorder spread fast amongst them, and several of
-the bondsmen died one after the other. Strange portents were seen
-within doors, the meal was displaced and mingled, and the dried fish
-flung about in a most alarming manner, without any visible agent. At
-length, while the servants were forming their evening circle around the
-fire, a spectre resembling the head of a seal-fish was seen to emerge
-out of the pavement of the room, bending its round black eyes full on
-the tapestried bed-curtains of Thorgunna (the deceased lady). Some of
-the domestics ventured to strike at the figure; but, far from giving
-way, it rather erected itself further from the floor, until Kiartan, who
-seemed to have a natural predominance over these supernatural prodigies,
-seizing a huge forge-hammer, struck the seal repeatedly on the head, and
-compelled it to disappear, forcing it down into the floor, as if he had
-driven a stake into the earth. This prodigy was found to intimate a new
-calamity. Thorodd, the master of the family, had some time before set
-forth on a voyage to bring home a cargo of dried fish; but, in crossing
-the river Enna, the skiff was lost, and he perished with the servants
-who attended him. A solemn funeral feast was held at Froda, in memory of
-the deceased, when, to the astonishment of the guests, the apparition of
-Thorodd and his followers seemed to enter the apartment dripping with
-water. Yet this vision excited less horror than might have been
-expected; for the islanders, though nominally Christians, retained,
-among other superstitions, a belief that the spectres of such drowned
-persons as had been favourably received by the goddess Rana were wont to
-show themselves at their funeral feast. They saw, therefore, with some
-composure, Thorodd and his dripping attendants plant themselves by the
-fire, from which all mortal guests retreated to make room for them. It
-was supposed this apparition would not be renewed after the conclusion
-of the festival. But so far were their hopes disappointed, that, so soon
-as the mourning guests had departed, the fires being lighted, Thorodd
-and his comrades marched in on one side, drenched as before with water;
-on the other entered Thorer, heading all those who had died in the
-pestilence, and who appeared covered with dust. Both parties seized the
-seats by the fire, while the half-frozen and terrified domestics spent
-the night without either light or warmth. The same phenomenon took place
-the next night, though the fires had been lighted in a separate house,
-and at length Kiartan was obliged to compound matters with the spectres
-by kindling a large fire for them in the principal apartment, and one
-for the family and domestics in a separate hut. This prodigy continued
-during the whole feast of Jol. Other portents also happened to appal
-this devoted family; the contagious disease again broke forth, and when
-any one fell a sacrifice to it, his spectre was sure to join the troop
-of persecutors, who had now almost full possession of the mansion of
-Froda. Thorgrima Galldrakinna, wife of Thorer, was one of these victims;
-and, in short, of thirty servants belonging to the household, eighteen
-died, and five fled for fear of the apparitions, so that only seven
-remained in the service of Kiartan."
-
-The trouble and annoyance from the spectres had now reached so serious a
-pitch that, by the advice of a maternal uncle, Kiartan instituted
-judicial measures against the spectres.
-
-"A tribunal being then constituted, with the usual legal solemnities, a
-charge was preferred by Kiartan against Thorer with the wooden leg, by
-Thordo Kausa against Thorodd, and by others chosen as accusers against
-the individual spectres present, accusing them of molesting the mansion,
-and introducing death and disease among its inhabitants. All the solemn
-rites of judicial procedure were observed on this singular occasion;
-evidence was adduced, charges given, and the cause formally decided. It
-does not appear that the ghosts put themselves on their defence, so that
-sentence of ejectment was pronounced against them individually in due
-and legal form. When Thorer heard the judgment, he arose, and saying,
-'I have sat while it was lawful for me to do so,' left the apartment by
-the door opposite to that at which the judicial assembly was
-constituted. Each of the spectres, as they heard their individual
-sentence, left the place, saying something which indicated their
-unwillingness to depart, until Thorodd himself was solemnly appointed to
-depart. 'We have here no longer,' said he, 'a peaceful dwelling,
-therefore will we remove.' Kiartan then entered the hall with his
-followers, and the priest, with holy water, and celebration of a solemn
-mass, completed the conquest over the goblins, which had been commenced
-by the power and authority of the Icelandic law."
-
-The spectral phenomena of the ancient Swedish folk-lore differs in no
-respect from the current histories of recent date. An interesting
-example of this is found in the beautiful ballad of Sir Ulf and Lady
-Soelfverlind.
-
-Sir Ulf was a nobleman who had married a wife from a foreign country.
-After they had lived together eight years, and had had a family of three
-children, the Lady Soelfverlind died. In a short time he married again,
-and by his second wife, the Lady Stineborg, he had also several
-children. This lady, however, proved a cruel step-mother; for, as the
-ballad reads:--
-
-    "Lady Stineborg's children went out to play,
-    Lady Soelfverlind's children sate weeping all day.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    The youngest child it wept so loud,
-    That it woke its mother beneath the sod.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    Lady Soelfverlind spoke to the angel-band:
-    'Is it granted to visit the earthly land?'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'It is granted from heaven to earth to go,
-    But thou must return ere the first cock crow.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    She came to the door, she tirled at the pin;
-    'Rise up, my children, and let me in.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'On sticks and stones why lie you thus?'
-    'Nothing besides is given to us.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Why look ye, my children, so grim and so grey?'
-    'We have not been washed since thou went away.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Rise up, Lady Stineborg, hearken to me,
-    For I have a few words to speak unto thee!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both upland and low,
-    Yet now my children must supperless go.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both oxen and kine,
-    Yet now they go barefoot, these children of mine.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left soft down pillows, full many a one,
-    Now hard sticks and stones are the bed they lie on!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Hadst thou to my children shown tenderness sweet,
-    God the Father in heaven had found thee a seat!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Have thy children in me a hard step-mother known?
-    Henceforth will I love them as well as my own!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    There ne'er was a lovelier sight in the sky,
-    Than Soelfverlind taking her children on high.
-                This know we of Ulf."[36]
-
-The ghost-belief of Hindostan is one of the most important of the
-popular superstitions of that country. It differs from that of more
-westerly countries in the degree of reality with which the natives have
-invested it; for while the former look upon the interference of the
-spirits of the dead in the events of ordinary life as a circumstance of
-rare occurrence, and regard manifestations of this nature with an awe
-befitting their solemnity and supernatural character, the latter lives
-in an atmosphere of spectral beings, which are the spirits of those who
-have lived a wicked life on earth, and retain their malignant
-disposition unabated after death, if indeed it is not increased in
-intensity by the devil-like nature they assume, and exercise their evil
-powers in all the affairs of life, haunting the localities which they
-previously inhabited, and terrifying and tormenting alike friend and
-foe. Neither are their terrors confined to mere occasional apparition,
-and to the fear excited by this, but to the power which they possess of
-interference by physical force; for they belabour with blows, or
-grievously affect with bodily ailments, the unhappy individuals whom
-they haunt, and often subject to inexpressible tortures those who have
-had the ill-hap to offend them. Hence the Hindoo dreads a ghost not so
-much on account of its supernatural character, abstractedly considered,
-as for the physical evil it may inflict upon him.
-
-The ghosts of the wicked, and of the unmarried (as it is thought in some
-provinces), are alone permitted to wander on earth, and they have a
-partiality, like our own ghosts, for frequenting solitary places, woods,
-caverns, and ruins, from which they issue to exercise their baleful
-powers on man.
-
-Sometimes a ghost will haunt a certain house, or a plot of ground, and
-become so obstreperous, that the occupier of the house is obliged to
-desert it, and the proprietor of the land to allow it to become waste.
-But it has happened that if the spirit was that of an old proprietor, a
-deed executed in its name has appeased it, and it has no more troubled
-the place.
-
-These spirits are called, in the Deccan, _Virikas_, and in the more
-southerly parts of India, _Paisachi_. It is customary to erect small
-shrines to them, formed of a pile of stones, on the top of which is a
-sheltered cavity, containing an image, or a rough, shapeless stone, to
-which offerings of cloth, rice, &c., are presented from time to time.
-This propitiatory sacrifice is, in general, found to be an efficient
-method of obtaining immunity from the malignant pranks of the ghosts;
-but if it be neglected, they will visit the unfortunate sinner with
-torments and misfortune, or, appearing to him by night, intimate the
-miseries hanging over his head, unless he quickly amends himself, and
-offers up the necessary gifts.
-
-Dr. Buchanan relates a story of the apparition of a _Paisachi_ which
-occurred during his journey in Mysore. His cook had been taken ill, and
-died; orders had been given to secure his effects for the benefit of his
-wife and children, "but on inspection, after his death, no money could
-be found. Whether he had been plundered as soon as he became insensible,
-and that a guilty conscience occasioned fears among his companions, or
-whether the sudden manner of his death occasioned suspicions, I cannot
-say; but it was immediately believed that he would become a _Paisachi_,
-and all my people were filled with terror. The butler imagined that the
-_Paisachi_ appeared to him at night with a black silk handkerchief tied
-round its head, and gave him instructions to take all the effects of the
-deceased to his family; upon this, the latter, being a man of courage,
-put his shoes on the right side of the door, which he considered to be a
-sure preventive against such intruders. Next night a cattle-driver,
-lying in all the agonies of nocturnal terror, saw the appearance of a
-dog enter, and smell round the place where the man had died; when, to
-his utter dismay, the spectre gradually grew larger and larger, and at
-length, having assumed the form of the cook, vanished with a shriek. The
-poor man had not the courage to use the slippers, but lay till morning
-in a kind of stupor. After this, even the minds of the _sepoys_ were
-appalled, and when I happened to be awake I heard the sentries, by way
-of keeping up their courage, singing with a tremulous voice."
-
-There is a class of men called _Cani_, or _Shaycana_, who are supposed
-to have the power of ejecting and frightening away troublesome spirits
-by the performance of certain mystic ceremonies. It is requisite, first,
-to ascertain whether the offending ghost is that of a stranger, or if it
-belong to any deceased member of the family; for it would seem that much
-more powerful incantations are required to get rid of a family ghost,
-which seems to have the opinion that it has a right to haunt its
-relations in the flesh, than to eject the ghost of a stranger. The
-latter, according to Dr. Buchanan, may be got rid of for a fanam, or
-about ninepence sterling; the former requires expensive sacrifices and
-many prayers, therefore the fee is much larger.
-
-The Chinese have a great dread of ghosts, particularly of the ghosts of
-those who have come to an untimely end. They suspend in their houses,
-for the purpose of preventing the entrance of these spirits, and of
-defending themselves from their influence, a cruciform piece of iron, to
-which is attached pieces of perforated money, the coinage of emperors
-who have been deified, and who are conceived to exercise a protective
-power over their votaries.
-
-The superstitions of the modern Egyptians and of the Arabs are rich in
-ghosts.
-
-The term _efreet_ is applied to the ghosts of dead persons, as well as
-to evil genii, by the Egyptians; and the following story, related by Mr.
-Lane, will illustrate the nature of this superstition as it is
-entertained by that people.
-
-"I had once a humorous cook, who was somewhat addicted to the
-intoxicating hhasheesh: soon after he had entered my service, I heard
-him, one evening, muttering and exclaiming on the stairs, as if in
-surprise at some event; and then politely saying, "But why are you
-sitting here in the draught? Do me the favour to come up into the
-kitchen, and amuse me with your conversation a little." The civil
-address not being answered, was repeated and varied several times, till
-I called out to the man, and asked him to whom he was speaking. "The
-efreet of a Turkish soldier," he replied, "is sitting on the stairs,
-smoking his pipe, and refuses to move; he came up from the well below:
-pray step and see him." On my going to the stairs, and telling the
-servant that I could see nothing, he only remarked that it was because I
-had a clear conscience. He was told afterwards that the house had long
-been haunted; but asserted that he had not been previously informed of
-the supposed cause; which was the fact of a Turkish soldier having been
-murdered there. My cook professed to see this efreet frequently
-after."[37]
-
-The Arabs entertain a considerable degree of fear and respect for
-ghosts.
-
-Mr. Bayle St. John states that when travelling through the Libyan
-desert, in 1847, he saw a burial-place of the Bedouin Arabs, in the
-centre of which were confusedly scattered "camel-howdahs"
-(_tachterwans_), stirrups, household utensils, small ploughs, &c.,
-which had been left there by the Arabs, when commencing a journey, under
-the care of the ghost of a defunct sheikh, who had been interred
-there.[38]
-
-Some of the aboriginal tribes of South America believe in the occasional
-apparition of the souls of the dead.
-
-Soon after the Roman Catholic mission was established at Bahia, an
-eclipse of the moon occurred; the savages, fully armed, rushed in terror
-to the mission, and when the priest inquired the cause of their alarm,
-they responded that the moon was the abode of the souls of the dead, and
-that on that night they had collected there in such numbers that they
-darkened its surface: this was a sure sign of evil.
-
-Such is a brief sketch of the ghost-belief of several nations, ancient
-and modern.
-
-This belief, in its essential characteristics, was the same in the
-remote periods of antiquity as in more recent times; and a similar
-analogy exists between the modifications of it which are now entertained
-in different and widely separated countries.
-
-The variations which it is found to possess are dependent upon those
-peculiarities of habit, religion, and social life which characterize
-each nation. This fact gives an important clue by which we may unravel
-the actual nature of the phenomena which are embodied in the belief. But
-previously to entering upon this task it is requisite to point out a
-remote consequence of mythological and legendary lore which exercises a
-highly important influence on the minds of most if not all persons at
-the present time.
-
-The numerous myths which were retained, the implicit faith reposed in
-them, and the great extent to which the practice of the occult sciences
-was carried in the Middle Ages, fostered ideas respecting the influence
-which supernatural beings exercised in the ordinary affairs of life,
-which rivalled in extent and variety those entertained before the
-Christian era; but they received perhaps a more gloomy character from
-the doctrine of the agency of devils.
-
-The prevalence of these superstitions throws a wild and weird-like
-shadow over the history of those periods, and one of the chief results
-was that the records of local and general events became pregnant with
-mysterious occurrences and supernatural interpositions; and a mass of
-legends, teeming with remnants of ancient myths, more or less modified,
-giants, demons, witches, wizards, ghosts, portents, &c., have been
-perpetuated to modern times, and have formed an inexhaustible mine to
-the novelist and romance-writer.
-
-There are few localities in England which do not possess legends or
-tradition of this nature; and the standard nursery and children's tales
-are full of supernatural personages and occurrences in which are set
-aside all the known laws of matter and force, and time and space are
-alike annihilated. Many of these tales are of great interest, for in
-them we find degenerated forms of some of the most ancient traditions
-and myths of our own and other races.
-
-The adventures of _Jack the Giant-Killer_, the most celebrated of all
-celebrated nursery heroes, are for the most part derived from the
-fabulous era of our own country, and from Scandinavian mythology; and
-the whole tale is a degraded and vitiated tradition in which the deeds
-of Corineus, a celebrated personage in the mythical history of Britain,
-and Prince Arthur; the adventures of Thor, the god of thunder, and other
-Scandinavian deities, are jumbled together in strange confusion.
-
-Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his British History[39] states that the early
-inhabitants of this island were giants. Brutus, a grandson of Ascanius,
-the companion of AEneas in his flight from Troy, and Corineus, also of
-Trojan descent, guided by a dream, discovered Britain, and delighted
-with "the pleasant situation of the place, the plenty of rivers
-abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods," they
-became desirous of fixing their habitation in so desirable a country,
-and landing, drove the giants into the fastnesses of the mountains, and
-divided the country.
-
-To Corineus was apportioned that part of the island which we call
-Cornwall, and it is recorded that he had selected this portion of the
-island for his share, because "it was a diversion to him to encounter
-the said giants, which were in greater numbers there than in all the
-other provinces that fell to the share of his companions."
-
-Corineus is described as being "an ardent man in matters of council, and
-of great courage and boldness; who in an encounter with any person, even
-of gigantic stature, would immediately overthrow him as if he were a
-child."
-
-In the same fabulous history (B. X, ch. 3) it is stated, that a giant
-who had invaded our shores, and taken refuge at the top of St. Michael's
-Mount, was attacked by King Arthur in the night and killed; the country
-being thus freed "from a most destructive and voracious monster."
-
-Some of Jack's principal adventures are derived from the ancient Eddas
-and Sagas of Scandinavia.
-
-The incident which represents Jack as having overheard a giant, upon
-whose hospitality he had intruded, muttering--
-
-    "Though you lodge with me this night,
-    You shall not see the morning light;
-    My club shall dash your brains out quite;"
-
-and in which he had evaded the catastrophe by placing a log of wood in
-the bed, he lying quietly in a corner, while the giant furiously beat
-with his club the inanimate object, thinking to dash him to pieces; and
-the delightfully cool response of Jack to the wonder-struck giant when
-he beheld him safe and sound in the morning, and inquired if he had not
-been disturbed in the night,--"No, nothing worth mentioning, I believe a
-rat struck me with his tail two or three times:"--this incident is a
-modification of an adventure which occurred to Thor on his journey to
-the land of giants, and it is found in some form or other in the
-folk-lore of every nation in the north of Europe.
-
-Thor, while journeying to the land of giants, met with one of that race
-named Skrymir. They formed a companionship, and the whole of the
-provisions were placed in the giant's wallet. At night, when they
-stopped to rest, Skrymir at once lay down and fell asleep, previously
-handing the wallet to Thor in order that he might refresh himself. Thor
-was unable to open it, and wroth with the giant for his apparent
-insensibility and the mode in which he had tied the knots, he seized his
-mighty hammer and flung it at the giant's head. Skrymir awaking, asked
-whether a leaf had fallen on his head, and then he fell asleep again.
-Thor again struck him with his hammer, and it apparently sank deep into
-his skull; and the giant again awoke, and asked, "Did an acorn fall on
-my head? How fares it with thee, Thor?" Thor, incensed beyond measure,
-waited until the giant again slept, and then exerting all his power,
-dashed his hammer at the head of the sleeping monster, into which it
-sank up to the handle. Skrymir, rising up, rubbed his cheek and said,
-"Are there any birds perched on this tree? Methought, when I awoke, some
-moss from the branches fell on my head."
-
-Skrymir, distrusting Thor, had before he slept interposed a huge rock
-betwixt himself and the god, and upon this Thor had unwittingly
-exercised his strength.
-
-The adventure in which Jack is represented as outwitting a giant in
-eating, by placing his food in a large leathern receptacle beneath his
-vesture, and then ripping it up, and defying the giant to do the same,
-whereupon the giant seizes a knife, plunges it into his breast and
-kills himself, is contained also in stories which are prevalent among
-the Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Servians, and Persians.
-
-The Swedish version is as follows:--"In the evening, when the giant and
-his boy were about to sup, the crone placed a large dish of porridge
-before them. "That would be excellent," said the boy, "if we were to try
-which could eat the most, father or I." The giant was ready for the
-trial, and they began to eat with all their might. But the boy was
-crafty: he had tied his wallet before his chest, and for every spoonful
-that entered his mouth, he let two fall into the wallet. When the giant
-had despatched seven bowls of porridge, he had taken his fill, and sat
-puffing and blowing, and unable to swallow another spoonful; but the boy
-continued with just as much good-will as when he began. The giant asked
-him how it was, that he who was so little could eat so much. "Father, I
-will soon show you: when I have eaten as much as I can contain, I slit
-up my stomach, and then I can take in as much again." Saying these
-words, he took a knife and ripped up the wallet, so that the porridge
-ran out. The giant thought this a capital plan, and that he would do the
-like. But when he stuck the knife in his stomach, the blood began to
-flow, and the end of the matter was that it proved his death."[40]
-
-The sword of sharpness, and the cloak which rendered the wearer
-invisible, and by the aid of which Jack won so many important victories,
-are two of the principal supernatural elements in the _Nibelungenlied_.
-In this ancient legend, which contains the same tragical story as the
-still more ancient Scandinavian poem, the _Voelundar-Kvida_, the sword
-"Balmurg" is described:--
-
-                    "a broad and mighty blade,
-    With such keen-cutting edges, that straight its way it made,
-    Where'er it smote on helmet:"
-
-and the cloud-cloak which Siegfried took from the dwarf Albric, is
-pourtrayed as--
-
-    "A vesture that hight cloud-cloak, marvellous to tell,
-    Whoever has it on him, may keep him safe and well
-    From cuts and stabs of foemen; him none can hear or see,
-    As soon as he is in it, but see and hear can he
-    Whate'er he will around him, and thus must needs prevail;
-    He grows besides far stronger; so goes the wondrous tale."[41]
-
-The story of _Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper_, is of great antiquity,
-and versions of it are found in many countries.
-
-AElian, who lived about A.D. 225, relates that, as Rhodope, a celebrated
-Greek courtezan, who had been carried into Egypt, was bathing one day,
-an eagle carried off one of her slippers, and as it flew over Memphis,
-where king Psammetichus was at that time sitting in tribunal, it let
-fall the sandal into his bosom. Astonished at the occurrence, and at the
-smallness of the sandal, he caused inquiries to be made for its owner,
-whom, when he had discovered, he married.
-
-Old versions of this story are found in Norway, Germany, Sweden,
-Denmark, France, Italy, Wallachia, Servia, Russia, Poland, and
-Wales.[42]
-
-In _Jack and the Bean-stalk_, the bean is evidently a version of the ash
-Ygdrasil of the Edda, reaching from hell to heaven; and the golden hen,
-harp, &c., are familiar features in northern stories.
-
-_Puss in Boots_, the _Seven-league Boots_, &c., have their prototypes in
-Scandinavian folk-lore; and the two last-mentioned tales, as well as
-others, are probably of considerable antiquity.
-
-Tales derived from these sources and composed of such elements, and
-fables in which beasts, birds, and fishes are represented as speaking
-and reasoning in a manner that puts man to the blush, are among the
-earliest things engrafted in the infant mind; and ever now
-
-                  "By night
-    The village-matron round the blazing hearth,
-    Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,
-    Breathing astonishment--of witching rhymes,
-    Of evil spirits: of the death-bed call
-    Of him who robb'd the widow, and devoured
-    The orphan's portion: of unquiet souls
-    Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt
-    Of deeds in life concealed; of shapes that walk
-    At dead of night, and clank their chains and wave
-    The torch of hell around the murderer's bed.
-    At every solemn pause the crowd recoil,
-    Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd
-    With shiv'ring sighs; till eager for the event,
-    Around the beldam all erect they hang,
-    Each trembling heart with grateful terror quell'd."
-
-Ideas of mysterious and supernatural powers, vague, undefined, and
-frightful, are thus instilled into the child, and influence it unchecked
-and uncontrolled by the Scriptural doctrines of the invisible which are
-taught to it. At first the two trains of thought derived from these
-antithetical sources go on separately and distinctly; the more frightful
-and wonderful events of legendary lore and fable having a much greater
-influence, and forming a deeper impression on the mind of the child,
-whose reasoning powers are still in abeyance to the emotions, than the
-Scriptural doctrines of the supernatural. As it advances in years these
-trains of thought insensibly blend; the more rampant absurdities of the
-supernatural framework of legendary and ghost-lore are discarded; but
-the less obvious and more insidious portions remain to a greater or
-less extent, and they are so graven in the mind, that they become part
-and parcel of it, and in whatever manner they may be subsequently
-modified in form, it is probable that they are never eradicated, but
-form a medium which gives a false and deceptive gloss to all our ideas
-upon those matters which are not immediately within the ken of reason,
-or which are more clearly attributable to other agency than the forces
-of the material word--such matters, for example, as are contained in
-Holy Writ.
-
-Hence our ideas of the supernatural are derived from two sources--from
-legendary lore and from Scripture; and this results, that although in
-after-life the more glaring errors and absurdities of the former are
-removed, those only being retained which are thought to be compatible
-with Holy Writ, yet the idea of the supernatural thus obtained, foreign
-from revelation, is retained in a vague and undefined form, and its
-origin and sources being lost sight of, it is regarded as an innate
-consciousness of the existence of supernatural beings, and prompts to
-the ready reception and belief of mysterious and not readily explicable
-phenomena being the result of supernatural agency.
-
-That proclivity to the belief in supernatural interpositions, that vague
-notion of spiritual beings, that so-called innate consciousness of the
-existence of the supernatural, which most persons possess more or less
-of, and which is totally inconsistent with the clear and perfect
-doctrine of the invisible taught in the Gospel, is, we believe, derived
-solely from the infant mind and earlier periods of youth being poisoned
-by the supernatural events and phenomena detailed in fabulous,
-legendary, and ghost-lore.[43]
-
-This substratum of superstition is the prime cause of the retention of
-those figments of degenerated and christianized mythology which are yet
-found among us, and for the persistence of the most generally received
-of these figments--_ghosts_. It is also a highly important element in
-the formation of that state of the mind which is from time to time
-manifested in singular and wide-spreading delusions respecting the
-communication of the spirit-world with man, and of which we have
-examples before us at the present time in the prevalent follies of
-"spirit-rapping" and "table-talking."
-
-The belief in ghosts does not now possess those glaring features which
-were attached to it at the commencement of the present century, hence it
-is less obtrusive; but it is very far from being extinguished, as some
-would teach, and its "etiology" is of interest, because it leads to the
-elucidation of the principal causes and sources of the fallacies to
-which the senses of man are subject, and by which he has been led in
-the remotest periods of antiquity, as well as at the present time, to
-frame those mighty trammels of superstition from which the mind in vain
-strives to disentangle itself completely.
-
-The doctrine that the spirits of the dead return to visit the scenes
-which were dear to them during the body's existence, is in itself
-awfully solemn and sublime. Man, prone to believe in supernatural
-interpositions (from causes already explained), and trusting altogether
-to the evidence of his senses, for many ages received this doctrine
-unquestioned; and aided by a fertile imagination, he clothed it with
-attributes which, although absurd in the main, yet as appealing to some
-of the deepest and warmest affections and passions of our nature, cannot
-even now be contemplated without exciting sensations of awe, if not
-fear.
-
-The thought that the spirits of those who, during life, were bound
-to us by the closest ties of affection, are ever near, scrutinizing
-our actions and thoughts, and prompting us ever and anon to that
-course which would most tend to our profit here and our joy
-hereafter[44]--shielding us, like guardian angels, from the wiles
-of those wandering spirits who, like the "Wicked One" that came
-softly up to Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and
-"whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he
-verily thought had proceeded from his own mind,"[45] seek to tempt
-us to destruction,--such a thought thrills through the soul of every
-one, and fills it with strange and undefined emotions of blended joy
-and fear.
-
-Few can free themselves altogether from the emotion of terror which is
-almost necessarily connected with scenes polluted by murder, or by other
-outbreaks of man's foulest passions. This feeling acting on the minds
-of the superstitious and ignorant, has led them to people with spectres
-all those places which have obtained notoriety from being the scene of
-some terrible ebullition of human frailty and wickedness.
-
-Thus, the glen where murder had been committed; the pond in which the
-mother had immersed her new-born infant; the hoary ruin pregnant with
-horrid legends of the past; the rocks over which the inebriated drunkard
-fell; the four cross roads where the suicide was impaled; the dwelling
-of the miser, or of him who did unjustly to the orphan; and the
-willow-banks of the still-flowing river into which the love-lorn maiden
-had cast herself,--each had its spectre, and at the midnight hour the
-ghost of the murdered bared to the moon the mementos of its foul and
-most unnatural end; the spectre of the murderer, writhing in agony,
-rattled its gibbet-chains; the suffocating sobs of the drowning infant
-were borne on the fitful breeze; hideous spectres hovered o'er the
-deserted ruin; the ghost of the miser guarded its quondam treasures; the
-cruel guardian and the suicide shrieked forth the agonies of the damned;
-and the phantom of the deceived maiden gliding on the banks of her
-watery grave, mingled its plaintive wails with each sough of the
-midnight wind.
-
-But, alas! this prolific source of terror and romance must be consigned
-to the delusions of the past; and the churchyard--erst pregnant with
-"thin-sheeted phantoms"--is now also shorn of its gloomy horrors, and
-regarded alone as the last quiet resting-place of man on earth.
-
-Even when glimpses of the spirit-world are vouchsafed to those who still
-firmly believe in occasional visitations from its inhabitants, it would
-seem that the fashion of their appearance has become more in accordance
-with the quiet well-regulated ideas of the age. The major part of those
-terrible attributes of the nether world, that of old were delighted in,
-are no longer exhibited, and they are numbered with the things that have
-been. The form which appertained to Satan himself--the cloven foot, the
-forked tail, the hirsute frame, and the horned head--must also vanish
-before the march of civilisation; hence Mephistopheles, in the "Faust"
-of Goethe, is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Refinement too, which smoothens all
-      O'er which it in the world has pass'd,
-    Has been extended in its call,
-      And reached the devil, too, at last.
-    That northern phantom found no more can be,
-    Horns, tail, and claws, we now no longer see,
-      As for the foot--I cannot spare it,
-      But were I openly to wear it,
-      It might do greater harm than good
-      To me among the multitude.
-    And so like many a youth beside,
-      Who bravely to the eye appears,
-    Yet something still contrives to hide,
-      I've worn false calves for many years!"
-
-The phenomena upon which the belief of the occasional manifestation of
-disembodied spirits to man is founded, may be accounted for without
-having recourse to the doctrine of supernatural interposition.
-
-Our senses and our reasoning powers are apt to err. We may deceive
-ourselves, and are liable to be deceived by an erroneous appreciation of
-the sensations which we receive from the objects surrounding
-us--_illusions_--but of the nature of which we may readily convince
-ourselves.
-
-Illusions of the _sight_ may arise either from an error of judgment, or
-from a disordered state of the eye.
-
-Of those illusions arising from an error of judgment, perhaps none bear
-directly upon our subject. Examples of this kind of illusion are the
-broken appearance of a stick partially immersed in water; the apparent
-movement of trees, houses, &c., past a train in motion, or the banks of
-a river past a steamboat.
-
-Illusions arising from a disordered condition of the eye, prompting the
-imagination, are a prolific source of ghost-seeing.
-
-In the obscurity of the evening, or during the darkness of the night
-(particularly on those nights which are cloudy, and the darkness seems
-to rest on the ground), the difficulty with which we distinguish any
-object to which the attention is directed, is liable to induce a
-disordered state of the eye, the effects of which are very startling.
-
-"The imperfect view which we obtain of such objects forces us to fix the
-eye more steadily upon them; but the more exertion we make to ascertain
-what they are, the greater difficulties do we encounter to accomplish
-our object. The eye is actually thrown into a state of the most painful
-agitation, the object will swell and contract, and partly disappear, and
-it will again become visible when the eye has recovered from the
-delirium into which it has been thrown."[46]
-
-This illusion is increased by a disturbed condition of the pupil of the
-eye.
-
-The pupil is surrounded by a muscle called the _iris_, by the
-contraction and dilatation of which the size of the opening is increased
-or diminished, and a greater or less amount of light admitted to the
-eye. On a dark night, or during the twilight, the pupil is dilated to
-its utmost extent, so that every available ray of light may enter. In
-this condition the eye is not able to accommodate itself to near
-objects, and they become more indistinct; shadowy, and confused.
-
-Under these circumstances, an object to which the attention is strongly
-attracted, may appear to assume strange variations in form,--now
-increasing, now diminishing in size, now approaching nearer, now going
-further off, or anon disappearing altogether; and a bush, a guide-post,
-a stoop, &c., will seem as though it assumed the most startling changes
-in size and appearance. Add the effects of the imagination, and we shall
-at once perceive a source of the various goblins, boggards, and other
-strange sights which have been supposed to haunt many of our byeways and
-deserted places.
-
-To illustrate this form of illusion: a man with whom we were acquainted
-tells the following tale:--When young, he, one evening, had a quarrel
-with his mother about some trifling affair, and in defiance of her grief
-and supplications he left home late at night, intending to enter the
-army. It was very dark and stormy, and as he proceeded along a bye-path,
-suddenly a tall object arrested his attention; startled, he stood still,
-when, to his utter horror and astonishment, the object increased in
-size, and seemed as though about to pounce upon him; it then vanished,
-and anon appeared again. Terrified beyond measure, and conceiving that
-Satan had waylaid him for forsaking his mother, the poor man fell on
-his knees, and exclaimed: "O good Lord Devil, do not take me, and I'll
-go back to my mother, and be a good lad!" It is unnecessary to dwell
-upon the goggle eyes burning with flames which he imagined Satan to
-possess; suffice it that he remained before the supposed devil some
-time, overcome with terror, when a blink of the rising moon showed that
-he was laid at the foot of the stump of a tree. Heartily ashamed of his
-fear, he rose up, slunk back home, and made peace with his mother.[47]
-
-This will suffice as an example of the most degraded form of ghost-life
-with which our highways and byeways have been peopled by the
-superstitious and illiterate,--illusions which have arisen from the
-effects of a disturbed condition of the visual organ on an excited
-imagination. Burns humorously describes this variety of ghost in his
-"Address to the Deil:"
-
-    "Ae dreary, windy, winter night,
-    The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light,
-    Wi' you, mysel, I gat a fright,
-              Ayont the lough:
-    Ye like a rash-bush stood in sight
-              Wi' waving sugh.
-
-    "The cudgel in my nieve did shake,
-    Each bristled hair stood like a stake,
-    When wi' an eldricht stour, quaick--quaick--
-              Amang the springs,
-    Awa ye squatter'd like a drake,
-              On whistling wings."
-
-Another form of illusion is induced by objects seen indistinctly when
-the mind is disturbed and pre-occupied by some powerful and painful
-emotion.
-
-"A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening twilight of a
-stormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching over a dying child.
-The clouds were thick, the rain beginning to fall; darkness was
-increasing; the wind was moaning mournfully through the trees. The
-lady's heart almost failed her as she saw that she had a mile to walk
-through the woods in the gathering gloom. But the reflection of the
-situation of her friend forbade her turning back. Excited and trembling,
-she called to her aid a nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She had
-not proceeded far, when she beheld in the path before her the movement
-of some very indistinct object. It appeared to keep a little distance in
-advance of her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see what it
-was, it seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather
-unpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly discernable
-before her, and it appeared mysteriously to float along at a regular
-distance without any effort at motion. Notwithstanding the lady's good
-sense and unusual resolution, a cold chill began to come over her; she
-made every effort to resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing
-nearer the mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the
-features of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in its shroud. She
-gazed earnestly, and then it remained distinct and clear before her
-eyes. She considered it a monition that her friend's child was dead, and
-that she must hasten on to her aid; but there was the apparition
-directly in her path; she must pass it. Taking up a little stick, she
-forced herself along to the object, and behold, some little animal
-scampered away. It was this that her excited imagination had transformed
-into the corpse of an infant in its winding-sheet."[48]
-
-Sir Walter Scott relates an interesting case of illusion occasioned by
-an accidental arrangement of some articles of clothing:--
-
-"Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had filled,
-while living, a great station in the eye of the public, a literary
-friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged, during
-the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of the
-publications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of the
-distinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had enjoyed
-the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he was deeply
-interested in the publication, which contained some particulars relating
-to himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the apartment who
-was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into an
-entrance-hall rather fantastically fitted up with articles of armour,
-skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his book,
-and passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning to
-shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw, right before him, and in
-a standing position, the exact representation of his departed friend,
-whose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He
-stopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with
-which fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of
-dress and posture of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the
-delusion, he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary
-accuracy of the resemblance, and stepped onwards towards the figure,
-which resolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of
-which it was composed. These were merely a screen, occupied by
-great-coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles as usually are
-found in a country entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot
-from which he had seen the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his
-power, to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this
-was beyond his capacity; and the person who had witnessed the
-apparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the means of
-raising it, had only to return, and tell the young friend he had left,
-under what a striking hallucination he had for a moment laboured."[49]
-
-The liability to illusion or hallucination in that transitional state of
-the mind when it reverts to surrounding objects, after it has been
-pre-occupied with some absorbing and intense thought, is very strikingly
-shown in the above case. It is very similar to that condition of the
-mind which obtains between sleeping and waking, when it is well known
-that our dreams are most vivid and brilliant.
-
-Dr. Ferriar relates the following interesting case of illusion
-occasioned by a ray of moonlight acting upon the mind of an individual
-just awaking from a horrid dream.
-
-"A gentleman was benighted while travelling alone in a remote part of
-the highlands of Scotland, and was compelled to ask shelter for the
-night at a small lonely hut. When he was conducted to his bedroom, the
-landlady observed with mysterious reluctance, that he would find the
-window very insecure. On examination, part of the wall appeared to have
-been broken down to enlarge the opening. After some inquiry, he was
-told, that a pedlar, who had lodged in the room a short time before, had
-committed suicide, and was found hanging behind the door in the morning.
-
-"According to one of the superstitions of the country, it was deemed
-improper to remove the body through the door of the house; and to convey
-it through the window was impossible without removing part of the wall.
-Some hints were dropped that the room had been subsequently haunted by
-the poor man's spirit.
-
-"My friend laid his arms, properly prepared against intrusion of any
-kind, by the bedside, and retired to rest, not without some degree of
-apprehension. He was visited in a dream by a frightful apparition, and
-awaking in agony, found himself sitting up in bed with a pistol grasped
-in his right hand. On casting a fearful glance round the room, he
-discovered, by the moonlight, a corpse dressed in a shroud, leaned
-against the wall close by the window. With much difficulty he summoned
-up resolution to approach the dismal object, the features of which, and
-the minutest parts of the funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly. He
-passed one hand over it, felt nothing, and staggered back to the bed.
-After a long interval, and much reasoning with himself, he renewed his
-investigation, and at length discovered that the object of his terrors
-was produced by the moonbeams forming a long bright image through the
-broken window, on which his fancy, impressed by his dream, had produced
-with mischievous accuracy, the lineaments of a body prepared for
-interment."
-
-There are some illusions which arise from certain of the laws of action
-of impressions on the _retina_--that tissue of the eye in which the
-changes necessary to the excitation of the sensation of light by
-luminous rays are induced.
-
-A sensation excited in the retina is not momentary, or during the
-continuance of the exciting cause alone, but it persists some seconds
-after that has been withdrawn. Thus if the end of a burning stick be
-rapidly moved in a circle before the eyes, it gives rise to the
-sensation of an uninterrupted circle of light; the sensation excited on
-each part of the retina enduring for a certain period after the luminous
-point has passed.
-
-The following instance is an example of an illusion, having relation to
-our subject, from this cause.
-
-A gentleman had been earnestly regarding a small and very beautiful
-painting of the Virgin and Child. On turning round from the
-contemplation of it, he was surprised at finding a woman of the full
-size, with an infant in her arms, standing before him. On examining the
-figures more closely he, however, found that the woman wanted the lower
-fourth of the body, and this at once led to a correct appreciation of
-the nature of the phantom. The painting he had been viewing was a
-three-parts length, and it was the persistence of the image upon the
-retina for a short period after he had turned from it, which had given
-rise to the phantom.
-
-A species of divination is made use of in India which has its origin in
-an illusion of this nature, and of which the following is an interesting
-example:--
-
-A lady who was about to undertake a long journey, was persuaded by a
-Moonshee to walk on the verandah and consult her fate.
-
-"It was a clear calm night, the moon was full, and not the faintest
-speck in the sky disturbed her reign. The Ganges was like a flood of
-silver light, hastening on in charmed silence; while on the green smooth
-sward on which they walked a tall shrub here and there stood erect and
-motionless. The young lady, whose impressions were probably deepened by
-the mystical words of the Moonshee, felt a kind of awe stealing over
-her; she looked round upon the accustomed scene as if in some new and
-strange world; and when the old man motioned her to stop, as they
-reached an open space on the sward, she obeyed with an indescribable
-thrill.
-
-"'Look there,' said he, pointing to her shadow, which fell tall and dark
-upon the grass. 'Do you see it?'
-
-"'Yes,' said she faintly, yet beginning to be ashamed. 'How sharply
-defined are its edges! It looks like something you could touch!'
-
-"'But look longer, look better, look steadfastly. Is it still definite?'
-
-"'A kind of halo begins to gather round it: my eyes dazzle.'
-
-"'Then raise them to the heavens; fix them on yonder blue sky. What do
-you see?'
-
-"'I see it still; but it is as white as mist, and of a gigantic size.'
-
-"'Has it a head?' asked the Moonshee in an anxious whisper.
-
-"'Yes, it is complete in all its parts; but now it
-melts--floats--disappears.'
-
-"'Thank God!' said the old man: 'your journey shall be prosperous, such
-is the will of Heaven.'"[50]
-
-When a steady gaze is maintained upon an object until the retina is
-exhausted, which is shown by the imperfect vision, or "dazzling," and
-the eyes are then suddenly directed away from it to an uniformly
-coloured surface, an image of the object, from the persistence of the
-impression, as already stated, will still remain for a short period upon
-the retina; but another phenomenon is also observed, for the exhausted
-condition of the retina renders it incapable of responding, during its
-continuation, to the impression of the original colour of the object,
-and the spectrum appears of a different colour. To this spectral colour
-the term _complementary_ or _accidental_ is applied; and if the colour
-of the object be red, the complementary colour will be green; if yellow,
-deep purple; if black, white, &c., and _vice versa_. Thus then the
-spectral apparition witnessed in the above relation receives a ready
-and intelligible explanation.
-
-The sense of _hearing_ is also subject to illusions: for example, when a
-timid person mistakes the rustling of leaves in a forest for the voices
-of robbers; or the soughing of the wind among the trees, in some place
-of evil repute, for the moaning of a wandering and unhappy spirit.
-
-The varied and undefined noises often produced by the wind when sweeping
-over an irregular surface, among rocks and trees, on the surface of
-water, in forests, or secluded and deep glens; and the mysterious sounds
-occasioned by the rushing of the water in the hollows and caverns of a
-rock-bound coast, have been fertile sources of illusion among the
-superstitious.
-
-The ancient Romans listening to the inexplicable sounds which assailed
-the ear in solitary and wooded places, fabled that they were the voices
-of the wood deities, or as Lucretius beautifully expresses it:--
-
-    "The neighbouring swains believe, or fondly vaunt,
-    Satyrs and nymphs the rural regions haunt;
-    That fauns with wanton revel and delight
-    Disturb the sober silence of the night:
-    That music's blended notes are heard around,
-    The plaintive voice, and harp's according sound:
-    And well they know when Pan, the sylvan god,
-    (While o'er his brows the piny honours nod,)
-    With bending lip awakes the vocal reeds,
-    And the charmed ears of listening satyrs feeds.
-    With joy these tales they tell, or tales like these,
-    And fill the woods with fabled deities."[51]
-
-As the winds swept over the wild heaths of the north, or roared amid the
-mountain passes, bearing upon their bosom the heavy mantling clouds
-which enwreathed the ghosts of the heroes of old, often in their varied
-tones did the ancient Celt conceive that he heard the voices of the
-dead; and he who was stricken with misery deemed that his forefathers
-called upon him to hasten to the land of shadows. "The ghosts of
-fathers," they say, "call away the souls of their race while they behold
-them lonely in the midst of woe." Or when an eddy of wind sweeping into
-the hall awoke a cadence of music as it played over the strings of the
-harps suspended there, the hearers shrunk as the notes thrilled through
-them, and fearfully whispered that the ghosts of the dead touched the
-strings, and asked whose death of all the mighty the ghostly music
-portended. "The harps of the bards, untouched, sound mournful over the
-hill."[52]
-
-The supernatural framework of many legends depends upon illusions of the
-hearing of a similar character.
-
-At Crosmere, near Ellesmere, in Shropshire, there is a tradition that a
-chapel once stood on the borders of the lake, and it was long believed
-that when the waters were ruffled by the wind the sound of the bells
-might be heard beneath the surface; and an old story records that, long
-ago, a church and village were entombed by an earthquake, near the spot
-where Raleigh, in Nottinghamshire, now stands; and that at Christmas,
-even now, the bells may be heard solemnly tolling deep in the bosom of
-the earth.
-
-Among the Cornish miners a very singular superstition prevails, which is
-due to the sounds occurring in old and deserted workings, from the
-dropping of water and other causes. These noises are supposed to be
-produced by certain spirits, which are termed "_Knockers_," and,
-according to the author of "Yeast; a Problem," the miners hold that
-"they are _the ghosts of the old Jews that crucified our Lord, and were
-sent for slaves by the Roman Emperors to work the mines_; and we find
-their old smelting-houses, which we call _Jews' houses_, and their
-blocks, at the bottom of the great bogs, which we call _Jews' tin_; and
-there is a town among us, too, which we call _Market Jew_, but the old
-name was _Marazion_, that means the Bitterness of Zion, they tell me;
-and bitter work it was for them, no doubt, poor souls! We used to break
-into the old shafts and adits which they had made, and find old
-stags'-horn pickaxes that crumbled to pieces when we brought them to
-grass. And they say that, if a man will listen of a still night about
-those old shafts, he may hear the ghosts of them at working, knocking,
-and picking, as clear as if there was a man at work in the next
-level."[53]
-
-But the most common cause of illusion from sound arises from the
-difficulty which all more or less experience, of tracing the direction
-of a sound, particularly if it be indistinct. The ascertainment of the
-direction of a sound, and the distance of the sonorous body, is an act
-of judgment, and it is the result of experience. The power may be
-cultivated to a great extent, and many savage tribes possess it in a
-very high degree; but among civilized nations, where the sounds
-requisite to be attended to are principally of a point-blank character,
-and where the necessity for the cultivation of that nicety of hearing
-which is required in forest life does not exist, the power of
-distinguishing the direction and distance of sounds is very imperfect.
-
-The intensity of the sound, and the position of the ears, contribute to
-the formation of a correct judgment; but if the two ears have precisely
-the same relation to the point from which the sound issues, as when it
-occurs directly before or behind, it is impossible to distinguish by
-the sensation alone whether the sound arises in the front or the rear.
-
-The most familiar and striking illustration of the difficulty
-experienced in determining the direction of sound, is _ventriloquism_.
-By a cultivation of the power of speaking without the aid of the lips,
-and by keeping the muscles of the face in a state of passiveness, the
-ventriloquist, on giving the mind of the listener a certain leading
-idea, will induce him to think that he hears voices issuing from the
-floor, from the ceiling, from within him, or from any position but the
-correct one; and by a modification of the intensity of the sound, it may
-be made to appear as if it arose at different distances, as when voices
-are heard in the distance, which gradually approach the listener, come
-close to him, pass by, and are again lost in the distance. Although
-perfectly aware of the deception, there are few who can correct the
-impressions received, and trace them to their legitimate source.
-
-This uncertainty of distinguishing the direction and the nature of
-sounds has been a prolific source of belief in supernatural occurrences,
-and the majority, if not all, of those mysterious noises which are so
-common in old houses, and which it was customary, from inability to
-discover their origin, to attribute to spiritual agency, have been due
-to this cause. The yielding of wood-work, the scouring of vermin, the
-sighing of the wind in chinks and crannies, have been transformed by
-excited and superstitious imaginations into the sighing, or whispering,
-or knocking of wandering ghosts, and there is, perhaps, not a town or
-village in England which has not at one time or other had one or more
-houses reputed to be haunted by incorporeal visitants who have thus
-announced their presence.
-
-Sir David Brewster relates an interesting example of illusion arising
-from this source. "A gentleman devoid of all superstitious feelings, and
-living in a house free from any gloomy associations, heard, night after
-night, in his bedroom, a singular noise, unlike any ordinary sound to
-which he was accustomed. He had slept in the same room for years without
-hearing it, and he attributed it at first to some change of
-circumstances in the roof or in the walls of the room; but after the
-strictest examination no cause could be found for it. It occurred only
-once in the night; it was heard almost every night with few
-interruptions. It was over in an instant, and it never took place till
-after the gentleman had gone to bed. It was always distinctly heard by
-his companion, to whose time of going to bed it had no relation. It
-depended on the gentleman alone, and it followed him into another
-apartment with another bed, on the opposite side of the house.
-Accustomed to such investigations, he made the most diligent but
-fruitless search into its cause. The consideration that the sound had a
-special reference to him alone, operated upon his imagination, and he
-did not scruple to acknowledge that the recurrence of the mysterious
-sound induced a superstitious feeling at the moment. Many months
-afterwards it was found that the sound arose from the partial opening of
-the door of a wardrobe which was within a few feet of the gentleman's
-head, and which had been taken into the other apartment. This wardrobe
-was almost always opened before he retired to bed, and the door being a
-little too tight, it gradually forced itself open with a sort of dull
-sound, resembling the note of a drum. As the door had only started half
-an inch out of its place, its change of position never attracted
-attention. The sound, indeed, seemed to come in a different direction,
-and from a greater distance.
-
-"When sounds so mysterious in their origin are heard by persons
-predisposed to a belief in the marvellous, their influence over the mind
-must be very powerful. An inquiry into their origin, if made at all,
-will be made more in the hope of confirming than of removing the
-original impression, and the unfortunate victim of his own fears will
-also be the willing dupe of his own judgment."[54]
-
-Not unfrequently the difficulty of distinguishing the direction of sound
-has been made the basis of imposition upon the credulous; and when it is
-considered how readily the judgment is led into error in this respect,
-even when aware of the deception practised, as in ventriloquism, the
-easy facility with which it is imposed upon when superstitious feelings
-are excited, and the wide-spread delusions which have thus arisen,
-cannot be wondered at.
-
-The Cock-lane ghost is a familiar example of a deception of this
-nature: but this, and every other delusion of a similar character,
-sink into insignificance before a delusion of our own day and
-times--_Spirit-rapping_.
-
-The idea of a communication of the spiritual world with man by the
-intervention of _raps_, is not new. A writer in a recent number of
-"Notes and Queries,"[55] gives the following example of an early
-instance of this kind in England.
-
-"Rushton Hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire, was long the
-residence of the ancient and distinguished family of Treshams. In the
-reign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion was occupied by Sir Thomas
-Tresham, who was a pedant and a fanatic; but who was an important
-character in his time by reason of his great wealth and powerful
-connections. There is a lodge at Rushton, situate about half-a-mile from
-the old hall, now in ruins, but covered all over within and without with
-emblems of the Trinity. This lodge is known to have been built by Sir
-Thomas Tresham; but his precise motive for selecting this mode of
-illustrating his favourite doctrine was unknown until it appeared from a
-letter written by himself about the year 1584, and discovered in a
-bundle of books and papers inclosed since 1605, in a wall of the old
-mansion, and brought to light about twenty years ago. The following
-relation of a "rapping" or "knocking" is extracted from this letter:--
-
-"If it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity and Passion of
-Christ to depaint in this chamber, this is the principal instance
-thereof; that at my last being hither committed"--(referring to his
-commitments for recusancy, which had been frequent)--"and I usually
-having my servants here allowed me, to read nightly an hour to me after
-supper, it fortuned that Fulcis, my then servant, reading in the
-"Christian Resolution," in the treatise of "Proof that there is a God,
-&c.," there was upon a wainscot table at that instant three loud knocks
-(as if it had been with an iron hammer) given; to the great amazing of
-me and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton."
-
-Another example of early "spirit-rapping" is the celebrated ghost of
-"_Old Jeffreys_," at the Epworth Parsonage, during the childhood of the
-Revds. John and Charles Wesley.
-
-The conception of a familiar correspondence between the spirit-world and
-man by means of knocks and raps is, however, an idea of modern times,
-and for which we are indebted to America, although it would seem that in
-1835 we were on the eve of making this unenviable discovery in our own
-country, for the invisible cause of certain noisy disturbances in a
-house occupied by a Captain Molesworth at Trinity, near Edinburgh, in
-that year, would, it is asserted, respond to a question by knocks, if it
-could be answered numerically; as, for example, "How many people are
-there in the room?" when it would answer by as many knocks. This
-so-called spirit seemed at times to be drumming a certain tune. The
-knocks in this case had some very intimate connection with a sick girl,
-a daughter of Captain Molesworth; for they accompanied her, and
-wherever she was there they prevailed most.
-
-In 1846, or 1847, a house in the village of Hydesville, State of New
-York, America, was reported to be haunted by certain noises, as
-knockings on the doors, panels, floors, ceilings, &c., of which the
-source could not be ascertained; and chairs and tables were occasionally
-displaced, and crockery broken by some invisible power. When the noises
-and disturbances first commenced, it is stated that the house was
-occupied by a man named Weekman; but subsequently it passed into the
-possession of a person called Fox, who had two daughters, Catherine and
-Margaretta, and during their residence in it, not only did the knockings
-and irregular motions of the furniture persist, but they increased in
-intensity, variety, and frequency of occurrence, and it was ascertained
-by the young women that the knocks would mimic sounds which they made,
-and even respond to questions put orally. A code of signals in the
-affirmative and negative was next arranged, and by going over the
-letters of the alphabet, and the affirmative signal duly occurring at
-certain letters, which were recorded, a system of correspondence was
-established with the invisible, but apparently intelligent, source of
-the disturbances. By this method it was ascertained that the cause of
-the noises, and other indications of invisible power, professed to be
-the spirit of a man named Charles Ryan, who, while in the flesh, had
-resided in that house; had been foully murdered there; the corpse
-interred in a certain part of the cellar; and had left a family of five
-children, all of whom were then alive. These revelations caused, as may
-well be imagined, a great sensation in the village, and, notwithstanding
-that no such person as Charles Ryan had ever lived there, or in that
-house, and that on searching the cellar carefully no remains of a corpse
-were found, the imposition and delusion was persisted in. It is scarcely
-necessary to add that as yet no one has come forward to claim kindred
-with the first of the disembodied spirits that held communication with
-man.
-
-Several committees were appointed to investigate the matter, but they
-failed to ascertain the cause of the sounds, and by common consent, no
-natural cause being evident, it was assumed, _therefore_, that the cause
-was supernatural.
-
-Subsequently, the Fox family removed to Rochester, and singular to say,
-the spirit-sounds followed them. Noises began also to be heard in other
-houses and towns, and it was soon found that many females, equally with
-the Misses Fox, possessed the power of communicating familiarly through
-the medium of sounds, with the spirit-world. In an almost incredibly
-brief space of time, this delusion swept over the United States, and
-multitudes from all ranks and conditions of society gave in their
-accession to the system of belief into which it was quickly moulded.
-
-Certain persons only were found to possess the power of summoning the
-spiritual knocks at pleasure; these were principally females, and they
-were termed "_mediums_." The belief itself was spoken of under the
-simple term of "_Spirit-rapping_," and its advocates and believers as
-"_Rappers_," or "_Rappites_."
-
-Each "medium," somehow or other, managed to interweave his or her own
-views with the spirit-revelations, and the spirits themselves did not
-hesitate in simple set phrase to give the lie to one another;
-consequently, the revelations and doctrines inculcated are somewhat
-varied and inconsistent. The most generally received doctrine at the
-present time may, however, be summed up as follows:--The "knocks,"
-"raps," and other manifestations of invisible power, are caused by the
-spirits of the dead, who, by direct permission of the Almighty
-(according to the more religious), or by self-discovery on the part of
-the spirits (according to a statement made by the spirit of Benjamin
-Franklin), are enabled to communicate with their fellow-men by various
-sounds and exhibitions of physical power. This correspondence was
-permitted by God in consequence of the great advance which the Americans
-in particular, and mankind in general, had made towards perfection; and
-it is intimated that if the present rate of progression towards
-perfection continue, we shall soon be able to have intercourse by voice
-and sight with the spirit-world. As it is, certain persons possess these
-privileges in full, and the mass of Christians, _if believers_, have so
-grown in goodness that the religion of the present day--Biblical
-religion--is no longer needed, and Christianity is to be regarded as a
-state of probation that _was_ requisite to attain the perfection now
-arrived at; but this transition state being passed, from the elevation
-of the spirit-world we can see that many of its doctrines form now a
-mighty and dangerous slough, in which we are in danger of being
-smothered.
-
-The ideas entertained by mankind respecting spiritual existences are
-singularly incorrect; notwithstanding this, however, most of the
-spirits, as when in the body, entertain some peculiarity of doctrine,
-which shows that even in the "spheres" opinions are divided on this
-point. The most general opinion states that the spirit-world surrounds
-the earth, and is divided into seven spheres, which are subdivided into
-seven other spheres, and these again admit of still further
-division,--a geography evidently derived from Mahomedanism, and the old
-monkish legends of the septate division of hell, purgatory, and
-paradise. In the first of the spheres the lowest orders of spirits
-reside. These form the most degraded class of spirit-life, and are
-unhappy compared with those in the higher spheres; but the lowest degree
-of their unhappiness exceeds the highest degree of man's pleasures. Into
-this sphere pass all those who have had an unsatisfactory character on
-earth; while those who have been more correct in their conduct pass
-immediately into the sphere which approximates to their degree of
-goodness. The residence of any spirit in the lower spheres is not
-constant; for, exposed to heavenly influences, it goes on gradually
-improving, and as it sublimes, it ascends through the higher spheres,
-until at last the seventh sphere is attained, where it is fulfilled with
-bliss, and enters the presence of God. Hence we find St. Paul and Tom
-Paine, Calvin and Napoleon, Wesley and Shelley, united in friendly
-brotherhood. There is no hell, such as is taught in the Scriptures, and
-no eternal punishment, and man carries into the spirit-world his
-passions and propensities, and relative degrees of ignorance and
-knowledge. The spirit of Calvin stated that the spirits understood all
-languages intuitively; but this has been refuted by an immense majority
-of spirits, and it is certain that they know no other languages than
-those they were acquainted with on earth. Indeed, it is requisite to
-have rudimental education in our own language in heaven. "I have no
-friends to teach me how to spell," said a spirit named Jack Waters.
-Another, named Frank Copland, was unable to make any satisfactory
-communication, from being "an illiterate youth" when he died; and the
-"medium" to whom this communication was made, kindly advised the spirit
-to get the soul of a deceased sister to teach him. He did so, and in
-three months it was ascertained that he had made very creditable
-progress in spelling, &c. The amusements of the "spirits" consist of
-music, concerts, dancing, card-playing, &c., and they live in a species
-of concubinage. They dress according to fancy, but the male spirits
-generally wear trousers, hats or turbans, and beards. They have also
-condescended to teach certain celestial architectural vagaries. They
-_lie_ like mortals, and coolly admit it; and it is occasionally
-necessary to put the spirits on oath! They are very liable to error, and
-the spirit of General Washington, equally careless of grammar and
-orthography, revealed, that they "many times make mistakes, and so we
-are called liars; but this is owing to our neglect of the records that
-are given us, and also to evel spirits; but we will try to be more
-careful or correct after we have becom more use to writing for our
-friends." The spirits speak with the utmost contempt and abhorrence of
-the religious beliefs of the present day, and regard the Bible as unfit
-for general perusal, from the errors (due to the translators) which it
-contains; and this assertion is fittingly crowned by the statement that
-it emanates under a special communication from St. Paul himself.
-
-Notwithstanding the painful absurdity and frightful blasphemy of these
-doctrines (which satisfactorily show the class of persons by whom the
-delusion is fostered, and the flagrant character of the imposition),
-clergymen, judges, and persons distinguished in literature have
-permitted themselves to be led away by the delusion, each establishing
-some conscientious clause or giving a peculiar phase to the belief, in
-order to exculpate themselves from the charge of contributing to some of
-the more outrageous dogmas of this strange delusion.
-
-The phenomena which led to the delusion were sounds of various kinds and
-intensity, which were called up by the "medium" at will, apparently in
-various parts of the room in which the "_seances_" were held, but
-principally beneath the table at which she sat; and the movement of
-certain articles of furniture. The intelligent correspondence with the
-"raps" (for the furniture-moving was merely indicative of the _power_ of
-the suppositious spirits) was by questions uttered audibly, mentally, or
-in writing, to which replies were given by repeated raps--an
-affirmative; or by silence--a negative; or the words of the response
-were spelled out by running over the alphabet--the affirmative knocks
-taking place when the finger or pencil rested on the letters required to
-form the sentence. Some more highly-gifted mediums, pervaded by a
-spiritual afflatus, were enabled to write the answers; and others
-shadowed them forth in dancing.
-
-If we reflect for a moment upon the difficulty which most persons
-experience in detecting the direction and position of sounds,
-particularly when the mind is under the dominion of certain ideas, we
-may readily imagine how at the first the delusion of spirit-rapping
-obtained credence among the credulous and ignorant. It was, however,
-soon ascertained that an imposition was being practised; and very
-shortly after the development of the mania, a "medium" came forward and
-confessed the deception practised, and the mode in which she had carried
-it out. This "medium," named Mrs. Norman Culvers, had been taught the
-mode of deception by Margaretta Fox, one of the original "mediums;" and
-she stated that the raps were produced by the toes, the listener's mind
-being distracted by directing the attention, by a fixed gaze or
-otherwise, to certain parts of the room, from which he was instructed
-that the sounds came. By the confession of other "mediums," and by
-observation, it was ascertained that, in addition to the rapping by the
-toes, raps were produced by a lateral movement of the knee-joint, and
-the joints of the thumb and fingers (the "cracking" of the joints, a
-familiar phenomenon); by the action of the feet against the leg of the
-table, or by the movement of the soles of the shoes one against another;
-and lastly, by a hammer ingeniously fixed in the woodwork of the table.
-It was further shown to demonstration, that in no case when the
-"mediums" were placed in positions where none of the before-mentioned
-methods of rapping could occur, did the raps take place; that in no case
-could the "spirits" reply correctly to a single question, when the
-querist, by an impassibility of countenance and scrupulous care over his
-actions, did not betray his thoughts, or indicate the letters
-constituting the words he required; and that the "spirits" might be led
-to answer the most absurd and incorrect questions, utterly unconscious
-of imposition or error.
-
-Notwithstanding this exposure, the delusion is persisted in; and it is
-principally maintained by the occasional correct replies which are given
-by the medium to questions of which none present could be acquainted
-with the answer, but the querist; and many men, even of considerable
-literary attainments, have been led into the delusion by this simple
-phenomenon alone.
-
-A careful examination of the details of the spirit-communications, and
-the confessions of the mediums already alluded to, will show that in no
-case was there a correct response given to questions when precautions
-were taken to guard against the indication given by the countenance or
-by the actions to the medium, and even this was not sufficient to
-prevent a multitude of errors being fallen into.
-
-The pure spirit-communications which have been received from the
-Apostles, Franklin, Washington, &c., vary according to the mediums to
-which they have been vouchsafed, and often flatly contradict each other;
-in itself a sufficient indication of the glaring character of the
-delusion.
-
-Some, admitting the spiritual origin of the "raps" have gone a
-little further, and enunciated the opinion that the "rappings" occur
-through the influence of electricity or magnetism which the spirits
-wield; "and if," writes N. P. Willis, "disembodied spirits are still
-moving consciously among us, and have thus _found an agent at
-last--electricity--by which they can communicate with the world they
-have left_, it must soon, in the progressive nature of things, ripen
-to an intercourse between this and the spirit-world." Surely an
-electric condition that would cause sonorous "raps," and tables,
-chairs, &c., to dance jigs, and imitate ships tossed in a storm,
-would be within reach of the test of experiment. Such a test,
-however, has never been attempted; and thus it is men, even of high
-standing in literature, with the utmost coolness plunge into
-conjectures respecting the operations of forces of which they seem
-to be unacquainted even with the signification of the terms. For
-electricity and magnetism are no vague names, but terms applied to
-certain phenomena which are readily ascertained, and without the
-presence of which we are not justified in using them.
-
-We have already sufficiently shown the illusions to which the sense of
-hearing is liable, and the influence they have had in the formation of
-the belief in spirit-rapping is evident. The disposition of the mind in
-contributing towards this and allied delusions requires a brief comment.
-
-The substratum of superstition which is found to prevail more or less in
-most persons, is a never-failing source of delusion; and it is the
-groundwork upon which the impostor acts. Readily excited and brought
-into play by phenomena of which the origin is not palpably evident, it
-seizes with avidity upon doctrines which pander to its taste for mystery
-and wonder; and a suggestion, whether direct or implied, induces a
-condition of the mind that interposes an almost insuperable bar to the
-healthy action of the reason. This unconscious action of the mind, under
-the influence of leading ideas, is the prime foundation of those
-illusions of the senses of which we have illustrations in the pseudo
-sciences of "mesmerism," "electro-biology," &c., all the phenomena of
-which may be produced by simply inducing certain trains of thought.
-
-When Goethe represented Mephistopheles as saying--
-
-    "_Whispered suggestions_ are the devil's role,"
-
-it was with a profound perception of the powerful influence they
-exercise in the creation of delusions.
-
-The throngs which crowd around the table of the "medium," go pregnant
-with a desire to see a mystery, and filled with a vague fear of the
-supernatural influences to which they may be subjected. This is
-increased by the interval of from five minutes to half an hour which is
-allowed to intervene between the commencement of the _seance_, and the
-first "rap" from the spirits; and during this period the mind is kept to
-the utmost tension by listening, or is well exercised by attending to
-the anecdotes illustrative of the power of the spirits which are
-detailed by the medium, and it is thus brought into the state that is
-requisite for the perfection of the delusion. In the condition of the
-mind thus induced, the medium has little difficulty in leading her
-credulous hearer to whatever length it may be desired, and a careful
-examination of the countenance and the hand will suffice for a correct
-response to the majority of the questions which may be proposed.
-
-The want of discrimination of the facts from the theories invented to
-explain them, is another and great source of delusion; for the majority
-it suffices that if the "raps" occur, or the table moves, it is
-sufficiently demonstrative that it is by the influence of spirits; and
-it is a much less difficult matter to them to believe that the phenomena
-arises from supernatural than natural agency.
-
-Certain luminous phenomena, phosphorescent flames, luminous clouds,
-glistening stars, &c., have been observed when the spirit-manifestations
-have occurred in profound darkness. These appearances were dependent upon
-a disordered condition of the eye, which will be fully dwelt upon in a
-subsequent part of this work.
-
-The irregular and violent movements of the furniture which occurred when
-the _seances_ were held in _darkened_ apartments, were the result of the
-most palpable collusion. There were certain movements of the tables,
-however, around which the experimenters sat when eliciting the
-spirit-rappings, that could not be attributed to this source; and an
-examination of these motions showed that if several persons arranged
-themselves around a table, and rested their hands slightly upon it,
-after a longer or shorter period motion would occur, which was to a
-great extent under the control of the will, although the experimenters
-were not aware that they exerted any force whatever upon the table; and
-further, it was ascertained that a table thus set in motion would
-respond by rapping with the legs, to questions propounded to it, and
-that with a facility equal to the most perfect "medium."
-
-This interesting phenomenon soon attracted considerable attention, for
-it was certain that neither collusion nor wilful deception were
-concerned in it; and it could be produced by persons who did not pretend
-to the character of "mediums;" indeed, out of a company of several
-individuals it was pretty certain that some could be found capable of
-inducing the phenomenon.
-
-The "Rappites" looked upon it simply as another and more general
-manifestation of the spirit-world; others, imbued with the
-pseudo-scientific dogmas of animal magnetism, odylism, &c., sought an
-explanation in the principles of their respective theories; some
-regarded it as the result of Satanic agency; and lastly, those best
-capable of judging on the question, looked upon the motion as the result
-of muscular force exerted unconsciously by the experimenters, and in
-accordance with certain well-known laws of muscular and mental action.
-
-The doctrine of Satanic agency has excited great attention in this
-country, from the fact of its being propounded and advocated by certain
-clergymen of our Established Church, who not content with regarding it
-as one of those "great wonders" which are to prelude the reign of
-Anti-christ, have even sought by this agency to verify the truths of the
-immortality of the soul, eternity, the existence of a hell; thus seeking
-a confirmation of the Scripture from the devil himself, and comically
-identifying themselves with the principles so pithily expressed by
-Ralpho:--
-
-    "Those principles I've quoted late,
-    Prove that the godly may allege
-    For anything their privilege,
-    And to the devil himself may go,
-    If they have motives thereunto:
-    For as there is a war between
-    The dev'l and them, it is no sin
-    If they, by subtle stratagem,
-    Make use of him, as he does them."[56]
-
-The answer to this explication, as well as to those other explications
-based on the doctrines of the "Rappites," and the principles of the
-pseudo-sciences, is found in the simple fact, that if care be taken to
-ascertain the sources of motion which arise from the experimenters
-themselves, and to obviate their influence in the experiment, neither
-movements nor responses occur; and by a careful examination of the
-conditions requisite for the perfection of the experiment, and an
-experimental illustration of them, we arrive at the conclusion that
-"table-moving" and "table-talking" are the result solely of muscular
-action exercised unconsciously under the influence of certain expectant
-ideas.
-
-If we proceed in the examination of this question as in that of every
-other physical question, by seeking the conditions requisite for the
-fulfilment of the experiment, and examining their nature, we observe
-that the position of the persons who perform it is one that would give
-rise to certain easily understood and comprehensible results. The hands
-are placed upon the table in such a position that the experimenter
-exercises the least degree of pressure of which he can be conscious, and
-in this position they are kept for a longer or shorter period, but
-generally averaging from twenty to thirty minutes. Whether the
-individual be sitting or standing, the protracted exertion of the
-muscles to keep the hand in so constrained a position, gives rise to
-considerable fatigue, which is manifested by the usual painful
-sensations in the over-exercised parts; and these sensations have been
-sagely compared by the advocates of the pseudo-sciences to those
-experienced by electric or electro-magnetic currents. As the muscular
-fatigue and the painful state of tension into which the muscles are
-thrown increase, the sensations by which we judge of the amount of
-pressure exercised upon a given object diminishes, and unless the degree
-of pressure exercised is checked by information derived through some
-other sense, it goes on ever increasing in a direct ratio until the
-whole weight of the hand, the arm, and even the shoulders of the person
-so standing is unconsciously thrown upon the table, and a degree of
-force exercised, which is sufficient to induce the movements we witness
-in the table experimented on.
-
-The inertia of the table is as thoroughly destroyed by the amount of
-force thus brought to bear upon it, as if a more intense force had acted
-momentarily. The period of suspense which occurs previous to the first
-movement taking place, is that during which the force communicated by
-the hand is equally diffused through the table, and the moment this
-happens, as no body can be set in motion until the motion has been
-imparted to every integral particle of that body, a slight additional
-force will be sufficient to overcome the resistence of surrounding
-media, and cause it to change its position. Hence a comparatively slight
-force exercised over a long period will not unfrequently induce effects
-equal to those caused by a greater degree of force exercised during a
-short period of time.
-
-We often witness the practical application of this principle. If we
-observe two men endeavouring to move a railway carriage upon the line,
-we shall notice that they do not at the first exert all their strength
-in one powerful, and what would probably prove exhaustive and futile,
-effort, but placing their backs against the carriage, they will push
-with a continuous and gradually increasing effort for several seconds,
-or even longer, when a slight movement will be perceived in the
-carriage, and a slight additional exercise of force will set it in
-motion. So also, as we have seen in quarries, when several men have
-endeavoured to move a large mass of stone with a lever, they have not
-used one long and powerful effort, but a succession of slighter ones,
-until a tremulous motion has been seen in the mass, when by one exertion
-of force they have hurled it from its place.
-
-The degree of pressure exercised by any given persons will be in the
-inverse ratio of the degree of control which they can exercise over the
-muscular system, and over their ideas; hence the phenomena of
-table-turning and table-talking are most fully developed by those who
-are possessed of but a low degree of volitional power, and in whom the
-passions and emotions are paramount, as in young females, boys, or those
-who are influenced by certain dominant ideas: and as these conditions
-vary in different persons to an almost endless extent, it would follow
-that the power of exciting the movements of the table and responses, as
-well as the nature and degree of the responses, would vary in a similar
-degree, which is found to be the case; and the rule of response is, as
-one of the supporters of the Satanic theory (the Rev. N. S. Godfrey)
-very naively remarks, "whatever the investigator wishes it to be."
-
-The directive force in the phenomena of table-moving is derived from
-certain habitual actions of the muscles, as in the direction from right
-to left, from the customary use of the right hand; and the influence
-which our ideas exercise upon the muscular system, unwittingly and
-involuntarily on our part.
-
-This, as well as the preceding remarks, are all capable of being
-experimentally illustrated and demonstrated; and Professor Faraday,[57]
-by a rigorous series of experiments, has shown that it is upon these
-principles that the phenomena depend.
-
-By the use of a most ingenious and simple piece of mechanism connected
-with an index, he showed the extent to which we exercise a certain
-degree of force and directive power unconsciously, and the nature of
-this directive power; and the result was:--
-
-"That when the parties saw the index it remained very steady; when it
-was hidden from them, or they looked away from it, it wavered about,
-though they believed that they always pressed directly downwards; and
-when the table did not move, there was still a resultant hand-force in
-the direction in which it was wished the table should move, which,
-however, was exercised quite unwittingly by the party operating. This
-resultant it is which, in the course of the waiting-time, while the
-fingers and hands become stiff, numb, and insensible by continued
-pressure, grows up to an amount sufficient to move the table or the
-substances pressed upon. But the most valuable effect of this
-test-apparatus is the corrective power it possesses over the mind of the
-table-turner. As soon as the index is placed before the most earnest,
-and they perceive--as in my presence they have always done--that it
-tells truly whether they are pressing downwards only or obliquely, then
-all effects of table-turning cease, even though the parties persevere,
-earnestly desiring motion, till they become weary and worn-out. No
-prompting or checking of the hand is heeded; _the power is gone_; and
-this only because the parties are made conscious of what they are really
-doing mechanically, and so are unable unwittingly to deceive
-themselves."
-
-An experiment is familiar to many persons by which a ring, being
-suspended by means of a piece of thread to one of the fingers, may be
-caused to beat responses against a glass surface (as that of a tumbler),
-in answer to certain queries put audibly; or, if the ring be held by the
-questioner, it is requisite merely that the questions be conceived
-mentally. This, to many, a puzzling phenomenon is dependent upon
-precisely the same cause as "table-talking"--a movement caused by
-muscular action developed unconsciously under the influence of certain
-ideational states of the mind.
-
-It is an interesting fact, that a species of divination is mentioned by
-Ammianus Marcellinus, in which a ring, used after the above fashion, and
-a table, consecrated by mystic rites, were used. We are indebted to the
-Rev. J. W. Thomas, of Dewsbury, for the following quotation from the
-works of this author, who lived about the middle of the fourth century.
-The quotation is taken from the first chapter of the twenty-ninth book
-("Construximus, magnifici judices, ad cortinae similitudinem Delphicae,"
-&c.):--
-
-"Noble judges, this unfortunate little table which you see, we
-constructed of laurel-rods with fearful rites (or ill-omened signs),
-after the likeness of the Delphic tripod; and (it having been) virtually
-consecrated with imprecations of mystic incantations (secret hymns), and
-many splendid and long-continued preparations, we at length used (_lit._
-moved) it; and of using (moving) it, as often as it was consulted about
-secret things, this was the method. It was placed in the middle of a
-clean house, with a round plate made of divers metallic materials,
-correctly (_lit._ purely) put upon it, on whose extreme circumference
-the twenty-four letters of the alphabet were learnedly engraven,
-separated by spaces accurately measured. A person [gifted] with
-ceremonial science stood at it, clothed in linen garments, his feet in
-linen socks, a wreath round his head, bearing branches of a lucky tree,
-a fortunate omen having been obtained from the deity who is the author
-of predictions, by hymns conceived (Apollo); weighing with scales a
-pensile ring, formed (or furnished) with very fine Carpathian thread,
-consecrated with mystic rites, which (or who) by distinct intervals
-falling by leaps on every letter retained, makes heroic verses agreeing
-with (or answering to) the interrogatories, to the completed numbers and
-metres, such as the Delphic ones are read, or those given by the oracles
-of the Branchidae. Thus then to those who inquired of us who should
-succeed to the present imperial government, for being swept in every
-part [as] it has been mentioned, and the ring leaping touched (went
-through) two syllables, #THEO#; with the addition of the last
-letter (last additional letter), one present cried out 'Theodorus!' (as
-the name portended) by the decree of fate (by castal necessity)."
-
-This paragraph embodies the defence of one Hilarius, who, together with
-a certain Patricius, was charged with having spread abroad prophecies
-adverse to the throne of the Emperor Valens.
-
-A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (Vol. IX., p. 201) quotes the
-following interesting passage from the "Apologeticus" of Tertullian,
-cap. xxiii.: ("Porro si et magi phantasmata," &c.):--
-
-"Moreover, if magical professors also exhibit phantoms and defame the
-souls of the departed; if they press oracles out of childrens' talk; if
-they play many miracles with mountebank tricks, and if they send dreams,
-having once the power assisting them, of inviting angels and demons, _by
-whom_, and she-goats, _and tables, they were accustomed to divine_; how
-much more, &c."
-
-The correspondent remarks: "Here table-divination, by means of angels
-and demons, seems distinctly alluded to. How like the modern system! The
-context of this passage, as well as the extract itself, will suggest
-singular coincidence between modern and ancient pretensions of this
-class."
-
-The sense of _touch_ rarely leads to illusions which are referred to the
-supernatural, except under the influence of powerful superstitious
-feelings, when it is generally connected with illusions of the other
-senses.
-
-The influence of fear in developing illusions of the senses of sight,
-hearing, and touch, has been well pourtrayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's
-comedy of "The Beggar's Bush" (Act V, Scene 1):
-
-  _Boor._ Mistress, it grows somewhat pretty and dark.
-
-  _Gertrude._                                       What then?
-
-  _Boor._ Nay, nothing. Do not think I am afraid,
-          Although, perhaps, you are.
-
-  _Ger._                          I am not. Forward!
-
-  _Boor._ Sure but you are. Give me your hand; fear nothing.
-          There's one leg in the wood; do not fall backwards!
-          What a sweat one on's are in; you or I!
-          Pray God it do not prove the plague. Yet sure
-          It has infected me; for I sweat too:
-          It runs out at my knees. Feel, feel, I pray you!
-
-  _Ger._  What ails the fellow?
-
-  _Boor._                     Hark! hark! I beseech you:
-          Do you hear nothing?
-
-  _Ger._                      No.
-
-  _Boor._                       List! a wild hog;
-          He grunts! now 'tis a bear; this wood is full of 'em!
-          And now a wolf, mistress; a wolf! a wolf!
-          It is the howling of a wolf.
-
-  _Ger._  The braying of an ass, is it not?
-
-  _Boor._                                 Oh, now one has me!
-          Oh my left ham! farewell!
-
-  _Ger._                                  Look to your shanks,
-          Your breech is safe enough; the wolf's a fern-brake.
-
-  _Boor._ But see, see, see! there is a serpent in it!
-          'T has eyes as broad as platters; it spits fire!
-          Now it creeps tow'rds us; help me and say my prayers!
-          'T hath swallowed me almost; my breath is stopt:
-          I cannot speak! Do I speak, mistress?--tell me.
-
-  _Ger._  Why thou strange timorous sot, canst thou perceive
-          Anything i' th' bush but a poor glowworm.
-
-  _Boor._ It may be 'tis but a glowworm now; but 'twill
-          Grow to a fire-drake presently.
-
-  _Ger._                              Come then from it!
-          I have a precious guide of you, and courteous,
-          That gives me leave to lead myself the way thus. [_Holla._
-
-  _Boor._ It thunders; you hear that now?
-
-  _Ger._                                I hear one holla.
-
-  _Boor._ 'Tis thunder! thunder! see a flash of lightning
-          Are you not blasted, mistress? Pull your mask off;
-          'T has play'd the barber with me here: I have lost
-          My beard, my beard! Pray God you be not shaven;
-          'T will spoil your marriage, mistress.
-
-  _Ger._  What strange wonders fear fancies in a coward!
-
-  _Boor._ Now the earth opens!
-
-  _Ger._                      Prithee hold thy peace.
-
-We have now glanced at the principal illusions to which the senses of
-sight and hearing are liable, and the bearing which they have on the
-subject of spectral apparitions and other phenomena which it has been
-customary to regard as manifestations of the supernatural.
-
-But a false appreciation of sensations excited by natural objects is not
-the only mode in which we are liable to be deceived, for we are apt to
-regard sensations excited by the action of the mind, or by a disordered
-condition of the nervous system, or both combined--subjective
-sensations--as sensations excited by natural objects--objective
-sensations.
-
-To the erroneous perceptions arising from this source the term
-_hallucination_ has been given, and the phantasmata to which they give
-rise are more important than those arising from illusions, since the
-judgment is often unable to correct them, and they may impose equally on
-the wisest and the most ignorant.
-
-It is a law in physiology that a nerve of special sensation, (including
-in that term its central as well as its peripheral terminations,) in
-whatever manner it may be excited, can only produce that sensation to
-which it is appointed. Thus the nerve of sight, whether it be excited by
-natural or artificial light, or mechanical stimulus from without, or by
-morbid changes within, can only give rise to the sensation of light; the
-nerve of hearing, sound; the nerve of smell, odours; and so on.
-
-If the ball of the eye is pressed upon (say by the finger at the inner
-angle) when the eyelids are closed, or the light otherwise excluded,
-certain luminous figures will be perceived. This arises from the
-pressure exciting the inner coat of the eye (the _retina_), which is
-formed principally by the expansion of the nerve of light (the _optic
-nerve_), and is the tissue in which the changes necessary for the
-production of the sensation of light are induced by the rays of light
-from without.
-
-The luminous figures caused by mechanical excitation of this, the
-peripheral termination of the nerve of sight, vary in intensity in
-different individuals and at different times. They are sometimes very
-brilliant, and have been observed to be iridescent. In form they are
-circular, radiating, or regularly divided into squares, which have been
-compared by Purkinje to the figures produced by the vibrations
-communicated to a fine powder scattered on a plate of glass, along one
-edge of which a violin-bow is drawn; or to the rhomboidal figures formed
-on the surface of water in a glass, thrown into vibration by the same
-means.
-
-A familiar illustration of the excitation of a sensation of light by
-mechanical stimulus is the brilliant sparks of light, starlike figures,
-&c., caused by a blow on the eye, or by a fall on the head.
-
-A sensation of light may also be caused by the passage of a current of
-electricity through the eyeball; by mental emotion, as grief, passion,
-&c.; and by a morbid state of the brain or optic nerve. It is often also
-induced by a disordered state of the health, and under this condition
-the luminous appearance occasionally assumes a bluish, green, yellow, or
-even red tint.
-
-When an excess of blood is determined in the vessels of the eye, either
-from position or other cause, a luminous arborescent figure is
-occasionally observed in the field of vision on entering a dark
-apartment. This, according to Purkinje, is due to pressure on the retina
-by the distended blood-vessels. A luminous spot is also sometimes
-observed isochronous with the pulse.
-
-In ourselves, in ordinary health a lambent bluish coloured cloud of
-light constantly floats before the eyes in a darkened apartment; and
-there are probably few who would not perceive a greater or less
-sensation of light on being shut up in profound darkness.
-
-On the spontaneous appearance of light in the field of vision when it is
-darkened, Mueller, the distinguished Prussian physiologist, writes:--"If
-we observe the field of vision, keeping the eyes closed, it occasionally
-happens that we perceive not only a certain degree of luminousness, but
-further, that we discover a more marked glimmering of light, affecting
-even, in certain cases, the form of circular waves, which are developed
-from the centre towards the periphery, where they disappear. Sometimes
-the faint light resembles a nebulosity, spots, and more rarely, in
-myself, it is reproduced with a certain rhythm. To this spontaneous
-appearance of light in the eye, which is always very vague, are related
-the more clearly delineated forms which show themselves at the moment we
-are about to fall asleep, and which depend upon the influence of the
-imagination isolating the nebulous glimmerings one from the other, and
-clothing them with more distinct forms."[58]
-
-The degree to which this sensation of light is produced in health, and
-the power which the imagination has over it, vary greatly in different
-individuals.
-
-Mueller writes:--
-
-"I had occasion, in 1828, to converse with Goeethe upon this subject,
-which had an equal interest for both of us. Knowing that when I was
-tranquilly extended in bed, the eyes closed, but not asleep, I
-frequently perceived figures that I could observe distinctly, he was
-curious to know what I experienced then: I told him that my will had not
-any influence either upon the production or the metamorphoses of these
-figures, and that I never distinguished anything symmetrical, anything
-that had the character of vegetation. Goeethe, on the contrary, was able
-to appoint at will a theme, which afterwards transformed itself, after a
-fashion apparently involuntary, but always in obedience to the laws of
-harmony and symmetry: a difference between two men, of which one
-possessed the poetical imagination in the highest degree of development,
-whilst the other devoted his life to the study of reality and of nature.
-
-"Goeethe says, 'When I close the eyes, on lowering the head, I imagine
-that I see a flower in the middle of my visual organ; this flower does
-not for a moment preserve its form: it is quickly decomposed, and from
-its interior are born other flowers with coloured or sometimes green
-petals; these are not natural flowers, but fantastic, nevertheless
-regular, figures, such as the roses of sculptors. It was impossible for
-me to regard this creation fixedly, but it continued as long as I
-wished, without increasing or diminishing. Even when I figured to me a
-disc charged with various colours, I saw continually borne from the
-centre towards the circumference, new forms comparable to those that I
-could perceive in a kaleidoscope."[59]
-
-Illusions arising from the production of the sensation of light, whether
-by pressure, mental emotion, or a disordered state of the health, have
-been a most prolific source of ghosts.
-
-Imagine a person suffering from severe grief occasioned by the loss of a
-friend or relative; or one subject to superstitious terrors. On retiring
-to rest in a darkened apartment, the attention is attracted and wonder
-raised by the appearance of a cloud of pale white, or blueish coloured
-light (the colours which ghosts love to deck themselves in, and which
-are most readily excited) floating before the eyes. Unacquainted with
-its nature and source, he is naturally startled, and his superstitious
-fears are awakened. The imagination next coming into play, the luminous
-cloud is moulded into the form of the person recently dead, or of the
-superstitious ideas most prominent in the mind of the individual at the
-time.
-
-Or suppose a superstitious person passing, in the obscurity of the
-night, a place where some foul crime had been perpetrated. Terror gives
-rise to the production of a vivid sensation of light in the field of
-vision, and the imagination, as in the previous case, works out the
-rest.
-
-The following cases are examples of the influence which the spontaneous
-appearance of light in the field of vision exercises in the development
-of spectral apparitions.
-
-A gentleman who had lost his wife from a painful and protracted disease,
-for some time subsequently was troubled by her phantom, which remained
-before his eyes so long as he was in obscurity. On a light being
-brought, or during the day, this spectre vanished, but no sooner was he
-placed in darkness than it appeared vividly limned before him, and was a
-source of constant terror.[60]
-
-This phantom was evidently due to the production of the sensation of
-light in the field of vision, and the subsequent effects of the
-imagination.
-
-A gentleman with whom we are acquainted happened, when young, to have a
-severe fall on the head. After this accident and until he attained the
-age of eleven years, he was subject to visions of brilliant and
-variously coloured light, when he retired to bed at night, and all light
-in his room had been extinguished. Occasionally these visions were so
-gorgeous and resplendent that he is accustomed to compare them to the
-jewelled decorations of the palaces of the genii in the Arabian Nights'
-Entertainment. When about eleven years of age he got possession of a
-volume of legends and romances, which were pregnant with supernatural
-events and personages; and a friend injudiciously gave him a work full
-of ghost-stories, and entitled, "News from the Invisible World." These
-works he read with avidity, and the effect upon the mind was such that
-henceforth his nightly visions were transformed into foul, horrid, and
-often variously coloured spectres, rendering the period of time
-intervening between retiring to rest and sleep, one of unmitigated
-terror, and it became necessary to have a light constantly burning in
-the room until sleep occurred. After the twelfth year the intensity of
-the visions rapidly diminished, and at length only occurred when he
-turned himself upon his face in bed. In this position a sensation as if
-the bed had passed from under him occurred, and his eye formed the
-centre of a circle of imps which whirled rapidly round it. The number of
-these spectres next began to diminish, and by the time he was fifteen
-years of age, but one remained, and this appeared only occasionally.
-This solitary spectre gradually lost its fiend-like form, and assumed
-that of a respectable-looking old Roman, clothed in a toga; and it at
-length vanished to re-appear no more.
-
-This gentleman has for many years been free from any spectral
-apparition; but hard study, mental emotion, a disordered state of the
-health, or pressure with the finger on the eyeball, is apt to occasion a
-brilliant evolution of coloured light in the field of vision.
-
-The spontaneous appearance of light in the visual field, in this case,
-formed the substratum upon which the mind moulded the spectres; and it
-is interesting to remark the influence which the perusal of a volume of
-legends and ghost-stories, and subsequent classical studies, had in
-determining the form of the phantasma.
-
-To the same cause--the subjective phenomena of vision--are due the
-various coloured lights or luminous appearances which, in the
-experiments of Reichenbach, the believers in animal magnetism,
-mesmerism, and electro-biology, are supposed to have been seen issue, by
-the "susceptible," from the poles of magnets placed in darkened
-apartments, from so-called magnetised bodies, or from bodies placed in
-the conditions which the respective theories demand.
-
-All the sensations of light that are experienced under these
-circumstances, and which have been sought to be explained by the
-assumption of the "od" force, or by the influence of magnetism, &c., are
-dependent on that excitation of a sensation of light in the eye when
-plunged into darkness, or when under certain mental emotions which we
-have fully explained.
-
-This has been demonstrated by positive experiment; for if we take any of
-the "susceptibles," and, indeed, others, and place them in a darkened
-apartment, we may by simple suggestions excite all the luminous
-sensations attributed to the supposititious "od" force, or to "animal
-magnetism."
-
-The luminous appearances which certain "sensitives" have averred that
-they witnessed over graves, were due also to the subjective phenomena of
-vision, excited by an expectant idea.
-
-A young clergyman named Billing, who acted as an amanuensis to Pfeffer,
-the blind poet, asserted that he constantly saw, at night, a luminous
-cloud resting in one position in the poet's garden; and on search being
-made beneath the surface of the ground, at the spot occupied by this
-phantasm, the remains of a skeleton were found.
-
-Reichenbach concluded from this that the process of decomposition of a
-corpse going on in the grave, probably like what is observed in other
-forms of chemical action, gave rise to luminous appearances which were
-visible to highly "sensitive" persons.
-
-"It appeared possible," he writes, "that such a person might see over
-graves in which mouldering bodies lie, something similar to that which
-Billing had seen. Mademoiselle Reichel had the courage, rare in her sex,
-to gratify this wish of the author. On two very dark nights she allowed
-herself to be taken from the Castle of Reisenberg, where she was living
-with the author's family, to the neighbouring churchyard of Grunzing.
-The result justified his anticipation in the most beautiful manner. She
-very soon saw a light, and observed on one of the graves, along its
-length, a delicate breathing flame; she also saw the same thing, only
-weaker, on a second grave. But she saw neither witches nor ghosts. She
-described the fiery appearance as a shining vapour, one to two spans
-high, extending as far as the grave, and floating near its surface.
-Sometime afterwards she was taken to two large cemeteries near Vienna,
-where several burials occur daily, and graves lie about by thousands.
-Here she saw numerous graves provided with similar lights. Wherever she
-looked she saw luminous masses scattered about. But this appearance was
-most vivid over the newest graves, while on the oldest it could not be
-perceived. She described the appearance less as a clear flame than as a
-dense vaporous mass of fire, intermediate between fog and flame. On many
-graves the flame was four feet high, so that when she stood on them it
-surrounded her up to the neck. If she thrust her hand into it, it was
-like putting it into a dense fiery cloud. She betrayed no uneasiness,
-because she had all her life been accustomed to such emanations, and had
-seen the same, in the author's experiments, often produced by natural
-causes."[61]
-
-The total neglect of those precautions which are requisite to obviate
-the influence of expectant ideas and the subjective phenomena of vision
-in this experiment is most strange, and it is painful to witness men
-like Reichenbach, Gregory, and others, thus stumbling over some of the
-simplest facts of physiology and psychology, and utterly prostituting
-the name and calling of science.
-
-Singular and fallacious as are the pseudo-scientific doctrines just
-mentioned, they are exceeded by the extraordinary speculations of other
-writers, who also appear to hold in utter contempt the ordinary laws of
-action of the senses. For example, Mrs. Crowe writes of the sensation of
-light perceived by somnambules and dreamers, and of the still more
-simple phenomenon of the sensation of light induced by the inhalation of
-ether, in the following manner:--
-
-"All somnambules of the highest order,--and when I make use of this
-expression, I repeat that I do not allude to the subjects of mesmeric
-experiments, but to those extraordinary cases of disease, the
-particulars of which have been recorded by various continental
-physicians of eminence,--all persons in that condition describe
-themselves as hearing and seeing, not by the ordinary organs, but by
-some means the idea of which they cannot convey further than that they
-are pervaded by light; and that this is not the _ordinary_ physical
-light is evident, inasmuch as they generally see best in the dark,--a
-remarkable instance of which I myself witnessed.
-
-"I never had the slightest idea of this internal light till, in the way
-of experiment, I inhaled the sulphuric ether; but I am now very well
-able to conceive it; for, after first feeling an agreeable warmth
-pervading my limbs, my next sensation was to find myself--I cannot say
-in this heavenly light, for the light was in _me_--I was pervaded by it;
-it was not perceived by my eyes, which were closed, but perceived
-internally, I cannot tell how. Of what nature this heavenly light was--I
-cannot forbear calling it _heavenly_, for it was like nothing on
-earth--I know not,"[62] &c.
-
-The sense of _hearing_, like that of sight, in whatever manner it may be
-excited, only gives rise to the sensation of sound; _e.g._, when an
-electric current is passed through it, or a severe blow is struck upon
-it, and causes it "to ring," as it is expressed in common parlance. The
-rushing and other sounds--as of the ringing of bells, rustling of
-leaves, &c.--caused by a disordered state of the circulation in the
-head, are other examples; and there are perhaps few persons who have not
-at some time or other, started, and responded to their name, or to calls
-which they suppose they have heard, in the voice of persons who were at
-a distance, or who had not spoken.
-
-A similar excitation of the nerves of _taste_ and _smell_ will also give
-rise to their special sensations; but disorder of these nerves and their
-centres will rarely excite hallucinations, except in connection with a
-disturbed condition of the senses of sight and hearing.
-
-Such are the simplest forms of hallucination of the senses of sight,
-hearing, taste, and smell; and we have seen that all the phenomena of
-light, colour, sound, taste, and smell, can occur in man without the
-presence of natural or artificial light, sonorous undulations of the
-air, sapid or odorous substances.
-
-We are now in a position to comprehend more fully that, by the action of
-the imagination and emotions alone, the changes going on in the nervous
-centres may be so far disturbed that the whole of those sensations which
-are generally excited by agents external to the body may be called into
-play, and the mental idea assume, in light, colour and shade, sound,
-taste and touch, all the distinctness and definitiveness which
-appertains to an actual object within the sphere of the respective
-senses, and be considered as such.
-
-If the mind revert to any of the varied sensations which are stored up
-in the memory, and are within the power of the will to recall, an image
-is conjured up before the "mind's eye," such that we can describe it as
-though a real object stood before us; and if it be that of a person--a
-parent, a friend, or one bound by even still stronger ties--every
-lineament, every peculiarity, is depicted with a fidelity but little
-less than that we should be capable of were the individual actually
-present before us; or should it be a scene which has been treasured up
-for its grandeur, its loveliness, or for its being endeared to us by
-still stronger feelings, every characteristic feature, every object, is
-minutely and truly described; and did we possess the power of limning,
-not unfrequently we should find little difficulty in transferring the
-mental image to the canvass. "I think I see him now"--"She might be
-before me"--"I can call to mind every tree and stone, so vivid is the
-memory"--are forms of expression in constant use, and they contain the
-germ of the simplest form of ideal hallucination to which we are
-subject.
-
-Under the influence of love, grief, remorse, or other powerful and
-protracted emotion, the ideas upon which the mind is concentrated assume
-a vividness, in many persons little short of the reality; and when
-Victorian, addressing Preciosa in the "Spanish Student" (Act I, Scene
-3), is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Thou comest between me and those books too often;
-    I see thy face in everything I see;
-    The paintings on the chapel wear thy looks,
-    The canticles are changed to sarabands;
-    And with the learned doctors of the schools,
-    I see thee dance cachucas;"
-
-he makes use of no exaggerated poetical tropes or figures, but speaks
-the simple fact.[63]
-
-A painful illustration of the vividness of the mental image under
-powerful emotion is afforded by a passage in "The Dream" of Lord Byron,
-in which he describes the images of the object and scenes of his
-youthful and only love, that occupied his mind, and rendered him
-insensible to the ceremony of his marriage until he was aroused from his
-abstraction by the congratulations of the bystanders.
-
-                      "He spoke
-    The fitting vows, but heard not his own words,
-    And all things reel'd around him; he could see
-    Not that which was, nor that which should have been,--
-    But the old mansion, and the accustom'd hall,
-    And the remember'd chambers, and the place,
-    The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,
-    All things pertaining to that place and hour,
-    And her who was his destiny, came back,
-    And thrust themselves between him and the light."
-
-The protracted devotion of the thoughts to the memory of those whom the
-grave has severed from us, or from whom we are separated by distance,
-and which is induced by grief, gives also to the mental image great
-vividness. Exquisitely beautiful and true is the sentence placed in the
-mouth of Constance, when blamed for the grief she entertained on being
-separated from Prince Arthur:--
-
-    "Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
-    Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;
-    Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
-    Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
-    Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
-    Then have I reason to be fond of grief."
-
-In direct proportion to the concentration of the mind in the
-contemplation of its own actions, is the brilliancy and distinctness of
-the ideas which pass athwart it; and in the state of abstraction or of
-reverie, when from intense meditation, or from mere inactivity, the
-sensations derived from surrounding objects are not attended to, the
-ideas are so defined that they differ but little from actual objects in
-the sensations they excite. So also in sleep, if, from any cause,
-physical or mental, we are roused into a state of semi-consciousness, as
-in dreaming, the phantasms of former events, stored up in the memory,
-and by certain sensations or trains of thought thrown to the surface,
-differ in no respect--light, colour, shade, or sound--from the
-sensations derived from the objects represented.
-
-Should, therefore, the concentration of the mind upon any subject be
-such as to disturb the natural functions of the brain, the mental image
-is liable to excite sensations, and to be pourtrayed with a distinctness
-and "outness" which approximates to, or equals, that of a real object,
-and it is regarded as such.
-
-In the majority of individuals the concentration and intensity of
-feeling necessary for the production of hallucinations is of rare
-occurrence, and it is found only under such conditions as profound grief
-caused by death under painful or peculiar circumstances; from terror,
-excited by causes bringing powerful superstitious feelings into
-play--under which circumstances the hallucinations induced are generally
-transitory--or by emotions inordinately protracted; hence it is that we
-find visions of the dead among the most common of the temporary
-hallucinations. In the studious, and men of powerful thought, the mind
-being habituated to absorption in its own ideas, it not unfrequently
-happens that hallucinations occur from a disordered state of the brain
-induced by continued mental labour. These hallucinations are generally
-very vivid, and may arise either voluntarily or involuntarily, and may
-become habitual without the health being seriously disturbed.
-
-It will be seen, therefore, that the action of the mental powers alone
-is sufficient to give rise to sensations which are regarded as resulting
-from actual objects; and that from the simple vividness of the mental
-image, which is common to most persons, we may trace their effects, in a
-gradually ascending scale, in inducing mental conditions in which the
-brilliancy of the image is such that, for the time, it completely
-occupies the attention, and shuts out, as it were, the sensations
-derived from objects before the field of vision,--and in the formation
-of ideas so vivid and defined, that they take their position among
-surrounding, and excite the sensations proper to external, objects.
-
-We have thus far spoken of the effects of the imagination on the healthy
-frame, but in certain disordered conditions of the nervous system,
-occurring either alone, or in connection with other and more general
-morbid alterations in the economy, hallucinations are more apt to occur
-than in health. The system in this state is more susceptible of the
-effects of emotion, and the images arising in the mind are more vivid
-than would happen from the same degree of excitement in health, and are
-readily converted into hallucinations. This is witnessed in certain
-forms of hysteria, febrile diseases, &c.; hence, in these disordered
-conditions of the system, the hallucinations are not to be attributed to
-the action of the mind, so much as to a morbid susceptibility to undergo
-those changes requisite to the production of hallucinations; and these
-are, consequently, induced by grades of emotion and by influences which
-would not have caused that in ordinary health.
-
-On the other hand, the action of the mind in the development of
-hallucinations equally induces certain diseased states, either special
-or general. Even simple and temporary hallucination, in whatever manner
-caused, must be regarded as an indication that the changes going on in
-the nervous centres have passed the bounds of health; and according as
-the causes inducing hallucinations are more or less protracted, or the
-hallucinations are more or less persistent or frequent, so we may mark a
-greater or less deterioration in the mental powers, the nervous or the
-general system, or indications of more acute disease, to progress along
-with them, until the acme is reached in insanity, idiocy, or some more
-rapidly progressive and equally formidable disease.
-
-To illustrate these remarks: Blake, the artist, who, after the death of
-Sir Joshua Reynolds, enjoyed great fame as a portrait-painter, owed his
-celebrity, in great part, to the singular fact that he required but one
-or, at the most, two sittings, from those whose portraits he painted. He
-was accustomed to regard the person who sat to him attentively for about
-half an hour, sketching from time to time on the canvas, and he would
-then pass on to another subject. When he wished to continue the first
-portrait, on placing the canvas before him, he had the power of calling
-up so vivid a mental image of the personage, the outline of whose face
-was depicted upon it, that it assumed all the appearance of reality, and
-he perceived it in the position in which he required it to be. From this
-phantasm he painted, turning from the canvas and regarding it as he
-would have done had the representative of the phantom been there in
-person. By degrees he began to lose the distinction between the real and
-the imaginary objects, and at length a complete confusion of the mind
-occurred, rendering it necessary for him to be confined in an asylum.
-During his residence there, his insanity was marked by an exaggeration
-of that vivid power of imagination he had possessed previously; for he
-at will could summon before him the phantoms of any of the personages of
-history, and he held long and sensible conversations with Michael
-Angelo, Moses, Semiramis, Richard III, &c., all of whom appeared to him,
-when he desired, in the vivid hues and distinct outlines of reality.
-
-Talma, the great French tragedian, had the power, when upon the stage,
-of causing the vestments of his audience to disappear, and of depicting
-them as skeletons. When the hallucination was complete, and he had
-filled the theatre with these ghastly auditors, he was enabled to give
-the fullest and most surprising force to his performance.
-
-Examples of the influence of powerful and protracted emotions in
-inducing hallucinations are numerous. Dr. Conolly relates the case of a
-gentleman who, when at one time in great danger of being wrecked in a
-small boat on the Eddystone rocks, in the moment of greatest peril saw
-his family before him.
-
-M. Boismont quotes the case of a world-known general who, when in a
-combat one day, was surrounded by the enemy, and in so great danger that
-escape seemed impossible. He, nevertheless, contrived to escape; but the
-impression made upon him was such, that afterwards, until a late period
-of life, he occasionally suffered from an hallucination in which the
-scene of danger was again presented before him and re-enacted; and when
-subsequently on a throne, sometimes the silence of the palace would be
-disturbed by his cries, as he struggled and fought with his phantom
-foes. The hallucination was momentary.
-
-The intense emotion which Sir Richard Croft experienced on being
-summoned to attend the Princess Charlotte of Wales on her death-bed was
-such, that he saw her form, habited in white, glide along before his
-carriage.
-
-A case is related by Boismont of a lady who, while suffering from the
-depression occasioned by receiving information that her daughter was
-seriously ill, heard a voice which addressed to her the words, "Lovest
-thou me?" The lady responded immediately, "Lord, thou knowest that I
-have placed all my confidence in thee, and that I love thee with all my
-soul." The voice then said, "Dost thou give her to me?" The lady
-trembled with fear, but summoning courage, she replied, "However painful
-the sacrifice may be, let Thy will be accomplished." This lady was
-deeply pious, and the hallucination arose from the powerful and painful
-emotion caused by the sudden news of her daughter's illness, inducing
-that disordered state of the nervous system, in which the thoughts
-naturally engendered in one who submitted everything to the Almighty,
-became audible.
-
-The combined influence of love and sorrow has been a powerful source of
-hallucinations, and many of those wild and beautiful legends and tales
-which are scattered throughout the kingdom, recording the apparition of
-a deceased or distant lover to his betrothed, have been due to this
-cause.
-
-Thus, as in the old ballad:--
-
-    "When it was grown to dark midnight,
-      And all were fast asleep,
-    In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
-      And stood at William's feet."
-
-Or in the story of "Isabella," by Boccacio, so beautifully rendered by
-Keats:--
-
-    "It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,
-      The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot
-    Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb
-      Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot
-    Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom
-      Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute
-    From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears
-    Had made a miry channel for his tears.
-
-    Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;
-      For there was striving in its piteous tongue,
-    To speak as when on earth it was awake,
-      And Isabella on its music hung:
-    Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,
-      As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;
-    And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,
-    Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briers among.
-
-    Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright
-      With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof
-    From the poor girl by magic of their light,
-      The while it did unthread the horrid woof
-    Of the late darken'd time--the murd'rous spite
-      Of pride and avarice--the dark pine roof
-    In the forest--and the sodden turfed dell,
-    When, without any word, from stabs it fell.
-
-    Saying moreover, "Isabel, my sweet!
-      Red whortle-berries droop above my head,
-    And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;
-      Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed
-    Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat
-      Comes from beyond the river to my bed:
-    Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,
-    And it shall comfort me within the tomb.
-
-    "I am a shadow now, alas! alas!
-      Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling
-    Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,
-      While little sounds of life are round me knelling,
-    And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,
-      And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,
-    Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,
-    And thou art distant in humanity."
-
-Some of these apparitions have, in all probability, been illusions
-caused by an object indistinctly seen in the pale moonlight, or by an
-accidental arrangement of the furniture of the apartment, transformed by
-an imagination devoted to the subject of its own sorrows, or influenced
-by a vivid dream, into the idea at the moment most prominent in the
-mind.
-
-The influence of remorse, or of those terrible emotions which accrue to
-the murderer on the perpetration of the foul deed, in causing
-hallucinations, is well known.
-
-The ghost of Banquo (Macbeth, Act III, Scene 3) is a type of many
-wondrous histories:--
-
-    "Prythee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo!--How say you?
-    Why what can I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
-    If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send
-    Those that we bury, back, our monuments
-    Shall be the maws of kites."
-
-Vanderkiste[64] relates the story of a convict who had murdered an
-overseer, and taken to the bush:--
-
-"He lived in the woods, and came armed to the huts to demand provisions
-for some time, but imagined he was continually haunted by the spirit of
-the man he had murdered. At last he delivered himself up to the
-authorities, declaring his life a burden. He was seen for days, dogged,
-as he conceived, by the spectre of his victim, and escaping from tree to
-tree."
-
-Sir Walter Scott records the story, that the captain of a slaver, in a
-fit of anger, shot at, and mortally wounded, one of his sailors. As the
-man was dying, he fixed his eyes upon the captain, and said, "Sir, you
-have done for me, but I will never leave you." The captain became grave
-and moody, and some time after he invited the mate into the cabin, and
-addressing him, said, "I need not tell you, Jack, what sort of hand we
-have got on board with us. He told me he would never leave me, and he
-has kept his word. You only see him now and then, but he is always by my
-side, and never out of my sight. At this very moment I see him. I am
-determined to bear it no longer, and I have resolved to leave you."
-Soon after this, the captain, watching an opportunity when he was
-unobserved, plunged into the sea: the mate rushed to the side of the
-ship, and the captain perceiving him, extended his hands upwards,
-exclaimed; "By ----, Bill is with me now!" and sunk.
-
-One of the most remarkable examples of hallucination arising from the
-feelings excited by cold-blooded murder is recorded by Boismont:--
-
-"A duellist, who had killed sixteen persons in single combat, was
-constantly accompanied by their phantoms; they never left him night or
-day."
-
-The solitary hours of Charles IX were made frightful by the shrieks and
-cries which had reached him during the massacre of the Eve of St.
-Bartholomew, and he was haunted for many days subsequent to its
-occurrence by hideous and bloody faces. Taking Ambrose Pare aside, at
-one time, he remarked that he wished they had not comprised in the
-massacre the aged and children.
-
-No cause is, however, so apt to engender hallucinations as religious
-enthusiasm, or an inordinate or rather fanatical occupation of the mind
-in the contemplation of religious subjects.
-
-In the saint-visions which are so numerously scattered in the annals of
-Christian churches and which were so common under the self-denying and
-ascetic rules of some of the monastic orders, we have examples; and
-Spenser's "Hermit" furnishes the type of this species of
-hallucination:--
-
-    "Thence forward by that painfull way they pas
-    Forth to an hill, that was both steepe and hy;
-    On top whereof a sacred chapel was,
-    And eke a little hermitage thereby,
-    Wherein an aged holy man did lie,
-    That day and night said his devotion,
-    Ne other worldly busines did apply:
-    His name was Heavenly Contemplation;
-    Of God and goodness, was his meditation.
-
-    Great grace that old man to him given had;
-    For God he often saw from heavens hight:
-    All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,
-    And through great age had lost their kindly sight,
-    Yet wondrous quick and persaunt was his spright,
-    As eagles eie, that can behold the sunne."
-
-The Virgin appeared to Ignatius Loyola, and confirming his designs,
-urged him to the enterprise he had in view for the establishment of the
-Roman Catholic church on a surer basis. Satan came visibly to Luther and
-contended with him, sometimes worsting him in argument. Swedenborg
-beheld in visions the heavenly scenes which his imagination had
-pourtrayed; while Pascal wrote he beheld an abyss of flames beside his
-writing-table; and Symeon Stylites conceived that Satan had appeared to
-him under the form of Jesus Christ, and invited him to ascend to heaven
-in a chariot drawn by cherubim. Symeon put out his foot to enter the
-chariot, when the whole vanished; and, as a punishment for his
-presumption, the offending thigh was affected with an ulcer, which
-obliged him to rest upon one leg for the remainder of his life.
-
-It is important to comprehend fully the influence of the imagination in
-developing visions of this nature, particularly in a disordered state of
-the health, from the important effects which they have exercised and
-still exercise upon mankind.
-
-The following example is an interesting illustration of the nature and
-source of these hallucinations:
-
-Some years ago considerable attention was excited in Germany by the
-publication of a series of visions which a lady of considerable literary
-attainments and high character had beheld, and for which she believed
-that she was indebted to divine favour.
-
-The hallucinations which she experienced had first been noted in the
-fourth year of her age, when one day, as she was dressing a doll, and
-for greater convenience had placed a large folio Bible beneath her feet,
-she heard a voice exclaim: "Put the book where you found it!" She did
-not immediately obey the order, as she saw no one, but in a few moments
-the mandate was repeated, and she thought some one took hold of her
-face. This hallucination, according to Dr. Hibbert, is to be regarded as
-a renovated feeling arising from some prior remonstrances regarding the
-holy volume; and, we would add, together with the altered sensation
-experienced in the face, was evidently due to the earlier stages of a
-disease which occasioned the more fully developed visions. After this
-period, she devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures; and her
-labours, in this respect, were incessant and protracted. In her seventh
-year she saw, when playing, a vision of a clear flame which entered the
-chamber door, in the centre of which was a strong bright light,
-described as about the size of a child six years old. This vision
-endured about half an hour. No other vision is mentioned until the
-period of her marriage, which proved unfortunate, embittering her life
-and causing her constantly to meditate on death. It was in this state of
-mind that the principal visions to which she was subjected occurred. On
-one occasion, after receiving some ill-treatment from her husband,
-broken down in spirits, and thinking the Lord had forsaken her, she made
-a resolution to desist from prayer. On retiring to bed, she repented the
-decision she had made, and prayed fervently. She awoke in the morning
-before daybreak, and was surprised to find the room vividly
-illuminated, and that at the bedside was seated a heavenly figure, in
-the form of an old man. This phantom was dressed in a blueish robe, and
-had bright hair; and the countenance shone like the clearest red and
-white crystal. It regarded her benignantly, and said, "_Proceed,
-proceed, proceed!_" At first the words were unintelligible to her, but a
-young and beautiful angel, which appeared on the other side of the bed,
-exclaimed: "_Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith, proceed in trials!_"
-After this the devil appeared, pulled her by the hair, and tormented her
-in other ways, until the angel interfered, and drove him away. Satan in
-this case assumed his usual hideous garb. Subsequently one of the angels
-exclaimed, three times: "Lord, this is sufficient;" and while saying
-these words, the lady beheld large wings on his shoulders, and knew him
-to be an angel of God. The light and the angels then vanished, and the
-lady felt eased of her grief, and arose.
-
-If the nature of the figures and the mode of action in these visions had
-not sufficed to show how completely they were dependent upon dominant
-ideas and a disordered state of the nervous system, the history of the
-case would demonstrate it. The early, protracted, and inordinate study
-of religious beliefs, similar to that which laid the basis of
-Swedenborg's visions; the painful state of the mind induced by her
-unhappy marriage, and disease, were the source of the hallucinations to
-which she was subject; for it was ascertained that when the visions
-occurred she always suffered from slight attacks of epilepsy.
-
-Intense and protracted mental exertion frequently gives rise to
-hallucinations.
-
-A medical gentleman in Edinburgh, while seated one evening in his
-library, after a period of excessive study, on raising his head, was
-startled by perceiving at the opposite side of the table the spectre of
-a gentleman who had died under melancholy circumstances some days
-previously, and at whose post-mortem examination he had assisted.
-
-That excessive action of the imagination, and consequent absorption of
-the mind in its own workings, to exclusion of external sensations, which
-is common in men of genius, has been a fertile source of hallucinations.
-
-In some instances the hallucinations have been "counterfeit
-presentments" of the ideas which have been most prominent in the mind;
-in others they have had no relation to that condition.
-
-Spinello, who had painted the Fall of the Angels, thought that he was
-haunted by the frightful devils which he had depicted. He was rendered
-so miserable by this hallucination that he destroyed himself. One of
-our own artists, who was much engaged in painting caricatures, became
-haunted by the distorted faces he drew; and the deep melancholy and
-terror which accompanied these apparitions caused him to commit suicide.
-Mueller, who executed the copper-plate of the Sixtine Madonna, had more
-lovely visions. Towards the close of his life the Virgin appeared to
-him, and thanking him for the affection he had shown towards her,
-invited him to follow her to heaven. To achieve this, the artist starved
-himself to death. Beethoven, who became completely deaf in the decline
-of life, often heard his sublime compositions performed distinctly.
-
-It is related of Ben Jonson, that he spent the whole of one night in
-regarding his great toe, around which he saw Tartars, Turks, Romans, and
-Catholics climbing up, and struggling and fighting. Goethe, when out
-riding one day, was surprised to see an exact image of himself on
-horseback, dressed in a light-coloured coat, riding towards him.
-
-A similar kind of hallucination to this of Goethe's has been observed as
-a precursor of certain forms of insanity, and in the delirium of fever.
-
-Boismont records the case of a gentleman who was troubled with a
-spectral image of himself, which he had the power of calling before him
-voluntarily. This, for several years, was a source of amusement to him;
-but by degrees this phantom became more persistent, arose involuntarily,
-and addressed him. The hallucination then assumed a still graver
-character, for his double would dispute with him, and often foil him in
-argument; and coincidently with this phase of the disease the gentleman
-became melancholy, and he ultimately committed suicide.
-
-The imagination rarely gives rise to hallucinations of the senses of
-touch, taste, or smell alone. The sweet-smelling odours which are stated
-to have been experienced during the visions of angels and saints; and
-the foul and sulphurous fumes which have accompanied apparitions of the
-infernals, are, however, to be attributed to this cause.
-
-Thus far our illustrations and remarks have been confined to that class
-of hallucinations which are induced principally by the action of the
-imagination, mental emotion, or excessive exertion of the reasoning
-powers.
-
-There is, however, another class of hallucinations dependent upon
-certain disordered states of the general health and nervous system,
-which have an important bearing upon the belief in the supernatural.
-
-The simplest forms of hallucination of this class are those occasionally
-observed during the initiatory stages of some diseases, after the
-termination of exhausting affections, or during temporary morbid
-conditions of the brain.
-
-The following examples will illustrate the nature of the hallucinations
-arising from these sources.
-
-A lady, with whom we are acquainted, was walking early one morning in a
-lonely and unfrequented path, which was open to the eye for some
-distance. On approaching its termination, she was surprised to see a
-lady advancing towards her, dressed in deep mourning, and reading a
-book. Struck by the peculiar beauty of the lady's face, she turned round
-to gaze upon her as she passed; but, to her surprise, the figure
-vanished. Startled and alarmed, she hurried home, and almost immediately
-afterwards was seized with shiverings, and suffered from a violent
-attack of fever, characterised by severe cerebral disturbance. The
-hallucination in this case was caused by the changes induced in the
-nervous system by the initiatory stages of the disease.
-
-A young lady recovering from a severe attack of fever, was left in
-charge of the house during a fine Sunday evening in autumn, the
-remainder of the family having gone to church. A thunder-storm came on,
-with heavy rain, and she became very anxious about her aged father. On
-going into the room generally occupied by the family, there, to her
-great astonishment, she beheld, as she thought, her father sitting in
-his usual position. Supposing that he must have returned from church
-unwell, she advanced, placed her hand upon the semblance, and found
-nothing. Although startled, she attributed the vision to its proper
-cause, anxiety and weakness; but though she went in and out of the room
-several times, the spectre persisted for a considerable period.
-
-A merchant, while sitting in his counting-house, was annoyed by hearing
-voices outside the door conversing freely respecting his character, and
-speaking of him as a dishonoured man. Thinking it was some trick of his
-friends, he quietly opened the door, and was astonished to find no one.
-On closing it the voices again began in a similar strain; and on
-re-opening the door he still found no one. Alarmed, he left his office,
-and proceeded home, but the voices followed him, threatening punishment
-for imaginary crimes. This hallucination was accompanied by other signs
-of a disordered state of the brain, and it was not until after a period
-of entire relaxation from business, and a daily game at cricket, that
-the phantom-voices ceased.
-
-There are certain formidable disorders of the nervous system in which
-hallucinations affect all the senses.
-
-The following is an example of the diseases of this class, and it will
-show the influence which they are liable to exert in the development of
-certain forms of superstition.
-
-A maiden lady, aged forty years, who from early youth had been of a very
-susceptible and restless disposition, suffered from hallucinations which
-persisted for many years.
-
-At first the sight alone was affected, and she saw numerous persons of
-singular and fantastic form. Subsequently she heard voices, which
-professed to have taken up their abode in her stomach, and addressed her
-from thence. These voices tormented her; commanded all her actions;
-informed her of what took place within the body; gave her instructions
-upon diseases, and even prescribed for them. The voices gave her
-information respecting the characters of divers persons, and
-occasionally endowed her with the power of expressing herself in terms
-more florid and fluent than she was accustomed to. Often the voices
-conversed on geography, grammar, rhetoric, &c.; and they would reprove
-her when she had done amiss. They told her that she was possessed, and
-although she was not superstitious, and fully recognized the
-hallucinations she suffered from, she at this time sought a priest to
-exorcise her, thought much of eternity, and sometimes gave herself up to
-despair. At one time the voices told her she would become queen; often
-they conversed with her upon strange, and sometimes even abominable
-subjects; then they would say things extremely comical, and make her
-laugh. They would please, and then mock her, and then assail her more
-violently than ever, and spoil like harpies everything she touched or
-did. If she took a glass of water, the voices would call out that it was
-poisoned; and frequently they urged her to destroy herself. When she
-walked out, if she passed a female, the voices would cry out that she
-carried musk (the odour of which the lady abominated) and immediately
-she smelt this odour; if a man passed her, she was affected with the
-smell of tobacco. The voices often gave her no rest until she did what
-they liked, and they even ordered her to Paris, to place herself under
-the care of physicians there.
-
-The visions she suffered from were very singular. Her apartment was
-filled with persons of all characters and descriptions; numerous
-processions defiled before her, and some of the figures had but one half
-the body, a profile, or one eye; they were large or small, and
-occasionally underwent singular and fantastic changes of form.
-
-The food she took did not possess its natural taste, and the voices
-often gave unpleasant savours, to prevent her eating.
-
-When she journeyed, she felt as if soaked with water, and she would
-attempt to wring her clothes.
-
-Addressing one of her physicians, when the malady was fully developed,
-she said, "I know that it is monomania, but the voices are stronger than
-my will. I wish you to prescribe for me, it is impossible for me to
-remain in one place."[65]
-
-This case is an interesting illustration of a form of disease, which,
-when developed in persons who are subject to religious enthusiasm, has
-given rise to the belief of possession with devils (_demonomania_).
-Instances of this disease are frequently met with in the French asylums.
-
-Many other forms of hallucination occur in insanity, monomania, fever,
-hysteria, and other diseases, in dreams, and from the influence of
-certain poisonous substances taken into the system. Some of these
-hallucinations are of considerable interest, since they have been the
-prime cause of many superstitions.
-
-In addition to the hallucinations of the hearing already mentioned, in
-certain diseases, words spoken in the right ear have been heard in the
-left, and _vice versa_; and under the influence of opium or haschish
-(prepared from the Indian hemp), the sense becomes, occasionally, so
-developed, that a word pronounced low, or a slight movement, sounds like
-a peal of thunder. Hallucinations of the sight have occasionally
-presented figures of colossal stature, or of extreme diminutiveness; or
-the patient has conceived the idea that he was so tall that he was
-unable to walk erect in a lofty apartment, or so diminutive that he
-dreaded the movements of any near to him, lest they should do him harm.
-Pleasant or fetid odours are sometimes constantly present to the smell.
-Feuchtersleben states the case of a lady who was long haunted with the
-effluvia as of a charnel-house. The taste is subjected to hallucinations
-of exquisitely flavoured viands and wines; or the reverse, no food being
-taken; or everything taken presents one undeviating flavour, which may
-be pleasant or unpleasant, or it has no taste at all. A sensation of
-_flying_ is not uncommon. Boismont has a friend who frequently
-experiences this sensation, and it often occurs in dreams. A friend of
-ours is in the habit of dreaming that he is suspended about a foot above
-the surface of the earth, and is carried along by simple volition,
-without movement of the limbs; and St. Jerome states, that often in
-dreams he flew from the earth over mountains and seas. Our ideas of
-depth and space are sometimes increased in dreams to an extent that is
-inexpressible and almost bewildering; and the sensation of falling into
-an abyss is common to the dreamer. The idea of time is often extended
-indefinitely; in the space of a single night, days, weeks, years, and
-even ages, have appeared to elapse. Transformation of the figure is
-occasionally met with among the hallucinations of insanity; and in the
-state induced by haschish, the singular and fantastic forms which those
-under its influence, and the parties surrounding them, have appeared to
-undergo, are of great interest. "The eyelashes," writes one gentleman,
-"lengthened themselves indefinitely, and rolled themselves as threads of
-gold on little ivory bobbins, which turned unassisted, with frightful
-rapidity.... I still saw my comrades at certain moments, but _deformed_,
-half men, half plants, with the pensive airs of an ibis standing on one
-foot, of ostriches flapping their wings, &c."--"I imagined that I was
-the parroquet of the Queen of Sheba, and I imitated as well as I was
-able the cries of this praiseworthy bird."
-
-In the state caused by haschish it occasionally also happens that the
-person under its influence may be caused to speak or act in any manner
-that is suggested to him. This phenomenon is also seen in dreams; in
-both conditions the half-awakened mind automatically pursues the train
-of thought which has been suggested to it either by the voice or by
-certain sensations.
-
-Lastly, in certain disordered conditions of the system, the person has
-the power of looking, as it were, into himself, and ascertaining what is
-going on there, or of extending his sensual powers beyond the bounds of
-their ordinary sphere, and ascertaining what transpires in other places,
-or at a distance of many miles (_clairvoyance_). The gentleman from
-whose experience of the effects of haschish we have already quoted,
-thought he could look at will into his stomach, and that he saw there,
-in the form of an emerald, from which escaped millions of sparkles, the
-drug he had swallowed.
-
-By a careful consideration of the illusions and hallucinations to which
-we are liable, we obtain a clue to unravel the wild fantasies which
-constitute the greater part of the most prominent superstitions.
-
-If we reflect on the superstitious ideas which filled the minds of our
-forefathers, and follow them back, in their deepening intensity, into
-the middle ages, we can easily imagine how the irregular and fantastic
-figures which an indistinct and disordered vision gave rise to in the
-gloom of the night, were transformed into fiends and demons; how
-spectres, clothed in their horrid white and blue panoply, were seen
-stalking over the earth, and haunting the murder-stained castle, glade,
-and forest; how the dimly illuminated mists of the evening and morning
-shadowed forth the forms of the dead, and the spirits of the waters and
-the air; how in the mist of Killarney, an O'Donoghue, mounted on his
-milk-white steed, and attended by a host of fairy forms, swept over the
-beautiful lake; and a spectral array arose night after night from the
-bed of the rushing Moldau, and besieged the walls of Prague; how the
-moonbeams chequering the deep recesses of the woods, and the banks and
-meadows overhung with foliage, were metamorphised into fairies; how the
-wind howling among the rocks and mountains, sweeping through the
-valleys, or whispering amid the trees and about the nooks and corners of
-the turretted castle and ruinous mansion, bore on its bosom the sounds
-of spectre-horsemen, demon-hunters, and fiend-like hounds, or the wail
-and lamentations of wandering and lost spirits, and the shrieks of the
-infernals; and how the billows, rushing into the caverns and deep
-fissures in the cliffs of a rock-bound coast, filled the air with the
-mysterious and incomprehensible language of the spirits of the deep.
-
-A clue also is obtained to other forms of superstition.
-
-The power which the witch was supposed to possess of transporting
-herself from place to place, and which those self-deluded wretches
-themselves believed; and the orgies of the witch-sabbath, which were
-again and again deposed to, were hallucinations due to a form of
-insanity--for we may so call it--prevailing at the period, which was
-determined by the nature of the superstitious beliefs entertained. The
-real character of this superstition is well shown by an incident which
-is recorded by Jung-Stilling.
-
-He writes:--"I am acquainted with a tale, for the truth of which I can
-vouch, because it is taken from the official documents of an old
-witch-process. An old woman was imprisoned, put to the torture, and
-confessed all that witches are generally charged with. Amongst others,
-she also denounced a neighbour of hers, who had been with her on the
-Blocksberg, the preceding Walpurgis night. This woman was called, and
-asked if it were true what the prisoner said of her? On which she stated
-that, on Walpurgis eve she had called upon this woman, because she had
-something to say to her. On entering her kitchen, she found the prisoner
-busy in preparing a decoction of herbs. On asking her what she was
-boiling, she said, with a smiling and mysterious mien, "Wilt thou go
-with me to the Brocken?" From curiosity, and in order to ascertain what
-there was in the matter, she answered, "Yes: I should like to go well
-enough." On which the prisoner chattered some time about the feast, and
-the dance, and the enormous goat. She then drank of the decoction, and
-offered it to her, saying: "There, take a hearty drink of it, that thou
-mayest be able to ride through the air:" she likewise put the pot to her
-mouth, and made as if she drank of it, but did not taste a drop. During
-this, the prisoner had put a pitchfork between her legs, and placed
-herself upon the hearth; that she soon sunk down, and began to sleep and
-snore: after having looked on for some time, she was at length tired of
-it, and went home.
-
-The next morning, the prisoner came to her, and said, "Well, how dost
-thou like being at the Brocken? Sith, there were glorious doings." On
-which she had laughed heartily, and told her that she had not drunk of
-the potion, and that she, the prisoner, had not been at the Brocken, but
-had slept with her pitchfork upon the hearth. That the woman, on this,
-became angry, and said to her, that she ought not to deny having been at
-the Brocken, and having danced and kissed the goat."[66]
-
-Gassendi relates an experiment to the same effect. He anointed some
-peasants with a pomade made of belladonna or opium, persuading them that
-the operation would convey them to the witch-sabbath. After a profound
-sleep, they awoke, and told how they had been present at the sabbath,
-and the pleasures they had enjoyed.
-
-Stupifying and intoxicating drugs were, in all probability, freely used
-by sorcerers, and in the ancient mysteries, and to their use is to be
-attributed many of the illusions and hallucinations which are familiar
-in the details of the practice of the occult sciences.
-
-Jung-Stilling quotes a singularly interesting example of a method of
-practising one of the most important processes of magic; and an
-examination of it satisfactory shows the manner in which some of the
-most striking of the deceptions of that art were brought about, and how
-it happened that the professor, as well as the student, was equally
-deluded.
-
-In Eckhartshausen's "Key to Magic" there is an account of a young
-Scotsman "who, though he meddled not with the conjuration of spirits,
-and such like charlatanry, had learned, however, a remarkable piece of
-art from a Jew, which he communicated also to Eckhartshausen, and made
-the experiment with him,--which is surprising, and worthy of perusal. He
-that wishes to raise and see any particular spirit, _must prepare
-himself for it, for some days together, both spiritually and
-physically_. There are also particular and remarkable requisites and
-relations necessary betwixt such a spirit and the person who wishes to
-see it--relations which cannot otherwise be explained, than on the
-ground of the intervention of some secret influence from the invisible
-world. After all these precautions, a vapour is produced in a room, from
-certain materials which Eckhartshausen, with propriety, does not
-divulge, on account of the dangerous abuse which might be made of it,
-which visibly forms itself into a figure which bears a resemblance to
-that which the person wishes to see. In this there is no question of any
-magic-lantern or optical artifice; but the vapour really forms a human
-figure, similar to that which the individual desires to behold. I will
-now insert the conclusion of the story in Eckhartshausen's own words:--
-
-"Some time after the departure of the stranger, that is, the Scotsman, I
-made the experiment for one of my friends. He saw as I did, and had the
-same sensations.
-
-"The observations that we made were these. As soon as the ingredients
-were thrown into the chafing-dish, a whitish body forms itself, that
-seems to hover above the chafing-dish, as large as life.
-
-"It possesses the likeness of the person whom we wished to see, only the
-visage is of an ashy paleness.
-
-"On approaching the figure, one is conscious of a resistance, similar to
-that which is felt when going against a strong wind, which drives one
-back.
-
-"If one speaks with it, one remembers no more distinctly what is spoken;
-and when the appearance vanishes, one feels as if awakening from a
-dream. The head is stupified, and a contraction is felt about the
-abdomen. It is also very singular that the same appearance presents
-itself when one is in the dark, or when looking upon dark objects.
-
-"The unpleasantness of this sensation was the reason why I was unwilling
-to repeat the experiment, although often urged to do so by many
-individuals."[67]
-
-It would be difficult to conceive any more powerful method of inducing
-hallucinations than that detailed in this instructive and interesting
-recital. The previous schooling of the imagination, in order thoroughly
-to imbue it with the train of ideas requisite for the full development
-of the phenomenon, and the subsequent intoxication induced by the
-inhalation of powerful narcotic vapours--an intoxication which, as we
-have already seen in the example of haschish, is peculiarly apt to the
-development of hallucinations--will sufficiently account for the
-illusion of the smoke of the chafing-dish presenting any figure which
-the mind desires to see. The difficulty which the experimenter
-experienced in approaching the phantom, and which he compares to the
-resistance which is felt when contending against a strong wind, was
-evidently due to the powerful emotion which he experienced depriving him
-of that control of the voluntary muscles, such as we find in a person
-paralyzed by fear or astonishment; or perhaps it was rather a feeling
-similar to that experienced in nightmare, when, whatever effort we may
-make, we feel almost incapable of motion.
-
-The action of the narcotic vapour alone was sufficient to induce
-hallucinations; for, persuaded by a very experienced physician, who
-"maintained that the narcotic ingredients which formed the vapour must
-of necessity violently affect the imagination, and might be very
-injurious, according to circumstances," Eckhartshausen made the
-experiment on himself without previous preparation; "but," he writes,
-"scarcely had I cast the quantum of ingredients into the chafing-dish,
-when a figure presented itself. I was, however, seized with such a
-horror, that I was obliged to leave the room. I was very ill during
-three hours, and thought I saw the figure always before me. Towards
-evening, after inhaling the fumes of vinegar, and drinking it with
-water, I was better again; but for three weeks afterwards I felt a
-debility: and the strangest part of the matter is, that when I remember
-the circumstance, and look for some time upon any dark object, this ashy
-pale figure still presents itself very vividly to my sight. After this I
-no longer dared to make any experiments with it."
-
-The use of intoxicating and stupifying drugs doubtless contributed also
-to the development of those ideas of strange and wonderful
-transformations and anomalies of form with which the legends and
-romances of Oriental and European nations teem. In the examples of
-hallucinations we have already given from this source, we find the key
-to the explanation of several of these transformations; and the
-elaborated supernatural framework of fairy tales, in which men are
-changed without compunction into inferior animals, trees, or vegetables,
-has probably had a similar origin.
-
-The state of "clairvoyance," and that condition of the nervous system
-which is found in certain diseases, dreams, and under the influence of
-narcotic poisons, in which, by suggestions, in whatever manner given,
-certain actions and trains of thought may be excited at the will of the
-suggestor, is seen also, and may be induced at will in those conditions
-of the system which are summed up under the terms "mesmerism," "animal
-magnetism," "electro-biology," &c.; and the theories which have been
-invented to explain them, and which are expressed in the above names,
-are not only needless, but inconsistent with the facts observed. The
-so-called mesmeric and electro-biological trance is strictly allied to
-certain forms of dreaming; and the whole of the results witnessed may be
-explained by certain admitted physiological and physical laws of action,
-and are due to leading trains of thought which are excited by
-suggestions direct or indirect. As to the higher faculty of prevision
-claimed in this state, we are not aware that, as yet, a single
-trustworthy instance has been established.
-
-There is a class of spectral apparitions which differ from those which
-we have already dwelt upon, inasmuch as they have appeared to
-foreshadow, or have occurred coincidently with, the death of an
-individual; or they have made known events occurring at a distance, or
-have brought to light things else hidden by the grave.
-
-In the deepening gloom of twilight the seer of Scotland often witnessed
-the _wraiths_ of those who were about to die, wreathed in the ascending
-mists of the night, troop in ghostly silence before his horror-stricken
-vision; and the _Bodach Glas_ crossed the path of the death-laden Mac
-Ivor; the _Bodac au Dun_, or Ghost of the Hill, warned the Rothmurchan
-of approaching calamity; the spectre of the Bloody Hand scared the
-Kincardines; the _Bodach Gartin_ glided in significant horror through
-the gloomy passages of Gartnibeg House; and the Girl with the Hairy Left
-Hand--_Manch Monlach_--pointed to the death-bolt about to carry weeping
-and wailing into the halls of Tulloch Gorus.
-
-The spectral _fetch_ shadowed forth in the sister isle the dark course
-of death; while the Banshee mourned with the frightful accents of the
-dead over the dying scions of the ancient families. Hovering near the
-sorrow-laden mansion, her robe flowing wide in the night air, and her
-tangled tresses borne upon the wind, she cried the keen of another world
-adown the vaulted passages, and sobbed in ghastly agony her bitter
-lamentations.
-
-The _Gwrach y Rhibyn_--Hag of the Dribble--when the night had covered
-the earth, spread out her leathern-like wings, and flitting before the
-house of the death-stricken Cambrians, shrieked in harsh, broken, and
-prolonged tones their names.
-
-In our own land the spectres of all those who would die in the parish
-during the year might be seen walking in ghostly procession to the
-church, or entering its portals, by him who would watch, three years
-consecutively, during the last hour of the night and the first hour of
-the morning, in the porch, on the Eve of St. Mark, or would kneel and
-look through the keyhole of the door of the sanctuary at midnight on the
-Eve of St. John the Baptist.
-
-The _White Lady_, who haunts the ancient castle of the celebrated
-Bohemian family of Rosenberg-Neuhaus, and who also appears from time to
-time in the castles of the allied families of Brandenburg, Baden, and
-Darmstadt,--Trzebon, Islubocka, Bechin, and Tretzen, and even has been
-seen in Berlin, Bayreuth, and at Carlsrhue is of historical notoriety.
-Tall of stature, attired in white, and wearing a white widow's veil
-adorned with ribbons, through the folds of which, and from within her, a
-faint light has been seen to glimmer, she glides with a modest air
-through the corridors and apartments of those castles and palaces in
-which the death of one of her family is about to occur; and she has been
-seen at other times, and oft, with the aspect and air as though the
-spirit had a melancholy pleasure in visiting and hovering about her
-descendants. It is said to be the ghost of one Perchta Von Rosenberg,
-who was born between A.D. 1420 and 1430, and subsequently married to
-John Von Lichtenstein, a rich and profligate baron, who so embittered
-her life that she was obliged to seek relief from her relatives, and she
-died borne down with the insults and indescribable distress she endured.
-Among the old paintings of the family of Rosenberg was found a portrait
-of this lady, attired after the fashion of the times, and bearing an
-exact resemblance to the "_White Lady_." In December, 1628, she appeared
-in Berlin, and was heard to exclaim, "Veni, judica vivos et mortuos:
-judicium mihi adhuc superest!"--"Come, judge the living and the dead; my
-fate is not yet decided."
-
-The _Klage-weib_ (Mourning Woman) when the storm is driving the rift
-before it, and the moon shines fitfully and faintly on the earth, may be
-seen stalking along, her gigantic and shadowy form enveloped in dark
-flowing grave-clothes, her deathlike countenance and deep cavernous eyes
-freezing the unhappy spectator with horror, while, extending her vast
-arm, she sweeps it above the cottage marked out by death.
-
-In the Tyrol also, the phantom of a white woman looks in at the window
-of a house where a person must die.
-
-These are examples of spectral apparitions foreboding death and
-misfortune, which the lapse of ages and the influence of superstition
-have invested with a semblance of reality, approximating them in
-apparent truthfulness to historical facts.
-
-It is a needless, and would be a thankless task, to show how these
-notions were the legitimate result of the ideas of the supernatural
-entertained at the period when they were developed; and how when the
-superstitions once assumed a definite form, the slightest illusion
-during the period of sickness or calamity, whether observed in the
-castellated mansion, pregnant generally with deeds of darkness or blood,
-or in the twilight or the storm of a moon-lit night, were converted into
-these phantoms;[68] or the imperfectly remembered dream, or its vivid
-depiction of the superstition, shadowed forth the same.
-
-Scant of romance, and that wild and thrilling medium through which many
-of our old legends are seen, we have handed to us numerous business-like
-stories, some of very recent date, in which the same principles are
-involved as in the legends we have detailed, and which demand grave
-attention, from the honest truthfulness with which they are evidently
-detailed, and the events which they appear to have foreshadowed.
-
-Let us examine some of these instances, and endeavour to ascertain
-whether they come under the character of illusions or hallucinations; or
-whether they are to be placed in another category, and to be regarded as
-the results of supernatural agency, as is most frequently done.
-
-In "Blackwood's Magazine" for 1840, there is a letter which contains the
-following statement:--
-
-"The 'Hawk' being on her passage from the Cape of Good Hope towards the
-island of Java, and myself having the charge of the middle watch,
-between one and two in the morning I was taken suddenly ill, which
-obliged me to send for the officer next in turn; I then went down on the
-gun-deck, and sent my boy for a light. In the meanwhile, I sat down on a
-chest in the steerage, under the after-grating, when I felt a gentle
-squeeze by a very cold hand; I started, and saw a figure in white;
-stepping back, I said, 'God's my life! who is that?' It stood and gazed
-at me a short time, stooped its head to get a more perfect view, sighed
-aloud, repeated the exclamation 'Oh!' three times, and instantly
-vanished. The night was fine, though the moon afforded through the
-gratings but a weak light, so that little of feature could be seen,
-only a figure rather tall than otherwise, and white-clad. My boy
-returning now with a light, I sent him to the cabins of all the
-officers, when he brought me word that not one of them had been
-stirring. Coming afterwards to St. Helena, homeward-bound, hearing of my
-sister's death, and finding the time so nearly coinciding, it added much
-to my painful concern; and I have only to thank God, that when I saw
-what I now verily believe to have been her apparition (my sister Ann), I
-did not then know the melancholy occasion of it."
-
-The superstitious feelings which we find pervading the mind of the
-gentleman relating this incident, and which is evinced by its
-termination; the circumstances under which the apparition took place,
-namely, a dim uncertain light, that most favourable to illusion; an
-attack of indisposition leading to alteration of the natural sensations;
-and lastly, and most important of all, the after-conclusion arrived at
-on hearing of the sister's death, and under the influence of which the
-account was written, and which, it is evident from the nature of the
-details, gave rise to that definite statement which has been
-recorded,--all tend to the conclusion that the spectre was an illusion,
-and that its significance was a phase imparted to it by superstitious
-feelings alone.
-
-The influence of subsequent conclusions in warping the real history of
-an event, and giving a definite and precise character to what would
-otherwise have been vague and inconclusive, as is witnessed in the above
-story, is one of the most important fallacies pervading ghost-stories.
-There is no source of self-deception to which we are exposed, more
-insidious; and it is requisite to keep it constantly in view, not only
-in relations of this nature, but in the examination of events of any
-kind whatever. The colouring which facts receive from this source, too
-often hides their real character; and the reciter is perfectly
-unconscious of the erroneous light which he casts upon them. Hence the
-importance of ascertaining the peculiar bias and tendencies of thought
-which appertain to one who records occurrences upon which important
-conclusions or theories may be based.
-
-The vicious habit which has been common among the advocates of
-supernatural visitations, of supporting their opinions upon the
-assertions of men of known probity and honour, to the complete exclusion
-of an examination of the sources of delusion and error to which these
-men were liable from the character of their previous education, habits
-of thought, associations, &c., and from their imperfect acquaintance
-with the fallacies to which they may have been exposed, has been a
-fertile source of error.
-
-A so-called fact is not an abstract truth; it is simply a fact so far as
-it relates to the assertor, and the credence given to it by others
-depends upon the extent to which it agrees with their experience, or
-upon the knowledge that the assertor has by previous study or experience
-so far diminished the probability of error on the subject to which it
-relates, that the statement may be received without hesitation.
-
-Another form of ghost-story is that in which the spirit of the dead has
-been compelled to wander in misery on the earth, for some crime or
-error, small or great, committed during life, and which, unless it be
-atoned for or rectified, prevents its eternal repose.
-
-A story of this kind is given by Jung-Stilling, and however absurd it
-may be in some parts, it is interesting from the precision of its
-details enabling us to lay hold of a clue to the explanation of the
-majority of these tales.
-
-In 1756, M. Doerien, one of the proctors of Caroline College, Brunswick,
-was taken ill and died, shortly after "St. John's Day" (June 24th).
-Immediately before his death, he requested to see another of the
-proctors, M. Hoefer, having some communication of importance to make to
-him; but before that gentleman arrived, death had taken place. After
-some time a report became prevalent in the college that the ghost of the
-deceased proctor had been seen; but as this proceeded merely from the
-young, little attention had been given to it. At length, in October,
-upwards of three months after the death of M. Doerien, as M. Hoefer was
-proceeding on his accustomed nightly round, between the hours of eleven
-and twelve, in one of the corridors he saw the spectre of that
-professor, clothed in a common night-gown and white night-cap. This
-unexpected sight terrified M. Hoefer somewhat, but recollecting that he
-was in the path of duty, he recovered himself, and advancing to the
-spectre, endeavoured to examine it by the light of the candle he held in
-his hand; but such a horror came over him, that he could scarcely
-withdraw the hand in which he extended the light, and from that moment
-it was so swollen, "that some months elapsed before it was healed." The
-following night he was accompanied in his rounds by a philosopher,
-Professor Oeder, who was rather sceptical on the subject of apparitions;
-but on approaching the spot in which the spectre had been seen on the
-previous evening, there they beheld it again in the same position.
-
-Others attempted to gain a sight of the ghost, but it would not manifest
-itself, not even to MM. Oeder and Hoefer, until the former gentleman,
-wearied with his useless watching during a somewhat prolonged period,
-exclaimed, "I have gone after the spirit long enough to please him; if
-he now wants anything, let him come to me." But what followed? About
-fourteen days after, when he was thinking about anything else than of
-ghosts, he was suddenly and rudely awakened, between three and four
-o'clock in the morning, by some external motion. On opening his eyes, he
-saw an apparition opposite to the bed, standing by the clothes-press,
-which was only two paces from it, that presented itself in the same
-attire as the spirit. He raised himself up, and could then clearly
-discern the whole face. He fixed his eyes steadfastly upon the phantom,
-until, after a period of eight minutes, it became invisible.
-
-The next morning he was again awakened about the same time, and saw the
-same apparition, only with this difference, that the door of the press
-made a cracking noise, just as if some one leaned upon it. This time the
-spirit remained longer, so that Professor Oeder spoke to it as follows:
-"Get thee hence, thou evil spirit; what hast thou to do here?" At these
-words the phantom made all kinds of dreadful motions, waved its head,
-its hands, and its feet in such a manner, that the terrified Professor
-began to pray, "Who trusts in God, &c.," and "God the Father dwell with
-us, &c.," on which the spirit vanished.
-
-After eight days the spirit again appeared, "but with this difference,
-that it came from the press directly towards him, and inclined its head
-over him," whereupon the terrified Professor struck out at it, and the
-spirit retired; but no sooner had he laid down, than it again advanced,
-and he, noticing that its aspect was "more in sorrow than in anger,"
-observed it attentively, and saw that the ghost had a short tobacco-pipe
-in its mouth. This circumstance and the spirit's mild mien induced him
-to address the ghost, and ask, "Are you still owing anything." He knew
-beforehand that the deceased had left some debts, and the amount of a
-few dollars, _which occasioned the inquiry_. The spirit looked
-attentively at this query; and at length, guided by the tobacco-pipe,
-when the Professor asked, "Are you perhaps owing something for tobacco?"
-the spirit retreated and suddenly disappeared. Measures were immediately
-taken to liquidate the debt which was found to be owing for tobacco.
-
-The next night Professor Seidler remained with Oeder. The spirit again
-appeared, but not as formerly, at the press, but near it, close to the
-white wall. It was visible only to Oeder, his brother professor merely
-seeing "something white." From this night Oeder burnt a night-lamp, and
-he no longer saw the apparition; but for some nights, at the same time,
-from three to five, he was troubled with uneasy sensations, and
-frequently heard a noise at the clothes-press and knocking at the door.
-By degrees these sensations passed away, and he discontinued the
-night-lamp; but the second night after, the spectre again appeared "at
-the accustomed hour, but visibly darker." It had, moreover, a new sign
-in its hand--"It was like a picture, and had a hole in the centre, into
-which the spirit frequently put its hand. After long ruminating and
-inquiring what the deceased might mean by these signs, so much was at
-length elicited, that a short time before his illness he had taken some
-paintings in a magic lantern from a picture-dealer on trial, which had
-not been returned. The paintings were given to the rightful owner, and
-from that time Oeder continued undisturbed."
-
-In this story we notice, first, that a report was prevalent in the
-college, that the ghost of M. Doerien had been seen by several persons;
-and it is but natural to suppose that such a statement would exercise a
-powerful effect upon the mind of M. Hoefer, who had been placed in the
-painful position of being summoned to the death-bed of his friend, to
-receive a communication "necessary to mention to him," but had arrived
-in time only to witness the death-struggle. Upwards of three months
-after the death of M. Doerien, and when M. Hoefer was evidently in a
-disordered state of health, as is indicated by the swelling of the hand,
-and subsequent persistence of this swelling for some time, as this
-gentleman was making his usual rounds by the light of a taper in the
-dead of night, he witnesses the first apparition in a situation pregnant
-with associations of the deceased. The apparition may have been an
-illusion, suggested at first by some outlines indistinctly seen; or it
-may have been, and it is more probable to have been, an hallucination
-excited by the association of ideas in a person whose system was in a
-disordered state.
-
-That connection of ideas, similar or dissimilar, which is acquired by
-habit or otherwise, so that one of them, in whatever manner we may
-become conscious of it, will suggest and give rise to the others,
-without the intervention of a voluntary action of the mind, is familiar
-to most persons.
-
-The association which the mind habitually forms between certain objects
-and scenes, and persons connected with them, is most evident when a
-separation has been effected by death or removal to a distance; and, as
-is well-known, and has probably been painfully experienced by most
-persons, when the mind has been rallying from a state of abstraction or
-reverie, the sight of some object, or an indistinct sound, which during
-the full activity of the faculties would not have been regarded, or
-would simply have sufficed to arouse an ordinary reminiscence, will
-cause to flash athwart the mind, a vivid and startling image of the
-deceased or far distant one.
-
-We well remember some years ago, when a fellow-student, with whom we had
-been on very intimate terms, was cut off after a few days' illness. He
-had been in the habit of spending much time in our rooms. For some
-months after his death, particularly when wearied with study, a slight
-noise in the passage or at the door of the room has given rise to so
-vivid an impression that he was approaching, or at the door, that it has
-required an effort of the mind to quell the hallucination.
-
-The apparition which M. Hoefer witnessed, was most probably an
-hallucination of this kind; the corridor, and position in which it
-occurred, recalling to memory, in all the vividness of reality, the form
-and lineaments of that deceased friend who had formerly frequented it
-along with him.
-
-We have already seen an instance of a somewhat similar character, in the
-account given in a previous paper of the apparition of a father, then
-alive, but absent at church, to his daughter at home. In that case the
-apparition was excited by the sight of the arm-chair generally occupied
-by the old gentleman, and connected with it alone, the association of
-the ideas being obvious; and the state of the brain forming, so to
-speak, the substratum of the hallucination, was induced by uneasiness
-caused by a heavy thunder-storm acting on a frame debilitated by fever.
-
-The apparition of the following night, which was seen also by Professor
-Oeder, was, so far as M. Hoefer was concerned, a modification of the
-hallucination of the preceding night, prompted by the belief that the
-apparition he had witnessed was supernatural; and the precise similarity
-of the apparition professed to have been seen by M. Oeder, to that seen
-by M. Hoefer on that and the preceding night, would lead to the
-suspicion that in the former gentleman it was a trick of the imagination
-alone,--a suspicion confirmed by the subsequent progress of the tale.
-
-Professor Oeder brooded upon the apparition he had witnessed, and, it is
-important to mark, made every endeavour for some time to obtain a second
-sight of it, but failed, until wearied out with his fruitless research,
-he ceased to hunt after it. Fourteen days afterwards, he states that he
-was suddenly and rudely awakened "by some external motion" (which is
-evidently an after-conclusion derived from what followed), and saw the
-apparition of Doerien standing by the clothes-press.
-
-In other words, he awoke suddenly out of a troubled sleep, and in the
-transition state between sleeping and waking, in which the mental images
-are as bright and defined as in dreams, the subject which had occupied
-his mind so much of late was presented before him in a visible form. As
-it not unfrequently happens when a dream has made a powerful impression
-on the mind, it is repeated again, so on the following night M. Oeder's
-hallucination occurred, but with the addition of a slight creaking noise
-of the clothes-press door.
-
-Oeder was now fully convinced of the supernatural character of his
-visitant, and when the spectre again appeared to him, which was after a
-period of eight days, he having adopted the opinion at that period very
-prevalent, of troubled spirits, proceeded to inquire as to the cause of
-its visitations; and noticing a white tobacco-pipe in the spirit's
-mouth, and _knowing_ that the deceased Doerien had "left some debts to
-the amount of a few dollars," he asked, "Are you perhaps owing for
-tobacco?" whereupon the spirit disappeared. Here then we find an
-hallucination, either in the dreaming or waking state, presenting the
-precise similitude of the Professor's opinions and conceptions
-respecting the possible cause of the spectre.
-
-The following night, when the spectre appeared again, a friend was with
-Oeder, but this friend saw "nothing further than something white,"--no
-very extraordinary sight in a room which had white walls, and was not
-perfectly dark.
-
-From this time Oeder used a night-lamp, and the spectre no more
-appeared, but by certain sensations and noises he knew it was in the
-apartment.
-
-The invisibility of the spectre, when the light was present, would
-indicate that a sensation of light excited in the eye by a disordered
-state of the head, such as we have fully dwelt upon in a previous part
-of the work, played an important part of the hallucination; and the
-disturbed sleep for so many nights, and uneasy sensations, point to a
-circumstance which we have not yet alluded to, that the Professor's
-health was not in good condition,--the probable cause of the whole
-series of hallucinations.
-
-The uneasy sensations ceased, the light was dispensed with, the spectre
-again came, but it was darker, and contained a new sign in its hand,
-which, by following out a similar course of reasoning as upon the
-tobacco-pipe, and by long ruminating and inquiring, the Professor
-puzzled out to signify some paintings belonging to a magic lantern which
-Doerien had received on trial before his death, and which had not been
-returned. They were sought up, sent to their rightful owner, and the
-apparition vanished to return no more.
-
-It is to be remembered that this story, like most others of a similar
-nature, has been written under a full belief of the supernatural
-character of the apparitions, and it has received a colouring
-accordingly; and our comments suffice to show that no care, no attempt,
-has been made by the ghost-seer, to ascertain how much the apparitions
-might depend upon some illusion or hallucinations connected with his
-bodily health. The progress of the tale further shows that the
-apparitions occurred, in both M. Hoefer as well as Professor Oeder's
-case, in connection with symptoms of disordered health, and that they
-added nothing to what these gentlemen knew, or could work out, as M.
-Oeder did, by his own reason and judgment; in short, that they were
-simple images of ideas they already possessed or arrived at from the
-information they obtained.
-
-Other sources of error in the judgment could be pointed out, and other
-causes of illusion and hallucination in the above tale, but we have
-written sufficient to show its worthlessness.
-
-One of the most formidable objections to the majority of ghost-stories
-of this nature is the insufficiency of the authority upon which they are
-given. In many instances we cannot trace them satisfactorily to their
-origin; in others, we have received them after they have passed through
-the hands of several persons; and in still more (as in the tales we have
-just analysed) there is intrinsic evidence that no endeavour has been
-made to obviate or elicit the sources of fallacy to which the ghost-seer
-has been exposed, and diminish as much as possible the chances of error.
-
-The story of the "Last Hours of Lord Lyttleton" is a singularly
-interesting example of a ghost-story, based upon insufficient authority,
-and probably also upon a trivial circumstance, receiving almost
-universal credence; and it shows, moreover, how readily the
-superstitious feelings of the listeners will lead them to receive
-without due examination, tales which in themselves may be utterly void
-of satisfactory foundation; and induce them to retail subsequently an
-account which has probably received its precision and colouring from
-their imaginations alone.
-
-Oft as the story has been told, we are necessitated again to quote it in
-part, in order to show more fully the nature of the authority upon
-which it depends.
-
-A gentleman, who was on a visit to Lord Lyttleton, writes:--
-
-"I was at Pitt Place, Epsom, when Lord Lyttleton died; Lord Fortescue,
-Lady Flood, and the two Miss Amphletts, were also present. Lord
-Lyttleton had not long been returned from Ireland, and frequently had
-been seized with suffocating fits; he was attacked several times by them
-in the course of the preceding month, while he was at his house in Hill
-Street, Berkeley Square. It happened that he dreamt, three days before
-his death, that he saw a fluttering bird; and afterwards, that a woman
-appeared to him in white apparel, and said to him, 'Prepare to die, you
-will not exist three days.' His Lordship was much alarmed, and called to
-a servant from a closet adjoining, who found him much agitated, and in a
-profuse perspiration: the circumstance had a considerable effect all the
-next day on his Lordship's spirits. On the third day, while his Lordship
-was at breakfast with the above personages, he said, 'If I live over
-to-night, I shall have jockied the ghost, for this is the third day.'
-The whole party presently set off for Pitt Place, where they had not
-long arrived before his Lordship was visited by one of his accustomed
-fits; after a short interval, he recovered. He dined at five o'clock
-that day, and went to bed at eleven, when his servant was about to give
-him rhubarb and mint-water; but his Lordship perceiving him stir it with
-a tooth-pick, called him a slovenly dog, and bade him go and fetch a
-tea-spoon; but on the man's return, he found his master in a fit, and
-the pillow being placed high, his chin bore hard upon his neck, when the
-servant, instead of relieving his Lordship on the instant from his
-perilous situation, ran in his fright and called out for help, but on
-his return he found his Lordship dead."
-
-The circumstances attending the apparition, as related by Lord
-Lyttleton, according to the statement of a relative of Lady Lyttleton's,
-were as follows:
-
-"Two nights before, on his retiring to bed, after his servant was
-dismissed and his light extinguished, he had heard a noise resembling
-the fluttering of a dove at his chamber window. This attracted his
-attention to the spot; when, looking in the direction of the sound, he
-saw the figure of an unhappy female whom he had seduced and deserted,
-and who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence,
-standing in the aperture of the window from which the fluttering sound
-had proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed, the room was
-preternaturally light, the objects of the chamber were distinctly
-visible; raising her head and pointing to a dial which stood on the
-mantel-piece of the chimney, the figure, with a severe solemnity of
-voice and manner, announced to the appalled and conscience-stricken man
-that, at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation, his life
-and his sins would be concluded, and nothing but their punishment
-remain, if he availed himself not of the warning to repentance which he
-had received. The eye of Lord Lyttleton glanced upon the dial, the hand
-was upon the stroke of twelve; again the apartment was involved in total
-darkness, the warning spirit disappeared, and bore away at her departure
-all the lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit, ready flow of wit,
-and vivacity of manner, which had formerly been the pride and ornament
-of the unhappy being to whom she had delivered her tremendous summons."
-
-From a passage in the Memoirs of Sir Nathanial Wraxall, it would seem
-that the sole authority for the above story was his Lordship's
-_valet-de-chambre_, for he writes:--
-
-"Dining at Pitt Place, about four years after the death of Lord
-Lyttleton, in the year 1783, I had the curiosity to visit the
-bedchamber, where the casement-window, at which Lord Lyttleton asserted
-the dove appeared to flutter, was pointed out to me; and at his
-stepmother's, the Dowager Lady Lyttleton's, in Portugal Street,
-Grosvenor Square, I have frequently seen a painting, which she herself
-executed, in 1780, expressly to commemorate the event; it hung in a
-conspicuous part of her drawing-room. There the dove appears at the
-window, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the foot of
-the bed, announcing to Lord Lyttleton his dissolution. Every part of the
-picture was faithfully designed, _after the description given to her by
-the valet-de-chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all
-the circumstances_."
-
-In addition it would appear, according to Lord Fortescue, that the only
-foundation upon which this story rests, is as follows:--
-
-"I heard Lord Fortescue once say," writes a friend of Sir Walter Scott,
-"that he was in the house with him (Lord Lyttleton) at the time of the
-supposed visitation, and he mentioned the following circumstances as the
-only foundation for the extraordinary superstructure at which the world
-has wondered:--A woman of the party had one day lost a favourite bird,
-and all the men tried to recover it for her. Soon after, on assembling
-at breakfast, Lord Lyttleton complained of having passed a very bad
-night, and having been worried in his dreams by a repetition of the
-chase of the lady's bird. His death followed, as stated in the
-story."[69]
-
-It would seem highly probable, therefore, that this story has been
-framed much after the same fashion as that of the "three black crows,"
-and the singular differences which we find in the versions we have
-given, fully confirm this view.
-
-Connected with the foregoing story is another of the apparition of Lord
-Lyttleton, on the night of his death, to Miles Peter Andrews, one of his
-most intimate friends. This apparition occurred at Dartford Mills, where
-Mr. Andrews was then staying, and doubtless, in its origin and mode of
-development, the story is in every respect similar to that of Lord
-Lyttleton's.
-
-The March number of "_Household Words_,"[70] for 1853, contains a
-ghost-story which exhibits another form of the belief, differing from
-those which we have already dwelt upon, and it is interesting from its
-comparatively recent occurrence, and from its having to a certain extent
-received the confirmation of a law-court.
-
-In the colony of New South Wales, at a place called Penrith, distant
-from Sydney about thirty-seven miles, lived a farmer named Fisher. He
-was unmarried, about forty-five years old, and his lands and stock were
-worth not less than L4000. Suddenly Fisher disappeared, and a neighbour,
-named Smith, gave out that he had gone to England for two or three
-years, and produced a written document authorizing him to act as his
-agent during his absence. As Fisher was an eccentric man, this sudden
-departure did not create much surprise, and it was declared to be
-"exactly like him."
-
-About six months after Fisher's disappearance, an old man called Ben
-Weir, who had a small farm near Penrith, and who always drove his own
-cart to market, was returning from Sydney one night, when he beheld,
-seated on a rail which bounded the road--Fisher. _The night was very
-dark, and the distance of the fence from the middle of the road was at
-least twelve yards._ Weir, nevertheless, saw Fisher's figure seated on
-the rail. He pulled his old mare up, and called out, "Fisher, is that
-you?" No answer was returned, but there, still on the rail, sat the form
-of the man with whom he had been on the most intimate terms. Weir, who
-was not drunk, though he had had several glasses of strong liquor,
-jumped off his cart, and approached the rail. To his surprise, the form
-vanished.
-
-Weir noticed that the ghost was marked by "a cruel gash" on the
-forehead, and that there was the appearance of fresh blood about it;
-and before leaving the spot, he marked it by breaking several branches
-of a sapling close by.
-
-On returning home he told his story to his wife, who, however, told him
-that he was drunk, and ridiculed him.
-
-On the following Thursday night, when old Ben was returning from
-market,--again in his cart,--he saw seated upon the same rail, the
-identical apparition. He had purposely abstained from drinking that day,
-and was in the full possession of all his senses.
-
-Weir again told his wife of the apparition, to be again ridiculed by
-her, and he remarked, "Smith is a bad un! Do you think Fisher would ever
-have left this country without coming to bid you and me good-bye?"
-
-The next morning Ben waited on a Mr. Grafton, a justice of the peace,
-who lived near to him, and told his tale. The magistrate was at first
-disposed to treat the account lightly, but after consideration, he
-summoned one of the aboriginal natives, and at sunrise met Weir at the
-place where the apparition had occurred, and which was sufficiently
-marked by the dead and broken branches of the sapling.
-
-The rail was found to be stained in several places, and the native,
-without any previous intimation of the object of the search, was
-directed to examine them, and he shortly pronounced them to be "_white
-man's blood_," and searching about, he pointed out a spot whereon a body
-had been laid. "Not a single shower of rain had fallen for several
-months previously,--not sufficient to lay even the dust upon the roads.
-Notwithstanding this, however, the native succeeded in tracking the
-footsteps of one man to the unfrequented side of a pond at some
-distance. He gave it as his opinion that another man had been dragged
-thither. The savage walked round and round the pond, eagerly examining
-its borders, and the sedges and weeds springing up around it. At first
-he seemed baffled,--no clue had been washed ashore to show that anything
-unusual had been sunk in the pond; but having finished this examination,
-he laid himself down on his face, and looked keenly along the surface of
-the smooth and stagnant water. Presently he jumped up, uttered a cry
-peculiar to the natives when gratified by finding some long-sought
-object, clapped his hands, and pointing to the middle of the pond, to
-where the decomposition of some sunken substance had produced a slimy
-coating streaked with prismatic colours, he exclaimed, '_White man's
-fat!_' The pond was immediately searched; and, below the spot indicated,
-the remains of a body were discovered. A large stone and a rotted silk
-handkerchief were found near the body; these had been used to sink it."
-
-By the teeth, and buttons upon the waistcoat, the body was identified as
-that of Fisher. Smith was arrested, and, upon this evidence, tried
-before the late Sir Francis Forbes, found guilty, sentenced to death,
-and hung; but previous to the execution, "he confessed that he, and he
-alone, committed the murder, and that it was upon the very rail where
-Weir swore that he had seen Fisher's ghost sitting, and that he had
-knocked out Fisher's brains with a tomahawk."
-
-We quote this story as an interesting example of one of the best and
-most consistent of the tales of this kind, although it is probable that
-a more thorough investigation of the circumstances connected with it,
-would show an origin of a nature similar to that of the "Last Hours of
-Lord Lyttleton."
-
-Several statements in the story require confirmation, and throw doubt
-upon the whole.
-
-The assertion that Weir, on a "very dark" night, saw seated upon a rail,
-at a distance of _twelve yards_, a resemblance of Fisher which he took
-to be real, and was not aware of the actual nature of the appearance
-until he advanced towards it, is a statement too improbable to be
-worthy of credence unless supported by other and less objectionable
-evidence; and notwithstanding the extraordinary degree to which the
-visual and other senses of the aboriginal natives are, as we are aware,
-often developed, yet that they will enable them to state that an old
-blood-stain is produced by the blood of a white man, or that an
-iridescent scum floating at a distance on water is produced by the fat
-of the white man, are statements which cannot be admitted without strong
-confirmatory evidence.
-
-It not unfrequently happens that dreams appear to foreshadow events, the
-occurrence of which could not be anticipated by the reasoning faculties.
-Many of the instances recorded of this kind are after-conclusions
-founded upon imperfectly remembered dreams, and are consequently
-worthless. Such, for example, is the story stated by Mrs. Crowe of a
-gentleman "who has several times been conscious on awaking that he had
-been conversing with some one, whom he has been subsequently startled to
-hear had died at that period."[71]
-
-Other dreams have received a verification from the natural results of
-the dreamer's superstitious folly.
-
-Mrs. Crowe has quoted the following example from a continental
-newspaper:--
-
-"A letter from Hamburg contains the following curious story relative to
-the verification of a dream. It appears that a locksmith's apprentice,
-one morning lately, informed his master (Claude Soller), that on the
-previous night he dreamt that he had been assassinated on the road to
-Bergsdorff, a little town at about two hours' distance from Hamburg. The
-master laughed at the young man's credulity, and to prove that he
-himself had little faith in dreams, insisted upon sending him to
-Bergsdorff, with 140 rix dollars (L22 8_s._), which he owed to his
-brother-in-law who resided in the town. The apprentice, after in vain
-imploring his master to change his intention, was compelled to set out
-at about eleven o'clock. On arriving at the village of Billwaerder,
-about halfway between Hamburg and Bergsdorff, he recollected his dream
-with terror but perceiving the baillie of the village at a little
-distance talking to some of his workmen, he accosted him, and acquainted
-him with his singular dream, at the same time requesting, that as he had
-money about his person, one of his workmen might be allowed to accompany
-him for protection across a small wood which lay in his way. The baillie
-smiled, and in obedience to his orders, one of the men set out with his
-young apprentice. The next day the corpse of the latter was conveyed by
-some peasants to the baillie, along with a reaping-hook, which had been
-found by his side, and with which the throat of the murdered youth had
-been cut. The baillie immediately recognized the instrument as one which
-he had on the previous day given to the workman who had served as the
-apprentice's guide, for the purpose of pruning some willows. The workman
-was apprehended, and on being confronted with the body of his victim,
-made a full confession of his crime, adding that the recital of the
-dream had alone prompted him to commit the horrible act. The assassin,
-who is thirty-five years of age, was a native of Billwaerder, and
-previously to the perpetration of the murder, had always borne an
-irreproachable character."
-
-It is well known that sensations from without will not only frequently
-excite dreaming, but will also often determine the character of the
-dreams. The following story is evidently an example of a dream of this
-nature.
-
-On the 30th July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was discovered in
-a field at Littleport, in the Isle of Ely. There could be little doubt
-that the woman had been murdered; and at the adjourned inquest held
-before Mr. W. Marshall, one of the coroners for the isle, on the 29th
-August, the following extraordinary evidence was given:--
-
-"James Jessop, an elderly respectable-looking labourer, with a face of
-the most perfect stolidity, and who possessed a most curiously shaped
-skull, broad and flat at the top, and projecting greatly on each side
-over the ears, deposed: 'I live about a furlong and a half from where
-the body was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I had never
-seen her before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I
-dreamt three successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing
-from near the bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place
-where the body was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry, it
-woke me. I fell asleep again, and dreamt the same again. I then woke
-again, and told my wife. I could not rest; but I dreamt it again after
-that. I got up between four or five o'clock, but I did not go down to
-the Close, the wheat and barley in which have since been cut. I dreamt
-once, about twenty years ago, that I saw a woman hanging in a barn, and
-on passing the next morning the barn which appeared to me in my dream, I
-entered, and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down just in
-time to save her life. I never told my wife I heard any cries of murder,
-but I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body on the
-Saturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a day
-or two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream, and the trees
-thereon, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the wind
-lay from that spot to my house."
-
-"Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related
-his dreams to her, on the evening of the day the body was found."[72]
-
-It is highly probable, that in this instance, the screams of the
-unfortunate woman, borne upon the wind, were the exciting cause of the
-dreams, and the direction from which the sound came would be sufficient
-to call up the associated idea of the fields in which the murder
-occurred. The powerful impression made upon the mind of the man,
-according to his own account, will sufficiently account for the
-repetition of the dreams; and the statement that the particulars of the
-dream were not related until after the finding of the body, must induce
-a little caution to the reception of the above version as an actual
-detail of the facts of the case. This remark applies also to the dream
-interpolated in the evidence.
-
-Among the most vivid and connected dreams, are those excited by a
-dominant or absorbing train of thought, which has engaged the mind
-during waking hours, or by powerful or protracted emotion.
-
-M. Boismont relates a dream, which he conceives is to be classed among
-the inexplicable phenomena of this nature, but which, with all deference
-to that distinguished psychologist, is rather to be placed in the
-category we have just named.
-
-Miss R., gifted with an excellent judgment, and religious without
-bigotry, lived, before her marriage, at the house of an uncle, a
-celebrated physician, and a member of the Institute. She was at that
-time separated from her mother, who had been attacked, in the country,
-by a severe illness. One night, this young lady dreamed that she saw her
-mother before her, pale, disfigured, about to render the last breath,
-and showing particularly lively grief at not being surrounded by her
-children, of whom one, cure of one of the parishes in Paris, had
-emigrated to Spain, and the other was in Paris. Presently she heard her
-call upon her many times by her Christian name; whereupon the persons
-who surrounded her mother, supposing that she called her grand-daughter,
-who bore the same name, went to seek her in the neighbouring room, but a
-sign from the invalid apprised them that it was not the grand-daughter,
-but the daughter who resided in Paris, that she wished to see. Her
-appearance expressed the grief she felt at her absence; suddenly her
-features changed, became covered with the paleness of death, and she
-fell without life on the bed.
-
-The lady had died during that night; and it was subsequently
-ascertained, that the circumstances delineated in the dream, simulated
-those which had occurred by the death-bed.
-
-What are the circumstances of this case?--A mother dangerously ill--her
-children away from home. What more likely to occur to a child cognisant
-of these facts, than the train of thought which engendered and caused
-this dream? The events attending a death-bed scene under such
-circumstances were all but inevitable, and we cannot, justifiably,
-consider this case in any other light than that of a "simple
-coincidence."
-
-Many physiologists and metaphysicians are of opinion, and there is much
-ground for the belief, that every sensation which has been actually
-experienced, may become the subject of perception at some future time,
-although, in the interval, all trace of its existence may have been
-lost, and it is beyond the power of the will to recall.
-
-The phenomena upon which this opinion has been principally founded, have
-been observed in the delirium of certain febrile diseases, and in
-dreaming.
-
-There is a case on record of a woman, who, during the delirium of fever,
-repeated long passages in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongues. When in
-health she was perfectly ignorant of these languages; and it was
-ascertained, that the sentences she spoke in her delirium, were correct
-passages from known writers in them. It was subsequently discovered,
-that at one period of her life she had lived with a clergyman who was in
-the habit of walking up and down the passage, reading aloud from Hebrew
-and Chaldaic works, and it was the sensations thus derived, and retained
-unconsciously to herself, which had been revivified by the changes
-induced during the progress of the fever.
-
-A case is also recorded by Dr. Abercrombie, in which a servant-girl who
-had manifested no "ear" for, or pleasure in music, during sleep was
-heard to imitate the sounds of a violin, even the tuning, and to perform
-most complicated and difficult pieces of music. This girl had slept for
-some time, and much to her annoyance, in a room adjoining that occupied
-by an itinerant violinist who was somewhat of an enthusiast in his art,
-and was accustomed to spend a portion of the night in practising
-difficult pieces of music, often preventing this female from sleeping.
-The music she had thus heard, registered in the mind, so to speak, was
-repeated, unconsciously, during the disturbed action of the brain
-consequent upon imperfect health and dreaming.
-
-The principle which has been deduced from these and similar cases, gives
-a ready explanation to numerous stories which it has been customary to
-regard as coming within the pale of the supernatural.
-
-Those instances in which, during a dream, the places in which documents
-of value, which had been lost or misplaced, have been revealed, are
-examples of revivified sensations which had been lost sight of, and of
-which the return had been determined by the protracted exercise of the
-mind to recover the missing traces.
-
-Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to "The Antiquary," relates the following
-highly interesting illustration:--
-
-"Mr. R----d, of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of
-Gala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated
-arrears of tiend (or tithe), for which he was said to be indebted to a
-noble family, the titulars (lay improprietors of the tithes). Mr. R----d
-was strongly impressed with the belief, that his father had, by a form
-of process peculiar to the law of Scotland, purchased those lands from
-the titular; and therefore, that the present prosecution was
-groundless. But after an industrious search among his father's papers,
-an investigation of the public records, and a careful inquiry among all
-persons who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence
-could be recovered to support his defence. The period was now near at
-hand, when he conceived the loss of the lawsuit to be inevitable, and he
-had formed his determination to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the
-best bargain he could in the way of compromise. He even went to bed with
-this resolution, and with all the circumstances of the case floating
-upon his mind, had a dream to the following purpose.
-
-"His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to him, he thought,
-and asked him why he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams men are not
-supprised at such apparitions. Mr. R----d thought he informed his father
-of the cause of his distress, adding, that the payment of a considerable
-sum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he had a strong
-consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to acquire any
-evidence in support of his belief. 'You are right, my son,' replied the
-paternal shade; 'I did acquire right to these tiends, for payment of
-which you are now prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction
-are in the hands of Mr. ----, a writer (or attorney), who is now retired
-from professional business, and resides at Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He
-was a person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason,
-but who never, on any other occasion, transacted business on my account.
-It is very possible,' pursued the vision, 'that Mr. ---- may have
-forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may call it
-to his recollection by this token,--that when I came to pay his account,
-there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of gold, and
-that we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern.'
-
-"Mr. R----d awoke in the morning with all the words of the vision
-imprinted on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across the
-country to Inveresk, instead of going straight to Edinburgh. When he
-came there, he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very
-old man; without saying anything of the vision, he inquired whether he
-remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased father. The
-old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to his
-recollection, but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold, the whole
-returned upon his memory; he made an immediate search for the papers,
-and recovered them; so that Mr. R----d carried to Edinburgh the
-documents necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of
-losing.
-
-"The author's theory is, that the dream was only the recapitulation of
-information which Mr. R----d had really received from his father while
-in life, but which at first he merely recalled as a general impression
-that the claim was settled. It is not uncommon for persons to recover,
-during sleep, the thread of ideas which they have lost during waking
-hours.
-
-"It may be added, that this remarkable circumstance was attended with
-bad consequences to Mr. R----d, whose health and spirits were afterwards
-impaired by the attention which he thought himself obliged to pay to the
-visions of the night."
-
-An instance which is related by Mrs. Crowe, receives its explanation
-also from this source.
-
-"A case occurred not many years since in the North of Scotland, where a
-murder having been committed, a man came forward, saying, that he had
-dreamt that the pack of the murdered pedlar was hidden in a certain
-spot; whereon, a search being made, it was actually found. They at first
-concluded he was himself the assassin, but the real criminal was
-afterwards discovered; and it being asserted, though I have been told
-erroneously, that the two men had passed some time together, since the
-murder, in a state of intoxication, it was decided that the crime, and
-the place of concealment, had been communicated to the pretended
-dreamer," &c.
-
-If the statement that the murderer and the dreamer had spent some time
-together in a state of intoxication, after the murder had been
-committed, be correct, the supposition that the murder had been
-communicated to the dreamer, forgotten when the state of intoxication
-had passed away, but subsequently recalled during the progress of a
-dream, affords an easy and natural explanation of the whole matter.
-
-As an example of that class of dreams which are inexplicable, but which,
-unfortunately, are of little weight from the imperfect authority upon
-which they are given, and from the fact that they bear intrinsic
-evidence of having been received without inquiry into the circumstances
-under which they occurred, and the fallacies to which the dreamer and
-subsequent details had been exposed, we quote the following from the
-works of the Rev. John Wesley.[73]
-
-"Among the congregation at Ambleside were a gentleman and his wife, who
-gave me a remarkable relation. She said she had often heard her brother
-relate, what an intimate acquaintance had told her, that her husband was
-concerned in the rebellion of 1745. He was tried at Carlisle, and found
-guilty. The evening before he was to die, sitting and musing in her
-chair, she fell fast asleep. She dreamed one came to her and said, 'Go
-to such a part of the wall, and among the loose stones you will find a
-key, which you must carry to your husband.' She waked; but thinking it a
-common dream, paid no attention to it. Presently she fell asleep again,
-and dreamed the very same dream. She started up, put on her cloak and
-hat, and went to that part of the wall, and among the loose stones found
-a key. Having, with some difficulty, procured admission into the gaol,
-she gave this to her husband. It opened the door of his cell, as well as
-the lock of the prison door.(!) So at midnight he escaped for life."
-
-It is not uncommon to find persons asserting that they have had dreams
-which have prefigured events, often trivial, in the common run of life.
-
-Probably, without exception, these are irrelevant conclusions: the
-affirmative instances being marked, to the total neglect of the
-negative. For example:--A lady with whom we are acquainted was
-accustomed to relate a dream which she had had, in which she thought
-that she was in the nursery watching one of her children play, when
-suddenly it tripped over the fender, and fell against the ribs of the
-grate, and before it could be extricated, the face was severely burned.
-On the following day the child she had seen in her dream, happened to
-have an accident in the nursery very similar to that she had seen occur
-in the dream.
-
-On inquiry, however, it proved that dreams of this nature respecting her
-children were quite usual to the lady, and that at one time or other she
-had witnessed while sleeping almost all those accidents occur to which
-infant life is exposed. This was the only instance in which any one had
-apparently come true; and _until_ this had occurred she had very
-properly and correctly attributed her dreams to the anxiety she
-naturally entertained respecting her young family.
-
-Of all the divisions, or rather branches, of supernatural lore, none has
-obtained more universal credence, none has been more persistent, than
-that of _presentiments_.
-
-A history of _presentiments_ would form a curious, if not very
-instructive work, and it alone would almost suffice to indicate the
-absurdity of the belief in its main features.
-
-We have instances of _high spirits_ foreboding evil; _low spirits_
-foreboding the same; _sudden illness_ shadowing forth calamity, _not_
-to the person affected, but to a companion; _sudden dullness of sight_
-presaging death--indeed a collection of these instances would show that
-every obscure sensation, every variation of emotion or passion,
-preceding an evil occurrence, has at one time or other been regarded as
-a presentiment of that evil.
-
-Jung-Stilling has so well described the nature of the faculty of
-presentiment, and the circumstances under which it is most commonly
-developed, that we cannot do better than quote the words of that
-celebrated writer on this subject. He writes:--
-
-"As the developed faculty of presentiment is a capability of
-experiencing the arrangements which are made in the world of spirits,
-and executed in the visible world, second-sight certainly belongs also
-under this head. And as those who possess this capability are generally
-simple people, it again follows from hence, that a developed faculty of
-presentiment is by no means a quality which belongs solely to devout and
-pious people, or that it should be regarded as a divine gift; I take it,
-on the contrary, for a disease of the soul, which we ought rather to
-endeavour to heal than promote.
-
-"He that has a natural disposition for it, and then fixes his
-imagination long and intensely, and therefore _magically_, upon a
-certain object, may at length be able, with respect to this object, to
-foresee things which have reference to it. Grave-diggers, nurses, and
-such as are employed to undress and shroud the dead, watchmen, and the
-like, are accustomed to be continually reflecting on objects which stand
-in connexion with death and interment; what wonder, therefore, if their
-faculty of presentiment at length develop itself on these subjects; and
-I am inclined to maintain, that it may be promoted by drinking ardent
-spirits."[74]
-
-In addition to this, Mrs. Crowe remarks:--
-
-"It is worthy of observation that idiots often possess some gleams of
-this faculty of second-sight or presentiment; and it is probably on this
-account that they are in some countries held sacred. Presentiment, which
-I think may very probably be merely the vague and imperfect recollection
-of what we _knew_ in our sleep, is often observed in drunken
-people."[75]
-
-Cicero,[76] after relating the myth of the apparition of Tages, in
-Etruria, adds:--
-
-"But I should indeed be more foolish than they who credit these things,
-if I seriously argue the matter."
-
-Equally foolish it would be for us to attempt to show the absurdity of
-the foregoing opinions; and we fear it would be a bootless and inutile
-task to argue with those who regard the statements of the studiously and
-transcendentally superstitious and ignorant, the incoherence of the
-drunkard, the depressed feelings experienced after a debauch, or the
-vague gleams of understanding in an idiot, as evidences of communication
-with the spirit-world.
-
-We know two ladies gifted with the faculty of ordinary presentiment, and
-who boast (if we may use that expression) that they are members of a
-family of which no scion has died for years without some supernatural
-indication of its occurrence. We well remember _after_ the information
-had been received by them of the death of the last male representative
-of one branch of the family, that they told how on the night of the
-death they happened to be awake in bed, when certain strange noises were
-heard about the bed-curtains, "as of a mouse" scrambling upon them, and
-immediately afterwards a blow was struck upon a large chest of drawers
-which stood opposite the foot of the bed, and the sound was as though
-the chest had been broken to pieces. We did not draw the inference which
-the ladies did from this circumstance, namely, that it was an intimation
-of the death of their relative, for, unfortunately for the romantic view
-of the question, we knew that such nightly occurrences as these were
-somewhat common with them, and that a simple and comfortable house in a
-densely-populated manufacturing district had been peopled by them with
-nightly noises and sounds, audible alone to them, to such an extent,
-that the adaptation of a presentiment to any particular occurrence was a
-matter of little difficulty.
-
-We also well remember, some years ago, when an infant brother lay dying,
-that our mother and the nurse were startled in the dead of night by a
-strange fluttering at the window. On the curtain being raised, the light
-of the candle showed a bird fluttering and beating against one of the
-panes. Was it an omen of death, and an emblem of the happy transition of
-the baby-spirit to another world? A few moments' examination soon showed
-that it was no spectre bird, but apparently a robin, which had been
-disturbed in the darkness, and was attracted by the light, and no sooner
-was the window darkened than it flew away.
-
-Three days ago, we saw a woman who had been for some months in a
-delicate state of health. "Sir," she said, "what I have most to complain
-of is, that I always feel as if some great evil was about to befall
-myself or family." This feeling is common, in a greater or less degree,
-to that depressed state of the system preceding attacks of febrile and
-many other diseases, and is often marked in hypocondriacism. Who, when
-suffering from slight indisposition, has not often felt this feeling of
-foreboding, of which the lowest grade is expressed in the ordinary
-phrase, low-spirits? This feeling, and thus derived, has been the
-substratum for those vague, so-called presentiments, which constitute
-the great bulk of instances in that doctrine; and the fallacy has been,
-that the mind, more readily affected by affirmative than by negative
-examples, has held to the former and neglected the latter, and deluded
-itself by an imperfect and too contracted view of the facts.
-
-Boismont, the most recent writer on the doctrine of presentiments,
-writes:--
-
-"In the greatest number of cases, they are not realised; in those where
-the event justifies them, they are only a reminiscence--a simple
-coincidence;--we admit all this. It is not the less true, that an
-unforeseen event, a strong prepossession, great restlessness, a sudden
-change in habits, any fear whatsoever, gives rise, at the moment, to
-presentiments which it would be difficult to deny by systematic
-credulity."[77]
-
-Let us examine one or two of the cases which would lead so distinguished
-a psychologist to give a certain degree of credence to this belief.
-
-The Prince de Radzvil had adopted one of his nieces, an orphan. He
-inhabited a chateau in Gallicia, and this chateau had a large hall which
-separated the apartments of the Prince from those occupied by the
-children, and in order to communicate between the two suites of rooms it
-was necessary either to traverse the hall or the court.
-
-The young Agnes, aged from five to six years, always uttered piercing
-cries every time that they caused her to traverse the great hall. She
-indicated, with an expression of terror, an enormous picture which was
-suspended above the door, and which represented the Sibyl of Cuma. They
-endeavoured for a length of time to vanquish this repugnance, which they
-attributed to infant obstinacy; but as serious accidents happened from
-this violence, they ended by permitting her no more to enter the hall;
-and the young girl loved better, during ten or twelve years, to traverse
-in rain, snow, or cold, the vast court or the gardens, rather than pass
-under this door, which made so disagreeable an impression upon her.
-
-The young Countess being of age to marry, and already betrothed, there
-was a reception at the chateau. The company, in the evening, wished to
-have some noisy game; they went into the great hall, where, moreover,
-the nuptial ball would be held. Animated by the young people who
-surrounded her, Agnes did not hesitate to accompany the guests. But
-scarcely had she crossed the threshold of the door, than she wished to
-draw back, and she avowed her fear. They had caused her to pass first,
-according to custom, her betrothed, friends, and uncle, laughing at her
-childishness, closing the doors upon her. But the poor young girl wished
-to resist; and in shaking and beating the door, caused the picture to
-fall which was above it. This enormous mass bruised the head by one of
-its corners, and killed her immediately.
-
-The scene of this story is an old castle in Gallicia, doubtless, like
-all similar places, having attached to it many strange and wonderful
-legends, and many servants fully imbued with these legends, and with all
-the folk-lore which a district like Gallicia contains. We have no
-information as to what amount of this lore the nurse indoctrinated into
-the child, or what use she may have made of the painting in order to
-terrify her little charge into submission from time to time. That an
-inquiry, special and distinct, upon this point was necessary ere the
-main point of the story could be substantiated, is evident; for the
-establishment of this influence would at once destroy the presentiment
-sought to be established; and to suppose that the child was brought up
-without its mind being so poisoned, is to suppose a phenomenon uniquely
-rare. Again, the painting was a representation of the Sibyl of Cuma. In
-her early days, says classic history, this Sibyl was lovely; but after
-her short-sighted bargain with Apollo for a life as long in years as the
-number of grains of sand she held in her hand, forgetting to add the
-request for perennial beauty also, she shortly became old and decrepid,
-her form decayed, her countenance melancholy and pale, and her looks
-haggard; and it is as thus described, that we are generally accustomed
-to see her pourtrayed. But we are left in the dark as to whether the
-painting in question represented the Sibyl in early youth, in her
-decrepid maturity, or at the moment of inspiration, when, according to
-the AEneis (Book vi),--
-
-    "Her colour changed; her face was not the same,
-    And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.
-    Her hair stood up, convulsive rage possess'd
-    Her trembling limbs, and heaved her labouring breast.
-    Greater than human kind she seem'd to look,
-    And with an accent more than mortal spoke,
-    Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll;
-    When all the god came rushing on her soul."
-
-That the painting must have depicted the Sibyl in one of the two latter
-characters is almost certain, for in any other it would have been
-meaningless; and leaving the question of the extent to which her mind
-might be poisoned by folk-lore, or by the servants making the painting a
-bugbear to her,--leaving this in abeyance, what must the effect of a
-frightful-looking and gigantic picture, staring the child in the face,
-have been upon a young mind? Little doubt need be entertained of the
-feeling of terror with which an infant eye would regard it, and we have
-already shown how such a feeling, being implanted there, would become a
-part and parcel of its nature, and be never subsequently eradicated.
-
-We see this feeling manifested every day in the aversion which some
-individuals manifest to certain animals. From emotions taught during
-childhood and youth, and often lost sight of in mature years, a cat, a
-dog, a rat, a spider, a frog, &c., has become an object of such dread to
-some persons, that even in advanced life the presence of one has caused
-the utmost annoyance and terror.
-
-The powerful and persistent influence of ideas thus associated has been
-clearly and pithily expressed by Locke,[78] and his first instance has
-an immediate bearing upon our subject:--
-
-"The ideas of goblins and sprights have really no more to do with
-darkness than light, yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on
-the mind of a child, and raise them there together, probably he shall
-never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness
-shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they
-shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other."
-
-That the fall of the painting was caused by the vibrations occasioned by
-shaking and beating upon the door beneath it, seems certain; but that
-there was any _presentimental_ connection (if we may so word it) between
-the fall of the painting and the previous dread of it,--any
-foreshadowing in this dread of the subsequent fall and its fatal
-consequences,--there is no satisfactory evidence whatever.
-
-Another example of presentiment, quoted by Boismont, is the following:--
-
-Two French gentlemen, refugees, who resided together in New York on
-terms of great amity, freighted a ship for India. Everything was
-prepared for their departure, and they waited only a favourable wind.
-One of them, B----, of a calm and placid temperament, apparently excited
-by the uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began to manifest a
-degree of restlessness which surprised his companion. One day he entered
-the apartment where his friend was engaged in writing letters for
-Europe, and under the influence of an excitement so great that he had
-difficulty to suppress it, he exclaimed: "Why lose time in writing
-letters?--they will never go to their destination. Come with me and take
-a turn on the Battery. The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps,
-nearer the point of departure than we suppose!" Acceding to the request,
-his friend accompanied him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he was
-astonished at the rapid and excited manner in which B---- walked. On
-reaching the Battery, B---- precipitated his rate of walking still more,
-until they approached the parapet. He spoke in a high and quick tone,
-expressing in florid terms his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he
-arrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend separated from him. "I
-regarded him fixedly," to continue the narrative in the words of the
-narrator; "he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down. 'B----,' I
-cried, 'you intend to kill me, you wish to throw me from this height
-into the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The madman looked me in
-the face with haggard eyes for a moment, but I was careful not to lose
-his glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured some incoherent words,
-and sought to pass by me. I barred the way, extending my arms. After
-looking vaguely right and left, he threw himself on my neck, and melted
-into tears. 'It is true, it is true, my friend! The thought has haunted
-me night and day, as a torch of hell. It was for this end that I brought
-you here; had you been but a foot from the border of the parapet, the
-work had been done.' The demon had abandoned him, his eyes were without
-expression, a foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was passed. I
-reconducted him to the house. Some days of repose, together with
-bleeding and low diet, re-established him completely; and what is still
-more extraordinary, we never more spoke of this event."
-
-Are we, with Boismont, to regard this as an example of "sudden and
-mysterious inspiration?" Would it not have been still more mysterious if
-a minute examination of the countenance of a madman, who was talking
-incoherently near the verge of a precipitous descent, and big with
-intent to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his purpose? We
-think it would, and that there is no evidence here of anything beyond
-the pale of the laws of common observation.
-
-It would be needless to multiply instances of presentiment which have
-carried conviction to the minds of persons less accustomed to analyze
-the operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont, and in whom
-errors of observation are infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless
-there are instances on record which, if the authority upon which they
-are stated be admitted, receive no explanation from natural laws so far
-as we are yet acquainted with them.
-
-One of the best and most striking examples of this kind is given on the
-authority of Mrs. Crowe.
-
-She writes:--
-
-"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which
-occurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when
-lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a
-young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away
-his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table,
-covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The
-president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young
-men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to
-speak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a
-sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India
-was dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I
-am perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this
-conviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The
-young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned."[79]
-
-A singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress
-Josephine, which may fitly be detailed here.
-
-"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "and it
-had early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her
-first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards
-be greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is
-placed beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her
-first husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the
-Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on
-account of his belonging to the nobility; and she herself, who was also
-imprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the
-fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind,
-that while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every
-hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to
-her fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies
-of the bed-chamber,--a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one
-of their number."
-
-Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the
-prophecy:--
-
-"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long before Napoleon's
-elevation to the throne, from the late Countess of Bath and the late
-Countess of Ancrum, who were educated in the same convent with
-Josephine, and had repeatedly heard her mention the circumstance in
-early youth."[80]
-
-The most grave of the errors affecting the details of those occurrences
-which have been supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some
-inexplicable and supernatural connection with certain circumstances
-occurring coincidently with them, has been fully set forth by Lord
-Bacon, in the 46th Aphorism of the "Novum Organum," and to this _dictum_
-nothing needs to be added.
-
-"The human understanding, when any proposition has been once laid down
-(either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it
-affords) forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation,
-and although most cogent and abundant instances may exist to the
-contrary, yet either does not observe, or despises them, or gets rid of
-and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious
-prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.
-It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive
-tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was
-pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by
-an inquiry, "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in
-spite of their vows?" All superstition is much the same, whether it be
-that of astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the like; in
-all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled,
-but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more
-common.... Besides, even in the absence of that eagerness and want of
-thought (which we have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual
-error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by
-affirmatives than negatives, whereas it ought duly and regularly to be
-impartial; nay, in establishing any true axiom, the negative instance is
-the most powerful."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-We have now briefly examined the principal of those phenomena which it
-has been, and in many instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural
-interposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain how far they receive
-explanation from the known laws of action of the senses and reasoning
-faculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion that they mainly
-come within the category of those laws.
-
-Of the exceptions to this conclusion, it is unfortunate that the
-authority upon which they depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the
-details imperfect in many of the most important particulars; and they,
-to use the words of Mrs. Crowe, (whose evidence in this respect is of
-considerable importance), "as they now stand, can have no scientific
-value; they cannot, in short, enter into the region of science at all,
-still less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be led
-to form, cannot be founded on pure induction. We must confine ourselves
-wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we shall
-assuredly founder."[81]
-
-We are not aware that this imperfection of details necessarily
-appertains to facts of this nature, and we simply require the same care
-against error which is expected and is exercised in other departments of
-inquiry; and until the instances presented bear evidence of this, we
-must entertain doubts, and decline to receive them as facts establishing
-such theories as have been endeavoured to be founded upon them.
-
-The great progress of physiology and psychology is almost daily enabling
-us to grapple with sensuous phenomena which have hitherto been obscure;
-and it is never to be lost sight of in researches into the domains of
-the so-called supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of our own
-powers is as yet very imperfect and limited.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR FARADAY'S LETTER ON TABLE MOVING.
-
-_Athenaeum, July 2, 1853, p. 801._
-
-"The object which I had in view in my inquiry was, not to satisfy
-myself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of
-those who had turned tables,--but that I might be enabled to give a
-strong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for it.
-Yet the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the
-inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should adopt
-in any other physical investigation. The parties with whom I have worked
-were very honourable, very clear in their intentions, successful
-table-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the existence
-of a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual. It is with
-me a clear point that the table moves when the parties, though they
-strongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe, that they move it
-by ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table draws their hands;
-that it moves first, and they have to follow it; that sometimes it even
-moves from under their hands. With some, the table will move to the
-right or left, according as they wish or will it; with others, the
-direction of the first move is uncertain;--but all agree that the table
-moves the hands, and not the hands the table. Though I believe the
-parties do not intend to move the table, but obtain the result by a
-quasi-involuntary action, still I had no doubt of the influence of
-expectation upon their minds, and, through that, upon the success or
-failure of their efforts.
-
-"The first point, therefore, was to remove all objections due to
-expectation--having relation to the substances which I might desire to
-use; so, plates of the most different bodies, electrically speaking,
-namely, sand-paper, mill-board, glue, glass, moist clay, tinfoil,
-card-board, gutta percha, vulcanized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a
-bundle, and placed on a table, under the hands of a turner. The table
-turned. Other bundles of other plates were submitted to different
-persons at other times,--and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore,
-these substances may be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither
-during their use, nor at any other times, could the slightest trace of
-electrical or magnetic effects be obtained. At the same trials, it was
-readily ascertained that one person could produce the effect; and that
-the motion was not necessarily circular, but might be in a straight
-line. No form of experiment or mode of observation that I could devise
-gave me the slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No
-attraction or repulsion, or signs of tangential power appeared; nor
-anything which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical
-pressure exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to
-analyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal
-direction; doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A
-soft cement, consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was
-prepared. Four or five pieces of smooth slippery card-board were
-attached one over the other by little pellets of the cement, and the
-lower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table; the edges
-of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil
-line was drawn over the laps, so as to indicate position. The upper
-card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from
-sight. Then the table-turner placed the hands upon the upper card, and
-we waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to offer
-considerable resistence to mechanical motion, and also to retain the
-cards in any new position which they might acquire, and yet weak enough
-to give way slowly to a continued force.
-
-"When at last the tables, cards, and hands, all moved to the left
-together, and so a true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On
-examination, it was easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the
-line, that the hand had moved further than the table, and that the
-latter had lagged behind;--that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper
-card to the left, and that the under cards and the table had followed
-and been dragged by it. In other similar cases, when the table had not
-moved, still the upper card was found to have moved, showing that the
-hand had carried it in the expected direction. It was evident,
-therefore, that the table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor
-had it moved simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things
-under it, behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the
-hand back.
-
-"The next step was, to arrange an index, which should show whether the
-table moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both moved or
-remained at rest together.... Two thin boards, nine and a-half by seven
-inches, were provided; a board, nine by five inches, was glued to the
-middle of the under side of one of these (to be called the table-board),
-so as to raise the edges free from the table; being placed on the
-table, near and parallel to its side, an upright pin was fixed close to
-the further edge of the board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum
-for the indicating lever. Then, four glass rods, seven inches long, and
-a quarter of an inch in diameter, were placed as rollers on different
-parts of this table-board, and the upper board placed on them; the rods
-permitted any required amount of pressure on the boards, with a free
-motion of the upper on the lower to the right and left. At the part
-corresponding to the pin in the lower board, a piece was cut out of the
-upper board, and a pin attached there, which, being bent downwards,
-entered the hole in the end of the short arm of the index lever: this
-part of the lever was of card-board: the indicating prolongation was a
-straight hay-stalk fifteen inches long. In order to restrain the motion
-of the upper board on the lower, two vulcanized rubber rings were passed
-round both, at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst they
-tied the boards together, acted also as springs--and whilst they allowed
-the first, feeblest tendency to motion to be seen by the index, exerted,
-before the upper board had moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power
-in pulling the upper board back from either side, to resist a strong
-lateral action of the hand.
-
-"All being thus arranged, except that the lever was away, the two boards
-were tied together with string running parallel to the vulcanised rubber
-springs, so as to be immoveable in relation to each other. They were
-then placed on the table, and a table-turner sat down to them. The table
-very shortly moved in due order, showing that the apparatus offered no
-impediment to the action. A like apparatus, with metal rollers, produced
-the same result under the hands of another person. The index was now put
-into its place, and the string loosened, so that the springs should come
-into play. It was soon seen with the party that could will the motion in
-either direction (from whom the index was purposely hidden), that the
-hands were gradually creeping up in the direction before agreed upon,
-though the party certainly thought they were pressing downwards only.
-When shown that it was so, they were truly surprised; but when they
-lifted up their hands and immediately saw the index return to its normal
-position, they were convinced. When they looked at the index, and could
-see for themselves whether they were pressing truly downwards, or
-obliquely, so as to produce a resultant in the right or left handed
-direction, then such an effect never took place. Several tried, for a
-long while together, and with the best will in the world, but no motion,
-right or left, of the table or hand, or anything else, occurred.
-
-"I think the apparatus I have described may be useful to many who really
-wish to know the truth of nature, and who would prefer that truth to a
-mistaken conclusion, desired perhaps only because it seems to be new or
-strange. Persons do not know how difficult it is to press directly
-downward, or in any given direction against a fixed obstacle, or even to
-know only whether they are doing so or not, unless they have some
-indicator which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall instruct them;
-and this is more especially the case when the muscles of the fingers and
-hand have been cramped and rendered either tingling or insensible or
-cold by long-continued pressure. If a finger be pressed constantly into
-the corner of a window-frame for ten minutes or more, and then,
-continuing the pressure, the mind be directed to judge whether the force
-at a given moment is all horizontal or all downwards, or how much is in
-one direction and how much in the other, it will find great difficulty
-in deciding, and will, at last, become altogether uncertain,--at least
-such is my case. I know that a similar result occurs with others, for I
-have had two boards arranged, separated, not by rollers, but by plugs of
-vulcanized rubber; and with the vertical index, when a person with his
-hands on the upper board is requested to press only downwards, and the
-index is hidden from his sight, it moves to the right, to the left, to
-him and from him, and in all horizontal directions; so utterly unable is
-he strictly to fulfil his intention without a visible and correcting
-indicator. Now, such is the use of the instrument with the horizontal
-index and rollers; the mind is instructed and the involuntary or
-quasi-involuntary motion is checked in the commencement, and, therefore,
-never rises up to the degree needful to move the table, or even
-permanently the index itself. No one can suppose that looking at the
-index can in any way interfere with the transfer of electricity, or any
-other power, from the hand to the board under it, or to the table. If
-the board tends to move, it may do so; the index does not confine it;
-and if the table tends to move, there is no reason why it should not. If
-both were influenced by any power to move together, they may do so, as
-they did, indeed, when the apparatus was tied, and the mind and muscles
-left unwatched and unchecked."
-
-PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS, LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-
-[1] Locke. Of Human Understanding, B. I, ch. 2.
-
-[2] Cousin. Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne, edit. 1847,
-T. III, p. 269.
-
-[3] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 368.
-
-[4] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 370.
-
-[5] Plato. Politicus. Mitford's Greece, Vol. I, p. 84.
-
-[6] "Vain indeed is the life of all men in whom there is not the true
-knowledge of God: who, from the things which are seen to be good, have
-not been able to conceive aright of that which is goodness itself; nor,
-while they viewed the work, to acknowledge the architect: but have
-thought that either fire, or the wind, the swift air, or the stars in
-their courses, or the vast deep, or the sun and moon, were the deities
-presiding over the world."--_Liber Sapientiae_, ch. 13, v. 1, 2.
-_Translation by Luke Howard, F.R.S._
-
-[7] An interesting illustration of the tendency of mankind in a state of
-savageism to attribute striking phenomena to supernatural agency, and
-deify the means through which they are apparently exhibited, occurred on
-the march of Cortes from Mexico to Honduras. During a deer-hunt, the
-horse which Cortes rode was taken ill. "It did not then die, though it
-would have been better if it had," says the devout but ruthless
-conqueror, parenthetically. A little while afterwards, having been
-courteously received by the Itzalan Indians, Cortes "entrusted them with
-the care of his horse Morgillo, which had been lamed, charging them to
-take great care of it, and attend to its recovery, as he prized it very
-highly, and telling them that when he had found the Spaniards he was in
-search of, he should send for his steed again. It was from no want of
-care on the part of the Itzaex, but rather from an excess of it, that
-Morgillo lost his life under their management; for in their anxiety to
-effect a cure, and regarding the animal as one endowed with reason, they
-gave him poultry and other meat to eat, and presented him with bunches
-of flowers, as they were accustomed to do to persons of rank when they
-were sick; a species of attention somewhat similar to that which the
-fool laughed at in _King Lear_, when he speaks of the cockney who for 'a
-pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.' The consequence of this
-unaccustomed style of medical treatment was, that Morgillo languished
-and died, and then a worse evil befell, for, observes the pious
-Villagutierre, "though some people say Canek burnt his idols in the
-presence of Cortes, there was in reality no burning of idols or anything
-else in that city of Tayasal; on the contrary, by leaving the horse with
-the infidel Itzaex, they obtained a greater and still more abominable
-idol than the many they had before." The meaning of this sentence is
-subsequently explained by the worthy chronicler informing us that, on
-the death of Morgillo, the Itzaex raised its effigy "in stone and
-mortar, very perfect," and worshipped it as a divinity. It was seated on
-its hind-quarters, on the floor of one of the temples, rising on its
-fore legs, with its hind legs bent under it. These barbarians adored it
-as the god of thunder and thunderbolts, calling him Tzinachac, which
-means the bride of thunder, or the thunderbolt. They gave it this name
-from having seen some of the Spaniards who were with Cortes fire their
-muskets over the horses' heads when they were hunting deer, and they
-believed the horses were the cause of the noise that was made, which
-they took for thunder, and the flash of the discharge and the smoke of
-the gunpowder for a thunderbolt."--_Fancourt's History of Yucatan._
-_Athenaeum._ 1854, p. 109.
-
-[8] Cicero. De Natura Deorum, B. II, c. 25.
-
-[9] Servius. Tooke's Pantheon, p. 198.
-
-[10] Horae Britannicae. By Jno. Hughes, Vol. I., p. 235. 1818.
-
-[11] The Garrows, a number of wild tribes occupying the district lying
-between the N.E. frontier of Bengal and the kingdom of Assam, in
-addition to the worship of Mahadeva, or Siva, adore also the sun and
-moon; and the _Khatties_, or _Catties_, another wild tribe inhabiting
-the peninsula of Guzerat, worship the sun.
-
-[12] Blackwell. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Bohn, 1847, p. 473.
-
-[13] Davis. "The Chinese," Chap. xii.
-
-[14] Humboldt. "Aspects of Nature," Vol. I., p. 198, note 51. "Steppes
-and Deserts."
-
-[15] Ruxton. Adventures in Mexico and Rocky Mountains, p. 192.
-
-[16]
-
-  _Str._  That cursed Chaerophon and Socrates,
-          Who have deceived both thee and me alike.
-
-  _Phid._ I must not act unjustly towards my teachers.
-
-  _Str._  Nay, nay, revere paternal Jupiter;
-
-  _Phid._ Paternal Jupiter! old fashion'd fool;
-          Is there a Jupiter?
-
-  _Str._                    There is.
-
-  _Phid._                           Not so,
-          Since having cast out Jove a whirlwind reigns.
-
-  _Str._  Not cast him out; but I imagin'd this,
-          Seeing the whirlwind here. O wretched ones,
-          To take thee, earthen image, for a god!
-
-[17] Wheelwright's Translation, p. 124, and note. Oxford, 1837.
-
-[18] Cicero. De Natura Deorum. B. I., ch. 15.
-
-[19] Op. cit., B. II., c. 24.
-
-[20] Bonomi. "Nineveh and its Palaces," pp. 139-264, &c.; Dr.
-Grotefend, Athenaeum, June 26, 1853; Ravenshaw, Athenaeum, July 16, 1853.
-
-[21] Paradise Lost.
-
-[22] Rape of the Lock. Ch. 1.
-
-[23] The _black_ colour which is popularly ascribed to the devil, was
-probably derived from old monkish legends, which affirmed that he often
-appeared as an Ethiopian. (Jortin. Vol. II., p. 13, ed. 1805.)
-
-[24] Bonomi. Op. cit., p. 159. "The root, or the original word from
-which teraphim is derived, signifies, to relax with fear, to strike with
-terror, or 'Repheh,' an appaller, one who makes others faint or fail; a
-signification that singularly accords with the terrifying images found
-by Botta." The possible connection between these images and the images
-(_teraphim_) which Rachel had stolen from her father Laban, is of great
-interest.
-
-[25] This custom is probably a relic of old Scandinavian mythology. In
-the "Prose Edda," it is stated, that the gods having captured Loki (the
-personification of evil), who had fled from their justly excited anger,
-"dragged him without commiseration into a cavern, wherein they placed
-three sharp-pointed rocks, boring a hole through each of them."
-
-[26] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 200.--Eusebius, in his _Oration_
-in praise of the Emperor Constantine, writes, that the Emperor honoured
-"the triumphall signe of the crosse, having really experienced and found
-the divine virtue that is therein. For by it the multitudes of his
-enemies were put to flight; by it the vaine ostentation of the enemies
-of God was suppressed, the petulant tongues of evil speakers and wicked
-men were silenced; by it the barbarous people were subdued; by it the
-invisible powers of the divil were vanquished and driven away; and by it
-the superstitious errors were confuted and abolished."
-
-[27] Bede. Ecclesiastical History. B. I., ch. 30. Dr. Giles' Transl.
-Bohn.
-
-[28] Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. Vol. I. p. 201. Note.
-Michaelmas Day.
-
-[29] Cicero. De Natura Deorum. B. III., ch. 5.
-
-[30] See "Notes and Queries." Sir J. E. Tennant, Vol. V., p. 121; W.
-Blood, &c., Vol. VIII., p. 413.
-
-[31] The Berlin correspondent of the _Times_ related the following
-incident:--
-
-"The comet which has lately been visible, has served a priest, not far
-from Warsaw, with materials for a very curious sermon. After having
-summoned his congregation together, although it was neither Sunday nor
-festival, and shown them the comet, he informed them that this was the
-same star that had appeared to the Magi at the birth of the Saviour, and
-that it was only visible now in the Russian Empire. Its appearance on
-this occasion was to intimate to the Russian eagle, that the time was
-now come for it to spread out its wings, and embrace all mankind in one
-orthodox and sanctifying church. He showed them the star now standing
-immediately over Constantinople, and explained that the dull light of
-the nucleus indicated its sorrow at the delay of the Russian army in
-proceeding to its destination."
-
-[32] "Madam Morrow, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and a
-descendant of a line of astrologers reaching back for centuries, will
-give ladies private lectures on all the events of life, in regard to
-health, wealth, love, courtship, and marriage. She is, without
-exception, the most wonderful astrologist in the world, or that has ever
-been known. She will even tell their very thoughts, and will show them
-the likenesses of their intended husbands and absent friends, which has
-astonished thousands during her absence in Europe. She will leave the
-city in a very short time. 76, Broome Street, between Cannon and
-Columbia. Gentlemen are not admitted."
-
-"Madame la Compt flatters herself that she is competent by her great
-experience in the art of astrology, to give true information in regard
-to the past, present, and future. She is able to see clearly any losses
-her visitors may have sustained, and will give satisfactory information
-in regard to the way of recovery. She has, and continues to give perfect
-satisfaction. Ladies and gentlemen 50 cents. 13, Howard Street."
-
-"Madame la Compt has been visited by over two hundred ladies and
-gentlemen the past week, and has given perfect satisfaction; and in
-consideration of the great patronage bestowed upon her, she will remain
-at 13, Howard Street, for four days more, when she will positively sail
-for the South."
-
-"Mrs. Alwin, renowned in Europe for her skill in foretelling the future,
-has arrived, and will furnish intelligence about all circumstances of
-life. She interprets dreams, law matters, and love, by astrology, books,
-and science, and tells to ladies and gentlemen the name of the persons
-they will marry; also the names of her visitors. Mrs. Alwin speaks the
-English, French, and German languages. Residence, 25, Rivington Street,
-upstairs, near the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"Mrs. Prewster, from Philadelphia, tenders her services to the ladies
-and gentlemen of this city in astrology, love, and law matters,
-interpreting dreams, &c., by books and science, constantly relied on by
-Napoleon; and will tell the name of the lady or gentleman they will
-marry; also the names of the visitors. No. 59, Great Jones Street,
-corner of the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"The celebrated Dr. F. Shuman, Swede by birth, just arrived in this
-city, offers his services in astrology, physiognomy, &c. He can be
-consulted in matters of love, marriage, past, present, and future events
-of life. Nativity calculated for ladies and gentlemen. Mr. S. has
-travelled through the greater part of the world in the last forty-two
-years, and is willing to give the most satisfactory information. Office,
-175, Chambers Street, near Greenwich."
-
-(From a recent number of the _New York Herald_. Notes and Queries,
-December 10, 1853, p. 561.)
-
-[33] The AEneis. B. III.
-
-[34] Carthon. Ossian.
-
-[35] "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe," by W. and Mary
-Howitt. Vol. I., p. 99.
-
-[36] Howitt. "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe." Vol. I.
-
-[37] An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians; by
-E. W. Lane, Vol. I, p. 311.
-
-[38] Adventures in the Libyan Desert, p. 22.
-
-[39] B. I, ch. 13 and 16.
-
-[40] Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Bohn, p. 248. And Table of Contents, p.
-XIII.
-
-[41] "The Fall of the Nibelungers," &c.; a Translation of the Nibelunge
-Not, or Nibelungenlied, by W. N. Lettsom, p. 59, St. 346, 347; p. 167,
-St. 983.
-
-[42] Thorpe. Op. cit. Table of Contents, p. IX.
-
-[43] "The marvellous stories, the frightful tales, the threats, which
-were so long the apanage of infancy, would dispose the naturally
-impressionable mind to receive all the fantastic creations of the
-period. Now, it is said, the system is completely changed, and they are
-taught to ridicule these ancient beliefs. This argument would be
-unanswerable if they spoke of colleges and boarding schools; but they
-forget the servants to whom are confided the early years of infants;
-thus is the nursery always reviving fooleries, terrors, and frightful
-stories, in the middle of which the infant grows. I will content me with
-one example, that of one of the celebrated poets of England, Robert
-Burns. 'I owed much in my infancy,' says this writer, 'to an old woman
-who lived with us, and who was extremely ignorant, and remarkably
-credulous and superstitious. No one in the country had a larger
-collection of tales and songs respecting devils, fairies, ghosts,
-sorcerers, magicians, jack-o'-lanterns, hobgoblins, phantoms,
-apparitions, charms, giants, dragons, &c.
-
-"'Not only did these tales cultivate in me the germs of poesy, but they
-had such an effect upon my imagination, that, even now, in my night
-journeys, I have often, in spite of myself, the eye upon certain
-suspicious places; and although no one can be more sceptical in such
-matters, an effort of the reason is occasionally necessary to chase away
-these vain terrors.'
-
-"'Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, solitariness, contribute
-strongly to develop the feeling of terror so wrongly cast in the minds
-of infants. Their eye readily perceives frightful figures which regard
-them in a menacing manner; their chamber is peopled with assassins,
-robbers, devils, and monsters of all kinds."--_A. Brierre de Boismont.
-"Des Hallucinations; ou Histoire Raisonnee des Apparitions,"_ &c. Ed.
-II, 1852, p. 362.
-
-[44] This idea has been beautifully expressed by Longfellow in the
-"Voices of the Night."
-
-    "When the hours of day are numbered,
-      And the voices of the night
-    Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
-      To a holy calm delight,
-
-    Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
-      And like phantoms grim and tall,
-    Shadows from the fitful firelight
-      Dance upon the parlour wall;
-
-    Then the forms of the departed
-      Enter at the open door;
-    The beloved, the true-hearted,
-      Come to visit us once more." &c.
-
-See also Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall. St. Martin's Eve.
-
-[45]
-
-    "I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
-      But or ever a prayer had gusht,
-    A wicked whisper came and made
-      My heart as dry as dust."
-
-                    Coleridge. "Ancient Mariner."
-
-[46] Brewster. Natural Magic, p. 15.
-
-[47] A few hundred feet from the place where this occurred, is a lane
-(Oldfield Lane, Wortley, near Leeds) which was noted, many years ago, as
-the beat of one of those somewhat rare spectres, a headless ghost. Some
-are living even now who have _known_ those who had seen this phantom.
-When last seen, it appeared as a comfortable-looking man, dressed in a
-drab-coat, and carried the head under the arm. As a Yorkshire version of
-a very ancient and wide-spread superstition, its memory is worth
-preserving. The belief in headless ghosts is found in many parts of
-England, Ireland (the _Dullahan_ or _Dulachan_), Wales, Scotland, Spain,
-France, and Germany.
-
-[48] Chambers' Miscellany. Art. "Spectral Apparitions," &c.
-
-[49] Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. 2nd Ed., p. 3.
-
-[50] "Phantoms of the Far East." Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Vol. XVII,
-p. 315.
-
-[51] Busby's Lucretius, B. IV.
-
-[52] Temora.
-
-[53] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 7.
-
-[54] Letters on Natural Magic. 5th Ed., p. 166.
-
-[55] D. Jardine, "Notes and Queries," Vol. VIII, p. 512, Nov. 26, 1853.
-
-[56] Hudibras. Can. III.
-
-[57] Athenaeum. July 2, 1853, p. 801, and Appendix.
-
-[58] Mueller. "Manuel de Physiologie." Traduit par A. J. L. Jourdan. 2nd
-ed., 1851, par E. Littre, T. II., p. 388. See also ¶ A. B. C. E. F.,
-Sect. V, "Phenomenes Subjectifs de Vision," p. 386.
-
-[59] Mueller. Op. cit., T. II, p. 549.
-
-[60] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 74.
-
-[61] "Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, &c., in their Relations to
-the Vital Force," by Karl von Reichenbach, Pts. I & II.
-
-[62] "The Night Side of Nature," by Mrs. Crowe. Ed. 1853, p. 362.
-
-[63]
-
-    "I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,
-    Thy image steals between my God and me;
-    Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,
-    With every bead I drop too soft a tear."
-
-                       _Eloise and Abelard._ Pope.
-
-[64] Notes and Narrative of a Six Years' Mission principally among the
-Dens of London. By R. W. Vanderkiste, p. 182.
-
-[65] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 110.
-
-[66] "Theory of Pneumatology." By Dr. J. H. Jung-Stilling: translated by
-Saml. Jackson; p. 197, Lond., 1834.
-
-[67] Op. cit., p. 200.
-
-[68] The apparition of the "_White Lady_" was very irregular and
-uncertain, for many members of the family died without her spectre
-having been seen.
-
-[69] "Demonology and Witchcraft." 2nd Ed., p. 350, note.
-
-[70] "Household Words." Conducted by Charles Dickens, March, 1853, p. 6.
-
-[71] Op. cit., p. 142.
-
-[72] "Notes and Queries." Vol. VIII., p. 287.
-
-[73] Ed. 1829, Vol. IV., p. 271.
-
-[74] Op. cit., p. 182.
-
-[75] Op. cit., p. 470.
-
-[76] De. Divinatione et de Fato.
-
-[77] Op. cit. p. 243.
-
-[78] "Of Human Understanding." Bk. II, ch. 33, sect. 10.
-
-[79] Op. cit., p. 65.
-
-[80] "History of Europe," from 1789 to 1815. By Sir Archibald Alison,
-Bart. Chap. XX, Sect. 25, and notes.
-
-[81] Op. cit., p. 10.
-
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-Transcriber's Note:
-
-Punctuation in the text has been standardised, and typographical errors
-have been silently corrected.
-
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-quoted passages, have all been preserved. Inconsistencies in quotation
-mark usage, single quotes, double quotes, and quotes-within-quotes are
-all as in the original.
-
-
-
-
-
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-Project Gutenberg's Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, by John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-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/license
-
-
-Title: Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites
-       Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief
-       in the Supernatural
-
-Author: John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-Release Date: August 29, 2012 [EBook #40616]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES ***
-
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-Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the
-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
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-
-  FIENDS, GHOSTS,
-  AND
-  SPRITES.
-
-  INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF
-  THE ORIGIN AND NATURE
-  OF
-  BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL.
-
-  BY JOHN NETTEN RADCLIFFE.
-
-  LONDON:
-  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
-  1854.
-
-  PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS,
-  LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.
-
-
-A belief in the supernatural has existed in all ages and among all
-nations.
-
-To trace the origin of this belief, the causes of the various
-modifications it has undergone, and the phases it has assumed, is,
-perhaps, one of the most interesting researches to which the mind can be
-given,--interesting, inasmuch as we find pervading every part of it the
-effects of those passions and affections which are most powerful and
-permanent in our nature.
-
-So general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling Power, possessing
-attributes altogether different from and superior to human powers, and
-bending these and the forces of nature to its will, that the thought
-has been entertained by many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine
-is, however, refuted by an acquaintance with the inlets and modes of
-obtaining knowledge; by the fact that reason is necessary to its
-discovery; and by its uselessness.[1] "There are neither innate ideas
-nor innate propositions; but there is an innate power of understanding
-that shows itself in primitive notions, which, when put into speech, are
-expressed in propositions, which propositions, decomposed, produce,
-under the influence of abstraction and analysis, distinct ideas."[2]
-
-Others have asserted and maintained that man derives his knowledge of
-the existence of Deity, and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the
-exercise of reason upon himself and his own powers by self-reflection.
-If he reflects upon the wonderful power of liberty and free-will which
-he possesses, on his relation to surrounding beings and things, and
-particularly on his imperfect, limited, and finite powers, it is argued
-that the antithetical proposition of infinite must of necessity be
-admitted. "I cannot have the idea of the finite and of imperfection
-without having that of perfection and of infinite. These two ideas are
-logically correlative."[3] Or if man extends his reasoning powers to the
-study or the contemplation "of the beauty, the order, the intelligence,
-the wisdom, and the perfection displayed throughout the universe; and as
-there must of necessity be in the cause what is witnessed in the effect,
-you reason from nature to its author, and from the existence of the
-perfection of the one you conclude the existence and perfection of the
-other."[4]
-
-But many theologists maintain that the knowledge of a Deity, and of the
-existence of supernatural beings, is derived solely from revelation; and
-stern and prolonged have been the struggles in this country between the
-upholders of the rival tenets.
-
-That no idea of a Deity, such as that which the Christian entertains, is
-to be found among the vague and undefined notions of supernatural power
-which are contained in the mythologies of pagan nations; that even the
-conceptions of Plato are to be summed up in the phrase "the unknown
-God;" and that the perfect idea of the Godhead is to be derived solely
-from Scripture, can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion sought
-to be established from this, that all our ideas of the supernatural are
-derived from this source, does not necessarily follow.
-
-The postulate that man can derive a knowledge of the supernatural from
-the exercise of his mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or
-denied, but it is not improbable.
-
-Perhaps the nearest approach to correctness which we are as yet capable
-of on this subject is as follows:--
-
-After the creation of man, God revealed himself. The perfect knowledge
-of the Deity thus obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the human
-race, notwithstanding the baneful effects of the fall; and at the epoch
-of the deluge, the solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm,
-formed a centre from which anew the attributes and powers of the Godhead
-were made known in all their truth and purity. But again sin prevailed,
-and with the exception of one race, who alone treasured the true
-knowledge of the Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of their
-fathers; and as they receded from the light, the idea of the Godhead
-became obscured, and in the progress of time well nigh lost, and the
-vague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power derived from
-tradition, prompted to a terror and awe of some invisible yet mighty
-influence, unknown and inexplicable, but which was manifested to man in
-the more striking objects and the incomprehensible phenomena of nature,
-which were regarded and worshipped as the seats of this unknown Power,
-forming the substratum of those wonderful systems of mythology which
-have characterised successive eras and races.
-
-"Once," writes Plato, referring to the earlier traditions of the Greeks,
-"one God governed the universe; but a great and extraordinary change
-taking place in the nature of men and things, infinitely for the worse
-(for originally there was perfect virtue and perfect happiness on
-earth), the command then devolved on Jupiter, with many inferior deities
-to preside over different departments under him."[5]
-
-To state the influence which each of the elements indicated
-above--tradition and reason--have had in the development of mythology,
-is doubtless impossible.
-
-The existence of the first element, _tradition_, is, to those who admit
-the truth of Scripture, undeniable, and it gives a clue to the
-elucidation of the leading principle in the belief in those gods,
-dÊmons, fiends, sprites, &c., which, summed up, have constituted the
-objects of worship of different nations.
-
-
-I. As in the course of generations the pristine revelation of the
-Godhead to man became obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief
-alone remained,--the conceptions, the thoughts and imaginations of each
-generation being implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing it by
-the force of habit, education, and authority,--man, impressed with an
-imperfect notion of a supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of
-the material world, on seeking to unfold the source of those changes
-which he beheld in the budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of
-summer, the maturity of autumn, and the stern grandeur of winter,
-conceived that the wonderful phenomena ever going on around him owed
-their origin and effects to the influence of supernatural agency, and
-marking their apparent dependence upon the sun and other orbs in space,
-he offered adoration to those luminaries. But when he still further
-analysed the changes occurring on the surface of the globe, and
-comprehended the influence of the more palpable forces and elements, and
-the inexhaustible variety and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena
-which he witnessed, incapable of otherwise solving the mysteries which
-surrounded him, he deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling
-Spirit.[6]
-
-Thus man concluded that he was surrounded by a world of supernatural
-beings, of different powers, attributes, and passions. The sun and moon,
-the planets and stars, were conceived to be the abodes of spiritual
-existences; and the effects caused by those orbs which more immediately
-influence our earth, were considered as the indications of the powers of
-their respective deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents; the
-ocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and rivers; and the earth, its
-hills, dales, and organic forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.
-Every object of beauty shadowed forth the operations of a beneficent
-Spirit; while devastating storms, barren places and deserts, and the
-convulsions of nature, betokened the malignancy of dÊmons or fiends.
-According as a country's surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and
-storm-tossed, or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the rays of
-a fervid sun, so do we find the principal characters of its mythology;
-stern, gigantic, and fierce gods or dÊmons, or spirits more kind towards
-man, and full of beauty and grace. The passions and affections of man,
-for the same reasons, were considered to be under the sway of
-supernatural beings; in short, every operation of nature in the organic
-or inorganic, in the mental or physical worlds, was deemed an indication
-of the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled and governed it.[7]
-
-These powers in the progress of time were personified and represented as
-possessed of passions and propensities similar to those of man; for the
-same finite and imperfect reason which had concluded that they dwelt in
-the phenomena they were supposed to explain, also deemed, being unable
-to conceive any higher type of existence than was seen in man himself,
-that they differed simply in degree of power, and were alike subject to
-those appetites and passions which characterised humanity.
-
-This source of belief in spiritual existences is found dominant in the
-systems of mythology of all nations; and as it arises from causes which
-are inherant in man, it can easily be understood why there is so great a
-similarity in the primary mythological conceptions of different races.
-
-The mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome furnish a very perfect
-illustration of the influence which this cause has exercised in the
-development of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better method
-of illustration can be adopted, than a sketch of the physical
-signification of the principal deities, and classes of deities, of those
-countries.
-
-The primitive religion of the Greeks and Romans would appear to have
-consisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):--the Titans
-are nearly all personifications of the celestial orbs. Subsequently,
-their mythology assumed a more physical character, and the offspring of
-Cronos (Saturn, _time_), or the personifications of the firmament,
-atmosphere, sea, &c., formed the leading deities of the more developed
-system of religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.
-
-In this system, the god Jupiter is symbolical of the upper regions of
-the atmosphere (_Æther_). Euripides writes:--
-
-    "The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,
-    See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;
-    This own the chief of deities above,
-    And this acknowledge by the name of Jove."[8]
-
-At a later period this god was conceived to represent the soul of the
-world, diffused alike through animate and inanimate nature; or, as
-Virgil poetically describes it in the Æneid--(Book vi.):
-
-        "The heaven and earth's compacted frame,
-    And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
-    And both the radiant lights, one common soul
-    Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.
-    This active mind infused through all the space,
-    Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
-    Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain,
-    And birds of air, and monsters of the main."
-
-The god Apollo signifies the sun,--his prophetic power being symbolical
-of its influence in dispelling darkness; his knowledge of medicine and
-healing, signifies the influence of that luminary in revivifying and
-restoring the powers of organic life; his skill in music is symbolical
-of the central position of the sun among the seven planets, and its
-making harmony with them; and the harp upon which this god is depicted
-as playing, is furnished with seven strings, in emblem of the seven
-planets. _Pan_ represents the universal world, and he is the emblem of
-fecundity. Hence this god is depicted in his upper part as a man, in his
-lower parts as a beast; "because the superior and celestial part of the
-world is beautiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this god, whose
-horns resemble the rays of the sun, and the horns of the moon. The
-redness of his face is like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted
-skin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament. In his lower
-parts he is shagged and deformed, which represents the shrubs, and wild
-beasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's feet signify the
-solidity of the earth; and his pipe of seven reeds, that celestial
-harmony which is made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's hook,
-crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the turning of the year
-into itself."[9]
-
-The goddess _Cybele_ was symbolical of the earth; _Juno_, of the
-air--the link between earthly and heavenly natures; _Vulcan_, of fire;
-_Æolus_, of the winds; _Diana_, of the moon; _Neptune_, of the sea;
-_Rusina_, of the country; _Ceres_, of the fruits of the earth;
-_Collina_, of the hills; _Vallonia_, of the valleys; _Silvanus_, of the
-woods, which teemed also with inferior deities--_satyrs_ and _fauns_;
-_Seia_ presided over all seed; _Flora_, flowers; _Proserpina_ cherished
-the corn when it had sprung above the earth; _Volasia_ folded the blade
-round it ere the beard broke out; _Nodosus_ watched over the joints and
-knots of the stalk; _Patelina_ governed the opened ear; _Lactusa_ took
-charge when it became milky; _Matura_ guarded and conducted it to
-maturity; _Hostilina_ presided over the crop; and _Tutelina_, over the
-cutting.
-
-_Nymphs_, goddesses of lovely form, and light and airy beauty, sported
-about the earth; a _Dryad_ presided over every tree; a _Hamadryad_ was
-born, lived, and died with each oak; _Oreads_ dwelt on the mountains;
-_NapëÊ_, in the groves and valleys; _Lemoniads_, in the meadows and
-fields; _Nereiads_, in the ocean; _Naiads_, at the fountains;
-_Fluviales_, by the rivers: and _Lirinades_, by lakes and ponds.
-
-_Vesta_ presided over the vital heat of the body; _Janus_ opened the
-gate of life to infant man; _Opis_ assisted him when he came into the
-world; _Nascio_ presided over the moment of birth; _Cunia_ watched over
-the cradle, and while he lay and slept; _Vagitanus_, or _Vaticanus_,
-took care while the infant cried; _Rumina_ presided while the child
-sucked the breast; _Potina_ guarded the infant drinking; _Educa_ watched
-over it while it received food; _Ossilago_ "knit its bones" and hardened
-its body; _Carna_ presided over the safety of the inward parts; the
-goddess _Nundina_ had charge of the child on the ninth day--the day of
-purification; _Statilinus_ taught the infant to stand and walk, and
-preserved it from falling; _Fabulinus_ looked after the child when it
-began to speak; _Paventia_ preserved it from fright; _Juventus_
-protected the beginning of youth; _Agenoria_ excited man to action;
-_Strenua_ encouraged him to behave bravely on all occasions; _Stimula_
-urged him to extraordinary exertions; _Horta_ exhorted him to noble
-actions; _Quis_ gave peace and quietude; _Murcia_ rendered man lazy,
-idle, and dull; _Adeona_ protected him in his outgoings and incomings;
-_Vibilia_ guarded wanderers; _Vacuna_ protected the lazy and idle;
-_Fessonia_ refreshed the weary; _Meditrina_ healed injuries; _Vitula_
-presided over and gave mirth; _Volupia_ governed pleasures; _Orbona_ was
-a goddess supplicated that she might not leave parents destitute of
-children; _Pellonia_ drove away enemies; _Numeria_ endued men with the
-power of casting numbers; _Sentia_ gave just and honourable sentiments;
-_Augerona_ removed anguish from the mind; and _Consus_ presided over
-good counsels.
-
-_Virtue_ also was worshipped as a goddess; and the several species of
-virtue were considered each as emanating from some godlike power, and
-_Faith_, _Hope_, _Justice_, _Piety_, _Peace_, _Fidelity_, _Liberty_, and
-_Money_, were worshipped as good deities; while, on the other hand,
-_Envy_, _Contumely_, _Impudence_, _Calumny_, _Fraud_, _Discord_, _Fury_,
-_Fame_, _Fortune_, _Fever_, and _Silence_, were supplicated as evil
-deities.
-
-_Minerva_ was symbolical of wisdom and chastity; _Mercury_, of
-eloquence--speech; _Venus_ of ungovernable passions and desire;
-_Saturn_, time; _Momus_, mockery; _Silenus_, jesting; _Mars_, war; and
-_Bacchus_, wine. The _Muses_ each represented an accomplishment. Thus,
-_Calliope_ presided over epic poetry; _Clio_, history; _Erato_, elegy
-and amorous song; _Thalia_, comedy, gay, light, and pleasing song;
-_Melpomene_, tragedy; _Terpsichore_, dancing; _Euterpe_, music;
-_Polyhymnia_, religious song; and _Urania_, the knowledge of celestial
-events.
-
-_Themis_ taught mankind what was honest, just, and right; _AstrÊa_ was
-the goddess of justice; _Nemesis_ punished vice, rewarded virtue, and
-taught mankind their duty.
-
-Every action of man, both in his collective and individual
-capacity--everything in relation to his household and domestic
-affairs--was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which
-were classed under the names of _Penates_ and _Lares_.
-
-The _Penates_, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they
-may be divided into three classes: 1st, those which presided over
-kingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and
-3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an
-extent this belief was carried, a penate named _Ferculus_ looked after
-the door; the goddess _Cardua_ after the hinges; and _Limentius_
-protected the threshold.
-
-The _Lares_ were of human origin, and they presided also over houses,
-streets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country
-and the sea.
-
-To each person was also assigned two deities, termed _genii_. These
-spirits were subsidiary to the gods already mentioned, it being one of
-their duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in
-nature and disposition, and were divided into two classes--the _good_
-and the _bad_. The _good genius_ excited men to all actions of honour
-and virtue; the _evil genius_ excited him to all manner of wickedness.
-The Greeks termed these genii _dÊmons_, either from the terror and dread
-they created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned
-when consulted as oracles.
-
-The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of
-the evil passions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed
-the _Furies_--_Alecto_, _Tisiphone_, and _MegÊra_--who became symbolical
-of the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and
-Death--_Nox_, _Mors_, and _Somnus_--were elevated among the gods.
-
-This brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into
-the formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology--a mythology containing
-more than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate how every hidden power of
-nature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every
-equally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an
-explanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the
-progress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a
-form as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.
-
-This source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already
-stated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their
-primary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the
-difference of climate, habits, &c.
-
-Thus, of the gods of the ancient Britons--_Belin_, _Plennyd_, or
-_Granwyn_, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo;
-_Gwydion_, or _Teutath_, had all the attributes of Mercury; _Daronwy_,
-_Taranwy_, or _Taranis_, the thunderer, of Jove; _Anras_, or _Andraste_,
-of Bellona; _He-us_, _Hesus_, _Hugadarn_, or _Hu-ysgwn_, united the
-characters of Bacchus and Mars; _Ked_ and _Keridwen_ answered to Ceres;
-_Llenwy_ to Proserpine; _Olwen_ and _Dwynwen_ to Venus; and _Neivion_ to
-Neptune.[10]
-
-In the Scandinavian mythology the principal gods are personifications of
-physical and mental powers. _Odin_, the most powerful of the three
-beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of
-Mercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, _Vili_ is the personification
-of light; _Ve_, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting
-constantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of
-the principal gods, we find that _Thor_ is symbolical of thunder;
-_Baldur_ of the sun; _Njord_ rules over the winds, sea, &c.; _Frey_ is
-the god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; _Tyr_, of war;
-_Bragi_, of wisdom and poetry; _Vidar_, of silence; _Forseti_, of law
-and justice; _Loki_ is the personification of evil; _Frigga_ is the
-goddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the
-past, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance, love, courtesy,
-wisdom, and every form and passion and power of nature which the
-Scandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and
-worshipped god.
-
-The original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly
-bodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers,
-which form the principal part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the
-firmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most
-frequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the
-elements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary
-poems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the
-Sanhitâ of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly
-addressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons,
-the sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices,
-or are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities.
-The personified attributes of _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_, signifying
-respectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later
-and more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities
-ranking next in order to the _Trimurti_, and termed _Lokapalas_, are all
-personifications of natural objects and powers. Thus _Indra_ is the god
-of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm,
-and rain; _Agni_, of fire; _Yama_, of the infernal regions; _Surya_, of
-the sun; _Varuna_, of water; _Parana_, of wind; _Kuvera_, of wealth; and
-_Soma_, or _Chandra_, of the moon.
-
-The celebrated line which it is enjoined should be repeated without
-intermission, and which is the most holy passage in the Vedas, reads
-literally, "Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri (the
-sun--the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects." This, it is
-asserted, is addressed to the sun as the symbol of a divine and
-all-powerful being, and it is regarded as a proof of the monotheism of
-the Vedas. This explanation is, however, considered by some to be far
-from satisfactory, and to offer greater difficulties than the text ever
-can when taken in a natural light.
-
-The creed of Buddha contains similar traces of elemental worship. The
-five Buddhas and the five Bodhisattwas would appear to be
-personifications of the principal natural elements and phenomena.
-
-In Persian mythology we find a similar deification of natural phenomena.
-In the creed of Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing
-beliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being, _Zernane Akherene_
-(illimitable, uncreated time), who created _Ormuzd_ (light, goodness);
-and _Ahrimann_ (darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe, and the
-genii, or deities of light, of whom there are three classes.
-
-_1st Class._ The seven _Amshaspands_, including _Ormuzd_ himself. The
-remaining are _Bahman_, the genius of the region of light;
-_Ardibehesht_, of ethereal fire; _Sharwir_, of metals; _Sarpandomad_, of
-fruitfulness; _Khudad_, of time; _Amerdad_, of the vegetable world,
-flocks, and herds.
-
-_2nd Class._ The twenty-seven _Izeds_, male and female--the _elementary_
-deities: e.g. _Khorsid_, the deity of the sun; _Mah_, of the moon;
-_Tashter_, of the dog-star, and of rain; _Rapitan_, the deity of heat,
-&c. These deities were probably worshipped before the belief was reduced
-to a system.
-
-_3rd Class._ The _Fervers_--the vivifying principles of nature, the
-ideal types of the material universe, corresponding in general with the
-_ideas_ of Plato. Every one, even Ormuzd, has his Ferver. "An Iranite
-has thus constantly by his side his ideal type, or uncorrupted material
-image, to guide him through life and preserve him from evil."[12]
-
-The Iranite worships light, fire, and water, as emblems of Ormuzd, in
-whom these elements are united; he does not worship the elementary
-spirits attached to them.
-
-In China, the state religion--the religious system of
-Confucius--embodies the following objects of worship, arranged in three
-classes:--
-
-_1st Class._ _Ta sze_, or _great sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-the heavens (_Yâng_), and the earth (_Yin_); and while worshipping the
-material heaven, they appear to consider that there exists an animating
-_intelligence_ (_Tae-keih_) which presides over the world, rewarding
-virtue and vice. This class includes also deified sovereigns.
-
-_2nd Class._ _Choong-sze_, _medium sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-gods of the land and grain, the sun and moon, genii, sages, gods of
-letters, inventors of agriculture, manufacturers, and useful arts.
-
-_3rd Class._ _Seaon-sze_, or _lesser sacrifices_, includes the worship
-of the ancient patron of the healing art; innumerable spirits of
-deceased statesmen, eminent scholars, martyrs to virtue, &c.; the
-principal phenomena of nature, as the clouds, rain, wind, thunder, each
-of which has its presiding god; the military banners (like the Romans);
-the god of war; _Loong-wang_, the dragon-king; the gods of rain and the
-watery elements; and _Tien-how_, the queen of heaven and goddess of the
-weather. The Chinese also believe in good and evil genii, and in tutelar
-spirits presiding over families, houses, and towns.[13]
-
-In Africa, the mythology of its different nations is based on natural
-objects and phenomena. The natives of Ashanti and the neighbouring
-districts worship water, lakes, rivers, mountains, rocks and stones,
-leopards, panthers, wolves, crocodiles, &c., all of which are more or
-less powerful "fetishes;" and the Nubian worships the moon. The natives
-of Tahiti and the islands of the South Sea also derive their principal
-ideas of supernatural beings from material objects. In Mangareva, the
-largest of the Gambier Islands, the gods adored by the natives were
-principally personifications of natural objects. A god named _Tea_ was
-the deity and creator of the sun, wind, and water; _Rongo_ was the god
-of rain; _Tairi_, of thunder; _Arikitenow_, of the ocean; _A-nghi_, of
-storms and famine; _Napitoiti_, of death, &c. The Tahitan conceives also
-that animals, trees, stones, &c., possess souls which, like his own,
-after destruction will have a subsequent existence. On the vast
-continent of South America we find numerous traces of elemental and
-natural worship. The aborigines of Paraguay supplicate the sun, moon,
-stars, thunder, lightning, groves, &c. In the district bounded by the
-Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassequiare, including an
-extent of about 8000 square miles, and scattered also over a still
-greater extent of this continent, are found rocks covered with colossal
-symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, household utensils, and of
-the sun and moon,--doubtless objects of adoration to nations of whose
-existence even tradition has not preserved a trace. It is also probable
-that the rocks thus engraved were regarded as sacred; for the Macusi
-Indians, inhabiting one portion of the districts where these sculptures
-are found, have the tradition that "the sole survivor of a general
-deluge repeopled the earth by changing stones into human beings."[14]
-The Incas of Peru--the children of the sun--built magnificent temples,
-and adored that luminary; and the sculptures on the walls of the
-colossal temples and buildings of the Aztecs, the ancient inhabitants of
-Mexico, as well as the remains of the pyramids of the sun and moon at
-Teotihuacan, teach the same lesson with regard to that extinct race. The
-Pueblo Indians of New Mexico still perpetuate the holy fire "by the side
-of which the Aztecan kept a continual watch for the return to earth of
-Quetzalcoatl, the god of air." In a solitary cave of the mountains is
-preserved the undying fire, and its dim light is seen by the hunter if,
-by chance, led by the chase, he passes near to this lonely temple.[15]
-Among the tribes which inhabit the more northerly parts of the American
-continent, we find also similar traces of the important influence which
-natural phenomena have exercised in the development of their ideas of
-supernatural existences.
-
-We could not well close this sketch without allusion to the Shaman
-religion, which is diffused throughout the principal nations of Asiatic
-Russia, a great part of the Tartars, the Eins, Samoiedes, Ostiaks,
-Mandshurs, Burats, and Tungsees; and it is even professed among the
-Coriaks and Techuks, and people of the eastern islands. This system of
-religion is essentially founded upon the observation of natural
-phenomena: it teaches that the gods (_Burchans_) arose from the general
-mass of matter and spirit; and while inculcating the existence of a
-spiritual world, it instils the belief in the self-existence of matter.
-
-These remarks will sufficiently show the important influence which the
-observation of natural phenomena has had in the development of the
-belief in the Supernatural of most nations; and it will fully indicate
-the primary reason of the correspondence of their principal mythological
-conceptions. A consideration of the different habits, degree of
-civilization, locality, &c., will also indicate the principal reason of
-the various modifications which the same mythological conception is
-found to present among different nations.
-
-There was one Jupiter for Europe, and another for Africa; and the varied
-forms under which this god was worshipped, derived from the locality,
-habits, and other peculiarities of his worshippers, were very numerous.
-At Athens, the great Jupiter was the Olympian; at Rome, the Capitoline.
-There was the mild and the thundering Jupiter, the Jupiter Nicephorus,
-Opitulus, Fulminator, &c., all differing in some subordinate characters.
-
-Ammon, of Egypt; Belus, of the Babylonians; Ibis, of the Phœnicians;
-Allah, of the Arabians; Beel, Baal, Beelphagor, Beelzebub, Beelzemer,
-&c., all possess the attributes of Jupiter, and are the same with that
-god.
-
-The Buddha of India; Fohi, of the Chinese; Odin, or Woden, of the
-Scandinavians; and Gwydion, of the Ancient Britons, correspond with
-Mercury.
-
-Vishnu, Brahma, Siva, and Krishna, the latter both of the Irish and
-Sanscrit, correspond with Apollo; whilst Arun, of the Irish and Hindoo
-superstitions, corresponds with the Aurora of the Greeks.
-
-It is peculiarly interesting to mark in the writings of classic authors
-the earlier traces of a correct explanation of the causes operating in
-the changes observed in nature, and their influence in modifying the
-mythological ideas of the period. Socrates penetrated so far in the
-interpretation of certain physical phenomena as to discover that they
-might be explained without having recourse to the idea of supernatural
-agency. This is most interestingly shown in Aristophanes' comedy of "The
-Clouds" (B.C. 440). In this comedy, written for the purpose of throwing
-ridicule and contempt on the sophistical philosophy of Socrates,
-Strepsiades, an aged and ignorant man, is represented as suffering from
-the excesses and expenses of his son Phidippides. He conceives the idea
-of studying logic, in order, by mere subtle reasoning, to overcome and
-cheat his creditors. He enrols himself as a pupil of Socrates, and in
-Act I, Scene 2, the following scene occurs:--
-
-  _Str._  Is not Olympian Jupiter our God?
-
-  _Soc._  What Jupiter? nay, jest not--there is none.
-
-  _Str._  How say'st thou? who then rains?--this first of all
-          Declare to me.
-
-  _Soc._              Why these (_the clouds_): by mighty signs
-          This I will prove to thee. Hast ever seen
-          Jove raining without clouds?--if it were so,
-          Through the clear fields of ether must he rain,
-          While these were far away.
-
-  _Str._                          Now by Apollo,
-          Full well hast thou discours'd upon this point;
-          Till now, in truth, I thought 'twas Jupiter,
-          Distilling through a sieve. But tell me next,
-          Who is the thunderer?--this awakes my dread.
-
-  _Soc._  They thunder as they roll.
-
-  _Str._                          But how, I pray?
-          Say, thou who darest all.
-
-  _Soc._                        When they are fill'd
-          With water, and perforce impell'd along,
-          Driven precipitate, all full of rain,
-          They meet together, bursting with a crash.
-
-  _Str._  But who compels them thus to move along?
-          Is not this Jove?
-
-  _Soc._                  No, but th'Êtherial whirl.
-
-In a subsequent part of the comedy (Act III, Scene 1) Strepsiades is
-represented as speaking of this idea of a whirlwind as a deified being,
-thus admirably showing the tendency of man to consider that which he
-could not comprehend as the result of supernatural agency, and to
-personify it.
-
-  _Str._  Thou swearest now, by Jove.
-
-  _Phid._ I do.
-
-  _Str._      Thou see'st how good it is to learn,
-          There is no Jove, Phidippides.
-
-  _Phid._                           Who then?
-
-  _Str._  A whirlwind reigns; having driven him, Jove, away.
-
-It would seem, also, that Socrates himself was subject to the influence
-of this feeling; for a passage in Act V, Scene 1,[16] has led to the
-conclusion "that in the school of Socrates was placed an earthen image
-(ΎῖΜος, the name of an earthen vessel as well as of the
-_whirlwind_, who has usurped the honours and attributes of Jove). (See
-Schol. ad Vesp. 617.) This, probably, was done by the philosopher as a
-sort of compensation for having expelled Jupiter (τ᜞Μ Διᜱ)
-from his mythological system."[17]
-
-
-II. But the ideas derived from the contemplation of natural phenomena
-were not the sole sources of mythology, such as we have received it.
-Other and most powerful causes operated, and of those next in degree of
-importance were those feelings which prompted to the deification of men.
-
-PersÊus, a disciple of Zeno, "says, that they who have made discoveries
-advantageous to the life of man, should be esteemed as gods; and the
-very things, he says, which are healthful and beneficial, should have
-divine appellations; so that he thinks it not sufficient to call them
-the discoverers of gods, but that they themselves should be deemed
-divine."[18]
-
-The author of the "Book of Wisdom" in the Apocrypha, details other
-causes which tended to the same result. He writes, (Chapter xiv, v.
-15-21):--
-
-"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a son who hath been taken from
-him, makes an image of his child: and him who before was _to his family_
-as a dead man, they now begin to worship as a god; rites and sacrifices
-being instituted, to be observed by his dependents. And in process of
-time, custom having established these as a law, an image set up by an
-impious tyrant receives divine honours. A man being unable to render
-such respect in their presence to those who dwelt remote from them, and
-having received their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded to
-make a conspicuous image of any king to whom they inclined to pay divine
-honours, by which means, though absent, the ruler receives their
-solicitous homage, as though present with them. The exquisite pains
-bestowed by the artist has likewise contributed to this worship of the
-absent by ignorant men; for being willing to give perfect satisfaction
-to him for whom he doth it, he avails himself of all the resources of
-his art to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude, allured by
-the beauty of the statue, come to regard as a god him whom before they
-honoured but as a man. And this hath been the great delusion of
-humanity, that out of affection for the dead, or subserviency to their
-rulers, men have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable name of
-God."
-
-Most systems of mythology contain examples of deities which have been
-derived from this source.
-
-"It has been a general custom, likewise," writes Cicero,[19] "that men
-who have done important service to the public should be exalted to
-heaven by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux,
-Æsculapius and Liber, became gods; * * * thus, likewise, Romulus, or
-Quirinus--for they are thought to be the same--became a god. They are
-justly esteemed as deities, since their souls subsist and enjoy
-eternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings."
-
-The Chinese, at the present day, deify and adore their deceased
-emperors, as well as the spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs
-to virtue, &c.
-
-It has occasionally happened that some great sage, on his apotheosis,
-had attributed to him that which he had simply expounded during life,
-and thus became the personification of the religious ideas he had
-entertained. Buddha, who lived, as nearly as can be ascertained, about
-1000 years before Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India. After
-death he was deified by his converts, and became the embodiment of the
-principles he had advocated when on earth; and his name, with various
-modifications, was applied to the system of cosmogony and religion which
-he had advocated. The Grand Lamas (_Chaberons_) of Thibet are regarded
-as incarnations (_avatars_) of Buddha, and as such are adored by the
-Thibetians and the various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast
-district which extends from the banks of the Volga to Corea, in the Sea
-of Japan.
-
-After the persecution which terminated in the expulsion of the followers
-of Buddha from Hindostan, the Hindoos, not content with their celestial
-gods or heroes, extended their adoration to various living individuals,
-particularly to the Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight years of
-age are worshipped by them as forms of the goddess Bhavani (_Venus_);
-and at certain seasons of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his
-wife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.
-
-Some writers have thought that all the gods of the ancients consisted of
-deified men. This is, however, an error; for the deification of men was
-an act second in order to the worship of natural objects and phenomena.
-The chronological position of this element of mythology has, among other
-reasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting conclusions on the
-respective ages of the palaces of Nineveh.
-
-On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are found sculptured the winged
-and human-headed bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged
-figures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed divinities, and other
-figures, which are conceived to be symbolical of constellations, and of
-astronomical phenomena. From these nobler and simpler ideas of Divinity
-it is inferred, that when this palace was built the worship of the
-Assyrians was comparatively pure. But on the walls of Nimroud, in
-addition to the symbolical representations found at Khorsabad, there are
-also indications of an increased number of divinities, from the presence
-of deified men; hence a reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the
-system of religion at the period when this palace was built, and
-consequently its more recent date.[20]
-
-
-III. Another element has also exercised a considerable influence upon
-the mythologies of some nations, namely, _Scriptural narrative and
-traditions_. It is not improbable that several of the heathen myths have
-been derived from this source. Many, indeed, believe that all mythology
-arises from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that Deucalion is
-merely another name for Noah; Hercules for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and
-Bacchus is either Nimrod or Moses--for the former supposition the
-similarity of name being assigned; for the latter, among others, one of
-the names and some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus was named
-_Bicornis, double-horned_; and the face of Moses appeared double-horned
-when he came down from the mountain where he had spoken to God,--the
-rays of glory darting from his brow having the semblance of radiant
-horns. The BacchÊ drew waters from the rocks by striking them with their
-thyrsi; and wherever they went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and
-wine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes to dry up, by
-striking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,--an
-action similar to that of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, &c. That
-Scripture narrative has had an important influence in determining the
-formation of mythology, is highly probable; and we have already shown
-that the primary revelation of a Godhead at the creation of man supplied
-an important initial excitement to that development of the belief in the
-supernatural which occurred subsequent to the fall of man. The influence
-of Scriptural traditions on the myths of various nations it is probably
-impossible to unravel satisfactorily.
-
-
-IV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths of the ancients, and of
-modern pagan nations, were allegorical; and that they were designed to
-represent a philosophical, moral, or religious truth under a fabulous
-form. Thus, the myth of the giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off
-the sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards stolen from him by
-Mercury, and restored to Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful
-rebellions, by which the sinews of kings--their revenue and
-authority--are cut off; but by mildness of address, and wisdom of
-edicts, influencing the people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they
-recover their power and reconcile their subjects. And in the myth of the
-expedition of the gods against the giants, when the ass Silenus became
-of great service in dispersing them, on account of the terror excited by
-his braying, it is considered to be an allegory of those vast projects
-of rebels, which are mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain
-consternation. Minerva was fabled to have been born out of the head of
-Jupiter, because it was deemed that man did not in himself possess
-wisdom, but he derived it from divine inspiration; and this goddess was
-born armed, because a wise man clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified
-against all the harms of life.
-
-This element has undoubtedly had an important influence in the formation
-of the various myths, but it refers rather to an advanced stage in
-mythology, and to that period of development when a nation has made some
-progress in arts and literature.
-
-These elements, and doubtless also others of which the effects are less
-easily unfolded, _e.g._ intercourse between various nations, dispersion
-of tribes, &c., have all exercised a greater or less degree of influence
-on the development and formation of the mythologies of different
-nations.
-
-If we contemplate a race in the earlier phases of its existence, or one
-degraded in the scale of being, we find that its ideas of the
-supernatural are confined to the deification and worship of the simplest
-and most striking of the objects and phenomena of nature: as it has
-increased in civilization and learning, those deities have been
-represented in symbolical forms; and as civilization and the cultivation
-of the mind advances, and the knowledge of surrounding nature has become
-increased, so have the number of deities been multiplied by the
-deification of the less evident powers of nature, of kings, and of
-distinguished men, and then also allegory has come into play. Every
-variation in the character of a nation, and every era, has impressed
-more or less distinct marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we
-receive it now, is the sum of all those changes which have been
-impressed upon it from its earliest formation.
-
-When Christianity dawned upon the world, its effect was not the
-immediate eradication or dispersion of the superstitious beliefs and
-observances then entertained: it induced a change in the form and
-nature of those beliefs.
-
-At the commencement of the Christian era, certain men, inspired by the
-Holy Ghost, were enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings
-derived from habit, education, and authority, and to receive at once, in
-all its purity and fulness, the light of the gospel--perhaps the most
-wonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ. Such was not the case,
-however, with the majority of the earlier Christians. They did not thus
-throw off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin, but modified them
-so as to concur, as they thought, with Scripture.
-
-Thus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of one sole, omnipotent,
-and omniscient God; and it fully defined a power of evil, and denounced
-idolatry. Hence the early Christian fathers were led to conceive, and
-teach, that the gods of the heathen were devils; and further, that their
-history, attributes, and worship, had been taught to mankind by the
-devils themselves.
-
-    "Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones;
-    Though of their names in heavenly records now
-    Be no memorial,--blotted out and razed,
-    By their rebellion from the book of life,--
-    ... wandering o'er the earth,
-    Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
-    By falsities and lies the greatest part
-    Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake
-    God their Creator, and the invisible
-    Glory of Him that made them to transform
-    Oft to the image of a brute adorn'd
-    With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,
-    And devils to adore for deities;
-    Then were they known to man by various names,
-    And various idols through the heathen world."[21]
-
-This phase being given to the existing superstitions, it will readily be
-understood how, under the form of devils, most of the principal classes
-of deities in pagan mythology were retained and believed in. Thus the
-elemental and primary gods of paganism were perpetuated under the name
-of _fiends_, _dÊmons_, _genii_, &c.; and the terms _salamanders_,
-_undines_, &c., expressed certain spirits of fire and of water; in the
-form of _fairies_, _elves_, _sylphs_, &c., were retained the graceful
-Nymphs--Oreads, Dryads, &c.--of antiquity,--
-
-    "The light militia of the lower sky;"
-
-the hidden parts of the earth were peopled with _dwarfs_, and other
-spirits of a more powerful nature; and spectral apparitions frighted the
-midnight hours of the watcher.
-
-It is, therefore, to the retention of certain pagan superstitions in a
-modified form, that we are to attribute the origin of the belief in
-those unnumbered spirits, which, under the names of fiends, dÊmons,
-genii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs, sprites, &c., have been supposed to
-surround us, and have hampered the imaginations of all Christian
-nations, and of which, to use the words of Pope--
-
-    "Some in the fields of purest Êther play,
-    And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;
-    Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,
-    Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;
-    Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light,
-    Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,
-    Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
-    Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
-    Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
-    Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;
-    Others on earth o'er human race preside,
-    Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide."[22]
-
-The belief that the heathen deities were devils, naturally led to the
-further conclusion, that the priests who sacrificed to those gods, and
-who were regarded as the medium of communication between the gods and
-man, held immediate converse with devils,--a belief subsequently
-extended to idolators in general, and to all those practising magic and
-sorcery. Instances of the natural alliance of a mythological idea to a
-Christian belief might be multiplied.
-
-The power of evil, enunciated by the Scriptures, and spoken of as the
-"_Devil_," was early reputed to have appeared in a visible form,
-assuming the aspect of the god Pan, or of a faun or satyr, that is, a
-horned figure, with hirsute frame, and the lower extremities of a goat,
-which indeed, until recently, was considered to be the most orthodox
-form of visibility for his Satanic Majesty. The connection of the power
-of evil with the gods of the most gloomy and hidden parts of nature is
-obvious: Pan, indeed, was the god of terror.
-
-Frequently, also, Satan appeared under the form of a goat. The goat is
-an emblem of the sin-offering, and of the wicked at the day of judgment;
-hence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness, and in this form
-the devil most commonly appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins.
-In Leviticus (xvii. 7), where it is written "they shall no more offer
-sacrifices to devils," it is literally, to "hairy-ones"--goats. The
-symbol of the goat prompted to the nature of the form given to Pan in
-the Grecian and Roman mythology. Indeed, the Greeks derived their
-worship of that god from Egypt, where he was adored under the form of a
-goat; and it is fabled that he captivated Diana under the aspect of a
-white goat.
-
-A singular superstition of the connection of the goat with Satan is
-entertained in some districts of this island. It is asserted that a goat
-is never visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as once in that
-time it must visit Satan to have its beard combed![23]
-
-Another example of the wedding of a pagan myth to the Christian religion
-is this:--Most heathen nations believed in the existence of deities
-whose especial duty was to guard the threshold of the house, and prevent
-the entrance of evil spirits.
-
-The Grecians and Romans had their Penates and Lars, and the Genoese
-retain the superstition at the present day.
-
-The Lars (_familiares_) were the souls of men, who lingered about the
-dwellings and places they had formerly inhabited and frequented. They
-were represented by small images resembling monkeys, and covered with
-dog's skin; and these images were placed in a niche behind the door, or
-around the hearth. At the feet of the Lar was placed the figure of a
-dog, to intimate vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to them
-in the month of May, when offerings of fruit were presented, and the
-images were crowned with flowers.
-
-Plautus (_Aulularia_) represents a Lar as using the following words:--
-
-              "I am the family Lar
-    Of this house whence you see me coming out.
-    'Tis many years now that I keep and guard
-    This family; both father and grandsire
-    Of him that has it now, I aye protected."
-
-Beneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found
-images of a foul and ugly appearance (_teraphim_), some having a lynx's
-head and human body, others a lion's body and human head. Sentences were
-also inscribed on the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures were
-placed on each side of the portal. The intention was, doubtless, the
-prevention of the entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the
-household.[24]
-
-The Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti, believe in the existence
-of similar deities. The Bhûtas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent
-spirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities. Every house and each
-family has its particular Bhûta, which is often represented by a
-shapeless stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order to
-propitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to defend the house from
-the machinations of neighbouring Bhûtas. The native of Ashanti offers
-also daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which, under the form of a
-stone painted red, is placed upon a platform within his hut.
-
-There are several remnants of this ancient superstition still in vogue
-in England. The common practice of nailing a horse-shoe behind the door,
-to terrify witches and prevent the entrance of evil spirits, is familiar
-to most persons. Formerly it was the custom to nail the horse-shoe to
-the threshold. Aubrey writes, in his _Miscellanies_: "Most houses of the
-west end of London have the horse-shoe on the threshold." In Monmouth
-Street, in 1797, many horse-shoes were to be seen fastened to the
-threshold. In 1813, Sir Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes in
-this position in that street, but in 1841 the number had diminished to
-five or six.
-
-In some parts of England, naturally perforated stones are suspended
-behind the doors, with the same intention;[25] in others, jugs, of
-singular and often frightful form, are built into the walls of the
-cottages--an interesting approximation to the Assyrian teraphim; and in
-Glamorganshire the walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to
-terrify wandering spirits,--a mode of prevention which we should like to
-see more generally adopted, as it would doubtless prove of some effect
-in impeding the access of those roaming spirits of evil with which we
-have to contend most at the present day--cholera and fever.
-
-According to Durandus, the dedication-crosses of the Roman Catholic
-churches were adopted under the influence of a feeling in every respect
-analogous to this ancient superstition. He writes that the crosses were
-used, "first, as a terror to evil spirits, that they, having been
-driven forth thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of the
-cross, and may not presume to enter therein again. Secondly, as a mark
-of triumph, for crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of his
-triumph.... Thirdly, that such as look on them may call to mind the
-passion of Christ, by which He hath consecrated his church; and their
-belief in his passion."[26]
-
-But the influence of mythology on Christianity did not terminate with
-the mere natural results of previous education, habits, &c. The church,
-under and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing in the
-protection of the civil power, and not content with the natural
-veneration due to those early Christians who had struggled for the
-cross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves by their long and
-protracted sufferings, insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced
-by the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to deify his
-benefactors, indulged a degree of reverence to the memory of those holy
-men, which soon ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately
-to their canonization and invocation. The Fathers of that
-period--Athanasius, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.--encouraged the belief;
-and a rage was developed for the search of the remains and
-resting-places of the holy dead, to whom prayers were offered; and, in
-its encouragement of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles,
-prophetic dreams, relics, &c., the Roman church at this time rivalled
-the omens, divinations, oracles, and hero-worship of one of the later
-phases of mythology.
-
-The church even sought to promote the spread of Christianity by the
-adoption of certain pagan rites and ceremonies. No more remarkable and
-interesting example of this is to be found than in the annals of our own
-country. In the year of our Lord 601, in a letter "sent to the Abbot
-Mellitus, then going into Britain," Pope Gregory wrote as follows:--
-
-"I have, upon mature deliberation on the affairs of the English,
-determined ... that the temples of the idols of that nation ought not to
-be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed, let holy
-water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected,
-and relics placed. For if those temples be well built, it is requisite
-that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the
-true God; that the nation, seeing that the temples are not destroyed,
-may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true
-God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have
-been accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen
-in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for these
-on this account, as that on the day of dedication, or the nativities of
-the holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may build
-themselves huts of the boughs of trees about those churches which have
-been turned to that use from temples, and no more offer beasts to the
-devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return
-thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end that,
-whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the
-more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God."[27]
-
-In A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II expressed his approval of image-worship,
-and because the Greek emperor refused to accede to this form of
-idolatry, he caused the tribute paid to him by Rome to be suspended, and
-even went to the extent of excommunicating him; and in 789, the second
-Nicene council re-established and confirmed the adoration of images.
-
-Examples of the influence of these doctrines in the Roman and other
-churches may be multiplied.
-
-The censers and lustration vessels of the priesthood are copied from the
-sacrificial vessels which were used in the pagan temples; the woollen
-fillet was transformed into the priest's amice; and the _lituus_, or
-curved staff of the soothsayer, became the crozier of the bishop.
-
-The sacred fountains of antiquity were perpetuated in a Christian form
-by dedication to a saint. Examples of this are afforded by the wells of
-St. Elian, in Denbighshire; St. Winifred, in Flintshire, &c.
-
-In no respect, however, has the Romish church so closely followed the
-example of pagan nations, and borrowed from mythology, as in the
-deification of men, and the adoption of tutelary divinities.
-
-As the mythology of ancient Rome and Greece had its gods who presided
-over countries, cities, towns, and the numerous actions and duties of
-man in his civil and religious life, to each of whom worship was offered
-and altars erected, so also the Romish church encouraged the belief in
-guardian saints, and in this respect its calendar rivals the Pantheon.
-
-As fully did this church adopt the principle of the deification
-(_canonization_) of men--one of the most prominent of the
-characteristics of idolatry.
-
-Thus the Romish calendar contains guardian saints of countries: St.
-George is the tutelary saint of England; St. Andrew, of Scotland; St.
-Patrick, of Ireland; St. Denis, of France; and St. Peter, of Flanders.
-Austria possesses two guardian saints, St. Colman and St. Leopold;
-Germany has _three_, St. Martin, St. Boniface, and St. George
-Cataphrastus; and so on of all the countries of Europe.
-
-There are also guardian saints of cities. St. Egidius presides over
-Edinburgh, St. Nicholas, Aberdeen; St. Peter succeeded Mars at Rome; St.
-Frideswide, Oxford; St. Genevieve, Paris; St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
-Januarius, Naples, &c.
-
-Of the general body of tutelary saints the following list will afford an
-illustration:--
-
-St. Agatha presides over nurses; St. Catherine and St. Gregory over
-studious persons; St. Christopher, St. Hermus, and St. Nicholas, over
-mariners; St. Cecilia, over musicians; St. Cosmos and Damian, over
-physicians, surgeons, and philosophers; St. Dismas and St. Nicholas,
-over thieves; St. Eustace and St. Hubert, over hunters; St. Felicitas,
-over young children; St. Julian, over pilgrims; St. Leonard and St.
-Barbara, over captives; St. Luke, painters; St. Martin and St. Urban
-over ale-knights, to prevent them falling in the kennel; St. Æthelbert
-and Ælian are invoked against thieves, &c.
-
-St. Agatha presides over valleys; St. Anne, riches; St. Barbara, hills;
-St. Florian, fire; St. Sylvester, woods, &c.
-
-St. Thomas presides over divines; St. Thomas à-Becket, blind men; St.
-Valentine, lovers; St. Winifred, virgins; St. Joseph, carpenters; St.
-Anthony, swineherds and grocers; St. Arnhold, millers; St. Blaise,
-wool-combers; St. Catherine, spinners; St. Clement, tanners; St. Cloud,
-nailsmiths; St. Dunstan, goldsmiths; St. Elry, blacksmiths, farriers,
-&c.; St. Florian, mercers; St. Francis, butchers; St. George, clothiers;
-St. Goodman and St. Ann, tailors; St. Gore, potters; St. Hilary,
-coopers; St. Leodager, drapers; St. Crispin, shoemakers, &c.
-
-St. Anthony protects hogs; St. Ferriol, geese; St. Gertrude, mice and
-eggs; St. Hubert, dogs; St. Joy, horses, &c.
-
-Numerous saints were invoked against diseases: _e.g._, St. Clara against
-sore eyes; St. Genow, gout; St. Marus, palsies and convulsions; St.
-Sigismund, fevers, &c.
-
-"There be many miracles assigned to saints," writes Barnaby Rich, in
-1619, "that they say are good for all diseases: they can give sight to
-the blind, make the deafe to hear; they can restore limbs that be
-crippled, and make the lame go upright; they be good for horse, swine,
-and many other beasts. And women, also, have shee-saints.... They have
-saints to pray to when they be grieved with a third-day ague, when they
-be pained with toothache, or when they would be revenged on their angry
-husbands.
-
-"They have saints that be good amongst poultry when they have the pip,
-for geese when they do sit, to have a happy success in goslings; and, to
-be short, there is no disease, no sickness, no griefe, either amongst
-men or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints."[28]
-
-The Romish church also adopted the pagan belief in apparitions, and as
-the latter had supported the argument in favour of the existence of the
-gods by the fiction of their occasional manifestations in a visible
-form, so the former endeavoured to sustain its dogmas by fables of the
-apparition, from time to time, of its saints.
-
-It is needless to dwell upon the manner in which this church pandered to
-the credulity of the people in this respect, for an example is before
-the world even at the present time in the apparition of the Blessed
-Virgin near La Salette, a village about four miles from Corps, a small
-town situated on the road between Grenoble and Gap.
-
-The story is as follows:--On the 19th September, 1846, the Blessed
-Virgin appeared to two children, the one a boy aged 11, and the other a
-girl aged 14 years, who were watching cows near a fountain, in the
-hollow of a ravine in the mountains, about four miles from the church
-of La Salette. When first seen, she was in a sitting position, the head
-resting upon the hands, and she "had on white shoes, with roses about
-her shoes. The roses were of all colours. Her socks were yellow, her
-apron yellow, and her gown white, with pearls all over it. She had a
-white neckerchief, with roses round it; a high cap, a little bent in
-front; a crown round her cap with roses. She had a very small chain, to
-which was attached a crucifix; on the right were some pincers, on the
-left a hammer; at the extremities of the cross was another huge chain,
-which fell, like the roses, round her handkerchief. Her face was white
-and long."
-
-Addressing the children, tears coursing down her cheeks, she spoke to
-them on the wickedness of the peasantry, particularly their neglect of
-the Sabbath and of the duties of Lent, when they "go like dogs to the
-butchers' stalls." Then she foretold that if the men would not be
-converted, there should be no potatoes at Christmas, all the corn should
-be eaten up by animals, or if any did grow up, it should fall to dust
-when thrashed. There should be a great famine, preceding which "children
-below seven years of age should have convulsions, and die in the arms of
-those who held them; and the rest should do penance by hunger. Nuts and
-grapes also should perish. But if men were converted, then the rocks and
-stones shall be changed into heaps of corn, and potatoes shall be sown
-all over the land." "The lady," in addition, confided to each of the
-children a secret which was not to be told to the other, but which they
-confided to the Pope in 1851. Then, after a little gossiping
-conversation, "the lady" vanished.
-
-Soon after this apparition had been noised abroad, it was discovered
-that the waters of the fountain were possessed of marvellous healing
-properties, and many miraculous cures were effected by its use. Pilgrims
-flocked to the scene of the vision, and it is affirmed that in one day
-60,000 of the faithful ascended the mountain.
-
-Among others, the present Bishop of Orleans made a pilgrimage to the
-"holy mountain," and he was so impressed by the solemn feelings excited
-by treading on such holy ground, that he often ejaculated, "It cannot be
-but that the finger of God is here." Other ecclesiastics of rank also
-visited the spot, and the whole affair was officially sanctioned.
-
-Nor did the matter rest here, for churches are being built, and
-dedicated to "Our Lady of Salette," in different countries; and a
-society has been established in England bearing her name.
-
-We have already alluded to the sacred fountains of heathen nations, and
-in the holy fountain of Salette we witness the modern development of a
-similar superstition. So also in the apparition of the Virgin the same
-credulity is traced which prompted the ancients to believe in the
-occasional appearance of their deities.
-
-It is related that Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter, by Leda the
-wife of Tyndarus, were seen fighting at the battle of Regillus; and
-that, subsequently, mounted on white horses, they appeared to P.
-Vatienus, as he journeyed by night to Rome, from his government of
-Reate, and told him that King Perses had that day been taken prisoner.
-
-On these legends Cicero remarks; "Do you believe that the TyndaridÊ, as
-you called them, that is, men sprung from men, and buried in Lacedemon,
-as we learn from Homer, who lived in the next age,--do you believe, I
-say, that they appeared to Vatienus on the road, mounted on white
-horses, without any servant to attend them, to tell the victory of the
-Romans to a country fellow rather than to M. Cato, who was that time the
-chief person of the senate? Do you take that print of a horse's hoof,
-which is now to be seen on a stone at Regillus, to be made by Castor's
-horse? Should you not believe, what is probable, that the souls of
-eminent men, such as the TyndaridÊ, are divine and immortal, rather than
-that those bodies, which had been reduced to ashes, should mount on
-horses and fight in an army? If you say that was possible, you ought to
-show how it is so, and not amuse us with fabulous stories."
-
-"Do you take these for fabulous stories?" says Balbus. "Is not the
-temple built by Posthumius in honour of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in
-the Forum? Is not the decree of the senate concerning Vatienus still
-subsisting?... Ought not such authorities to move you?"
-
-"You oppose me," replies Cotta, "with stories, but I ask reasons of
-you."[29]
-
-It would seem then that the parallelism is perfect, even to the building
-of temples, and the official recognition of the truth of the event.
-
-Of the individual personages of ancient mythology very few traces remain
-in England, and these principally belong to the fairy belief. This
-superstition, of which the analogue is found in the Nymphs, Oreads,
-Dryads, Naiads, Lemoniads, and Nerieds, of ancient Greece and Rome, is
-still prevalent in certain districts of this country; and the extinction
-of the general belief, among the lower orders, of one of the most noted
-of the personages which are met with in fairy lore, the _hobgoblin_, is
-comparatively of recent date. The name is, however, still familiar, and
-in use for certain vague manifestations of the supernatural, although
-the actual signification of the term is, to a great extent, lost sight
-of.
-
-The hobgoblin is worthy of notice not only for its intrinsic interest,
-but also for the illustration which it affords of the intimate
-relationship which is often found to exist between the superstitions of
-different and even far distant nations.
-
-This spirit, in his palmy days, was that fairy which attached itself to
-houses, and the neighbourhood of dwellings and churches (for even sacred
-edifices were not exempted from its influence). In disposition it was
-mischievous and sportive, although it often deigned, during the night,
-to perform many menial offices, and whatsoever building it attached
-itself to prospered. It was apt to take offence, particularly if, as a
-reward, money or clothes were placed for it in that part of the house it
-most frequented; but it was partial to cream, or some delicately
-prepared eatable, and any housewife who was careful to conciliate the
-spirit by administering to this taste, was certain to be well rewarded.
-As might be anticipated, it was a favourite character with poets, and
-descriptions of its propensities and actions abound. Thus, in the
-"Midsummer Night's Dream" (Act II, Sc. 1), one of the Fairies is
-represented as addressing this spirit, and saying:--
-
-          "Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
-          Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
-          Called Robin Goodfellow. Are you not he
-          That frights the maidens of the villagery,
-          Skims milk, and labours in the quern,
-          And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn;
-          And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm;
-          Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
-          Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
-          You do their work and they shall have good luck,
-          Are not you he?
-
-  _Puck._           Thou speakest aright,
-          I am that merry wanderer of the night.
-          I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
-          When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
-          Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;
-          And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
-          In very likeness of a roasted crab,
-          And when she drinks against her lips I bob,
-          And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
-          The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,
-          Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
-          Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
-          And _tailor_ cries, and falls into a cough;
-          And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,
-          And waxen in their mirth, and reeze, and swear
-          A merrier hour was never wasted there."
-
-Milton, in the "L'Allegro," writes of him in a different office, and--
-
-    "Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,
-    To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
-    When in one night ere glimpse of morn,
-    His shadowy flail has thrashed the corn,
-    That ten day-lab'rers could not end:
-    Then lies him down the lubber-fiend,
-    And stretched out all the chimney's length,
-    Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
-    And cropfull out of doors he flings,
-    Ere the first cock his matin rings."
-
-Another noted characteristic of this fairy is mentioned in the fine old
-song of Ben Johnson's:--
-
-    "When house or hearth doth sluttish lye,
-      I pinch the maidens black and blue;
-    The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
-      And lay them naked all to view.
-          Twixt sleepe and wake
-          I do them take
-    And on the key-cold floor them throw:
-          If out they cry
-          Then forth I fly,
-    And loudly laugh out, ho! ho! ho!"
-
-The hobgoblin is one of the widest-spread forms of fairy belief. In
-England it is also termed _Boggard_, _Puck_, _Robin Goodfellow_, and
-_Robin Hood_; it is the _Brownie_ of Scotland; the _Cluricaune_,
-_Luricaune_, _Leprochaune_, &c., of Ireland; the _Kobold_ of Germany;
-the _Servant_ of Switzerland; the _Nis_ of Denmark and Norway; the
-_NiÀgruiser_ of the Feroes; the _Tomt-gubbe_, or _Tont_, of Sweden; the
-_Phynnoderee_ of the Isle of Man; the _Monaciello_ of Naples; the
-_Duende_ of Spain; the _Lutin_, or _Gobelin_, of France; and the _Para_
-of Finland appears to have some affinity with it.
-
-The derivation of some of the principal names of this fairy is also of
-interest. From the Sclavonic _BÃŽg_, signifying _God_, come the words
-_boggard_ and _boggart_; the Scottish _Bogle_, a hill-fairy; and
-probably, also, the words _Bug-bear_ and _Bugaboo_; and from the
-Icelandic _Puki_, an evil spirit, come the English _Puke_, a devil, as
-also _Puck_; the Friesland _Puk_; the German _Putz_, or _Butz_; the
-Devonshire _Pixie_; the Irish _Pouke_; the Welsh _Pwcca_, and the words
-_big_ and _bug_,--all names of certain varieties of the fairy-belief,
-and having the signification of an evil spirit.
-
-Certain forms of pagan worship would appear to have been perpetuated
-unmodified in Christian countries even to the present time. A remarkable
-and singular illustration of this is found in Ireland.
-
-Off the north-west coast of that kingdom are situated the islands of
-Inniskea, containing a population of about 400 human beings. Nominally
-the inhabitants are Christians, and under Roman Catholic tuition; in
-reality, they observe the ancient forms of Irish clan government, and
-are idolaters, worshipping rocks and stones. Their chief god is a stone
-idol termed _Nee-vougi_, which has been preserved from time immemorial.
-It is clothed in homespun flannel, which arises from the custom of its
-votaries offering portions of their dress when addressing it. These
-fragments are sewed upon it by an old woman who has charge of the idol,
-and who officiates as priestess. It is invoked, among other things, to
-dash helpless ships upon the coast, and to calm the sea in order that
-the fishing may be successful.[30]
-
-The adoration of rocks and stone pillars is one of the most ancient
-forms of idolatry on record. It probably took its origin from the custom
-of erecting stone pillars as a memorial, and consecrating them as altars
-on any extraordinary event or occasion. The earliest mention of this
-custom is found in Genesis (cxxviii, v. 10):--
-
-"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took up the stone he had
-put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the
-top of it.
-
-"And he called the name of that place Beth-El ... saying ... this stone
-which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house."
-
-Stones thus erected as memorials, and consecrated as altars, in the
-course of time were considered to be the abode of, or rather to be
-filled with, the divine power, which had manifested itself there; and
-ultimately stone pillars were used as symbols of the Deity. Singularly
-formed rocks and stones were also regarded in a similar light; and
-traces of this very ancient form of idolatry may be found in all parts
-of the world.
-
-The "_animated stones_" of antiquity, which received divine honours,
-derived their names from Beth-El, as for example, Baithulia, Bethyllia,
-and Βαιτολια, signifying consecrated or living stones; and one
-of the modifications of Jupiter, _Jupiter Lapis_ (a stone), was derived
-from this form of idolatry, and the most solemn of the Roman oaths was
-that taken in the name of this god.
-
-Numerous traces of superstition are found scattered throughout England,
-and the countries of Western Europe, which are the lineal, although
-degenerated descendants of the superstitions of the mythological era of
-the respective nations, or rather races, dwelling there.
-
-There are few large towns in Great Britain which do not contain one or
-more persons who profess to practise astrology, magic, or
-divination--_wise men_, as they are popularly designated; and the belief
-in charms and omens is far from being eradicated among a large mass of
-the population, particularly among those who dwell in secluded or
-mountainous districts.
-
-Not unfrequently events happen by which we may gauge the extent to which
-these superstitions are still entertained. Those who marked the effect
-which the appearance of the late comet had on the minds of many in this
-country, would perceive that a somewhat powerful feeling of
-superstitious dread, on the occurrence of remarkable celestial events,
-remained. The alarm excited among the credulous in England was, however,
-if anything, less marked than that caused in many parts of the
-continent[31] and in America.
-
-Three years ago we had an opportunity of witnessing a singular
-exhibition of fear, which was excited in the inhabitants of the most
-impoverished districts of Leeds, by the prevalence of a brilliant
-display of the aurora borealis. The scene paralleled the descriptions
-recorded of the effects produced by similar phenomena in the Middle
-Ages. The prevailing impression was, that the world was on the point of,
-if not in, the actual process of destruction; and in many the alarm
-became extreme, when, during the most magnificent period of the
-phenomena, several of the streamers became of a deep crimson and blue
-tint.
-
-This display of the aurora extended over a vast extent of country, and a
-singular example of the feelings with which it was regarded in Spain was
-recorded at the time in the daily papers.
-
-On the evening on which it occurred, it so happened that the subject of
-the homily in one of the churches of Madrid was the destruction of the
-world, and the day of judgment. At the conclusion of the service, and as
-the congregation were issuing from the church, the northern heavens were
-glowing with the brilliant and ever-varying light of the aurora.
-Startled by a phenomenon which is of somewhat rare occurrence in Spain,
-the idea at once occurred that the terrible events upon which the priest
-had been descanting were about to come to pass; the people rushed back
-to the steps of the altar, and while the aurora continued, the terror
-and confusion beggared all description.
-
-Another indication of the influence which the superstitions we have
-named exercise on the minds of certain classes, is the number of works
-on astrology, principally reprints, which have issued from the press
-during the last eight or nine years.
-
-This ancient superstition, which is still practised by the Mahomedans,
-Chinese, &c., retains a hold upon the minds of many, even now. Its
-practice in this country is, however, most frequently combined with some
-of the minor forms of magic and divination; and those who profess a
-knowledge of these arts chiefly direct them to the ignoble purpose of
-detecting stolen articles.
-
-In America, it would seem, from the advertisements which from time to
-time appear in the newspapers, that this superstition is flourishing
-with some vigour. We subjoin, in a note, specimens of these
-advertisements.[32]
-
-The belief in charms and omens, which was one of the most important of
-the superstitions of antiquity, is still entertained by the lower orders
-in many counties, and it forms one of the most striking features of the
-current folk-lore.
-
-The Devonshire peasant will recite the 8th Psalm on three consecutive
-days, for three weeks, over his child, in order to prevent its being
-attacked with the thrush; and should the disease, notwithstanding this
-precaution, occur, he either plucks three rushes from a running stream,
-passes them through the mouth of the child, and then casts them into the
-stream, believing that the disease will decrease and disappear as the
-rushes float away; or seizing a duck, he will force it to open wide its
-bill, and then placing it close to the mouth of the child, he hopes to
-see the affection vanish as the duck inhales the infant's breath.
-
-The peasantry of Norfolk, Northampton, &c. have, for the prevention of
-epileptic fits, implicit confidence in a ring made from nine sixpences,
-obtained, by gift, from persons of the opposite sex, or from the money
-contributed at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
-
-There is a charm for cramp in the leg which must be familiar to most
-persons. It runs thus:--
-
-    "The devil is tying a knot in my leg!
-    Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it, I beg!
-    Crosses three we make to ease us,
-    Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus."
-
-This formula, with a little modification, was applicable also to other
-fleeting but painful affections. Coleridge states that when he was at
-the Blue-coat School there was a charm for one's foot when asleep, which
-ran thus:--
-
-    "Foot, foot, foot! is fast asleep!
-    Thumb, thumb, thumb! in spittle we steep;
-    Crosses three we make to ease us," &c.
-
-We have seen a charm for the toothache, which we believe has now fallen
-into desuetude, but which, from its singularity, is worthy of
-preservation. It is as follows:--
-
-"In the name of God: Amen.
-
-"As Jesus Christ passed through the gates of Jerusalem, he heard one of
-his disciples weeping and wailing. Jesus saith unto him, Simon Peter,
-why weepest and wailest thou? Simon Peter saith unto him: Lord, the pain
-in my tooth is so grievous, I can do nothing. Jesus saith unto him:
-Arise, Simon, and the pain in thy tooth shall be eased; and whosoever
-shall keep those words in remembrance or writing shall never be
-troubled with the pain in the tooth:--
-
-"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."
-
-The coral and bells which are suspended round the necks of children for
-their amusement, were originally used with very different intentions.
-
-Those who professed the occult sciences attributed several very
-wonderful properties to coral, it being regarded by them as a
-preservative against evil spirits, poison, and certain diseases.
-
-The ringing of bells was also, formerly, considered to be of great
-effect in terrifying and causing evil spirits to fly away. Nor did their
-influence cease there; they were esteemed efficacious for the dispersion
-of tempests; or, it would be more correct to say, that a cotemporary
-superstition was, that tempests, thunder and lightning, and high winds,
-were caused by evil spirits, or devils, who in this manner endeavoured
-to wreak their rage on man; hence, in the Golden Legend of Wynken de
-Worde, it is said that "evil spirytes that ben in the region of th'
-ayre, dowt much when they hear the bells rongen, an this is the cause
-why the bells ben rongen when it thondreth, and whanne great tempests
-and outrages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked
-spirytes should be abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of
-tempest." This superstition probably dates from the period when it
-became customary to exorcise, bless, and baptize the bells suspended in
-churches,--a custom which originated in the tenth century.
-
-The use of the coral and bells was derived from these superstitions, and
-they were at first suspended from the neck as an amulet which was
-protective from the influence of evil spirits.
-
-Certain events are still regarded as omens by the peasantry in many
-districts.
-
-If a magpie cross our path, it is said that we shall prove unlucky,
-unless we immediately cross ourselves; and an old rhyme says of the
-magpie:--
-
-    "One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth;
-    Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of a birth."
-
-In Devonshire, if a person sees four magpies, it is regarded as an omen
-of death in his family. If a pigeon is seen sitting on a tree, or comes
-into the house; or if a swarm of bees alight on a dead tree, or the dead
-bough of a living tree, it forebodes death in the family of the owner.
-In Derbyshire, if the sun shines through the boughs of the apple-trees
-on Christmas day, it is considered as a presage of a good crop the
-ensuing year.
-
-Of all the superstitions entertained previous to the advent of Christ,
-none have, however, been more fully perpetuated among Christian nations
-than that of spectral apparitions,--the visible appearance of the
-deities worshipped, or of the disembodied spirits of the dead--_ghosts_.
-
-This was due not only to the nature of the causes inducing spectral
-apparitions (causes which are inseparable from the physical constitution
-of man), but also to the confirmation which the belief was thought to
-receive from Holy Writ.
-
-The character of the superstition, as it has been retained down to the
-verge of the present period in our own country, and as it is still
-entertained in many countries, is very similar to that which it bore in
-the remotest periods of antiquity.
-
-The deities of those nations who had distinct and defined ideas
-respecting their gods, are reputed to have appeared from time to time to
-their votaries, assuming the form in which they were most commonly
-pourtrayed in the temples.
-
-Thus the gods which Æneas bore from the destruction of Troy and carried
-into Crete, appeared to him in that island:
-
-    "'Twas night, when every creature, void of cares,
-    The common gift of balmy slumbers shares;
-    The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),
-    Those gods whom I from flaming Troy redeem'd,
-    Before me stood, majestically bright,
-    Full in the beams of Phœbe's entering light.
-    Then thus they spoke and eased my troubled mind:
-    'What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,
-    He tells thee here, and sends us to relate.
-    Those powers are we, companions of thy fate,
-    Who from the burning town by thee were brought,
-    Thy fortune follow'd, and thy safety wrought.
-    Through seas and lands, as we thy steps attend,
-    So shall our care thy glorious race befriend.
-    An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain,
-    A town that o'er the conquer'd world shall reign.
-    Thou, mighty walls for mighty nations build;
-    Nor let thy weary mind to labours yield:
-    But change thy seat; for not the Delian god
-    Nor we have given thee Crete for our abode.
-    A land there is, Hesperia call'd of old,
-    (The soil is fruitful, and the natives bold--
-    Th' Œotrians held it once), by later fame
-    Now call'd Italia from the leader's name.
-    Iasius there, and Dardanus, were born;
-    From thence we came and thither must return.
-    Rise, and thy sire with these glad tidings greet:
-    Search Italy; for Jove denies thee Crete.'
-    Astonished at their voices and their sight,
-    (Nor were they dreams, but visions of the night;
-    I saw, I knew their faces, and descry'd,
-    In perfect view, their hair with fillets tied),
-    I started from my couch; a clammy sweat
-    On all my limbs, and shivering body, sate.
-    To heaven I lift my hands with pious haste,
-    And sacred incense in the flames I cast."[33]
-
-Among Christian nations visions of this character have also been common;
-and the religious writings of every age of the Church contain numerous
-instances of apparitions of the Trinity, of our Lord, of the canonized,
-and the powers of evil.
-
-But the most familiar phase of the ghost-belief is that of the visible
-manifestation of the spirits of the dead; and probably few, if any,
-races are without a superstition of this nature.
-
-The Grecians and Romans believed that the souls of the dead (_manes_)
-roamed about the earth, having power to interfere with the affairs of
-man and inflict evil. The spirits of those who had been virtuous during
-life were distinguished by the name of _lares_ (under which name we have
-in a previous page alluded to them as tutelary deities) or _manes_; and
-the spirits of the wicked were termed _larvÊ_, or _lemures_, and often
-terrified the good, and haunted the wicked and impious. These ghosts
-were also deified, and they were known as the _Dii Manes_; and the
-stones erected over the graves in Roman burial-grounds had usually
-inscribed upon them the letters D.M., or D.M.S., that is, _Dîs Manibus_,
-or _Dîs Manibus Sacrum_,--"Sacred to the Manes Gods." Sacrifices were
-offered to these deities, the offerings being termed _religiosÊ_, in
-contradistinction to those offered to the superior gods, which were
-denominated _sacrÊ_; and during the festivals held in honour of the
-ghosts (_Lemuria_ or _Lemuralia_), it was customary to burn black beans
-over the graves, and to beat kettles and drums, in order that, by the
-noxious odour of the former, and the noise of the latter, the ghosts
-might be frightened away, and no longer terrify their relations.
-
-We have already given several examples illustrative of the parallelism
-which exists between the accounts we possess of the apparitions of
-Grecian and Roman deities, and those manifestations of celestial
-personages which are recorded to have occurred in more modern times. A
-similar resemblance exists between the accounts given of the spectral
-appearance of the spirits of the dead.
-
-In the Odyssey (B. XI), Ulysses, previous to descending into hell, is
-described as offering "solemn rites and holy vows" to the dead:--
-
-    "When lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts,
-    Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts;
-    Fair, pensive youths, and soft, enamour'd maids;
-    And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades
-    Ghastly with wounds, the form of warriors slain
-    Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train:
-    These and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the ground,
-    And all the dire assembly shriek'd around."
-
-A striking illustration of the similarity of ancient and modern
-ghost-stories, in all essential points, is contained in the description
-given in the Æneis (B. II) of the apparition of the ghost of Hector to
-Æneas, at the destruction of Troy:--
-
-    "'Twas in the dead of night, when sleep repairs
-    Our bodies worn with toils, our minds with cares,
-    When Hector's ghost before my sight appears:
-    A bloody shroud he seem'd, and bath'd in tears;
-    Such as he was when by Pelides slain,
-    Thessalian coursers dragg'd him o'er the plain;
-    Swoll'n were his feet, as when the thongs were thrust
-    Through the bored holes; his body black with dust;
-    Unlike that Hector, who return'd from toils
-    Of war, triumphant in Æacians' spoils,
-    Or him, who made the fainting Greeks retire,
-    And launch'd against their navy Phrygian fire.
-    His hair and beard stood stiffen'd with his gore,
-    And all the wounds he for his country bore
-    Now streamed afresh, and with new purple ran."
-
-An equally, if not more marked example, is recorded by Pliny, the consul
-at Sura.
-
-A house at Athens was grievously haunted by a spirit, which, during the
-night, restlessly roamed through the apartments, dragging, apparently, a
-heavy chain after it. Athenodorus, the philosopher, hired the house,
-determined to reduce the spirit to order and silence. In the depth of
-the night, while pursuing his studies, the silence was broken by the
-noise of rattling chains, which approached the room where he sat.
-Presently, a spectre entered, and beckoned to him, but the philosopher
-took no notice. The spectre agitated its chains anew, and then he arose
-and, following his ghostly guide, he was led into the court-yard of the
-house, to a certain spot, when the spectre vanished. He marked the
-place, and on the following day caused the ground to be dug up and
-searched, when beneath it they found the skeleton of a man in chains.
-The bones were publicly burned, and from that time the spirit ceased to
-haunt the mansion.
-
-A belief in ghosts was one of the most prominent of the superstitions of
-the ancient inhabitants of Northern Europe. It was customary with the
-Scandinavians, as with the Grecians, to perform certain ceremonies at
-the tombs of the dead, to propitiate the ghosts, and facilitate their
-entrance into the halls of bliss.
-
-The ghosts of the departed warriors, after they had entered their airy
-halls, were supposed to pursue pleasures similar in character to those
-which had engaged their attention on earth. They listened to the strains
-of immortal bards; followed the chase over the illimitable fields of
-heaven; visited the scenes of their former glories; and when resting
-within their tombs, they would talk of mortal men, and sing the songs of
-other worlds. Airy and unsubstantial as a wreath of mist, they often
-wandered on the surface of the earth. The ghost of a mighty hero,
-clothed in a panoply of lurid clouds, and armed with a meteor, might be
-seen brooding o'er his tomb, or attended "by a ridge of formless
-shades," it swept across former battle-fields. The men of bygone days,
-wreathed in their vapoury robes, and reposing on clouds, hovered on the
-midnight blast, which bore in its mighty cadences the echoing sounds of
-the voices of the dead; or "like the new moon seen through the gathered
-mist, when the sky pours down its flaky snow, and the world is silent
-and dark,"[34] the spirits of the maidens glided over the rugged hills,
-or roamed on the pebbly shore.
-
-The early Scandinavian traditions and historical writings, are pregnant
-with ghosts and other supernatural agents. Mr. Howitt[35] quotes from
-one of the Eddaic songs, which records the lives of a hero named Helge
-and his wife Sigrun, the following singularly interesting scene.
-
-Helge died, and the body was laid in its cairn. In the evening Sigrun's
-maid passed the cairn, and saw the ghost of Helge ride into it with a
-numerous train. Addressing the ghost, the maid said, "Is it an illusion
-that I see, or the Eve of the Mighty, that ye ride your horses and urge
-them with your spurs? Or are the heroes bound for their homes?" The
-ghost replied, "It is no illusion which thou seest, nor the Eve of the
-Mighty; though thou seest us, and we urge our horses with our spurs;
-neither are the heroes bound for their homes."
-
-The maid then went to her mistress and said, "Haste thee, Sigrun, from
-the hill of Seva, if the leader of the battle thou desirest to see. Open
-is the cairn; Helge is come; the war-scars bleed. Helge bade thee to
-still his dripping wound." Sigrun went to the cairn, and entering it,
-said to the shade of her dead husband, "Now am I as joyful of our
-meeting as Odin's ravens when, long-fasting, they scent the warm food,
-or the day-wearied when they behold the close of day. I will kiss my
-lifeless king before thou throwest off thy bloody cuirass. Thy hair, O
-Helge! is pierced through with frost, or with the dew of death is the
-hero slain. Cold are the hands of the friend of Högne. How, therefore,
-King, shall I find a cure for thee?"--"Thou only, Sigrun! on the hill of
-Seva," replied the ghost, "art the cause that Helge is here, slain by
-the dew of sorrow. Thou weepest, gold-adorned one! burning tears, maid
-of the sun-glowing south! Before thou sleepest, every tear shall fall
-bloody on the breast of the Prince, pierced through with the cold of thy
-grief. But we will drink the precious mead together, though we have lost
-gladness and lands. Yet no one sings a song of woe, though he sees a
-wound in my breast. Now are the brides closed in the cairns, and the
-princely maidens are laid beside us."
-
-Sigrun made a bed in the cairn, and said, "Here have I, Helge, prepared
-rest for thee; rest free from all trouble. Son of the Ylfinga! I will
-sleep in thy arms as formerly, when my hero lived." The ghost answered,
-"No longer will I say that thou art unfaithful on the hill of Seva.
-Since thou sleepest in the embrace of the dead in the cairn, thou fair
-daughter of Högur! And yet thou livest, offspring of kings! Time is to
-ride the red ways. Let the pale steed tramp the steeps of the air. In
-the west must we be, by the bridge Vindhjalen, ere the cock in Walhalla
-wakes the sons of victory."
-
-In the Eyrbyggja Saga (written before A.D. 1264; period when the events
-recorded occurred, A.D. 883) is an account of certain spectral
-apparitions which followed the death of a lady whose commands upon the
-death-bed had not been obeyed. This story is almost unique in character,
-and it is a singularly interesting example of the ghost-belief of
-Iceland at an early period.
-
-On the evening of the day when the corpse was being removed to a distant
-place of sepulture, an apparition of the lady was seen busily preparing
-victuals in the kitchen of the house where the bearers reposed for the
-night. On the night when the conductors of the funeral returned home, a
-spectral appearance resembling a half-moon glided around the boarded
-walls of the mansion, in a direction opposite to that of the sun, and
-continued its revolutions until the domestics retired to rest. "This
-apparition was renewed every night during the whole week, and was
-pronounced by Thorer with the wooden leg to presage pestilence and
-mortality." Shortly after, a herdsman showed signs of being persecuted
-by demons, and one morning he was found dead in bed, "and then" (to
-quote literally from Sir Walter Scott's abstract of the Saga) "commenced
-a scene of ghost-seeing unheard of in the annals of superstition. The
-first victim was Thorer, who had presaged the calamity. Going out of
-doors one evening, he was grappled by the spectre of the deceased
-shepherd as he attempted to re-enter the house. His wooden leg stood him
-in poor stead in such an encounter; he was hurled to the earth and so
-fearfully beaten that he died in consequence of the bruises. Thorer was
-no sooner dead than his ghost associated itself to that of the herdsman,
-and joined him in pursuing and assaulting the inhabitants of Froda.
-Meantime an infectious disorder spread fast amongst them, and several of
-the bondsmen died one after the other. Strange portents were seen
-within doors, the meal was displaced and mingled, and the dried fish
-flung about in a most alarming manner, without any visible agent. At
-length, while the servants were forming their evening circle around the
-fire, a spectre resembling the head of a seal-fish was seen to emerge
-out of the pavement of the room, bending its round black eyes full on
-the tapestried bed-curtains of Thorgunna (the deceased lady). Some of
-the domestics ventured to strike at the figure; but, far from giving
-way, it rather erected itself further from the floor, until Kiartan, who
-seemed to have a natural predominance over these supernatural prodigies,
-seizing a huge forge-hammer, struck the seal repeatedly on the head, and
-compelled it to disappear, forcing it down into the floor, as if he had
-driven a stake into the earth. This prodigy was found to intimate a new
-calamity. Thorodd, the master of the family, had some time before set
-forth on a voyage to bring home a cargo of dried fish; but, in crossing
-the river Enna, the skiff was lost, and he perished with the servants
-who attended him. A solemn funeral feast was held at Froda, in memory of
-the deceased, when, to the astonishment of the guests, the apparition of
-Thorodd and his followers seemed to enter the apartment dripping with
-water. Yet this vision excited less horror than might have been
-expected; for the islanders, though nominally Christians, retained,
-among other superstitions, a belief that the spectres of such drowned
-persons as had been favourably received by the goddess Rana were wont to
-show themselves at their funeral feast. They saw, therefore, with some
-composure, Thorodd and his dripping attendants plant themselves by the
-fire, from which all mortal guests retreated to make room for them. It
-was supposed this apparition would not be renewed after the conclusion
-of the festival. But so far were their hopes disappointed, that, so soon
-as the mourning guests had departed, the fires being lighted, Thorodd
-and his comrades marched in on one side, drenched as before with water;
-on the other entered Thorer, heading all those who had died in the
-pestilence, and who appeared covered with dust. Both parties seized the
-seats by the fire, while the half-frozen and terrified domestics spent
-the night without either light or warmth. The same phenomenon took place
-the next night, though the fires had been lighted in a separate house,
-and at length Kiartan was obliged to compound matters with the spectres
-by kindling a large fire for them in the principal apartment, and one
-for the family and domestics in a separate hut. This prodigy continued
-during the whole feast of Jol. Other portents also happened to appal
-this devoted family; the contagious disease again broke forth, and when
-any one fell a sacrifice to it, his spectre was sure to join the troop
-of persecutors, who had now almost full possession of the mansion of
-Froda. Thorgrima Galldrakinna, wife of Thorer, was one of these victims;
-and, in short, of thirty servants belonging to the household, eighteen
-died, and five fled for fear of the apparitions, so that only seven
-remained in the service of Kiartan."
-
-The trouble and annoyance from the spectres had now reached so serious a
-pitch that, by the advice of a maternal uncle, Kiartan instituted
-judicial measures against the spectres.
-
-"A tribunal being then constituted, with the usual legal solemnities, a
-charge was preferred by Kiartan against Thorer with the wooden leg, by
-Thordo Kausa against Thorodd, and by others chosen as accusers against
-the individual spectres present, accusing them of molesting the mansion,
-and introducing death and disease among its inhabitants. All the solemn
-rites of judicial procedure were observed on this singular occasion;
-evidence was adduced, charges given, and the cause formally decided. It
-does not appear that the ghosts put themselves on their defence, so that
-sentence of ejectment was pronounced against them individually in due
-and legal form. When Thorer heard the judgment, he arose, and saying,
-'I have sat while it was lawful for me to do so,' left the apartment by
-the door opposite to that at which the judicial assembly was
-constituted. Each of the spectres, as they heard their individual
-sentence, left the place, saying something which indicated their
-unwillingness to depart, until Thorodd himself was solemnly appointed to
-depart. 'We have here no longer,' said he, 'a peaceful dwelling,
-therefore will we remove.' Kiartan then entered the hall with his
-followers, and the priest, with holy water, and celebration of a solemn
-mass, completed the conquest over the goblins, which had been commenced
-by the power and authority of the Icelandic law."
-
-The spectral phenomena of the ancient Swedish folk-lore differs in no
-respect from the current histories of recent date. An interesting
-example of this is found in the beautiful ballad of Sir Ulf and Lady
-Sölfverlind.
-
-Sir Ulf was a nobleman who had married a wife from a foreign country.
-After they had lived together eight years, and had had a family of three
-children, the Lady Sölfverlind died. In a short time he married again,
-and by his second wife, the Lady Stineborg, he had also several
-children. This lady, however, proved a cruel step-mother; for, as the
-ballad reads:--
-
-    "Lady Stineborg's children went out to play,
-    Lady Sölfverlind's children sate weeping all day.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    The youngest child it wept so loud,
-    That it woke its mother beneath the sod.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    Lady Sölfverlind spoke to the angel-band:
-    'Is it granted to visit the earthly land?'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'It is granted from heaven to earth to go,
-    But thou must return ere the first cock crow.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    She came to the door, she tirled at the pin;
-    'Rise up, my children, and let me in.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'On sticks and stones why lie you thus?'
-    'Nothing besides is given to us.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Why look ye, my children, so grim and so grey?'
-    'We have not been washed since thou went away.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Rise up, Lady Stineborg, hearken to me,
-    For I have a few words to speak unto thee!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both upland and low,
-    Yet now my children must supperless go.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both oxen and kine,
-    Yet now they go barefoot, these children of mine.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left soft down pillows, full many a one,
-    Now hard sticks and stones are the bed they lie on!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Hadst thou to my children shown tenderness sweet,
-    God the Father in heaven had found thee a seat!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Have thy children in me a hard step-mother known?
-    Henceforth will I love them as well as my own!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    There ne'er was a lovelier sight in the sky,
-    Than Sölfverlind taking her children on high.
-                This know we of Ulf."[36]
-
-The ghost-belief of Hindostan is one of the most important of the
-popular superstitions of that country. It differs from that of more
-westerly countries in the degree of reality with which the natives have
-invested it; for while the former look upon the interference of the
-spirits of the dead in the events of ordinary life as a circumstance of
-rare occurrence, and regard manifestations of this nature with an awe
-befitting their solemnity and supernatural character, the latter lives
-in an atmosphere of spectral beings, which are the spirits of those who
-have lived a wicked life on earth, and retain their malignant
-disposition unabated after death, if indeed it is not increased in
-intensity by the devil-like nature they assume, and exercise their evil
-powers in all the affairs of life, haunting the localities which they
-previously inhabited, and terrifying and tormenting alike friend and
-foe. Neither are their terrors confined to mere occasional apparition,
-and to the fear excited by this, but to the power which they possess of
-interference by physical force; for they belabour with blows, or
-grievously affect with bodily ailments, the unhappy individuals whom
-they haunt, and often subject to inexpressible tortures those who have
-had the ill-hap to offend them. Hence the Hindoo dreads a ghost not so
-much on account of its supernatural character, abstractedly considered,
-as for the physical evil it may inflict upon him.
-
-The ghosts of the wicked, and of the unmarried (as it is thought in some
-provinces), are alone permitted to wander on earth, and they have a
-partiality, like our own ghosts, for frequenting solitary places, woods,
-caverns, and ruins, from which they issue to exercise their baleful
-powers on man.
-
-Sometimes a ghost will haunt a certain house, or a plot of ground, and
-become so obstreperous, that the occupier of the house is obliged to
-desert it, and the proprietor of the land to allow it to become waste.
-But it has happened that if the spirit was that of an old proprietor, a
-deed executed in its name has appeased it, and it has no more troubled
-the place.
-
-These spirits are called, in the Deccan, _Vîrikas_, and in the more
-southerly parts of India, _Paisâchi_. It is customary to erect small
-shrines to them, formed of a pile of stones, on the top of which is a
-sheltered cavity, containing an image, or a rough, shapeless stone, to
-which offerings of cloth, rice, &c., are presented from time to time.
-This propitiatory sacrifice is, in general, found to be an efficient
-method of obtaining immunity from the malignant pranks of the ghosts;
-but if it be neglected, they will visit the unfortunate sinner with
-torments and misfortune, or, appearing to him by night, intimate the
-miseries hanging over his head, unless he quickly amends himself, and
-offers up the necessary gifts.
-
-Dr. Buchanan relates a story of the apparition of a _Paisâchi_ which
-occurred during his journey in Mysore. His cook had been taken ill, and
-died; orders had been given to secure his effects for the benefit of his
-wife and children, "but on inspection, after his death, no money could
-be found. Whether he had been plundered as soon as he became insensible,
-and that a guilty conscience occasioned fears among his companions, or
-whether the sudden manner of his death occasioned suspicions, I cannot
-say; but it was immediately believed that he would become a _Paisâchi_,
-and all my people were filled with terror. The butler imagined that the
-_Paisâchi_ appeared to him at night with a black silk handkerchief tied
-round its head, and gave him instructions to take all the effects of the
-deceased to his family; upon this, the latter, being a man of courage,
-put his shoes on the right side of the door, which he considered to be a
-sure preventive against such intruders. Next night a cattle-driver,
-lying in all the agonies of nocturnal terror, saw the appearance of a
-dog enter, and smell round the place where the man had died; when, to
-his utter dismay, the spectre gradually grew larger and larger, and at
-length, having assumed the form of the cook, vanished with a shriek. The
-poor man had not the courage to use the slippers, but lay till morning
-in a kind of stupor. After this, even the minds of the _sepoys_ were
-appalled, and when I happened to be awake I heard the sentries, by way
-of keeping up their courage, singing with a tremulous voice."
-
-There is a class of men called _Cani_, or _Shaycana_, who are supposed
-to have the power of ejecting and frightening away troublesome spirits
-by the performance of certain mystic ceremonies. It is requisite, first,
-to ascertain whether the offending ghost is that of a stranger, or if it
-belong to any deceased member of the family; for it would seem that much
-more powerful incantations are required to get rid of a family ghost,
-which seems to have the opinion that it has a right to haunt its
-relations in the flesh, than to eject the ghost of a stranger. The
-latter, according to Dr. Buchanan, may be got rid of for a fanam, or
-about ninepence sterling; the former requires expensive sacrifices and
-many prayers, therefore the fee is much larger.
-
-The Chinese have a great dread of ghosts, particularly of the ghosts of
-those who have come to an untimely end. They suspend in their houses,
-for the purpose of preventing the entrance of these spirits, and of
-defending themselves from their influence, a cruciform piece of iron, to
-which is attached pieces of perforated money, the coinage of emperors
-who have been deified, and who are conceived to exercise a protective
-power over their votaries.
-
-The superstitions of the modern Egyptians and of the Arabs are rich in
-ghosts.
-
-The term _éfreet_ is applied to the ghosts of dead persons, as well as
-to evil genii, by the Egyptians; and the following story, related by Mr.
-Lane, will illustrate the nature of this superstition as it is
-entertained by that people.
-
-"I had once a humorous cook, who was somewhat addicted to the
-intoxicating hhasheesh: soon after he had entered my service, I heard
-him, one evening, muttering and exclaiming on the stairs, as if in
-surprise at some event; and then politely saying, "But why are you
-sitting here in the draught? Do me the favour to come up into the
-kitchen, and amuse me with your conversation a little." The civil
-address not being answered, was repeated and varied several times, till
-I called out to the man, and asked him to whom he was speaking. "The
-éfreet of a Turkish soldier," he replied, "is sitting on the stairs,
-smoking his pipe, and refuses to move; he came up from the well below:
-pray step and see him." On my going to the stairs, and telling the
-servant that I could see nothing, he only remarked that it was because I
-had a clear conscience. He was told afterwards that the house had long
-been haunted; but asserted that he had not been previously informed of
-the supposed cause; which was the fact of a Turkish soldier having been
-murdered there. My cook professed to see this éfreet frequently
-after."[37]
-
-The Arabs entertain a considerable degree of fear and respect for
-ghosts.
-
-Mr. Bayle St. John states that when travelling through the Libyan
-desert, in 1847, he saw a burial-place of the Bedouin Arabs, in the
-centre of which were confusedly scattered "camel-howdahs"
-(_tachterwans_), stirrups, household utensils, small ploughs, &c.,
-which had been left there by the Arabs, when commencing a journey, under
-the care of the ghost of a defunct sheikh, who had been interred
-there.[38]
-
-Some of the aboriginal tribes of South America believe in the occasional
-apparition of the souls of the dead.
-
-Soon after the Roman Catholic mission was established at Bahia, an
-eclipse of the moon occurred; the savages, fully armed, rushed in terror
-to the mission, and when the priest inquired the cause of their alarm,
-they responded that the moon was the abode of the souls of the dead, and
-that on that night they had collected there in such numbers that they
-darkened its surface: this was a sure sign of evil.
-
-Such is a brief sketch of the ghost-belief of several nations, ancient
-and modern.
-
-This belief, in its essential characteristics, was the same in the
-remote periods of antiquity as in more recent times; and a similar
-analogy exists between the modifications of it which are now entertained
-in different and widely separated countries.
-
-The variations which it is found to possess are dependent upon those
-peculiarities of habit, religion, and social life which characterize
-each nation. This fact gives an important clue by which we may unravel
-the actual nature of the phenomena which are embodied in the belief. But
-previously to entering upon this task it is requisite to point out a
-remote consequence of mythological and legendary lore which exercises a
-highly important influence on the minds of most if not all persons at
-the present time.
-
-The numerous myths which were retained, the implicit faith reposed in
-them, and the great extent to which the practice of the occult sciences
-was carried in the Middle Ages, fostered ideas respecting the influence
-which supernatural beings exercised in the ordinary affairs of life,
-which rivalled in extent and variety those entertained before the
-Christian era; but they received perhaps a more gloomy character from
-the doctrine of the agency of devils.
-
-The prevalence of these superstitions throws a wild and weird-like
-shadow over the history of those periods, and one of the chief results
-was that the records of local and general events became pregnant with
-mysterious occurrences and supernatural interpositions; and a mass of
-legends, teeming with remnants of ancient myths, more or less modified,
-giants, demons, witches, wizards, ghosts, portents, &c., have been
-perpetuated to modern times, and have formed an inexhaustible mine to
-the novelist and romance-writer.
-
-There are few localities in England which do not possess legends or
-tradition of this nature; and the standard nursery and children's tales
-are full of supernatural personages and occurrences in which are set
-aside all the known laws of matter and force, and time and space are
-alike annihilated. Many of these tales are of great interest, for in
-them we find degenerated forms of some of the most ancient traditions
-and myths of our own and other races.
-
-The adventures of _Jack the Giant-Killer_, the most celebrated of all
-celebrated nursery heroes, are for the most part derived from the
-fabulous era of our own country, and from Scandinavian mythology; and
-the whole tale is a degraded and vitiated tradition in which the deeds
-of Corineus, a celebrated personage in the mythical history of Britain,
-and Prince Arthur; the adventures of Thor, the god of thunder, and other
-Scandinavian deities, are jumbled together in strange confusion.
-
-Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his British History[39] states that the early
-inhabitants of this island were giants. Brutus, a grandson of Ascanius,
-the companion of Æneas in his flight from Troy, and Corineus, also of
-Trojan descent, guided by a dream, discovered Britain, and delighted
-with "the pleasant situation of the place, the plenty of rivers
-abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods," they
-became desirous of fixing their habitation in so desirable a country,
-and landing, drove the giants into the fastnesses of the mountains, and
-divided the country.
-
-To Corineus was apportioned that part of the island which we call
-Cornwall, and it is recorded that he had selected this portion of the
-island for his share, because "it was a diversion to him to encounter
-the said giants, which were in greater numbers there than in all the
-other provinces that fell to the share of his companions."
-
-Corineus is described as being "an ardent man in matters of council, and
-of great courage and boldness; who in an encounter with any person, even
-of gigantic stature, would immediately overthrow him as if he were a
-child."
-
-In the same fabulous history (B. X, ch. 3) it is stated, that a giant
-who had invaded our shores, and taken refuge at the top of St. Michael's
-Mount, was attacked by King Arthur in the night and killed; the country
-being thus freed "from a most destructive and voracious monster."
-
-Some of Jack's principal adventures are derived from the ancient Eddas
-and Sagas of Scandinavia.
-
-The incident which represents Jack as having overheard a giant, upon
-whose hospitality he had intruded, muttering--
-
-    "Though you lodge with me this night,
-    You shall not see the morning light;
-    My club shall dash your brains out quite;"
-
-and in which he had evaded the catastrophe by placing a log of wood in
-the bed, he lying quietly in a corner, while the giant furiously beat
-with his club the inanimate object, thinking to dash him to pieces; and
-the delightfully cool response of Jack to the wonder-struck giant when
-he beheld him safe and sound in the morning, and inquired if he had not
-been disturbed in the night,--"No, nothing worth mentioning, I believe a
-rat struck me with his tail two or three times:"--this incident is a
-modification of an adventure which occurred to Thor on his journey to
-the land of giants, and it is found in some form or other in the
-folk-lore of every nation in the north of Europe.
-
-Thor, while journeying to the land of giants, met with one of that race
-named Skrymir. They formed a companionship, and the whole of the
-provisions were placed in the giant's wallet. At night, when they
-stopped to rest, Skrymir at once lay down and fell asleep, previously
-handing the wallet to Thor in order that he might refresh himself. Thor
-was unable to open it, and wroth with the giant for his apparent
-insensibility and the mode in which he had tied the knots, he seized his
-mighty hammer and flung it at the giant's head. Skrymir awaking, asked
-whether a leaf had fallen on his head, and then he fell asleep again.
-Thor again struck him with his hammer, and it apparently sank deep into
-his skull; and the giant again awoke, and asked, "Did an acorn fall on
-my head? How fares it with thee, Thor?" Thor, incensed beyond measure,
-waited until the giant again slept, and then exerting all his power,
-dashed his hammer at the head of the sleeping monster, into which it
-sank up to the handle. Skrymir, rising up, rubbed his cheek and said,
-"Are there any birds perched on this tree? Methought, when I awoke, some
-moss from the branches fell on my head."
-
-Skrymir, distrusting Thor, had before he slept interposed a huge rock
-betwixt himself and the god, and upon this Thor had unwittingly
-exercised his strength.
-
-The adventure in which Jack is represented as outwitting a giant in
-eating, by placing his food in a large leathern receptacle beneath his
-vesture, and then ripping it up, and defying the giant to do the same,
-whereupon the giant seizes a knife, plunges it into his breast and
-kills himself, is contained also in stories which are prevalent among
-the Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Servians, and Persians.
-
-The Swedish version is as follows:--"In the evening, when the giant and
-his boy were about to sup, the crone placed a large dish of porridge
-before them. "That would be excellent," said the boy, "if we were to try
-which could eat the most, father or I." The giant was ready for the
-trial, and they began to eat with all their might. But the boy was
-crafty: he had tied his wallet before his chest, and for every spoonful
-that entered his mouth, he let two fall into the wallet. When the giant
-had despatched seven bowls of porridge, he had taken his fill, and sat
-puffing and blowing, and unable to swallow another spoonful; but the boy
-continued with just as much good-will as when he began. The giant asked
-him how it was, that he who was so little could eat so much. "Father, I
-will soon show you: when I have eaten as much as I can contain, I slit
-up my stomach, and then I can take in as much again." Saying these
-words, he took a knife and ripped up the wallet, so that the porridge
-ran out. The giant thought this a capital plan, and that he would do the
-like. But when he stuck the knife in his stomach, the blood began to
-flow, and the end of the matter was that it proved his death."[40]
-
-The sword of sharpness, and the cloak which rendered the wearer
-invisible, and by the aid of which Jack won so many important victories,
-are two of the principal supernatural elements in the _Nibelungenlied_.
-In this ancient legend, which contains the same tragical story as the
-still more ancient Scandinavian poem, the _Völundar-Kvida_, the sword
-"Balmurg" is described:--
-
-                    "a broad and mighty blade,
-    With such keen-cutting edges, that straight its way it made,
-    Where'er it smote on helmet:"
-
-and the cloud-cloak which Siegfried took from the dwarf Albric, is
-pourtrayed as--
-
-    "A vesture that hight cloud-cloak, marvellous to tell,
-    Whoever has it on him, may keep him safe and well
-    From cuts and stabs of foemen; him none can hear or see,
-    As soon as he is in it, but see and hear can he
-    Whate'er he will around him, and thus must needs prevail;
-    He grows besides far stronger; so goes the wondrous tale."[41]
-
-The story of _Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper_, is of great antiquity,
-and versions of it are found in many countries.
-
-Ælian, who lived about A.D. 225, relates that, as Rhodope, a celebrated
-Greek courtezan, who had been carried into Egypt, was bathing one day,
-an eagle carried off one of her slippers, and as it flew over Memphis,
-where king Psammetichus was at that time sitting in tribunal, it let
-fall the sandal into his bosom. Astonished at the occurrence, and at the
-smallness of the sandal, he caused inquiries to be made for its owner,
-whom, when he had discovered, he married.
-
-Old versions of this story are found in Norway, Germany, Sweden,
-Denmark, France, Italy, Wallachia, Servia, Russia, Poland, and
-Wales.[42]
-
-In _Jack and the Bean-stalk_, the bean is evidently a version of the ash
-Ygdrasil of the Edda, reaching from hell to heaven; and the golden hen,
-harp, &c., are familiar features in northern stories.
-
-_Puss in Boots_, the _Seven-league Boots_, &c., have their prototypes in
-Scandinavian folk-lore; and the two last-mentioned tales, as well as
-others, are probably of considerable antiquity.
-
-Tales derived from these sources and composed of such elements, and
-fables in which beasts, birds, and fishes are represented as speaking
-and reasoning in a manner that puts man to the blush, are among the
-earliest things engrafted in the infant mind; and ever now
-
-                  "By night
-    The village-matron round the blazing hearth,
-    Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,
-    Breathing astonishment--of witching rhymes,
-    Of evil spirits: of the death-bed call
-    Of him who robb'd the widow, and devoured
-    The orphan's portion: of unquiet souls
-    Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt
-    Of deeds in life concealed; of shapes that walk
-    At dead of night, and clank their chains and wave
-    The torch of hell around the murderer's bed.
-    At every solemn pause the crowd recoil,
-    Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd
-    With shiv'ring sighs; till eager for the event,
-    Around the beldam all erect they hang,
-    Each trembling heart with grateful terror quell'd."
-
-Ideas of mysterious and supernatural powers, vague, undefined, and
-frightful, are thus instilled into the child, and influence it unchecked
-and uncontrolled by the Scriptural doctrines of the invisible which are
-taught to it. At first the two trains of thought derived from these
-antithetical sources go on separately and distinctly; the more frightful
-and wonderful events of legendary lore and fable having a much greater
-influence, and forming a deeper impression on the mind of the child,
-whose reasoning powers are still in abeyance to the emotions, than the
-Scriptural doctrines of the supernatural. As it advances in years these
-trains of thought insensibly blend; the more rampant absurdities of the
-supernatural framework of legendary and ghost-lore are discarded; but
-the less obvious and more insidious portions remain to a greater or
-less extent, and they are so graven in the mind, that they become part
-and parcel of it, and in whatever manner they may be subsequently
-modified in form, it is probable that they are never eradicated, but
-form a medium which gives a false and deceptive gloss to all our ideas
-upon those matters which are not immediately within the ken of reason,
-or which are more clearly attributable to other agency than the forces
-of the material word--such matters, for example, as are contained in
-Holy Writ.
-
-Hence our ideas of the supernatural are derived from two sources--from
-legendary lore and from Scripture; and this results, that although in
-after-life the more glaring errors and absurdities of the former are
-removed, those only being retained which are thought to be compatible
-with Holy Writ, yet the idea of the supernatural thus obtained, foreign
-from revelation, is retained in a vague and undefined form, and its
-origin and sources being lost sight of, it is regarded as an innate
-consciousness of the existence of supernatural beings, and prompts to
-the ready reception and belief of mysterious and not readily explicable
-phenomena being the result of supernatural agency.
-
-That proclivity to the belief in supernatural interpositions, that vague
-notion of spiritual beings, that so-called innate consciousness of the
-existence of the supernatural, which most persons possess more or less
-of, and which is totally inconsistent with the clear and perfect
-doctrine of the invisible taught in the Gospel, is, we believe, derived
-solely from the infant mind and earlier periods of youth being poisoned
-by the supernatural events and phenomena detailed in fabulous,
-legendary, and ghost-lore.[43]
-
-This substratum of superstition is the prime cause of the retention of
-those figments of degenerated and christianized mythology which are yet
-found among us, and for the persistence of the most generally received
-of these figments--_ghosts_. It is also a highly important element in
-the formation of that state of the mind which is from time to time
-manifested in singular and wide-spreading delusions respecting the
-communication of the spirit-world with man, and of which we have
-examples before us at the present time in the prevalent follies of
-"spirit-rapping" and "table-talking."
-
-The belief in ghosts does not now possess those glaring features which
-were attached to it at the commencement of the present century, hence it
-is less obtrusive; but it is very far from being extinguished, as some
-would teach, and its "etiology" is of interest, because it leads to the
-elucidation of the principal causes and sources of the fallacies to
-which the senses of man are subject, and by which he has been led in
-the remotest periods of antiquity, as well as at the present time, to
-frame those mighty trammels of superstition from which the mind in vain
-strives to disentangle itself completely.
-
-The doctrine that the spirits of the dead return to visit the scenes
-which were dear to them during the body's existence, is in itself
-awfully solemn and sublime. Man, prone to believe in supernatural
-interpositions (from causes already explained), and trusting altogether
-to the evidence of his senses, for many ages received this doctrine
-unquestioned; and aided by a fertile imagination, he clothed it with
-attributes which, although absurd in the main, yet as appealing to some
-of the deepest and warmest affections and passions of our nature, cannot
-even now be contemplated without exciting sensations of awe, if not
-fear.
-
-The thought that the spirits of those who, during life, were bound
-to us by the closest ties of affection, are ever near, scrutinizing
-our actions and thoughts, and prompting us ever and anon to that
-course which would most tend to our profit here and our joy
-hereafter[44]--shielding us, like guardian angels, from the wiles
-of those wandering spirits who, like the "Wicked One" that came
-softly up to Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and
-"whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he
-verily thought had proceeded from his own mind,"[45] seek to tempt
-us to destruction,--such a thought thrills through the soul of every
-one, and fills it with strange and undefined emotions of blended joy
-and fear.
-
-Few can free themselves altogether from the emotion of terror which is
-almost necessarily connected with scenes polluted by murder, or by other
-outbreaks of man's foulest passions. This feeling acting on the minds
-of the superstitious and ignorant, has led them to people with spectres
-all those places which have obtained notoriety from being the scene of
-some terrible ebullition of human frailty and wickedness.
-
-Thus, the glen where murder had been committed; the pond in which the
-mother had immersed her new-born infant; the hoary ruin pregnant with
-horrid legends of the past; the rocks over which the inebriated drunkard
-fell; the four cross roads where the suicide was impaled; the dwelling
-of the miser, or of him who did unjustly to the orphan; and the
-willow-banks of the still-flowing river into which the love-lorn maiden
-had cast herself,--each had its spectre, and at the midnight hour the
-ghost of the murdered bared to the moon the mementos of its foul and
-most unnatural end; the spectre of the murderer, writhing in agony,
-rattled its gibbet-chains; the suffocating sobs of the drowning infant
-were borne on the fitful breeze; hideous spectres hovered o'er the
-deserted ruin; the ghost of the miser guarded its quondam treasures; the
-cruel guardian and the suicide shrieked forth the agonies of the damned;
-and the phantom of the deceived maiden gliding on the banks of her
-watery grave, mingled its plaintive wails with each sough of the
-midnight wind.
-
-But, alas! this prolific source of terror and romance must be consigned
-to the delusions of the past; and the churchyard--erst pregnant with
-"thin-sheeted phantoms"--is now also shorn of its gloomy horrors, and
-regarded alone as the last quiet resting-place of man on earth.
-
-Even when glimpses of the spirit-world are vouchsafed to those who still
-firmly believe in occasional visitations from its inhabitants, it would
-seem that the fashion of their appearance has become more in accordance
-with the quiet well-regulated ideas of the age. The major part of those
-terrible attributes of the nether world, that of old were delighted in,
-are no longer exhibited, and they are numbered with the things that have
-been. The form which appertained to Satan himself--the cloven foot, the
-forked tail, the hirsute frame, and the horned head--must also vanish
-before the march of civilisation; hence Mephistopheles, in the "Faust"
-of Goëthe, is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Refinement too, which smoothens all
-      O'er which it in the world has pass'd,
-    Has been extended in its call,
-      And reached the devil, too, at last.
-    That northern phantom found no more can be,
-    Horns, tail, and claws, we now no longer see,
-      As for the foot--I cannot spare it,
-      But were I openly to wear it,
-      It might do greater harm than good
-      To me among the multitude.
-    And so like many a youth beside,
-      Who bravely to the eye appears,
-    Yet something still contrives to hide,
-      I've worn false calves for many years!"
-
-The phenomena upon which the belief of the occasional manifestation of
-disembodied spirits to man is founded, may be accounted for without
-having recourse to the doctrine of supernatural interposition.
-
-Our senses and our reasoning powers are apt to err. We may deceive
-ourselves, and are liable to be deceived by an erroneous appreciation of
-the sensations which we receive from the objects surrounding
-us--_illusions_--but of the nature of which we may readily convince
-ourselves.
-
-Illusions of the _sight_ may arise either from an error of judgment, or
-from a disordered state of the eye.
-
-Of those illusions arising from an error of judgment, perhaps none bear
-directly upon our subject. Examples of this kind of illusion are the
-broken appearance of a stick partially immersed in water; the apparent
-movement of trees, houses, &c., past a train in motion, or the banks of
-a river past a steamboat.
-
-Illusions arising from a disordered condition of the eye, prompting the
-imagination, are a prolific source of ghost-seeing.
-
-In the obscurity of the evening, or during the darkness of the night
-(particularly on those nights which are cloudy, and the darkness seems
-to rest on the ground), the difficulty with which we distinguish any
-object to which the attention is directed, is liable to induce a
-disordered state of the eye, the effects of which are very startling.
-
-"The imperfect view which we obtain of such objects forces us to fix the
-eye more steadily upon them; but the more exertion we make to ascertain
-what they are, the greater difficulties do we encounter to accomplish
-our object. The eye is actually thrown into a state of the most painful
-agitation, the object will swell and contract, and partly disappear, and
-it will again become visible when the eye has recovered from the
-delirium into which it has been thrown."[46]
-
-This illusion is increased by a disturbed condition of the pupil of the
-eye.
-
-The pupil is surrounded by a muscle called the _iris_, by the
-contraction and dilatation of which the size of the opening is increased
-or diminished, and a greater or less amount of light admitted to the
-eye. On a dark night, or during the twilight, the pupil is dilated to
-its utmost extent, so that every available ray of light may enter. In
-this condition the eye is not able to accommodate itself to near
-objects, and they become more indistinct; shadowy, and confused.
-
-Under these circumstances, an object to which the attention is strongly
-attracted, may appear to assume strange variations in form,--now
-increasing, now diminishing in size, now approaching nearer, now going
-further off, or anon disappearing altogether; and a bush, a guide-post,
-a stoop, &c., will seem as though it assumed the most startling changes
-in size and appearance. Add the effects of the imagination, and we shall
-at once perceive a source of the various goblins, boggards, and other
-strange sights which have been supposed to haunt many of our byeways and
-deserted places.
-
-To illustrate this form of illusion: a man with whom we were acquainted
-tells the following tale:--When young, he, one evening, had a quarrel
-with his mother about some trifling affair, and in defiance of her grief
-and supplications he left home late at night, intending to enter the
-army. It was very dark and stormy, and as he proceeded along a bye-path,
-suddenly a tall object arrested his attention; startled, he stood still,
-when, to his utter horror and astonishment, the object increased in
-size, and seemed as though about to pounce upon him; it then vanished,
-and anon appeared again. Terrified beyond measure, and conceiving that
-Satan had waylaid him for forsaking his mother, the poor man fell on
-his knees, and exclaimed: "O good Lord Devil, do not take me, and I'll
-go back to my mother, and be a good lad!" It is unnecessary to dwell
-upon the goggle eyes burning with flames which he imagined Satan to
-possess; suffice it that he remained before the supposed devil some
-time, overcome with terror, when a blink of the rising moon showed that
-he was laid at the foot of the stump of a tree. Heartily ashamed of his
-fear, he rose up, slunk back home, and made peace with his mother.[47]
-
-This will suffice as an example of the most degraded form of ghost-life
-with which our highways and byeways have been peopled by the
-superstitious and illiterate,--illusions which have arisen from the
-effects of a disturbed condition of the visual organ on an excited
-imagination. Burns humorously describes this variety of ghost in his
-"Address to the Deil:"
-
-    "Ae dreary, windy, winter night,
-    The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light,
-    Wi' you, mysel, I gat a fright,
-              Ayont the lough:
-    Ye like a rash-bush stood in sight
-              Wi' waving sugh.
-
-    "The cudgel in my nieve did shake,
-    Each bristled hair stood like a stake,
-    When wi' an eldricht stour, quaick--quaick--
-              Amang the springs,
-    Awa ye squatter'd like a drake,
-              On whistling wings."
-
-Another form of illusion is induced by objects seen indistinctly when
-the mind is disturbed and pre-occupied by some powerful and painful
-emotion.
-
-"A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening twilight of a
-stormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching over a dying child.
-The clouds were thick, the rain beginning to fall; darkness was
-increasing; the wind was moaning mournfully through the trees. The
-lady's heart almost failed her as she saw that she had a mile to walk
-through the woods in the gathering gloom. But the reflection of the
-situation of her friend forbade her turning back. Excited and trembling,
-she called to her aid a nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She had
-not proceeded far, when she beheld in the path before her the movement
-of some very indistinct object. It appeared to keep a little distance in
-advance of her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see what it
-was, it seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather
-unpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly discernable
-before her, and it appeared mysteriously to float along at a regular
-distance without any effort at motion. Notwithstanding the lady's good
-sense and unusual resolution, a cold chill began to come over her; she
-made every effort to resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing
-nearer the mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the
-features of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in its shroud. She
-gazed earnestly, and then it remained distinct and clear before her
-eyes. She considered it a monition that her friend's child was dead, and
-that she must hasten on to her aid; but there was the apparition
-directly in her path; she must pass it. Taking up a little stick, she
-forced herself along to the object, and behold, some little animal
-scampered away. It was this that her excited imagination had transformed
-into the corpse of an infant in its winding-sheet."[48]
-
-Sir Walter Scott relates an interesting case of illusion occasioned by
-an accidental arrangement of some articles of clothing:--
-
-"Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had filled,
-while living, a great station in the eye of the public, a literary
-friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged, during
-the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of the
-publications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of the
-distinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had enjoyed
-the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he was deeply
-interested in the publication, which contained some particulars relating
-to himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the apartment who
-was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into an
-entrance-hall rather fantastically fitted up with articles of armour,
-skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his book,
-and passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning to
-shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw, right before him, and in
-a standing position, the exact representation of his departed friend,
-whose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He
-stopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with
-which fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of
-dress and posture of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the
-delusion, he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary
-accuracy of the resemblance, and stepped onwards towards the figure,
-which resolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of
-which it was composed. These were merely a screen, occupied by
-great-coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles as usually are
-found in a country entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot
-from which he had seen the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his
-power, to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this
-was beyond his capacity; and the person who had witnessed the
-apparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the means of
-raising it, had only to return, and tell the young friend he had left,
-under what a striking hallucination he had for a moment laboured."[49]
-
-The liability to illusion or hallucination in that transitional state of
-the mind when it reverts to surrounding objects, after it has been
-pre-occupied with some absorbing and intense thought, is very strikingly
-shown in the above case. It is very similar to that condition of the
-mind which obtains between sleeping and waking, when it is well known
-that our dreams are most vivid and brilliant.
-
-Dr. Ferriar relates the following interesting case of illusion
-occasioned by a ray of moonlight acting upon the mind of an individual
-just awaking from a horrid dream.
-
-"A gentleman was benighted while travelling alone in a remote part of
-the highlands of Scotland, and was compelled to ask shelter for the
-night at a small lonely hut. When he was conducted to his bedroom, the
-landlady observed with mysterious reluctance, that he would find the
-window very insecure. On examination, part of the wall appeared to have
-been broken down to enlarge the opening. After some inquiry, he was
-told, that a pedlar, who had lodged in the room a short time before, had
-committed suicide, and was found hanging behind the door in the morning.
-
-"According to one of the superstitions of the country, it was deemed
-improper to remove the body through the door of the house; and to convey
-it through the window was impossible without removing part of the wall.
-Some hints were dropped that the room had been subsequently haunted by
-the poor man's spirit.
-
-"My friend laid his arms, properly prepared against intrusion of any
-kind, by the bedside, and retired to rest, not without some degree of
-apprehension. He was visited in a dream by a frightful apparition, and
-awaking in agony, found himself sitting up in bed with a pistol grasped
-in his right hand. On casting a fearful glance round the room, he
-discovered, by the moonlight, a corpse dressed in a shroud, leaned
-against the wall close by the window. With much difficulty he summoned
-up resolution to approach the dismal object, the features of which, and
-the minutest parts of the funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly. He
-passed one hand over it, felt nothing, and staggered back to the bed.
-After a long interval, and much reasoning with himself, he renewed his
-investigation, and at length discovered that the object of his terrors
-was produced by the moonbeams forming a long bright image through the
-broken window, on which his fancy, impressed by his dream, had produced
-with mischievous accuracy, the lineaments of a body prepared for
-interment."
-
-There are some illusions which arise from certain of the laws of action
-of impressions on the _retina_--that tissue of the eye in which the
-changes necessary to the excitation of the sensation of light by
-luminous rays are induced.
-
-A sensation excited in the retina is not momentary, or during the
-continuance of the exciting cause alone, but it persists some seconds
-after that has been withdrawn. Thus if the end of a burning stick be
-rapidly moved in a circle before the eyes, it gives rise to the
-sensation of an uninterrupted circle of light; the sensation excited on
-each part of the retina enduring for a certain period after the luminous
-point has passed.
-
-The following instance is an example of an illusion, having relation to
-our subject, from this cause.
-
-A gentleman had been earnestly regarding a small and very beautiful
-painting of the Virgin and Child. On turning round from the
-contemplation of it, he was surprised at finding a woman of the full
-size, with an infant in her arms, standing before him. On examining the
-figures more closely he, however, found that the woman wanted the lower
-fourth of the body, and this at once led to a correct appreciation of
-the nature of the phantom. The painting he had been viewing was a
-three-parts length, and it was the persistence of the image upon the
-retina for a short period after he had turned from it, which had given
-rise to the phantom.
-
-A species of divination is made use of in India which has its origin in
-an illusion of this nature, and of which the following is an interesting
-example:--
-
-A lady who was about to undertake a long journey, was persuaded by a
-Moonshee to walk on the verandah and consult her fate.
-
-"It was a clear calm night, the moon was full, and not the faintest
-speck in the sky disturbed her reign. The Ganges was like a flood of
-silver light, hastening on in charmed silence; while on the green smooth
-sward on which they walked a tall shrub here and there stood erect and
-motionless. The young lady, whose impressions were probably deepened by
-the mystical words of the Moonshee, felt a kind of awe stealing over
-her; she looked round upon the accustomed scene as if in some new and
-strange world; and when the old man motioned her to stop, as they
-reached an open space on the sward, she obeyed with an indescribable
-thrill.
-
-"'Look there,' said he, pointing to her shadow, which fell tall and dark
-upon the grass. 'Do you see it?'
-
-"'Yes,' said she faintly, yet beginning to be ashamed. 'How sharply
-defined are its edges! It looks like something you could touch!'
-
-"'But look longer, look better, look steadfastly. Is it still definite?'
-
-"'A kind of halo begins to gather round it: my eyes dazzle.'
-
-"'Then raise them to the heavens; fix them on yonder blue sky. What do
-you see?'
-
-"'I see it still; but it is as white as mist, and of a gigantic size.'
-
-"'Has it a head?' asked the Moonshee in an anxious whisper.
-
-"'Yes, it is complete in all its parts; but now it
-melts--floats--disappears.'
-
-"'Thank God!' said the old man: 'your journey shall be prosperous, such
-is the will of Heaven.'"[50]
-
-When a steady gaze is maintained upon an object until the retina is
-exhausted, which is shown by the imperfect vision, or "dazzling," and
-the eyes are then suddenly directed away from it to an uniformly
-coloured surface, an image of the object, from the persistence of the
-impression, as already stated, will still remain for a short period upon
-the retina; but another phenomenon is also observed, for the exhausted
-condition of the retina renders it incapable of responding, during its
-continuation, to the impression of the original colour of the object,
-and the spectrum appears of a different colour. To this spectral colour
-the term _complementary_ or _accidental_ is applied; and if the colour
-of the object be red, the complementary colour will be green; if yellow,
-deep purple; if black, white, &c., and _vice versâ_. Thus then the
-spectral apparition witnessed in the above relation receives a ready
-and intelligible explanation.
-
-The sense of _hearing_ is also subject to illusions: for example, when a
-timid person mistakes the rustling of leaves in a forest for the voices
-of robbers; or the soughing of the wind among the trees, in some place
-of evil repute, for the moaning of a wandering and unhappy spirit.
-
-The varied and undefined noises often produced by the wind when sweeping
-over an irregular surface, among rocks and trees, on the surface of
-water, in forests, or secluded and deep glens; and the mysterious sounds
-occasioned by the rushing of the water in the hollows and caverns of a
-rock-bound coast, have been fertile sources of illusion among the
-superstitious.
-
-The ancient Romans listening to the inexplicable sounds which assailed
-the ear in solitary and wooded places, fabled that they were the voices
-of the wood deities, or as Lucretius beautifully expresses it:--
-
-    "The neighbouring swains believe, or fondly vaunt,
-    Satyrs and nymphs the rural regions haunt;
-    That fauns with wanton revel and delight
-    Disturb the sober silence of the night:
-    That music's blended notes are heard around,
-    The plaintive voice, and harp's according sound:
-    And well they know when Pan, the sylvan god,
-    (While o'er his brows the piny honours nod,)
-    With bending lip awakes the vocal reeds,
-    And the charmed ears of listening satyrs feeds.
-    With joy these tales they tell, or tales like these,
-    And fill the woods with fabled deities."[51]
-
-As the winds swept over the wild heaths of the north, or roared amid the
-mountain passes, bearing upon their bosom the heavy mantling clouds
-which enwreathed the ghosts of the heroes of old, often in their varied
-tones did the ancient Celt conceive that he heard the voices of the
-dead; and he who was stricken with misery deemed that his forefathers
-called upon him to hasten to the land of shadows. "The ghosts of
-fathers," they say, "call away the souls of their race while they behold
-them lonely in the midst of woe." Or when an eddy of wind sweeping into
-the hall awoke a cadence of music as it played over the strings of the
-harps suspended there, the hearers shrunk as the notes thrilled through
-them, and fearfully whispered that the ghosts of the dead touched the
-strings, and asked whose death of all the mighty the ghostly music
-portended. "The harps of the bards, untouched, sound mournful over the
-hill."[52]
-
-The supernatural framework of many legends depends upon illusions of the
-hearing of a similar character.
-
-At Crosmere, near Ellesmere, in Shropshire, there is a tradition that a
-chapel once stood on the borders of the lake, and it was long believed
-that when the waters were ruffled by the wind the sound of the bells
-might be heard beneath the surface; and an old story records that, long
-ago, a church and village were entombed by an earthquake, near the spot
-where Raleigh, in Nottinghamshire, now stands; and that at Christmas,
-even now, the bells may be heard solemnly tolling deep in the bosom of
-the earth.
-
-Among the Cornish miners a very singular superstition prevails, which is
-due to the sounds occurring in old and deserted workings, from the
-dropping of water and other causes. These noises are supposed to be
-produced by certain spirits, which are termed "_Knockers_," and,
-according to the author of "Yeast; a Problem," the miners hold that
-"they are _the ghosts of the old Jews that crucified our Lord, and were
-sent for slaves by the Roman Emperors to work the mines_; and we find
-their old smelting-houses, which we call _Jews' houses_, and their
-blocks, at the bottom of the great bogs, which we call _Jews' tin_; and
-there is a town among us, too, which we call _Market Jew_, but the old
-name was _Marazion_, that means the Bitterness of Zion, they tell me;
-and bitter work it was for them, no doubt, poor souls! We used to break
-into the old shafts and adits which they had made, and find old
-stags'-horn pickaxes that crumbled to pieces when we brought them to
-grass. And they say that, if a man will listen of a still night about
-those old shafts, he may hear the ghosts of them at working, knocking,
-and picking, as clear as if there was a man at work in the next
-level."[53]
-
-But the most common cause of illusion from sound arises from the
-difficulty which all more or less experience, of tracing the direction
-of a sound, particularly if it be indistinct. The ascertainment of the
-direction of a sound, and the distance of the sonorous body, is an act
-of judgment, and it is the result of experience. The power may be
-cultivated to a great extent, and many savage tribes possess it in a
-very high degree; but among civilized nations, where the sounds
-requisite to be attended to are principally of a point-blank character,
-and where the necessity for the cultivation of that nicety of hearing
-which is required in forest life does not exist, the power of
-distinguishing the direction and distance of sounds is very imperfect.
-
-The intensity of the sound, and the position of the ears, contribute to
-the formation of a correct judgment; but if the two ears have precisely
-the same relation to the point from which the sound issues, as when it
-occurs directly before or behind, it is impossible to distinguish by
-the sensation alone whether the sound arises in the front or the rear.
-
-The most familiar and striking illustration of the difficulty
-experienced in determining the direction of sound, is _ventriloquism_.
-By a cultivation of the power of speaking without the aid of the lips,
-and by keeping the muscles of the face in a state of passiveness, the
-ventriloquist, on giving the mind of the listener a certain leading
-idea, will induce him to think that he hears voices issuing from the
-floor, from the ceiling, from within him, or from any position but the
-correct one; and by a modification of the intensity of the sound, it may
-be made to appear as if it arose at different distances, as when voices
-are heard in the distance, which gradually approach the listener, come
-close to him, pass by, and are again lost in the distance. Although
-perfectly aware of the deception, there are few who can correct the
-impressions received, and trace them to their legitimate source.
-
-This uncertainty of distinguishing the direction and the nature of
-sounds has been a prolific source of belief in supernatural occurrences,
-and the majority, if not all, of those mysterious noises which are so
-common in old houses, and which it was customary, from inability to
-discover their origin, to attribute to spiritual agency, have been due
-to this cause. The yielding of wood-work, the scouring of vermin, the
-sighing of the wind in chinks and crannies, have been transformed by
-excited and superstitious imaginations into the sighing, or whispering,
-or knocking of wandering ghosts, and there is, perhaps, not a town or
-village in England which has not at one time or other had one or more
-houses reputed to be haunted by incorporeal visitants who have thus
-announced their presence.
-
-Sir David Brewster relates an interesting example of illusion arising
-from this source. "A gentleman devoid of all superstitious feelings, and
-living in a house free from any gloomy associations, heard, night after
-night, in his bedroom, a singular noise, unlike any ordinary sound to
-which he was accustomed. He had slept in the same room for years without
-hearing it, and he attributed it at first to some change of
-circumstances in the roof or in the walls of the room; but after the
-strictest examination no cause could be found for it. It occurred only
-once in the night; it was heard almost every night with few
-interruptions. It was over in an instant, and it never took place till
-after the gentleman had gone to bed. It was always distinctly heard by
-his companion, to whose time of going to bed it had no relation. It
-depended on the gentleman alone, and it followed him into another
-apartment with another bed, on the opposite side of the house.
-Accustomed to such investigations, he made the most diligent but
-fruitless search into its cause. The consideration that the sound had a
-special reference to him alone, operated upon his imagination, and he
-did not scruple to acknowledge that the recurrence of the mysterious
-sound induced a superstitious feeling at the moment. Many months
-afterwards it was found that the sound arose from the partial opening of
-the door of a wardrobe which was within a few feet of the gentleman's
-head, and which had been taken into the other apartment. This wardrobe
-was almost always opened before he retired to bed, and the door being a
-little too tight, it gradually forced itself open with a sort of dull
-sound, resembling the note of a drum. As the door had only started half
-an inch out of its place, its change of position never attracted
-attention. The sound, indeed, seemed to come in a different direction,
-and from a greater distance.
-
-"When sounds so mysterious in their origin are heard by persons
-predisposed to a belief in the marvellous, their influence over the mind
-must be very powerful. An inquiry into their origin, if made at all,
-will be made more in the hope of confirming than of removing the
-original impression, and the unfortunate victim of his own fears will
-also be the willing dupe of his own judgment."[54]
-
-Not unfrequently the difficulty of distinguishing the direction of sound
-has been made the basis of imposition upon the credulous; and when it is
-considered how readily the judgment is led into error in this respect,
-even when aware of the deception practised, as in ventriloquism, the
-easy facility with which it is imposed upon when superstitious feelings
-are excited, and the wide-spread delusions which have thus arisen,
-cannot be wondered at.
-
-The Cock-lane ghost is a familiar example of a deception of this
-nature: but this, and every other delusion of a similar character,
-sink into insignificance before a delusion of our own day and
-times--_Spirit-rapping_.
-
-The idea of a communication of the spiritual world with man by the
-intervention of _raps_, is not new. A writer in a recent number of
-"Notes and Queries,"[55] gives the following example of an early
-instance of this kind in England.
-
-"Rushton Hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire, was long the
-residence of the ancient and distinguished family of Treshams. In the
-reign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion was occupied by Sir Thomas
-Tresham, who was a pedant and a fanatic; but who was an important
-character in his time by reason of his great wealth and powerful
-connections. There is a lodge at Rushton, situate about half-a-mile from
-the old hall, now in ruins, but covered all over within and without with
-emblems of the Trinity. This lodge is known to have been built by Sir
-Thomas Tresham; but his precise motive for selecting this mode of
-illustrating his favourite doctrine was unknown until it appeared from a
-letter written by himself about the year 1584, and discovered in a
-bundle of books and papers inclosed since 1605, in a wall of the old
-mansion, and brought to light about twenty years ago. The following
-relation of a "rapping" or "knocking" is extracted from this letter:--
-
-"If it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity and Passion of
-Christ to depaint in this chamber, this is the principal instance
-thereof; that at my last being hither committed"--(referring to his
-commitments for recusancy, which had been frequent)--"and I usually
-having my servants here allowed me, to read nightly an hour to me after
-supper, it fortuned that Fulcis, my then servant, reading in the
-"Christian Resolution," in the treatise of "Proof that there is a God,
-&c.," there was upon a wainscot table at that instant three loud knocks
-(as if it had been with an iron hammer) given; to the great amazing of
-me and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton."
-
-Another example of early "spirit-rapping" is the celebrated ghost of
-"_Old Jeffreys_," at the Epworth Parsonage, during the childhood of the
-Revds. John and Charles Wesley.
-
-The conception of a familiar correspondence between the spirit-world and
-man by means of knocks and raps is, however, an idea of modern times,
-and for which we are indebted to America, although it would seem that in
-1835 we were on the eve of making this unenviable discovery in our own
-country, for the invisible cause of certain noisy disturbances in a
-house occupied by a Captain Molesworth at Trinity, near Edinburgh, in
-that year, would, it is asserted, respond to a question by knocks, if it
-could be answered numerically; as, for example, "How many people are
-there in the room?" when it would answer by as many knocks. This
-so-called spirit seemed at times to be drumming a certain tune. The
-knocks in this case had some very intimate connection with a sick girl,
-a daughter of Captain Molesworth; for they accompanied her, and
-wherever she was there they prevailed most.
-
-In 1846, or 1847, a house in the village of Hydesville, State of New
-York, America, was reported to be haunted by certain noises, as
-knockings on the doors, panels, floors, ceilings, &c., of which the
-source could not be ascertained; and chairs and tables were occasionally
-displaced, and crockery broken by some invisible power. When the noises
-and disturbances first commenced, it is stated that the house was
-occupied by a man named Weekman; but subsequently it passed into the
-possession of a person called Fox, who had two daughters, Catherine and
-Margaretta, and during their residence in it, not only did the knockings
-and irregular motions of the furniture persist, but they increased in
-intensity, variety, and frequency of occurrence, and it was ascertained
-by the young women that the knocks would mimic sounds which they made,
-and even respond to questions put orally. A code of signals in the
-affirmative and negative was next arranged, and by going over the
-letters of the alphabet, and the affirmative signal duly occurring at
-certain letters, which were recorded, a system of correspondence was
-established with the invisible, but apparently intelligent, source of
-the disturbances. By this method it was ascertained that the cause of
-the noises, and other indications of invisible power, professed to be
-the spirit of a man named Charles Ryan, who, while in the flesh, had
-resided in that house; had been foully murdered there; the corpse
-interred in a certain part of the cellar; and had left a family of five
-children, all of whom were then alive. These revelations caused, as may
-well be imagined, a great sensation in the village, and, notwithstanding
-that no such person as Charles Ryan had ever lived there, or in that
-house, and that on searching the cellar carefully no remains of a corpse
-were found, the imposition and delusion was persisted in. It is scarcely
-necessary to add that as yet no one has come forward to claim kindred
-with the first of the disembodied spirits that held communication with
-man.
-
-Several committees were appointed to investigate the matter, but they
-failed to ascertain the cause of the sounds, and by common consent, no
-natural cause being evident, it was assumed, _therefore_, that the cause
-was supernatural.
-
-Subsequently, the Fox family removed to Rochester, and singular to say,
-the spirit-sounds followed them. Noises began also to be heard in other
-houses and towns, and it was soon found that many females, equally with
-the Misses Fox, possessed the power of communicating familiarly through
-the medium of sounds, with the spirit-world. In an almost incredibly
-brief space of time, this delusion swept over the United States, and
-multitudes from all ranks and conditions of society gave in their
-accession to the system of belief into which it was quickly moulded.
-
-Certain persons only were found to possess the power of summoning the
-spiritual knocks at pleasure; these were principally females, and they
-were termed "_mediums_." The belief itself was spoken of under the
-simple term of "_Spirit-rapping_," and its advocates and believers as
-"_Rappers_," or "_Rappites_."
-
-Each "medium," somehow or other, managed to interweave his or her own
-views with the spirit-revelations, and the spirits themselves did not
-hesitate in simple set phrase to give the lie to one another;
-consequently, the revelations and doctrines inculcated are somewhat
-varied and inconsistent. The most generally received doctrine at the
-present time may, however, be summed up as follows:--The "knocks,"
-"raps," and other manifestations of invisible power, are caused by the
-spirits of the dead, who, by direct permission of the Almighty
-(according to the more religious), or by self-discovery on the part of
-the spirits (according to a statement made by the spirit of Benjamin
-Franklin), are enabled to communicate with their fellow-men by various
-sounds and exhibitions of physical power. This correspondence was
-permitted by God in consequence of the great advance which the Americans
-in particular, and mankind in general, had made towards perfection; and
-it is intimated that if the present rate of progression towards
-perfection continue, we shall soon be able to have intercourse by voice
-and sight with the spirit-world. As it is, certain persons possess these
-privileges in full, and the mass of Christians, _if believers_, have so
-grown in goodness that the religion of the present day--Biblical
-religion--is no longer needed, and Christianity is to be regarded as a
-state of probation that _was_ requisite to attain the perfection now
-arrived at; but this transition state being passed, from the elevation
-of the spirit-world we can see that many of its doctrines form now a
-mighty and dangerous slough, in which we are in danger of being
-smothered.
-
-The ideas entertained by mankind respecting spiritual existences are
-singularly incorrect; notwithstanding this, however, most of the
-spirits, as when in the body, entertain some peculiarity of doctrine,
-which shows that even in the "spheres" opinions are divided on this
-point. The most general opinion states that the spirit-world surrounds
-the earth, and is divided into seven spheres, which are subdivided into
-seven other spheres, and these again admit of still further
-division,--a geography evidently derived from Mahomedanism, and the old
-monkish legends of the septate division of hell, purgatory, and
-paradise. In the first of the spheres the lowest orders of spirits
-reside. These form the most degraded class of spirit-life, and are
-unhappy compared with those in the higher spheres; but the lowest degree
-of their unhappiness exceeds the highest degree of man's pleasures. Into
-this sphere pass all those who have had an unsatisfactory character on
-earth; while those who have been more correct in their conduct pass
-immediately into the sphere which approximates to their degree of
-goodness. The residence of any spirit in the lower spheres is not
-constant; for, exposed to heavenly influences, it goes on gradually
-improving, and as it sublimes, it ascends through the higher spheres,
-until at last the seventh sphere is attained, where it is fulfilled with
-bliss, and enters the presence of God. Hence we find St. Paul and Tom
-Paine, Calvin and Napoleon, Wesley and Shelley, united in friendly
-brotherhood. There is no hell, such as is taught in the Scriptures, and
-no eternal punishment, and man carries into the spirit-world his
-passions and propensities, and relative degrees of ignorance and
-knowledge. The spirit of Calvin stated that the spirits understood all
-languages intuitively; but this has been refuted by an immense majority
-of spirits, and it is certain that they know no other languages than
-those they were acquainted with on earth. Indeed, it is requisite to
-have rudimental education in our own language in heaven. "I have no
-friends to teach me how to spell," said a spirit named Jack Waters.
-Another, named Frank Copland, was unable to make any satisfactory
-communication, from being "an illiterate youth" when he died; and the
-"medium" to whom this communication was made, kindly advised the spirit
-to get the soul of a deceased sister to teach him. He did so, and in
-three months it was ascertained that he had made very creditable
-progress in spelling, &c. The amusements of the "spirits" consist of
-music, concerts, dancing, card-playing, &c., and they live in a species
-of concubinage. They dress according to fancy, but the male spirits
-generally wear trousers, hats or turbans, and beards. They have also
-condescended to teach certain celestial architectural vagaries. They
-_lie_ like mortals, and coolly admit it; and it is occasionally
-necessary to put the spirits on oath! They are very liable to error, and
-the spirit of General Washington, equally careless of grammar and
-orthography, revealed, that they "many times make mistakes, and so we
-are called liars; but this is owing to our neglect of the records that
-are given us, and also to evel spirits; but we will try to be more
-careful or correct after we have becom more use to writing for our
-friends." The spirits speak with the utmost contempt and abhorrence of
-the religious beliefs of the present day, and regard the Bible as unfit
-for general perusal, from the errors (due to the translators) which it
-contains; and this assertion is fittingly crowned by the statement that
-it emanates under a special communication from St. Paul himself.
-
-Notwithstanding the painful absurdity and frightful blasphemy of these
-doctrines (which satisfactorily show the class of persons by whom the
-delusion is fostered, and the flagrant character of the imposition),
-clergymen, judges, and persons distinguished in literature have
-permitted themselves to be led away by the delusion, each establishing
-some conscientious clause or giving a peculiar phase to the belief, in
-order to exculpate themselves from the charge of contributing to some of
-the more outrageous dogmas of this strange delusion.
-
-The phenomena which led to the delusion were sounds of various kinds and
-intensity, which were called up by the "medium" at will, apparently in
-various parts of the room in which the "_séances_" were held, but
-principally beneath the table at which she sat; and the movement of
-certain articles of furniture. The intelligent correspondence with the
-"raps" (for the furniture-moving was merely indicative of the _power_ of
-the suppositious spirits) was by questions uttered audibly, mentally, or
-in writing, to which replies were given by repeated raps--an
-affirmative; or by silence--a negative; or the words of the response
-were spelled out by running over the alphabet--the affirmative knocks
-taking place when the finger or pencil rested on the letters required to
-form the sentence. Some more highly-gifted mediums, pervaded by a
-spiritual afflatus, were enabled to write the answers; and others
-shadowed them forth in dancing.
-
-If we reflect for a moment upon the difficulty which most persons
-experience in detecting the direction and position of sounds,
-particularly when the mind is under the dominion of certain ideas, we
-may readily imagine how at the first the delusion of spirit-rapping
-obtained credence among the credulous and ignorant. It was, however,
-soon ascertained that an imposition was being practised; and very
-shortly after the development of the mania, a "medium" came forward and
-confessed the deception practised, and the mode in which she had carried
-it out. This "medium," named Mrs. Norman Culvers, had been taught the
-mode of deception by Margaretta Fox, one of the original "mediums;" and
-she stated that the raps were produced by the toes, the listener's mind
-being distracted by directing the attention, by a fixed gaze or
-otherwise, to certain parts of the room, from which he was instructed
-that the sounds came. By the confession of other "mediums," and by
-observation, it was ascertained that, in addition to the rapping by the
-toes, raps were produced by a lateral movement of the knee-joint, and
-the joints of the thumb and fingers (the "cracking" of the joints, a
-familiar phenomenon); by the action of the feet against the leg of the
-table, or by the movement of the soles of the shoes one against another;
-and lastly, by a hammer ingeniously fixed in the woodwork of the table.
-It was further shown to demonstration, that in no case when the
-"mediums" were placed in positions where none of the before-mentioned
-methods of rapping could occur, did the raps take place; that in no case
-could the "spirits" reply correctly to a single question, when the
-querist, by an impassibility of countenance and scrupulous care over his
-actions, did not betray his thoughts, or indicate the letters
-constituting the words he required; and that the "spirits" might be led
-to answer the most absurd and incorrect questions, utterly unconscious
-of imposition or error.
-
-Notwithstanding this exposure, the delusion is persisted in; and it is
-principally maintained by the occasional correct replies which are given
-by the medium to questions of which none present could be acquainted
-with the answer, but the querist; and many men, even of considerable
-literary attainments, have been led into the delusion by this simple
-phenomenon alone.
-
-A careful examination of the details of the spirit-communications, and
-the confessions of the mediums already alluded to, will show that in no
-case was there a correct response given to questions when precautions
-were taken to guard against the indication given by the countenance or
-by the actions to the medium, and even this was not sufficient to
-prevent a multitude of errors being fallen into.
-
-The pure spirit-communications which have been received from the
-Apostles, Franklin, Washington, &c., vary according to the mediums to
-which they have been vouchsafed, and often flatly contradict each other;
-in itself a sufficient indication of the glaring character of the
-delusion.
-
-Some, admitting the spiritual origin of the "raps" have gone a
-little further, and enunciated the opinion that the "rappings" occur
-through the influence of electricity or magnetism which the spirits
-wield; "and if," writes N. P. Willis, "disembodied spirits are still
-moving consciously among us, and have thus _found an agent at
-last--electricity--by which they can communicate with the world they
-have left_, it must soon, in the progressive nature of things, ripen
-to an intercourse between this and the spirit-world." Surely an
-electric condition that would cause sonorous "raps," and tables,
-chairs, &c., to dance jigs, and imitate ships tossed in a storm,
-would be within reach of the test of experiment. Such a test,
-however, has never been attempted; and thus it is men, even of high
-standing in literature, with the utmost coolness plunge into
-conjectures respecting the operations of forces of which they seem
-to be unacquainted even with the signification of the terms. For
-electricity and magnetism are no vague names, but terms applied to
-certain phenomena which are readily ascertained, and without the
-presence of which we are not justified in using them.
-
-We have already sufficiently shown the illusions to which the sense of
-hearing is liable, and the influence they have had in the formation of
-the belief in spirit-rapping is evident. The disposition of the mind in
-contributing towards this and allied delusions requires a brief comment.
-
-The substratum of superstition which is found to prevail more or less in
-most persons, is a never-failing source of delusion; and it is the
-groundwork upon which the impostor acts. Readily excited and brought
-into play by phenomena of which the origin is not palpably evident, it
-seizes with avidity upon doctrines which pander to its taste for mystery
-and wonder; and a suggestion, whether direct or implied, induces a
-condition of the mind that interposes an almost insuperable bar to the
-healthy action of the reason. This unconscious action of the mind, under
-the influence of leading ideas, is the prime foundation of those
-illusions of the senses of which we have illustrations in the pseudo
-sciences of "mesmerism," "electro-biology," &c., all the phenomena of
-which may be produced by simply inducing certain trains of thought.
-
-When Goëthe represented Mephistopheles as saying--
-
-    "_Whispered suggestions_ are the devil's rÃŽle,"
-
-it was with a profound perception of the powerful influence they
-exercise in the creation of delusions.
-
-The throngs which crowd around the table of the "medium," go pregnant
-with a desire to see a mystery, and filled with a vague fear of the
-supernatural influences to which they may be subjected. This is
-increased by the interval of from five minutes to half an hour which is
-allowed to intervene between the commencement of the _séance_, and the
-first "rap" from the spirits; and during this period the mind is kept to
-the utmost tension by listening, or is well exercised by attending to
-the anecdotes illustrative of the power of the spirits which are
-detailed by the medium, and it is thus brought into the state that is
-requisite for the perfection of the delusion. In the condition of the
-mind thus induced, the medium has little difficulty in leading her
-credulous hearer to whatever length it may be desired, and a careful
-examination of the countenance and the hand will suffice for a correct
-response to the majority of the questions which may be proposed.
-
-The want of discrimination of the facts from the theories invented to
-explain them, is another and great source of delusion; for the majority
-it suffices that if the "raps" occur, or the table moves, it is
-sufficiently demonstrative that it is by the influence of spirits; and
-it is a much less difficult matter to them to believe that the phenomena
-arises from supernatural than natural agency.
-
-Certain luminous phenomena, phosphorescent flames, luminous clouds,
-glistening stars, &c., have been observed when the spirit-manifestations
-have occurred in profound darkness. These appearances were dependent upon
-a disordered condition of the eye, which will be fully dwelt upon in a
-subsequent part of this work.
-
-The irregular and violent movements of the furniture which occurred when
-the _séances_ were held in _darkened_ apartments, were the result of the
-most palpable collusion. There were certain movements of the tables,
-however, around which the experimenters sat when eliciting the
-spirit-rappings, that could not be attributed to this source; and an
-examination of these motions showed that if several persons arranged
-themselves around a table, and rested their hands slightly upon it,
-after a longer or shorter period motion would occur, which was to a
-great extent under the control of the will, although the experimenters
-were not aware that they exerted any force whatever upon the table; and
-further, it was ascertained that a table thus set in motion would
-respond by rapping with the legs, to questions propounded to it, and
-that with a facility equal to the most perfect "medium."
-
-This interesting phenomenon soon attracted considerable attention, for
-it was certain that neither collusion nor wilful deception were
-concerned in it; and it could be produced by persons who did not pretend
-to the character of "mediums;" indeed, out of a company of several
-individuals it was pretty certain that some could be found capable of
-inducing the phenomenon.
-
-The "Rappites" looked upon it simply as another and more general
-manifestation of the spirit-world; others, imbued with the
-pseudo-scientific dogmas of animal magnetism, odylism, &c., sought an
-explanation in the principles of their respective theories; some
-regarded it as the result of Satanic agency; and lastly, those best
-capable of judging on the question, looked upon the motion as the result
-of muscular force exerted unconsciously by the experimenters, and in
-accordance with certain well-known laws of muscular and mental action.
-
-The doctrine of Satanic agency has excited great attention in this
-country, from the fact of its being propounded and advocated by certain
-clergymen of our Established Church, who not content with regarding it
-as one of those "great wonders" which are to prelude the reign of
-Anti-christ, have even sought by this agency to verify the truths of the
-immortality of the soul, eternity, the existence of a hell; thus seeking
-a confirmation of the Scripture from the devil himself, and comically
-identifying themselves with the principles so pithily expressed by
-Ralpho:--
-
-    "Those principles I've quoted late,
-    Prove that the godly may allege
-    For anything their privilege,
-    And to the devil himself may go,
-    If they have motives thereunto:
-    For as there is a war between
-    The dev'l and them, it is no sin
-    If they, by subtle stratagem,
-    Make use of him, as he does them."[56]
-
-The answer to this explication, as well as to those other explications
-based on the doctrines of the "Rappites," and the principles of the
-pseudo-sciences, is found in the simple fact, that if care be taken to
-ascertain the sources of motion which arise from the experimenters
-themselves, and to obviate their influence in the experiment, neither
-movements nor responses occur; and by a careful examination of the
-conditions requisite for the perfection of the experiment, and an
-experimental illustration of them, we arrive at the conclusion that
-"table-moving" and "table-talking" are the result solely of muscular
-action exercised unconsciously under the influence of certain expectant
-ideas.
-
-If we proceed in the examination of this question as in that of every
-other physical question, by seeking the conditions requisite for the
-fulfilment of the experiment, and examining their nature, we observe
-that the position of the persons who perform it is one that would give
-rise to certain easily understood and comprehensible results. The hands
-are placed upon the table in such a position that the experimenter
-exercises the least degree of pressure of which he can be conscious, and
-in this position they are kept for a longer or shorter period, but
-generally averaging from twenty to thirty minutes. Whether the
-individual be sitting or standing, the protracted exertion of the
-muscles to keep the hand in so constrained a position, gives rise to
-considerable fatigue, which is manifested by the usual painful
-sensations in the over-exercised parts; and these sensations have been
-sagely compared by the advocates of the pseudo-sciences to those
-experienced by electric or electro-magnetic currents. As the muscular
-fatigue and the painful state of tension into which the muscles are
-thrown increase, the sensations by which we judge of the amount of
-pressure exercised upon a given object diminishes, and unless the degree
-of pressure exercised is checked by information derived through some
-other sense, it goes on ever increasing in a direct ratio until the
-whole weight of the hand, the arm, and even the shoulders of the person
-so standing is unconsciously thrown upon the table, and a degree of
-force exercised, which is sufficient to induce the movements we witness
-in the table experimented on.
-
-The inertia of the table is as thoroughly destroyed by the amount of
-force thus brought to bear upon it, as if a more intense force had acted
-momentarily. The period of suspense which occurs previous to the first
-movement taking place, is that during which the force communicated by
-the hand is equally diffused through the table, and the moment this
-happens, as no body can be set in motion until the motion has been
-imparted to every integral particle of that body, a slight additional
-force will be sufficient to overcome the resistence of surrounding
-media, and cause it to change its position. Hence a comparatively slight
-force exercised over a long period will not unfrequently induce effects
-equal to those caused by a greater degree of force exercised during a
-short period of time.
-
-We often witness the practical application of this principle. If we
-observe two men endeavouring to move a railway carriage upon the line,
-we shall notice that they do not at the first exert all their strength
-in one powerful, and what would probably prove exhaustive and futile,
-effort, but placing their backs against the carriage, they will push
-with a continuous and gradually increasing effort for several seconds,
-or even longer, when a slight movement will be perceived in the
-carriage, and a slight additional exercise of force will set it in
-motion. So also, as we have seen in quarries, when several men have
-endeavoured to move a large mass of stone with a lever, they have not
-used one long and powerful effort, but a succession of slighter ones,
-until a tremulous motion has been seen in the mass, when by one exertion
-of force they have hurled it from its place.
-
-The degree of pressure exercised by any given persons will be in the
-inverse ratio of the degree of control which they can exercise over the
-muscular system, and over their ideas; hence the phenomena of
-table-turning and table-talking are most fully developed by those who
-are possessed of but a low degree of volitional power, and in whom the
-passions and emotions are paramount, as in young females, boys, or those
-who are influenced by certain dominant ideas: and as these conditions
-vary in different persons to an almost endless extent, it would follow
-that the power of exciting the movements of the table and responses, as
-well as the nature and degree of the responses, would vary in a similar
-degree, which is found to be the case; and the rule of response is, as
-one of the supporters of the Satanic theory (the Rev. N. S. Godfrey)
-very naïvely remarks, "whatever the investigator wishes it to be."
-
-The directive force in the phenomena of table-moving is derived from
-certain habitual actions of the muscles, as in the direction from right
-to left, from the customary use of the right hand; and the influence
-which our ideas exercise upon the muscular system, unwittingly and
-involuntarily on our part.
-
-This, as well as the preceding remarks, are all capable of being
-experimentally illustrated and demonstrated; and Professor Faraday,[57]
-by a rigorous series of experiments, has shown that it is upon these
-principles that the phenomena depend.
-
-By the use of a most ingenious and simple piece of mechanism connected
-with an index, he showed the extent to which we exercise a certain
-degree of force and directive power unconsciously, and the nature of
-this directive power; and the result was:--
-
-"That when the parties saw the index it remained very steady; when it
-was hidden from them, or they looked away from it, it wavered about,
-though they believed that they always pressed directly downwards; and
-when the table did not move, there was still a resultant hand-force in
-the direction in which it was wished the table should move, which,
-however, was exercised quite unwittingly by the party operating. This
-resultant it is which, in the course of the waiting-time, while the
-fingers and hands become stiff, numb, and insensible by continued
-pressure, grows up to an amount sufficient to move the table or the
-substances pressed upon. But the most valuable effect of this
-test-apparatus is the corrective power it possesses over the mind of the
-table-turner. As soon as the index is placed before the most earnest,
-and they perceive--as in my presence they have always done--that it
-tells truly whether they are pressing downwards only or obliquely, then
-all effects of table-turning cease, even though the parties persevere,
-earnestly desiring motion, till they become weary and worn-out. No
-prompting or checking of the hand is heeded; _the power is gone_; and
-this only because the parties are made conscious of what they are really
-doing mechanically, and so are unable unwittingly to deceive
-themselves."
-
-An experiment is familiar to many persons by which a ring, being
-suspended by means of a piece of thread to one of the fingers, may be
-caused to beat responses against a glass surface (as that of a tumbler),
-in answer to certain queries put audibly; or, if the ring be held by the
-questioner, it is requisite merely that the questions be conceived
-mentally. This, to many, a puzzling phenomenon is dependent upon
-precisely the same cause as "table-talking"--a movement caused by
-muscular action developed unconsciously under the influence of certain
-ideational states of the mind.
-
-It is an interesting fact, that a species of divination is mentioned by
-Ammianus Marcellinus, in which a ring, used after the above fashion, and
-a table, consecrated by mystic rites, were used. We are indebted to the
-Rev. J. W. Thomas, of Dewsbury, for the following quotation from the
-works of this author, who lived about the middle of the fourth century.
-The quotation is taken from the first chapter of the twenty-ninth book
-("Construximus, magnifici judices, ad cortinÊ similitudinem DelphicÊ,"
-&c.):--
-
-"Noble judges, this unfortunate little table which you see, we
-constructed of laurel-rods with fearful rites (or ill-omened signs),
-after the likeness of the Delphic tripod; and (it having been) virtually
-consecrated with imprecations of mystic incantations (secret hymns), and
-many splendid and long-continued preparations, we at length used (_lit._
-moved) it; and of using (moving) it, as often as it was consulted about
-secret things, this was the method. It was placed in the middle of a
-clean house, with a round plate made of divers metallic materials,
-correctly (_lit._ purely) put upon it, on whose extreme circumference
-the twenty-four letters of the alphabet were learnedly engraven,
-separated by spaces accurately measured. A person [gifted] with
-ceremonial science stood at it, clothed in linen garments, his feet in
-linen socks, a wreath round his head, bearing branches of a lucky tree,
-a fortunate omen having been obtained from the deity who is the author
-of predictions, by hymns conceived (Apollo); weighing with scales a
-pensile ring, formed (or furnished) with very fine Carpathian thread,
-consecrated with mystic rites, which (or who) by distinct intervals
-falling by leaps on every letter retained, makes heroic verses agreeing
-with (or answering to) the interrogatories, to the completed numbers and
-metres, such as the Delphic ones are read, or those given by the oracles
-of the BranchidÊ. Thus then to those who inquired of us who should
-succeed to the present imperial government, for being swept in every
-part [as] it has been mentioned, and the ring leaping touched (went
-through) two syllables, ΘΕΟ; with the addition of the last
-letter (last additional letter), one present cried out 'Theodorus!' (as
-the name portended) by the decree of fate (by castal necessity)."
-
-This paragraph embodies the defence of one Hilarius, who, together with
-a certain Patricius, was charged with having spread abroad prophecies
-adverse to the throne of the Emperor Valens.
-
-A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (Vol. IX., p. 201) quotes the
-following interesting passage from the "Apologeticus" of Tertullian,
-cap. xxiii.: ("Porro si et magi phantasmata," &c.):--
-
-"Moreover, if magical professors also exhibit phantoms and defame the
-souls of the departed; if they press oracles out of childrens' talk; if
-they play many miracles with mountebank tricks, and if they send dreams,
-having once the power assisting them, of inviting angels and demons, _by
-whom_, and she-goats, _and tables, they were accustomed to divine_; how
-much more, &c."
-
-The correspondent remarks: "Here table-divination, by means of angels
-and demons, seems distinctly alluded to. How like the modern system! The
-context of this passage, as well as the extract itself, will suggest
-singular coincidence between modern and ancient pretensions of this
-class."
-
-The sense of _touch_ rarely leads to illusions which are referred to the
-supernatural, except under the influence of powerful superstitious
-feelings, when it is generally connected with illusions of the other
-senses.
-
-The influence of fear in developing illusions of the senses of sight,
-hearing, and touch, has been well pourtrayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's
-comedy of "The Beggar's Bush" (Act V, Scene 1):
-
-  _Boor._ Mistress, it grows somewhat pretty and dark.
-
-  _Gertrude._                                       What then?
-
-  _Boor._ Nay, nothing. Do not think I am afraid,
-          Although, perhaps, you are.
-
-  _Ger._                          I am not. Forward!
-
-  _Boor._ Sure but you are. Give me your hand; fear nothing.
-          There's one leg in the wood; do not fall backwards!
-          What a sweat one on's are in; you or I!
-          Pray God it do not prove the plague. Yet sure
-          It has infected me; for I sweat too:
-          It runs out at my knees. Feel, feel, I pray you!
-
-  _Ger._  What ails the fellow?
-
-  _Boor._                     Hark! hark! I beseech you:
-          Do you hear nothing?
-
-  _Ger._                      No.
-
-  _Boor._                       List! a wild hog;
-          He grunts! now 'tis a bear; this wood is full of 'em!
-          And now a wolf, mistress; a wolf! a wolf!
-          It is the howling of a wolf.
-
-  _Ger._  The braying of an ass, is it not?
-
-  _Boor._                                 Oh, now one has me!
-          Oh my left ham! farewell!
-
-  _Ger._                                  Look to your shanks,
-          Your breech is safe enough; the wolf's a fern-brake.
-
-  _Boor._ But see, see, see! there is a serpent in it!
-          'T has eyes as broad as platters; it spits fire!
-          Now it creeps tow'rds us; help me and say my prayers!
-          'T hath swallowed me almost; my breath is stopt:
-          I cannot speak! Do I speak, mistress?--tell me.
-
-  _Ger._  Why thou strange timorous sot, canst thou perceive
-          Anything i' th' bush but a poor glowworm.
-
-  _Boor._ It may be 'tis but a glowworm now; but 'twill
-          Grow to a fire-drake presently.
-
-  _Ger._                              Come then from it!
-          I have a precious guide of you, and courteous,
-          That gives me leave to lead myself the way thus. [_Holla._
-
-  _Boor._ It thunders; you hear that now?
-
-  _Ger._                                I hear one holla.
-
-  _Boor._ 'Tis thunder! thunder! see a flash of lightning
-          Are you not blasted, mistress? Pull your mask off;
-          'T has play'd the barber with me here: I have lost
-          My beard, my beard! Pray God you be not shaven;
-          'T will spoil your marriage, mistress.
-
-  _Ger._  What strange wonders fear fancies in a coward!
-
-  _Boor._ Now the earth opens!
-
-  _Ger._                      Prithee hold thy peace.
-
-We have now glanced at the principal illusions to which the senses of
-sight and hearing are liable, and the bearing which they have on the
-subject of spectral apparitions and other phenomena which it has been
-customary to regard as manifestations of the supernatural.
-
-But a false appreciation of sensations excited by natural objects is not
-the only mode in which we are liable to be deceived, for we are apt to
-regard sensations excited by the action of the mind, or by a disordered
-condition of the nervous system, or both combined--subjective
-sensations--as sensations excited by natural objects--objective
-sensations.
-
-To the erroneous perceptions arising from this source the term
-_hallucination_ has been given, and the phantasmata to which they give
-rise are more important than those arising from illusions, since the
-judgment is often unable to correct them, and they may impose equally on
-the wisest and the most ignorant.
-
-It is a law in physiology that a nerve of special sensation, (including
-in that term its central as well as its peripheral terminations,) in
-whatever manner it may be excited, can only produce that sensation to
-which it is appointed. Thus the nerve of sight, whether it be excited by
-natural or artificial light, or mechanical stimulus from without, or by
-morbid changes within, can only give rise to the sensation of light; the
-nerve of hearing, sound; the nerve of smell, odours; and so on.
-
-If the ball of the eye is pressed upon (say by the finger at the inner
-angle) when the eyelids are closed, or the light otherwise excluded,
-certain luminous figures will be perceived. This arises from the
-pressure exciting the inner coat of the eye (the _retina_), which is
-formed principally by the expansion of the nerve of light (the _optic
-nerve_), and is the tissue in which the changes necessary for the
-production of the sensation of light are induced by the rays of light
-from without.
-
-The luminous figures caused by mechanical excitation of this, the
-peripheral termination of the nerve of sight, vary in intensity in
-different individuals and at different times. They are sometimes very
-brilliant, and have been observed to be iridescent. In form they are
-circular, radiating, or regularly divided into squares, which have been
-compared by Purkinje to the figures produced by the vibrations
-communicated to a fine powder scattered on a plate of glass, along one
-edge of which a violin-bow is drawn; or to the rhomboidal figures formed
-on the surface of water in a glass, thrown into vibration by the same
-means.
-
-A familiar illustration of the excitation of a sensation of light by
-mechanical stimulus is the brilliant sparks of light, starlike figures,
-&c., caused by a blow on the eye, or by a fall on the head.
-
-A sensation of light may also be caused by the passage of a current of
-electricity through the eyeball; by mental emotion, as grief, passion,
-&c.; and by a morbid state of the brain or optic nerve. It is often also
-induced by a disordered state of the health, and under this condition
-the luminous appearance occasionally assumes a bluish, green, yellow, or
-even red tint.
-
-When an excess of blood is determined in the vessels of the eye, either
-from position or other cause, a luminous arborescent figure is
-occasionally observed in the field of vision on entering a dark
-apartment. This, according to Purkinje, is due to pressure on the retina
-by the distended blood-vessels. A luminous spot is also sometimes
-observed isochronous with the pulse.
-
-In ourselves, in ordinary health a lambent bluish coloured cloud of
-light constantly floats before the eyes in a darkened apartment; and
-there are probably few who would not perceive a greater or less
-sensation of light on being shut up in profound darkness.
-
-On the spontaneous appearance of light in the field of vision when it is
-darkened, MÃŒller, the distinguished Prussian physiologist, writes:--"If
-we observe the field of vision, keeping the eyes closed, it occasionally
-happens that we perceive not only a certain degree of luminousness, but
-further, that we discover a more marked glimmering of light, affecting
-even, in certain cases, the form of circular waves, which are developed
-from the centre towards the periphery, where they disappear. Sometimes
-the faint light resembles a nebulosity, spots, and more rarely, in
-myself, it is reproduced with a certain rhythm. To this spontaneous
-appearance of light in the eye, which is always very vague, are related
-the more clearly delineated forms which show themselves at the moment we
-are about to fall asleep, and which depend upon the influence of the
-imagination isolating the nebulous glimmerings one from the other, and
-clothing them with more distinct forms."[58]
-
-The degree to which this sensation of light is produced in health, and
-the power which the imagination has over it, vary greatly in different
-individuals.
-
-MÃŒller writes:--
-
-"I had occasion, in 1828, to converse with Göethe upon this subject,
-which had an equal interest for both of us. Knowing that when I was
-tranquilly extended in bed, the eyes closed, but not asleep, I
-frequently perceived figures that I could observe distinctly, he was
-curious to know what I experienced then: I told him that my will had not
-any influence either upon the production or the metamorphoses of these
-figures, and that I never distinguished anything symmetrical, anything
-that had the character of vegetation. Göethe, on the contrary, was able
-to appoint at will a theme, which afterwards transformed itself, after a
-fashion apparently involuntary, but always in obedience to the laws of
-harmony and symmetry: a difference between two men, of which one
-possessed the poetical imagination in the highest degree of development,
-whilst the other devoted his life to the study of reality and of nature.
-
-"Göethe says, 'When I close the eyes, on lowering the head, I imagine
-that I see a flower in the middle of my visual organ; this flower does
-not for a moment preserve its form: it is quickly decomposed, and from
-its interior are born other flowers with coloured or sometimes green
-petals; these are not natural flowers, but fantastic, nevertheless
-regular, figures, such as the roses of sculptors. It was impossible for
-me to regard this creation fixedly, but it continued as long as I
-wished, without increasing or diminishing. Even when I figured to me a
-disc charged with various colours, I saw continually borne from the
-centre towards the circumference, new forms comparable to those that I
-could perceive in a kaleidoscope."[59]
-
-Illusions arising from the production of the sensation of light, whether
-by pressure, mental emotion, or a disordered state of the health, have
-been a most prolific source of ghosts.
-
-Imagine a person suffering from severe grief occasioned by the loss of a
-friend or relative; or one subject to superstitious terrors. On retiring
-to rest in a darkened apartment, the attention is attracted and wonder
-raised by the appearance of a cloud of pale white, or blueish coloured
-light (the colours which ghosts love to deck themselves in, and which
-are most readily excited) floating before the eyes. Unacquainted with
-its nature and source, he is naturally startled, and his superstitious
-fears are awakened. The imagination next coming into play, the luminous
-cloud is moulded into the form of the person recently dead, or of the
-superstitious ideas most prominent in the mind of the individual at the
-time.
-
-Or suppose a superstitious person passing, in the obscurity of the
-night, a place where some foul crime had been perpetrated. Terror gives
-rise to the production of a vivid sensation of light in the field of
-vision, and the imagination, as in the previous case, works out the
-rest.
-
-The following cases are examples of the influence which the spontaneous
-appearance of light in the field of vision exercises in the development
-of spectral apparitions.
-
-A gentleman who had lost his wife from a painful and protracted disease,
-for some time subsequently was troubled by her phantom, which remained
-before his eyes so long as he was in obscurity. On a light being
-brought, or during the day, this spectre vanished, but no sooner was he
-placed in darkness than it appeared vividly limned before him, and was a
-source of constant terror.[60]
-
-This phantom was evidently due to the production of the sensation of
-light in the field of vision, and the subsequent effects of the
-imagination.
-
-A gentleman with whom we are acquainted happened, when young, to have a
-severe fall on the head. After this accident and until he attained the
-age of eleven years, he was subject to visions of brilliant and
-variously coloured light, when he retired to bed at night, and all light
-in his room had been extinguished. Occasionally these visions were so
-gorgeous and resplendent that he is accustomed to compare them to the
-jewelled decorations of the palaces of the genii in the Arabian Nights'
-Entertainment. When about eleven years of age he got possession of a
-volume of legends and romances, which were pregnant with supernatural
-events and personages; and a friend injudiciously gave him a work full
-of ghost-stories, and entitled, "News from the Invisible World." These
-works he read with avidity, and the effect upon the mind was such that
-henceforth his nightly visions were transformed into foul, horrid, and
-often variously coloured spectres, rendering the period of time
-intervening between retiring to rest and sleep, one of unmitigated
-terror, and it became necessary to have a light constantly burning in
-the room until sleep occurred. After the twelfth year the intensity of
-the visions rapidly diminished, and at length only occurred when he
-turned himself upon his face in bed. In this position a sensation as if
-the bed had passed from under him occurred, and his eye formed the
-centre of a circle of imps which whirled rapidly round it. The number of
-these spectres next began to diminish, and by the time he was fifteen
-years of age, but one remained, and this appeared only occasionally.
-This solitary spectre gradually lost its fiend-like form, and assumed
-that of a respectable-looking old Roman, clothed in a toga; and it at
-length vanished to re-appear no more.
-
-This gentleman has for many years been free from any spectral
-apparition; but hard study, mental emotion, a disordered state of the
-health, or pressure with the finger on the eyeball, is apt to occasion a
-brilliant evolution of coloured light in the field of vision.
-
-The spontaneous appearance of light in the visual field, in this case,
-formed the substratum upon which the mind moulded the spectres; and it
-is interesting to remark the influence which the perusal of a volume of
-legends and ghost-stories, and subsequent classical studies, had in
-determining the form of the phantasma.
-
-To the same cause--the subjective phenomena of vision--are due the
-various coloured lights or luminous appearances which, in the
-experiments of Reichenbach, the believers in animal magnetism,
-mesmerism, and electro-biology, are supposed to have been seen issue, by
-the "susceptible," from the poles of magnets placed in darkened
-apartments, from so-called magnetised bodies, or from bodies placed in
-the conditions which the respective theories demand.
-
-All the sensations of light that are experienced under these
-circumstances, and which have been sought to be explained by the
-assumption of the "od" force, or by the influence of magnetism, &c., are
-dependent on that excitation of a sensation of light in the eye when
-plunged into darkness, or when under certain mental emotions which we
-have fully explained.
-
-This has been demonstrated by positive experiment; for if we take any of
-the "susceptibles," and, indeed, others, and place them in a darkened
-apartment, we may by simple suggestions excite all the luminous
-sensations attributed to the supposititious "od" force, or to "animal
-magnetism."
-
-The luminous appearances which certain "sensitives" have averred that
-they witnessed over graves, were due also to the subjective phenomena of
-vision, excited by an expectant idea.
-
-A young clergyman named Billing, who acted as an amanuensis to Pfeffer,
-the blind poet, asserted that he constantly saw, at night, a luminous
-cloud resting in one position in the poet's garden; and on search being
-made beneath the surface of the ground, at the spot occupied by this
-phantasm, the remains of a skeleton were found.
-
-Reichenbach concluded from this that the process of decomposition of a
-corpse going on in the grave, probably like what is observed in other
-forms of chemical action, gave rise to luminous appearances which were
-visible to highly "sensitive" persons.
-
-"It appeared possible," he writes, "that such a person might see over
-graves in which mouldering bodies lie, something similar to that which
-Billing had seen. Mademoiselle Reichel had the courage, rare in her sex,
-to gratify this wish of the author. On two very dark nights she allowed
-herself to be taken from the Castle of Reisenberg, where she was living
-with the author's family, to the neighbouring churchyard of Grunzing.
-The result justified his anticipation in the most beautiful manner. She
-very soon saw a light, and observed on one of the graves, along its
-length, a delicate breathing flame; she also saw the same thing, only
-weaker, on a second grave. But she saw neither witches nor ghosts. She
-described the fiery appearance as a shining vapour, one to two spans
-high, extending as far as the grave, and floating near its surface.
-Sometime afterwards she was taken to two large cemeteries near Vienna,
-where several burials occur daily, and graves lie about by thousands.
-Here she saw numerous graves provided with similar lights. Wherever she
-looked she saw luminous masses scattered about. But this appearance was
-most vivid over the newest graves, while on the oldest it could not be
-perceived. She described the appearance less as a clear flame than as a
-dense vaporous mass of fire, intermediate between fog and flame. On many
-graves the flame was four feet high, so that when she stood on them it
-surrounded her up to the neck. If she thrust her hand into it, it was
-like putting it into a dense fiery cloud. She betrayed no uneasiness,
-because she had all her life been accustomed to such emanations, and had
-seen the same, in the author's experiments, often produced by natural
-causes."[61]
-
-The total neglect of those precautions which are requisite to obviate
-the influence of expectant ideas and the subjective phenomena of vision
-in this experiment is most strange, and it is painful to witness men
-like Reichenbach, Gregory, and others, thus stumbling over some of the
-simplest facts of physiology and psychology, and utterly prostituting
-the name and calling of science.
-
-Singular and fallacious as are the pseudo-scientific doctrines just
-mentioned, they are exceeded by the extraordinary speculations of other
-writers, who also appear to hold in utter contempt the ordinary laws of
-action of the senses. For example, Mrs. Crowe writes of the sensation of
-light perceived by somnambules and dreamers, and of the still more
-simple phenomenon of the sensation of light induced by the inhalation of
-ether, in the following manner:--
-
-"All somnambules of the highest order,--and when I make use of this
-expression, I repeat that I do not allude to the subjects of mesmeric
-experiments, but to those extraordinary cases of disease, the
-particulars of which have been recorded by various continental
-physicians of eminence,--all persons in that condition describe
-themselves as hearing and seeing, not by the ordinary organs, but by
-some means the idea of which they cannot convey further than that they
-are pervaded by light; and that this is not the _ordinary_ physical
-light is evident, inasmuch as they generally see best in the dark,--a
-remarkable instance of which I myself witnessed.
-
-"I never had the slightest idea of this internal light till, in the way
-of experiment, I inhaled the sulphuric ether; but I am now very well
-able to conceive it; for, after first feeling an agreeable warmth
-pervading my limbs, my next sensation was to find myself--I cannot say
-in this heavenly light, for the light was in _me_--I was pervaded by it;
-it was not perceived by my eyes, which were closed, but perceived
-internally, I cannot tell how. Of what nature this heavenly light was--I
-cannot forbear calling it _heavenly_, for it was like nothing on
-earth--I know not,"[62] &c.
-
-The sense of _hearing_, like that of sight, in whatever manner it may be
-excited, only gives rise to the sensation of sound; _e.g._, when an
-electric current is passed through it, or a severe blow is struck upon
-it, and causes it "to ring," as it is expressed in common parlance. The
-rushing and other sounds--as of the ringing of bells, rustling of
-leaves, &c.--caused by a disordered state of the circulation in the
-head, are other examples; and there are perhaps few persons who have not
-at some time or other, started, and responded to their name, or to calls
-which they suppose they have heard, in the voice of persons who were at
-a distance, or who had not spoken.
-
-A similar excitation of the nerves of _taste_ and _smell_ will also give
-rise to their special sensations; but disorder of these nerves and their
-centres will rarely excite hallucinations, except in connection with a
-disturbed condition of the senses of sight and hearing.
-
-Such are the simplest forms of hallucination of the senses of sight,
-hearing, taste, and smell; and we have seen that all the phenomena of
-light, colour, sound, taste, and smell, can occur in man without the
-presence of natural or artificial light, sonorous undulations of the
-air, sapid or odorous substances.
-
-We are now in a position to comprehend more fully that, by the action of
-the imagination and emotions alone, the changes going on in the nervous
-centres may be so far disturbed that the whole of those sensations which
-are generally excited by agents external to the body may be called into
-play, and the mental idea assume, in light, colour and shade, sound,
-taste and touch, all the distinctness and definitiveness which
-appertains to an actual object within the sphere of the respective
-senses, and be considered as such.
-
-If the mind revert to any of the varied sensations which are stored up
-in the memory, and are within the power of the will to recall, an image
-is conjured up before the "mind's eye," such that we can describe it as
-though a real object stood before us; and if it be that of a person--a
-parent, a friend, or one bound by even still stronger ties--every
-lineament, every peculiarity, is depicted with a fidelity but little
-less than that we should be capable of were the individual actually
-present before us; or should it be a scene which has been treasured up
-for its grandeur, its loveliness, or for its being endeared to us by
-still stronger feelings, every characteristic feature, every object, is
-minutely and truly described; and did we possess the power of limning,
-not unfrequently we should find little difficulty in transferring the
-mental image to the canvass. "I think I see him now"--"She might be
-before me"--"I can call to mind every tree and stone, so vivid is the
-memory"--are forms of expression in constant use, and they contain the
-germ of the simplest form of ideal hallucination to which we are
-subject.
-
-Under the influence of love, grief, remorse, or other powerful and
-protracted emotion, the ideas upon which the mind is concentrated assume
-a vividness, in many persons little short of the reality; and when
-Victorian, addressing Preciosa in the "Spanish Student" (Act I, Scene
-3), is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Thou comest between me and those books too often;
-    I see thy face in everything I see;
-    The paintings on the chapel wear thy looks,
-    The canticles are changed to sarabands;
-    And with the learned doctors of the schools,
-    I see thee dance cachucas;"
-
-he makes use of no exaggerated poetical tropes or figures, but speaks
-the simple fact.[63]
-
-A painful illustration of the vividness of the mental image under
-powerful emotion is afforded by a passage in "The Dream" of Lord Byron,
-in which he describes the images of the object and scenes of his
-youthful and only love, that occupied his mind, and rendered him
-insensible to the ceremony of his marriage until he was aroused from his
-abstraction by the congratulations of the bystanders.
-
-                      "He spoke
-    The fitting vows, but heard not his own words,
-    And all things reel'd around him; he could see
-    Not that which was, nor that which should have been,--
-    But the old mansion, and the accustom'd hall,
-    And the remember'd chambers, and the place,
-    The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,
-    All things pertaining to that place and hour,
-    And her who was his destiny, came back,
-    And thrust themselves between him and the light."
-
-The protracted devotion of the thoughts to the memory of those whom the
-grave has severed from us, or from whom we are separated by distance,
-and which is induced by grief, gives also to the mental image great
-vividness. Exquisitely beautiful and true is the sentence placed in the
-mouth of Constance, when blamed for the grief she entertained on being
-separated from Prince Arthur:--
-
-    "Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
-    Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;
-    Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
-    Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
-    Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
-    Then have I reason to be fond of grief."
-
-In direct proportion to the concentration of the mind in the
-contemplation of its own actions, is the brilliancy and distinctness of
-the ideas which pass athwart it; and in the state of abstraction or of
-reverie, when from intense meditation, or from mere inactivity, the
-sensations derived from surrounding objects are not attended to, the
-ideas are so defined that they differ but little from actual objects in
-the sensations they excite. So also in sleep, if, from any cause,
-physical or mental, we are roused into a state of semi-consciousness, as
-in dreaming, the phantasms of former events, stored up in the memory,
-and by certain sensations or trains of thought thrown to the surface,
-differ in no respect--light, colour, shade, or sound--from the
-sensations derived from the objects represented.
-
-Should, therefore, the concentration of the mind upon any subject be
-such as to disturb the natural functions of the brain, the mental image
-is liable to excite sensations, and to be pourtrayed with a distinctness
-and "outness" which approximates to, or equals, that of a real object,
-and it is regarded as such.
-
-In the majority of individuals the concentration and intensity of
-feeling necessary for the production of hallucinations is of rare
-occurrence, and it is found only under such conditions as profound grief
-caused by death under painful or peculiar circumstances; from terror,
-excited by causes bringing powerful superstitious feelings into
-play--under which circumstances the hallucinations induced are generally
-transitory--or by emotions inordinately protracted; hence it is that we
-find visions of the dead among the most common of the temporary
-hallucinations. In the studious, and men of powerful thought, the mind
-being habituated to absorption in its own ideas, it not unfrequently
-happens that hallucinations occur from a disordered state of the brain
-induced by continued mental labour. These hallucinations are generally
-very vivid, and may arise either voluntarily or involuntarily, and may
-become habitual without the health being seriously disturbed.
-
-It will be seen, therefore, that the action of the mental powers alone
-is sufficient to give rise to sensations which are regarded as resulting
-from actual objects; and that from the simple vividness of the mental
-image, which is common to most persons, we may trace their effects, in a
-gradually ascending scale, in inducing mental conditions in which the
-brilliancy of the image is such that, for the time, it completely
-occupies the attention, and shuts out, as it were, the sensations
-derived from objects before the field of vision,--and in the formation
-of ideas so vivid and defined, that they take their position among
-surrounding, and excite the sensations proper to external, objects.
-
-We have thus far spoken of the effects of the imagination on the healthy
-frame, but in certain disordered conditions of the nervous system,
-occurring either alone, or in connection with other and more general
-morbid alterations in the economy, hallucinations are more apt to occur
-than in health. The system in this state is more susceptible of the
-effects of emotion, and the images arising in the mind are more vivid
-than would happen from the same degree of excitement in health, and are
-readily converted into hallucinations. This is witnessed in certain
-forms of hysteria, febrile diseases, &c.; hence, in these disordered
-conditions of the system, the hallucinations are not to be attributed to
-the action of the mind, so much as to a morbid susceptibility to undergo
-those changes requisite to the production of hallucinations; and these
-are, consequently, induced by grades of emotion and by influences which
-would not have caused that in ordinary health.
-
-On the other hand, the action of the mind in the development of
-hallucinations equally induces certain diseased states, either special
-or general. Even simple and temporary hallucination, in whatever manner
-caused, must be regarded as an indication that the changes going on in
-the nervous centres have passed the bounds of health; and according as
-the causes inducing hallucinations are more or less protracted, or the
-hallucinations are more or less persistent or frequent, so we may mark a
-greater or less deterioration in the mental powers, the nervous or the
-general system, or indications of more acute disease, to progress along
-with them, until the acme is reached in insanity, idiocy, or some more
-rapidly progressive and equally formidable disease.
-
-To illustrate these remarks: Blake, the artist, who, after the death of
-Sir Joshua Reynolds, enjoyed great fame as a portrait-painter, owed his
-celebrity, in great part, to the singular fact that he required but one
-or, at the most, two sittings, from those whose portraits he painted. He
-was accustomed to regard the person who sat to him attentively for about
-half an hour, sketching from time to time on the canvas, and he would
-then pass on to another subject. When he wished to continue the first
-portrait, on placing the canvas before him, he had the power of calling
-up so vivid a mental image of the personage, the outline of whose face
-was depicted upon it, that it assumed all the appearance of reality, and
-he perceived it in the position in which he required it to be. From this
-phantasm he painted, turning from the canvas and regarding it as he
-would have done had the representative of the phantom been there in
-person. By degrees he began to lose the distinction between the real and
-the imaginary objects, and at length a complete confusion of the mind
-occurred, rendering it necessary for him to be confined in an asylum.
-During his residence there, his insanity was marked by an exaggeration
-of that vivid power of imagination he had possessed previously; for he
-at will could summon before him the phantoms of any of the personages of
-history, and he held long and sensible conversations with Michael
-Angelo, Moses, Semiramis, Richard III, &c., all of whom appeared to him,
-when he desired, in the vivid hues and distinct outlines of reality.
-
-Talma, the great French tragedian, had the power, when upon the stage,
-of causing the vestments of his audience to disappear, and of depicting
-them as skeletons. When the hallucination was complete, and he had
-filled the theatre with these ghastly auditors, he was enabled to give
-the fullest and most surprising force to his performance.
-
-Examples of the influence of powerful and protracted emotions in
-inducing hallucinations are numerous. Dr. Conolly relates the case of a
-gentleman who, when at one time in great danger of being wrecked in a
-small boat on the Eddystone rocks, in the moment of greatest peril saw
-his family before him.
-
-M. Boismont quotes the case of a world-known general who, when in a
-combat one day, was surrounded by the enemy, and in so great danger that
-escape seemed impossible. He, nevertheless, contrived to escape; but the
-impression made upon him was such, that afterwards, until a late period
-of life, he occasionally suffered from an hallucination in which the
-scene of danger was again presented before him and re-enacted; and when
-subsequently on a throne, sometimes the silence of the palace would be
-disturbed by his cries, as he struggled and fought with his phantom
-foes. The hallucination was momentary.
-
-The intense emotion which Sir Richard Croft experienced on being
-summoned to attend the Princess Charlotte of Wales on her death-bed was
-such, that he saw her form, habited in white, glide along before his
-carriage.
-
-A case is related by Boismont of a lady who, while suffering from the
-depression occasioned by receiving information that her daughter was
-seriously ill, heard a voice which addressed to her the words, "Lovest
-thou me?" The lady responded immediately, "Lord, thou knowest that I
-have placed all my confidence in thee, and that I love thee with all my
-soul." The voice then said, "Dost thou give her to me?" The lady
-trembled with fear, but summoning courage, she replied, "However painful
-the sacrifice may be, let Thy will be accomplished." This lady was
-deeply pious, and the hallucination arose from the powerful and painful
-emotion caused by the sudden news of her daughter's illness, inducing
-that disordered state of the nervous system, in which the thoughts
-naturally engendered in one who submitted everything to the Almighty,
-became audible.
-
-The combined influence of love and sorrow has been a powerful source of
-hallucinations, and many of those wild and beautiful legends and tales
-which are scattered throughout the kingdom, recording the apparition of
-a deceased or distant lover to his betrothed, have been due to this
-cause.
-
-Thus, as in the old ballad:--
-
-    "When it was grown to dark midnight,
-      And all were fast asleep,
-    In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
-      And stood at William's feet."
-
-Or in the story of "Isabella," by Boccacio, so beautifully rendered by
-Keats:--
-
-    "It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,
-      The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot
-    Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb
-      Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot
-    Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom
-      Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute
-    From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears
-    Had made a miry channel for his tears.
-
-    Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;
-      For there was striving in its piteous tongue,
-    To speak as when on earth it was awake,
-      And Isabella on its music hung:
-    Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,
-      As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;
-    And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,
-    Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briers among.
-
-    Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright
-      With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof
-    From the poor girl by magic of their light,
-      The while it did unthread the horrid woof
-    Of the late darken'd time--the murd'rous spite
-      Of pride and avarice--the dark pine roof
-    In the forest--and the sodden turfed dell,
-    When, without any word, from stabs it fell.
-
-    Saying moreover, "Isabel, my sweet!
-      Red whortle-berries droop above my head,
-    And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;
-      Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed
-    Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat
-      Comes from beyond the river to my bed:
-    Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,
-    And it shall comfort me within the tomb.
-
-    "I am a shadow now, alas! alas!
-      Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling
-    Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,
-      While little sounds of life are round me knelling,
-    And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,
-      And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,
-    Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,
-    And thou art distant in humanity."
-
-Some of these apparitions have, in all probability, been illusions
-caused by an object indistinctly seen in the pale moonlight, or by an
-accidental arrangement of the furniture of the apartment, transformed by
-an imagination devoted to the subject of its own sorrows, or influenced
-by a vivid dream, into the idea at the moment most prominent in the
-mind.
-
-The influence of remorse, or of those terrible emotions which accrue to
-the murderer on the perpetration of the foul deed, in causing
-hallucinations, is well known.
-
-The ghost of Banquo (Macbeth, Act III, Scene 3) is a type of many
-wondrous histories:--
-
-    "Prythee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo!--How say you?
-    Why what can I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
-    If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send
-    Those that we bury, back, our monuments
-    Shall be the maws of kites."
-
-Vanderkiste[64] relates the story of a convict who had murdered an
-overseer, and taken to the bush:--
-
-"He lived in the woods, and came armed to the huts to demand provisions
-for some time, but imagined he was continually haunted by the spirit of
-the man he had murdered. At last he delivered himself up to the
-authorities, declaring his life a burden. He was seen for days, dogged,
-as he conceived, by the spectre of his victim, and escaping from tree to
-tree."
-
-Sir Walter Scott records the story, that the captain of a slaver, in a
-fit of anger, shot at, and mortally wounded, one of his sailors. As the
-man was dying, he fixed his eyes upon the captain, and said, "Sir, you
-have done for me, but I will never leave you." The captain became grave
-and moody, and some time after he invited the mate into the cabin, and
-addressing him, said, "I need not tell you, Jack, what sort of hand we
-have got on board with us. He told me he would never leave me, and he
-has kept his word. You only see him now and then, but he is always by my
-side, and never out of my sight. At this very moment I see him. I am
-determined to bear it no longer, and I have resolved to leave you."
-Soon after this, the captain, watching an opportunity when he was
-unobserved, plunged into the sea: the mate rushed to the side of the
-ship, and the captain perceiving him, extended his hands upwards,
-exclaimed; "By ----, Bill is with me now!" and sunk.
-
-One of the most remarkable examples of hallucination arising from the
-feelings excited by cold-blooded murder is recorded by Boismont:--
-
-"A duellist, who had killed sixteen persons in single combat, was
-constantly accompanied by their phantoms; they never left him night or
-day."
-
-The solitary hours of Charles IX were made frightful by the shrieks and
-cries which had reached him during the massacre of the Eve of St.
-Bartholomew, and he was haunted for many days subsequent to its
-occurrence by hideous and bloody faces. Taking Ambrose Paré aside, at
-one time, he remarked that he wished they had not comprised in the
-massacre the aged and children.
-
-No cause is, however, so apt to engender hallucinations as religious
-enthusiasm, or an inordinate or rather fanatical occupation of the mind
-in the contemplation of religious subjects.
-
-In the saint-visions which are so numerously scattered in the annals of
-Christian churches and which were so common under the self-denying and
-ascetic rules of some of the monastic orders, we have examples; and
-Spenser's "Hermit" furnishes the type of this species of
-hallucination:--
-
-    "Thence forward by that painfull way they pas
-    Forth to an hill, that was both steepe and hy;
-    On top whereof a sacred chapel was,
-    And eke a little hermitage thereby,
-    Wherein an aged holy man did lie,
-    That day and night said his devotion,
-    Ne other worldly busines did apply:
-    His name was Heavenly Contemplation;
-    Of God and goodness, was his meditation.
-
-    Great grace that old man to him given had;
-    For God he often saw from heavens hight:
-    All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,
-    And through great age had lost their kindly sight,
-    Yet wondrous quick and persaunt was his spright,
-    As eagles eie, that can behold the sunne."
-
-The Virgin appeared to Ignatius Loyola, and confirming his designs,
-urged him to the enterprise he had in view for the establishment of the
-Roman Catholic church on a surer basis. Satan came visibly to Luther and
-contended with him, sometimes worsting him in argument. Swedenborg
-beheld in visions the heavenly scenes which his imagination had
-pourtrayed; while Pascal wrote he beheld an abyss of flames beside his
-writing-table; and Symeon Stylites conceived that Satan had appeared to
-him under the form of Jesus Christ, and invited him to ascend to heaven
-in a chariot drawn by cherubim. Symeon put out his foot to enter the
-chariot, when the whole vanished; and, as a punishment for his
-presumption, the offending thigh was affected with an ulcer, which
-obliged him to rest upon one leg for the remainder of his life.
-
-It is important to comprehend fully the influence of the imagination in
-developing visions of this nature, particularly in a disordered state of
-the health, from the important effects which they have exercised and
-still exercise upon mankind.
-
-The following example is an interesting illustration of the nature and
-source of these hallucinations:
-
-Some years ago considerable attention was excited in Germany by the
-publication of a series of visions which a lady of considerable literary
-attainments and high character had beheld, and for which she believed
-that she was indebted to divine favour.
-
-The hallucinations which she experienced had first been noted in the
-fourth year of her age, when one day, as she was dressing a doll, and
-for greater convenience had placed a large folio Bible beneath her feet,
-she heard a voice exclaim: "Put the book where you found it!" She did
-not immediately obey the order, as she saw no one, but in a few moments
-the mandate was repeated, and she thought some one took hold of her
-face. This hallucination, according to Dr. Hibbert, is to be regarded as
-a renovated feeling arising from some prior remonstrances regarding the
-holy volume; and, we would add, together with the altered sensation
-experienced in the face, was evidently due to the earlier stages of a
-disease which occasioned the more fully developed visions. After this
-period, she devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures; and her
-labours, in this respect, were incessant and protracted. In her seventh
-year she saw, when playing, a vision of a clear flame which entered the
-chamber door, in the centre of which was a strong bright light,
-described as about the size of a child six years old. This vision
-endured about half an hour. No other vision is mentioned until the
-period of her marriage, which proved unfortunate, embittering her life
-and causing her constantly to meditate on death. It was in this state of
-mind that the principal visions to which she was subjected occurred. On
-one occasion, after receiving some ill-treatment from her husband,
-broken down in spirits, and thinking the Lord had forsaken her, she made
-a resolution to desist from prayer. On retiring to bed, she repented the
-decision she had made, and prayed fervently. She awoke in the morning
-before daybreak, and was surprised to find the room vividly
-illuminated, and that at the bedside was seated a heavenly figure, in
-the form of an old man. This phantom was dressed in a blueish robe, and
-had bright hair; and the countenance shone like the clearest red and
-white crystal. It regarded her benignantly, and said, "_Proceed,
-proceed, proceed!_" At first the words were unintelligible to her, but a
-young and beautiful angel, which appeared on the other side of the bed,
-exclaimed: "_Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith, proceed in trials!_"
-After this the devil appeared, pulled her by the hair, and tormented her
-in other ways, until the angel interfered, and drove him away. Satan in
-this case assumed his usual hideous garb. Subsequently one of the angels
-exclaimed, three times: "Lord, this is sufficient;" and while saying
-these words, the lady beheld large wings on his shoulders, and knew him
-to be an angel of God. The light and the angels then vanished, and the
-lady felt eased of her grief, and arose.
-
-If the nature of the figures and the mode of action in these visions had
-not sufficed to show how completely they were dependent upon dominant
-ideas and a disordered state of the nervous system, the history of the
-case would demonstrate it. The early, protracted, and inordinate study
-of religious beliefs, similar to that which laid the basis of
-Swedenborg's visions; the painful state of the mind induced by her
-unhappy marriage, and disease, were the source of the hallucinations to
-which she was subject; for it was ascertained that when the visions
-occurred she always suffered from slight attacks of epilepsy.
-
-Intense and protracted mental exertion frequently gives rise to
-hallucinations.
-
-A medical gentleman in Edinburgh, while seated one evening in his
-library, after a period of excessive study, on raising his head, was
-startled by perceiving at the opposite side of the table the spectre of
-a gentleman who had died under melancholy circumstances some days
-previously, and at whose post-mortem examination he had assisted.
-
-That excessive action of the imagination, and consequent absorption of
-the mind in its own workings, to exclusion of external sensations, which
-is common in men of genius, has been a fertile source of hallucinations.
-
-In some instances the hallucinations have been "counterfeit
-presentments" of the ideas which have been most prominent in the mind;
-in others they have had no relation to that condition.
-
-Spinello, who had painted the Fall of the Angels, thought that he was
-haunted by the frightful devils which he had depicted. He was rendered
-so miserable by this hallucination that he destroyed himself. One of
-our own artists, who was much engaged in painting caricatures, became
-haunted by the distorted faces he drew; and the deep melancholy and
-terror which accompanied these apparitions caused him to commit suicide.
-MÃŒller, who executed the copper-plate of the Sixtine Madonna, had more
-lovely visions. Towards the close of his life the Virgin appeared to
-him, and thanking him for the affection he had shown towards her,
-invited him to follow her to heaven. To achieve this, the artist starved
-himself to death. Beethoven, who became completely deaf in the decline
-of life, often heard his sublime compositions performed distinctly.
-
-It is related of Ben Jonson, that he spent the whole of one night in
-regarding his great toe, around which he saw Tartars, Turks, Romans, and
-Catholics climbing up, and struggling and fighting. Goëthe, when out
-riding one day, was surprised to see an exact image of himself on
-horseback, dressed in a light-coloured coat, riding towards him.
-
-A similar kind of hallucination to this of Goëthe's has been observed as
-a precursor of certain forms of insanity, and in the delirium of fever.
-
-Boismont records the case of a gentleman who was troubled with a
-spectral image of himself, which he had the power of calling before him
-voluntarily. This, for several years, was a source of amusement to him;
-but by degrees this phantom became more persistent, arose involuntarily,
-and addressed him. The hallucination then assumed a still graver
-character, for his double would dispute with him, and often foil him in
-argument; and coincidently with this phase of the disease the gentleman
-became melancholy, and he ultimately committed suicide.
-
-The imagination rarely gives rise to hallucinations of the senses of
-touch, taste, or smell alone. The sweet-smelling odours which are stated
-to have been experienced during the visions of angels and saints; and
-the foul and sulphurous fumes which have accompanied apparitions of the
-infernals, are, however, to be attributed to this cause.
-
-Thus far our illustrations and remarks have been confined to that class
-of hallucinations which are induced principally by the action of the
-imagination, mental emotion, or excessive exertion of the reasoning
-powers.
-
-There is, however, another class of hallucinations dependent upon
-certain disordered states of the general health and nervous system,
-which have an important bearing upon the belief in the supernatural.
-
-The simplest forms of hallucination of this class are those occasionally
-observed during the initiatory stages of some diseases, after the
-termination of exhausting affections, or during temporary morbid
-conditions of the brain.
-
-The following examples will illustrate the nature of the hallucinations
-arising from these sources.
-
-A lady, with whom we are acquainted, was walking early one morning in a
-lonely and unfrequented path, which was open to the eye for some
-distance. On approaching its termination, she was surprised to see a
-lady advancing towards her, dressed in deep mourning, and reading a
-book. Struck by the peculiar beauty of the lady's face, she turned round
-to gaze upon her as she passed; but, to her surprise, the figure
-vanished. Startled and alarmed, she hurried home, and almost immediately
-afterwards was seized with shiverings, and suffered from a violent
-attack of fever, characterised by severe cerebral disturbance. The
-hallucination in this case was caused by the changes induced in the
-nervous system by the initiatory stages of the disease.
-
-A young lady recovering from a severe attack of fever, was left in
-charge of the house during a fine Sunday evening in autumn, the
-remainder of the family having gone to church. A thunder-storm came on,
-with heavy rain, and she became very anxious about her aged father. On
-going into the room generally occupied by the family, there, to her
-great astonishment, she beheld, as she thought, her father sitting in
-his usual position. Supposing that he must have returned from church
-unwell, she advanced, placed her hand upon the semblance, and found
-nothing. Although startled, she attributed the vision to its proper
-cause, anxiety and weakness; but though she went in and out of the room
-several times, the spectre persisted for a considerable period.
-
-A merchant, while sitting in his counting-house, was annoyed by hearing
-voices outside the door conversing freely respecting his character, and
-speaking of him as a dishonoured man. Thinking it was some trick of his
-friends, he quietly opened the door, and was astonished to find no one.
-On closing it the voices again began in a similar strain; and on
-re-opening the door he still found no one. Alarmed, he left his office,
-and proceeded home, but the voices followed him, threatening punishment
-for imaginary crimes. This hallucination was accompanied by other signs
-of a disordered state of the brain, and it was not until after a period
-of entire relaxation from business, and a daily game at cricket, that
-the phantom-voices ceased.
-
-There are certain formidable disorders of the nervous system in which
-hallucinations affect all the senses.
-
-The following is an example of the diseases of this class, and it will
-show the influence which they are liable to exert in the development of
-certain forms of superstition.
-
-A maiden lady, aged forty years, who from early youth had been of a very
-susceptible and restless disposition, suffered from hallucinations which
-persisted for many years.
-
-At first the sight alone was affected, and she saw numerous persons of
-singular and fantastic form. Subsequently she heard voices, which
-professed to have taken up their abode in her stomach, and addressed her
-from thence. These voices tormented her; commanded all her actions;
-informed her of what took place within the body; gave her instructions
-upon diseases, and even prescribed for them. The voices gave her
-information respecting the characters of divers persons, and
-occasionally endowed her with the power of expressing herself in terms
-more florid and fluent than she was accustomed to. Often the voices
-conversed on geography, grammar, rhetoric, &c.; and they would reprove
-her when she had done amiss. They told her that she was possessed, and
-although she was not superstitious, and fully recognized the
-hallucinations she suffered from, she at this time sought a priest to
-exorcise her, thought much of eternity, and sometimes gave herself up to
-despair. At one time the voices told her she would become queen; often
-they conversed with her upon strange, and sometimes even abominable
-subjects; then they would say things extremely comical, and make her
-laugh. They would please, and then mock her, and then assail her more
-violently than ever, and spoil like harpies everything she touched or
-did. If she took a glass of water, the voices would call out that it was
-poisoned; and frequently they urged her to destroy herself. When she
-walked out, if she passed a female, the voices would cry out that she
-carried musk (the odour of which the lady abominated) and immediately
-she smelt this odour; if a man passed her, she was affected with the
-smell of tobacco. The voices often gave her no rest until she did what
-they liked, and they even ordered her to Paris, to place herself under
-the care of physicians there.
-
-The visions she suffered from were very singular. Her apartment was
-filled with persons of all characters and descriptions; numerous
-processions defiled before her, and some of the figures had but one half
-the body, a profile, or one eye; they were large or small, and
-occasionally underwent singular and fantastic changes of form.
-
-The food she took did not possess its natural taste, and the voices
-often gave unpleasant savours, to prevent her eating.
-
-When she journeyed, she felt as if soaked with water, and she would
-attempt to wring her clothes.
-
-Addressing one of her physicians, when the malady was fully developed,
-she said, "I know that it is monomania, but the voices are stronger than
-my will. I wish you to prescribe for me, it is impossible for me to
-remain in one place."[65]
-
-This case is an interesting illustration of a form of disease, which,
-when developed in persons who are subject to religious enthusiasm, has
-given rise to the belief of possession with devils (_demonomania_).
-Instances of this disease are frequently met with in the French asylums.
-
-Many other forms of hallucination occur in insanity, monomania, fever,
-hysteria, and other diseases, in dreams, and from the influence of
-certain poisonous substances taken into the system. Some of these
-hallucinations are of considerable interest, since they have been the
-prime cause of many superstitions.
-
-In addition to the hallucinations of the hearing already mentioned, in
-certain diseases, words spoken in the right ear have been heard in the
-left, and _vice versâ_; and under the influence of opium or haschish
-(prepared from the Indian hemp), the sense becomes, occasionally, so
-developed, that a word pronounced low, or a slight movement, sounds like
-a peal of thunder. Hallucinations of the sight have occasionally
-presented figures of colossal stature, or of extreme diminutiveness; or
-the patient has conceived the idea that he was so tall that he was
-unable to walk erect in a lofty apartment, or so diminutive that he
-dreaded the movements of any near to him, lest they should do him harm.
-Pleasant or fetid odours are sometimes constantly present to the smell.
-Feuchtersleben states the case of a lady who was long haunted with the
-effluvia as of a charnel-house. The taste is subjected to hallucinations
-of exquisitely flavoured viands and wines; or the reverse, no food being
-taken; or everything taken presents one undeviating flavour, which may
-be pleasant or unpleasant, or it has no taste at all. A sensation of
-_flying_ is not uncommon. Boismont has a friend who frequently
-experiences this sensation, and it often occurs in dreams. A friend of
-ours is in the habit of dreaming that he is suspended about a foot above
-the surface of the earth, and is carried along by simple volition,
-without movement of the limbs; and St. Jerome states, that often in
-dreams he flew from the earth over mountains and seas. Our ideas of
-depth and space are sometimes increased in dreams to an extent that is
-inexpressible and almost bewildering; and the sensation of falling into
-an abyss is common to the dreamer. The idea of time is often extended
-indefinitely; in the space of a single night, days, weeks, years, and
-even ages, have appeared to elapse. Transformation of the figure is
-occasionally met with among the hallucinations of insanity; and in the
-state induced by haschish, the singular and fantastic forms which those
-under its influence, and the parties surrounding them, have appeared to
-undergo, are of great interest. "The eyelashes," writes one gentleman,
-"lengthened themselves indefinitely, and rolled themselves as threads of
-gold on little ivory bobbins, which turned unassisted, with frightful
-rapidity.... I still saw my comrades at certain moments, but _deformed_,
-half men, half plants, with the pensive airs of an ibis standing on one
-foot, of ostriches flapping their wings, &c."--"I imagined that I was
-the parroquet of the Queen of Sheba, and I imitated as well as I was
-able the cries of this praiseworthy bird."
-
-In the state caused by haschish it occasionally also happens that the
-person under its influence may be caused to speak or act in any manner
-that is suggested to him. This phenomenon is also seen in dreams; in
-both conditions the half-awakened mind automatically pursues the train
-of thought which has been suggested to it either by the voice or by
-certain sensations.
-
-Lastly, in certain disordered conditions of the system, the person has
-the power of looking, as it were, into himself, and ascertaining what is
-going on there, or of extending his sensual powers beyond the bounds of
-their ordinary sphere, and ascertaining what transpires in other places,
-or at a distance of many miles (_clairvoyance_). The gentleman from
-whose experience of the effects of haschish we have already quoted,
-thought he could look at will into his stomach, and that he saw there,
-in the form of an emerald, from which escaped millions of sparkles, the
-drug he had swallowed.
-
-By a careful consideration of the illusions and hallucinations to which
-we are liable, we obtain a clue to unravel the wild fantasies which
-constitute the greater part of the most prominent superstitions.
-
-If we reflect on the superstitious ideas which filled the minds of our
-forefathers, and follow them back, in their deepening intensity, into
-the middle ages, we can easily imagine how the irregular and fantastic
-figures which an indistinct and disordered vision gave rise to in the
-gloom of the night, were transformed into fiends and demons; how
-spectres, clothed in their horrid white and blue panoply, were seen
-stalking over the earth, and haunting the murder-stained castle, glade,
-and forest; how the dimly illuminated mists of the evening and morning
-shadowed forth the forms of the dead, and the spirits of the waters and
-the air; how in the mist of Killarney, an O'Donoghue, mounted on his
-milk-white steed, and attended by a host of fairy forms, swept over the
-beautiful lake; and a spectral array arose night after night from the
-bed of the rushing Moldau, and besieged the walls of Prague; how the
-moonbeams chequering the deep recesses of the woods, and the banks and
-meadows overhung with foliage, were metamorphised into fairies; how the
-wind howling among the rocks and mountains, sweeping through the
-valleys, or whispering amid the trees and about the nooks and corners of
-the turretted castle and ruinous mansion, bore on its bosom the sounds
-of spectre-horsemen, demon-hunters, and fiend-like hounds, or the wail
-and lamentations of wandering and lost spirits, and the shrieks of the
-infernals; and how the billows, rushing into the caverns and deep
-fissures in the cliffs of a rock-bound coast, filled the air with the
-mysterious and incomprehensible language of the spirits of the deep.
-
-A clue also is obtained to other forms of superstition.
-
-The power which the witch was supposed to possess of transporting
-herself from place to place, and which those self-deluded wretches
-themselves believed; and the orgies of the witch-sabbath, which were
-again and again deposed to, were hallucinations due to a form of
-insanity--for we may so call it--prevailing at the period, which was
-determined by the nature of the superstitious beliefs entertained. The
-real character of this superstition is well shown by an incident which
-is recorded by Jung-Stilling.
-
-He writes:--"I am acquainted with a tale, for the truth of which I can
-vouch, because it is taken from the official documents of an old
-witch-process. An old woman was imprisoned, put to the torture, and
-confessed all that witches are generally charged with. Amongst others,
-she also denounced a neighbour of hers, who had been with her on the
-Blocksberg, the preceding Walpurgis night. This woman was called, and
-asked if it were true what the prisoner said of her? On which she stated
-that, on Walpurgis eve she had called upon this woman, because she had
-something to say to her. On entering her kitchen, she found the prisoner
-busy in preparing a decoction of herbs. On asking her what she was
-boiling, she said, with a smiling and mysterious mien, "Wilt thou go
-with me to the Brocken?" From curiosity, and in order to ascertain what
-there was in the matter, she answered, "Yes: I should like to go well
-enough." On which the prisoner chattered some time about the feast, and
-the dance, and the enormous goat. She then drank of the decoction, and
-offered it to her, saying: "There, take a hearty drink of it, that thou
-mayest be able to ride through the air:" she likewise put the pot to her
-mouth, and made as if she drank of it, but did not taste a drop. During
-this, the prisoner had put a pitchfork between her legs, and placed
-herself upon the hearth; that she soon sunk down, and began to sleep and
-snore: after having looked on for some time, she was at length tired of
-it, and went home.
-
-The next morning, the prisoner came to her, and said, "Well, how dost
-thou like being at the Brocken? Sith, there were glorious doings." On
-which she had laughed heartily, and told her that she had not drunk of
-the potion, and that she, the prisoner, had not been at the Brocken, but
-had slept with her pitchfork upon the hearth. That the woman, on this,
-became angry, and said to her, that she ought not to deny having been at
-the Brocken, and having danced and kissed the goat."[66]
-
-Gassendi relates an experiment to the same effect. He anointed some
-peasants with a pomade made of belladonna or opium, persuading them that
-the operation would convey them to the witch-sabbath. After a profound
-sleep, they awoke, and told how they had been present at the sabbath,
-and the pleasures they had enjoyed.
-
-Stupifying and intoxicating drugs were, in all probability, freely used
-by sorcerers, and in the ancient mysteries, and to their use is to be
-attributed many of the illusions and hallucinations which are familiar
-in the details of the practice of the occult sciences.
-
-Jung-Stilling quotes a singularly interesting example of a method of
-practising one of the most important processes of magic; and an
-examination of it satisfactory shows the manner in which some of the
-most striking of the deceptions of that art were brought about, and how
-it happened that the professor, as well as the student, was equally
-deluded.
-
-In Eckhartshausen's "Key to Magic" there is an account of a young
-Scotsman "who, though he meddled not with the conjuration of spirits,
-and such like charlatanry, had learned, however, a remarkable piece of
-art from a Jew, which he communicated also to Eckhartshausen, and made
-the experiment with him,--which is surprising, and worthy of perusal. He
-that wishes to raise and see any particular spirit, _must prepare
-himself for it, for some days together, both spiritually and
-physically_. There are also particular and remarkable requisites and
-relations necessary betwixt such a spirit and the person who wishes to
-see it--relations which cannot otherwise be explained, than on the
-ground of the intervention of some secret influence from the invisible
-world. After all these precautions, a vapour is produced in a room, from
-certain materials which Eckhartshausen, with propriety, does not
-divulge, on account of the dangerous abuse which might be made of it,
-which visibly forms itself into a figure which bears a resemblance to
-that which the person wishes to see. In this there is no question of any
-magic-lantern or optical artifice; but the vapour really forms a human
-figure, similar to that which the individual desires to behold. I will
-now insert the conclusion of the story in Eckhartshausen's own words:--
-
-"Some time after the departure of the stranger, that is, the Scotsman, I
-made the experiment for one of my friends. He saw as I did, and had the
-same sensations.
-
-"The observations that we made were these. As soon as the ingredients
-were thrown into the chafing-dish, a whitish body forms itself, that
-seems to hover above the chafing-dish, as large as life.
-
-"It possesses the likeness of the person whom we wished to see, only the
-visage is of an ashy paleness.
-
-"On approaching the figure, one is conscious of a resistance, similar to
-that which is felt when going against a strong wind, which drives one
-back.
-
-"If one speaks with it, one remembers no more distinctly what is spoken;
-and when the appearance vanishes, one feels as if awakening from a
-dream. The head is stupified, and a contraction is felt about the
-abdomen. It is also very singular that the same appearance presents
-itself when one is in the dark, or when looking upon dark objects.
-
-"The unpleasantness of this sensation was the reason why I was unwilling
-to repeat the experiment, although often urged to do so by many
-individuals."[67]
-
-It would be difficult to conceive any more powerful method of inducing
-hallucinations than that detailed in this instructive and interesting
-recital. The previous schooling of the imagination, in order thoroughly
-to imbue it with the train of ideas requisite for the full development
-of the phenomenon, and the subsequent intoxication induced by the
-inhalation of powerful narcotic vapours--an intoxication which, as we
-have already seen in the example of haschish, is peculiarly apt to the
-development of hallucinations--will sufficiently account for the
-illusion of the smoke of the chafing-dish presenting any figure which
-the mind desires to see. The difficulty which the experimenter
-experienced in approaching the phantom, and which he compares to the
-resistance which is felt when contending against a strong wind, was
-evidently due to the powerful emotion which he experienced depriving him
-of that control of the voluntary muscles, such as we find in a person
-paralyzed by fear or astonishment; or perhaps it was rather a feeling
-similar to that experienced in nightmare, when, whatever effort we may
-make, we feel almost incapable of motion.
-
-The action of the narcotic vapour alone was sufficient to induce
-hallucinations; for, persuaded by a very experienced physician, who
-"maintained that the narcotic ingredients which formed the vapour must
-of necessity violently affect the imagination, and might be very
-injurious, according to circumstances," Eckhartshausen made the
-experiment on himself without previous preparation; "but," he writes,
-"scarcely had I cast the quantum of ingredients into the chafing-dish,
-when a figure presented itself. I was, however, seized with such a
-horror, that I was obliged to leave the room. I was very ill during
-three hours, and thought I saw the figure always before me. Towards
-evening, after inhaling the fumes of vinegar, and drinking it with
-water, I was better again; but for three weeks afterwards I felt a
-debility: and the strangest part of the matter is, that when I remember
-the circumstance, and look for some time upon any dark object, this ashy
-pale figure still presents itself very vividly to my sight. After this I
-no longer dared to make any experiments with it."
-
-The use of intoxicating and stupifying drugs doubtless contributed also
-to the development of those ideas of strange and wonderful
-transformations and anomalies of form with which the legends and
-romances of Oriental and European nations teem. In the examples of
-hallucinations we have already given from this source, we find the key
-to the explanation of several of these transformations; and the
-elaborated supernatural framework of fairy tales, in which men are
-changed without compunction into inferior animals, trees, or vegetables,
-has probably had a similar origin.
-
-The state of "clairvoyance," and that condition of the nervous system
-which is found in certain diseases, dreams, and under the influence of
-narcotic poisons, in which, by suggestions, in whatever manner given,
-certain actions and trains of thought may be excited at the will of the
-suggestor, is seen also, and may be induced at will in those conditions
-of the system which are summed up under the terms "mesmerism," "animal
-magnetism," "electro-biology," &c.; and the theories which have been
-invented to explain them, and which are expressed in the above names,
-are not only needless, but inconsistent with the facts observed. The
-so-called mesmeric and electro-biological trance is strictly allied to
-certain forms of dreaming; and the whole of the results witnessed may be
-explained by certain admitted physiological and physical laws of action,
-and are due to leading trains of thought which are excited by
-suggestions direct or indirect. As to the higher faculty of prevision
-claimed in this state, we are not aware that, as yet, a single
-trustworthy instance has been established.
-
-There is a class of spectral apparitions which differ from those which
-we have already dwelt upon, inasmuch as they have appeared to
-foreshadow, or have occurred coincidently with, the death of an
-individual; or they have made known events occurring at a distance, or
-have brought to light things else hidden by the grave.
-
-In the deepening gloom of twilight the seer of Scotland often witnessed
-the _wraiths_ of those who were about to die, wreathed in the ascending
-mists of the night, troop in ghostly silence before his horror-stricken
-vision; and the _Bodach Glas_ crossed the path of the death-laden Mac
-Ivor; the _Bodac au Dun_, or Ghost of the Hill, warned the Rothmurchan
-of approaching calamity; the spectre of the Bloody Hand scared the
-Kincardines; the _Bodach Gartin_ glided in significant horror through
-the gloomy passages of Gartnibeg House; and the Girl with the Hairy Left
-Hand--_Manch Monlach_--pointed to the death-bolt about to carry weeping
-and wailing into the halls of Tulloch Gorus.
-
-The spectral _fetch_ shadowed forth in the sister isle the dark course
-of death; while the Banshee mourned with the frightful accents of the
-dead over the dying scions of the ancient families. Hovering near the
-sorrow-laden mansion, her robe flowing wide in the night air, and her
-tangled tresses borne upon the wind, she cried the keen of another world
-adown the vaulted passages, and sobbed in ghastly agony her bitter
-lamentations.
-
-The _Gwrâch y Rhibyn_--Hag of the Dribble--when the night had covered
-the earth, spread out her leathern-like wings, and flitting before the
-house of the death-stricken Cambrians, shrieked in harsh, broken, and
-prolonged tones their names.
-
-In our own land the spectres of all those who would die in the parish
-during the year might be seen walking in ghostly procession to the
-church, or entering its portals, by him who would watch, three years
-consecutively, during the last hour of the night and the first hour of
-the morning, in the porch, on the Eve of St. Mark, or would kneel and
-look through the keyhole of the door of the sanctuary at midnight on the
-Eve of St. John the Baptist.
-
-The _White Lady_, who haunts the ancient castle of the celebrated
-Bohemian family of Rosenberg-Neuhaus, and who also appears from time to
-time in the castles of the allied families of Brandenburg, Baden, and
-Darmstadt,--Trzebon, Islubocka, Bechin, and Tretzen, and even has been
-seen in Berlin, Bayreuth, and at Carlsrhue is of historical notoriety.
-Tall of stature, attired in white, and wearing a white widow's veil
-adorned with ribbons, through the folds of which, and from within her, a
-faint light has been seen to glimmer, she glides with a modest air
-through the corridors and apartments of those castles and palaces in
-which the death of one of her family is about to occur; and she has been
-seen at other times, and oft, with the aspect and air as though the
-spirit had a melancholy pleasure in visiting and hovering about her
-descendants. It is said to be the ghost of one Perchta Von Rosenberg,
-who was born between A.D. 1420 and 1430, and subsequently married to
-John Von Lichtenstein, a rich and profligate baron, who so embittered
-her life that she was obliged to seek relief from her relatives, and she
-died borne down with the insults and indescribable distress she endured.
-Among the old paintings of the family of Rosenberg was found a portrait
-of this lady, attired after the fashion of the times, and bearing an
-exact resemblance to the "_White Lady_." In December, 1628, she appeared
-in Berlin, and was heard to exclaim, "Veni, judica vivos et mortuos:
-judicium mihi adhuc superest!"--"Come, judge the living and the dead; my
-fate is not yet decided."
-
-The _Klage-weib_ (Mourning Woman) when the storm is driving the rift
-before it, and the moon shines fitfully and faintly on the earth, may be
-seen stalking along, her gigantic and shadowy form enveloped in dark
-flowing grave-clothes, her deathlike countenance and deep cavernous eyes
-freezing the unhappy spectator with horror, while, extending her vast
-arm, she sweeps it above the cottage marked out by death.
-
-In the Tyrol also, the phantom of a white woman looks in at the window
-of a house where a person must die.
-
-These are examples of spectral apparitions foreboding death and
-misfortune, which the lapse of ages and the influence of superstition
-have invested with a semblance of reality, approximating them in
-apparent truthfulness to historical facts.
-
-It is a needless, and would be a thankless task, to show how these
-notions were the legitimate result of the ideas of the supernatural
-entertained at the period when they were developed; and how when the
-superstitions once assumed a definite form, the slightest illusion
-during the period of sickness or calamity, whether observed in the
-castellated mansion, pregnant generally with deeds of darkness or blood,
-or in the twilight or the storm of a moon-lit night, were converted into
-these phantoms;[68] or the imperfectly remembered dream, or its vivid
-depiction of the superstition, shadowed forth the same.
-
-Scant of romance, and that wild and thrilling medium through which many
-of our old legends are seen, we have handed to us numerous business-like
-stories, some of very recent date, in which the same principles are
-involved as in the legends we have detailed, and which demand grave
-attention, from the honest truthfulness with which they are evidently
-detailed, and the events which they appear to have foreshadowed.
-
-Let us examine some of these instances, and endeavour to ascertain
-whether they come under the character of illusions or hallucinations; or
-whether they are to be placed in another category, and to be regarded as
-the results of supernatural agency, as is most frequently done.
-
-In "Blackwood's Magazine" for 1840, there is a letter which contains the
-following statement:--
-
-"The 'Hawk' being on her passage from the Cape of Good Hope towards the
-island of Java, and myself having the charge of the middle watch,
-between one and two in the morning I was taken suddenly ill, which
-obliged me to send for the officer next in turn; I then went down on the
-gun-deck, and sent my boy for a light. In the meanwhile, I sat down on a
-chest in the steerage, under the after-grating, when I felt a gentle
-squeeze by a very cold hand; I started, and saw a figure in white;
-stepping back, I said, 'God's my life! who is that?' It stood and gazed
-at me a short time, stooped its head to get a more perfect view, sighed
-aloud, repeated the exclamation 'Oh!' three times, and instantly
-vanished. The night was fine, though the moon afforded through the
-gratings but a weak light, so that little of feature could be seen,
-only a figure rather tall than otherwise, and white-clad. My boy
-returning now with a light, I sent him to the cabins of all the
-officers, when he brought me word that not one of them had been
-stirring. Coming afterwards to St. Helena, homeward-bound, hearing of my
-sister's death, and finding the time so nearly coinciding, it added much
-to my painful concern; and I have only to thank God, that when I saw
-what I now verily believe to have been her apparition (my sister Ann), I
-did not then know the melancholy occasion of it."
-
-The superstitious feelings which we find pervading the mind of the
-gentleman relating this incident, and which is evinced by its
-termination; the circumstances under which the apparition took place,
-namely, a dim uncertain light, that most favourable to illusion; an
-attack of indisposition leading to alteration of the natural sensations;
-and lastly, and most important of all, the after-conclusion arrived at
-on hearing of the sister's death, and under the influence of which the
-account was written, and which, it is evident from the nature of the
-details, gave rise to that definite statement which has been
-recorded,--all tend to the conclusion that the spectre was an illusion,
-and that its significance was a phase imparted to it by superstitious
-feelings alone.
-
-The influence of subsequent conclusions in warping the real history of
-an event, and giving a definite and precise character to what would
-otherwise have been vague and inconclusive, as is witnessed in the above
-story, is one of the most important fallacies pervading ghost-stories.
-There is no source of self-deception to which we are exposed, more
-insidious; and it is requisite to keep it constantly in view, not only
-in relations of this nature, but in the examination of events of any
-kind whatever. The colouring which facts receive from this source, too
-often hides their real character; and the reciter is perfectly
-unconscious of the erroneous light which he casts upon them. Hence the
-importance of ascertaining the peculiar bias and tendencies of thought
-which appertain to one who records occurrences upon which important
-conclusions or theories may be based.
-
-The vicious habit which has been common among the advocates of
-supernatural visitations, of supporting their opinions upon the
-assertions of men of known probity and honour, to the complete exclusion
-of an examination of the sources of delusion and error to which these
-men were liable from the character of their previous education, habits
-of thought, associations, &c., and from their imperfect acquaintance
-with the fallacies to which they may have been exposed, has been a
-fertile source of error.
-
-A so-called fact is not an abstract truth; it is simply a fact so far as
-it relates to the assertor, and the credence given to it by others
-depends upon the extent to which it agrees with their experience, or
-upon the knowledge that the assertor has by previous study or experience
-so far diminished the probability of error on the subject to which it
-relates, that the statement may be received without hesitation.
-
-Another form of ghost-story is that in which the spirit of the dead has
-been compelled to wander in misery on the earth, for some crime or
-error, small or great, committed during life, and which, unless it be
-atoned for or rectified, prevents its eternal repose.
-
-A story of this kind is given by Jung-Stilling, and however absurd it
-may be in some parts, it is interesting from the precision of its
-details enabling us to lay hold of a clue to the explanation of the
-majority of these tales.
-
-In 1756, M. Doerien, one of the proctors of Caroline College, Brunswick,
-was taken ill and died, shortly after "St. John's Day" (June 24th).
-Immediately before his death, he requested to see another of the
-proctors, M. Hoefer, having some communication of importance to make to
-him; but before that gentleman arrived, death had taken place. After
-some time a report became prevalent in the college that the ghost of the
-deceased proctor had been seen; but as this proceeded merely from the
-young, little attention had been given to it. At length, in October,
-upwards of three months after the death of M. Doerien, as M. Hoefer was
-proceeding on his accustomed nightly round, between the hours of eleven
-and twelve, in one of the corridors he saw the spectre of that
-professor, clothed in a common night-gown and white night-cap. This
-unexpected sight terrified M. Hoefer somewhat, but recollecting that he
-was in the path of duty, he recovered himself, and advancing to the
-spectre, endeavoured to examine it by the light of the candle he held in
-his hand; but such a horror came over him, that he could scarcely
-withdraw the hand in which he extended the light, and from that moment
-it was so swollen, "that some months elapsed before it was healed." The
-following night he was accompanied in his rounds by a philosopher,
-Professor Oeder, who was rather sceptical on the subject of apparitions;
-but on approaching the spot in which the spectre had been seen on the
-previous evening, there they beheld it again in the same position.
-
-Others attempted to gain a sight of the ghost, but it would not manifest
-itself, not even to MM. Oeder and Hoefer, until the former gentleman,
-wearied with his useless watching during a somewhat prolonged period,
-exclaimed, "I have gone after the spirit long enough to please him; if
-he now wants anything, let him come to me." But what followed? About
-fourteen days after, when he was thinking about anything else than of
-ghosts, he was suddenly and rudely awakened, between three and four
-o'clock in the morning, by some external motion. On opening his eyes, he
-saw an apparition opposite to the bed, standing by the clothes-press,
-which was only two paces from it, that presented itself in the same
-attire as the spirit. He raised himself up, and could then clearly
-discern the whole face. He fixed his eyes steadfastly upon the phantom,
-until, after a period of eight minutes, it became invisible.
-
-The next morning he was again awakened about the same time, and saw the
-same apparition, only with this difference, that the door of the press
-made a cracking noise, just as if some one leaned upon it. This time the
-spirit remained longer, so that Professor Oeder spoke to it as follows:
-"Get thee hence, thou evil spirit; what hast thou to do here?" At these
-words the phantom made all kinds of dreadful motions, waved its head,
-its hands, and its feet in such a manner, that the terrified Professor
-began to pray, "Who trusts in God, &c.," and "God the Father dwell with
-us, &c.," on which the spirit vanished.
-
-After eight days the spirit again appeared, "but with this difference,
-that it came from the press directly towards him, and inclined its head
-over him," whereupon the terrified Professor struck out at it, and the
-spirit retired; but no sooner had he laid down, than it again advanced,
-and he, noticing that its aspect was "more in sorrow than in anger,"
-observed it attentively, and saw that the ghost had a short tobacco-pipe
-in its mouth. This circumstance and the spirit's mild mien induced him
-to address the ghost, and ask, "Are you still owing anything." He knew
-beforehand that the deceased had left some debts, and the amount of a
-few dollars, _which occasioned the inquiry_. The spirit looked
-attentively at this query; and at length, guided by the tobacco-pipe,
-when the Professor asked, "Are you perhaps owing something for tobacco?"
-the spirit retreated and suddenly disappeared. Measures were immediately
-taken to liquidate the debt which was found to be owing for tobacco.
-
-The next night Professor Seidler remained with Oeder. The spirit again
-appeared, but not as formerly, at the press, but near it, close to the
-white wall. It was visible only to Oeder, his brother professor merely
-seeing "something white." From this night Oeder burnt a night-lamp, and
-he no longer saw the apparition; but for some nights, at the same time,
-from three to five, he was troubled with uneasy sensations, and
-frequently heard a noise at the clothes-press and knocking at the door.
-By degrees these sensations passed away, and he discontinued the
-night-lamp; but the second night after, the spectre again appeared "at
-the accustomed hour, but visibly darker." It had, moreover, a new sign
-in its hand--"It was like a picture, and had a hole in the centre, into
-which the spirit frequently put its hand. After long ruminating and
-inquiring what the deceased might mean by these signs, so much was at
-length elicited, that a short time before his illness he had taken some
-paintings in a magic lantern from a picture-dealer on trial, which had
-not been returned. The paintings were given to the rightful owner, and
-from that time Oeder continued undisturbed."
-
-In this story we notice, first, that a report was prevalent in the
-college, that the ghost of M. Doerien had been seen by several persons;
-and it is but natural to suppose that such a statement would exercise a
-powerful effect upon the mind of M. Hoefer, who had been placed in the
-painful position of being summoned to the death-bed of his friend, to
-receive a communication "necessary to mention to him," but had arrived
-in time only to witness the death-struggle. Upwards of three months
-after the death of M. Doerien, and when M. Hoefer was evidently in a
-disordered state of health, as is indicated by the swelling of the hand,
-and subsequent persistence of this swelling for some time, as this
-gentleman was making his usual rounds by the light of a taper in the
-dead of night, he witnesses the first apparition in a situation pregnant
-with associations of the deceased. The apparition may have been an
-illusion, suggested at first by some outlines indistinctly seen; or it
-may have been, and it is more probable to have been, an hallucination
-excited by the association of ideas in a person whose system was in a
-disordered state.
-
-That connection of ideas, similar or dissimilar, which is acquired by
-habit or otherwise, so that one of them, in whatever manner we may
-become conscious of it, will suggest and give rise to the others,
-without the intervention of a voluntary action of the mind, is familiar
-to most persons.
-
-The association which the mind habitually forms between certain objects
-and scenes, and persons connected with them, is most evident when a
-separation has been effected by death or removal to a distance; and, as
-is well-known, and has probably been painfully experienced by most
-persons, when the mind has been rallying from a state of abstraction or
-reverie, the sight of some object, or an indistinct sound, which during
-the full activity of the faculties would not have been regarded, or
-would simply have sufficed to arouse an ordinary reminiscence, will
-cause to flash athwart the mind, a vivid and startling image of the
-deceased or far distant one.
-
-We well remember some years ago, when a fellow-student, with whom we had
-been on very intimate terms, was cut off after a few days' illness. He
-had been in the habit of spending much time in our rooms. For some
-months after his death, particularly when wearied with study, a slight
-noise in the passage or at the door of the room has given rise to so
-vivid an impression that he was approaching, or at the door, that it has
-required an effort of the mind to quell the hallucination.
-
-The apparition which M. Hoefer witnessed, was most probably an
-hallucination of this kind; the corridor, and position in which it
-occurred, recalling to memory, in all the vividness of reality, the form
-and lineaments of that deceased friend who had formerly frequented it
-along with him.
-
-We have already seen an instance of a somewhat similar character, in the
-account given in a previous paper of the apparition of a father, then
-alive, but absent at church, to his daughter at home. In that case the
-apparition was excited by the sight of the arm-chair generally occupied
-by the old gentleman, and connected with it alone, the association of
-the ideas being obvious; and the state of the brain forming, so to
-speak, the substratum of the hallucination, was induced by uneasiness
-caused by a heavy thunder-storm acting on a frame debilitated by fever.
-
-The apparition of the following night, which was seen also by Professor
-Oeder, was, so far as M. Hoefer was concerned, a modification of the
-hallucination of the preceding night, prompted by the belief that the
-apparition he had witnessed was supernatural; and the precise similarity
-of the apparition professed to have been seen by M. Oeder, to that seen
-by M. Hoefer on that and the preceding night, would lead to the
-suspicion that in the former gentleman it was a trick of the imagination
-alone,--a suspicion confirmed by the subsequent progress of the tale.
-
-Professor Oeder brooded upon the apparition he had witnessed, and, it is
-important to mark, made every endeavour for some time to obtain a second
-sight of it, but failed, until wearied out with his fruitless research,
-he ceased to hunt after it. Fourteen days afterwards, he states that he
-was suddenly and rudely awakened "by some external motion" (which is
-evidently an after-conclusion derived from what followed), and saw the
-apparition of Doerien standing by the clothes-press.
-
-In other words, he awoke suddenly out of a troubled sleep, and in the
-transition state between sleeping and waking, in which the mental images
-are as bright and defined as in dreams, the subject which had occupied
-his mind so much of late was presented before him in a visible form. As
-it not unfrequently happens when a dream has made a powerful impression
-on the mind, it is repeated again, so on the following night M. Oeder's
-hallucination occurred, but with the addition of a slight creaking noise
-of the clothes-press door.
-
-Oeder was now fully convinced of the supernatural character of his
-visitant, and when the spectre again appeared to him, which was after a
-period of eight days, he having adopted the opinion at that period very
-prevalent, of troubled spirits, proceeded to inquire as to the cause of
-its visitations; and noticing a white tobacco-pipe in the spirit's
-mouth, and _knowing_ that the deceased Doerien had "left some debts to
-the amount of a few dollars," he asked, "Are you perhaps owing for
-tobacco?" whereupon the spirit disappeared. Here then we find an
-hallucination, either in the dreaming or waking state, presenting the
-precise similitude of the Professor's opinions and conceptions
-respecting the possible cause of the spectre.
-
-The following night, when the spectre appeared again, a friend was with
-Oeder, but this friend saw "nothing further than something white,"--no
-very extraordinary sight in a room which had white walls, and was not
-perfectly dark.
-
-From this time Oeder used a night-lamp, and the spectre no more
-appeared, but by certain sensations and noises he knew it was in the
-apartment.
-
-The invisibility of the spectre, when the light was present, would
-indicate that a sensation of light excited in the eye by a disordered
-state of the head, such as we have fully dwelt upon in a previous part
-of the work, played an important part of the hallucination; and the
-disturbed sleep for so many nights, and uneasy sensations, point to a
-circumstance which we have not yet alluded to, that the Professor's
-health was not in good condition,--the probable cause of the whole
-series of hallucinations.
-
-The uneasy sensations ceased, the light was dispensed with, the spectre
-again came, but it was darker, and contained a new sign in its hand,
-which, by following out a similar course of reasoning as upon the
-tobacco-pipe, and by long ruminating and inquiring, the Professor
-puzzled out to signify some paintings belonging to a magic lantern which
-Doerien had received on trial before his death, and which had not been
-returned. They were sought up, sent to their rightful owner, and the
-apparition vanished to return no more.
-
-It is to be remembered that this story, like most others of a similar
-nature, has been written under a full belief of the supernatural
-character of the apparitions, and it has received a colouring
-accordingly; and our comments suffice to show that no care, no attempt,
-has been made by the ghost-seer, to ascertain how much the apparitions
-might depend upon some illusion or hallucinations connected with his
-bodily health. The progress of the tale further shows that the
-apparitions occurred, in both M. Hoefer as well as Professor Oeder's
-case, in connection with symptoms of disordered health, and that they
-added nothing to what these gentlemen knew, or could work out, as M.
-Oeder did, by his own reason and judgment; in short, that they were
-simple images of ideas they already possessed or arrived at from the
-information they obtained.
-
-Other sources of error in the judgment could be pointed out, and other
-causes of illusion and hallucination in the above tale, but we have
-written sufficient to show its worthlessness.
-
-One of the most formidable objections to the majority of ghost-stories
-of this nature is the insufficiency of the authority upon which they are
-given. In many instances we cannot trace them satisfactorily to their
-origin; in others, we have received them after they have passed through
-the hands of several persons; and in still more (as in the tales we have
-just analysed) there is intrinsic evidence that no endeavour has been
-made to obviate or elicit the sources of fallacy to which the ghost-seer
-has been exposed, and diminish as much as possible the chances of error.
-
-The story of the "Last Hours of Lord Lyttleton" is a singularly
-interesting example of a ghost-story, based upon insufficient authority,
-and probably also upon a trivial circumstance, receiving almost
-universal credence; and it shows, moreover, how readily the
-superstitious feelings of the listeners will lead them to receive
-without due examination, tales which in themselves may be utterly void
-of satisfactory foundation; and induce them to retail subsequently an
-account which has probably received its precision and colouring from
-their imaginations alone.
-
-Oft as the story has been told, we are necessitated again to quote it in
-part, in order to show more fully the nature of the authority upon
-which it depends.
-
-A gentleman, who was on a visit to Lord Lyttleton, writes:--
-
-"I was at Pitt Place, Epsom, when Lord Lyttleton died; Lord Fortescue,
-Lady Flood, and the two Miss Amphletts, were also present. Lord
-Lyttleton had not long been returned from Ireland, and frequently had
-been seized with suffocating fits; he was attacked several times by them
-in the course of the preceding month, while he was at his house in Hill
-Street, Berkeley Square. It happened that he dreamt, three days before
-his death, that he saw a fluttering bird; and afterwards, that a woman
-appeared to him in white apparel, and said to him, 'Prepare to die, you
-will not exist three days.' His Lordship was much alarmed, and called to
-a servant from a closet adjoining, who found him much agitated, and in a
-profuse perspiration: the circumstance had a considerable effect all the
-next day on his Lordship's spirits. On the third day, while his Lordship
-was at breakfast with the above personages, he said, 'If I live over
-to-night, I shall have jockied the ghost, for this is the third day.'
-The whole party presently set off for Pitt Place, where they had not
-long arrived before his Lordship was visited by one of his accustomed
-fits; after a short interval, he recovered. He dined at five o'clock
-that day, and went to bed at eleven, when his servant was about to give
-him rhubarb and mint-water; but his Lordship perceiving him stir it with
-a tooth-pick, called him a slovenly dog, and bade him go and fetch a
-tea-spoon; but on the man's return, he found his master in a fit, and
-the pillow being placed high, his chin bore hard upon his neck, when the
-servant, instead of relieving his Lordship on the instant from his
-perilous situation, ran in his fright and called out for help, but on
-his return he found his Lordship dead."
-
-The circumstances attending the apparition, as related by Lord
-Lyttleton, according to the statement of a relative of Lady Lyttleton's,
-were as follows:
-
-"Two nights before, on his retiring to bed, after his servant was
-dismissed and his light extinguished, he had heard a noise resembling
-the fluttering of a dove at his chamber window. This attracted his
-attention to the spot; when, looking in the direction of the sound, he
-saw the figure of an unhappy female whom he had seduced and deserted,
-and who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence,
-standing in the aperture of the window from which the fluttering sound
-had proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed, the room was
-preternaturally light, the objects of the chamber were distinctly
-visible; raising her head and pointing to a dial which stood on the
-mantel-piece of the chimney, the figure, with a severe solemnity of
-voice and manner, announced to the appalled and conscience-stricken man
-that, at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation, his life
-and his sins would be concluded, and nothing but their punishment
-remain, if he availed himself not of the warning to repentance which he
-had received. The eye of Lord Lyttleton glanced upon the dial, the hand
-was upon the stroke of twelve; again the apartment was involved in total
-darkness, the warning spirit disappeared, and bore away at her departure
-all the lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit, ready flow of wit,
-and vivacity of manner, which had formerly been the pride and ornament
-of the unhappy being to whom she had delivered her tremendous summons."
-
-From a passage in the Memoirs of Sir Nathanial Wraxall, it would seem
-that the sole authority for the above story was his Lordship's
-_valet-de-chambre_, for he writes:--
-
-"Dining at Pitt Place, about four years after the death of Lord
-Lyttleton, in the year 1783, I had the curiosity to visit the
-bedchamber, where the casement-window, at which Lord Lyttleton asserted
-the dove appeared to flutter, was pointed out to me; and at his
-stepmother's, the Dowager Lady Lyttleton's, in Portugal Street,
-Grosvenor Square, I have frequently seen a painting, which she herself
-executed, in 1780, expressly to commemorate the event; it hung in a
-conspicuous part of her drawing-room. There the dove appears at the
-window, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the foot of
-the bed, announcing to Lord Lyttleton his dissolution. Every part of the
-picture was faithfully designed, _after the description given to her by
-the valet-de-chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all
-the circumstances_."
-
-In addition it would appear, according to Lord Fortescue, that the only
-foundation upon which this story rests, is as follows:--
-
-"I heard Lord Fortescue once say," writes a friend of Sir Walter Scott,
-"that he was in the house with him (Lord Lyttleton) at the time of the
-supposed visitation, and he mentioned the following circumstances as the
-only foundation for the extraordinary superstructure at which the world
-has wondered:--A woman of the party had one day lost a favourite bird,
-and all the men tried to recover it for her. Soon after, on assembling
-at breakfast, Lord Lyttleton complained of having passed a very bad
-night, and having been worried in his dreams by a repetition of the
-chase of the lady's bird. His death followed, as stated in the
-story."[69]
-
-It would seem highly probable, therefore, that this story has been
-framed much after the same fashion as that of the "three black crows,"
-and the singular differences which we find in the versions we have
-given, fully confirm this view.
-
-Connected with the foregoing story is another of the apparition of Lord
-Lyttleton, on the night of his death, to Miles Peter Andrews, one of his
-most intimate friends. This apparition occurred at Dartford Mills, where
-Mr. Andrews was then staying, and doubtless, in its origin and mode of
-development, the story is in every respect similar to that of Lord
-Lyttleton's.
-
-The March number of "_Household Words_,"[70] for 1853, contains a
-ghost-story which exhibits another form of the belief, differing from
-those which we have already dwelt upon, and it is interesting from its
-comparatively recent occurrence, and from its having to a certain extent
-received the confirmation of a law-court.
-
-In the colony of New South Wales, at a place called Penrith, distant
-from Sydney about thirty-seven miles, lived a farmer named Fisher. He
-was unmarried, about forty-five years old, and his lands and stock were
-worth not less than £4000. Suddenly Fisher disappeared, and a neighbour,
-named Smith, gave out that he had gone to England for two or three
-years, and produced a written document authorizing him to act as his
-agent during his absence. As Fisher was an eccentric man, this sudden
-departure did not create much surprise, and it was declared to be
-"exactly like him."
-
-About six months after Fisher's disappearance, an old man called Ben
-Weir, who had a small farm near Penrith, and who always drove his own
-cart to market, was returning from Sydney one night, when he beheld,
-seated on a rail which bounded the road--Fisher. _The night was very
-dark, and the distance of the fence from the middle of the road was at
-least twelve yards._ Weir, nevertheless, saw Fisher's figure seated on
-the rail. He pulled his old mare up, and called out, "Fisher, is that
-you?" No answer was returned, but there, still on the rail, sat the form
-of the man with whom he had been on the most intimate terms. Weir, who
-was not drunk, though he had had several glasses of strong liquor,
-jumped off his cart, and approached the rail. To his surprise, the form
-vanished.
-
-Weir noticed that the ghost was marked by "a cruel gash" on the
-forehead, and that there was the appearance of fresh blood about it;
-and before leaving the spot, he marked it by breaking several branches
-of a sapling close by.
-
-On returning home he told his story to his wife, who, however, told him
-that he was drunk, and ridiculed him.
-
-On the following Thursday night, when old Ben was returning from
-market,--again in his cart,--he saw seated upon the same rail, the
-identical apparition. He had purposely abstained from drinking that day,
-and was in the full possession of all his senses.
-
-Weir again told his wife of the apparition, to be again ridiculed by
-her, and he remarked, "Smith is a bad un! Do you think Fisher would ever
-have left this country without coming to bid you and me good-bye?"
-
-The next morning Ben waited on a Mr. Grafton, a justice of the peace,
-who lived near to him, and told his tale. The magistrate was at first
-disposed to treat the account lightly, but after consideration, he
-summoned one of the aboriginal natives, and at sunrise met Weir at the
-place where the apparition had occurred, and which was sufficiently
-marked by the dead and broken branches of the sapling.
-
-The rail was found to be stained in several places, and the native,
-without any previous intimation of the object of the search, was
-directed to examine them, and he shortly pronounced them to be "_white
-man's blood_," and searching about, he pointed out a spot whereon a body
-had been laid. "Not a single shower of rain had fallen for several
-months previously,--not sufficient to lay even the dust upon the roads.
-Notwithstanding this, however, the native succeeded in tracking the
-footsteps of one man to the unfrequented side of a pond at some
-distance. He gave it as his opinion that another man had been dragged
-thither. The savage walked round and round the pond, eagerly examining
-its borders, and the sedges and weeds springing up around it. At first
-he seemed baffled,--no clue had been washed ashore to show that anything
-unusual had been sunk in the pond; but having finished this examination,
-he laid himself down on his face, and looked keenly along the surface of
-the smooth and stagnant water. Presently he jumped up, uttered a cry
-peculiar to the natives when gratified by finding some long-sought
-object, clapped his hands, and pointing to the middle of the pond, to
-where the decomposition of some sunken substance had produced a slimy
-coating streaked with prismatic colours, he exclaimed, '_White man's
-fat!_' The pond was immediately searched; and, below the spot indicated,
-the remains of a body were discovered. A large stone and a rotted silk
-handkerchief were found near the body; these had been used to sink it."
-
-By the teeth, and buttons upon the waistcoat, the body was identified as
-that of Fisher. Smith was arrested, and, upon this evidence, tried
-before the late Sir Francis Forbes, found guilty, sentenced to death,
-and hung; but previous to the execution, "he confessed that he, and he
-alone, committed the murder, and that it was upon the very rail where
-Weir swore that he had seen Fisher's ghost sitting, and that he had
-knocked out Fisher's brains with a tomahawk."
-
-We quote this story as an interesting example of one of the best and
-most consistent of the tales of this kind, although it is probable that
-a more thorough investigation of the circumstances connected with it,
-would show an origin of a nature similar to that of the "Last Hours of
-Lord Lyttleton."
-
-Several statements in the story require confirmation, and throw doubt
-upon the whole.
-
-The assertion that Weir, on a "very dark" night, saw seated upon a rail,
-at a distance of _twelve yards_, a resemblance of Fisher which he took
-to be real, and was not aware of the actual nature of the appearance
-until he advanced towards it, is a statement too improbable to be
-worthy of credence unless supported by other and less objectionable
-evidence; and notwithstanding the extraordinary degree to which the
-visual and other senses of the aboriginal natives are, as we are aware,
-often developed, yet that they will enable them to state that an old
-blood-stain is produced by the blood of a white man, or that an
-iridescent scum floating at a distance on water is produced by the fat
-of the white man, are statements which cannot be admitted without strong
-confirmatory evidence.
-
-It not unfrequently happens that dreams appear to foreshadow events, the
-occurrence of which could not be anticipated by the reasoning faculties.
-Many of the instances recorded of this kind are after-conclusions
-founded upon imperfectly remembered dreams, and are consequently
-worthless. Such, for example, is the story stated by Mrs. Crowe of a
-gentleman "who has several times been conscious on awaking that he had
-been conversing with some one, whom he has been subsequently startled to
-hear had died at that period."[71]
-
-Other dreams have received a verification from the natural results of
-the dreamer's superstitious folly.
-
-Mrs. Crowe has quoted the following example from a continental
-newspaper:--
-
-"A letter from Hamburg contains the following curious story relative to
-the verification of a dream. It appears that a locksmith's apprentice,
-one morning lately, informed his master (Claude Soller), that on the
-previous night he dreamt that he had been assassinated on the road to
-Bergsdorff, a little town at about two hours' distance from Hamburg. The
-master laughed at the young man's credulity, and to prove that he
-himself had little faith in dreams, insisted upon sending him to
-Bergsdorff, with 140 rix dollars (£22 8_s._), which he owed to his
-brother-in-law who resided in the town. The apprentice, after in vain
-imploring his master to change his intention, was compelled to set out
-at about eleven o'clock. On arriving at the village of Billwaerder,
-about halfway between Hamburg and Bergsdorff, he recollected his dream
-with terror but perceiving the baillie of the village at a little
-distance talking to some of his workmen, he accosted him, and acquainted
-him with his singular dream, at the same time requesting, that as he had
-money about his person, one of his workmen might be allowed to accompany
-him for protection across a small wood which lay in his way. The baillie
-smiled, and in obedience to his orders, one of the men set out with his
-young apprentice. The next day the corpse of the latter was conveyed by
-some peasants to the baillie, along with a reaping-hook, which had been
-found by his side, and with which the throat of the murdered youth had
-been cut. The baillie immediately recognized the instrument as one which
-he had on the previous day given to the workman who had served as the
-apprentice's guide, for the purpose of pruning some willows. The workman
-was apprehended, and on being confronted with the body of his victim,
-made a full confession of his crime, adding that the recital of the
-dream had alone prompted him to commit the horrible act. The assassin,
-who is thirty-five years of age, was a native of Billwaerder, and
-previously to the perpetration of the murder, had always borne an
-irreproachable character."
-
-It is well known that sensations from without will not only frequently
-excite dreaming, but will also often determine the character of the
-dreams. The following story is evidently an example of a dream of this
-nature.
-
-On the 30th July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was discovered in
-a field at Littleport, in the Isle of Ely. There could be little doubt
-that the woman had been murdered; and at the adjourned inquest held
-before Mr. W. Marshall, one of the coroners for the isle, on the 29th
-August, the following extraordinary evidence was given:--
-
-"James Jessop, an elderly respectable-looking labourer, with a face of
-the most perfect stolidity, and who possessed a most curiously shaped
-skull, broad and flat at the top, and projecting greatly on each side
-over the ears, deposed: 'I live about a furlong and a half from where
-the body was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I had never
-seen her before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I
-dreamt three successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing
-from near the bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place
-where the body was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry, it
-woke me. I fell asleep again, and dreamt the same again. I then woke
-again, and told my wife. I could not rest; but I dreamt it again after
-that. I got up between four or five o'clock, but I did not go down to
-the Close, the wheat and barley in which have since been cut. I dreamt
-once, about twenty years ago, that I saw a woman hanging in a barn, and
-on passing the next morning the barn which appeared to me in my dream, I
-entered, and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down just in
-time to save her life. I never told my wife I heard any cries of murder,
-but I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body on the
-Saturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a day
-or two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream, and the trees
-thereon, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the wind
-lay from that spot to my house."
-
-"Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related
-his dreams to her, on the evening of the day the body was found."[72]
-
-It is highly probable, that in this instance, the screams of the
-unfortunate woman, borne upon the wind, were the exciting cause of the
-dreams, and the direction from which the sound came would be sufficient
-to call up the associated idea of the fields in which the murder
-occurred. The powerful impression made upon the mind of the man,
-according to his own account, will sufficiently account for the
-repetition of the dreams; and the statement that the particulars of the
-dream were not related until after the finding of the body, must induce
-a little caution to the reception of the above version as an actual
-detail of the facts of the case. This remark applies also to the dream
-interpolated in the evidence.
-
-Among the most vivid and connected dreams, are those excited by a
-dominant or absorbing train of thought, which has engaged the mind
-during waking hours, or by powerful or protracted emotion.
-
-M. Boismont relates a dream, which he conceives is to be classed among
-the inexplicable phenomena of this nature, but which, with all deference
-to that distinguished psychologist, is rather to be placed in the
-category we have just named.
-
-Miss R., gifted with an excellent judgment, and religious without
-bigotry, lived, before her marriage, at the house of an uncle, a
-celebrated physician, and a member of the Institute. She was at that
-time separated from her mother, who had been attacked, in the country,
-by a severe illness. One night, this young lady dreamed that she saw her
-mother before her, pale, disfigured, about to render the last breath,
-and showing particularly lively grief at not being surrounded by her
-children, of whom one, curé of one of the parishes in Paris, had
-emigrated to Spain, and the other was in Paris. Presently she heard her
-call upon her many times by her Christian name; whereupon the persons
-who surrounded her mother, supposing that she called her grand-daughter,
-who bore the same name, went to seek her in the neighbouring room, but a
-sign from the invalid apprised them that it was not the grand-daughter,
-but the daughter who resided in Paris, that she wished to see. Her
-appearance expressed the grief she felt at her absence; suddenly her
-features changed, became covered with the paleness of death, and she
-fell without life on the bed.
-
-The lady had died during that night; and it was subsequently
-ascertained, that the circumstances delineated in the dream, simulated
-those which had occurred by the death-bed.
-
-What are the circumstances of this case?--A mother dangerously ill--her
-children away from home. What more likely to occur to a child cognisant
-of these facts, than the train of thought which engendered and caused
-this dream? The events attending a death-bed scene under such
-circumstances were all but inevitable, and we cannot, justifiably,
-consider this case in any other light than that of a "simple
-coincidence."
-
-Many physiologists and metaphysicians are of opinion, and there is much
-ground for the belief, that every sensation which has been actually
-experienced, may become the subject of perception at some future time,
-although, in the interval, all trace of its existence may have been
-lost, and it is beyond the power of the will to recall.
-
-The phenomena upon which this opinion has been principally founded, have
-been observed in the delirium of certain febrile diseases, and in
-dreaming.
-
-There is a case on record of a woman, who, during the delirium of fever,
-repeated long passages in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongues. When in
-health she was perfectly ignorant of these languages; and it was
-ascertained, that the sentences she spoke in her delirium, were correct
-passages from known writers in them. It was subsequently discovered,
-that at one period of her life she had lived with a clergyman who was in
-the habit of walking up and down the passage, reading aloud from Hebrew
-and Chaldaic works, and it was the sensations thus derived, and retained
-unconsciously to herself, which had been revivified by the changes
-induced during the progress of the fever.
-
-A case is also recorded by Dr. Abercrombie, in which a servant-girl who
-had manifested no "ear" for, or pleasure in music, during sleep was
-heard to imitate the sounds of a violin, even the tuning, and to perform
-most complicated and difficult pieces of music. This girl had slept for
-some time, and much to her annoyance, in a room adjoining that occupied
-by an itinerant violinist who was somewhat of an enthusiast in his art,
-and was accustomed to spend a portion of the night in practising
-difficult pieces of music, often preventing this female from sleeping.
-The music she had thus heard, registered in the mind, so to speak, was
-repeated, unconsciously, during the disturbed action of the brain
-consequent upon imperfect health and dreaming.
-
-The principle which has been deduced from these and similar cases, gives
-a ready explanation to numerous stories which it has been customary to
-regard as coming within the pale of the supernatural.
-
-Those instances in which, during a dream, the places in which documents
-of value, which had been lost or misplaced, have been revealed, are
-examples of revivified sensations which had been lost sight of, and of
-which the return had been determined by the protracted exercise of the
-mind to recover the missing traces.
-
-Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to "The Antiquary," relates the following
-highly interesting illustration:--
-
-"Mr. R----d, of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of
-Gala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated
-arrears of tiend (or tithe), for which he was said to be indebted to a
-noble family, the titulars (lay improprietors of the tithes). Mr. R----d
-was strongly impressed with the belief, that his father had, by a form
-of process peculiar to the law of Scotland, purchased those lands from
-the titular; and therefore, that the present prosecution was
-groundless. But after an industrious search among his father's papers,
-an investigation of the public records, and a careful inquiry among all
-persons who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence
-could be recovered to support his defence. The period was now near at
-hand, when he conceived the loss of the lawsuit to be inevitable, and he
-had formed his determination to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the
-best bargain he could in the way of compromise. He even went to bed with
-this resolution, and with all the circumstances of the case floating
-upon his mind, had a dream to the following purpose.
-
-"His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to him, he thought,
-and asked him why he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams men are not
-supprised at such apparitions. Mr. R----d thought he informed his father
-of the cause of his distress, adding, that the payment of a considerable
-sum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he had a strong
-consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to acquire any
-evidence in support of his belief. 'You are right, my son,' replied the
-paternal shade; 'I did acquire right to these tiends, for payment of
-which you are now prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction
-are in the hands of Mr. ----, a writer (or attorney), who is now retired
-from professional business, and resides at Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He
-was a person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason,
-but who never, on any other occasion, transacted business on my account.
-It is very possible,' pursued the vision, 'that Mr. ---- may have
-forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may call it
-to his recollection by this token,--that when I came to pay his account,
-there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of gold, and
-that we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern.'
-
-"Mr. R----d awoke in the morning with all the words of the vision
-imprinted on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across the
-country to Inveresk, instead of going straight to Edinburgh. When he
-came there, he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very
-old man; without saying anything of the vision, he inquired whether he
-remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased father. The
-old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to his
-recollection, but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold, the whole
-returned upon his memory; he made an immediate search for the papers,
-and recovered them; so that Mr. R----d carried to Edinburgh the
-documents necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of
-losing.
-
-"The author's theory is, that the dream was only the recapitulation of
-information which Mr. R----d had really received from his father while
-in life, but which at first he merely recalled as a general impression
-that the claim was settled. It is not uncommon for persons to recover,
-during sleep, the thread of ideas which they have lost during waking
-hours.
-
-"It may be added, that this remarkable circumstance was attended with
-bad consequences to Mr. R----d, whose health and spirits were afterwards
-impaired by the attention which he thought himself obliged to pay to the
-visions of the night."
-
-An instance which is related by Mrs. Crowe, receives its explanation
-also from this source.
-
-"A case occurred not many years since in the North of Scotland, where a
-murder having been committed, a man came forward, saying, that he had
-dreamt that the pack of the murdered pedlar was hidden in a certain
-spot; whereon, a search being made, it was actually found. They at first
-concluded he was himself the assassin, but the real criminal was
-afterwards discovered; and it being asserted, though I have been told
-erroneously, that the two men had passed some time together, since the
-murder, in a state of intoxication, it was decided that the crime, and
-the place of concealment, had been communicated to the pretended
-dreamer," &c.
-
-If the statement that the murderer and the dreamer had spent some time
-together in a state of intoxication, after the murder had been
-committed, be correct, the supposition that the murder had been
-communicated to the dreamer, forgotten when the state of intoxication
-had passed away, but subsequently recalled during the progress of a
-dream, affords an easy and natural explanation of the whole matter.
-
-As an example of that class of dreams which are inexplicable, but which,
-unfortunately, are of little weight from the imperfect authority upon
-which they are given, and from the fact that they bear intrinsic
-evidence of having been received without inquiry into the circumstances
-under which they occurred, and the fallacies to which the dreamer and
-subsequent details had been exposed, we quote the following from the
-works of the Rev. John Wesley.[73]
-
-"Among the congregation at Ambleside were a gentleman and his wife, who
-gave me a remarkable relation. She said she had often heard her brother
-relate, what an intimate acquaintance had told her, that her husband was
-concerned in the rebellion of 1745. He was tried at Carlisle, and found
-guilty. The evening before he was to die, sitting and musing in her
-chair, she fell fast asleep. She dreamed one came to her and said, 'Go
-to such a part of the wall, and among the loose stones you will find a
-key, which you must carry to your husband.' She waked; but thinking it a
-common dream, paid no attention to it. Presently she fell asleep again,
-and dreamed the very same dream. She started up, put on her cloak and
-hat, and went to that part of the wall, and among the loose stones found
-a key. Having, with some difficulty, procured admission into the gaol,
-she gave this to her husband. It opened the door of his cell, as well as
-the lock of the prison door.(!) So at midnight he escaped for life."
-
-It is not uncommon to find persons asserting that they have had dreams
-which have prefigured events, often trivial, in the common run of life.
-
-Probably, without exception, these are irrelevant conclusions: the
-affirmative instances being marked, to the total neglect of the
-negative. For example:--A lady with whom we are acquainted was
-accustomed to relate a dream which she had had, in which she thought
-that she was in the nursery watching one of her children play, when
-suddenly it tripped over the fender, and fell against the ribs of the
-grate, and before it could be extricated, the face was severely burned.
-On the following day the child she had seen in her dream, happened to
-have an accident in the nursery very similar to that she had seen occur
-in the dream.
-
-On inquiry, however, it proved that dreams of this nature respecting her
-children were quite usual to the lady, and that at one time or other she
-had witnessed while sleeping almost all those accidents occur to which
-infant life is exposed. This was the only instance in which any one had
-apparently come true; and _until_ this had occurred she had very
-properly and correctly attributed her dreams to the anxiety she
-naturally entertained respecting her young family.
-
-Of all the divisions, or rather branches, of supernatural lore, none has
-obtained more universal credence, none has been more persistent, than
-that of _presentiments_.
-
-A history of _presentiments_ would form a curious, if not very
-instructive work, and it alone would almost suffice to indicate the
-absurdity of the belief in its main features.
-
-We have instances of _high spirits_ foreboding evil; _low spirits_
-foreboding the same; _sudden illness_ shadowing forth calamity, _not_
-to the person affected, but to a companion; _sudden dullness of sight_
-presaging death--indeed a collection of these instances would show that
-every obscure sensation, every variation of emotion or passion,
-preceding an evil occurrence, has at one time or other been regarded as
-a presentiment of that evil.
-
-Jung-Stilling has so well described the nature of the faculty of
-presentiment, and the circumstances under which it is most commonly
-developed, that we cannot do better than quote the words of that
-celebrated writer on this subject. He writes:--
-
-"As the developed faculty of presentiment is a capability of
-experiencing the arrangements which are made in the world of spirits,
-and executed in the visible world, second-sight certainly belongs also
-under this head. And as those who possess this capability are generally
-simple people, it again follows from hence, that a developed faculty of
-presentiment is by no means a quality which belongs solely to devout and
-pious people, or that it should be regarded as a divine gift; I take it,
-on the contrary, for a disease of the soul, which we ought rather to
-endeavour to heal than promote.
-
-"He that has a natural disposition for it, and then fixes his
-imagination long and intensely, and therefore _magically_, upon a
-certain object, may at length be able, with respect to this object, to
-foresee things which have reference to it. Grave-diggers, nurses, and
-such as are employed to undress and shroud the dead, watchmen, and the
-like, are accustomed to be continually reflecting on objects which stand
-in connexion with death and interment; what wonder, therefore, if their
-faculty of presentiment at length develop itself on these subjects; and
-I am inclined to maintain, that it may be promoted by drinking ardent
-spirits."[74]
-
-In addition to this, Mrs. Crowe remarks:--
-
-"It is worthy of observation that idiots often possess some gleams of
-this faculty of second-sight or presentiment; and it is probably on this
-account that they are in some countries held sacred. Presentiment, which
-I think may very probably be merely the vague and imperfect recollection
-of what we _knew_ in our sleep, is often observed in drunken
-people."[75]
-
-Cicero,[76] after relating the myth of the apparition of Tages, in
-Etruria, adds:--
-
-"But I should indeed be more foolish than they who credit these things,
-if I seriously argue the matter."
-
-Equally foolish it would be for us to attempt to show the absurdity of
-the foregoing opinions; and we fear it would be a bootless and inutile
-task to argue with those who regard the statements of the studiously and
-transcendentally superstitious and ignorant, the incoherence of the
-drunkard, the depressed feelings experienced after a debauch, or the
-vague gleams of understanding in an idiot, as evidences of communication
-with the spirit-world.
-
-We know two ladies gifted with the faculty of ordinary presentiment, and
-who boast (if we may use that expression) that they are members of a
-family of which no scion has died for years without some supernatural
-indication of its occurrence. We well remember _after_ the information
-had been received by them of the death of the last male representative
-of one branch of the family, that they told how on the night of the
-death they happened to be awake in bed, when certain strange noises were
-heard about the bed-curtains, "as of a mouse" scrambling upon them, and
-immediately afterwards a blow was struck upon a large chest of drawers
-which stood opposite the foot of the bed, and the sound was as though
-the chest had been broken to pieces. We did not draw the inference which
-the ladies did from this circumstance, namely, that it was an intimation
-of the death of their relative, for, unfortunately for the romantic view
-of the question, we knew that such nightly occurrences as these were
-somewhat common with them, and that a simple and comfortable house in a
-densely-populated manufacturing district had been peopled by them with
-nightly noises and sounds, audible alone to them, to such an extent,
-that the adaptation of a presentiment to any particular occurrence was a
-matter of little difficulty.
-
-We also well remember, some years ago, when an infant brother lay dying,
-that our mother and the nurse were startled in the dead of night by a
-strange fluttering at the window. On the curtain being raised, the light
-of the candle showed a bird fluttering and beating against one of the
-panes. Was it an omen of death, and an emblem of the happy transition of
-the baby-spirit to another world? A few moments' examination soon showed
-that it was no spectre bird, but apparently a robin, which had been
-disturbed in the darkness, and was attracted by the light, and no sooner
-was the window darkened than it flew away.
-
-Three days ago, we saw a woman who had been for some months in a
-delicate state of health. "Sir," she said, "what I have most to complain
-of is, that I always feel as if some great evil was about to befall
-myself or family." This feeling is common, in a greater or less degree,
-to that depressed state of the system preceding attacks of febrile and
-many other diseases, and is often marked in hypocondriacism. Who, when
-suffering from slight indisposition, has not often felt this feeling of
-foreboding, of which the lowest grade is expressed in the ordinary
-phrase, low-spirits? This feeling, and thus derived, has been the
-substratum for those vague, so-called presentiments, which constitute
-the great bulk of instances in that doctrine; and the fallacy has been,
-that the mind, more readily affected by affirmative than by negative
-examples, has held to the former and neglected the latter, and deluded
-itself by an imperfect and too contracted view of the facts.
-
-Boismont, the most recent writer on the doctrine of presentiments,
-writes:--
-
-"In the greatest number of cases, they are not realised; in those where
-the event justifies them, they are only a reminiscence--a simple
-coincidence;--we admit all this. It is not the less true, that an
-unforeseen event, a strong prepossession, great restlessness, a sudden
-change in habits, any fear whatsoever, gives rise, at the moment, to
-presentiments which it would be difficult to deny by systematic
-credulity."[77]
-
-Let us examine one or two of the cases which would lead so distinguished
-a psychologist to give a certain degree of credence to this belief.
-
-The Prince de Radzvil had adopted one of his nieces, an orphan. He
-inhabited a château in Gallicia, and this château had a large hall which
-separated the apartments of the Prince from those occupied by the
-children, and in order to communicate between the two suites of rooms it
-was necessary either to traverse the hall or the court.
-
-The young Agnes, aged from five to six years, always uttered piercing
-cries every time that they caused her to traverse the great hall. She
-indicated, with an expression of terror, an enormous picture which was
-suspended above the door, and which represented the Sibyl of Cuma. They
-endeavoured for a length of time to vanquish this repugnance, which they
-attributed to infant obstinacy; but as serious accidents happened from
-this violence, they ended by permitting her no more to enter the hall;
-and the young girl loved better, during ten or twelve years, to traverse
-in rain, snow, or cold, the vast court or the gardens, rather than pass
-under this door, which made so disagreeable an impression upon her.
-
-The young Countess being of age to marry, and already betrothed, there
-was a reception at the château. The company, in the evening, wished to
-have some noisy game; they went into the great hall, where, moreover,
-the nuptial ball would be held. Animated by the young people who
-surrounded her, Agnes did not hesitate to accompany the guests. But
-scarcely had she crossed the threshold of the door, than she wished to
-draw back, and she avowed her fear. They had caused her to pass first,
-according to custom, her betrothed, friends, and uncle, laughing at her
-childishness, closing the doors upon her. But the poor young girl wished
-to resist; and in shaking and beating the door, caused the picture to
-fall which was above it. This enormous mass bruised the head by one of
-its corners, and killed her immediately.
-
-The scene of this story is an old castle in Gallicia, doubtless, like
-all similar places, having attached to it many strange and wonderful
-legends, and many servants fully imbued with these legends, and with all
-the folk-lore which a district like Gallicia contains. We have no
-information as to what amount of this lore the nurse indoctrinated into
-the child, or what use she may have made of the painting in order to
-terrify her little charge into submission from time to time. That an
-inquiry, special and distinct, upon this point was necessary ere the
-main point of the story could be substantiated, is evident; for the
-establishment of this influence would at once destroy the presentiment
-sought to be established; and to suppose that the child was brought up
-without its mind being so poisoned, is to suppose a phenomenon uniquely
-rare. Again, the painting was a representation of the Sibyl of Cuma. In
-her early days, says classic history, this Sibyl was lovely; but after
-her short-sighted bargain with Apollo for a life as long in years as the
-number of grains of sand she held in her hand, forgetting to add the
-request for perennial beauty also, she shortly became old and decrepid,
-her form decayed, her countenance melancholy and pale, and her looks
-haggard; and it is as thus described, that we are generally accustomed
-to see her pourtrayed. But we are left in the dark as to whether the
-painting in question represented the Sibyl in early youth, in her
-decrepid maturity, or at the moment of inspiration, when, according to
-the Æneis (Book vi),--
-
-    "Her colour changed; her face was not the same,
-    And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.
-    Her hair stood up, convulsive rage possess'd
-    Her trembling limbs, and heaved her labouring breast.
-    Greater than human kind she seem'd to look,
-    And with an accent more than mortal spoke,
-    Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll;
-    When all the god came rushing on her soul."
-
-That the painting must have depicted the Sibyl in one of the two latter
-characters is almost certain, for in any other it would have been
-meaningless; and leaving the question of the extent to which her mind
-might be poisoned by folk-lore, or by the servants making the painting a
-bugbear to her,--leaving this in abeyance, what must the effect of a
-frightful-looking and gigantic picture, staring the child in the face,
-have been upon a young mind? Little doubt need be entertained of the
-feeling of terror with which an infant eye would regard it, and we have
-already shown how such a feeling, being implanted there, would become a
-part and parcel of its nature, and be never subsequently eradicated.
-
-We see this feeling manifested every day in the aversion which some
-individuals manifest to certain animals. From emotions taught during
-childhood and youth, and often lost sight of in mature years, a cat, a
-dog, a rat, a spider, a frog, &c., has become an object of such dread to
-some persons, that even in advanced life the presence of one has caused
-the utmost annoyance and terror.
-
-The powerful and persistent influence of ideas thus associated has been
-clearly and pithily expressed by Locke,[78] and his first instance has
-an immediate bearing upon our subject:--
-
-"The ideas of goblins and sprights have really no more to do with
-darkness than light, yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on
-the mind of a child, and raise them there together, probably he shall
-never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness
-shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they
-shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other."
-
-That the fall of the painting was caused by the vibrations occasioned by
-shaking and beating upon the door beneath it, seems certain; but that
-there was any _presentimental_ connection (if we may so word it) between
-the fall of the painting and the previous dread of it,--any
-foreshadowing in this dread of the subsequent fall and its fatal
-consequences,--there is no satisfactory evidence whatever.
-
-Another example of presentiment, quoted by Boismont, is the following:--
-
-Two French gentlemen, refugees, who resided together in New York on
-terms of great amity, freighted a ship for India. Everything was
-prepared for their departure, and they waited only a favourable wind.
-One of them, B----, of a calm and placid temperament, apparently excited
-by the uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began to manifest a
-degree of restlessness which surprised his companion. One day he entered
-the apartment where his friend was engaged in writing letters for
-Europe, and under the influence of an excitement so great that he had
-difficulty to suppress it, he exclaimed: "Why lose time in writing
-letters?--they will never go to their destination. Come with me and take
-a turn on the Battery. The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps,
-nearer the point of departure than we suppose!" Acceding to the request,
-his friend accompanied him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he was
-astonished at the rapid and excited manner in which B---- walked. On
-reaching the Battery, B---- precipitated his rate of walking still more,
-until they approached the parapet. He spoke in a high and quick tone,
-expressing in florid terms his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he
-arrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend separated from him. "I
-regarded him fixedly," to continue the narrative in the words of the
-narrator; "he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down. 'B----,' I
-cried, 'you intend to kill me, you wish to throw me from this height
-into the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The madman looked me in
-the face with haggard eyes for a moment, but I was careful not to lose
-his glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured some incoherent words,
-and sought to pass by me. I barred the way, extending my arms. After
-looking vaguely right and left, he threw himself on my neck, and melted
-into tears. 'It is true, it is true, my friend! The thought has haunted
-me night and day, as a torch of hell. It was for this end that I brought
-you here; had you been but a foot from the border of the parapet, the
-work had been done.' The demon had abandoned him, his eyes were without
-expression, a foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was passed. I
-reconducted him to the house. Some days of repose, together with
-bleeding and low diet, re-established him completely; and what is still
-more extraordinary, we never more spoke of this event."
-
-Are we, with Boismont, to regard this as an example of "sudden and
-mysterious inspiration?" Would it not have been still more mysterious if
-a minute examination of the countenance of a madman, who was talking
-incoherently near the verge of a precipitous descent, and big with
-intent to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his purpose? We
-think it would, and that there is no evidence here of anything beyond
-the pale of the laws of common observation.
-
-It would be needless to multiply instances of presentiment which have
-carried conviction to the minds of persons less accustomed to analyze
-the operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont, and in whom
-errors of observation are infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless
-there are instances on record which, if the authority upon which they
-are stated be admitted, receive no explanation from natural laws so far
-as we are yet acquainted with them.
-
-One of the best and most striking examples of this kind is given on the
-authority of Mrs. Crowe.
-
-She writes:--
-
-"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which
-occurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when
-lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a
-young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away
-his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table,
-covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The
-president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young
-men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to
-speak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a
-sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India
-was dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I
-am perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this
-conviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The
-young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned."[79]
-
-A singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress
-Josephine, which may fitly be detailed here.
-
-"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "and it
-had early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her
-first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards
-be greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is
-placed beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her
-first husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the
-Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on
-account of his belonging to the nobility; and she herself, who was also
-imprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the
-fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind,
-that while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every
-hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to
-her fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies
-of the bed-chamber,--a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one
-of their number."
-
-Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the
-prophecy:--
-
-"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long before Napoleon's
-elevation to the throne, from the late Countess of Bath and the late
-Countess of Ancrum, who were educated in the same convent with
-Josephine, and had repeatedly heard her mention the circumstance in
-early youth."[80]
-
-The most grave of the errors affecting the details of those occurrences
-which have been supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some
-inexplicable and supernatural connection with certain circumstances
-occurring coincidently with them, has been fully set forth by Lord
-Bacon, in the 46th Aphorism of the "Novum Organum," and to this _dictum_
-nothing needs to be added.
-
-"The human understanding, when any proposition has been once laid down
-(either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it
-affords) forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation,
-and although most cogent and abundant instances may exist to the
-contrary, yet either does not observe, or despises them, or gets rid of
-and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious
-prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.
-It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive
-tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was
-pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by
-an inquiry, "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in
-spite of their vows?" All superstition is much the same, whether it be
-that of astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the like; in
-all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled,
-but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more
-common.... Besides, even in the absence of that eagerness and want of
-thought (which we have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual
-error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by
-affirmatives than negatives, whereas it ought duly and regularly to be
-impartial; nay, in establishing any true axiom, the negative instance is
-the most powerful."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-We have now briefly examined the principal of those phenomena which it
-has been, and in many instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural
-interposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain how far they receive
-explanation from the known laws of action of the senses and reasoning
-faculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion that they mainly
-come within the category of those laws.
-
-Of the exceptions to this conclusion, it is unfortunate that the
-authority upon which they depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the
-details imperfect in many of the most important particulars; and they,
-to use the words of Mrs. Crowe, (whose evidence in this respect is of
-considerable importance), "as they now stand, can have no scientific
-value; they cannot, in short, enter into the region of science at all,
-still less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be led
-to form, cannot be founded on pure induction. We must confine ourselves
-wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we shall
-assuredly founder."[81]
-
-We are not aware that this imperfection of details necessarily
-appertains to facts of this nature, and we simply require the same care
-against error which is expected and is exercised in other departments of
-inquiry; and until the instances presented bear evidence of this, we
-must entertain doubts, and decline to receive them as facts establishing
-such theories as have been endeavoured to be founded upon them.
-
-The great progress of physiology and psychology is almost daily enabling
-us to grapple with sensuous phenomena which have hitherto been obscure;
-and it is never to be lost sight of in researches into the domains of
-the so-called supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of our own
-powers is as yet very imperfect and limited.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR FARADAY'S LETTER ON TABLE MOVING.
-
-_AthenÊum, July 2, 1853, p. 801._
-
-"The object which I had in view in my inquiry was, not to satisfy
-myself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of
-those who had turned tables,--but that I might be enabled to give a
-strong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for it.
-Yet the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the
-inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should adopt
-in any other physical investigation. The parties with whom I have worked
-were very honourable, very clear in their intentions, successful
-table-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the existence
-of a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual. It is with
-me a clear point that the table moves when the parties, though they
-strongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe, that they move it
-by ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table draws their hands;
-that it moves first, and they have to follow it; that sometimes it even
-moves from under their hands. With some, the table will move to the
-right or left, according as they wish or will it; with others, the
-direction of the first move is uncertain;--but all agree that the table
-moves the hands, and not the hands the table. Though I believe the
-parties do not intend to move the table, but obtain the result by a
-quasi-involuntary action, still I had no doubt of the influence of
-expectation upon their minds, and, through that, upon the success or
-failure of their efforts.
-
-"The first point, therefore, was to remove all objections due to
-expectation--having relation to the substances which I might desire to
-use; so, plates of the most different bodies, electrically speaking,
-namely, sand-paper, mill-board, glue, glass, moist clay, tinfoil,
-card-board, gutta percha, vulcanized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a
-bundle, and placed on a table, under the hands of a turner. The table
-turned. Other bundles of other plates were submitted to different
-persons at other times,--and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore,
-these substances may be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither
-during their use, nor at any other times, could the slightest trace of
-electrical or magnetic effects be obtained. At the same trials, it was
-readily ascertained that one person could produce the effect; and that
-the motion was not necessarily circular, but might be in a straight
-line. No form of experiment or mode of observation that I could devise
-gave me the slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No
-attraction or repulsion, or signs of tangential power appeared; nor
-anything which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical
-pressure exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to
-analyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal
-direction; doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A
-soft cement, consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was
-prepared. Four or five pieces of smooth slippery card-board were
-attached one over the other by little pellets of the cement, and the
-lower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table; the edges
-of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil
-line was drawn over the laps, so as to indicate position. The upper
-card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from
-sight. Then the table-turner placed the hands upon the upper card, and
-we waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to offer
-considerable resistence to mechanical motion, and also to retain the
-cards in any new position which they might acquire, and yet weak enough
-to give way slowly to a continued force.
-
-"When at last the tables, cards, and hands, all moved to the left
-together, and so a true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On
-examination, it was easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the
-line, that the hand had moved further than the table, and that the
-latter had lagged behind;--that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper
-card to the left, and that the under cards and the table had followed
-and been dragged by it. In other similar cases, when the table had not
-moved, still the upper card was found to have moved, showing that the
-hand had carried it in the expected direction. It was evident,
-therefore, that the table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor
-had it moved simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things
-under it, behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the
-hand back.
-
-"The next step was, to arrange an index, which should show whether the
-table moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both moved or
-remained at rest together.... Two thin boards, nine and a-half by seven
-inches, were provided; a board, nine by five inches, was glued to the
-middle of the under side of one of these (to be called the table-board),
-so as to raise the edges free from the table; being placed on the
-table, near and parallel to its side, an upright pin was fixed close to
-the further edge of the board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum
-for the indicating lever. Then, four glass rods, seven inches long, and
-a quarter of an inch in diameter, were placed as rollers on different
-parts of this table-board, and the upper board placed on them; the rods
-permitted any required amount of pressure on the boards, with a free
-motion of the upper on the lower to the right and left. At the part
-corresponding to the pin in the lower board, a piece was cut out of the
-upper board, and a pin attached there, which, being bent downwards,
-entered the hole in the end of the short arm of the index lever: this
-part of the lever was of card-board: the indicating prolongation was a
-straight hay-stalk fifteen inches long. In order to restrain the motion
-of the upper board on the lower, two vulcanized rubber rings were passed
-round both, at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst they
-tied the boards together, acted also as springs--and whilst they allowed
-the first, feeblest tendency to motion to be seen by the index, exerted,
-before the upper board had moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power
-in pulling the upper board back from either side, to resist a strong
-lateral action of the hand.
-
-"All being thus arranged, except that the lever was away, the two boards
-were tied together with string running parallel to the vulcanised rubber
-springs, so as to be immoveable in relation to each other. They were
-then placed on the table, and a table-turner sat down to them. The table
-very shortly moved in due order, showing that the apparatus offered no
-impediment to the action. A like apparatus, with metal rollers, produced
-the same result under the hands of another person. The index was now put
-into its place, and the string loosened, so that the springs should come
-into play. It was soon seen with the party that could will the motion in
-either direction (from whom the index was purposely hidden), that the
-hands were gradually creeping up in the direction before agreed upon,
-though the party certainly thought they were pressing downwards only.
-When shown that it was so, they were truly surprised; but when they
-lifted up their hands and immediately saw the index return to its normal
-position, they were convinced. When they looked at the index, and could
-see for themselves whether they were pressing truly downwards, or
-obliquely, so as to produce a resultant in the right or left handed
-direction, then such an effect never took place. Several tried, for a
-long while together, and with the best will in the world, but no motion,
-right or left, of the table or hand, or anything else, occurred.
-
-"I think the apparatus I have described may be useful to many who really
-wish to know the truth of nature, and who would prefer that truth to a
-mistaken conclusion, desired perhaps only because it seems to be new or
-strange. Persons do not know how difficult it is to press directly
-downward, or in any given direction against a fixed obstacle, or even to
-know only whether they are doing so or not, unless they have some
-indicator which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall instruct them;
-and this is more especially the case when the muscles of the fingers and
-hand have been cramped and rendered either tingling or insensible or
-cold by long-continued pressure. If a finger be pressed constantly into
-the corner of a window-frame for ten minutes or more, and then,
-continuing the pressure, the mind be directed to judge whether the force
-at a given moment is all horizontal or all downwards, or how much is in
-one direction and how much in the other, it will find great difficulty
-in deciding, and will, at last, become altogether uncertain,--at least
-such is my case. I know that a similar result occurs with others, for I
-have had two boards arranged, separated, not by rollers, but by plugs of
-vulcanized rubber; and with the vertical index, when a person with his
-hands on the upper board is requested to press only downwards, and the
-index is hidden from his sight, it moves to the right, to the left, to
-him and from him, and in all horizontal directions; so utterly unable is
-he strictly to fulfil his intention without a visible and correcting
-indicator. Now, such is the use of the instrument with the horizontal
-index and rollers; the mind is instructed and the involuntary or
-quasi-involuntary motion is checked in the commencement, and, therefore,
-never rises up to the degree needful to move the table, or even
-permanently the index itself. No one can suppose that looking at the
-index can in any way interfere with the transfer of electricity, or any
-other power, from the hand to the board under it, or to the table. If
-the board tends to move, it may do so; the index does not confine it;
-and if the table tends to move, there is no reason why it should not. If
-both were influenced by any power to move together, they may do so, as
-they did, indeed, when the apparatus was tied, and the mind and muscles
-left unwatched and unchecked."
-
-PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS, LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-
-[1] Locke. Of Human Understanding, B. I, ch. 2.
-
-[2] Cousin. Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne, edit. 1847,
-T. III, p. 269.
-
-[3] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 368.
-
-[4] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 370.
-
-[5] Plato. Politicus. Mitford's Greece, Vol. I, p. 84.
-
-[6] "Vain indeed is the life of all men in whom there is not the true
-knowledge of God: who, from the things which are seen to be good, have
-not been able to conceive aright of that which is goodness itself; nor,
-while they viewed the work, to acknowledge the architect: but have
-thought that either fire, or the wind, the swift air, or the stars in
-their courses, or the vast deep, or the sun and moon, were the deities
-presiding over the world."--_Liber SapientiÊ_, ch. 13, v. 1, 2.
-_Translation by Luke Howard, F.R.S._
-
-[7] An interesting illustration of the tendency of mankind in a state of
-savageism to attribute striking phenomena to supernatural agency, and
-deify the means through which they are apparently exhibited, occurred on
-the march of Cortes from Mexico to Honduras. During a deer-hunt, the
-horse which Cortes rode was taken ill. "It did not then die, though it
-would have been better if it had," says the devout but ruthless
-conqueror, parenthetically. A little while afterwards, having been
-courteously received by the Itzalan Indians, Cortes "entrusted them with
-the care of his horse Morgillo, which had been lamed, charging them to
-take great care of it, and attend to its recovery, as he prized it very
-highly, and telling them that when he had found the Spaniards he was in
-search of, he should send for his steed again. It was from no want of
-care on the part of the Itzaex, but rather from an excess of it, that
-Morgillo lost his life under their management; for in their anxiety to
-effect a cure, and regarding the animal as one endowed with reason, they
-gave him poultry and other meat to eat, and presented him with bunches
-of flowers, as they were accustomed to do to persons of rank when they
-were sick; a species of attention somewhat similar to that which the
-fool laughed at in _King Lear_, when he speaks of the cockney who for 'a
-pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.' The consequence of this
-unaccustomed style of medical treatment was, that Morgillo languished
-and died, and then a worse evil befell, for, observes the pious
-Villagutierre, "though some people say Canek burnt his idols in the
-presence of Cortes, there was in reality no burning of idols or anything
-else in that city of Tayasal; on the contrary, by leaving the horse with
-the infidel Itzaex, they obtained a greater and still more abominable
-idol than the many they had before." The meaning of this sentence is
-subsequently explained by the worthy chronicler informing us that, on
-the death of Morgillo, the Itzaex raised its effigy "in stone and
-mortar, very perfect," and worshipped it as a divinity. It was seated on
-its hind-quarters, on the floor of one of the temples, rising on its
-fore legs, with its hind legs bent under it. These barbarians adored it
-as the god of thunder and thunderbolts, calling him Tzinachac, which
-means the bride of thunder, or the thunderbolt. They gave it this name
-from having seen some of the Spaniards who were with Cortes fire their
-muskets over the horses' heads when they were hunting deer, and they
-believed the horses were the cause of the noise that was made, which
-they took for thunder, and the flash of the discharge and the smoke of
-the gunpowder for a thunderbolt."--_Fancourt's History of Yucatan._
-_AthenÊum._ 1854, p. 109.
-
-[8] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum, B. II, c. 25.
-
-[9] Servius. Tooke's Pantheon, p. 198.
-
-[10] HorÊ BritannicÊ. By Jno. Hughes, Vol. I., p. 235. 1818.
-
-[11] The Garrows, a number of wild tribes occupying the district lying
-between the N.E. frontier of Bengal and the kingdom of Assam, in
-addition to the worship of Mâhâdeva, or Siva, adore also the sun and
-moon; and the _Khatties_, or _Catties_, another wild tribe inhabiting
-the peninsula of Guzerat, worship the sun.
-
-[12] Blackwell. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Bohn, 1847, p. 473.
-
-[13] Davis. "The Chinese," Chap. xii.
-
-[14] Humboldt. "Aspects of Nature," Vol. I., p. 198, note 51. "Steppes
-and Deserts."
-
-[15] Ruxton. Adventures in Mexico and Rocky Mountains, p. 192.
-
-[16]
-
-  _Str._  That cursed ChÊrophon and Socrates,
-          Who have deceived both thee and me alike.
-
-  _Phid._ I must not act unjustly towards my teachers.
-
-  _Str._  Nay, nay, revere paternal Jupiter;
-
-  _Phid._ Paternal Jupiter! old fashion'd fool;
-          Is there a Jupiter?
-
-  _Str._                    There is.
-
-  _Phid._                           Not so,
-          Since having cast out Jove a whirlwind reigns.
-
-  _Str._  Not cast him out; but I imagin'd this,
-          Seeing the whirlwind here. O wretched ones,
-          To take thee, earthen image, for a god!
-
-[17] Wheelwright's Translation, p. 124, and note. Oxford, 1837.
-
-[18] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum. B. I., ch. 15.
-
-[19] Op. cit., B. II., c. 24.
-
-[20] Bonomi. "Nineveh and its Palaces," pp. 139-264, &c.; Dr.
-Grotefend, AthenÊum, June 26, 1853; Ravenshaw, AthenÊum, July 16, 1853.
-
-[21] Paradise Lost.
-
-[22] Rape of the Lock. Ch. 1.
-
-[23] The _black_ colour which is popularly ascribed to the devil, was
-probably derived from old monkish legends, which affirmed that he often
-appeared as an Ethiopian. (Jortin. Vol. II., p. 13, ed. 1805.)
-
-[24] Bonomi. Op. cit., p. 159. "The root, or the original word from
-which teraphim is derived, signifies, to relax with fear, to strike with
-terror, or 'Repheh,' an appaller, one who makes others faint or fail; a
-signification that singularly accords with the terrifying images found
-by Botta." The possible connection between these images and the images
-(_teraphim_) which Rachel had stolen from her father Laban, is of great
-interest.
-
-[25] This custom is probably a relic of old Scandinavian mythology. In
-the "Prose Edda," it is stated, that the gods having captured Loki (the
-personification of evil), who had fled from their justly excited anger,
-"dragged him without commiseration into a cavern, wherein they placed
-three sharp-pointed rocks, boring a hole through each of them."
-
-[26] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 200.--Eusebius, in his _Oration_
-in praise of the Emperor Constantine, writes, that the Emperor honoured
-"the triumphall signe of the crosse, having really experienced and found
-the divine virtue that is therein. For by it the multitudes of his
-enemies were put to flight; by it the vaine ostentation of the enemies
-of God was suppressed, the petulant tongues of evil speakers and wicked
-men were silenced; by it the barbarous people were subdued; by it the
-invisible powers of the divil were vanquished and driven away; and by it
-the superstitious errors were confuted and abolished."
-
-[27] Bede. Ecclesiastical History. B. I., ch. 30. Dr. Giles' Transl.
-Bohn.
-
-[28] Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. Vol. I. p. 201. Note.
-Michaelmas Day.
-
-[29] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum. B. III., ch. 5.
-
-[30] See "Notes and Queries." Sir J. E. Tennant, Vol. V., p. 121; W.
-Blood, &c., Vol. VIII., p. 413.
-
-[31] The Berlin correspondent of the _Times_ related the following
-incident:--
-
-"The comet which has lately been visible, has served a priest, not far
-from Warsaw, with materials for a very curious sermon. After having
-summoned his congregation together, although it was neither Sunday nor
-festival, and shown them the comet, he informed them that this was the
-same star that had appeared to the Magi at the birth of the Saviour, and
-that it was only visible now in the Russian Empire. Its appearance on
-this occasion was to intimate to the Russian eagle, that the time was
-now come for it to spread out its wings, and embrace all mankind in one
-orthodox and sanctifying church. He showed them the star now standing
-immediately over Constantinople, and explained that the dull light of
-the nucleus indicated its sorrow at the delay of the Russian army in
-proceeding to its destination."
-
-[32] "Madam Morrow, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and a
-descendant of a line of astrologers reaching back for centuries, will
-give ladies private lectures on all the events of life, in regard to
-health, wealth, love, courtship, and marriage. She is, without
-exception, the most wonderful astrologist in the world, or that has ever
-been known. She will even tell their very thoughts, and will show them
-the likenesses of their intended husbands and absent friends, which has
-astonished thousands during her absence in Europe. She will leave the
-city in a very short time. 76, Broome Street, between Cannon and
-Columbia. Gentlemen are not admitted."
-
-"Madame la Compt flatters herself that she is competent by her great
-experience in the art of astrology, to give true information in regard
-to the past, present, and future. She is able to see clearly any losses
-her visitors may have sustained, and will give satisfactory information
-in regard to the way of recovery. She has, and continues to give perfect
-satisfaction. Ladies and gentlemen 50 cents. 13, Howard Street."
-
-"Madame la Compt has been visited by over two hundred ladies and
-gentlemen the past week, and has given perfect satisfaction; and in
-consideration of the great patronage bestowed upon her, she will remain
-at 13, Howard Street, for four days more, when she will positively sail
-for the South."
-
-"Mrs. Alwin, renowned in Europe for her skill in foretelling the future,
-has arrived, and will furnish intelligence about all circumstances of
-life. She interprets dreams, law matters, and love, by astrology, books,
-and science, and tells to ladies and gentlemen the name of the persons
-they will marry; also the names of her visitors. Mrs. Alwin speaks the
-English, French, and German languages. Residence, 25, Rivington Street,
-upstairs, near the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"Mrs. Prewster, from Philadelphia, tenders her services to the ladies
-and gentlemen of this city in astrology, love, and law matters,
-interpreting dreams, &c., by books and science, constantly relied on by
-Napoleon; and will tell the name of the lady or gentleman they will
-marry; also the names of the visitors. No. 59, Great Jones Street,
-corner of the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"The celebrated Dr. F. Shuman, Swede by birth, just arrived in this
-city, offers his services in astrology, physiognomy, &c. He can be
-consulted in matters of love, marriage, past, present, and future events
-of life. Nativity calculated for ladies and gentlemen. Mr. S. has
-travelled through the greater part of the world in the last forty-two
-years, and is willing to give the most satisfactory information. Office,
-175, Chambers Street, near Greenwich."
-
-(From a recent number of the _New York Herald_. Notes and Queries,
-December 10, 1853, p. 561.)
-
-[33] The Æneis. B. III.
-
-[34] Carthon. Ossian.
-
-[35] "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe," by W. and Mary
-Howitt. Vol. I., p. 99.
-
-[36] Howitt. "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe." Vol. I.
-
-[37] An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians; by
-E. W. Lane, Vol. I, p. 311.
-
-[38] Adventures in the Libyan Desert, p. 22.
-
-[39] B. I, ch. 13 and 16.
-
-[40] Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Bohn, p. 248. And Table of Contents, p.
-XIII.
-
-[41] "The Fall of the Nibelungers," &c.; a Translation of the Nibelunge
-NÃŽt, or Nibelungenlied, by W. N. Lettsom, p. 59, St. 346, 347; p. 167,
-St. 983.
-
-[42] Thorpe. Op. cit. Table of Contents, p. IX.
-
-[43] "The marvellous stories, the frightful tales, the threats, which
-were so long the apanage of infancy, would dispose the naturally
-impressionable mind to receive all the fantastic creations of the
-period. Now, it is said, the system is completely changed, and they are
-taught to ridicule these ancient beliefs. This argument would be
-unanswerable if they spoke of colleges and boarding schools; but they
-forget the servants to whom are confided the early years of infants;
-thus is the nursery always reviving fooleries, terrors, and frightful
-stories, in the middle of which the infant grows. I will content me with
-one example, that of one of the celebrated poets of England, Robert
-Burns. 'I owed much in my infancy,' says this writer, 'to an old woman
-who lived with us, and who was extremely ignorant, and remarkably
-credulous and superstitious. No one in the country had a larger
-collection of tales and songs respecting devils, fairies, ghosts,
-sorcerers, magicians, jack-o'-lanterns, hobgoblins, phantoms,
-apparitions, charms, giants, dragons, &c.
-
-"'Not only did these tales cultivate in me the germs of poesy, but they
-had such an effect upon my imagination, that, even now, in my night
-journeys, I have often, in spite of myself, the eye upon certain
-suspicious places; and although no one can be more sceptical in such
-matters, an effort of the reason is occasionally necessary to chase away
-these vain terrors.'
-
-"'Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, solitariness, contribute
-strongly to develop the feeling of terror so wrongly cast in the minds
-of infants. Their eye readily perceives frightful figures which regard
-them in a menacing manner; their chamber is peopled with assassins,
-robbers, devils, and monsters of all kinds."--_A. Brierre de Boismont.
-"Des Hallucinations; ou Histoire Raisonnée des Apparitions,"_ &c. Ed.
-II, 1852, p. 362.
-
-[44] This idea has been beautifully expressed by Longfellow in the
-"Voices of the Night."
-
-    "When the hours of day are numbered,
-      And the voices of the night
-    Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
-      To a holy calm delight,
-
-    Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
-      And like phantoms grim and tall,
-    Shadows from the fitful firelight
-      Dance upon the parlour wall;
-
-    Then the forms of the departed
-      Enter at the open door;
-    The beloved, the true-hearted,
-      Come to visit us once more." &c.
-
-See also Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall. St. Martin's Eve.
-
-[45]
-
-    "I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
-      But or ever a prayer had gusht,
-    A wicked whisper came and made
-      My heart as dry as dust."
-
-                    Coleridge. "Ancient Mariner."
-
-[46] Brewster. Natural Magic, p. 15.
-
-[47] A few hundred feet from the place where this occurred, is a lane
-(Oldfield Lane, Wortley, near Leeds) which was noted, many years ago, as
-the beat of one of those somewhat rare spectres, a headless ghost. Some
-are living even now who have _known_ those who had seen this phantom.
-When last seen, it appeared as a comfortable-looking man, dressed in a
-drab-coat, and carried the head under the arm. As a Yorkshire version of
-a very ancient and wide-spread superstition, its memory is worth
-preserving. The belief in headless ghosts is found in many parts of
-England, Ireland (the _Dullahan_ or _Dulachan_), Wales, Scotland, Spain,
-France, and Germany.
-
-[48] Chambers' Miscellany. Art. "Spectral Apparitions," &c.
-
-[49] Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. 2nd Ed., p. 3.
-
-[50] "Phantoms of the Far East." Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Vol. XVII,
-p. 315.
-
-[51] Busby's Lucretius, B. IV.
-
-[52] Temora.
-
-[53] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 7.
-
-[54] Letters on Natural Magic. 5th Ed., p. 166.
-
-[55] D. Jardine, "Notes and Queries," Vol. VIII, p. 512, Nov. 26, 1853.
-
-[56] Hudibras. Can. III.
-
-[57] AthenÊum. July 2, 1853, p. 801, and Appendix.
-
-[58] MÃŒller. "Manuel de Physiologie." Traduit par A. J. L. Jourdan. 2nd
-ed., 1851, par E. Littré, T. II., p. 388. See also ¶ A. B. C. E. F.,
-Sect. V, "PhénomÚnes Subjectifs de Vision," p. 386.
-
-[59] MÃŒller. Op. cit., T. II, p. 549.
-
-[60] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 74.
-
-[61] "Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, &c., in their Relations to
-the Vital Force," by Karl von Reichenbach, Pts. I & II.
-
-[62] "The Night Side of Nature," by Mrs. Crowe. Ed. 1853, p. 362.
-
-[63]
-
-    "I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,
-    Thy image steals between my God and me;
-    Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,
-    With every bead I drop too soft a tear."
-
-                       _Eloise and Abelard._ Pope.
-
-[64] Notes and Narrative of a Six Years' Mission principally among the
-Dens of London. By R. W. Vanderkiste, p. 182.
-
-[65] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 110.
-
-[66] "Theory of Pneumatology." By Dr. J. H. Jung-Stilling: translated by
-Saml. Jackson; p. 197, Lond., 1834.
-
-[67] Op. cit., p. 200.
-
-[68] The apparition of the "_White Lady_" was very irregular and
-uncertain, for many members of the family died without her spectre
-having been seen.
-
-[69] "Demonology and Witchcraft." 2nd Ed., p. 350, note.
-
-[70] "Household Words." Conducted by Charles Dickens, March, 1853, p. 6.
-
-[71] Op. cit., p. 142.
-
-[72] "Notes and Queries." Vol. VIII., p. 287.
-
-[73] Ed. 1829, Vol. IV., p. 271.
-
-[74] Op. cit., p. 182.
-
-[75] Op. cit., p. 470.
-
-[76] De. Divinatione et de Fato.
-
-[77] Op. cit. p. 243.
-
-[78] "Of Human Understanding." Bk. II, ch. 33, sect. 10.
-
-[79] Op. cit., p. 65.
-
-[80] "History of Europe," from 1789 to 1815. By Sir Archibald Alison,
-Bart. Chap. XX, Sect. 25, and notes.
-
-[81] Op. cit., p. 10.
-
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-Transcriber's Note:
-
-Punctuation in the text has been standardised, and typographical errors
-have been silently corrected.
-
-Variations in hyphenation, and obsolete or variant spelling, including
-quoted passages, have all been preserved. Inconsistencies in quotation
-mark usage, single quotes, double quotes, and quotes-within-quotes are
-all as in the original.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, by 
-John Nettin Radcliffe
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-Project Gutenberg's Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, by John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-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/license
-
-
-Title: Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites
-       Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief
-       in the Supernatural
-
-Author: John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-Release Date: August 29, 2012 [EBook #40616]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES ***
-
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-
-
-Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the
-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
-available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
-
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-
-
-
-
-  FIENDS, GHOSTS,
-  AND
-  SPRITES.
-
-  INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF
-  THE ORIGIN AND NATURE
-  OF
-  BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL.
-
-  BY JOHN NETTEN RADCLIFFE.
-
-  LONDON:
-  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
-  1854.
-
-  PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS,
-  LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.
-
-
-A belief in the supernatural has existed in all ages and among all
-nations.
-
-To trace the origin of this belief, the causes of the various
-modifications it has undergone, and the phases it has assumed, is,
-perhaps, one of the most interesting researches to which the mind can be
-given,--interesting, inasmuch as we find pervading every part of it the
-effects of those passions and affections which are most powerful and
-permanent in our nature.
-
-So general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling Power, possessing
-attributes altogether different from and superior to human powers, and
-bending these and the forces of nature to its will, that the thought
-has been entertained by many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine
-is, however, refuted by an acquaintance with the inlets and modes of
-obtaining knowledge; by the fact that reason is necessary to its
-discovery; and by its uselessness.[1] "There are neither innate ideas
-nor innate propositions; but there is an innate power of understanding
-that shows itself in primitive notions, which, when put into speech, are
-expressed in propositions, which propositions, decomposed, produce,
-under the influence of abstraction and analysis, distinct ideas."[2]
-
-Others have asserted and maintained that man derives his knowledge of
-the existence of Deity, and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the
-exercise of reason upon himself and his own powers by self-reflection.
-If he reflects upon the wonderful power of liberty and free-will which
-he possesses, on his relation to surrounding beings and things, and
-particularly on his imperfect, limited, and finite powers, it is argued
-that the antithetical proposition of infinite must of necessity be
-admitted. "I cannot have the idea of the finite and of imperfection
-without having that of perfection and of infinite. These two ideas are
-logically correlative."[3] Or if man extends his reasoning powers to the
-study or the contemplation "of the beauty, the order, the intelligence,
-the wisdom, and the perfection displayed throughout the universe; and as
-there must of necessity be in the cause what is witnessed in the effect,
-you reason from nature to its author, and from the existence of the
-perfection of the one you conclude the existence and perfection of the
-other."[4]
-
-But many theologists maintain that the knowledge of a Deity, and of the
-existence of supernatural beings, is derived solely from revelation; and
-stern and prolonged have been the struggles in this country between the
-upholders of the rival tenets.
-
-That no idea of a Deity, such as that which the Christian entertains, is
-to be found among the vague and undefined notions of supernatural power
-which are contained in the mythologies of pagan nations; that even the
-conceptions of Plato are to be summed up in the phrase "the unknown
-God;" and that the perfect idea of the Godhead is to be derived solely
-from Scripture, can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion sought
-to be established from this, that all our ideas of the supernatural are
-derived from this source, does not necessarily follow.
-
-The postulate that man can derive a knowledge of the supernatural from
-the exercise of his mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or
-denied, but it is not improbable.
-
-Perhaps the nearest approach to correctness which we are as yet capable
-of on this subject is as follows:--
-
-After the creation of man, God revealed himself. The perfect knowledge
-of the Deity thus obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the human
-race, notwithstanding the baneful effects of the fall; and at the epoch
-of the deluge, the solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm,
-formed a centre from which anew the attributes and powers of the Godhead
-were made known in all their truth and purity. But again sin prevailed,
-and with the exception of one race, who alone treasured the true
-knowledge of the Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of their
-fathers; and as they receded from the light, the idea of the Godhead
-became obscured, and in the progress of time well nigh lost, and the
-vague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power derived from
-tradition, prompted to a terror and awe of some invisible yet mighty
-influence, unknown and inexplicable, but which was manifested to man in
-the more striking objects and the incomprehensible phenomena of nature,
-which were regarded and worshipped as the seats of this unknown Power,
-forming the substratum of those wonderful systems of mythology which
-have characterised successive eras and races.
-
-"Once," writes Plato, referring to the earlier traditions of the Greeks,
-"one God governed the universe; but a great and extraordinary change
-taking place in the nature of men and things, infinitely for the worse
-(for originally there was perfect virtue and perfect happiness on
-earth), the command then devolved on Jupiter, with many inferior deities
-to preside over different departments under him."[5]
-
-To state the influence which each of the elements indicated
-above--tradition and reason--have had in the development of mythology,
-is doubtless impossible.
-
-The existence of the first element, _tradition_, is, to those who admit
-the truth of Scripture, undeniable, and it gives a clue to the
-elucidation of the leading principle in the belief in those gods,
-dæmons, fiends, sprites, &c., which, summed up, have constituted the
-objects of worship of different nations.
-
-
-I. As in the course of generations the pristine revelation of the
-Godhead to man became obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief
-alone remained,--the conceptions, the thoughts and imaginations of each
-generation being implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing it by
-the force of habit, education, and authority,--man, impressed with an
-imperfect notion of a supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of
-the material world, on seeking to unfold the source of those changes
-which he beheld in the budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of
-summer, the maturity of autumn, and the stern grandeur of winter,
-conceived that the wonderful phenomena ever going on around him owed
-their origin and effects to the influence of supernatural agency, and
-marking their apparent dependence upon the sun and other orbs in space,
-he offered adoration to those luminaries. But when he still further
-analysed the changes occurring on the surface of the globe, and
-comprehended the influence of the more palpable forces and elements, and
-the inexhaustible variety and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena
-which he witnessed, incapable of otherwise solving the mysteries which
-surrounded him, he deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling
-Spirit.[6]
-
-Thus man concluded that he was surrounded by a world of supernatural
-beings, of different powers, attributes, and passions. The sun and moon,
-the planets and stars, were conceived to be the abodes of spiritual
-existences; and the effects caused by those orbs which more immediately
-influence our earth, were considered as the indications of the powers of
-their respective deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents; the
-ocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and rivers; and the earth, its
-hills, dales, and organic forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.
-Every object of beauty shadowed forth the operations of a beneficent
-Spirit; while devastating storms, barren places and deserts, and the
-convulsions of nature, betokened the malignancy of dæmons or fiends.
-According as a country's surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and
-storm-tossed, or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the rays of
-a fervid sun, so do we find the principal characters of its mythology;
-stern, gigantic, and fierce gods or dæmons, or spirits more kind towards
-man, and full of beauty and grace. The passions and affections of man,
-for the same reasons, were considered to be under the sway of
-supernatural beings; in short, every operation of nature in the organic
-or inorganic, in the mental or physical worlds, was deemed an indication
-of the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled and governed it.[7]
-
-These powers in the progress of time were personified and represented as
-possessed of passions and propensities similar to those of man; for the
-same finite and imperfect reason which had concluded that they dwelt in
-the phenomena they were supposed to explain, also deemed, being unable
-to conceive any higher type of existence than was seen in man himself,
-that they differed simply in degree of power, and were alike subject to
-those appetites and passions which characterised humanity.
-
-This source of belief in spiritual existences is found dominant in the
-systems of mythology of all nations; and as it arises from causes which
-are inherant in man, it can easily be understood why there is so great a
-similarity in the primary mythological conceptions of different races.
-
-The mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome furnish a very perfect
-illustration of the influence which this cause has exercised in the
-development of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better method
-of illustration can be adopted, than a sketch of the physical
-signification of the principal deities, and classes of deities, of those
-countries.
-
-The primitive religion of the Greeks and Romans would appear to have
-consisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):--the Titans
-are nearly all personifications of the celestial orbs. Subsequently,
-their mythology assumed a more physical character, and the offspring of
-Cronos (Saturn, _time_), or the personifications of the firmament,
-atmosphere, sea, &c., formed the leading deities of the more developed
-system of religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.
-
-In this system, the god Jupiter is symbolical of the upper regions of
-the atmosphere (_Æther_). Euripides writes:--
-
-    "The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,
-    See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;
-    This own the chief of deities above,
-    And this acknowledge by the name of Jove."[8]
-
-At a later period this god was conceived to represent the soul of the
-world, diffused alike through animate and inanimate nature; or, as
-Virgil poetically describes it in the Æneid--(Book vi.):
-
-        "The heaven and earth's compacted frame,
-    And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
-    And both the radiant lights, one common soul
-    Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.
-    This active mind infused through all the space,
-    Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
-    Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain,
-    And birds of air, and monsters of the main."
-
-The god Apollo signifies the sun,--his prophetic power being symbolical
-of its influence in dispelling darkness; his knowledge of medicine and
-healing, signifies the influence of that luminary in revivifying and
-restoring the powers of organic life; his skill in music is symbolical
-of the central position of the sun among the seven planets, and its
-making harmony with them; and the harp upon which this god is depicted
-as playing, is furnished with seven strings, in emblem of the seven
-planets. _Pan_ represents the universal world, and he is the emblem of
-fecundity. Hence this god is depicted in his upper part as a man, in his
-lower parts as a beast; "because the superior and celestial part of the
-world is beautiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this god, whose
-horns resemble the rays of the sun, and the horns of the moon. The
-redness of his face is like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted
-skin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament. In his lower
-parts he is shagged and deformed, which represents the shrubs, and wild
-beasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's feet signify the
-solidity of the earth; and his pipe of seven reeds, that celestial
-harmony which is made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's hook,
-crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the turning of the year
-into itself."[9]
-
-The goddess _Cybele_ was symbolical of the earth; _Juno_, of the
-air--the link between earthly and heavenly natures; _Vulcan_, of fire;
-_Æolus_, of the winds; _Diana_, of the moon; _Neptune_, of the sea;
-_Rusina_, of the country; _Ceres_, of the fruits of the earth;
-_Collina_, of the hills; _Vallonia_, of the valleys; _Silvanus_, of the
-woods, which teemed also with inferior deities--_satyrs_ and _fauns_;
-_Seia_ presided over all seed; _Flora_, flowers; _Proserpina_ cherished
-the corn when it had sprung above the earth; _Volasia_ folded the blade
-round it ere the beard broke out; _Nodosus_ watched over the joints and
-knots of the stalk; _Patelina_ governed the opened ear; _Lactusa_ took
-charge when it became milky; _Matura_ guarded and conducted it to
-maturity; _Hostilina_ presided over the crop; and _Tutelina_, over the
-cutting.
-
-_Nymphs_, goddesses of lovely form, and light and airy beauty, sported
-about the earth; a _Dryad_ presided over every tree; a _Hamadryad_ was
-born, lived, and died with each oak; _Oreads_ dwelt on the mountains;
-_Napëæ_, in the groves and valleys; _Lemoniads_, in the meadows and
-fields; _Nereiads_, in the ocean; _Naiads_, at the fountains;
-_Fluviales_, by the rivers: and _Lirinades_, by lakes and ponds.
-
-_Vesta_ presided over the vital heat of the body; _Janus_ opened the
-gate of life to infant man; _Opis_ assisted him when he came into the
-world; _Nascio_ presided over the moment of birth; _Cunia_ watched over
-the cradle, and while he lay and slept; _Vagitanus_, or _Vaticanus_,
-took care while the infant cried; _Rumina_ presided while the child
-sucked the breast; _Potina_ guarded the infant drinking; _Educa_ watched
-over it while it received food; _Ossilago_ "knit its bones" and hardened
-its body; _Carna_ presided over the safety of the inward parts; the
-goddess _Nundina_ had charge of the child on the ninth day--the day of
-purification; _Statilinus_ taught the infant to stand and walk, and
-preserved it from falling; _Fabulinus_ looked after the child when it
-began to speak; _Paventia_ preserved it from fright; _Juventus_
-protected the beginning of youth; _Agenoria_ excited man to action;
-_Strenua_ encouraged him to behave bravely on all occasions; _Stimula_
-urged him to extraordinary exertions; _Horta_ exhorted him to noble
-actions; _Quis_ gave peace and quietude; _Murcia_ rendered man lazy,
-idle, and dull; _Adeona_ protected him in his outgoings and incomings;
-_Vibilia_ guarded wanderers; _Vacuna_ protected the lazy and idle;
-_Fessonia_ refreshed the weary; _Meditrina_ healed injuries; _Vitula_
-presided over and gave mirth; _Volupia_ governed pleasures; _Orbona_ was
-a goddess supplicated that she might not leave parents destitute of
-children; _Pellonia_ drove away enemies; _Numeria_ endued men with the
-power of casting numbers; _Sentia_ gave just and honourable sentiments;
-_Augerona_ removed anguish from the mind; and _Consus_ presided over
-good counsels.
-
-_Virtue_ also was worshipped as a goddess; and the several species of
-virtue were considered each as emanating from some godlike power, and
-_Faith_, _Hope_, _Justice_, _Piety_, _Peace_, _Fidelity_, _Liberty_, and
-_Money_, were worshipped as good deities; while, on the other hand,
-_Envy_, _Contumely_, _Impudence_, _Calumny_, _Fraud_, _Discord_, _Fury_,
-_Fame_, _Fortune_, _Fever_, and _Silence_, were supplicated as evil
-deities.
-
-_Minerva_ was symbolical of wisdom and chastity; _Mercury_, of
-eloquence--speech; _Venus_ of ungovernable passions and desire;
-_Saturn_, time; _Momus_, mockery; _Silenus_, jesting; _Mars_, war; and
-_Bacchus_, wine. The _Muses_ each represented an accomplishment. Thus,
-_Calliope_ presided over epic poetry; _Clio_, history; _Erato_, elegy
-and amorous song; _Thalia_, comedy, gay, light, and pleasing song;
-_Melpomene_, tragedy; _Terpsichore_, dancing; _Euterpe_, music;
-_Polyhymnia_, religious song; and _Urania_, the knowledge of celestial
-events.
-
-_Themis_ taught mankind what was honest, just, and right; _Astræa_ was
-the goddess of justice; _Nemesis_ punished vice, rewarded virtue, and
-taught mankind their duty.
-
-Every action of man, both in his collective and individual
-capacity--everything in relation to his household and domestic
-affairs--was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which
-were classed under the names of _Penates_ and _Lares_.
-
-The _Penates_, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they
-may be divided into three classes: 1st, those which presided over
-kingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and
-3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an
-extent this belief was carried, a penate named _Ferculus_ looked after
-the door; the goddess _Cardua_ after the hinges; and _Limentius_
-protected the threshold.
-
-The _Lares_ were of human origin, and they presided also over houses,
-streets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country
-and the sea.
-
-To each person was also assigned two deities, termed _genii_. These
-spirits were subsidiary to the gods already mentioned, it being one of
-their duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in
-nature and disposition, and were divided into two classes--the _good_
-and the _bad_. The _good genius_ excited men to all actions of honour
-and virtue; the _evil genius_ excited him to all manner of wickedness.
-The Greeks termed these genii _dæmons_, either from the terror and dread
-they created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned
-when consulted as oracles.
-
-The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of
-the evil passions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed
-the _Furies_--_Alecto_, _Tisiphone_, and _Megæra_--who became symbolical
-of the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and
-Death--_Nox_, _Mors_, and _Somnus_--were elevated among the gods.
-
-This brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into
-the formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology--a mythology containing
-more than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate how every hidden power of
-nature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every
-equally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an
-explanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the
-progress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a
-form as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.
-
-This source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already
-stated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their
-primary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the
-difference of climate, habits, &c.
-
-Thus, of the gods of the ancient Britons--_Belin_, _Plennyd_, or
-_Granwyn_, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo;
-_Gwydion_, or _Teutath_, had all the attributes of Mercury; _Daronwy_,
-_Taranwy_, or _Taranis_, the thunderer, of Jove; _Anras_, or _Andraste_,
-of Bellona; _He-us_, _Hesus_, _Hugadarn_, or _Hu-ysgwn_, united the
-characters of Bacchus and Mars; _Ked_ and _Keridwen_ answered to Ceres;
-_Llenwy_ to Proserpine; _Olwen_ and _Dwynwen_ to Venus; and _Neivion_ to
-Neptune.[10]
-
-In the Scandinavian mythology the principal gods are personifications of
-physical and mental powers. _Odin_, the most powerful of the three
-beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of
-Mercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, _Vili_ is the personification
-of light; _Ve_, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting
-constantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of
-the principal gods, we find that _Thor_ is symbolical of thunder;
-_Baldur_ of the sun; _Njord_ rules over the winds, sea, &c.; _Frey_ is
-the god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; _Tyr_, of war;
-_Bragi_, of wisdom and poetry; _Vidar_, of silence; _Forseti_, of law
-and justice; _Loki_ is the personification of evil; _Frigga_ is the
-goddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the
-past, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance, love, courtesy,
-wisdom, and every form and passion and power of nature which the
-Scandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and
-worshipped god.
-
-The original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly
-bodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers,
-which form the principal part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the
-firmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most
-frequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the
-elements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary
-poems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the
-Sanhitâ of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly
-addressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons,
-the sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices,
-or are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities.
-The personified attributes of _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_, signifying
-respectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later
-and more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities
-ranking next in order to the _Trimurti_, and termed _Lokapalas_, are all
-personifications of natural objects and powers. Thus _Indra_ is the god
-of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm,
-and rain; _Agni_, of fire; _Yama_, of the infernal regions; _Surya_, of
-the sun; _Varuna_, of water; _Parana_, of wind; _Kuvera_, of wealth; and
-_Soma_, or _Chandra_, of the moon.
-
-The celebrated line which it is enjoined should be repeated without
-intermission, and which is the most holy passage in the Vedas, reads
-literally, "Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri (the
-sun--the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects." This, it is
-asserted, is addressed to the sun as the symbol of a divine and
-all-powerful being, and it is regarded as a proof of the monotheism of
-the Vedas. This explanation is, however, considered by some to be far
-from satisfactory, and to offer greater difficulties than the text ever
-can when taken in a natural light.
-
-The creed of Buddha contains similar traces of elemental worship. The
-five Buddhas and the five Bodhisattwas would appear to be
-personifications of the principal natural elements and phenomena.
-
-In Persian mythology we find a similar deification of natural phenomena.
-In the creed of Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing
-beliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being, _Zernane Akherene_
-(illimitable, uncreated time), who created _Ormuzd_ (light, goodness);
-and _Ahrimann_ (darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe, and the
-genii, or deities of light, of whom there are three classes.
-
-_1st Class._ The seven _Amshaspands_, including _Ormuzd_ himself. The
-remaining are _Bahman_, the genius of the region of light;
-_Ardibehesht_, of ethereal fire; _Sharwir_, of metals; _Sarpandomad_, of
-fruitfulness; _Khudad_, of time; _Amerdad_, of the vegetable world,
-flocks, and herds.
-
-_2nd Class._ The twenty-seven _Izeds_, male and female--the _elementary_
-deities: e.g. _Khorsid_, the deity of the sun; _Mah_, of the moon;
-_Tashter_, of the dog-star, and of rain; _Rapitan_, the deity of heat,
-&c. These deities were probably worshipped before the belief was reduced
-to a system.
-
-_3rd Class._ The _Fervers_--the vivifying principles of nature, the
-ideal types of the material universe, corresponding in general with the
-_ideas_ of Plato. Every one, even Ormuzd, has his Ferver. "An Iranite
-has thus constantly by his side his ideal type, or uncorrupted material
-image, to guide him through life and preserve him from evil."[12]
-
-The Iranite worships light, fire, and water, as emblems of Ormuzd, in
-whom these elements are united; he does not worship the elementary
-spirits attached to them.
-
-In China, the state religion--the religious system of
-Confucius--embodies the following objects of worship, arranged in three
-classes:--
-
-_1st Class._ _Ta sze_, or _great sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-the heavens (_Yâng_), and the earth (_Yin_); and while worshipping the
-material heaven, they appear to consider that there exists an animating
-_intelligence_ (_Tae-keih_) which presides over the world, rewarding
-virtue and vice. This class includes also deified sovereigns.
-
-_2nd Class._ _Choong-sze_, _medium sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-gods of the land and grain, the sun and moon, genii, sages, gods of
-letters, inventors of agriculture, manufacturers, and useful arts.
-
-_3rd Class._ _Seaon-sze_, or _lesser sacrifices_, includes the worship
-of the ancient patron of the healing art; innumerable spirits of
-deceased statesmen, eminent scholars, martyrs to virtue, &c.; the
-principal phenomena of nature, as the clouds, rain, wind, thunder, each
-of which has its presiding god; the military banners (like the Romans);
-the god of war; _Loong-wang_, the dragon-king; the gods of rain and the
-watery elements; and _Tien-how_, the queen of heaven and goddess of the
-weather. The Chinese also believe in good and evil genii, and in tutelar
-spirits presiding over families, houses, and towns.[13]
-
-In Africa, the mythology of its different nations is based on natural
-objects and phenomena. The natives of Ashanti and the neighbouring
-districts worship water, lakes, rivers, mountains, rocks and stones,
-leopards, panthers, wolves, crocodiles, &c., all of which are more or
-less powerful "fetishes;" and the Nubian worships the moon. The natives
-of Tahiti and the islands of the South Sea also derive their principal
-ideas of supernatural beings from material objects. In Mangareva, the
-largest of the Gambier Islands, the gods adored by the natives were
-principally personifications of natural objects. A god named _Tea_ was
-the deity and creator of the sun, wind, and water; _Rongo_ was the god
-of rain; _Tairi_, of thunder; _Arikitenow_, of the ocean; _A-nghi_, of
-storms and famine; _Napitoiti_, of death, &c. The Tahitan conceives also
-that animals, trees, stones, &c., possess souls which, like his own,
-after destruction will have a subsequent existence. On the vast
-continent of South America we find numerous traces of elemental and
-natural worship. The aborigines of Paraguay supplicate the sun, moon,
-stars, thunder, lightning, groves, &c. In the district bounded by the
-Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassequiare, including an
-extent of about 8000 square miles, and scattered also over a still
-greater extent of this continent, are found rocks covered with colossal
-symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, household utensils, and of
-the sun and moon,--doubtless objects of adoration to nations of whose
-existence even tradition has not preserved a trace. It is also probable
-that the rocks thus engraved were regarded as sacred; for the Macusi
-Indians, inhabiting one portion of the districts where these sculptures
-are found, have the tradition that "the sole survivor of a general
-deluge repeopled the earth by changing stones into human beings."[14]
-The Incas of Peru--the children of the sun--built magnificent temples,
-and adored that luminary; and the sculptures on the walls of the
-colossal temples and buildings of the Aztecs, the ancient inhabitants of
-Mexico, as well as the remains of the pyramids of the sun and moon at
-Teotihuacan, teach the same lesson with regard to that extinct race. The
-Pueblo Indians of New Mexico still perpetuate the holy fire "by the side
-of which the Aztecan kept a continual watch for the return to earth of
-Quetzalcoatl, the god of air." In a solitary cave of the mountains is
-preserved the undying fire, and its dim light is seen by the hunter if,
-by chance, led by the chase, he passes near to this lonely temple.[15]
-Among the tribes which inhabit the more northerly parts of the American
-continent, we find also similar traces of the important influence which
-natural phenomena have exercised in the development of their ideas of
-supernatural existences.
-
-We could not well close this sketch without allusion to the Shaman
-religion, which is diffused throughout the principal nations of Asiatic
-Russia, a great part of the Tartars, the Eins, Samoiedes, Ostiaks,
-Mandshurs, Burats, and Tungsees; and it is even professed among the
-Coriaks and Techuks, and people of the eastern islands. This system of
-religion is essentially founded upon the observation of natural
-phenomena: it teaches that the gods (_Burchans_) arose from the general
-mass of matter and spirit; and while inculcating the existence of a
-spiritual world, it instils the belief in the self-existence of matter.
-
-These remarks will sufficiently show the important influence which the
-observation of natural phenomena has had in the development of the
-belief in the Supernatural of most nations; and it will fully indicate
-the primary reason of the correspondence of their principal mythological
-conceptions. A consideration of the different habits, degree of
-civilization, locality, &c., will also indicate the principal reason of
-the various modifications which the same mythological conception is
-found to present among different nations.
-
-There was one Jupiter for Europe, and another for Africa; and the varied
-forms under which this god was worshipped, derived from the locality,
-habits, and other peculiarities of his worshippers, were very numerous.
-At Athens, the great Jupiter was the Olympian; at Rome, the Capitoline.
-There was the mild and the thundering Jupiter, the Jupiter Nicephorus,
-Opitulus, Fulminator, &c., all differing in some subordinate characters.
-
-Ammon, of Egypt; Belus, of the Babylonians; Ibis, of the Phoenicians;
-Allah, of the Arabians; Beel, Baal, Beelphagor, Beelzebub, Beelzemer,
-&c., all possess the attributes of Jupiter, and are the same with that
-god.
-
-The Buddha of India; Fohi, of the Chinese; Odin, or Woden, of the
-Scandinavians; and Gwydion, of the Ancient Britons, correspond with
-Mercury.
-
-Vishnu, Brahma, Siva, and Krishna, the latter both of the Irish and
-Sanscrit, correspond with Apollo; whilst Arun, of the Irish and Hindoo
-superstitions, corresponds with the Aurora of the Greeks.
-
-It is peculiarly interesting to mark in the writings of classic authors
-the earlier traces of a correct explanation of the causes operating in
-the changes observed in nature, and their influence in modifying the
-mythological ideas of the period. Socrates penetrated so far in the
-interpretation of certain physical phenomena as to discover that they
-might be explained without having recourse to the idea of supernatural
-agency. This is most interestingly shown in Aristophanes' comedy of "The
-Clouds" (B.C. 440). In this comedy, written for the purpose of throwing
-ridicule and contempt on the sophistical philosophy of Socrates,
-Strepsiades, an aged and ignorant man, is represented as suffering from
-the excesses and expenses of his son Phidippides. He conceives the idea
-of studying logic, in order, by mere subtle reasoning, to overcome and
-cheat his creditors. He enrols himself as a pupil of Socrates, and in
-Act I, Scene 2, the following scene occurs:--
-
-  _Str._  Is not Olympian Jupiter our God?
-
-  _Soc._  What Jupiter? nay, jest not--there is none.
-
-  _Str._  How say'st thou? who then rains?--this first of all
-          Declare to me.
-
-  _Soc._              Why these (_the clouds_): by mighty signs
-          This I will prove to thee. Hast ever seen
-          Jove raining without clouds?--if it were so,
-          Through the clear fields of ether must he rain,
-          While these were far away.
-
-  _Str._                          Now by Apollo,
-          Full well hast thou discours'd upon this point;
-          Till now, in truth, I thought 'twas Jupiter,
-          Distilling through a sieve. But tell me next,
-          Who is the thunderer?--this awakes my dread.
-
-  _Soc._  They thunder as they roll.
-
-  _Str._                          But how, I pray?
-          Say, thou who darest all.
-
-  _Soc._                        When they are fill'd
-          With water, and perforce impell'd along,
-          Driven precipitate, all full of rain,
-          They meet together, bursting with a crash.
-
-  _Str._  But who compels them thus to move along?
-          Is not this Jove?
-
-  _Soc._                  No, but th'ætherial whirl.
-
-In a subsequent part of the comedy (Act III, Scene 1) Strepsiades is
-represented as speaking of this idea of a whirlwind as a deified being,
-thus admirably showing the tendency of man to consider that which he
-could not comprehend as the result of supernatural agency, and to
-personify it.
-
-  _Str._  Thou swearest now, by Jove.
-
-  _Phid._ I do.
-
-  _Str._      Thou see'st how good it is to learn,
-          There is no Jove, Phidippides.
-
-  _Phid._                           Who then?
-
-  _Str._  A whirlwind reigns; having driven him, Jove, away.
-
-It would seem, also, that Socrates himself was subject to the influence
-of this feeling; for a passage in Act V, Scene 1,[16] has led to the
-conclusion "that in the school of Socrates was placed an earthen image
-(#dinos#, the name of an earthen vessel as well as of the
-_whirlwind_, who has usurped the honours and attributes of Jove). (See
-Schol. ad Vesp. 617.) This, probably, was done by the philosopher as a
-sort of compensation for having expelled Jupiter (#ton Dia#)
-from his mythological system."[17]
-
-
-II. But the ideas derived from the contemplation of natural phenomena
-were not the sole sources of mythology, such as we have received it.
-Other and most powerful causes operated, and of those next in degree of
-importance were those feelings which prompted to the deification of men.
-
-Persæus, a disciple of Zeno, "says, that they who have made discoveries
-advantageous to the life of man, should be esteemed as gods; and the
-very things, he says, which are healthful and beneficial, should have
-divine appellations; so that he thinks it not sufficient to call them
-the discoverers of gods, but that they themselves should be deemed
-divine."[18]
-
-The author of the "Book of Wisdom" in the Apocrypha, details other
-causes which tended to the same result. He writes, (Chapter xiv, v.
-15-21):--
-
-"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a son who hath been taken from
-him, makes an image of his child: and him who before was _to his family_
-as a dead man, they now begin to worship as a god; rites and sacrifices
-being instituted, to be observed by his dependents. And in process of
-time, custom having established these as a law, an image set up by an
-impious tyrant receives divine honours. A man being unable to render
-such respect in their presence to those who dwelt remote from them, and
-having received their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded to
-make a conspicuous image of any king to whom they inclined to pay divine
-honours, by which means, though absent, the ruler receives their
-solicitous homage, as though present with them. The exquisite pains
-bestowed by the artist has likewise contributed to this worship of the
-absent by ignorant men; for being willing to give perfect satisfaction
-to him for whom he doth it, he avails himself of all the resources of
-his art to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude, allured by
-the beauty of the statue, come to regard as a god him whom before they
-honoured but as a man. And this hath been the great delusion of
-humanity, that out of affection for the dead, or subserviency to their
-rulers, men have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable name of
-God."
-
-Most systems of mythology contain examples of deities which have been
-derived from this source.
-
-"It has been a general custom, likewise," writes Cicero,[19] "that men
-who have done important service to the public should be exalted to
-heaven by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux,
-Æsculapius and Liber, became gods; * * * thus, likewise, Romulus, or
-Quirinus--for they are thought to be the same--became a god. They are
-justly esteemed as deities, since their souls subsist and enjoy
-eternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings."
-
-The Chinese, at the present day, deify and adore their deceased
-emperors, as well as the spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs
-to virtue, &c.
-
-It has occasionally happened that some great sage, on his apotheosis,
-had attributed to him that which he had simply expounded during life,
-and thus became the personification of the religious ideas he had
-entertained. Buddha, who lived, as nearly as can be ascertained, about
-1000 years before Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India. After
-death he was deified by his converts, and became the embodiment of the
-principles he had advocated when on earth; and his name, with various
-modifications, was applied to the system of cosmogony and religion which
-he had advocated. The Grand Lamas (_Chaberons_) of Thibet are regarded
-as incarnations (_avatars_) of Buddha, and as such are adored by the
-Thibetians and the various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast
-district which extends from the banks of the Volga to Corea, in the Sea
-of Japan.
-
-After the persecution which terminated in the expulsion of the followers
-of Buddha from Hindostan, the Hindoos, not content with their celestial
-gods or heroes, extended their adoration to various living individuals,
-particularly to the Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight years of
-age are worshipped by them as forms of the goddess Bhavani (_Venus_);
-and at certain seasons of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his
-wife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.
-
-Some writers have thought that all the gods of the ancients consisted of
-deified men. This is, however, an error; for the deification of men was
-an act second in order to the worship of natural objects and phenomena.
-The chronological position of this element of mythology has, among other
-reasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting conclusions on the
-respective ages of the palaces of Nineveh.
-
-On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are found sculptured the winged
-and human-headed bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged
-figures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed divinities, and other
-figures, which are conceived to be symbolical of constellations, and of
-astronomical phenomena. From these nobler and simpler ideas of Divinity
-it is inferred, that when this palace was built the worship of the
-Assyrians was comparatively pure. But on the walls of Nimroud, in
-addition to the symbolical representations found at Khorsabad, there are
-also indications of an increased number of divinities, from the presence
-of deified men; hence a reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the
-system of religion at the period when this palace was built, and
-consequently its more recent date.[20]
-
-
-III. Another element has also exercised a considerable influence upon
-the mythologies of some nations, namely, _Scriptural narrative and
-traditions_. It is not improbable that several of the heathen myths have
-been derived from this source. Many, indeed, believe that all mythology
-arises from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that Deucalion is
-merely another name for Noah; Hercules for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and
-Bacchus is either Nimrod or Moses--for the former supposition the
-similarity of name being assigned; for the latter, among others, one of
-the names and some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus was named
-_Bicornis, double-horned_; and the face of Moses appeared double-horned
-when he came down from the mountain where he had spoken to God,--the
-rays of glory darting from his brow having the semblance of radiant
-horns. The Bacchæ drew waters from the rocks by striking them with their
-thyrsi; and wherever they went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and
-wine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes to dry up, by
-striking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,--an
-action similar to that of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, &c. That
-Scripture narrative has had an important influence in determining the
-formation of mythology, is highly probable; and we have already shown
-that the primary revelation of a Godhead at the creation of man supplied
-an important initial excitement to that development of the belief in the
-supernatural which occurred subsequent to the fall of man. The influence
-of Scriptural traditions on the myths of various nations it is probably
-impossible to unravel satisfactorily.
-
-
-IV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths of the ancients, and of
-modern pagan nations, were allegorical; and that they were designed to
-represent a philosophical, moral, or religious truth under a fabulous
-form. Thus, the myth of the giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off
-the sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards stolen from him by
-Mercury, and restored to Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful
-rebellions, by which the sinews of kings--their revenue and
-authority--are cut off; but by mildness of address, and wisdom of
-edicts, influencing the people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they
-recover their power and reconcile their subjects. And in the myth of the
-expedition of the gods against the giants, when the ass Silenus became
-of great service in dispersing them, on account of the terror excited by
-his braying, it is considered to be an allegory of those vast projects
-of rebels, which are mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain
-consternation. Minerva was fabled to have been born out of the head of
-Jupiter, because it was deemed that man did not in himself possess
-wisdom, but he derived it from divine inspiration; and this goddess was
-born armed, because a wise man clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified
-against all the harms of life.
-
-This element has undoubtedly had an important influence in the formation
-of the various myths, but it refers rather to an advanced stage in
-mythology, and to that period of development when a nation has made some
-progress in arts and literature.
-
-These elements, and doubtless also others of which the effects are less
-easily unfolded, _e.g._ intercourse between various nations, dispersion
-of tribes, &c., have all exercised a greater or less degree of influence
-on the development and formation of the mythologies of different
-nations.
-
-If we contemplate a race in the earlier phases of its existence, or one
-degraded in the scale of being, we find that its ideas of the
-supernatural are confined to the deification and worship of the simplest
-and most striking of the objects and phenomena of nature: as it has
-increased in civilization and learning, those deities have been
-represented in symbolical forms; and as civilization and the cultivation
-of the mind advances, and the knowledge of surrounding nature has become
-increased, so have the number of deities been multiplied by the
-deification of the less evident powers of nature, of kings, and of
-distinguished men, and then also allegory has come into play. Every
-variation in the character of a nation, and every era, has impressed
-more or less distinct marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we
-receive it now, is the sum of all those changes which have been
-impressed upon it from its earliest formation.
-
-When Christianity dawned upon the world, its effect was not the
-immediate eradication or dispersion of the superstitious beliefs and
-observances then entertained: it induced a change in the form and
-nature of those beliefs.
-
-At the commencement of the Christian era, certain men, inspired by the
-Holy Ghost, were enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings
-derived from habit, education, and authority, and to receive at once, in
-all its purity and fulness, the light of the gospel--perhaps the most
-wonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ. Such was not the case,
-however, with the majority of the earlier Christians. They did not thus
-throw off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin, but modified them
-so as to concur, as they thought, with Scripture.
-
-Thus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of one sole, omnipotent,
-and omniscient God; and it fully defined a power of evil, and denounced
-idolatry. Hence the early Christian fathers were led to conceive, and
-teach, that the gods of the heathen were devils; and further, that their
-history, attributes, and worship, had been taught to mankind by the
-devils themselves.
-
-    "Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones;
-    Though of their names in heavenly records now
-    Be no memorial,--blotted out and razed,
-    By their rebellion from the book of life,--
-    ... wandering o'er the earth,
-    Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
-    By falsities and lies the greatest part
-    Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake
-    God their Creator, and the invisible
-    Glory of Him that made them to transform
-    Oft to the image of a brute adorn'd
-    With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,
-    And devils to adore for deities;
-    Then were they known to man by various names,
-    And various idols through the heathen world."[21]
-
-This phase being given to the existing superstitions, it will readily be
-understood how, under the form of devils, most of the principal classes
-of deities in pagan mythology were retained and believed in. Thus the
-elemental and primary gods of paganism were perpetuated under the name
-of _fiends_, _dæmons_, _genii_, &c.; and the terms _salamanders_,
-_undines_, &c., expressed certain spirits of fire and of water; in the
-form of _fairies_, _elves_, _sylphs_, &c., were retained the graceful
-Nymphs--Oreads, Dryads, &c.--of antiquity,--
-
-    "The light militia of the lower sky;"
-
-the hidden parts of the earth were peopled with _dwarfs_, and other
-spirits of a more powerful nature; and spectral apparitions frighted the
-midnight hours of the watcher.
-
-It is, therefore, to the retention of certain pagan superstitions in a
-modified form, that we are to attribute the origin of the belief in
-those unnumbered spirits, which, under the names of fiends, dæmons,
-genii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs, sprites, &c., have been supposed to
-surround us, and have hampered the imaginations of all Christian
-nations, and of which, to use the words of Pope--
-
-    "Some in the fields of purest æther play,
-    And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;
-    Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,
-    Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;
-    Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light,
-    Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,
-    Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
-    Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
-    Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
-    Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;
-    Others on earth o'er human race preside,
-    Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide."[22]
-
-The belief that the heathen deities were devils, naturally led to the
-further conclusion, that the priests who sacrificed to those gods, and
-who were regarded as the medium of communication between the gods and
-man, held immediate converse with devils,--a belief subsequently
-extended to idolators in general, and to all those practising magic and
-sorcery. Instances of the natural alliance of a mythological idea to a
-Christian belief might be multiplied.
-
-The power of evil, enunciated by the Scriptures, and spoken of as the
-"_Devil_," was early reputed to have appeared in a visible form,
-assuming the aspect of the god Pan, or of a faun or satyr, that is, a
-horned figure, with hirsute frame, and the lower extremities of a goat,
-which indeed, until recently, was considered to be the most orthodox
-form of visibility for his Satanic Majesty. The connection of the power
-of evil with the gods of the most gloomy and hidden parts of nature is
-obvious: Pan, indeed, was the god of terror.
-
-Frequently, also, Satan appeared under the form of a goat. The goat is
-an emblem of the sin-offering, and of the wicked at the day of judgment;
-hence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness, and in this form
-the devil most commonly appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins.
-In Leviticus (xvii. 7), where it is written "they shall no more offer
-sacrifices to devils," it is literally, to "hairy-ones"--goats. The
-symbol of the goat prompted to the nature of the form given to Pan in
-the Grecian and Roman mythology. Indeed, the Greeks derived their
-worship of that god from Egypt, where he was adored under the form of a
-goat; and it is fabled that he captivated Diana under the aspect of a
-white goat.
-
-A singular superstition of the connection of the goat with Satan is
-entertained in some districts of this island. It is asserted that a goat
-is never visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as once in that
-time it must visit Satan to have its beard combed![23]
-
-Another example of the wedding of a pagan myth to the Christian religion
-is this:--Most heathen nations believed in the existence of deities
-whose especial duty was to guard the threshold of the house, and prevent
-the entrance of evil spirits.
-
-The Grecians and Romans had their Penates and Lars, and the Genoese
-retain the superstition at the present day.
-
-The Lars (_familiares_) were the souls of men, who lingered about the
-dwellings and places they had formerly inhabited and frequented. They
-were represented by small images resembling monkeys, and covered with
-dog's skin; and these images were placed in a niche behind the door, or
-around the hearth. At the feet of the Lar was placed the figure of a
-dog, to intimate vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to them
-in the month of May, when offerings of fruit were presented, and the
-images were crowned with flowers.
-
-Plautus (_Aulularia_) represents a Lar as using the following words:--
-
-              "I am the family Lar
-    Of this house whence you see me coming out.
-    'Tis many years now that I keep and guard
-    This family; both father and grandsire
-    Of him that has it now, I aye protected."
-
-Beneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found
-images of a foul and ugly appearance (_teraphim_), some having a lynx's
-head and human body, others a lion's body and human head. Sentences were
-also inscribed on the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures were
-placed on each side of the portal. The intention was, doubtless, the
-prevention of the entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the
-household.[24]
-
-The Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti, believe in the existence
-of similar deities. The Bhûtas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent
-spirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities. Every house and each
-family has its particular Bhûta, which is often represented by a
-shapeless stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order to
-propitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to defend the house from
-the machinations of neighbouring Bhûtas. The native of Ashanti offers
-also daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which, under the form of a
-stone painted red, is placed upon a platform within his hut.
-
-There are several remnants of this ancient superstition still in vogue
-in England. The common practice of nailing a horse-shoe behind the door,
-to terrify witches and prevent the entrance of evil spirits, is familiar
-to most persons. Formerly it was the custom to nail the horse-shoe to
-the threshold. Aubrey writes, in his _Miscellanies_: "Most houses of the
-west end of London have the horse-shoe on the threshold." In Monmouth
-Street, in 1797, many horse-shoes were to be seen fastened to the
-threshold. In 1813, Sir Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes in
-this position in that street, but in 1841 the number had diminished to
-five or six.
-
-In some parts of England, naturally perforated stones are suspended
-behind the doors, with the same intention;[25] in others, jugs, of
-singular and often frightful form, are built into the walls of the
-cottages--an interesting approximation to the Assyrian teraphim; and in
-Glamorganshire the walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to
-terrify wandering spirits,--a mode of prevention which we should like to
-see more generally adopted, as it would doubtless prove of some effect
-in impeding the access of those roaming spirits of evil with which we
-have to contend most at the present day--cholera and fever.
-
-According to Durandus, the dedication-crosses of the Roman Catholic
-churches were adopted under the influence of a feeling in every respect
-analogous to this ancient superstition. He writes that the crosses were
-used, "first, as a terror to evil spirits, that they, having been
-driven forth thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of the
-cross, and may not presume to enter therein again. Secondly, as a mark
-of triumph, for crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of his
-triumph.... Thirdly, that such as look on them may call to mind the
-passion of Christ, by which He hath consecrated his church; and their
-belief in his passion."[26]
-
-But the influence of mythology on Christianity did not terminate with
-the mere natural results of previous education, habits, &c. The church,
-under and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing in the
-protection of the civil power, and not content with the natural
-veneration due to those early Christians who had struggled for the
-cross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves by their long and
-protracted sufferings, insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced
-by the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to deify his
-benefactors, indulged a degree of reverence to the memory of those holy
-men, which soon ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately
-to their canonization and invocation. The Fathers of that
-period--Athanasius, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.--encouraged the belief;
-and a rage was developed for the search of the remains and
-resting-places of the holy dead, to whom prayers were offered; and, in
-its encouragement of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles,
-prophetic dreams, relics, &c., the Roman church at this time rivalled
-the omens, divinations, oracles, and hero-worship of one of the later
-phases of mythology.
-
-The church even sought to promote the spread of Christianity by the
-adoption of certain pagan rites and ceremonies. No more remarkable and
-interesting example of this is to be found than in the annals of our own
-country. In the year of our Lord 601, in a letter "sent to the Abbot
-Mellitus, then going into Britain," Pope Gregory wrote as follows:--
-
-"I have, upon mature deliberation on the affairs of the English,
-determined ... that the temples of the idols of that nation ought not to
-be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed, let holy
-water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected,
-and relics placed. For if those temples be well built, it is requisite
-that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the
-true God; that the nation, seeing that the temples are not destroyed,
-may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true
-God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have
-been accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen
-in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for these
-on this account, as that on the day of dedication, or the nativities of
-the holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may build
-themselves huts of the boughs of trees about those churches which have
-been turned to that use from temples, and no more offer beasts to the
-devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return
-thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end that,
-whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the
-more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God."[27]
-
-In A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II expressed his approval of image-worship,
-and because the Greek emperor refused to accede to this form of
-idolatry, he caused the tribute paid to him by Rome to be suspended, and
-even went to the extent of excommunicating him; and in 789, the second
-Nicene council re-established and confirmed the adoration of images.
-
-Examples of the influence of these doctrines in the Roman and other
-churches may be multiplied.
-
-The censers and lustration vessels of the priesthood are copied from the
-sacrificial vessels which were used in the pagan temples; the woollen
-fillet was transformed into the priest's amice; and the _lituus_, or
-curved staff of the soothsayer, became the crozier of the bishop.
-
-The sacred fountains of antiquity were perpetuated in a Christian form
-by dedication to a saint. Examples of this are afforded by the wells of
-St. Elian, in Denbighshire; St. Winifred, in Flintshire, &c.
-
-In no respect, however, has the Romish church so closely followed the
-example of pagan nations, and borrowed from mythology, as in the
-deification of men, and the adoption of tutelary divinities.
-
-As the mythology of ancient Rome and Greece had its gods who presided
-over countries, cities, towns, and the numerous actions and duties of
-man in his civil and religious life, to each of whom worship was offered
-and altars erected, so also the Romish church encouraged the belief in
-guardian saints, and in this respect its calendar rivals the Pantheon.
-
-As fully did this church adopt the principle of the deification
-(_canonization_) of men--one of the most prominent of the
-characteristics of idolatry.
-
-Thus the Romish calendar contains guardian saints of countries: St.
-George is the tutelary saint of England; St. Andrew, of Scotland; St.
-Patrick, of Ireland; St. Denis, of France; and St. Peter, of Flanders.
-Austria possesses two guardian saints, St. Colman and St. Leopold;
-Germany has _three_, St. Martin, St. Boniface, and St. George
-Cataphrastus; and so on of all the countries of Europe.
-
-There are also guardian saints of cities. St. Egidius presides over
-Edinburgh, St. Nicholas, Aberdeen; St. Peter succeeded Mars at Rome; St.
-Frideswide, Oxford; St. Genevieve, Paris; St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
-Januarius, Naples, &c.
-
-Of the general body of tutelary saints the following list will afford an
-illustration:--
-
-St. Agatha presides over nurses; St. Catherine and St. Gregory over
-studious persons; St. Christopher, St. Hermus, and St. Nicholas, over
-mariners; St. Cecilia, over musicians; St. Cosmos and Damian, over
-physicians, surgeons, and philosophers; St. Dismas and St. Nicholas,
-over thieves; St. Eustace and St. Hubert, over hunters; St. Felicitas,
-over young children; St. Julian, over pilgrims; St. Leonard and St.
-Barbara, over captives; St. Luke, painters; St. Martin and St. Urban
-over ale-knights, to prevent them falling in the kennel; St. Æthelbert
-and Ælian are invoked against thieves, &c.
-
-St. Agatha presides over valleys; St. Anne, riches; St. Barbara, hills;
-St. Florian, fire; St. Sylvester, woods, &c.
-
-St. Thomas presides over divines; St. Thomas à-Becket, blind men; St.
-Valentine, lovers; St. Winifred, virgins; St. Joseph, carpenters; St.
-Anthony, swineherds and grocers; St. Arnhold, millers; St. Blaise,
-wool-combers; St. Catherine, spinners; St. Clement, tanners; St. Cloud,
-nailsmiths; St. Dunstan, goldsmiths; St. Elry, blacksmiths, farriers,
-&c.; St. Florian, mercers; St. Francis, butchers; St. George, clothiers;
-St. Goodman and St. Ann, tailors; St. Gore, potters; St. Hilary,
-coopers; St. Leodager, drapers; St. Crispin, shoemakers, &c.
-
-St. Anthony protects hogs; St. Ferriol, geese; St. Gertrude, mice and
-eggs; St. Hubert, dogs; St. Joy, horses, &c.
-
-Numerous saints were invoked against diseases: _e.g._, St. Clara against
-sore eyes; St. Genow, gout; St. Marus, palsies and convulsions; St.
-Sigismund, fevers, &c.
-
-"There be many miracles assigned to saints," writes Barnaby Rich, in
-1619, "that they say are good for all diseases: they can give sight to
-the blind, make the deafe to hear; they can restore limbs that be
-crippled, and make the lame go upright; they be good for horse, swine,
-and many other beasts. And women, also, have shee-saints.... They have
-saints to pray to when they be grieved with a third-day ague, when they
-be pained with toothache, or when they would be revenged on their angry
-husbands.
-
-"They have saints that be good amongst poultry when they have the pip,
-for geese when they do sit, to have a happy success in goslings; and, to
-be short, there is no disease, no sickness, no griefe, either amongst
-men or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints."[28]
-
-The Romish church also adopted the pagan belief in apparitions, and as
-the latter had supported the argument in favour of the existence of the
-gods by the fiction of their occasional manifestations in a visible
-form, so the former endeavoured to sustain its dogmas by fables of the
-apparition, from time to time, of its saints.
-
-It is needless to dwell upon the manner in which this church pandered to
-the credulity of the people in this respect, for an example is before
-the world even at the present time in the apparition of the Blessed
-Virgin near La Salette, a village about four miles from Corps, a small
-town situated on the road between Grenoble and Gap.
-
-The story is as follows:--On the 19th September, 1846, the Blessed
-Virgin appeared to two children, the one a boy aged 11, and the other a
-girl aged 14 years, who were watching cows near a fountain, in the
-hollow of a ravine in the mountains, about four miles from the church
-of La Salette. When first seen, she was in a sitting position, the head
-resting upon the hands, and she "had on white shoes, with roses about
-her shoes. The roses were of all colours. Her socks were yellow, her
-apron yellow, and her gown white, with pearls all over it. She had a
-white neckerchief, with roses round it; a high cap, a little bent in
-front; a crown round her cap with roses. She had a very small chain, to
-which was attached a crucifix; on the right were some pincers, on the
-left a hammer; at the extremities of the cross was another huge chain,
-which fell, like the roses, round her handkerchief. Her face was white
-and long."
-
-Addressing the children, tears coursing down her cheeks, she spoke to
-them on the wickedness of the peasantry, particularly their neglect of
-the Sabbath and of the duties of Lent, when they "go like dogs to the
-butchers' stalls." Then she foretold that if the men would not be
-converted, there should be no potatoes at Christmas, all the corn should
-be eaten up by animals, or if any did grow up, it should fall to dust
-when thrashed. There should be a great famine, preceding which "children
-below seven years of age should have convulsions, and die in the arms of
-those who held them; and the rest should do penance by hunger. Nuts and
-grapes also should perish. But if men were converted, then the rocks and
-stones shall be changed into heaps of corn, and potatoes shall be sown
-all over the land." "The lady," in addition, confided to each of the
-children a secret which was not to be told to the other, but which they
-confided to the Pope in 1851. Then, after a little gossiping
-conversation, "the lady" vanished.
-
-Soon after this apparition had been noised abroad, it was discovered
-that the waters of the fountain were possessed of marvellous healing
-properties, and many miraculous cures were effected by its use. Pilgrims
-flocked to the scene of the vision, and it is affirmed that in one day
-60,000 of the faithful ascended the mountain.
-
-Among others, the present Bishop of Orleans made a pilgrimage to the
-"holy mountain," and he was so impressed by the solemn feelings excited
-by treading on such holy ground, that he often ejaculated, "It cannot be
-but that the finger of God is here." Other ecclesiastics of rank also
-visited the spot, and the whole affair was officially sanctioned.
-
-Nor did the matter rest here, for churches are being built, and
-dedicated to "Our Lady of Salette," in different countries; and a
-society has been established in England bearing her name.
-
-We have already alluded to the sacred fountains of heathen nations, and
-in the holy fountain of Salette we witness the modern development of a
-similar superstition. So also in the apparition of the Virgin the same
-credulity is traced which prompted the ancients to believe in the
-occasional appearance of their deities.
-
-It is related that Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter, by Leda the
-wife of Tyndarus, were seen fighting at the battle of Regillus; and
-that, subsequently, mounted on white horses, they appeared to P.
-Vatienus, as he journeyed by night to Rome, from his government of
-Reate, and told him that King Perses had that day been taken prisoner.
-
-On these legends Cicero remarks; "Do you believe that the Tyndaridæ, as
-you called them, that is, men sprung from men, and buried in Lacedemon,
-as we learn from Homer, who lived in the next age,--do you believe, I
-say, that they appeared to Vatienus on the road, mounted on white
-horses, without any servant to attend them, to tell the victory of the
-Romans to a country fellow rather than to M. Cato, who was that time the
-chief person of the senate? Do you take that print of a horse's hoof,
-which is now to be seen on a stone at Regillus, to be made by Castor's
-horse? Should you not believe, what is probable, that the souls of
-eminent men, such as the Tyndaridæ, are divine and immortal, rather than
-that those bodies, which had been reduced to ashes, should mount on
-horses and fight in an army? If you say that was possible, you ought to
-show how it is so, and not amuse us with fabulous stories."
-
-"Do you take these for fabulous stories?" says Balbus. "Is not the
-temple built by Posthumius in honour of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in
-the Forum? Is not the decree of the senate concerning Vatienus still
-subsisting?... Ought not such authorities to move you?"
-
-"You oppose me," replies Cotta, "with stories, but I ask reasons of
-you."[29]
-
-It would seem then that the parallelism is perfect, even to the building
-of temples, and the official recognition of the truth of the event.
-
-Of the individual personages of ancient mythology very few traces remain
-in England, and these principally belong to the fairy belief. This
-superstition, of which the analogue is found in the Nymphs, Oreads,
-Dryads, Naiads, Lemoniads, and Nerieds, of ancient Greece and Rome, is
-still prevalent in certain districts of this country; and the extinction
-of the general belief, among the lower orders, of one of the most noted
-of the personages which are met with in fairy lore, the _hobgoblin_, is
-comparatively of recent date. The name is, however, still familiar, and
-in use for certain vague manifestations of the supernatural, although
-the actual signification of the term is, to a great extent, lost sight
-of.
-
-The hobgoblin is worthy of notice not only for its intrinsic interest,
-but also for the illustration which it affords of the intimate
-relationship which is often found to exist between the superstitions of
-different and even far distant nations.
-
-This spirit, in his palmy days, was that fairy which attached itself to
-houses, and the neighbourhood of dwellings and churches (for even sacred
-edifices were not exempted from its influence). In disposition it was
-mischievous and sportive, although it often deigned, during the night,
-to perform many menial offices, and whatsoever building it attached
-itself to prospered. It was apt to take offence, particularly if, as a
-reward, money or clothes were placed for it in that part of the house it
-most frequented; but it was partial to cream, or some delicately
-prepared eatable, and any housewife who was careful to conciliate the
-spirit by administering to this taste, was certain to be well rewarded.
-As might be anticipated, it was a favourite character with poets, and
-descriptions of its propensities and actions abound. Thus, in the
-"Midsummer Night's Dream" (Act II, Sc. 1), one of the Fairies is
-represented as addressing this spirit, and saying:--
-
-          "Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
-          Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
-          Called Robin Goodfellow. Are you not he
-          That frights the maidens of the villagery,
-          Skims milk, and labours in the quern,
-          And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn;
-          And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm;
-          Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
-          Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
-          You do their work and they shall have good luck,
-          Are not you he?
-
-  _Puck._           Thou speakest aright,
-          I am that merry wanderer of the night.
-          I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
-          When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
-          Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;
-          And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
-          In very likeness of a roasted crab,
-          And when she drinks against her lips I bob,
-          And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
-          The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,
-          Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
-          Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
-          And _tailor_ cries, and falls into a cough;
-          And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,
-          And waxen in their mirth, and reeze, and swear
-          A merrier hour was never wasted there."
-
-Milton, in the "L'Allegro," writes of him in a different office, and--
-
-    "Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,
-    To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
-    When in one night ere glimpse of morn,
-    His shadowy flail has thrashed the corn,
-    That ten day-lab'rers could not end:
-    Then lies him down the lubber-fiend,
-    And stretched out all the chimney's length,
-    Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
-    And cropfull out of doors he flings,
-    Ere the first cock his matin rings."
-
-Another noted characteristic of this fairy is mentioned in the fine old
-song of Ben Johnson's:--
-
-    "When house or hearth doth sluttish lye,
-      I pinch the maidens black and blue;
-    The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
-      And lay them naked all to view.
-          Twixt sleepe and wake
-          I do them take
-    And on the key-cold floor them throw:
-          If out they cry
-          Then forth I fly,
-    And loudly laugh out, ho! ho! ho!"
-
-The hobgoblin is one of the widest-spread forms of fairy belief. In
-England it is also termed _Boggard_, _Puck_, _Robin Goodfellow_, and
-_Robin Hood_; it is the _Brownie_ of Scotland; the _Cluricaune_,
-_Luricaune_, _Leprochaune_, &c., of Ireland; the _Kobold_ of Germany;
-the _Servant_ of Switzerland; the _Nis_ of Denmark and Norway; the
-_Niägruiser_ of the Feroes; the _Tomt-gubbe_, or _Tont_, of Sweden; the
-_Phynnoderee_ of the Isle of Man; the _Monaciello_ of Naples; the
-_Duende_ of Spain; the _Lutin_, or _Gobelin_, of France; and the _Para_
-of Finland appears to have some affinity with it.
-
-The derivation of some of the principal names of this fairy is also of
-interest. From the Sclavonic _Bôg_, signifying _God_, come the words
-_boggard_ and _boggart_; the Scottish _Bogle_, a hill-fairy; and
-probably, also, the words _Bug-bear_ and _Bugaboo_; and from the
-Icelandic _Puki_, an evil spirit, come the English _Puke_, a devil, as
-also _Puck_; the Friesland _Puk_; the German _Putz_, or _Butz_; the
-Devonshire _Pixie_; the Irish _Pouke_; the Welsh _Pwcca_, and the words
-_big_ and _bug_,--all names of certain varieties of the fairy-belief,
-and having the signification of an evil spirit.
-
-Certain forms of pagan worship would appear to have been perpetuated
-unmodified in Christian countries even to the present time. A remarkable
-and singular illustration of this is found in Ireland.
-
-Off the north-west coast of that kingdom are situated the islands of
-Inniskea, containing a population of about 400 human beings. Nominally
-the inhabitants are Christians, and under Roman Catholic tuition; in
-reality, they observe the ancient forms of Irish clan government, and
-are idolaters, worshipping rocks and stones. Their chief god is a stone
-idol termed _Nee-vougi_, which has been preserved from time immemorial.
-It is clothed in homespun flannel, which arises from the custom of its
-votaries offering portions of their dress when addressing it. These
-fragments are sewed upon it by an old woman who has charge of the idol,
-and who officiates as priestess. It is invoked, among other things, to
-dash helpless ships upon the coast, and to calm the sea in order that
-the fishing may be successful.[30]
-
-The adoration of rocks and stone pillars is one of the most ancient
-forms of idolatry on record. It probably took its origin from the custom
-of erecting stone pillars as a memorial, and consecrating them as altars
-on any extraordinary event or occasion. The earliest mention of this
-custom is found in Genesis (cxxviii, v. 10):--
-
-"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took up the stone he had
-put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the
-top of it.
-
-"And he called the name of that place Beth-El ... saying ... this stone
-which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house."
-
-Stones thus erected as memorials, and consecrated as altars, in the
-course of time were considered to be the abode of, or rather to be
-filled with, the divine power, which had manifested itself there; and
-ultimately stone pillars were used as symbols of the Deity. Singularly
-formed rocks and stones were also regarded in a similar light; and
-traces of this very ancient form of idolatry may be found in all parts
-of the world.
-
-The "_animated stones_" of antiquity, which received divine honours,
-derived their names from Beth-El, as for example, Baithulia, Bethyllia,
-and #Baitolia#, signifying consecrated or living stones; and one
-of the modifications of Jupiter, _Jupiter Lapis_ (a stone), was derived
-from this form of idolatry, and the most solemn of the Roman oaths was
-that taken in the name of this god.
-
-Numerous traces of superstition are found scattered throughout England,
-and the countries of Western Europe, which are the lineal, although
-degenerated descendants of the superstitions of the mythological era of
-the respective nations, or rather races, dwelling there.
-
-There are few large towns in Great Britain which do not contain one or
-more persons who profess to practise astrology, magic, or
-divination--_wise men_, as they are popularly designated; and the belief
-in charms and omens is far from being eradicated among a large mass of
-the population, particularly among those who dwell in secluded or
-mountainous districts.
-
-Not unfrequently events happen by which we may gauge the extent to which
-these superstitions are still entertained. Those who marked the effect
-which the appearance of the late comet had on the minds of many in this
-country, would perceive that a somewhat powerful feeling of
-superstitious dread, on the occurrence of remarkable celestial events,
-remained. The alarm excited among the credulous in England was, however,
-if anything, less marked than that caused in many parts of the
-continent[31] and in America.
-
-Three years ago we had an opportunity of witnessing a singular
-exhibition of fear, which was excited in the inhabitants of the most
-impoverished districts of Leeds, by the prevalence of a brilliant
-display of the aurora borealis. The scene paralleled the descriptions
-recorded of the effects produced by similar phenomena in the Middle
-Ages. The prevailing impression was, that the world was on the point of,
-if not in, the actual process of destruction; and in many the alarm
-became extreme, when, during the most magnificent period of the
-phenomena, several of the streamers became of a deep crimson and blue
-tint.
-
-This display of the aurora extended over a vast extent of country, and a
-singular example of the feelings with which it was regarded in Spain was
-recorded at the time in the daily papers.
-
-On the evening on which it occurred, it so happened that the subject of
-the homily in one of the churches of Madrid was the destruction of the
-world, and the day of judgment. At the conclusion of the service, and as
-the congregation were issuing from the church, the northern heavens were
-glowing with the brilliant and ever-varying light of the aurora.
-Startled by a phenomenon which is of somewhat rare occurrence in Spain,
-the idea at once occurred that the terrible events upon which the priest
-had been descanting were about to come to pass; the people rushed back
-to the steps of the altar, and while the aurora continued, the terror
-and confusion beggared all description.
-
-Another indication of the influence which the superstitions we have
-named exercise on the minds of certain classes, is the number of works
-on astrology, principally reprints, which have issued from the press
-during the last eight or nine years.
-
-This ancient superstition, which is still practised by the Mahomedans,
-Chinese, &c., retains a hold upon the minds of many, even now. Its
-practice in this country is, however, most frequently combined with some
-of the minor forms of magic and divination; and those who profess a
-knowledge of these arts chiefly direct them to the ignoble purpose of
-detecting stolen articles.
-
-In America, it would seem, from the advertisements which from time to
-time appear in the newspapers, that this superstition is flourishing
-with some vigour. We subjoin, in a note, specimens of these
-advertisements.[32]
-
-The belief in charms and omens, which was one of the most important of
-the superstitions of antiquity, is still entertained by the lower orders
-in many counties, and it forms one of the most striking features of the
-current folk-lore.
-
-The Devonshire peasant will recite the 8th Psalm on three consecutive
-days, for three weeks, over his child, in order to prevent its being
-attacked with the thrush; and should the disease, notwithstanding this
-precaution, occur, he either plucks three rushes from a running stream,
-passes them through the mouth of the child, and then casts them into the
-stream, believing that the disease will decrease and disappear as the
-rushes float away; or seizing a duck, he will force it to open wide its
-bill, and then placing it close to the mouth of the child, he hopes to
-see the affection vanish as the duck inhales the infant's breath.
-
-The peasantry of Norfolk, Northampton, &c. have, for the prevention of
-epileptic fits, implicit confidence in a ring made from nine sixpences,
-obtained, by gift, from persons of the opposite sex, or from the money
-contributed at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
-
-There is a charm for cramp in the leg which must be familiar to most
-persons. It runs thus:--
-
-    "The devil is tying a knot in my leg!
-    Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it, I beg!
-    Crosses three we make to ease us,
-    Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus."
-
-This formula, with a little modification, was applicable also to other
-fleeting but painful affections. Coleridge states that when he was at
-the Blue-coat School there was a charm for one's foot when asleep, which
-ran thus:--
-
-    "Foot, foot, foot! is fast asleep!
-    Thumb, thumb, thumb! in spittle we steep;
-    Crosses three we make to ease us," &c.
-
-We have seen a charm for the toothache, which we believe has now fallen
-into desuetude, but which, from its singularity, is worthy of
-preservation. It is as follows:--
-
-"In the name of God: Amen.
-
-"As Jesus Christ passed through the gates of Jerusalem, he heard one of
-his disciples weeping and wailing. Jesus saith unto him, Simon Peter,
-why weepest and wailest thou? Simon Peter saith unto him: Lord, the pain
-in my tooth is so grievous, I can do nothing. Jesus saith unto him:
-Arise, Simon, and the pain in thy tooth shall be eased; and whosoever
-shall keep those words in remembrance or writing shall never be
-troubled with the pain in the tooth:--
-
-"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."
-
-The coral and bells which are suspended round the necks of children for
-their amusement, were originally used with very different intentions.
-
-Those who professed the occult sciences attributed several very
-wonderful properties to coral, it being regarded by them as a
-preservative against evil spirits, poison, and certain diseases.
-
-The ringing of bells was also, formerly, considered to be of great
-effect in terrifying and causing evil spirits to fly away. Nor did their
-influence cease there; they were esteemed efficacious for the dispersion
-of tempests; or, it would be more correct to say, that a cotemporary
-superstition was, that tempests, thunder and lightning, and high winds,
-were caused by evil spirits, or devils, who in this manner endeavoured
-to wreak their rage on man; hence, in the Golden Legend of Wynken de
-Worde, it is said that "evil spirytes that ben in the region of th'
-ayre, dowt much when they hear the bells rongen, an this is the cause
-why the bells ben rongen when it thondreth, and whanne great tempests
-and outrages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked
-spirytes should be abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of
-tempest." This superstition probably dates from the period when it
-became customary to exorcise, bless, and baptize the bells suspended in
-churches,--a custom which originated in the tenth century.
-
-The use of the coral and bells was derived from these superstitions, and
-they were at first suspended from the neck as an amulet which was
-protective from the influence of evil spirits.
-
-Certain events are still regarded as omens by the peasantry in many
-districts.
-
-If a magpie cross our path, it is said that we shall prove unlucky,
-unless we immediately cross ourselves; and an old rhyme says of the
-magpie:--
-
-    "One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth;
-    Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of a birth."
-
-In Devonshire, if a person sees four magpies, it is regarded as an omen
-of death in his family. If a pigeon is seen sitting on a tree, or comes
-into the house; or if a swarm of bees alight on a dead tree, or the dead
-bough of a living tree, it forebodes death in the family of the owner.
-In Derbyshire, if the sun shines through the boughs of the apple-trees
-on Christmas day, it is considered as a presage of a good crop the
-ensuing year.
-
-Of all the superstitions entertained previous to the advent of Christ,
-none have, however, been more fully perpetuated among Christian nations
-than that of spectral apparitions,--the visible appearance of the
-deities worshipped, or of the disembodied spirits of the dead--_ghosts_.
-
-This was due not only to the nature of the causes inducing spectral
-apparitions (causes which are inseparable from the physical constitution
-of man), but also to the confirmation which the belief was thought to
-receive from Holy Writ.
-
-The character of the superstition, as it has been retained down to the
-verge of the present period in our own country, and as it is still
-entertained in many countries, is very similar to that which it bore in
-the remotest periods of antiquity.
-
-The deities of those nations who had distinct and defined ideas
-respecting their gods, are reputed to have appeared from time to time to
-their votaries, assuming the form in which they were most commonly
-pourtrayed in the temples.
-
-Thus the gods which Æneas bore from the destruction of Troy and carried
-into Crete, appeared to him in that island:
-
-    "'Twas night, when every creature, void of cares,
-    The common gift of balmy slumbers shares;
-    The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),
-    Those gods whom I from flaming Troy redeem'd,
-    Before me stood, majestically bright,
-    Full in the beams of Phoebe's entering light.
-    Then thus they spoke and eased my troubled mind:
-    'What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,
-    He tells thee here, and sends us to relate.
-    Those powers are we, companions of thy fate,
-    Who from the burning town by thee were brought,
-    Thy fortune follow'd, and thy safety wrought.
-    Through seas and lands, as we thy steps attend,
-    So shall our care thy glorious race befriend.
-    An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain,
-    A town that o'er the conquer'd world shall reign.
-    Thou, mighty walls for mighty nations build;
-    Nor let thy weary mind to labours yield:
-    But change thy seat; for not the Delian god
-    Nor we have given thee Crete for our abode.
-    A land there is, Hesperia call'd of old,
-    (The soil is fruitful, and the natives bold--
-    Th' Oeotrians held it once), by later fame
-    Now call'd Italia from the leader's name.
-    Iasius there, and Dardanus, were born;
-    From thence we came and thither must return.
-    Rise, and thy sire with these glad tidings greet:
-    Search Italy; for Jove denies thee Crete.'
-    Astonished at their voices and their sight,
-    (Nor were they dreams, but visions of the night;
-    I saw, I knew their faces, and descry'd,
-    In perfect view, their hair with fillets tied),
-    I started from my couch; a clammy sweat
-    On all my limbs, and shivering body, sate.
-    To heaven I lift my hands with pious haste,
-    And sacred incense in the flames I cast."[33]
-
-Among Christian nations visions of this character have also been common;
-and the religious writings of every age of the Church contain numerous
-instances of apparitions of the Trinity, of our Lord, of the canonized,
-and the powers of evil.
-
-But the most familiar phase of the ghost-belief is that of the visible
-manifestation of the spirits of the dead; and probably few, if any,
-races are without a superstition of this nature.
-
-The Grecians and Romans believed that the souls of the dead (_manes_)
-roamed about the earth, having power to interfere with the affairs of
-man and inflict evil. The spirits of those who had been virtuous during
-life were distinguished by the name of _lares_ (under which name we have
-in a previous page alluded to them as tutelary deities) or _manes_; and
-the spirits of the wicked were termed _larvæ_, or _lemures_, and often
-terrified the good, and haunted the wicked and impious. These ghosts
-were also deified, and they were known as the _Dii Manes_; and the
-stones erected over the graves in Roman burial-grounds had usually
-inscribed upon them the letters D.M., or D.M.S., that is, _Dîs Manibus_,
-or _Dîs Manibus Sacrum_,--"Sacred to the Manes Gods." Sacrifices were
-offered to these deities, the offerings being termed _religiosæ_, in
-contradistinction to those offered to the superior gods, which were
-denominated _sacræ_; and during the festivals held in honour of the
-ghosts (_Lemuria_ or _Lemuralia_), it was customary to burn black beans
-over the graves, and to beat kettles and drums, in order that, by the
-noxious odour of the former, and the noise of the latter, the ghosts
-might be frightened away, and no longer terrify their relations.
-
-We have already given several examples illustrative of the parallelism
-which exists between the accounts we possess of the apparitions of
-Grecian and Roman deities, and those manifestations of celestial
-personages which are recorded to have occurred in more modern times. A
-similar resemblance exists between the accounts given of the spectral
-appearance of the spirits of the dead.
-
-In the Odyssey (B. XI), Ulysses, previous to descending into hell, is
-described as offering "solemn rites and holy vows" to the dead:--
-
-    "When lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts,
-    Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts;
-    Fair, pensive youths, and soft, enamour'd maids;
-    And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades
-    Ghastly with wounds, the form of warriors slain
-    Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train:
-    These and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the ground,
-    And all the dire assembly shriek'd around."
-
-A striking illustration of the similarity of ancient and modern
-ghost-stories, in all essential points, is contained in the description
-given in the Æneis (B. II) of the apparition of the ghost of Hector to
-Æneas, at the destruction of Troy:--
-
-    "'Twas in the dead of night, when sleep repairs
-    Our bodies worn with toils, our minds with cares,
-    When Hector's ghost before my sight appears:
-    A bloody shroud he seem'd, and bath'd in tears;
-    Such as he was when by Pelides slain,
-    Thessalian coursers dragg'd him o'er the plain;
-    Swoll'n were his feet, as when the thongs were thrust
-    Through the bored holes; his body black with dust;
-    Unlike that Hector, who return'd from toils
-    Of war, triumphant in Æacians' spoils,
-    Or him, who made the fainting Greeks retire,
-    And launch'd against their navy Phrygian fire.
-    His hair and beard stood stiffen'd with his gore,
-    And all the wounds he for his country bore
-    Now streamed afresh, and with new purple ran."
-
-An equally, if not more marked example, is recorded by Pliny, the consul
-at Sura.
-
-A house at Athens was grievously haunted by a spirit, which, during the
-night, restlessly roamed through the apartments, dragging, apparently, a
-heavy chain after it. Athenodorus, the philosopher, hired the house,
-determined to reduce the spirit to order and silence. In the depth of
-the night, while pursuing his studies, the silence was broken by the
-noise of rattling chains, which approached the room where he sat.
-Presently, a spectre entered, and beckoned to him, but the philosopher
-took no notice. The spectre agitated its chains anew, and then he arose
-and, following his ghostly guide, he was led into the court-yard of the
-house, to a certain spot, when the spectre vanished. He marked the
-place, and on the following day caused the ground to be dug up and
-searched, when beneath it they found the skeleton of a man in chains.
-The bones were publicly burned, and from that time the spirit ceased to
-haunt the mansion.
-
-A belief in ghosts was one of the most prominent of the superstitions of
-the ancient inhabitants of Northern Europe. It was customary with the
-Scandinavians, as with the Grecians, to perform certain ceremonies at
-the tombs of the dead, to propitiate the ghosts, and facilitate their
-entrance into the halls of bliss.
-
-The ghosts of the departed warriors, after they had entered their airy
-halls, were supposed to pursue pleasures similar in character to those
-which had engaged their attention on earth. They listened to the strains
-of immortal bards; followed the chase over the illimitable fields of
-heaven; visited the scenes of their former glories; and when resting
-within their tombs, they would talk of mortal men, and sing the songs of
-other worlds. Airy and unsubstantial as a wreath of mist, they often
-wandered on the surface of the earth. The ghost of a mighty hero,
-clothed in a panoply of lurid clouds, and armed with a meteor, might be
-seen brooding o'er his tomb, or attended "by a ridge of formless
-shades," it swept across former battle-fields. The men of bygone days,
-wreathed in their vapoury robes, and reposing on clouds, hovered on the
-midnight blast, which bore in its mighty cadences the echoing sounds of
-the voices of the dead; or "like the new moon seen through the gathered
-mist, when the sky pours down its flaky snow, and the world is silent
-and dark,"[34] the spirits of the maidens glided over the rugged hills,
-or roamed on the pebbly shore.
-
-The early Scandinavian traditions and historical writings, are pregnant
-with ghosts and other supernatural agents. Mr. Howitt[35] quotes from
-one of the Eddaic songs, which records the lives of a hero named Helge
-and his wife Sigrun, the following singularly interesting scene.
-
-Helge died, and the body was laid in its cairn. In the evening Sigrun's
-maid passed the cairn, and saw the ghost of Helge ride into it with a
-numerous train. Addressing the ghost, the maid said, "Is it an illusion
-that I see, or the Eve of the Mighty, that ye ride your horses and urge
-them with your spurs? Or are the heroes bound for their homes?" The
-ghost replied, "It is no illusion which thou seest, nor the Eve of the
-Mighty; though thou seest us, and we urge our horses with our spurs;
-neither are the heroes bound for their homes."
-
-The maid then went to her mistress and said, "Haste thee, Sigrun, from
-the hill of Seva, if the leader of the battle thou desirest to see. Open
-is the cairn; Helge is come; the war-scars bleed. Helge bade thee to
-still his dripping wound." Sigrun went to the cairn, and entering it,
-said to the shade of her dead husband, "Now am I as joyful of our
-meeting as Odin's ravens when, long-fasting, they scent the warm food,
-or the day-wearied when they behold the close of day. I will kiss my
-lifeless king before thou throwest off thy bloody cuirass. Thy hair, O
-Helge! is pierced through with frost, or with the dew of death is the
-hero slain. Cold are the hands of the friend of Högne. How, therefore,
-King, shall I find a cure for thee?"--"Thou only, Sigrun! on the hill of
-Seva," replied the ghost, "art the cause that Helge is here, slain by
-the dew of sorrow. Thou weepest, gold-adorned one! burning tears, maid
-of the sun-glowing south! Before thou sleepest, every tear shall fall
-bloody on the breast of the Prince, pierced through with the cold of thy
-grief. But we will drink the precious mead together, though we have lost
-gladness and lands. Yet no one sings a song of woe, though he sees a
-wound in my breast. Now are the brides closed in the cairns, and the
-princely maidens are laid beside us."
-
-Sigrun made a bed in the cairn, and said, "Here have I, Helge, prepared
-rest for thee; rest free from all trouble. Son of the Ylfinga! I will
-sleep in thy arms as formerly, when my hero lived." The ghost answered,
-"No longer will I say that thou art unfaithful on the hill of Seva.
-Since thou sleepest in the embrace of the dead in the cairn, thou fair
-daughter of Högur! And yet thou livest, offspring of kings! Time is to
-ride the red ways. Let the pale steed tramp the steeps of the air. In
-the west must we be, by the bridge Vindhjalen, ere the cock in Walhalla
-wakes the sons of victory."
-
-In the Eyrbyggja Saga (written before A.D. 1264; period when the events
-recorded occurred, A.D. 883) is an account of certain spectral
-apparitions which followed the death of a lady whose commands upon the
-death-bed had not been obeyed. This story is almost unique in character,
-and it is a singularly interesting example of the ghost-belief of
-Iceland at an early period.
-
-On the evening of the day when the corpse was being removed to a distant
-place of sepulture, an apparition of the lady was seen busily preparing
-victuals in the kitchen of the house where the bearers reposed for the
-night. On the night when the conductors of the funeral returned home, a
-spectral appearance resembling a half-moon glided around the boarded
-walls of the mansion, in a direction opposite to that of the sun, and
-continued its revolutions until the domestics retired to rest. "This
-apparition was renewed every night during the whole week, and was
-pronounced by Thorer with the wooden leg to presage pestilence and
-mortality." Shortly after, a herdsman showed signs of being persecuted
-by demons, and one morning he was found dead in bed, "and then" (to
-quote literally from Sir Walter Scott's abstract of the Saga) "commenced
-a scene of ghost-seeing unheard of in the annals of superstition. The
-first victim was Thorer, who had presaged the calamity. Going out of
-doors one evening, he was grappled by the spectre of the deceased
-shepherd as he attempted to re-enter the house. His wooden leg stood him
-in poor stead in such an encounter; he was hurled to the earth and so
-fearfully beaten that he died in consequence of the bruises. Thorer was
-no sooner dead than his ghost associated itself to that of the herdsman,
-and joined him in pursuing and assaulting the inhabitants of Froda.
-Meantime an infectious disorder spread fast amongst them, and several of
-the bondsmen died one after the other. Strange portents were seen
-within doors, the meal was displaced and mingled, and the dried fish
-flung about in a most alarming manner, without any visible agent. At
-length, while the servants were forming their evening circle around the
-fire, a spectre resembling the head of a seal-fish was seen to emerge
-out of the pavement of the room, bending its round black eyes full on
-the tapestried bed-curtains of Thorgunna (the deceased lady). Some of
-the domestics ventured to strike at the figure; but, far from giving
-way, it rather erected itself further from the floor, until Kiartan, who
-seemed to have a natural predominance over these supernatural prodigies,
-seizing a huge forge-hammer, struck the seal repeatedly on the head, and
-compelled it to disappear, forcing it down into the floor, as if he had
-driven a stake into the earth. This prodigy was found to intimate a new
-calamity. Thorodd, the master of the family, had some time before set
-forth on a voyage to bring home a cargo of dried fish; but, in crossing
-the river Enna, the skiff was lost, and he perished with the servants
-who attended him. A solemn funeral feast was held at Froda, in memory of
-the deceased, when, to the astonishment of the guests, the apparition of
-Thorodd and his followers seemed to enter the apartment dripping with
-water. Yet this vision excited less horror than might have been
-expected; for the islanders, though nominally Christians, retained,
-among other superstitions, a belief that the spectres of such drowned
-persons as had been favourably received by the goddess Rana were wont to
-show themselves at their funeral feast. They saw, therefore, with some
-composure, Thorodd and his dripping attendants plant themselves by the
-fire, from which all mortal guests retreated to make room for them. It
-was supposed this apparition would not be renewed after the conclusion
-of the festival. But so far were their hopes disappointed, that, so soon
-as the mourning guests had departed, the fires being lighted, Thorodd
-and his comrades marched in on one side, drenched as before with water;
-on the other entered Thorer, heading all those who had died in the
-pestilence, and who appeared covered with dust. Both parties seized the
-seats by the fire, while the half-frozen and terrified domestics spent
-the night without either light or warmth. The same phenomenon took place
-the next night, though the fires had been lighted in a separate house,
-and at length Kiartan was obliged to compound matters with the spectres
-by kindling a large fire for them in the principal apartment, and one
-for the family and domestics in a separate hut. This prodigy continued
-during the whole feast of Jol. Other portents also happened to appal
-this devoted family; the contagious disease again broke forth, and when
-any one fell a sacrifice to it, his spectre was sure to join the troop
-of persecutors, who had now almost full possession of the mansion of
-Froda. Thorgrima Galldrakinna, wife of Thorer, was one of these victims;
-and, in short, of thirty servants belonging to the household, eighteen
-died, and five fled for fear of the apparitions, so that only seven
-remained in the service of Kiartan."
-
-The trouble and annoyance from the spectres had now reached so serious a
-pitch that, by the advice of a maternal uncle, Kiartan instituted
-judicial measures against the spectres.
-
-"A tribunal being then constituted, with the usual legal solemnities, a
-charge was preferred by Kiartan against Thorer with the wooden leg, by
-Thordo Kausa against Thorodd, and by others chosen as accusers against
-the individual spectres present, accusing them of molesting the mansion,
-and introducing death and disease among its inhabitants. All the solemn
-rites of judicial procedure were observed on this singular occasion;
-evidence was adduced, charges given, and the cause formally decided. It
-does not appear that the ghosts put themselves on their defence, so that
-sentence of ejectment was pronounced against them individually in due
-and legal form. When Thorer heard the judgment, he arose, and saying,
-'I have sat while it was lawful for me to do so,' left the apartment by
-the door opposite to that at which the judicial assembly was
-constituted. Each of the spectres, as they heard their individual
-sentence, left the place, saying something which indicated their
-unwillingness to depart, until Thorodd himself was solemnly appointed to
-depart. 'We have here no longer,' said he, 'a peaceful dwelling,
-therefore will we remove.' Kiartan then entered the hall with his
-followers, and the priest, with holy water, and celebration of a solemn
-mass, completed the conquest over the goblins, which had been commenced
-by the power and authority of the Icelandic law."
-
-The spectral phenomena of the ancient Swedish folk-lore differs in no
-respect from the current histories of recent date. An interesting
-example of this is found in the beautiful ballad of Sir Ulf and Lady
-Sölfverlind.
-
-Sir Ulf was a nobleman who had married a wife from a foreign country.
-After they had lived together eight years, and had had a family of three
-children, the Lady Sölfverlind died. In a short time he married again,
-and by his second wife, the Lady Stineborg, he had also several
-children. This lady, however, proved a cruel step-mother; for, as the
-ballad reads:--
-
-    "Lady Stineborg's children went out to play,
-    Lady Sölfverlind's children sate weeping all day.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    The youngest child it wept so loud,
-    That it woke its mother beneath the sod.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    Lady Sölfverlind spoke to the angel-band:
-    'Is it granted to visit the earthly land?'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'It is granted from heaven to earth to go,
-    But thou must return ere the first cock crow.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    She came to the door, she tirled at the pin;
-    'Rise up, my children, and let me in.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'On sticks and stones why lie you thus?'
-    'Nothing besides is given to us.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Why look ye, my children, so grim and so grey?'
-    'We have not been washed since thou went away.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Rise up, Lady Stineborg, hearken to me,
-    For I have a few words to speak unto thee!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both upland and low,
-    Yet now my children must supperless go.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both oxen and kine,
-    Yet now they go barefoot, these children of mine.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left soft down pillows, full many a one,
-    Now hard sticks and stones are the bed they lie on!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Hadst thou to my children shown tenderness sweet,
-    God the Father in heaven had found thee a seat!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Have thy children in me a hard step-mother known?
-    Henceforth will I love them as well as my own!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    There ne'er was a lovelier sight in the sky,
-    Than Sölfverlind taking her children on high.
-                This know we of Ulf."[36]
-
-The ghost-belief of Hindostan is one of the most important of the
-popular superstitions of that country. It differs from that of more
-westerly countries in the degree of reality with which the natives have
-invested it; for while the former look upon the interference of the
-spirits of the dead in the events of ordinary life as a circumstance of
-rare occurrence, and regard manifestations of this nature with an awe
-befitting their solemnity and supernatural character, the latter lives
-in an atmosphere of spectral beings, which are the spirits of those who
-have lived a wicked life on earth, and retain their malignant
-disposition unabated after death, if indeed it is not increased in
-intensity by the devil-like nature they assume, and exercise their evil
-powers in all the affairs of life, haunting the localities which they
-previously inhabited, and terrifying and tormenting alike friend and
-foe. Neither are their terrors confined to mere occasional apparition,
-and to the fear excited by this, but to the power which they possess of
-interference by physical force; for they belabour with blows, or
-grievously affect with bodily ailments, the unhappy individuals whom
-they haunt, and often subject to inexpressible tortures those who have
-had the ill-hap to offend them. Hence the Hindoo dreads a ghost not so
-much on account of its supernatural character, abstractedly considered,
-as for the physical evil it may inflict upon him.
-
-The ghosts of the wicked, and of the unmarried (as it is thought in some
-provinces), are alone permitted to wander on earth, and they have a
-partiality, like our own ghosts, for frequenting solitary places, woods,
-caverns, and ruins, from which they issue to exercise their baleful
-powers on man.
-
-Sometimes a ghost will haunt a certain house, or a plot of ground, and
-become so obstreperous, that the occupier of the house is obliged to
-desert it, and the proprietor of the land to allow it to become waste.
-But it has happened that if the spirit was that of an old proprietor, a
-deed executed in its name has appeased it, and it has no more troubled
-the place.
-
-These spirits are called, in the Deccan, _Vîrikas_, and in the more
-southerly parts of India, _Paisâchi_. It is customary to erect small
-shrines to them, formed of a pile of stones, on the top of which is a
-sheltered cavity, containing an image, or a rough, shapeless stone, to
-which offerings of cloth, rice, &c., are presented from time to time.
-This propitiatory sacrifice is, in general, found to be an efficient
-method of obtaining immunity from the malignant pranks of the ghosts;
-but if it be neglected, they will visit the unfortunate sinner with
-torments and misfortune, or, appearing to him by night, intimate the
-miseries hanging over his head, unless he quickly amends himself, and
-offers up the necessary gifts.
-
-Dr. Buchanan relates a story of the apparition of a _Paisâchi_ which
-occurred during his journey in Mysore. His cook had been taken ill, and
-died; orders had been given to secure his effects for the benefit of his
-wife and children, "but on inspection, after his death, no money could
-be found. Whether he had been plundered as soon as he became insensible,
-and that a guilty conscience occasioned fears among his companions, or
-whether the sudden manner of his death occasioned suspicions, I cannot
-say; but it was immediately believed that he would become a _Paisâchi_,
-and all my people were filled with terror. The butler imagined that the
-_Paisâchi_ appeared to him at night with a black silk handkerchief tied
-round its head, and gave him instructions to take all the effects of the
-deceased to his family; upon this, the latter, being a man of courage,
-put his shoes on the right side of the door, which he considered to be a
-sure preventive against such intruders. Next night a cattle-driver,
-lying in all the agonies of nocturnal terror, saw the appearance of a
-dog enter, and smell round the place where the man had died; when, to
-his utter dismay, the spectre gradually grew larger and larger, and at
-length, having assumed the form of the cook, vanished with a shriek. The
-poor man had not the courage to use the slippers, but lay till morning
-in a kind of stupor. After this, even the minds of the _sepoys_ were
-appalled, and when I happened to be awake I heard the sentries, by way
-of keeping up their courage, singing with a tremulous voice."
-
-There is a class of men called _Cani_, or _Shaycana_, who are supposed
-to have the power of ejecting and frightening away troublesome spirits
-by the performance of certain mystic ceremonies. It is requisite, first,
-to ascertain whether the offending ghost is that of a stranger, or if it
-belong to any deceased member of the family; for it would seem that much
-more powerful incantations are required to get rid of a family ghost,
-which seems to have the opinion that it has a right to haunt its
-relations in the flesh, than to eject the ghost of a stranger. The
-latter, according to Dr. Buchanan, may be got rid of for a fanam, or
-about ninepence sterling; the former requires expensive sacrifices and
-many prayers, therefore the fee is much larger.
-
-The Chinese have a great dread of ghosts, particularly of the ghosts of
-those who have come to an untimely end. They suspend in their houses,
-for the purpose of preventing the entrance of these spirits, and of
-defending themselves from their influence, a cruciform piece of iron, to
-which is attached pieces of perforated money, the coinage of emperors
-who have been deified, and who are conceived to exercise a protective
-power over their votaries.
-
-The superstitions of the modern Egyptians and of the Arabs are rich in
-ghosts.
-
-The term _éfreet_ is applied to the ghosts of dead persons, as well as
-to evil genii, by the Egyptians; and the following story, related by Mr.
-Lane, will illustrate the nature of this superstition as it is
-entertained by that people.
-
-"I had once a humorous cook, who was somewhat addicted to the
-intoxicating hhasheesh: soon after he had entered my service, I heard
-him, one evening, muttering and exclaiming on the stairs, as if in
-surprise at some event; and then politely saying, "But why are you
-sitting here in the draught? Do me the favour to come up into the
-kitchen, and amuse me with your conversation a little." The civil
-address not being answered, was repeated and varied several times, till
-I called out to the man, and asked him to whom he was speaking. "The
-éfreet of a Turkish soldier," he replied, "is sitting on the stairs,
-smoking his pipe, and refuses to move; he came up from the well below:
-pray step and see him." On my going to the stairs, and telling the
-servant that I could see nothing, he only remarked that it was because I
-had a clear conscience. He was told afterwards that the house had long
-been haunted; but asserted that he had not been previously informed of
-the supposed cause; which was the fact of a Turkish soldier having been
-murdered there. My cook professed to see this éfreet frequently
-after."[37]
-
-The Arabs entertain a considerable degree of fear and respect for
-ghosts.
-
-Mr. Bayle St. John states that when travelling through the Libyan
-desert, in 1847, he saw a burial-place of the Bedouin Arabs, in the
-centre of which were confusedly scattered "camel-howdahs"
-(_tachterwans_), stirrups, household utensils, small ploughs, &c.,
-which had been left there by the Arabs, when commencing a journey, under
-the care of the ghost of a defunct sheikh, who had been interred
-there.[38]
-
-Some of the aboriginal tribes of South America believe in the occasional
-apparition of the souls of the dead.
-
-Soon after the Roman Catholic mission was established at Bahia, an
-eclipse of the moon occurred; the savages, fully armed, rushed in terror
-to the mission, and when the priest inquired the cause of their alarm,
-they responded that the moon was the abode of the souls of the dead, and
-that on that night they had collected there in such numbers that they
-darkened its surface: this was a sure sign of evil.
-
-Such is a brief sketch of the ghost-belief of several nations, ancient
-and modern.
-
-This belief, in its essential characteristics, was the same in the
-remote periods of antiquity as in more recent times; and a similar
-analogy exists between the modifications of it which are now entertained
-in different and widely separated countries.
-
-The variations which it is found to possess are dependent upon those
-peculiarities of habit, religion, and social life which characterize
-each nation. This fact gives an important clue by which we may unravel
-the actual nature of the phenomena which are embodied in the belief. But
-previously to entering upon this task it is requisite to point out a
-remote consequence of mythological and legendary lore which exercises a
-highly important influence on the minds of most if not all persons at
-the present time.
-
-The numerous myths which were retained, the implicit faith reposed in
-them, and the great extent to which the practice of the occult sciences
-was carried in the Middle Ages, fostered ideas respecting the influence
-which supernatural beings exercised in the ordinary affairs of life,
-which rivalled in extent and variety those entertained before the
-Christian era; but they received perhaps a more gloomy character from
-the doctrine of the agency of devils.
-
-The prevalence of these superstitions throws a wild and weird-like
-shadow over the history of those periods, and one of the chief results
-was that the records of local and general events became pregnant with
-mysterious occurrences and supernatural interpositions; and a mass of
-legends, teeming with remnants of ancient myths, more or less modified,
-giants, demons, witches, wizards, ghosts, portents, &c., have been
-perpetuated to modern times, and have formed an inexhaustible mine to
-the novelist and romance-writer.
-
-There are few localities in England which do not possess legends or
-tradition of this nature; and the standard nursery and children's tales
-are full of supernatural personages and occurrences in which are set
-aside all the known laws of matter and force, and time and space are
-alike annihilated. Many of these tales are of great interest, for in
-them we find degenerated forms of some of the most ancient traditions
-and myths of our own and other races.
-
-The adventures of _Jack the Giant-Killer_, the most celebrated of all
-celebrated nursery heroes, are for the most part derived from the
-fabulous era of our own country, and from Scandinavian mythology; and
-the whole tale is a degraded and vitiated tradition in which the deeds
-of Corineus, a celebrated personage in the mythical history of Britain,
-and Prince Arthur; the adventures of Thor, the god of thunder, and other
-Scandinavian deities, are jumbled together in strange confusion.
-
-Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his British History[39] states that the early
-inhabitants of this island were giants. Brutus, a grandson of Ascanius,
-the companion of Æneas in his flight from Troy, and Corineus, also of
-Trojan descent, guided by a dream, discovered Britain, and delighted
-with "the pleasant situation of the place, the plenty of rivers
-abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods," they
-became desirous of fixing their habitation in so desirable a country,
-and landing, drove the giants into the fastnesses of the mountains, and
-divided the country.
-
-To Corineus was apportioned that part of the island which we call
-Cornwall, and it is recorded that he had selected this portion of the
-island for his share, because "it was a diversion to him to encounter
-the said giants, which were in greater numbers there than in all the
-other provinces that fell to the share of his companions."
-
-Corineus is described as being "an ardent man in matters of council, and
-of great courage and boldness; who in an encounter with any person, even
-of gigantic stature, would immediately overthrow him as if he were a
-child."
-
-In the same fabulous history (B. X, ch. 3) it is stated, that a giant
-who had invaded our shores, and taken refuge at the top of St. Michael's
-Mount, was attacked by King Arthur in the night and killed; the country
-being thus freed "from a most destructive and voracious monster."
-
-Some of Jack's principal adventures are derived from the ancient Eddas
-and Sagas of Scandinavia.
-
-The incident which represents Jack as having overheard a giant, upon
-whose hospitality he had intruded, muttering--
-
-    "Though you lodge with me this night,
-    You shall not see the morning light;
-    My club shall dash your brains out quite;"
-
-and in which he had evaded the catastrophe by placing a log of wood in
-the bed, he lying quietly in a corner, while the giant furiously beat
-with his club the inanimate object, thinking to dash him to pieces; and
-the delightfully cool response of Jack to the wonder-struck giant when
-he beheld him safe and sound in the morning, and inquired if he had not
-been disturbed in the night,--"No, nothing worth mentioning, I believe a
-rat struck me with his tail two or three times:"--this incident is a
-modification of an adventure which occurred to Thor on his journey to
-the land of giants, and it is found in some form or other in the
-folk-lore of every nation in the north of Europe.
-
-Thor, while journeying to the land of giants, met with one of that race
-named Skrymir. They formed a companionship, and the whole of the
-provisions were placed in the giant's wallet. At night, when they
-stopped to rest, Skrymir at once lay down and fell asleep, previously
-handing the wallet to Thor in order that he might refresh himself. Thor
-was unable to open it, and wroth with the giant for his apparent
-insensibility and the mode in which he had tied the knots, he seized his
-mighty hammer and flung it at the giant's head. Skrymir awaking, asked
-whether a leaf had fallen on his head, and then he fell asleep again.
-Thor again struck him with his hammer, and it apparently sank deep into
-his skull; and the giant again awoke, and asked, "Did an acorn fall on
-my head? How fares it with thee, Thor?" Thor, incensed beyond measure,
-waited until the giant again slept, and then exerting all his power,
-dashed his hammer at the head of the sleeping monster, into which it
-sank up to the handle. Skrymir, rising up, rubbed his cheek and said,
-"Are there any birds perched on this tree? Methought, when I awoke, some
-moss from the branches fell on my head."
-
-Skrymir, distrusting Thor, had before he slept interposed a huge rock
-betwixt himself and the god, and upon this Thor had unwittingly
-exercised his strength.
-
-The adventure in which Jack is represented as outwitting a giant in
-eating, by placing his food in a large leathern receptacle beneath his
-vesture, and then ripping it up, and defying the giant to do the same,
-whereupon the giant seizes a knife, plunges it into his breast and
-kills himself, is contained also in stories which are prevalent among
-the Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Servians, and Persians.
-
-The Swedish version is as follows:--"In the evening, when the giant and
-his boy were about to sup, the crone placed a large dish of porridge
-before them. "That would be excellent," said the boy, "if we were to try
-which could eat the most, father or I." The giant was ready for the
-trial, and they began to eat with all their might. But the boy was
-crafty: he had tied his wallet before his chest, and for every spoonful
-that entered his mouth, he let two fall into the wallet. When the giant
-had despatched seven bowls of porridge, he had taken his fill, and sat
-puffing and blowing, and unable to swallow another spoonful; but the boy
-continued with just as much good-will as when he began. The giant asked
-him how it was, that he who was so little could eat so much. "Father, I
-will soon show you: when I have eaten as much as I can contain, I slit
-up my stomach, and then I can take in as much again." Saying these
-words, he took a knife and ripped up the wallet, so that the porridge
-ran out. The giant thought this a capital plan, and that he would do the
-like. But when he stuck the knife in his stomach, the blood began to
-flow, and the end of the matter was that it proved his death."[40]
-
-The sword of sharpness, and the cloak which rendered the wearer
-invisible, and by the aid of which Jack won so many important victories,
-are two of the principal supernatural elements in the _Nibelungenlied_.
-In this ancient legend, which contains the same tragical story as the
-still more ancient Scandinavian poem, the _Völundar-Kvida_, the sword
-"Balmurg" is described:--
-
-                    "a broad and mighty blade,
-    With such keen-cutting edges, that straight its way it made,
-    Where'er it smote on helmet:"
-
-and the cloud-cloak which Siegfried took from the dwarf Albric, is
-pourtrayed as--
-
-    "A vesture that hight cloud-cloak, marvellous to tell,
-    Whoever has it on him, may keep him safe and well
-    From cuts and stabs of foemen; him none can hear or see,
-    As soon as he is in it, but see and hear can he
-    Whate'er he will around him, and thus must needs prevail;
-    He grows besides far stronger; so goes the wondrous tale."[41]
-
-The story of _Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper_, is of great antiquity,
-and versions of it are found in many countries.
-
-Ælian, who lived about A.D. 225, relates that, as Rhodope, a celebrated
-Greek courtezan, who had been carried into Egypt, was bathing one day,
-an eagle carried off one of her slippers, and as it flew over Memphis,
-where king Psammetichus was at that time sitting in tribunal, it let
-fall the sandal into his bosom. Astonished at the occurrence, and at the
-smallness of the sandal, he caused inquiries to be made for its owner,
-whom, when he had discovered, he married.
-
-Old versions of this story are found in Norway, Germany, Sweden,
-Denmark, France, Italy, Wallachia, Servia, Russia, Poland, and
-Wales.[42]
-
-In _Jack and the Bean-stalk_, the bean is evidently a version of the ash
-Ygdrasil of the Edda, reaching from hell to heaven; and the golden hen,
-harp, &c., are familiar features in northern stories.
-
-_Puss in Boots_, the _Seven-league Boots_, &c., have their prototypes in
-Scandinavian folk-lore; and the two last-mentioned tales, as well as
-others, are probably of considerable antiquity.
-
-Tales derived from these sources and composed of such elements, and
-fables in which beasts, birds, and fishes are represented as speaking
-and reasoning in a manner that puts man to the blush, are among the
-earliest things engrafted in the infant mind; and ever now
-
-                  "By night
-    The village-matron round the blazing hearth,
-    Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,
-    Breathing astonishment--of witching rhymes,
-    Of evil spirits: of the death-bed call
-    Of him who robb'd the widow, and devoured
-    The orphan's portion: of unquiet souls
-    Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt
-    Of deeds in life concealed; of shapes that walk
-    At dead of night, and clank their chains and wave
-    The torch of hell around the murderer's bed.
-    At every solemn pause the crowd recoil,
-    Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd
-    With shiv'ring sighs; till eager for the event,
-    Around the beldam all erect they hang,
-    Each trembling heart with grateful terror quell'd."
-
-Ideas of mysterious and supernatural powers, vague, undefined, and
-frightful, are thus instilled into the child, and influence it unchecked
-and uncontrolled by the Scriptural doctrines of the invisible which are
-taught to it. At first the two trains of thought derived from these
-antithetical sources go on separately and distinctly; the more frightful
-and wonderful events of legendary lore and fable having a much greater
-influence, and forming a deeper impression on the mind of the child,
-whose reasoning powers are still in abeyance to the emotions, than the
-Scriptural doctrines of the supernatural. As it advances in years these
-trains of thought insensibly blend; the more rampant absurdities of the
-supernatural framework of legendary and ghost-lore are discarded; but
-the less obvious and more insidious portions remain to a greater or
-less extent, and they are so graven in the mind, that they become part
-and parcel of it, and in whatever manner they may be subsequently
-modified in form, it is probable that they are never eradicated, but
-form a medium which gives a false and deceptive gloss to all our ideas
-upon those matters which are not immediately within the ken of reason,
-or which are more clearly attributable to other agency than the forces
-of the material word--such matters, for example, as are contained in
-Holy Writ.
-
-Hence our ideas of the supernatural are derived from two sources--from
-legendary lore and from Scripture; and this results, that although in
-after-life the more glaring errors and absurdities of the former are
-removed, those only being retained which are thought to be compatible
-with Holy Writ, yet the idea of the supernatural thus obtained, foreign
-from revelation, is retained in a vague and undefined form, and its
-origin and sources being lost sight of, it is regarded as an innate
-consciousness of the existence of supernatural beings, and prompts to
-the ready reception and belief of mysterious and not readily explicable
-phenomena being the result of supernatural agency.
-
-That proclivity to the belief in supernatural interpositions, that vague
-notion of spiritual beings, that so-called innate consciousness of the
-existence of the supernatural, which most persons possess more or less
-of, and which is totally inconsistent with the clear and perfect
-doctrine of the invisible taught in the Gospel, is, we believe, derived
-solely from the infant mind and earlier periods of youth being poisoned
-by the supernatural events and phenomena detailed in fabulous,
-legendary, and ghost-lore.[43]
-
-This substratum of superstition is the prime cause of the retention of
-those figments of degenerated and christianized mythology which are yet
-found among us, and for the persistence of the most generally received
-of these figments--_ghosts_. It is also a highly important element in
-the formation of that state of the mind which is from time to time
-manifested in singular and wide-spreading delusions respecting the
-communication of the spirit-world with man, and of which we have
-examples before us at the present time in the prevalent follies of
-"spirit-rapping" and "table-talking."
-
-The belief in ghosts does not now possess those glaring features which
-were attached to it at the commencement of the present century, hence it
-is less obtrusive; but it is very far from being extinguished, as some
-would teach, and its "etiology" is of interest, because it leads to the
-elucidation of the principal causes and sources of the fallacies to
-which the senses of man are subject, and by which he has been led in
-the remotest periods of antiquity, as well as at the present time, to
-frame those mighty trammels of superstition from which the mind in vain
-strives to disentangle itself completely.
-
-The doctrine that the spirits of the dead return to visit the scenes
-which were dear to them during the body's existence, is in itself
-awfully solemn and sublime. Man, prone to believe in supernatural
-interpositions (from causes already explained), and trusting altogether
-to the evidence of his senses, for many ages received this doctrine
-unquestioned; and aided by a fertile imagination, he clothed it with
-attributes which, although absurd in the main, yet as appealing to some
-of the deepest and warmest affections and passions of our nature, cannot
-even now be contemplated without exciting sensations of awe, if not
-fear.
-
-The thought that the spirits of those who, during life, were bound
-to us by the closest ties of affection, are ever near, scrutinizing
-our actions and thoughts, and prompting us ever and anon to that
-course which would most tend to our profit here and our joy
-hereafter[44]--shielding us, like guardian angels, from the wiles
-of those wandering spirits who, like the "Wicked One" that came
-softly up to Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and
-"whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he
-verily thought had proceeded from his own mind,"[45] seek to tempt
-us to destruction,--such a thought thrills through the soul of every
-one, and fills it with strange and undefined emotions of blended joy
-and fear.
-
-Few can free themselves altogether from the emotion of terror which is
-almost necessarily connected with scenes polluted by murder, or by other
-outbreaks of man's foulest passions. This feeling acting on the minds
-of the superstitious and ignorant, has led them to people with spectres
-all those places which have obtained notoriety from being the scene of
-some terrible ebullition of human frailty and wickedness.
-
-Thus, the glen where murder had been committed; the pond in which the
-mother had immersed her new-born infant; the hoary ruin pregnant with
-horrid legends of the past; the rocks over which the inebriated drunkard
-fell; the four cross roads where the suicide was impaled; the dwelling
-of the miser, or of him who did unjustly to the orphan; and the
-willow-banks of the still-flowing river into which the love-lorn maiden
-had cast herself,--each had its spectre, and at the midnight hour the
-ghost of the murdered bared to the moon the mementos of its foul and
-most unnatural end; the spectre of the murderer, writhing in agony,
-rattled its gibbet-chains; the suffocating sobs of the drowning infant
-were borne on the fitful breeze; hideous spectres hovered o'er the
-deserted ruin; the ghost of the miser guarded its quondam treasures; the
-cruel guardian and the suicide shrieked forth the agonies of the damned;
-and the phantom of the deceived maiden gliding on the banks of her
-watery grave, mingled its plaintive wails with each sough of the
-midnight wind.
-
-But, alas! this prolific source of terror and romance must be consigned
-to the delusions of the past; and the churchyard--erst pregnant with
-"thin-sheeted phantoms"--is now also shorn of its gloomy horrors, and
-regarded alone as the last quiet resting-place of man on earth.
-
-Even when glimpses of the spirit-world are vouchsafed to those who still
-firmly believe in occasional visitations from its inhabitants, it would
-seem that the fashion of their appearance has become more in accordance
-with the quiet well-regulated ideas of the age. The major part of those
-terrible attributes of the nether world, that of old were delighted in,
-are no longer exhibited, and they are numbered with the things that have
-been. The form which appertained to Satan himself--the cloven foot, the
-forked tail, the hirsute frame, and the horned head--must also vanish
-before the march of civilisation; hence Mephistopheles, in the "Faust"
-of Goëthe, is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Refinement too, which smoothens all
-      O'er which it in the world has pass'd,
-    Has been extended in its call,
-      And reached the devil, too, at last.
-    That northern phantom found no more can be,
-    Horns, tail, and claws, we now no longer see,
-      As for the foot--I cannot spare it,
-      But were I openly to wear it,
-      It might do greater harm than good
-      To me among the multitude.
-    And so like many a youth beside,
-      Who bravely to the eye appears,
-    Yet something still contrives to hide,
-      I've worn false calves for many years!"
-
-The phenomena upon which the belief of the occasional manifestation of
-disembodied spirits to man is founded, may be accounted for without
-having recourse to the doctrine of supernatural interposition.
-
-Our senses and our reasoning powers are apt to err. We may deceive
-ourselves, and are liable to be deceived by an erroneous appreciation of
-the sensations which we receive from the objects surrounding
-us--_illusions_--but of the nature of which we may readily convince
-ourselves.
-
-Illusions of the _sight_ may arise either from an error of judgment, or
-from a disordered state of the eye.
-
-Of those illusions arising from an error of judgment, perhaps none bear
-directly upon our subject. Examples of this kind of illusion are the
-broken appearance of a stick partially immersed in water; the apparent
-movement of trees, houses, &c., past a train in motion, or the banks of
-a river past a steamboat.
-
-Illusions arising from a disordered condition of the eye, prompting the
-imagination, are a prolific source of ghost-seeing.
-
-In the obscurity of the evening, or during the darkness of the night
-(particularly on those nights which are cloudy, and the darkness seems
-to rest on the ground), the difficulty with which we distinguish any
-object to which the attention is directed, is liable to induce a
-disordered state of the eye, the effects of which are very startling.
-
-"The imperfect view which we obtain of such objects forces us to fix the
-eye more steadily upon them; but the more exertion we make to ascertain
-what they are, the greater difficulties do we encounter to accomplish
-our object. The eye is actually thrown into a state of the most painful
-agitation, the object will swell and contract, and partly disappear, and
-it will again become visible when the eye has recovered from the
-delirium into which it has been thrown."[46]
-
-This illusion is increased by a disturbed condition of the pupil of the
-eye.
-
-The pupil is surrounded by a muscle called the _iris_, by the
-contraction and dilatation of which the size of the opening is increased
-or diminished, and a greater or less amount of light admitted to the
-eye. On a dark night, or during the twilight, the pupil is dilated to
-its utmost extent, so that every available ray of light may enter. In
-this condition the eye is not able to accommodate itself to near
-objects, and they become more indistinct; shadowy, and confused.
-
-Under these circumstances, an object to which the attention is strongly
-attracted, may appear to assume strange variations in form,--now
-increasing, now diminishing in size, now approaching nearer, now going
-further off, or anon disappearing altogether; and a bush, a guide-post,
-a stoop, &c., will seem as though it assumed the most startling changes
-in size and appearance. Add the effects of the imagination, and we shall
-at once perceive a source of the various goblins, boggards, and other
-strange sights which have been supposed to haunt many of our byeways and
-deserted places.
-
-To illustrate this form of illusion: a man with whom we were acquainted
-tells the following tale:--When young, he, one evening, had a quarrel
-with his mother about some trifling affair, and in defiance of her grief
-and supplications he left home late at night, intending to enter the
-army. It was very dark and stormy, and as he proceeded along a bye-path,
-suddenly a tall object arrested his attention; startled, he stood still,
-when, to his utter horror and astonishment, the object increased in
-size, and seemed as though about to pounce upon him; it then vanished,
-and anon appeared again. Terrified beyond measure, and conceiving that
-Satan had waylaid him for forsaking his mother, the poor man fell on
-his knees, and exclaimed: "O good Lord Devil, do not take me, and I'll
-go back to my mother, and be a good lad!" It is unnecessary to dwell
-upon the goggle eyes burning with flames which he imagined Satan to
-possess; suffice it that he remained before the supposed devil some
-time, overcome with terror, when a blink of the rising moon showed that
-he was laid at the foot of the stump of a tree. Heartily ashamed of his
-fear, he rose up, slunk back home, and made peace with his mother.[47]
-
-This will suffice as an example of the most degraded form of ghost-life
-with which our highways and byeways have been peopled by the
-superstitious and illiterate,--illusions which have arisen from the
-effects of a disturbed condition of the visual organ on an excited
-imagination. Burns humorously describes this variety of ghost in his
-"Address to the Deil:"
-
-    "Ae dreary, windy, winter night,
-    The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light,
-    Wi' you, mysel, I gat a fright,
-              Ayont the lough:
-    Ye like a rash-bush stood in sight
-              Wi' waving sugh.
-
-    "The cudgel in my nieve did shake,
-    Each bristled hair stood like a stake,
-    When wi' an eldricht stour, quaick--quaick--
-              Amang the springs,
-    Awa ye squatter'd like a drake,
-              On whistling wings."
-
-Another form of illusion is induced by objects seen indistinctly when
-the mind is disturbed and pre-occupied by some powerful and painful
-emotion.
-
-"A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening twilight of a
-stormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching over a dying child.
-The clouds were thick, the rain beginning to fall; darkness was
-increasing; the wind was moaning mournfully through the trees. The
-lady's heart almost failed her as she saw that she had a mile to walk
-through the woods in the gathering gloom. But the reflection of the
-situation of her friend forbade her turning back. Excited and trembling,
-she called to her aid a nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She had
-not proceeded far, when she beheld in the path before her the movement
-of some very indistinct object. It appeared to keep a little distance in
-advance of her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see what it
-was, it seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather
-unpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly discernable
-before her, and it appeared mysteriously to float along at a regular
-distance without any effort at motion. Notwithstanding the lady's good
-sense and unusual resolution, a cold chill began to come over her; she
-made every effort to resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing
-nearer the mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the
-features of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in its shroud. She
-gazed earnestly, and then it remained distinct and clear before her
-eyes. She considered it a monition that her friend's child was dead, and
-that she must hasten on to her aid; but there was the apparition
-directly in her path; she must pass it. Taking up a little stick, she
-forced herself along to the object, and behold, some little animal
-scampered away. It was this that her excited imagination had transformed
-into the corpse of an infant in its winding-sheet."[48]
-
-Sir Walter Scott relates an interesting case of illusion occasioned by
-an accidental arrangement of some articles of clothing:--
-
-"Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had filled,
-while living, a great station in the eye of the public, a literary
-friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged, during
-the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of the
-publications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of the
-distinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had enjoyed
-the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he was deeply
-interested in the publication, which contained some particulars relating
-to himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the apartment who
-was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into an
-entrance-hall rather fantastically fitted up with articles of armour,
-skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his book,
-and passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning to
-shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw, right before him, and in
-a standing position, the exact representation of his departed friend,
-whose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He
-stopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with
-which fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of
-dress and posture of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the
-delusion, he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary
-accuracy of the resemblance, and stepped onwards towards the figure,
-which resolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of
-which it was composed. These were merely a screen, occupied by
-great-coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles as usually are
-found in a country entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot
-from which he had seen the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his
-power, to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this
-was beyond his capacity; and the person who had witnessed the
-apparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the means of
-raising it, had only to return, and tell the young friend he had left,
-under what a striking hallucination he had for a moment laboured."[49]
-
-The liability to illusion or hallucination in that transitional state of
-the mind when it reverts to surrounding objects, after it has been
-pre-occupied with some absorbing and intense thought, is very strikingly
-shown in the above case. It is very similar to that condition of the
-mind which obtains between sleeping and waking, when it is well known
-that our dreams are most vivid and brilliant.
-
-Dr. Ferriar relates the following interesting case of illusion
-occasioned by a ray of moonlight acting upon the mind of an individual
-just awaking from a horrid dream.
-
-"A gentleman was benighted while travelling alone in a remote part of
-the highlands of Scotland, and was compelled to ask shelter for the
-night at a small lonely hut. When he was conducted to his bedroom, the
-landlady observed with mysterious reluctance, that he would find the
-window very insecure. On examination, part of the wall appeared to have
-been broken down to enlarge the opening. After some inquiry, he was
-told, that a pedlar, who had lodged in the room a short time before, had
-committed suicide, and was found hanging behind the door in the morning.
-
-"According to one of the superstitions of the country, it was deemed
-improper to remove the body through the door of the house; and to convey
-it through the window was impossible without removing part of the wall.
-Some hints were dropped that the room had been subsequently haunted by
-the poor man's spirit.
-
-"My friend laid his arms, properly prepared against intrusion of any
-kind, by the bedside, and retired to rest, not without some degree of
-apprehension. He was visited in a dream by a frightful apparition, and
-awaking in agony, found himself sitting up in bed with a pistol grasped
-in his right hand. On casting a fearful glance round the room, he
-discovered, by the moonlight, a corpse dressed in a shroud, leaned
-against the wall close by the window. With much difficulty he summoned
-up resolution to approach the dismal object, the features of which, and
-the minutest parts of the funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly. He
-passed one hand over it, felt nothing, and staggered back to the bed.
-After a long interval, and much reasoning with himself, he renewed his
-investigation, and at length discovered that the object of his terrors
-was produced by the moonbeams forming a long bright image through the
-broken window, on which his fancy, impressed by his dream, had produced
-with mischievous accuracy, the lineaments of a body prepared for
-interment."
-
-There are some illusions which arise from certain of the laws of action
-of impressions on the _retina_--that tissue of the eye in which the
-changes necessary to the excitation of the sensation of light by
-luminous rays are induced.
-
-A sensation excited in the retina is not momentary, or during the
-continuance of the exciting cause alone, but it persists some seconds
-after that has been withdrawn. Thus if the end of a burning stick be
-rapidly moved in a circle before the eyes, it gives rise to the
-sensation of an uninterrupted circle of light; the sensation excited on
-each part of the retina enduring for a certain period after the luminous
-point has passed.
-
-The following instance is an example of an illusion, having relation to
-our subject, from this cause.
-
-A gentleman had been earnestly regarding a small and very beautiful
-painting of the Virgin and Child. On turning round from the
-contemplation of it, he was surprised at finding a woman of the full
-size, with an infant in her arms, standing before him. On examining the
-figures more closely he, however, found that the woman wanted the lower
-fourth of the body, and this at once led to a correct appreciation of
-the nature of the phantom. The painting he had been viewing was a
-three-parts length, and it was the persistence of the image upon the
-retina for a short period after he had turned from it, which had given
-rise to the phantom.
-
-A species of divination is made use of in India which has its origin in
-an illusion of this nature, and of which the following is an interesting
-example:--
-
-A lady who was about to undertake a long journey, was persuaded by a
-Moonshee to walk on the verandah and consult her fate.
-
-"It was a clear calm night, the moon was full, and not the faintest
-speck in the sky disturbed her reign. The Ganges was like a flood of
-silver light, hastening on in charmed silence; while on the green smooth
-sward on which they walked a tall shrub here and there stood erect and
-motionless. The young lady, whose impressions were probably deepened by
-the mystical words of the Moonshee, felt a kind of awe stealing over
-her; she looked round upon the accustomed scene as if in some new and
-strange world; and when the old man motioned her to stop, as they
-reached an open space on the sward, she obeyed with an indescribable
-thrill.
-
-"'Look there,' said he, pointing to her shadow, which fell tall and dark
-upon the grass. 'Do you see it?'
-
-"'Yes,' said she faintly, yet beginning to be ashamed. 'How sharply
-defined are its edges! It looks like something you could touch!'
-
-"'But look longer, look better, look steadfastly. Is it still definite?'
-
-"'A kind of halo begins to gather round it: my eyes dazzle.'
-
-"'Then raise them to the heavens; fix them on yonder blue sky. What do
-you see?'
-
-"'I see it still; but it is as white as mist, and of a gigantic size.'
-
-"'Has it a head?' asked the Moonshee in an anxious whisper.
-
-"'Yes, it is complete in all its parts; but now it
-melts--floats--disappears.'
-
-"'Thank God!' said the old man: 'your journey shall be prosperous, such
-is the will of Heaven.'"[50]
-
-When a steady gaze is maintained upon an object until the retina is
-exhausted, which is shown by the imperfect vision, or "dazzling," and
-the eyes are then suddenly directed away from it to an uniformly
-coloured surface, an image of the object, from the persistence of the
-impression, as already stated, will still remain for a short period upon
-the retina; but another phenomenon is also observed, for the exhausted
-condition of the retina renders it incapable of responding, during its
-continuation, to the impression of the original colour of the object,
-and the spectrum appears of a different colour. To this spectral colour
-the term _complementary_ or _accidental_ is applied; and if the colour
-of the object be red, the complementary colour will be green; if yellow,
-deep purple; if black, white, &c., and _vice versâ_. Thus then the
-spectral apparition witnessed in the above relation receives a ready
-and intelligible explanation.
-
-The sense of _hearing_ is also subject to illusions: for example, when a
-timid person mistakes the rustling of leaves in a forest for the voices
-of robbers; or the soughing of the wind among the trees, in some place
-of evil repute, for the moaning of a wandering and unhappy spirit.
-
-The varied and undefined noises often produced by the wind when sweeping
-over an irregular surface, among rocks and trees, on the surface of
-water, in forests, or secluded and deep glens; and the mysterious sounds
-occasioned by the rushing of the water in the hollows and caverns of a
-rock-bound coast, have been fertile sources of illusion among the
-superstitious.
-
-The ancient Romans listening to the inexplicable sounds which assailed
-the ear in solitary and wooded places, fabled that they were the voices
-of the wood deities, or as Lucretius beautifully expresses it:--
-
-    "The neighbouring swains believe, or fondly vaunt,
-    Satyrs and nymphs the rural regions haunt;
-    That fauns with wanton revel and delight
-    Disturb the sober silence of the night:
-    That music's blended notes are heard around,
-    The plaintive voice, and harp's according sound:
-    And well they know when Pan, the sylvan god,
-    (While o'er his brows the piny honours nod,)
-    With bending lip awakes the vocal reeds,
-    And the charmed ears of listening satyrs feeds.
-    With joy these tales they tell, or tales like these,
-    And fill the woods with fabled deities."[51]
-
-As the winds swept over the wild heaths of the north, or roared amid the
-mountain passes, bearing upon their bosom the heavy mantling clouds
-which enwreathed the ghosts of the heroes of old, often in their varied
-tones did the ancient Celt conceive that he heard the voices of the
-dead; and he who was stricken with misery deemed that his forefathers
-called upon him to hasten to the land of shadows. "The ghosts of
-fathers," they say, "call away the souls of their race while they behold
-them lonely in the midst of woe." Or when an eddy of wind sweeping into
-the hall awoke a cadence of music as it played over the strings of the
-harps suspended there, the hearers shrunk as the notes thrilled through
-them, and fearfully whispered that the ghosts of the dead touched the
-strings, and asked whose death of all the mighty the ghostly music
-portended. "The harps of the bards, untouched, sound mournful over the
-hill."[52]
-
-The supernatural framework of many legends depends upon illusions of the
-hearing of a similar character.
-
-At Crosmere, near Ellesmere, in Shropshire, there is a tradition that a
-chapel once stood on the borders of the lake, and it was long believed
-that when the waters were ruffled by the wind the sound of the bells
-might be heard beneath the surface; and an old story records that, long
-ago, a church and village were entombed by an earthquake, near the spot
-where Raleigh, in Nottinghamshire, now stands; and that at Christmas,
-even now, the bells may be heard solemnly tolling deep in the bosom of
-the earth.
-
-Among the Cornish miners a very singular superstition prevails, which is
-due to the sounds occurring in old and deserted workings, from the
-dropping of water and other causes. These noises are supposed to be
-produced by certain spirits, which are termed "_Knockers_," and,
-according to the author of "Yeast; a Problem," the miners hold that
-"they are _the ghosts of the old Jews that crucified our Lord, and were
-sent for slaves by the Roman Emperors to work the mines_; and we find
-their old smelting-houses, which we call _Jews' houses_, and their
-blocks, at the bottom of the great bogs, which we call _Jews' tin_; and
-there is a town among us, too, which we call _Market Jew_, but the old
-name was _Marazion_, that means the Bitterness of Zion, they tell me;
-and bitter work it was for them, no doubt, poor souls! We used to break
-into the old shafts and adits which they had made, and find old
-stags'-horn pickaxes that crumbled to pieces when we brought them to
-grass. And they say that, if a man will listen of a still night about
-those old shafts, he may hear the ghosts of them at working, knocking,
-and picking, as clear as if there was a man at work in the next
-level."[53]
-
-But the most common cause of illusion from sound arises from the
-difficulty which all more or less experience, of tracing the direction
-of a sound, particularly if it be indistinct. The ascertainment of the
-direction of a sound, and the distance of the sonorous body, is an act
-of judgment, and it is the result of experience. The power may be
-cultivated to a great extent, and many savage tribes possess it in a
-very high degree; but among civilized nations, where the sounds
-requisite to be attended to are principally of a point-blank character,
-and where the necessity for the cultivation of that nicety of hearing
-which is required in forest life does not exist, the power of
-distinguishing the direction and distance of sounds is very imperfect.
-
-The intensity of the sound, and the position of the ears, contribute to
-the formation of a correct judgment; but if the two ears have precisely
-the same relation to the point from which the sound issues, as when it
-occurs directly before or behind, it is impossible to distinguish by
-the sensation alone whether the sound arises in the front or the rear.
-
-The most familiar and striking illustration of the difficulty
-experienced in determining the direction of sound, is _ventriloquism_.
-By a cultivation of the power of speaking without the aid of the lips,
-and by keeping the muscles of the face in a state of passiveness, the
-ventriloquist, on giving the mind of the listener a certain leading
-idea, will induce him to think that he hears voices issuing from the
-floor, from the ceiling, from within him, or from any position but the
-correct one; and by a modification of the intensity of the sound, it may
-be made to appear as if it arose at different distances, as when voices
-are heard in the distance, which gradually approach the listener, come
-close to him, pass by, and are again lost in the distance. Although
-perfectly aware of the deception, there are few who can correct the
-impressions received, and trace them to their legitimate source.
-
-This uncertainty of distinguishing the direction and the nature of
-sounds has been a prolific source of belief in supernatural occurrences,
-and the majority, if not all, of those mysterious noises which are so
-common in old houses, and which it was customary, from inability to
-discover their origin, to attribute to spiritual agency, have been due
-to this cause. The yielding of wood-work, the scouring of vermin, the
-sighing of the wind in chinks and crannies, have been transformed by
-excited and superstitious imaginations into the sighing, or whispering,
-or knocking of wandering ghosts, and there is, perhaps, not a town or
-village in England which has not at one time or other had one or more
-houses reputed to be haunted by incorporeal visitants who have thus
-announced their presence.
-
-Sir David Brewster relates an interesting example of illusion arising
-from this source. "A gentleman devoid of all superstitious feelings, and
-living in a house free from any gloomy associations, heard, night after
-night, in his bedroom, a singular noise, unlike any ordinary sound to
-which he was accustomed. He had slept in the same room for years without
-hearing it, and he attributed it at first to some change of
-circumstances in the roof or in the walls of the room; but after the
-strictest examination no cause could be found for it. It occurred only
-once in the night; it was heard almost every night with few
-interruptions. It was over in an instant, and it never took place till
-after the gentleman had gone to bed. It was always distinctly heard by
-his companion, to whose time of going to bed it had no relation. It
-depended on the gentleman alone, and it followed him into another
-apartment with another bed, on the opposite side of the house.
-Accustomed to such investigations, he made the most diligent but
-fruitless search into its cause. The consideration that the sound had a
-special reference to him alone, operated upon his imagination, and he
-did not scruple to acknowledge that the recurrence of the mysterious
-sound induced a superstitious feeling at the moment. Many months
-afterwards it was found that the sound arose from the partial opening of
-the door of a wardrobe which was within a few feet of the gentleman's
-head, and which had been taken into the other apartment. This wardrobe
-was almost always opened before he retired to bed, and the door being a
-little too tight, it gradually forced itself open with a sort of dull
-sound, resembling the note of a drum. As the door had only started half
-an inch out of its place, its change of position never attracted
-attention. The sound, indeed, seemed to come in a different direction,
-and from a greater distance.
-
-"When sounds so mysterious in their origin are heard by persons
-predisposed to a belief in the marvellous, their influence over the mind
-must be very powerful. An inquiry into their origin, if made at all,
-will be made more in the hope of confirming than of removing the
-original impression, and the unfortunate victim of his own fears will
-also be the willing dupe of his own judgment."[54]
-
-Not unfrequently the difficulty of distinguishing the direction of sound
-has been made the basis of imposition upon the credulous; and when it is
-considered how readily the judgment is led into error in this respect,
-even when aware of the deception practised, as in ventriloquism, the
-easy facility with which it is imposed upon when superstitious feelings
-are excited, and the wide-spread delusions which have thus arisen,
-cannot be wondered at.
-
-The Cock-lane ghost is a familiar example of a deception of this
-nature: but this, and every other delusion of a similar character,
-sink into insignificance before a delusion of our own day and
-times--_Spirit-rapping_.
-
-The idea of a communication of the spiritual world with man by the
-intervention of _raps_, is not new. A writer in a recent number of
-"Notes and Queries,"[55] gives the following example of an early
-instance of this kind in England.
-
-"Rushton Hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire, was long the
-residence of the ancient and distinguished family of Treshams. In the
-reign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion was occupied by Sir Thomas
-Tresham, who was a pedant and a fanatic; but who was an important
-character in his time by reason of his great wealth and powerful
-connections. There is a lodge at Rushton, situate about half-a-mile from
-the old hall, now in ruins, but covered all over within and without with
-emblems of the Trinity. This lodge is known to have been built by Sir
-Thomas Tresham; but his precise motive for selecting this mode of
-illustrating his favourite doctrine was unknown until it appeared from a
-letter written by himself about the year 1584, and discovered in a
-bundle of books and papers inclosed since 1605, in a wall of the old
-mansion, and brought to light about twenty years ago. The following
-relation of a "rapping" or "knocking" is extracted from this letter:--
-
-"If it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity and Passion of
-Christ to depaint in this chamber, this is the principal instance
-thereof; that at my last being hither committed"--(referring to his
-commitments for recusancy, which had been frequent)--"and I usually
-having my servants here allowed me, to read nightly an hour to me after
-supper, it fortuned that Fulcis, my then servant, reading in the
-"Christian Resolution," in the treatise of "Proof that there is a God,
-&c.," there was upon a wainscot table at that instant three loud knocks
-(as if it had been with an iron hammer) given; to the great amazing of
-me and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton."
-
-Another example of early "spirit-rapping" is the celebrated ghost of
-"_Old Jeffreys_," at the Epworth Parsonage, during the childhood of the
-Revds. John and Charles Wesley.
-
-The conception of a familiar correspondence between the spirit-world and
-man by means of knocks and raps is, however, an idea of modern times,
-and for which we are indebted to America, although it would seem that in
-1835 we were on the eve of making this unenviable discovery in our own
-country, for the invisible cause of certain noisy disturbances in a
-house occupied by a Captain Molesworth at Trinity, near Edinburgh, in
-that year, would, it is asserted, respond to a question by knocks, if it
-could be answered numerically; as, for example, "How many people are
-there in the room?" when it would answer by as many knocks. This
-so-called spirit seemed at times to be drumming a certain tune. The
-knocks in this case had some very intimate connection with a sick girl,
-a daughter of Captain Molesworth; for they accompanied her, and
-wherever she was there they prevailed most.
-
-In 1846, or 1847, a house in the village of Hydesville, State of New
-York, America, was reported to be haunted by certain noises, as
-knockings on the doors, panels, floors, ceilings, &c., of which the
-source could not be ascertained; and chairs and tables were occasionally
-displaced, and crockery broken by some invisible power. When the noises
-and disturbances first commenced, it is stated that the house was
-occupied by a man named Weekman; but subsequently it passed into the
-possession of a person called Fox, who had two daughters, Catherine and
-Margaretta, and during their residence in it, not only did the knockings
-and irregular motions of the furniture persist, but they increased in
-intensity, variety, and frequency of occurrence, and it was ascertained
-by the young women that the knocks would mimic sounds which they made,
-and even respond to questions put orally. A code of signals in the
-affirmative and negative was next arranged, and by going over the
-letters of the alphabet, and the affirmative signal duly occurring at
-certain letters, which were recorded, a system of correspondence was
-established with the invisible, but apparently intelligent, source of
-the disturbances. By this method it was ascertained that the cause of
-the noises, and other indications of invisible power, professed to be
-the spirit of a man named Charles Ryan, who, while in the flesh, had
-resided in that house; had been foully murdered there; the corpse
-interred in a certain part of the cellar; and had left a family of five
-children, all of whom were then alive. These revelations caused, as may
-well be imagined, a great sensation in the village, and, notwithstanding
-that no such person as Charles Ryan had ever lived there, or in that
-house, and that on searching the cellar carefully no remains of a corpse
-were found, the imposition and delusion was persisted in. It is scarcely
-necessary to add that as yet no one has come forward to claim kindred
-with the first of the disembodied spirits that held communication with
-man.
-
-Several committees were appointed to investigate the matter, but they
-failed to ascertain the cause of the sounds, and by common consent, no
-natural cause being evident, it was assumed, _therefore_, that the cause
-was supernatural.
-
-Subsequently, the Fox family removed to Rochester, and singular to say,
-the spirit-sounds followed them. Noises began also to be heard in other
-houses and towns, and it was soon found that many females, equally with
-the Misses Fox, possessed the power of communicating familiarly through
-the medium of sounds, with the spirit-world. In an almost incredibly
-brief space of time, this delusion swept over the United States, and
-multitudes from all ranks and conditions of society gave in their
-accession to the system of belief into which it was quickly moulded.
-
-Certain persons only were found to possess the power of summoning the
-spiritual knocks at pleasure; these were principally females, and they
-were termed "_mediums_." The belief itself was spoken of under the
-simple term of "_Spirit-rapping_," and its advocates and believers as
-"_Rappers_," or "_Rappites_."
-
-Each "medium," somehow or other, managed to interweave his or her own
-views with the spirit-revelations, and the spirits themselves did not
-hesitate in simple set phrase to give the lie to one another;
-consequently, the revelations and doctrines inculcated are somewhat
-varied and inconsistent. The most generally received doctrine at the
-present time may, however, be summed up as follows:--The "knocks,"
-"raps," and other manifestations of invisible power, are caused by the
-spirits of the dead, who, by direct permission of the Almighty
-(according to the more religious), or by self-discovery on the part of
-the spirits (according to a statement made by the spirit of Benjamin
-Franklin), are enabled to communicate with their fellow-men by various
-sounds and exhibitions of physical power. This correspondence was
-permitted by God in consequence of the great advance which the Americans
-in particular, and mankind in general, had made towards perfection; and
-it is intimated that if the present rate of progression towards
-perfection continue, we shall soon be able to have intercourse by voice
-and sight with the spirit-world. As it is, certain persons possess these
-privileges in full, and the mass of Christians, _if believers_, have so
-grown in goodness that the religion of the present day--Biblical
-religion--is no longer needed, and Christianity is to be regarded as a
-state of probation that _was_ requisite to attain the perfection now
-arrived at; but this transition state being passed, from the elevation
-of the spirit-world we can see that many of its doctrines form now a
-mighty and dangerous slough, in which we are in danger of being
-smothered.
-
-The ideas entertained by mankind respecting spiritual existences are
-singularly incorrect; notwithstanding this, however, most of the
-spirits, as when in the body, entertain some peculiarity of doctrine,
-which shows that even in the "spheres" opinions are divided on this
-point. The most general opinion states that the spirit-world surrounds
-the earth, and is divided into seven spheres, which are subdivided into
-seven other spheres, and these again admit of still further
-division,--a geography evidently derived from Mahomedanism, and the old
-monkish legends of the septate division of hell, purgatory, and
-paradise. In the first of the spheres the lowest orders of spirits
-reside. These form the most degraded class of spirit-life, and are
-unhappy compared with those in the higher spheres; but the lowest degree
-of their unhappiness exceeds the highest degree of man's pleasures. Into
-this sphere pass all those who have had an unsatisfactory character on
-earth; while those who have been more correct in their conduct pass
-immediately into the sphere which approximates to their degree of
-goodness. The residence of any spirit in the lower spheres is not
-constant; for, exposed to heavenly influences, it goes on gradually
-improving, and as it sublimes, it ascends through the higher spheres,
-until at last the seventh sphere is attained, where it is fulfilled with
-bliss, and enters the presence of God. Hence we find St. Paul and Tom
-Paine, Calvin and Napoleon, Wesley and Shelley, united in friendly
-brotherhood. There is no hell, such as is taught in the Scriptures, and
-no eternal punishment, and man carries into the spirit-world his
-passions and propensities, and relative degrees of ignorance and
-knowledge. The spirit of Calvin stated that the spirits understood all
-languages intuitively; but this has been refuted by an immense majority
-of spirits, and it is certain that they know no other languages than
-those they were acquainted with on earth. Indeed, it is requisite to
-have rudimental education in our own language in heaven. "I have no
-friends to teach me how to spell," said a spirit named Jack Waters.
-Another, named Frank Copland, was unable to make any satisfactory
-communication, from being "an illiterate youth" when he died; and the
-"medium" to whom this communication was made, kindly advised the spirit
-to get the soul of a deceased sister to teach him. He did so, and in
-three months it was ascertained that he had made very creditable
-progress in spelling, &c. The amusements of the "spirits" consist of
-music, concerts, dancing, card-playing, &c., and they live in a species
-of concubinage. They dress according to fancy, but the male spirits
-generally wear trousers, hats or turbans, and beards. They have also
-condescended to teach certain celestial architectural vagaries. They
-_lie_ like mortals, and coolly admit it; and it is occasionally
-necessary to put the spirits on oath! They are very liable to error, and
-the spirit of General Washington, equally careless of grammar and
-orthography, revealed, that they "many times make mistakes, and so we
-are called liars; but this is owing to our neglect of the records that
-are given us, and also to evel spirits; but we will try to be more
-careful or correct after we have becom more use to writing for our
-friends." The spirits speak with the utmost contempt and abhorrence of
-the religious beliefs of the present day, and regard the Bible as unfit
-for general perusal, from the errors (due to the translators) which it
-contains; and this assertion is fittingly crowned by the statement that
-it emanates under a special communication from St. Paul himself.
-
-Notwithstanding the painful absurdity and frightful blasphemy of these
-doctrines (which satisfactorily show the class of persons by whom the
-delusion is fostered, and the flagrant character of the imposition),
-clergymen, judges, and persons distinguished in literature have
-permitted themselves to be led away by the delusion, each establishing
-some conscientious clause or giving a peculiar phase to the belief, in
-order to exculpate themselves from the charge of contributing to some of
-the more outrageous dogmas of this strange delusion.
-
-The phenomena which led to the delusion were sounds of various kinds and
-intensity, which were called up by the "medium" at will, apparently in
-various parts of the room in which the "_séances_" were held, but
-principally beneath the table at which she sat; and the movement of
-certain articles of furniture. The intelligent correspondence with the
-"raps" (for the furniture-moving was merely indicative of the _power_ of
-the suppositious spirits) was by questions uttered audibly, mentally, or
-in writing, to which replies were given by repeated raps--an
-affirmative; or by silence--a negative; or the words of the response
-were spelled out by running over the alphabet--the affirmative knocks
-taking place when the finger or pencil rested on the letters required to
-form the sentence. Some more highly-gifted mediums, pervaded by a
-spiritual afflatus, were enabled to write the answers; and others
-shadowed them forth in dancing.
-
-If we reflect for a moment upon the difficulty which most persons
-experience in detecting the direction and position of sounds,
-particularly when the mind is under the dominion of certain ideas, we
-may readily imagine how at the first the delusion of spirit-rapping
-obtained credence among the credulous and ignorant. It was, however,
-soon ascertained that an imposition was being practised; and very
-shortly after the development of the mania, a "medium" came forward and
-confessed the deception practised, and the mode in which she had carried
-it out. This "medium," named Mrs. Norman Culvers, had been taught the
-mode of deception by Margaretta Fox, one of the original "mediums;" and
-she stated that the raps were produced by the toes, the listener's mind
-being distracted by directing the attention, by a fixed gaze or
-otherwise, to certain parts of the room, from which he was instructed
-that the sounds came. By the confession of other "mediums," and by
-observation, it was ascertained that, in addition to the rapping by the
-toes, raps were produced by a lateral movement of the knee-joint, and
-the joints of the thumb and fingers (the "cracking" of the joints, a
-familiar phenomenon); by the action of the feet against the leg of the
-table, or by the movement of the soles of the shoes one against another;
-and lastly, by a hammer ingeniously fixed in the woodwork of the table.
-It was further shown to demonstration, that in no case when the
-"mediums" were placed in positions where none of the before-mentioned
-methods of rapping could occur, did the raps take place; that in no case
-could the "spirits" reply correctly to a single question, when the
-querist, by an impassibility of countenance and scrupulous care over his
-actions, did not betray his thoughts, or indicate the letters
-constituting the words he required; and that the "spirits" might be led
-to answer the most absurd and incorrect questions, utterly unconscious
-of imposition or error.
-
-Notwithstanding this exposure, the delusion is persisted in; and it is
-principally maintained by the occasional correct replies which are given
-by the medium to questions of which none present could be acquainted
-with the answer, but the querist; and many men, even of considerable
-literary attainments, have been led into the delusion by this simple
-phenomenon alone.
-
-A careful examination of the details of the spirit-communications, and
-the confessions of the mediums already alluded to, will show that in no
-case was there a correct response given to questions when precautions
-were taken to guard against the indication given by the countenance or
-by the actions to the medium, and even this was not sufficient to
-prevent a multitude of errors being fallen into.
-
-The pure spirit-communications which have been received from the
-Apostles, Franklin, Washington, &c., vary according to the mediums to
-which they have been vouchsafed, and often flatly contradict each other;
-in itself a sufficient indication of the glaring character of the
-delusion.
-
-Some, admitting the spiritual origin of the "raps" have gone a
-little further, and enunciated the opinion that the "rappings" occur
-through the influence of electricity or magnetism which the spirits
-wield; "and if," writes N. P. Willis, "disembodied spirits are still
-moving consciously among us, and have thus _found an agent at
-last--electricity--by which they can communicate with the world they
-have left_, it must soon, in the progressive nature of things, ripen
-to an intercourse between this and the spirit-world." Surely an
-electric condition that would cause sonorous "raps," and tables,
-chairs, &c., to dance jigs, and imitate ships tossed in a storm,
-would be within reach of the test of experiment. Such a test,
-however, has never been attempted; and thus it is men, even of high
-standing in literature, with the utmost coolness plunge into
-conjectures respecting the operations of forces of which they seem
-to be unacquainted even with the signification of the terms. For
-electricity and magnetism are no vague names, but terms applied to
-certain phenomena which are readily ascertained, and without the
-presence of which we are not justified in using them.
-
-We have already sufficiently shown the illusions to which the sense of
-hearing is liable, and the influence they have had in the formation of
-the belief in spirit-rapping is evident. The disposition of the mind in
-contributing towards this and allied delusions requires a brief comment.
-
-The substratum of superstition which is found to prevail more or less in
-most persons, is a never-failing source of delusion; and it is the
-groundwork upon which the impostor acts. Readily excited and brought
-into play by phenomena of which the origin is not palpably evident, it
-seizes with avidity upon doctrines which pander to its taste for mystery
-and wonder; and a suggestion, whether direct or implied, induces a
-condition of the mind that interposes an almost insuperable bar to the
-healthy action of the reason. This unconscious action of the mind, under
-the influence of leading ideas, is the prime foundation of those
-illusions of the senses of which we have illustrations in the pseudo
-sciences of "mesmerism," "electro-biology," &c., all the phenomena of
-which may be produced by simply inducing certain trains of thought.
-
-When Goëthe represented Mephistopheles as saying--
-
-    "_Whispered suggestions_ are the devil's rôle,"
-
-it was with a profound perception of the powerful influence they
-exercise in the creation of delusions.
-
-The throngs which crowd around the table of the "medium," go pregnant
-with a desire to see a mystery, and filled with a vague fear of the
-supernatural influences to which they may be subjected. This is
-increased by the interval of from five minutes to half an hour which is
-allowed to intervene between the commencement of the _séance_, and the
-first "rap" from the spirits; and during this period the mind is kept to
-the utmost tension by listening, or is well exercised by attending to
-the anecdotes illustrative of the power of the spirits which are
-detailed by the medium, and it is thus brought into the state that is
-requisite for the perfection of the delusion. In the condition of the
-mind thus induced, the medium has little difficulty in leading her
-credulous hearer to whatever length it may be desired, and a careful
-examination of the countenance and the hand will suffice for a correct
-response to the majority of the questions which may be proposed.
-
-The want of discrimination of the facts from the theories invented to
-explain them, is another and great source of delusion; for the majority
-it suffices that if the "raps" occur, or the table moves, it is
-sufficiently demonstrative that it is by the influence of spirits; and
-it is a much less difficult matter to them to believe that the phenomena
-arises from supernatural than natural agency.
-
-Certain luminous phenomena, phosphorescent flames, luminous clouds,
-glistening stars, &c., have been observed when the spirit-manifestations
-have occurred in profound darkness. These appearances were dependent upon
-a disordered condition of the eye, which will be fully dwelt upon in a
-subsequent part of this work.
-
-The irregular and violent movements of the furniture which occurred when
-the _séances_ were held in _darkened_ apartments, were the result of the
-most palpable collusion. There were certain movements of the tables,
-however, around which the experimenters sat when eliciting the
-spirit-rappings, that could not be attributed to this source; and an
-examination of these motions showed that if several persons arranged
-themselves around a table, and rested their hands slightly upon it,
-after a longer or shorter period motion would occur, which was to a
-great extent under the control of the will, although the experimenters
-were not aware that they exerted any force whatever upon the table; and
-further, it was ascertained that a table thus set in motion would
-respond by rapping with the legs, to questions propounded to it, and
-that with a facility equal to the most perfect "medium."
-
-This interesting phenomenon soon attracted considerable attention, for
-it was certain that neither collusion nor wilful deception were
-concerned in it; and it could be produced by persons who did not pretend
-to the character of "mediums;" indeed, out of a company of several
-individuals it was pretty certain that some could be found capable of
-inducing the phenomenon.
-
-The "Rappites" looked upon it simply as another and more general
-manifestation of the spirit-world; others, imbued with the
-pseudo-scientific dogmas of animal magnetism, odylism, &c., sought an
-explanation in the principles of their respective theories; some
-regarded it as the result of Satanic agency; and lastly, those best
-capable of judging on the question, looked upon the motion as the result
-of muscular force exerted unconsciously by the experimenters, and in
-accordance with certain well-known laws of muscular and mental action.
-
-The doctrine of Satanic agency has excited great attention in this
-country, from the fact of its being propounded and advocated by certain
-clergymen of our Established Church, who not content with regarding it
-as one of those "great wonders" which are to prelude the reign of
-Anti-christ, have even sought by this agency to verify the truths of the
-immortality of the soul, eternity, the existence of a hell; thus seeking
-a confirmation of the Scripture from the devil himself, and comically
-identifying themselves with the principles so pithily expressed by
-Ralpho:--
-
-    "Those principles I've quoted late,
-    Prove that the godly may allege
-    For anything their privilege,
-    And to the devil himself may go,
-    If they have motives thereunto:
-    For as there is a war between
-    The dev'l and them, it is no sin
-    If they, by subtle stratagem,
-    Make use of him, as he does them."[56]
-
-The answer to this explication, as well as to those other explications
-based on the doctrines of the "Rappites," and the principles of the
-pseudo-sciences, is found in the simple fact, that if care be taken to
-ascertain the sources of motion which arise from the experimenters
-themselves, and to obviate their influence in the experiment, neither
-movements nor responses occur; and by a careful examination of the
-conditions requisite for the perfection of the experiment, and an
-experimental illustration of them, we arrive at the conclusion that
-"table-moving" and "table-talking" are the result solely of muscular
-action exercised unconsciously under the influence of certain expectant
-ideas.
-
-If we proceed in the examination of this question as in that of every
-other physical question, by seeking the conditions requisite for the
-fulfilment of the experiment, and examining their nature, we observe
-that the position of the persons who perform it is one that would give
-rise to certain easily understood and comprehensible results. The hands
-are placed upon the table in such a position that the experimenter
-exercises the least degree of pressure of which he can be conscious, and
-in this position they are kept for a longer or shorter period, but
-generally averaging from twenty to thirty minutes. Whether the
-individual be sitting or standing, the protracted exertion of the
-muscles to keep the hand in so constrained a position, gives rise to
-considerable fatigue, which is manifested by the usual painful
-sensations in the over-exercised parts; and these sensations have been
-sagely compared by the advocates of the pseudo-sciences to those
-experienced by electric or electro-magnetic currents. As the muscular
-fatigue and the painful state of tension into which the muscles are
-thrown increase, the sensations by which we judge of the amount of
-pressure exercised upon a given object diminishes, and unless the degree
-of pressure exercised is checked by information derived through some
-other sense, it goes on ever increasing in a direct ratio until the
-whole weight of the hand, the arm, and even the shoulders of the person
-so standing is unconsciously thrown upon the table, and a degree of
-force exercised, which is sufficient to induce the movements we witness
-in the table experimented on.
-
-The inertia of the table is as thoroughly destroyed by the amount of
-force thus brought to bear upon it, as if a more intense force had acted
-momentarily. The period of suspense which occurs previous to the first
-movement taking place, is that during which the force communicated by
-the hand is equally diffused through the table, and the moment this
-happens, as no body can be set in motion until the motion has been
-imparted to every integral particle of that body, a slight additional
-force will be sufficient to overcome the resistence of surrounding
-media, and cause it to change its position. Hence a comparatively slight
-force exercised over a long period will not unfrequently induce effects
-equal to those caused by a greater degree of force exercised during a
-short period of time.
-
-We often witness the practical application of this principle. If we
-observe two men endeavouring to move a railway carriage upon the line,
-we shall notice that they do not at the first exert all their strength
-in one powerful, and what would probably prove exhaustive and futile,
-effort, but placing their backs against the carriage, they will push
-with a continuous and gradually increasing effort for several seconds,
-or even longer, when a slight movement will be perceived in the
-carriage, and a slight additional exercise of force will set it in
-motion. So also, as we have seen in quarries, when several men have
-endeavoured to move a large mass of stone with a lever, they have not
-used one long and powerful effort, but a succession of slighter ones,
-until a tremulous motion has been seen in the mass, when by one exertion
-of force they have hurled it from its place.
-
-The degree of pressure exercised by any given persons will be in the
-inverse ratio of the degree of control which they can exercise over the
-muscular system, and over their ideas; hence the phenomena of
-table-turning and table-talking are most fully developed by those who
-are possessed of but a low degree of volitional power, and in whom the
-passions and emotions are paramount, as in young females, boys, or those
-who are influenced by certain dominant ideas: and as these conditions
-vary in different persons to an almost endless extent, it would follow
-that the power of exciting the movements of the table and responses, as
-well as the nature and degree of the responses, would vary in a similar
-degree, which is found to be the case; and the rule of response is, as
-one of the supporters of the Satanic theory (the Rev. N. S. Godfrey)
-very naïvely remarks, "whatever the investigator wishes it to be."
-
-The directive force in the phenomena of table-moving is derived from
-certain habitual actions of the muscles, as in the direction from right
-to left, from the customary use of the right hand; and the influence
-which our ideas exercise upon the muscular system, unwittingly and
-involuntarily on our part.
-
-This, as well as the preceding remarks, are all capable of being
-experimentally illustrated and demonstrated; and Professor Faraday,[57]
-by a rigorous series of experiments, has shown that it is upon these
-principles that the phenomena depend.
-
-By the use of a most ingenious and simple piece of mechanism connected
-with an index, he showed the extent to which we exercise a certain
-degree of force and directive power unconsciously, and the nature of
-this directive power; and the result was:--
-
-"That when the parties saw the index it remained very steady; when it
-was hidden from them, or they looked away from it, it wavered about,
-though they believed that they always pressed directly downwards; and
-when the table did not move, there was still a resultant hand-force in
-the direction in which it was wished the table should move, which,
-however, was exercised quite unwittingly by the party operating. This
-resultant it is which, in the course of the waiting-time, while the
-fingers and hands become stiff, numb, and insensible by continued
-pressure, grows up to an amount sufficient to move the table or the
-substances pressed upon. But the most valuable effect of this
-test-apparatus is the corrective power it possesses over the mind of the
-table-turner. As soon as the index is placed before the most earnest,
-and they perceive--as in my presence they have always done--that it
-tells truly whether they are pressing downwards only or obliquely, then
-all effects of table-turning cease, even though the parties persevere,
-earnestly desiring motion, till they become weary and worn-out. No
-prompting or checking of the hand is heeded; _the power is gone_; and
-this only because the parties are made conscious of what they are really
-doing mechanically, and so are unable unwittingly to deceive
-themselves."
-
-An experiment is familiar to many persons by which a ring, being
-suspended by means of a piece of thread to one of the fingers, may be
-caused to beat responses against a glass surface (as that of a tumbler),
-in answer to certain queries put audibly; or, if the ring be held by the
-questioner, it is requisite merely that the questions be conceived
-mentally. This, to many, a puzzling phenomenon is dependent upon
-precisely the same cause as "table-talking"--a movement caused by
-muscular action developed unconsciously under the influence of certain
-ideational states of the mind.
-
-It is an interesting fact, that a species of divination is mentioned by
-Ammianus Marcellinus, in which a ring, used after the above fashion, and
-a table, consecrated by mystic rites, were used. We are indebted to the
-Rev. J. W. Thomas, of Dewsbury, for the following quotation from the
-works of this author, who lived about the middle of the fourth century.
-The quotation is taken from the first chapter of the twenty-ninth book
-("Construximus, magnifici judices, ad cortinæ similitudinem Delphicæ,"
-&c.):--
-
-"Noble judges, this unfortunate little table which you see, we
-constructed of laurel-rods with fearful rites (or ill-omened signs),
-after the likeness of the Delphic tripod; and (it having been) virtually
-consecrated with imprecations of mystic incantations (secret hymns), and
-many splendid and long-continued preparations, we at length used (_lit._
-moved) it; and of using (moving) it, as often as it was consulted about
-secret things, this was the method. It was placed in the middle of a
-clean house, with a round plate made of divers metallic materials,
-correctly (_lit._ purely) put upon it, on whose extreme circumference
-the twenty-four letters of the alphabet were learnedly engraven,
-separated by spaces accurately measured. A person [gifted] with
-ceremonial science stood at it, clothed in linen garments, his feet in
-linen socks, a wreath round his head, bearing branches of a lucky tree,
-a fortunate omen having been obtained from the deity who is the author
-of predictions, by hymns conceived (Apollo); weighing with scales a
-pensile ring, formed (or furnished) with very fine Carpathian thread,
-consecrated with mystic rites, which (or who) by distinct intervals
-falling by leaps on every letter retained, makes heroic verses agreeing
-with (or answering to) the interrogatories, to the completed numbers and
-metres, such as the Delphic ones are read, or those given by the oracles
-of the Branchidæ. Thus then to those who inquired of us who should
-succeed to the present imperial government, for being swept in every
-part [as] it has been mentioned, and the ring leaping touched (went
-through) two syllables, #THEO#; with the addition of the last
-letter (last additional letter), one present cried out 'Theodorus!' (as
-the name portended) by the decree of fate (by castal necessity)."
-
-This paragraph embodies the defence of one Hilarius, who, together with
-a certain Patricius, was charged with having spread abroad prophecies
-adverse to the throne of the Emperor Valens.
-
-A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (Vol. IX., p. 201) quotes the
-following interesting passage from the "Apologeticus" of Tertullian,
-cap. xxiii.: ("Porro si et magi phantasmata," &c.):--
-
-"Moreover, if magical professors also exhibit phantoms and defame the
-souls of the departed; if they press oracles out of childrens' talk; if
-they play many miracles with mountebank tricks, and if they send dreams,
-having once the power assisting them, of inviting angels and demons, _by
-whom_, and she-goats, _and tables, they were accustomed to divine_; how
-much more, &c."
-
-The correspondent remarks: "Here table-divination, by means of angels
-and demons, seems distinctly alluded to. How like the modern system! The
-context of this passage, as well as the extract itself, will suggest
-singular coincidence between modern and ancient pretensions of this
-class."
-
-The sense of _touch_ rarely leads to illusions which are referred to the
-supernatural, except under the influence of powerful superstitious
-feelings, when it is generally connected with illusions of the other
-senses.
-
-The influence of fear in developing illusions of the senses of sight,
-hearing, and touch, has been well pourtrayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's
-comedy of "The Beggar's Bush" (Act V, Scene 1):
-
-  _Boor._ Mistress, it grows somewhat pretty and dark.
-
-  _Gertrude._                                       What then?
-
-  _Boor._ Nay, nothing. Do not think I am afraid,
-          Although, perhaps, you are.
-
-  _Ger._                          I am not. Forward!
-
-  _Boor._ Sure but you are. Give me your hand; fear nothing.
-          There's one leg in the wood; do not fall backwards!
-          What a sweat one on's are in; you or I!
-          Pray God it do not prove the plague. Yet sure
-          It has infected me; for I sweat too:
-          It runs out at my knees. Feel, feel, I pray you!
-
-  _Ger._  What ails the fellow?
-
-  _Boor._                     Hark! hark! I beseech you:
-          Do you hear nothing?
-
-  _Ger._                      No.
-
-  _Boor._                       List! a wild hog;
-          He grunts! now 'tis a bear; this wood is full of 'em!
-          And now a wolf, mistress; a wolf! a wolf!
-          It is the howling of a wolf.
-
-  _Ger._  The braying of an ass, is it not?
-
-  _Boor._                                 Oh, now one has me!
-          Oh my left ham! farewell!
-
-  _Ger._                                  Look to your shanks,
-          Your breech is safe enough; the wolf's a fern-brake.
-
-  _Boor._ But see, see, see! there is a serpent in it!
-          'T has eyes as broad as platters; it spits fire!
-          Now it creeps tow'rds us; help me and say my prayers!
-          'T hath swallowed me almost; my breath is stopt:
-          I cannot speak! Do I speak, mistress?--tell me.
-
-  _Ger._  Why thou strange timorous sot, canst thou perceive
-          Anything i' th' bush but a poor glowworm.
-
-  _Boor._ It may be 'tis but a glowworm now; but 'twill
-          Grow to a fire-drake presently.
-
-  _Ger._                              Come then from it!
-          I have a precious guide of you, and courteous,
-          That gives me leave to lead myself the way thus. [_Holla._
-
-  _Boor._ It thunders; you hear that now?
-
-  _Ger._                                I hear one holla.
-
-  _Boor._ 'Tis thunder! thunder! see a flash of lightning
-          Are you not blasted, mistress? Pull your mask off;
-          'T has play'd the barber with me here: I have lost
-          My beard, my beard! Pray God you be not shaven;
-          'T will spoil your marriage, mistress.
-
-  _Ger._  What strange wonders fear fancies in a coward!
-
-  _Boor._ Now the earth opens!
-
-  _Ger._                      Prithee hold thy peace.
-
-We have now glanced at the principal illusions to which the senses of
-sight and hearing are liable, and the bearing which they have on the
-subject of spectral apparitions and other phenomena which it has been
-customary to regard as manifestations of the supernatural.
-
-But a false appreciation of sensations excited by natural objects is not
-the only mode in which we are liable to be deceived, for we are apt to
-regard sensations excited by the action of the mind, or by a disordered
-condition of the nervous system, or both combined--subjective
-sensations--as sensations excited by natural objects--objective
-sensations.
-
-To the erroneous perceptions arising from this source the term
-_hallucination_ has been given, and the phantasmata to which they give
-rise are more important than those arising from illusions, since the
-judgment is often unable to correct them, and they may impose equally on
-the wisest and the most ignorant.
-
-It is a law in physiology that a nerve of special sensation, (including
-in that term its central as well as its peripheral terminations,) in
-whatever manner it may be excited, can only produce that sensation to
-which it is appointed. Thus the nerve of sight, whether it be excited by
-natural or artificial light, or mechanical stimulus from without, or by
-morbid changes within, can only give rise to the sensation of light; the
-nerve of hearing, sound; the nerve of smell, odours; and so on.
-
-If the ball of the eye is pressed upon (say by the finger at the inner
-angle) when the eyelids are closed, or the light otherwise excluded,
-certain luminous figures will be perceived. This arises from the
-pressure exciting the inner coat of the eye (the _retina_), which is
-formed principally by the expansion of the nerve of light (the _optic
-nerve_), and is the tissue in which the changes necessary for the
-production of the sensation of light are induced by the rays of light
-from without.
-
-The luminous figures caused by mechanical excitation of this, the
-peripheral termination of the nerve of sight, vary in intensity in
-different individuals and at different times. They are sometimes very
-brilliant, and have been observed to be iridescent. In form they are
-circular, radiating, or regularly divided into squares, which have been
-compared by Purkinje to the figures produced by the vibrations
-communicated to a fine powder scattered on a plate of glass, along one
-edge of which a violin-bow is drawn; or to the rhomboidal figures formed
-on the surface of water in a glass, thrown into vibration by the same
-means.
-
-A familiar illustration of the excitation of a sensation of light by
-mechanical stimulus is the brilliant sparks of light, starlike figures,
-&c., caused by a blow on the eye, or by a fall on the head.
-
-A sensation of light may also be caused by the passage of a current of
-electricity through the eyeball; by mental emotion, as grief, passion,
-&c.; and by a morbid state of the brain or optic nerve. It is often also
-induced by a disordered state of the health, and under this condition
-the luminous appearance occasionally assumes a bluish, green, yellow, or
-even red tint.
-
-When an excess of blood is determined in the vessels of the eye, either
-from position or other cause, a luminous arborescent figure is
-occasionally observed in the field of vision on entering a dark
-apartment. This, according to Purkinje, is due to pressure on the retina
-by the distended blood-vessels. A luminous spot is also sometimes
-observed isochronous with the pulse.
-
-In ourselves, in ordinary health a lambent bluish coloured cloud of
-light constantly floats before the eyes in a darkened apartment; and
-there are probably few who would not perceive a greater or less
-sensation of light on being shut up in profound darkness.
-
-On the spontaneous appearance of light in the field of vision when it is
-darkened, Müller, the distinguished Prussian physiologist, writes:--"If
-we observe the field of vision, keeping the eyes closed, it occasionally
-happens that we perceive not only a certain degree of luminousness, but
-further, that we discover a more marked glimmering of light, affecting
-even, in certain cases, the form of circular waves, which are developed
-from the centre towards the periphery, where they disappear. Sometimes
-the faint light resembles a nebulosity, spots, and more rarely, in
-myself, it is reproduced with a certain rhythm. To this spontaneous
-appearance of light in the eye, which is always very vague, are related
-the more clearly delineated forms which show themselves at the moment we
-are about to fall asleep, and which depend upon the influence of the
-imagination isolating the nebulous glimmerings one from the other, and
-clothing them with more distinct forms."[58]
-
-The degree to which this sensation of light is produced in health, and
-the power which the imagination has over it, vary greatly in different
-individuals.
-
-Müller writes:--
-
-"I had occasion, in 1828, to converse with Göethe upon this subject,
-which had an equal interest for both of us. Knowing that when I was
-tranquilly extended in bed, the eyes closed, but not asleep, I
-frequently perceived figures that I could observe distinctly, he was
-curious to know what I experienced then: I told him that my will had not
-any influence either upon the production or the metamorphoses of these
-figures, and that I never distinguished anything symmetrical, anything
-that had the character of vegetation. Göethe, on the contrary, was able
-to appoint at will a theme, which afterwards transformed itself, after a
-fashion apparently involuntary, but always in obedience to the laws of
-harmony and symmetry: a difference between two men, of which one
-possessed the poetical imagination in the highest degree of development,
-whilst the other devoted his life to the study of reality and of nature.
-
-"Göethe says, 'When I close the eyes, on lowering the head, I imagine
-that I see a flower in the middle of my visual organ; this flower does
-not for a moment preserve its form: it is quickly decomposed, and from
-its interior are born other flowers with coloured or sometimes green
-petals; these are not natural flowers, but fantastic, nevertheless
-regular, figures, such as the roses of sculptors. It was impossible for
-me to regard this creation fixedly, but it continued as long as I
-wished, without increasing or diminishing. Even when I figured to me a
-disc charged with various colours, I saw continually borne from the
-centre towards the circumference, new forms comparable to those that I
-could perceive in a kaleidoscope."[59]
-
-Illusions arising from the production of the sensation of light, whether
-by pressure, mental emotion, or a disordered state of the health, have
-been a most prolific source of ghosts.
-
-Imagine a person suffering from severe grief occasioned by the loss of a
-friend or relative; or one subject to superstitious terrors. On retiring
-to rest in a darkened apartment, the attention is attracted and wonder
-raised by the appearance of a cloud of pale white, or blueish coloured
-light (the colours which ghosts love to deck themselves in, and which
-are most readily excited) floating before the eyes. Unacquainted with
-its nature and source, he is naturally startled, and his superstitious
-fears are awakened. The imagination next coming into play, the luminous
-cloud is moulded into the form of the person recently dead, or of the
-superstitious ideas most prominent in the mind of the individual at the
-time.
-
-Or suppose a superstitious person passing, in the obscurity of the
-night, a place where some foul crime had been perpetrated. Terror gives
-rise to the production of a vivid sensation of light in the field of
-vision, and the imagination, as in the previous case, works out the
-rest.
-
-The following cases are examples of the influence which the spontaneous
-appearance of light in the field of vision exercises in the development
-of spectral apparitions.
-
-A gentleman who had lost his wife from a painful and protracted disease,
-for some time subsequently was troubled by her phantom, which remained
-before his eyes so long as he was in obscurity. On a light being
-brought, or during the day, this spectre vanished, but no sooner was he
-placed in darkness than it appeared vividly limned before him, and was a
-source of constant terror.[60]
-
-This phantom was evidently due to the production of the sensation of
-light in the field of vision, and the subsequent effects of the
-imagination.
-
-A gentleman with whom we are acquainted happened, when young, to have a
-severe fall on the head. After this accident and until he attained the
-age of eleven years, he was subject to visions of brilliant and
-variously coloured light, when he retired to bed at night, and all light
-in his room had been extinguished. Occasionally these visions were so
-gorgeous and resplendent that he is accustomed to compare them to the
-jewelled decorations of the palaces of the genii in the Arabian Nights'
-Entertainment. When about eleven years of age he got possession of a
-volume of legends and romances, which were pregnant with supernatural
-events and personages; and a friend injudiciously gave him a work full
-of ghost-stories, and entitled, "News from the Invisible World." These
-works he read with avidity, and the effect upon the mind was such that
-henceforth his nightly visions were transformed into foul, horrid, and
-often variously coloured spectres, rendering the period of time
-intervening between retiring to rest and sleep, one of unmitigated
-terror, and it became necessary to have a light constantly burning in
-the room until sleep occurred. After the twelfth year the intensity of
-the visions rapidly diminished, and at length only occurred when he
-turned himself upon his face in bed. In this position a sensation as if
-the bed had passed from under him occurred, and his eye formed the
-centre of a circle of imps which whirled rapidly round it. The number of
-these spectres next began to diminish, and by the time he was fifteen
-years of age, but one remained, and this appeared only occasionally.
-This solitary spectre gradually lost its fiend-like form, and assumed
-that of a respectable-looking old Roman, clothed in a toga; and it at
-length vanished to re-appear no more.
-
-This gentleman has for many years been free from any spectral
-apparition; but hard study, mental emotion, a disordered state of the
-health, or pressure with the finger on the eyeball, is apt to occasion a
-brilliant evolution of coloured light in the field of vision.
-
-The spontaneous appearance of light in the visual field, in this case,
-formed the substratum upon which the mind moulded the spectres; and it
-is interesting to remark the influence which the perusal of a volume of
-legends and ghost-stories, and subsequent classical studies, had in
-determining the form of the phantasma.
-
-To the same cause--the subjective phenomena of vision--are due the
-various coloured lights or luminous appearances which, in the
-experiments of Reichenbach, the believers in animal magnetism,
-mesmerism, and electro-biology, are supposed to have been seen issue, by
-the "susceptible," from the poles of magnets placed in darkened
-apartments, from so-called magnetised bodies, or from bodies placed in
-the conditions which the respective theories demand.
-
-All the sensations of light that are experienced under these
-circumstances, and which have been sought to be explained by the
-assumption of the "od" force, or by the influence of magnetism, &c., are
-dependent on that excitation of a sensation of light in the eye when
-plunged into darkness, or when under certain mental emotions which we
-have fully explained.
-
-This has been demonstrated by positive experiment; for if we take any of
-the "susceptibles," and, indeed, others, and place them in a darkened
-apartment, we may by simple suggestions excite all the luminous
-sensations attributed to the supposititious "od" force, or to "animal
-magnetism."
-
-The luminous appearances which certain "sensitives" have averred that
-they witnessed over graves, were due also to the subjective phenomena of
-vision, excited by an expectant idea.
-
-A young clergyman named Billing, who acted as an amanuensis to Pfeffer,
-the blind poet, asserted that he constantly saw, at night, a luminous
-cloud resting in one position in the poet's garden; and on search being
-made beneath the surface of the ground, at the spot occupied by this
-phantasm, the remains of a skeleton were found.
-
-Reichenbach concluded from this that the process of decomposition of a
-corpse going on in the grave, probably like what is observed in other
-forms of chemical action, gave rise to luminous appearances which were
-visible to highly "sensitive" persons.
-
-"It appeared possible," he writes, "that such a person might see over
-graves in which mouldering bodies lie, something similar to that which
-Billing had seen. Mademoiselle Reichel had the courage, rare in her sex,
-to gratify this wish of the author. On two very dark nights she allowed
-herself to be taken from the Castle of Reisenberg, where she was living
-with the author's family, to the neighbouring churchyard of Grunzing.
-The result justified his anticipation in the most beautiful manner. She
-very soon saw a light, and observed on one of the graves, along its
-length, a delicate breathing flame; she also saw the same thing, only
-weaker, on a second grave. But she saw neither witches nor ghosts. She
-described the fiery appearance as a shining vapour, one to two spans
-high, extending as far as the grave, and floating near its surface.
-Sometime afterwards she was taken to two large cemeteries near Vienna,
-where several burials occur daily, and graves lie about by thousands.
-Here she saw numerous graves provided with similar lights. Wherever she
-looked she saw luminous masses scattered about. But this appearance was
-most vivid over the newest graves, while on the oldest it could not be
-perceived. She described the appearance less as a clear flame than as a
-dense vaporous mass of fire, intermediate between fog and flame. On many
-graves the flame was four feet high, so that when she stood on them it
-surrounded her up to the neck. If she thrust her hand into it, it was
-like putting it into a dense fiery cloud. She betrayed no uneasiness,
-because she had all her life been accustomed to such emanations, and had
-seen the same, in the author's experiments, often produced by natural
-causes."[61]
-
-The total neglect of those precautions which are requisite to obviate
-the influence of expectant ideas and the subjective phenomena of vision
-in this experiment is most strange, and it is painful to witness men
-like Reichenbach, Gregory, and others, thus stumbling over some of the
-simplest facts of physiology and psychology, and utterly prostituting
-the name and calling of science.
-
-Singular and fallacious as are the pseudo-scientific doctrines just
-mentioned, they are exceeded by the extraordinary speculations of other
-writers, who also appear to hold in utter contempt the ordinary laws of
-action of the senses. For example, Mrs. Crowe writes of the sensation of
-light perceived by somnambules and dreamers, and of the still more
-simple phenomenon of the sensation of light induced by the inhalation of
-ether, in the following manner:--
-
-"All somnambules of the highest order,--and when I make use of this
-expression, I repeat that I do not allude to the subjects of mesmeric
-experiments, but to those extraordinary cases of disease, the
-particulars of which have been recorded by various continental
-physicians of eminence,--all persons in that condition describe
-themselves as hearing and seeing, not by the ordinary organs, but by
-some means the idea of which they cannot convey further than that they
-are pervaded by light; and that this is not the _ordinary_ physical
-light is evident, inasmuch as they generally see best in the dark,--a
-remarkable instance of which I myself witnessed.
-
-"I never had the slightest idea of this internal light till, in the way
-of experiment, I inhaled the sulphuric ether; but I am now very well
-able to conceive it; for, after first feeling an agreeable warmth
-pervading my limbs, my next sensation was to find myself--I cannot say
-in this heavenly light, for the light was in _me_--I was pervaded by it;
-it was not perceived by my eyes, which were closed, but perceived
-internally, I cannot tell how. Of what nature this heavenly light was--I
-cannot forbear calling it _heavenly_, for it was like nothing on
-earth--I know not,"[62] &c.
-
-The sense of _hearing_, like that of sight, in whatever manner it may be
-excited, only gives rise to the sensation of sound; _e.g._, when an
-electric current is passed through it, or a severe blow is struck upon
-it, and causes it "to ring," as it is expressed in common parlance. The
-rushing and other sounds--as of the ringing of bells, rustling of
-leaves, &c.--caused by a disordered state of the circulation in the
-head, are other examples; and there are perhaps few persons who have not
-at some time or other, started, and responded to their name, or to calls
-which they suppose they have heard, in the voice of persons who were at
-a distance, or who had not spoken.
-
-A similar excitation of the nerves of _taste_ and _smell_ will also give
-rise to their special sensations; but disorder of these nerves and their
-centres will rarely excite hallucinations, except in connection with a
-disturbed condition of the senses of sight and hearing.
-
-Such are the simplest forms of hallucination of the senses of sight,
-hearing, taste, and smell; and we have seen that all the phenomena of
-light, colour, sound, taste, and smell, can occur in man without the
-presence of natural or artificial light, sonorous undulations of the
-air, sapid or odorous substances.
-
-We are now in a position to comprehend more fully that, by the action of
-the imagination and emotions alone, the changes going on in the nervous
-centres may be so far disturbed that the whole of those sensations which
-are generally excited by agents external to the body may be called into
-play, and the mental idea assume, in light, colour and shade, sound,
-taste and touch, all the distinctness and definitiveness which
-appertains to an actual object within the sphere of the respective
-senses, and be considered as such.
-
-If the mind revert to any of the varied sensations which are stored up
-in the memory, and are within the power of the will to recall, an image
-is conjured up before the "mind's eye," such that we can describe it as
-though a real object stood before us; and if it be that of a person--a
-parent, a friend, or one bound by even still stronger ties--every
-lineament, every peculiarity, is depicted with a fidelity but little
-less than that we should be capable of were the individual actually
-present before us; or should it be a scene which has been treasured up
-for its grandeur, its loveliness, or for its being endeared to us by
-still stronger feelings, every characteristic feature, every object, is
-minutely and truly described; and did we possess the power of limning,
-not unfrequently we should find little difficulty in transferring the
-mental image to the canvass. "I think I see him now"--"She might be
-before me"--"I can call to mind every tree and stone, so vivid is the
-memory"--are forms of expression in constant use, and they contain the
-germ of the simplest form of ideal hallucination to which we are
-subject.
-
-Under the influence of love, grief, remorse, or other powerful and
-protracted emotion, the ideas upon which the mind is concentrated assume
-a vividness, in many persons little short of the reality; and when
-Victorian, addressing Preciosa in the "Spanish Student" (Act I, Scene
-3), is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Thou comest between me and those books too often;
-    I see thy face in everything I see;
-    The paintings on the chapel wear thy looks,
-    The canticles are changed to sarabands;
-    And with the learned doctors of the schools,
-    I see thee dance cachucas;"
-
-he makes use of no exaggerated poetical tropes or figures, but speaks
-the simple fact.[63]
-
-A painful illustration of the vividness of the mental image under
-powerful emotion is afforded by a passage in "The Dream" of Lord Byron,
-in which he describes the images of the object and scenes of his
-youthful and only love, that occupied his mind, and rendered him
-insensible to the ceremony of his marriage until he was aroused from his
-abstraction by the congratulations of the bystanders.
-
-                      "He spoke
-    The fitting vows, but heard not his own words,
-    And all things reel'd around him; he could see
-    Not that which was, nor that which should have been,--
-    But the old mansion, and the accustom'd hall,
-    And the remember'd chambers, and the place,
-    The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,
-    All things pertaining to that place and hour,
-    And her who was his destiny, came back,
-    And thrust themselves between him and the light."
-
-The protracted devotion of the thoughts to the memory of those whom the
-grave has severed from us, or from whom we are separated by distance,
-and which is induced by grief, gives also to the mental image great
-vividness. Exquisitely beautiful and true is the sentence placed in the
-mouth of Constance, when blamed for the grief she entertained on being
-separated from Prince Arthur:--
-
-    "Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
-    Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;
-    Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
-    Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
-    Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
-    Then have I reason to be fond of grief."
-
-In direct proportion to the concentration of the mind in the
-contemplation of its own actions, is the brilliancy and distinctness of
-the ideas which pass athwart it; and in the state of abstraction or of
-reverie, when from intense meditation, or from mere inactivity, the
-sensations derived from surrounding objects are not attended to, the
-ideas are so defined that they differ but little from actual objects in
-the sensations they excite. So also in sleep, if, from any cause,
-physical or mental, we are roused into a state of semi-consciousness, as
-in dreaming, the phantasms of former events, stored up in the memory,
-and by certain sensations or trains of thought thrown to the surface,
-differ in no respect--light, colour, shade, or sound--from the
-sensations derived from the objects represented.
-
-Should, therefore, the concentration of the mind upon any subject be
-such as to disturb the natural functions of the brain, the mental image
-is liable to excite sensations, and to be pourtrayed with a distinctness
-and "outness" which approximates to, or equals, that of a real object,
-and it is regarded as such.
-
-In the majority of individuals the concentration and intensity of
-feeling necessary for the production of hallucinations is of rare
-occurrence, and it is found only under such conditions as profound grief
-caused by death under painful or peculiar circumstances; from terror,
-excited by causes bringing powerful superstitious feelings into
-play--under which circumstances the hallucinations induced are generally
-transitory--or by emotions inordinately protracted; hence it is that we
-find visions of the dead among the most common of the temporary
-hallucinations. In the studious, and men of powerful thought, the mind
-being habituated to absorption in its own ideas, it not unfrequently
-happens that hallucinations occur from a disordered state of the brain
-induced by continued mental labour. These hallucinations are generally
-very vivid, and may arise either voluntarily or involuntarily, and may
-become habitual without the health being seriously disturbed.
-
-It will be seen, therefore, that the action of the mental powers alone
-is sufficient to give rise to sensations which are regarded as resulting
-from actual objects; and that from the simple vividness of the mental
-image, which is common to most persons, we may trace their effects, in a
-gradually ascending scale, in inducing mental conditions in which the
-brilliancy of the image is such that, for the time, it completely
-occupies the attention, and shuts out, as it were, the sensations
-derived from objects before the field of vision,--and in the formation
-of ideas so vivid and defined, that they take their position among
-surrounding, and excite the sensations proper to external, objects.
-
-We have thus far spoken of the effects of the imagination on the healthy
-frame, but in certain disordered conditions of the nervous system,
-occurring either alone, or in connection with other and more general
-morbid alterations in the economy, hallucinations are more apt to occur
-than in health. The system in this state is more susceptible of the
-effects of emotion, and the images arising in the mind are more vivid
-than would happen from the same degree of excitement in health, and are
-readily converted into hallucinations. This is witnessed in certain
-forms of hysteria, febrile diseases, &c.; hence, in these disordered
-conditions of the system, the hallucinations are not to be attributed to
-the action of the mind, so much as to a morbid susceptibility to undergo
-those changes requisite to the production of hallucinations; and these
-are, consequently, induced by grades of emotion and by influences which
-would not have caused that in ordinary health.
-
-On the other hand, the action of the mind in the development of
-hallucinations equally induces certain diseased states, either special
-or general. Even simple and temporary hallucination, in whatever manner
-caused, must be regarded as an indication that the changes going on in
-the nervous centres have passed the bounds of health; and according as
-the causes inducing hallucinations are more or less protracted, or the
-hallucinations are more or less persistent or frequent, so we may mark a
-greater or less deterioration in the mental powers, the nervous or the
-general system, or indications of more acute disease, to progress along
-with them, until the acme is reached in insanity, idiocy, or some more
-rapidly progressive and equally formidable disease.
-
-To illustrate these remarks: Blake, the artist, who, after the death of
-Sir Joshua Reynolds, enjoyed great fame as a portrait-painter, owed his
-celebrity, in great part, to the singular fact that he required but one
-or, at the most, two sittings, from those whose portraits he painted. He
-was accustomed to regard the person who sat to him attentively for about
-half an hour, sketching from time to time on the canvas, and he would
-then pass on to another subject. When he wished to continue the first
-portrait, on placing the canvas before him, he had the power of calling
-up so vivid a mental image of the personage, the outline of whose face
-was depicted upon it, that it assumed all the appearance of reality, and
-he perceived it in the position in which he required it to be. From this
-phantasm he painted, turning from the canvas and regarding it as he
-would have done had the representative of the phantom been there in
-person. By degrees he began to lose the distinction between the real and
-the imaginary objects, and at length a complete confusion of the mind
-occurred, rendering it necessary for him to be confined in an asylum.
-During his residence there, his insanity was marked by an exaggeration
-of that vivid power of imagination he had possessed previously; for he
-at will could summon before him the phantoms of any of the personages of
-history, and he held long and sensible conversations with Michael
-Angelo, Moses, Semiramis, Richard III, &c., all of whom appeared to him,
-when he desired, in the vivid hues and distinct outlines of reality.
-
-Talma, the great French tragedian, had the power, when upon the stage,
-of causing the vestments of his audience to disappear, and of depicting
-them as skeletons. When the hallucination was complete, and he had
-filled the theatre with these ghastly auditors, he was enabled to give
-the fullest and most surprising force to his performance.
-
-Examples of the influence of powerful and protracted emotions in
-inducing hallucinations are numerous. Dr. Conolly relates the case of a
-gentleman who, when at one time in great danger of being wrecked in a
-small boat on the Eddystone rocks, in the moment of greatest peril saw
-his family before him.
-
-M. Boismont quotes the case of a world-known general who, when in a
-combat one day, was surrounded by the enemy, and in so great danger that
-escape seemed impossible. He, nevertheless, contrived to escape; but the
-impression made upon him was such, that afterwards, until a late period
-of life, he occasionally suffered from an hallucination in which the
-scene of danger was again presented before him and re-enacted; and when
-subsequently on a throne, sometimes the silence of the palace would be
-disturbed by his cries, as he struggled and fought with his phantom
-foes. The hallucination was momentary.
-
-The intense emotion which Sir Richard Croft experienced on being
-summoned to attend the Princess Charlotte of Wales on her death-bed was
-such, that he saw her form, habited in white, glide along before his
-carriage.
-
-A case is related by Boismont of a lady who, while suffering from the
-depression occasioned by receiving information that her daughter was
-seriously ill, heard a voice which addressed to her the words, "Lovest
-thou me?" The lady responded immediately, "Lord, thou knowest that I
-have placed all my confidence in thee, and that I love thee with all my
-soul." The voice then said, "Dost thou give her to me?" The lady
-trembled with fear, but summoning courage, she replied, "However painful
-the sacrifice may be, let Thy will be accomplished." This lady was
-deeply pious, and the hallucination arose from the powerful and painful
-emotion caused by the sudden news of her daughter's illness, inducing
-that disordered state of the nervous system, in which the thoughts
-naturally engendered in one who submitted everything to the Almighty,
-became audible.
-
-The combined influence of love and sorrow has been a powerful source of
-hallucinations, and many of those wild and beautiful legends and tales
-which are scattered throughout the kingdom, recording the apparition of
-a deceased or distant lover to his betrothed, have been due to this
-cause.
-
-Thus, as in the old ballad:--
-
-    "When it was grown to dark midnight,
-      And all were fast asleep,
-    In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
-      And stood at William's feet."
-
-Or in the story of "Isabella," by Boccacio, so beautifully rendered by
-Keats:--
-
-    "It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,
-      The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot
-    Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb
-      Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot
-    Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom
-      Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute
-    From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears
-    Had made a miry channel for his tears.
-
-    Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;
-      For there was striving in its piteous tongue,
-    To speak as when on earth it was awake,
-      And Isabella on its music hung:
-    Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,
-      As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;
-    And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,
-    Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briers among.
-
-    Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright
-      With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof
-    From the poor girl by magic of their light,
-      The while it did unthread the horrid woof
-    Of the late darken'd time--the murd'rous spite
-      Of pride and avarice--the dark pine roof
-    In the forest--and the sodden turfed dell,
-    When, without any word, from stabs it fell.
-
-    Saying moreover, "Isabel, my sweet!
-      Red whortle-berries droop above my head,
-    And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;
-      Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed
-    Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat
-      Comes from beyond the river to my bed:
-    Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,
-    And it shall comfort me within the tomb.
-
-    "I am a shadow now, alas! alas!
-      Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling
-    Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,
-      While little sounds of life are round me knelling,
-    And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,
-      And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,
-    Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,
-    And thou art distant in humanity."
-
-Some of these apparitions have, in all probability, been illusions
-caused by an object indistinctly seen in the pale moonlight, or by an
-accidental arrangement of the furniture of the apartment, transformed by
-an imagination devoted to the subject of its own sorrows, or influenced
-by a vivid dream, into the idea at the moment most prominent in the
-mind.
-
-The influence of remorse, or of those terrible emotions which accrue to
-the murderer on the perpetration of the foul deed, in causing
-hallucinations, is well known.
-
-The ghost of Banquo (Macbeth, Act III, Scene 3) is a type of many
-wondrous histories:--
-
-    "Prythee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo!--How say you?
-    Why what can I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
-    If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send
-    Those that we bury, back, our monuments
-    Shall be the maws of kites."
-
-Vanderkiste[64] relates the story of a convict who had murdered an
-overseer, and taken to the bush:--
-
-"He lived in the woods, and came armed to the huts to demand provisions
-for some time, but imagined he was continually haunted by the spirit of
-the man he had murdered. At last he delivered himself up to the
-authorities, declaring his life a burden. He was seen for days, dogged,
-as he conceived, by the spectre of his victim, and escaping from tree to
-tree."
-
-Sir Walter Scott records the story, that the captain of a slaver, in a
-fit of anger, shot at, and mortally wounded, one of his sailors. As the
-man was dying, he fixed his eyes upon the captain, and said, "Sir, you
-have done for me, but I will never leave you." The captain became grave
-and moody, and some time after he invited the mate into the cabin, and
-addressing him, said, "I need not tell you, Jack, what sort of hand we
-have got on board with us. He told me he would never leave me, and he
-has kept his word. You only see him now and then, but he is always by my
-side, and never out of my sight. At this very moment I see him. I am
-determined to bear it no longer, and I have resolved to leave you."
-Soon after this, the captain, watching an opportunity when he was
-unobserved, plunged into the sea: the mate rushed to the side of the
-ship, and the captain perceiving him, extended his hands upwards,
-exclaimed; "By ----, Bill is with me now!" and sunk.
-
-One of the most remarkable examples of hallucination arising from the
-feelings excited by cold-blooded murder is recorded by Boismont:--
-
-"A duellist, who had killed sixteen persons in single combat, was
-constantly accompanied by their phantoms; they never left him night or
-day."
-
-The solitary hours of Charles IX were made frightful by the shrieks and
-cries which had reached him during the massacre of the Eve of St.
-Bartholomew, and he was haunted for many days subsequent to its
-occurrence by hideous and bloody faces. Taking Ambrose Paré aside, at
-one time, he remarked that he wished they had not comprised in the
-massacre the aged and children.
-
-No cause is, however, so apt to engender hallucinations as religious
-enthusiasm, or an inordinate or rather fanatical occupation of the mind
-in the contemplation of religious subjects.
-
-In the saint-visions which are so numerously scattered in the annals of
-Christian churches and which were so common under the self-denying and
-ascetic rules of some of the monastic orders, we have examples; and
-Spenser's "Hermit" furnishes the type of this species of
-hallucination:--
-
-    "Thence forward by that painfull way they pas
-    Forth to an hill, that was both steepe and hy;
-    On top whereof a sacred chapel was,
-    And eke a little hermitage thereby,
-    Wherein an aged holy man did lie,
-    That day and night said his devotion,
-    Ne other worldly busines did apply:
-    His name was Heavenly Contemplation;
-    Of God and goodness, was his meditation.
-
-    Great grace that old man to him given had;
-    For God he often saw from heavens hight:
-    All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,
-    And through great age had lost their kindly sight,
-    Yet wondrous quick and persaunt was his spright,
-    As eagles eie, that can behold the sunne."
-
-The Virgin appeared to Ignatius Loyola, and confirming his designs,
-urged him to the enterprise he had in view for the establishment of the
-Roman Catholic church on a surer basis. Satan came visibly to Luther and
-contended with him, sometimes worsting him in argument. Swedenborg
-beheld in visions the heavenly scenes which his imagination had
-pourtrayed; while Pascal wrote he beheld an abyss of flames beside his
-writing-table; and Symeon Stylites conceived that Satan had appeared to
-him under the form of Jesus Christ, and invited him to ascend to heaven
-in a chariot drawn by cherubim. Symeon put out his foot to enter the
-chariot, when the whole vanished; and, as a punishment for his
-presumption, the offending thigh was affected with an ulcer, which
-obliged him to rest upon one leg for the remainder of his life.
-
-It is important to comprehend fully the influence of the imagination in
-developing visions of this nature, particularly in a disordered state of
-the health, from the important effects which they have exercised and
-still exercise upon mankind.
-
-The following example is an interesting illustration of the nature and
-source of these hallucinations:
-
-Some years ago considerable attention was excited in Germany by the
-publication of a series of visions which a lady of considerable literary
-attainments and high character had beheld, and for which she believed
-that she was indebted to divine favour.
-
-The hallucinations which she experienced had first been noted in the
-fourth year of her age, when one day, as she was dressing a doll, and
-for greater convenience had placed a large folio Bible beneath her feet,
-she heard a voice exclaim: "Put the book where you found it!" She did
-not immediately obey the order, as she saw no one, but in a few moments
-the mandate was repeated, and she thought some one took hold of her
-face. This hallucination, according to Dr. Hibbert, is to be regarded as
-a renovated feeling arising from some prior remonstrances regarding the
-holy volume; and, we would add, together with the altered sensation
-experienced in the face, was evidently due to the earlier stages of a
-disease which occasioned the more fully developed visions. After this
-period, she devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures; and her
-labours, in this respect, were incessant and protracted. In her seventh
-year she saw, when playing, a vision of a clear flame which entered the
-chamber door, in the centre of which was a strong bright light,
-described as about the size of a child six years old. This vision
-endured about half an hour. No other vision is mentioned until the
-period of her marriage, which proved unfortunate, embittering her life
-and causing her constantly to meditate on death. It was in this state of
-mind that the principal visions to which she was subjected occurred. On
-one occasion, after receiving some ill-treatment from her husband,
-broken down in spirits, and thinking the Lord had forsaken her, she made
-a resolution to desist from prayer. On retiring to bed, she repented the
-decision she had made, and prayed fervently. She awoke in the morning
-before daybreak, and was surprised to find the room vividly
-illuminated, and that at the bedside was seated a heavenly figure, in
-the form of an old man. This phantom was dressed in a blueish robe, and
-had bright hair; and the countenance shone like the clearest red and
-white crystal. It regarded her benignantly, and said, "_Proceed,
-proceed, proceed!_" At first the words were unintelligible to her, but a
-young and beautiful angel, which appeared on the other side of the bed,
-exclaimed: "_Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith, proceed in trials!_"
-After this the devil appeared, pulled her by the hair, and tormented her
-in other ways, until the angel interfered, and drove him away. Satan in
-this case assumed his usual hideous garb. Subsequently one of the angels
-exclaimed, three times: "Lord, this is sufficient;" and while saying
-these words, the lady beheld large wings on his shoulders, and knew him
-to be an angel of God. The light and the angels then vanished, and the
-lady felt eased of her grief, and arose.
-
-If the nature of the figures and the mode of action in these visions had
-not sufficed to show how completely they were dependent upon dominant
-ideas and a disordered state of the nervous system, the history of the
-case would demonstrate it. The early, protracted, and inordinate study
-of religious beliefs, similar to that which laid the basis of
-Swedenborg's visions; the painful state of the mind induced by her
-unhappy marriage, and disease, were the source of the hallucinations to
-which she was subject; for it was ascertained that when the visions
-occurred she always suffered from slight attacks of epilepsy.
-
-Intense and protracted mental exertion frequently gives rise to
-hallucinations.
-
-A medical gentleman in Edinburgh, while seated one evening in his
-library, after a period of excessive study, on raising his head, was
-startled by perceiving at the opposite side of the table the spectre of
-a gentleman who had died under melancholy circumstances some days
-previously, and at whose post-mortem examination he had assisted.
-
-That excessive action of the imagination, and consequent absorption of
-the mind in its own workings, to exclusion of external sensations, which
-is common in men of genius, has been a fertile source of hallucinations.
-
-In some instances the hallucinations have been "counterfeit
-presentments" of the ideas which have been most prominent in the mind;
-in others they have had no relation to that condition.
-
-Spinello, who had painted the Fall of the Angels, thought that he was
-haunted by the frightful devils which he had depicted. He was rendered
-so miserable by this hallucination that he destroyed himself. One of
-our own artists, who was much engaged in painting caricatures, became
-haunted by the distorted faces he drew; and the deep melancholy and
-terror which accompanied these apparitions caused him to commit suicide.
-Müller, who executed the copper-plate of the Sixtine Madonna, had more
-lovely visions. Towards the close of his life the Virgin appeared to
-him, and thanking him for the affection he had shown towards her,
-invited him to follow her to heaven. To achieve this, the artist starved
-himself to death. Beethoven, who became completely deaf in the decline
-of life, often heard his sublime compositions performed distinctly.
-
-It is related of Ben Jonson, that he spent the whole of one night in
-regarding his great toe, around which he saw Tartars, Turks, Romans, and
-Catholics climbing up, and struggling and fighting. Goëthe, when out
-riding one day, was surprised to see an exact image of himself on
-horseback, dressed in a light-coloured coat, riding towards him.
-
-A similar kind of hallucination to this of Goëthe's has been observed as
-a precursor of certain forms of insanity, and in the delirium of fever.
-
-Boismont records the case of a gentleman who was troubled with a
-spectral image of himself, which he had the power of calling before him
-voluntarily. This, for several years, was a source of amusement to him;
-but by degrees this phantom became more persistent, arose involuntarily,
-and addressed him. The hallucination then assumed a still graver
-character, for his double would dispute with him, and often foil him in
-argument; and coincidently with this phase of the disease the gentleman
-became melancholy, and he ultimately committed suicide.
-
-The imagination rarely gives rise to hallucinations of the senses of
-touch, taste, or smell alone. The sweet-smelling odours which are stated
-to have been experienced during the visions of angels and saints; and
-the foul and sulphurous fumes which have accompanied apparitions of the
-infernals, are, however, to be attributed to this cause.
-
-Thus far our illustrations and remarks have been confined to that class
-of hallucinations which are induced principally by the action of the
-imagination, mental emotion, or excessive exertion of the reasoning
-powers.
-
-There is, however, another class of hallucinations dependent upon
-certain disordered states of the general health and nervous system,
-which have an important bearing upon the belief in the supernatural.
-
-The simplest forms of hallucination of this class are those occasionally
-observed during the initiatory stages of some diseases, after the
-termination of exhausting affections, or during temporary morbid
-conditions of the brain.
-
-The following examples will illustrate the nature of the hallucinations
-arising from these sources.
-
-A lady, with whom we are acquainted, was walking early one morning in a
-lonely and unfrequented path, which was open to the eye for some
-distance. On approaching its termination, she was surprised to see a
-lady advancing towards her, dressed in deep mourning, and reading a
-book. Struck by the peculiar beauty of the lady's face, she turned round
-to gaze upon her as she passed; but, to her surprise, the figure
-vanished. Startled and alarmed, she hurried home, and almost immediately
-afterwards was seized with shiverings, and suffered from a violent
-attack of fever, characterised by severe cerebral disturbance. The
-hallucination in this case was caused by the changes induced in the
-nervous system by the initiatory stages of the disease.
-
-A young lady recovering from a severe attack of fever, was left in
-charge of the house during a fine Sunday evening in autumn, the
-remainder of the family having gone to church. A thunder-storm came on,
-with heavy rain, and she became very anxious about her aged father. On
-going into the room generally occupied by the family, there, to her
-great astonishment, she beheld, as she thought, her father sitting in
-his usual position. Supposing that he must have returned from church
-unwell, she advanced, placed her hand upon the semblance, and found
-nothing. Although startled, she attributed the vision to its proper
-cause, anxiety and weakness; but though she went in and out of the room
-several times, the spectre persisted for a considerable period.
-
-A merchant, while sitting in his counting-house, was annoyed by hearing
-voices outside the door conversing freely respecting his character, and
-speaking of him as a dishonoured man. Thinking it was some trick of his
-friends, he quietly opened the door, and was astonished to find no one.
-On closing it the voices again began in a similar strain; and on
-re-opening the door he still found no one. Alarmed, he left his office,
-and proceeded home, but the voices followed him, threatening punishment
-for imaginary crimes. This hallucination was accompanied by other signs
-of a disordered state of the brain, and it was not until after a period
-of entire relaxation from business, and a daily game at cricket, that
-the phantom-voices ceased.
-
-There are certain formidable disorders of the nervous system in which
-hallucinations affect all the senses.
-
-The following is an example of the diseases of this class, and it will
-show the influence which they are liable to exert in the development of
-certain forms of superstition.
-
-A maiden lady, aged forty years, who from early youth had been of a very
-susceptible and restless disposition, suffered from hallucinations which
-persisted for many years.
-
-At first the sight alone was affected, and she saw numerous persons of
-singular and fantastic form. Subsequently she heard voices, which
-professed to have taken up their abode in her stomach, and addressed her
-from thence. These voices tormented her; commanded all her actions;
-informed her of what took place within the body; gave her instructions
-upon diseases, and even prescribed for them. The voices gave her
-information respecting the characters of divers persons, and
-occasionally endowed her with the power of expressing herself in terms
-more florid and fluent than she was accustomed to. Often the voices
-conversed on geography, grammar, rhetoric, &c.; and they would reprove
-her when she had done amiss. They told her that she was possessed, and
-although she was not superstitious, and fully recognized the
-hallucinations she suffered from, she at this time sought a priest to
-exorcise her, thought much of eternity, and sometimes gave herself up to
-despair. At one time the voices told her she would become queen; often
-they conversed with her upon strange, and sometimes even abominable
-subjects; then they would say things extremely comical, and make her
-laugh. They would please, and then mock her, and then assail her more
-violently than ever, and spoil like harpies everything she touched or
-did. If she took a glass of water, the voices would call out that it was
-poisoned; and frequently they urged her to destroy herself. When she
-walked out, if she passed a female, the voices would cry out that she
-carried musk (the odour of which the lady abominated) and immediately
-she smelt this odour; if a man passed her, she was affected with the
-smell of tobacco. The voices often gave her no rest until she did what
-they liked, and they even ordered her to Paris, to place herself under
-the care of physicians there.
-
-The visions she suffered from were very singular. Her apartment was
-filled with persons of all characters and descriptions; numerous
-processions defiled before her, and some of the figures had but one half
-the body, a profile, or one eye; they were large or small, and
-occasionally underwent singular and fantastic changes of form.
-
-The food she took did not possess its natural taste, and the voices
-often gave unpleasant savours, to prevent her eating.
-
-When she journeyed, she felt as if soaked with water, and she would
-attempt to wring her clothes.
-
-Addressing one of her physicians, when the malady was fully developed,
-she said, "I know that it is monomania, but the voices are stronger than
-my will. I wish you to prescribe for me, it is impossible for me to
-remain in one place."[65]
-
-This case is an interesting illustration of a form of disease, which,
-when developed in persons who are subject to religious enthusiasm, has
-given rise to the belief of possession with devils (_demonomania_).
-Instances of this disease are frequently met with in the French asylums.
-
-Many other forms of hallucination occur in insanity, monomania, fever,
-hysteria, and other diseases, in dreams, and from the influence of
-certain poisonous substances taken into the system. Some of these
-hallucinations are of considerable interest, since they have been the
-prime cause of many superstitions.
-
-In addition to the hallucinations of the hearing already mentioned, in
-certain diseases, words spoken in the right ear have been heard in the
-left, and _vice versâ_; and under the influence of opium or haschish
-(prepared from the Indian hemp), the sense becomes, occasionally, so
-developed, that a word pronounced low, or a slight movement, sounds like
-a peal of thunder. Hallucinations of the sight have occasionally
-presented figures of colossal stature, or of extreme diminutiveness; or
-the patient has conceived the idea that he was so tall that he was
-unable to walk erect in a lofty apartment, or so diminutive that he
-dreaded the movements of any near to him, lest they should do him harm.
-Pleasant or fetid odours are sometimes constantly present to the smell.
-Feuchtersleben states the case of a lady who was long haunted with the
-effluvia as of a charnel-house. The taste is subjected to hallucinations
-of exquisitely flavoured viands and wines; or the reverse, no food being
-taken; or everything taken presents one undeviating flavour, which may
-be pleasant or unpleasant, or it has no taste at all. A sensation of
-_flying_ is not uncommon. Boismont has a friend who frequently
-experiences this sensation, and it often occurs in dreams. A friend of
-ours is in the habit of dreaming that he is suspended about a foot above
-the surface of the earth, and is carried along by simple volition,
-without movement of the limbs; and St. Jerome states, that often in
-dreams he flew from the earth over mountains and seas. Our ideas of
-depth and space are sometimes increased in dreams to an extent that is
-inexpressible and almost bewildering; and the sensation of falling into
-an abyss is common to the dreamer. The idea of time is often extended
-indefinitely; in the space of a single night, days, weeks, years, and
-even ages, have appeared to elapse. Transformation of the figure is
-occasionally met with among the hallucinations of insanity; and in the
-state induced by haschish, the singular and fantastic forms which those
-under its influence, and the parties surrounding them, have appeared to
-undergo, are of great interest. "The eyelashes," writes one gentleman,
-"lengthened themselves indefinitely, and rolled themselves as threads of
-gold on little ivory bobbins, which turned unassisted, with frightful
-rapidity.... I still saw my comrades at certain moments, but _deformed_,
-half men, half plants, with the pensive airs of an ibis standing on one
-foot, of ostriches flapping their wings, &c."--"I imagined that I was
-the parroquet of the Queen of Sheba, and I imitated as well as I was
-able the cries of this praiseworthy bird."
-
-In the state caused by haschish it occasionally also happens that the
-person under its influence may be caused to speak or act in any manner
-that is suggested to him. This phenomenon is also seen in dreams; in
-both conditions the half-awakened mind automatically pursues the train
-of thought which has been suggested to it either by the voice or by
-certain sensations.
-
-Lastly, in certain disordered conditions of the system, the person has
-the power of looking, as it were, into himself, and ascertaining what is
-going on there, or of extending his sensual powers beyond the bounds of
-their ordinary sphere, and ascertaining what transpires in other places,
-or at a distance of many miles (_clairvoyance_). The gentleman from
-whose experience of the effects of haschish we have already quoted,
-thought he could look at will into his stomach, and that he saw there,
-in the form of an emerald, from which escaped millions of sparkles, the
-drug he had swallowed.
-
-By a careful consideration of the illusions and hallucinations to which
-we are liable, we obtain a clue to unravel the wild fantasies which
-constitute the greater part of the most prominent superstitions.
-
-If we reflect on the superstitious ideas which filled the minds of our
-forefathers, and follow them back, in their deepening intensity, into
-the middle ages, we can easily imagine how the irregular and fantastic
-figures which an indistinct and disordered vision gave rise to in the
-gloom of the night, were transformed into fiends and demons; how
-spectres, clothed in their horrid white and blue panoply, were seen
-stalking over the earth, and haunting the murder-stained castle, glade,
-and forest; how the dimly illuminated mists of the evening and morning
-shadowed forth the forms of the dead, and the spirits of the waters and
-the air; how in the mist of Killarney, an O'Donoghue, mounted on his
-milk-white steed, and attended by a host of fairy forms, swept over the
-beautiful lake; and a spectral array arose night after night from the
-bed of the rushing Moldau, and besieged the walls of Prague; how the
-moonbeams chequering the deep recesses of the woods, and the banks and
-meadows overhung with foliage, were metamorphised into fairies; how the
-wind howling among the rocks and mountains, sweeping through the
-valleys, or whispering amid the trees and about the nooks and corners of
-the turretted castle and ruinous mansion, bore on its bosom the sounds
-of spectre-horsemen, demon-hunters, and fiend-like hounds, or the wail
-and lamentations of wandering and lost spirits, and the shrieks of the
-infernals; and how the billows, rushing into the caverns and deep
-fissures in the cliffs of a rock-bound coast, filled the air with the
-mysterious and incomprehensible language of the spirits of the deep.
-
-A clue also is obtained to other forms of superstition.
-
-The power which the witch was supposed to possess of transporting
-herself from place to place, and which those self-deluded wretches
-themselves believed; and the orgies of the witch-sabbath, which were
-again and again deposed to, were hallucinations due to a form of
-insanity--for we may so call it--prevailing at the period, which was
-determined by the nature of the superstitious beliefs entertained. The
-real character of this superstition is well shown by an incident which
-is recorded by Jung-Stilling.
-
-He writes:--"I am acquainted with a tale, for the truth of which I can
-vouch, because it is taken from the official documents of an old
-witch-process. An old woman was imprisoned, put to the torture, and
-confessed all that witches are generally charged with. Amongst others,
-she also denounced a neighbour of hers, who had been with her on the
-Blocksberg, the preceding Walpurgis night. This woman was called, and
-asked if it were true what the prisoner said of her? On which she stated
-that, on Walpurgis eve she had called upon this woman, because she had
-something to say to her. On entering her kitchen, she found the prisoner
-busy in preparing a decoction of herbs. On asking her what she was
-boiling, she said, with a smiling and mysterious mien, "Wilt thou go
-with me to the Brocken?" From curiosity, and in order to ascertain what
-there was in the matter, she answered, "Yes: I should like to go well
-enough." On which the prisoner chattered some time about the feast, and
-the dance, and the enormous goat. She then drank of the decoction, and
-offered it to her, saying: "There, take a hearty drink of it, that thou
-mayest be able to ride through the air:" she likewise put the pot to her
-mouth, and made as if she drank of it, but did not taste a drop. During
-this, the prisoner had put a pitchfork between her legs, and placed
-herself upon the hearth; that she soon sunk down, and began to sleep and
-snore: after having looked on for some time, she was at length tired of
-it, and went home.
-
-The next morning, the prisoner came to her, and said, "Well, how dost
-thou like being at the Brocken? Sith, there were glorious doings." On
-which she had laughed heartily, and told her that she had not drunk of
-the potion, and that she, the prisoner, had not been at the Brocken, but
-had slept with her pitchfork upon the hearth. That the woman, on this,
-became angry, and said to her, that she ought not to deny having been at
-the Brocken, and having danced and kissed the goat."[66]
-
-Gassendi relates an experiment to the same effect. He anointed some
-peasants with a pomade made of belladonna or opium, persuading them that
-the operation would convey them to the witch-sabbath. After a profound
-sleep, they awoke, and told how they had been present at the sabbath,
-and the pleasures they had enjoyed.
-
-Stupifying and intoxicating drugs were, in all probability, freely used
-by sorcerers, and in the ancient mysteries, and to their use is to be
-attributed many of the illusions and hallucinations which are familiar
-in the details of the practice of the occult sciences.
-
-Jung-Stilling quotes a singularly interesting example of a method of
-practising one of the most important processes of magic; and an
-examination of it satisfactory shows the manner in which some of the
-most striking of the deceptions of that art were brought about, and how
-it happened that the professor, as well as the student, was equally
-deluded.
-
-In Eckhartshausen's "Key to Magic" there is an account of a young
-Scotsman "who, though he meddled not with the conjuration of spirits,
-and such like charlatanry, had learned, however, a remarkable piece of
-art from a Jew, which he communicated also to Eckhartshausen, and made
-the experiment with him,--which is surprising, and worthy of perusal. He
-that wishes to raise and see any particular spirit, _must prepare
-himself for it, for some days together, both spiritually and
-physically_. There are also particular and remarkable requisites and
-relations necessary betwixt such a spirit and the person who wishes to
-see it--relations which cannot otherwise be explained, than on the
-ground of the intervention of some secret influence from the invisible
-world. After all these precautions, a vapour is produced in a room, from
-certain materials which Eckhartshausen, with propriety, does not
-divulge, on account of the dangerous abuse which might be made of it,
-which visibly forms itself into a figure which bears a resemblance to
-that which the person wishes to see. In this there is no question of any
-magic-lantern or optical artifice; but the vapour really forms a human
-figure, similar to that which the individual desires to behold. I will
-now insert the conclusion of the story in Eckhartshausen's own words:--
-
-"Some time after the departure of the stranger, that is, the Scotsman, I
-made the experiment for one of my friends. He saw as I did, and had the
-same sensations.
-
-"The observations that we made were these. As soon as the ingredients
-were thrown into the chafing-dish, a whitish body forms itself, that
-seems to hover above the chafing-dish, as large as life.
-
-"It possesses the likeness of the person whom we wished to see, only the
-visage is of an ashy paleness.
-
-"On approaching the figure, one is conscious of a resistance, similar to
-that which is felt when going against a strong wind, which drives one
-back.
-
-"If one speaks with it, one remembers no more distinctly what is spoken;
-and when the appearance vanishes, one feels as if awakening from a
-dream. The head is stupified, and a contraction is felt about the
-abdomen. It is also very singular that the same appearance presents
-itself when one is in the dark, or when looking upon dark objects.
-
-"The unpleasantness of this sensation was the reason why I was unwilling
-to repeat the experiment, although often urged to do so by many
-individuals."[67]
-
-It would be difficult to conceive any more powerful method of inducing
-hallucinations than that detailed in this instructive and interesting
-recital. The previous schooling of the imagination, in order thoroughly
-to imbue it with the train of ideas requisite for the full development
-of the phenomenon, and the subsequent intoxication induced by the
-inhalation of powerful narcotic vapours--an intoxication which, as we
-have already seen in the example of haschish, is peculiarly apt to the
-development of hallucinations--will sufficiently account for the
-illusion of the smoke of the chafing-dish presenting any figure which
-the mind desires to see. The difficulty which the experimenter
-experienced in approaching the phantom, and which he compares to the
-resistance which is felt when contending against a strong wind, was
-evidently due to the powerful emotion which he experienced depriving him
-of that control of the voluntary muscles, such as we find in a person
-paralyzed by fear or astonishment; or perhaps it was rather a feeling
-similar to that experienced in nightmare, when, whatever effort we may
-make, we feel almost incapable of motion.
-
-The action of the narcotic vapour alone was sufficient to induce
-hallucinations; for, persuaded by a very experienced physician, who
-"maintained that the narcotic ingredients which formed the vapour must
-of necessity violently affect the imagination, and might be very
-injurious, according to circumstances," Eckhartshausen made the
-experiment on himself without previous preparation; "but," he writes,
-"scarcely had I cast the quantum of ingredients into the chafing-dish,
-when a figure presented itself. I was, however, seized with such a
-horror, that I was obliged to leave the room. I was very ill during
-three hours, and thought I saw the figure always before me. Towards
-evening, after inhaling the fumes of vinegar, and drinking it with
-water, I was better again; but for three weeks afterwards I felt a
-debility: and the strangest part of the matter is, that when I remember
-the circumstance, and look for some time upon any dark object, this ashy
-pale figure still presents itself very vividly to my sight. After this I
-no longer dared to make any experiments with it."
-
-The use of intoxicating and stupifying drugs doubtless contributed also
-to the development of those ideas of strange and wonderful
-transformations and anomalies of form with which the legends and
-romances of Oriental and European nations teem. In the examples of
-hallucinations we have already given from this source, we find the key
-to the explanation of several of these transformations; and the
-elaborated supernatural framework of fairy tales, in which men are
-changed without compunction into inferior animals, trees, or vegetables,
-has probably had a similar origin.
-
-The state of "clairvoyance," and that condition of the nervous system
-which is found in certain diseases, dreams, and under the influence of
-narcotic poisons, in which, by suggestions, in whatever manner given,
-certain actions and trains of thought may be excited at the will of the
-suggestor, is seen also, and may be induced at will in those conditions
-of the system which are summed up under the terms "mesmerism," "animal
-magnetism," "electro-biology," &c.; and the theories which have been
-invented to explain them, and which are expressed in the above names,
-are not only needless, but inconsistent with the facts observed. The
-so-called mesmeric and electro-biological trance is strictly allied to
-certain forms of dreaming; and the whole of the results witnessed may be
-explained by certain admitted physiological and physical laws of action,
-and are due to leading trains of thought which are excited by
-suggestions direct or indirect. As to the higher faculty of prevision
-claimed in this state, we are not aware that, as yet, a single
-trustworthy instance has been established.
-
-There is a class of spectral apparitions which differ from those which
-we have already dwelt upon, inasmuch as they have appeared to
-foreshadow, or have occurred coincidently with, the death of an
-individual; or they have made known events occurring at a distance, or
-have brought to light things else hidden by the grave.
-
-In the deepening gloom of twilight the seer of Scotland often witnessed
-the _wraiths_ of those who were about to die, wreathed in the ascending
-mists of the night, troop in ghostly silence before his horror-stricken
-vision; and the _Bodach Glas_ crossed the path of the death-laden Mac
-Ivor; the _Bodac au Dun_, or Ghost of the Hill, warned the Rothmurchan
-of approaching calamity; the spectre of the Bloody Hand scared the
-Kincardines; the _Bodach Gartin_ glided in significant horror through
-the gloomy passages of Gartnibeg House; and the Girl with the Hairy Left
-Hand--_Manch Monlach_--pointed to the death-bolt about to carry weeping
-and wailing into the halls of Tulloch Gorus.
-
-The spectral _fetch_ shadowed forth in the sister isle the dark course
-of death; while the Banshee mourned with the frightful accents of the
-dead over the dying scions of the ancient families. Hovering near the
-sorrow-laden mansion, her robe flowing wide in the night air, and her
-tangled tresses borne upon the wind, she cried the keen of another world
-adown the vaulted passages, and sobbed in ghastly agony her bitter
-lamentations.
-
-The _Gwrâch y Rhibyn_--Hag of the Dribble--when the night had covered
-the earth, spread out her leathern-like wings, and flitting before the
-house of the death-stricken Cambrians, shrieked in harsh, broken, and
-prolonged tones their names.
-
-In our own land the spectres of all those who would die in the parish
-during the year might be seen walking in ghostly procession to the
-church, or entering its portals, by him who would watch, three years
-consecutively, during the last hour of the night and the first hour of
-the morning, in the porch, on the Eve of St. Mark, or would kneel and
-look through the keyhole of the door of the sanctuary at midnight on the
-Eve of St. John the Baptist.
-
-The _White Lady_, who haunts the ancient castle of the celebrated
-Bohemian family of Rosenberg-Neuhaus, and who also appears from time to
-time in the castles of the allied families of Brandenburg, Baden, and
-Darmstadt,--Trzebon, Islubocka, Bechin, and Tretzen, and even has been
-seen in Berlin, Bayreuth, and at Carlsrhue is of historical notoriety.
-Tall of stature, attired in white, and wearing a white widow's veil
-adorned with ribbons, through the folds of which, and from within her, a
-faint light has been seen to glimmer, she glides with a modest air
-through the corridors and apartments of those castles and palaces in
-which the death of one of her family is about to occur; and she has been
-seen at other times, and oft, with the aspect and air as though the
-spirit had a melancholy pleasure in visiting and hovering about her
-descendants. It is said to be the ghost of one Perchta Von Rosenberg,
-who was born between A.D. 1420 and 1430, and subsequently married to
-John Von Lichtenstein, a rich and profligate baron, who so embittered
-her life that she was obliged to seek relief from her relatives, and she
-died borne down with the insults and indescribable distress she endured.
-Among the old paintings of the family of Rosenberg was found a portrait
-of this lady, attired after the fashion of the times, and bearing an
-exact resemblance to the "_White Lady_." In December, 1628, she appeared
-in Berlin, and was heard to exclaim, "Veni, judica vivos et mortuos:
-judicium mihi adhuc superest!"--"Come, judge the living and the dead; my
-fate is not yet decided."
-
-The _Klage-weib_ (Mourning Woman) when the storm is driving the rift
-before it, and the moon shines fitfully and faintly on the earth, may be
-seen stalking along, her gigantic and shadowy form enveloped in dark
-flowing grave-clothes, her deathlike countenance and deep cavernous eyes
-freezing the unhappy spectator with horror, while, extending her vast
-arm, she sweeps it above the cottage marked out by death.
-
-In the Tyrol also, the phantom of a white woman looks in at the window
-of a house where a person must die.
-
-These are examples of spectral apparitions foreboding death and
-misfortune, which the lapse of ages and the influence of superstition
-have invested with a semblance of reality, approximating them in
-apparent truthfulness to historical facts.
-
-It is a needless, and would be a thankless task, to show how these
-notions were the legitimate result of the ideas of the supernatural
-entertained at the period when they were developed; and how when the
-superstitions once assumed a definite form, the slightest illusion
-during the period of sickness or calamity, whether observed in the
-castellated mansion, pregnant generally with deeds of darkness or blood,
-or in the twilight or the storm of a moon-lit night, were converted into
-these phantoms;[68] or the imperfectly remembered dream, or its vivid
-depiction of the superstition, shadowed forth the same.
-
-Scant of romance, and that wild and thrilling medium through which many
-of our old legends are seen, we have handed to us numerous business-like
-stories, some of very recent date, in which the same principles are
-involved as in the legends we have detailed, and which demand grave
-attention, from the honest truthfulness with which they are evidently
-detailed, and the events which they appear to have foreshadowed.
-
-Let us examine some of these instances, and endeavour to ascertain
-whether they come under the character of illusions or hallucinations; or
-whether they are to be placed in another category, and to be regarded as
-the results of supernatural agency, as is most frequently done.
-
-In "Blackwood's Magazine" for 1840, there is a letter which contains the
-following statement:--
-
-"The 'Hawk' being on her passage from the Cape of Good Hope towards the
-island of Java, and myself having the charge of the middle watch,
-between one and two in the morning I was taken suddenly ill, which
-obliged me to send for the officer next in turn; I then went down on the
-gun-deck, and sent my boy for a light. In the meanwhile, I sat down on a
-chest in the steerage, under the after-grating, when I felt a gentle
-squeeze by a very cold hand; I started, and saw a figure in white;
-stepping back, I said, 'God's my life! who is that?' It stood and gazed
-at me a short time, stooped its head to get a more perfect view, sighed
-aloud, repeated the exclamation 'Oh!' three times, and instantly
-vanished. The night was fine, though the moon afforded through the
-gratings but a weak light, so that little of feature could be seen,
-only a figure rather tall than otherwise, and white-clad. My boy
-returning now with a light, I sent him to the cabins of all the
-officers, when he brought me word that not one of them had been
-stirring. Coming afterwards to St. Helena, homeward-bound, hearing of my
-sister's death, and finding the time so nearly coinciding, it added much
-to my painful concern; and I have only to thank God, that when I saw
-what I now verily believe to have been her apparition (my sister Ann), I
-did not then know the melancholy occasion of it."
-
-The superstitious feelings which we find pervading the mind of the
-gentleman relating this incident, and which is evinced by its
-termination; the circumstances under which the apparition took place,
-namely, a dim uncertain light, that most favourable to illusion; an
-attack of indisposition leading to alteration of the natural sensations;
-and lastly, and most important of all, the after-conclusion arrived at
-on hearing of the sister's death, and under the influence of which the
-account was written, and which, it is evident from the nature of the
-details, gave rise to that definite statement which has been
-recorded,--all tend to the conclusion that the spectre was an illusion,
-and that its significance was a phase imparted to it by superstitious
-feelings alone.
-
-The influence of subsequent conclusions in warping the real history of
-an event, and giving a definite and precise character to what would
-otherwise have been vague and inconclusive, as is witnessed in the above
-story, is one of the most important fallacies pervading ghost-stories.
-There is no source of self-deception to which we are exposed, more
-insidious; and it is requisite to keep it constantly in view, not only
-in relations of this nature, but in the examination of events of any
-kind whatever. The colouring which facts receive from this source, too
-often hides their real character; and the reciter is perfectly
-unconscious of the erroneous light which he casts upon them. Hence the
-importance of ascertaining the peculiar bias and tendencies of thought
-which appertain to one who records occurrences upon which important
-conclusions or theories may be based.
-
-The vicious habit which has been common among the advocates of
-supernatural visitations, of supporting their opinions upon the
-assertions of men of known probity and honour, to the complete exclusion
-of an examination of the sources of delusion and error to which these
-men were liable from the character of their previous education, habits
-of thought, associations, &c., and from their imperfect acquaintance
-with the fallacies to which they may have been exposed, has been a
-fertile source of error.
-
-A so-called fact is not an abstract truth; it is simply a fact so far as
-it relates to the assertor, and the credence given to it by others
-depends upon the extent to which it agrees with their experience, or
-upon the knowledge that the assertor has by previous study or experience
-so far diminished the probability of error on the subject to which it
-relates, that the statement may be received without hesitation.
-
-Another form of ghost-story is that in which the spirit of the dead has
-been compelled to wander in misery on the earth, for some crime or
-error, small or great, committed during life, and which, unless it be
-atoned for or rectified, prevents its eternal repose.
-
-A story of this kind is given by Jung-Stilling, and however absurd it
-may be in some parts, it is interesting from the precision of its
-details enabling us to lay hold of a clue to the explanation of the
-majority of these tales.
-
-In 1756, M. Doerien, one of the proctors of Caroline College, Brunswick,
-was taken ill and died, shortly after "St. John's Day" (June 24th).
-Immediately before his death, he requested to see another of the
-proctors, M. Hoefer, having some communication of importance to make to
-him; but before that gentleman arrived, death had taken place. After
-some time a report became prevalent in the college that the ghost of the
-deceased proctor had been seen; but as this proceeded merely from the
-young, little attention had been given to it. At length, in October,
-upwards of three months after the death of M. Doerien, as M. Hoefer was
-proceeding on his accustomed nightly round, between the hours of eleven
-and twelve, in one of the corridors he saw the spectre of that
-professor, clothed in a common night-gown and white night-cap. This
-unexpected sight terrified M. Hoefer somewhat, but recollecting that he
-was in the path of duty, he recovered himself, and advancing to the
-spectre, endeavoured to examine it by the light of the candle he held in
-his hand; but such a horror came over him, that he could scarcely
-withdraw the hand in which he extended the light, and from that moment
-it was so swollen, "that some months elapsed before it was healed." The
-following night he was accompanied in his rounds by a philosopher,
-Professor Oeder, who was rather sceptical on the subject of apparitions;
-but on approaching the spot in which the spectre had been seen on the
-previous evening, there they beheld it again in the same position.
-
-Others attempted to gain a sight of the ghost, but it would not manifest
-itself, not even to MM. Oeder and Hoefer, until the former gentleman,
-wearied with his useless watching during a somewhat prolonged period,
-exclaimed, "I have gone after the spirit long enough to please him; if
-he now wants anything, let him come to me." But what followed? About
-fourteen days after, when he was thinking about anything else than of
-ghosts, he was suddenly and rudely awakened, between three and four
-o'clock in the morning, by some external motion. On opening his eyes, he
-saw an apparition opposite to the bed, standing by the clothes-press,
-which was only two paces from it, that presented itself in the same
-attire as the spirit. He raised himself up, and could then clearly
-discern the whole face. He fixed his eyes steadfastly upon the phantom,
-until, after a period of eight minutes, it became invisible.
-
-The next morning he was again awakened about the same time, and saw the
-same apparition, only with this difference, that the door of the press
-made a cracking noise, just as if some one leaned upon it. This time the
-spirit remained longer, so that Professor Oeder spoke to it as follows:
-"Get thee hence, thou evil spirit; what hast thou to do here?" At these
-words the phantom made all kinds of dreadful motions, waved its head,
-its hands, and its feet in such a manner, that the terrified Professor
-began to pray, "Who trusts in God, &c.," and "God the Father dwell with
-us, &c.," on which the spirit vanished.
-
-After eight days the spirit again appeared, "but with this difference,
-that it came from the press directly towards him, and inclined its head
-over him," whereupon the terrified Professor struck out at it, and the
-spirit retired; but no sooner had he laid down, than it again advanced,
-and he, noticing that its aspect was "more in sorrow than in anger,"
-observed it attentively, and saw that the ghost had a short tobacco-pipe
-in its mouth. This circumstance and the spirit's mild mien induced him
-to address the ghost, and ask, "Are you still owing anything." He knew
-beforehand that the deceased had left some debts, and the amount of a
-few dollars, _which occasioned the inquiry_. The spirit looked
-attentively at this query; and at length, guided by the tobacco-pipe,
-when the Professor asked, "Are you perhaps owing something for tobacco?"
-the spirit retreated and suddenly disappeared. Measures were immediately
-taken to liquidate the debt which was found to be owing for tobacco.
-
-The next night Professor Seidler remained with Oeder. The spirit again
-appeared, but not as formerly, at the press, but near it, close to the
-white wall. It was visible only to Oeder, his brother professor merely
-seeing "something white." From this night Oeder burnt a night-lamp, and
-he no longer saw the apparition; but for some nights, at the same time,
-from three to five, he was troubled with uneasy sensations, and
-frequently heard a noise at the clothes-press and knocking at the door.
-By degrees these sensations passed away, and he discontinued the
-night-lamp; but the second night after, the spectre again appeared "at
-the accustomed hour, but visibly darker." It had, moreover, a new sign
-in its hand--"It was like a picture, and had a hole in the centre, into
-which the spirit frequently put its hand. After long ruminating and
-inquiring what the deceased might mean by these signs, so much was at
-length elicited, that a short time before his illness he had taken some
-paintings in a magic lantern from a picture-dealer on trial, which had
-not been returned. The paintings were given to the rightful owner, and
-from that time Oeder continued undisturbed."
-
-In this story we notice, first, that a report was prevalent in the
-college, that the ghost of M. Doerien had been seen by several persons;
-and it is but natural to suppose that such a statement would exercise a
-powerful effect upon the mind of M. Hoefer, who had been placed in the
-painful position of being summoned to the death-bed of his friend, to
-receive a communication "necessary to mention to him," but had arrived
-in time only to witness the death-struggle. Upwards of three months
-after the death of M. Doerien, and when M. Hoefer was evidently in a
-disordered state of health, as is indicated by the swelling of the hand,
-and subsequent persistence of this swelling for some time, as this
-gentleman was making his usual rounds by the light of a taper in the
-dead of night, he witnesses the first apparition in a situation pregnant
-with associations of the deceased. The apparition may have been an
-illusion, suggested at first by some outlines indistinctly seen; or it
-may have been, and it is more probable to have been, an hallucination
-excited by the association of ideas in a person whose system was in a
-disordered state.
-
-That connection of ideas, similar or dissimilar, which is acquired by
-habit or otherwise, so that one of them, in whatever manner we may
-become conscious of it, will suggest and give rise to the others,
-without the intervention of a voluntary action of the mind, is familiar
-to most persons.
-
-The association which the mind habitually forms between certain objects
-and scenes, and persons connected with them, is most evident when a
-separation has been effected by death or removal to a distance; and, as
-is well-known, and has probably been painfully experienced by most
-persons, when the mind has been rallying from a state of abstraction or
-reverie, the sight of some object, or an indistinct sound, which during
-the full activity of the faculties would not have been regarded, or
-would simply have sufficed to arouse an ordinary reminiscence, will
-cause to flash athwart the mind, a vivid and startling image of the
-deceased or far distant one.
-
-We well remember some years ago, when a fellow-student, with whom we had
-been on very intimate terms, was cut off after a few days' illness. He
-had been in the habit of spending much time in our rooms. For some
-months after his death, particularly when wearied with study, a slight
-noise in the passage or at the door of the room has given rise to so
-vivid an impression that he was approaching, or at the door, that it has
-required an effort of the mind to quell the hallucination.
-
-The apparition which M. Hoefer witnessed, was most probably an
-hallucination of this kind; the corridor, and position in which it
-occurred, recalling to memory, in all the vividness of reality, the form
-and lineaments of that deceased friend who had formerly frequented it
-along with him.
-
-We have already seen an instance of a somewhat similar character, in the
-account given in a previous paper of the apparition of a father, then
-alive, but absent at church, to his daughter at home. In that case the
-apparition was excited by the sight of the arm-chair generally occupied
-by the old gentleman, and connected with it alone, the association of
-the ideas being obvious; and the state of the brain forming, so to
-speak, the substratum of the hallucination, was induced by uneasiness
-caused by a heavy thunder-storm acting on a frame debilitated by fever.
-
-The apparition of the following night, which was seen also by Professor
-Oeder, was, so far as M. Hoefer was concerned, a modification of the
-hallucination of the preceding night, prompted by the belief that the
-apparition he had witnessed was supernatural; and the precise similarity
-of the apparition professed to have been seen by M. Oeder, to that seen
-by M. Hoefer on that and the preceding night, would lead to the
-suspicion that in the former gentleman it was a trick of the imagination
-alone,--a suspicion confirmed by the subsequent progress of the tale.
-
-Professor Oeder brooded upon the apparition he had witnessed, and, it is
-important to mark, made every endeavour for some time to obtain a second
-sight of it, but failed, until wearied out with his fruitless research,
-he ceased to hunt after it. Fourteen days afterwards, he states that he
-was suddenly and rudely awakened "by some external motion" (which is
-evidently an after-conclusion derived from what followed), and saw the
-apparition of Doerien standing by the clothes-press.
-
-In other words, he awoke suddenly out of a troubled sleep, and in the
-transition state between sleeping and waking, in which the mental images
-are as bright and defined as in dreams, the subject which had occupied
-his mind so much of late was presented before him in a visible form. As
-it not unfrequently happens when a dream has made a powerful impression
-on the mind, it is repeated again, so on the following night M. Oeder's
-hallucination occurred, but with the addition of a slight creaking noise
-of the clothes-press door.
-
-Oeder was now fully convinced of the supernatural character of his
-visitant, and when the spectre again appeared to him, which was after a
-period of eight days, he having adopted the opinion at that period very
-prevalent, of troubled spirits, proceeded to inquire as to the cause of
-its visitations; and noticing a white tobacco-pipe in the spirit's
-mouth, and _knowing_ that the deceased Doerien had "left some debts to
-the amount of a few dollars," he asked, "Are you perhaps owing for
-tobacco?" whereupon the spirit disappeared. Here then we find an
-hallucination, either in the dreaming or waking state, presenting the
-precise similitude of the Professor's opinions and conceptions
-respecting the possible cause of the spectre.
-
-The following night, when the spectre appeared again, a friend was with
-Oeder, but this friend saw "nothing further than something white,"--no
-very extraordinary sight in a room which had white walls, and was not
-perfectly dark.
-
-From this time Oeder used a night-lamp, and the spectre no more
-appeared, but by certain sensations and noises he knew it was in the
-apartment.
-
-The invisibility of the spectre, when the light was present, would
-indicate that a sensation of light excited in the eye by a disordered
-state of the head, such as we have fully dwelt upon in a previous part
-of the work, played an important part of the hallucination; and the
-disturbed sleep for so many nights, and uneasy sensations, point to a
-circumstance which we have not yet alluded to, that the Professor's
-health was not in good condition,--the probable cause of the whole
-series of hallucinations.
-
-The uneasy sensations ceased, the light was dispensed with, the spectre
-again came, but it was darker, and contained a new sign in its hand,
-which, by following out a similar course of reasoning as upon the
-tobacco-pipe, and by long ruminating and inquiring, the Professor
-puzzled out to signify some paintings belonging to a magic lantern which
-Doerien had received on trial before his death, and which had not been
-returned. They were sought up, sent to their rightful owner, and the
-apparition vanished to return no more.
-
-It is to be remembered that this story, like most others of a similar
-nature, has been written under a full belief of the supernatural
-character of the apparitions, and it has received a colouring
-accordingly; and our comments suffice to show that no care, no attempt,
-has been made by the ghost-seer, to ascertain how much the apparitions
-might depend upon some illusion or hallucinations connected with his
-bodily health. The progress of the tale further shows that the
-apparitions occurred, in both M. Hoefer as well as Professor Oeder's
-case, in connection with symptoms of disordered health, and that they
-added nothing to what these gentlemen knew, or could work out, as M.
-Oeder did, by his own reason and judgment; in short, that they were
-simple images of ideas they already possessed or arrived at from the
-information they obtained.
-
-Other sources of error in the judgment could be pointed out, and other
-causes of illusion and hallucination in the above tale, but we have
-written sufficient to show its worthlessness.
-
-One of the most formidable objections to the majority of ghost-stories
-of this nature is the insufficiency of the authority upon which they are
-given. In many instances we cannot trace them satisfactorily to their
-origin; in others, we have received them after they have passed through
-the hands of several persons; and in still more (as in the tales we have
-just analysed) there is intrinsic evidence that no endeavour has been
-made to obviate or elicit the sources of fallacy to which the ghost-seer
-has been exposed, and diminish as much as possible the chances of error.
-
-The story of the "Last Hours of Lord Lyttleton" is a singularly
-interesting example of a ghost-story, based upon insufficient authority,
-and probably also upon a trivial circumstance, receiving almost
-universal credence; and it shows, moreover, how readily the
-superstitious feelings of the listeners will lead them to receive
-without due examination, tales which in themselves may be utterly void
-of satisfactory foundation; and induce them to retail subsequently an
-account which has probably received its precision and colouring from
-their imaginations alone.
-
-Oft as the story has been told, we are necessitated again to quote it in
-part, in order to show more fully the nature of the authority upon
-which it depends.
-
-A gentleman, who was on a visit to Lord Lyttleton, writes:--
-
-"I was at Pitt Place, Epsom, when Lord Lyttleton died; Lord Fortescue,
-Lady Flood, and the two Miss Amphletts, were also present. Lord
-Lyttleton had not long been returned from Ireland, and frequently had
-been seized with suffocating fits; he was attacked several times by them
-in the course of the preceding month, while he was at his house in Hill
-Street, Berkeley Square. It happened that he dreamt, three days before
-his death, that he saw a fluttering bird; and afterwards, that a woman
-appeared to him in white apparel, and said to him, 'Prepare to die, you
-will not exist three days.' His Lordship was much alarmed, and called to
-a servant from a closet adjoining, who found him much agitated, and in a
-profuse perspiration: the circumstance had a considerable effect all the
-next day on his Lordship's spirits. On the third day, while his Lordship
-was at breakfast with the above personages, he said, 'If I live over
-to-night, I shall have jockied the ghost, for this is the third day.'
-The whole party presently set off for Pitt Place, where they had not
-long arrived before his Lordship was visited by one of his accustomed
-fits; after a short interval, he recovered. He dined at five o'clock
-that day, and went to bed at eleven, when his servant was about to give
-him rhubarb and mint-water; but his Lordship perceiving him stir it with
-a tooth-pick, called him a slovenly dog, and bade him go and fetch a
-tea-spoon; but on the man's return, he found his master in a fit, and
-the pillow being placed high, his chin bore hard upon his neck, when the
-servant, instead of relieving his Lordship on the instant from his
-perilous situation, ran in his fright and called out for help, but on
-his return he found his Lordship dead."
-
-The circumstances attending the apparition, as related by Lord
-Lyttleton, according to the statement of a relative of Lady Lyttleton's,
-were as follows:
-
-"Two nights before, on his retiring to bed, after his servant was
-dismissed and his light extinguished, he had heard a noise resembling
-the fluttering of a dove at his chamber window. This attracted his
-attention to the spot; when, looking in the direction of the sound, he
-saw the figure of an unhappy female whom he had seduced and deserted,
-and who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence,
-standing in the aperture of the window from which the fluttering sound
-had proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed, the room was
-preternaturally light, the objects of the chamber were distinctly
-visible; raising her head and pointing to a dial which stood on the
-mantel-piece of the chimney, the figure, with a severe solemnity of
-voice and manner, announced to the appalled and conscience-stricken man
-that, at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation, his life
-and his sins would be concluded, and nothing but their punishment
-remain, if he availed himself not of the warning to repentance which he
-had received. The eye of Lord Lyttleton glanced upon the dial, the hand
-was upon the stroke of twelve; again the apartment was involved in total
-darkness, the warning spirit disappeared, and bore away at her departure
-all the lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit, ready flow of wit,
-and vivacity of manner, which had formerly been the pride and ornament
-of the unhappy being to whom she had delivered her tremendous summons."
-
-From a passage in the Memoirs of Sir Nathanial Wraxall, it would seem
-that the sole authority for the above story was his Lordship's
-_valet-de-chambre_, for he writes:--
-
-"Dining at Pitt Place, about four years after the death of Lord
-Lyttleton, in the year 1783, I had the curiosity to visit the
-bedchamber, where the casement-window, at which Lord Lyttleton asserted
-the dove appeared to flutter, was pointed out to me; and at his
-stepmother's, the Dowager Lady Lyttleton's, in Portugal Street,
-Grosvenor Square, I have frequently seen a painting, which she herself
-executed, in 1780, expressly to commemorate the event; it hung in a
-conspicuous part of her drawing-room. There the dove appears at the
-window, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the foot of
-the bed, announcing to Lord Lyttleton his dissolution. Every part of the
-picture was faithfully designed, _after the description given to her by
-the valet-de-chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all
-the circumstances_."
-
-In addition it would appear, according to Lord Fortescue, that the only
-foundation upon which this story rests, is as follows:--
-
-"I heard Lord Fortescue once say," writes a friend of Sir Walter Scott,
-"that he was in the house with him (Lord Lyttleton) at the time of the
-supposed visitation, and he mentioned the following circumstances as the
-only foundation for the extraordinary superstructure at which the world
-has wondered:--A woman of the party had one day lost a favourite bird,
-and all the men tried to recover it for her. Soon after, on assembling
-at breakfast, Lord Lyttleton complained of having passed a very bad
-night, and having been worried in his dreams by a repetition of the
-chase of the lady's bird. His death followed, as stated in the
-story."[69]
-
-It would seem highly probable, therefore, that this story has been
-framed much after the same fashion as that of the "three black crows,"
-and the singular differences which we find in the versions we have
-given, fully confirm this view.
-
-Connected with the foregoing story is another of the apparition of Lord
-Lyttleton, on the night of his death, to Miles Peter Andrews, one of his
-most intimate friends. This apparition occurred at Dartford Mills, where
-Mr. Andrews was then staying, and doubtless, in its origin and mode of
-development, the story is in every respect similar to that of Lord
-Lyttleton's.
-
-The March number of "_Household Words_,"[70] for 1853, contains a
-ghost-story which exhibits another form of the belief, differing from
-those which we have already dwelt upon, and it is interesting from its
-comparatively recent occurrence, and from its having to a certain extent
-received the confirmation of a law-court.
-
-In the colony of New South Wales, at a place called Penrith, distant
-from Sydney about thirty-seven miles, lived a farmer named Fisher. He
-was unmarried, about forty-five years old, and his lands and stock were
-worth not less than £4000. Suddenly Fisher disappeared, and a neighbour,
-named Smith, gave out that he had gone to England for two or three
-years, and produced a written document authorizing him to act as his
-agent during his absence. As Fisher was an eccentric man, this sudden
-departure did not create much surprise, and it was declared to be
-"exactly like him."
-
-About six months after Fisher's disappearance, an old man called Ben
-Weir, who had a small farm near Penrith, and who always drove his own
-cart to market, was returning from Sydney one night, when he beheld,
-seated on a rail which bounded the road--Fisher. _The night was very
-dark, and the distance of the fence from the middle of the road was at
-least twelve yards._ Weir, nevertheless, saw Fisher's figure seated on
-the rail. He pulled his old mare up, and called out, "Fisher, is that
-you?" No answer was returned, but there, still on the rail, sat the form
-of the man with whom he had been on the most intimate terms. Weir, who
-was not drunk, though he had had several glasses of strong liquor,
-jumped off his cart, and approached the rail. To his surprise, the form
-vanished.
-
-Weir noticed that the ghost was marked by "a cruel gash" on the
-forehead, and that there was the appearance of fresh blood about it;
-and before leaving the spot, he marked it by breaking several branches
-of a sapling close by.
-
-On returning home he told his story to his wife, who, however, told him
-that he was drunk, and ridiculed him.
-
-On the following Thursday night, when old Ben was returning from
-market,--again in his cart,--he saw seated upon the same rail, the
-identical apparition. He had purposely abstained from drinking that day,
-and was in the full possession of all his senses.
-
-Weir again told his wife of the apparition, to be again ridiculed by
-her, and he remarked, "Smith is a bad un! Do you think Fisher would ever
-have left this country without coming to bid you and me good-bye?"
-
-The next morning Ben waited on a Mr. Grafton, a justice of the peace,
-who lived near to him, and told his tale. The magistrate was at first
-disposed to treat the account lightly, but after consideration, he
-summoned one of the aboriginal natives, and at sunrise met Weir at the
-place where the apparition had occurred, and which was sufficiently
-marked by the dead and broken branches of the sapling.
-
-The rail was found to be stained in several places, and the native,
-without any previous intimation of the object of the search, was
-directed to examine them, and he shortly pronounced them to be "_white
-man's blood_," and searching about, he pointed out a spot whereon a body
-had been laid. "Not a single shower of rain had fallen for several
-months previously,--not sufficient to lay even the dust upon the roads.
-Notwithstanding this, however, the native succeeded in tracking the
-footsteps of one man to the unfrequented side of a pond at some
-distance. He gave it as his opinion that another man had been dragged
-thither. The savage walked round and round the pond, eagerly examining
-its borders, and the sedges and weeds springing up around it. At first
-he seemed baffled,--no clue had been washed ashore to show that anything
-unusual had been sunk in the pond; but having finished this examination,
-he laid himself down on his face, and looked keenly along the surface of
-the smooth and stagnant water. Presently he jumped up, uttered a cry
-peculiar to the natives when gratified by finding some long-sought
-object, clapped his hands, and pointing to the middle of the pond, to
-where the decomposition of some sunken substance had produced a slimy
-coating streaked with prismatic colours, he exclaimed, '_White man's
-fat!_' The pond was immediately searched; and, below the spot indicated,
-the remains of a body were discovered. A large stone and a rotted silk
-handkerchief were found near the body; these had been used to sink it."
-
-By the teeth, and buttons upon the waistcoat, the body was identified as
-that of Fisher. Smith was arrested, and, upon this evidence, tried
-before the late Sir Francis Forbes, found guilty, sentenced to death,
-and hung; but previous to the execution, "he confessed that he, and he
-alone, committed the murder, and that it was upon the very rail where
-Weir swore that he had seen Fisher's ghost sitting, and that he had
-knocked out Fisher's brains with a tomahawk."
-
-We quote this story as an interesting example of one of the best and
-most consistent of the tales of this kind, although it is probable that
-a more thorough investigation of the circumstances connected with it,
-would show an origin of a nature similar to that of the "Last Hours of
-Lord Lyttleton."
-
-Several statements in the story require confirmation, and throw doubt
-upon the whole.
-
-The assertion that Weir, on a "very dark" night, saw seated upon a rail,
-at a distance of _twelve yards_, a resemblance of Fisher which he took
-to be real, and was not aware of the actual nature of the appearance
-until he advanced towards it, is a statement too improbable to be
-worthy of credence unless supported by other and less objectionable
-evidence; and notwithstanding the extraordinary degree to which the
-visual and other senses of the aboriginal natives are, as we are aware,
-often developed, yet that they will enable them to state that an old
-blood-stain is produced by the blood of a white man, or that an
-iridescent scum floating at a distance on water is produced by the fat
-of the white man, are statements which cannot be admitted without strong
-confirmatory evidence.
-
-It not unfrequently happens that dreams appear to foreshadow events, the
-occurrence of which could not be anticipated by the reasoning faculties.
-Many of the instances recorded of this kind are after-conclusions
-founded upon imperfectly remembered dreams, and are consequently
-worthless. Such, for example, is the story stated by Mrs. Crowe of a
-gentleman "who has several times been conscious on awaking that he had
-been conversing with some one, whom he has been subsequently startled to
-hear had died at that period."[71]
-
-Other dreams have received a verification from the natural results of
-the dreamer's superstitious folly.
-
-Mrs. Crowe has quoted the following example from a continental
-newspaper:--
-
-"A letter from Hamburg contains the following curious story relative to
-the verification of a dream. It appears that a locksmith's apprentice,
-one morning lately, informed his master (Claude Soller), that on the
-previous night he dreamt that he had been assassinated on the road to
-Bergsdorff, a little town at about two hours' distance from Hamburg. The
-master laughed at the young man's credulity, and to prove that he
-himself had little faith in dreams, insisted upon sending him to
-Bergsdorff, with 140 rix dollars (£22 8_s._), which he owed to his
-brother-in-law who resided in the town. The apprentice, after in vain
-imploring his master to change his intention, was compelled to set out
-at about eleven o'clock. On arriving at the village of Billwaerder,
-about halfway between Hamburg and Bergsdorff, he recollected his dream
-with terror but perceiving the baillie of the village at a little
-distance talking to some of his workmen, he accosted him, and acquainted
-him with his singular dream, at the same time requesting, that as he had
-money about his person, one of his workmen might be allowed to accompany
-him for protection across a small wood which lay in his way. The baillie
-smiled, and in obedience to his orders, one of the men set out with his
-young apprentice. The next day the corpse of the latter was conveyed by
-some peasants to the baillie, along with a reaping-hook, which had been
-found by his side, and with which the throat of the murdered youth had
-been cut. The baillie immediately recognized the instrument as one which
-he had on the previous day given to the workman who had served as the
-apprentice's guide, for the purpose of pruning some willows. The workman
-was apprehended, and on being confronted with the body of his victim,
-made a full confession of his crime, adding that the recital of the
-dream had alone prompted him to commit the horrible act. The assassin,
-who is thirty-five years of age, was a native of Billwaerder, and
-previously to the perpetration of the murder, had always borne an
-irreproachable character."
-
-It is well known that sensations from without will not only frequently
-excite dreaming, but will also often determine the character of the
-dreams. The following story is evidently an example of a dream of this
-nature.
-
-On the 30th July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was discovered in
-a field at Littleport, in the Isle of Ely. There could be little doubt
-that the woman had been murdered; and at the adjourned inquest held
-before Mr. W. Marshall, one of the coroners for the isle, on the 29th
-August, the following extraordinary evidence was given:--
-
-"James Jessop, an elderly respectable-looking labourer, with a face of
-the most perfect stolidity, and who possessed a most curiously shaped
-skull, broad and flat at the top, and projecting greatly on each side
-over the ears, deposed: 'I live about a furlong and a half from where
-the body was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I had never
-seen her before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I
-dreamt three successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing
-from near the bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place
-where the body was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry, it
-woke me. I fell asleep again, and dreamt the same again. I then woke
-again, and told my wife. I could not rest; but I dreamt it again after
-that. I got up between four or five o'clock, but I did not go down to
-the Close, the wheat and barley in which have since been cut. I dreamt
-once, about twenty years ago, that I saw a woman hanging in a barn, and
-on passing the next morning the barn which appeared to me in my dream, I
-entered, and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down just in
-time to save her life. I never told my wife I heard any cries of murder,
-but I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body on the
-Saturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a day
-or two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream, and the trees
-thereon, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the wind
-lay from that spot to my house."
-
-"Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related
-his dreams to her, on the evening of the day the body was found."[72]
-
-It is highly probable, that in this instance, the screams of the
-unfortunate woman, borne upon the wind, were the exciting cause of the
-dreams, and the direction from which the sound came would be sufficient
-to call up the associated idea of the fields in which the murder
-occurred. The powerful impression made upon the mind of the man,
-according to his own account, will sufficiently account for the
-repetition of the dreams; and the statement that the particulars of the
-dream were not related until after the finding of the body, must induce
-a little caution to the reception of the above version as an actual
-detail of the facts of the case. This remark applies also to the dream
-interpolated in the evidence.
-
-Among the most vivid and connected dreams, are those excited by a
-dominant or absorbing train of thought, which has engaged the mind
-during waking hours, or by powerful or protracted emotion.
-
-M. Boismont relates a dream, which he conceives is to be classed among
-the inexplicable phenomena of this nature, but which, with all deference
-to that distinguished psychologist, is rather to be placed in the
-category we have just named.
-
-Miss R., gifted with an excellent judgment, and religious without
-bigotry, lived, before her marriage, at the house of an uncle, a
-celebrated physician, and a member of the Institute. She was at that
-time separated from her mother, who had been attacked, in the country,
-by a severe illness. One night, this young lady dreamed that she saw her
-mother before her, pale, disfigured, about to render the last breath,
-and showing particularly lively grief at not being surrounded by her
-children, of whom one, curé of one of the parishes in Paris, had
-emigrated to Spain, and the other was in Paris. Presently she heard her
-call upon her many times by her Christian name; whereupon the persons
-who surrounded her mother, supposing that she called her grand-daughter,
-who bore the same name, went to seek her in the neighbouring room, but a
-sign from the invalid apprised them that it was not the grand-daughter,
-but the daughter who resided in Paris, that she wished to see. Her
-appearance expressed the grief she felt at her absence; suddenly her
-features changed, became covered with the paleness of death, and she
-fell without life on the bed.
-
-The lady had died during that night; and it was subsequently
-ascertained, that the circumstances delineated in the dream, simulated
-those which had occurred by the death-bed.
-
-What are the circumstances of this case?--A mother dangerously ill--her
-children away from home. What more likely to occur to a child cognisant
-of these facts, than the train of thought which engendered and caused
-this dream? The events attending a death-bed scene under such
-circumstances were all but inevitable, and we cannot, justifiably,
-consider this case in any other light than that of a "simple
-coincidence."
-
-Many physiologists and metaphysicians are of opinion, and there is much
-ground for the belief, that every sensation which has been actually
-experienced, may become the subject of perception at some future time,
-although, in the interval, all trace of its existence may have been
-lost, and it is beyond the power of the will to recall.
-
-The phenomena upon which this opinion has been principally founded, have
-been observed in the delirium of certain febrile diseases, and in
-dreaming.
-
-There is a case on record of a woman, who, during the delirium of fever,
-repeated long passages in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongues. When in
-health she was perfectly ignorant of these languages; and it was
-ascertained, that the sentences she spoke in her delirium, were correct
-passages from known writers in them. It was subsequently discovered,
-that at one period of her life she had lived with a clergyman who was in
-the habit of walking up and down the passage, reading aloud from Hebrew
-and Chaldaic works, and it was the sensations thus derived, and retained
-unconsciously to herself, which had been revivified by the changes
-induced during the progress of the fever.
-
-A case is also recorded by Dr. Abercrombie, in which a servant-girl who
-had manifested no "ear" for, or pleasure in music, during sleep was
-heard to imitate the sounds of a violin, even the tuning, and to perform
-most complicated and difficult pieces of music. This girl had slept for
-some time, and much to her annoyance, in a room adjoining that occupied
-by an itinerant violinist who was somewhat of an enthusiast in his art,
-and was accustomed to spend a portion of the night in practising
-difficult pieces of music, often preventing this female from sleeping.
-The music she had thus heard, registered in the mind, so to speak, was
-repeated, unconsciously, during the disturbed action of the brain
-consequent upon imperfect health and dreaming.
-
-The principle which has been deduced from these and similar cases, gives
-a ready explanation to numerous stories which it has been customary to
-regard as coming within the pale of the supernatural.
-
-Those instances in which, during a dream, the places in which documents
-of value, which had been lost or misplaced, have been revealed, are
-examples of revivified sensations which had been lost sight of, and of
-which the return had been determined by the protracted exercise of the
-mind to recover the missing traces.
-
-Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to "The Antiquary," relates the following
-highly interesting illustration:--
-
-"Mr. R----d, of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of
-Gala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated
-arrears of tiend (or tithe), for which he was said to be indebted to a
-noble family, the titulars (lay improprietors of the tithes). Mr. R----d
-was strongly impressed with the belief, that his father had, by a form
-of process peculiar to the law of Scotland, purchased those lands from
-the titular; and therefore, that the present prosecution was
-groundless. But after an industrious search among his father's papers,
-an investigation of the public records, and a careful inquiry among all
-persons who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence
-could be recovered to support his defence. The period was now near at
-hand, when he conceived the loss of the lawsuit to be inevitable, and he
-had formed his determination to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the
-best bargain he could in the way of compromise. He even went to bed with
-this resolution, and with all the circumstances of the case floating
-upon his mind, had a dream to the following purpose.
-
-"His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to him, he thought,
-and asked him why he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams men are not
-supprised at such apparitions. Mr. R----d thought he informed his father
-of the cause of his distress, adding, that the payment of a considerable
-sum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he had a strong
-consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to acquire any
-evidence in support of his belief. 'You are right, my son,' replied the
-paternal shade; 'I did acquire right to these tiends, for payment of
-which you are now prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction
-are in the hands of Mr. ----, a writer (or attorney), who is now retired
-from professional business, and resides at Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He
-was a person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason,
-but who never, on any other occasion, transacted business on my account.
-It is very possible,' pursued the vision, 'that Mr. ---- may have
-forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may call it
-to his recollection by this token,--that when I came to pay his account,
-there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of gold, and
-that we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern.'
-
-"Mr. R----d awoke in the morning with all the words of the vision
-imprinted on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across the
-country to Inveresk, instead of going straight to Edinburgh. When he
-came there, he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very
-old man; without saying anything of the vision, he inquired whether he
-remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased father. The
-old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to his
-recollection, but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold, the whole
-returned upon his memory; he made an immediate search for the papers,
-and recovered them; so that Mr. R----d carried to Edinburgh the
-documents necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of
-losing.
-
-"The author's theory is, that the dream was only the recapitulation of
-information which Mr. R----d had really received from his father while
-in life, but which at first he merely recalled as a general impression
-that the claim was settled. It is not uncommon for persons to recover,
-during sleep, the thread of ideas which they have lost during waking
-hours.
-
-"It may be added, that this remarkable circumstance was attended with
-bad consequences to Mr. R----d, whose health and spirits were afterwards
-impaired by the attention which he thought himself obliged to pay to the
-visions of the night."
-
-An instance which is related by Mrs. Crowe, receives its explanation
-also from this source.
-
-"A case occurred not many years since in the North of Scotland, where a
-murder having been committed, a man came forward, saying, that he had
-dreamt that the pack of the murdered pedlar was hidden in a certain
-spot; whereon, a search being made, it was actually found. They at first
-concluded he was himself the assassin, but the real criminal was
-afterwards discovered; and it being asserted, though I have been told
-erroneously, that the two men had passed some time together, since the
-murder, in a state of intoxication, it was decided that the crime, and
-the place of concealment, had been communicated to the pretended
-dreamer," &c.
-
-If the statement that the murderer and the dreamer had spent some time
-together in a state of intoxication, after the murder had been
-committed, be correct, the supposition that the murder had been
-communicated to the dreamer, forgotten when the state of intoxication
-had passed away, but subsequently recalled during the progress of a
-dream, affords an easy and natural explanation of the whole matter.
-
-As an example of that class of dreams which are inexplicable, but which,
-unfortunately, are of little weight from the imperfect authority upon
-which they are given, and from the fact that they bear intrinsic
-evidence of having been received without inquiry into the circumstances
-under which they occurred, and the fallacies to which the dreamer and
-subsequent details had been exposed, we quote the following from the
-works of the Rev. John Wesley.[73]
-
-"Among the congregation at Ambleside were a gentleman and his wife, who
-gave me a remarkable relation. She said she had often heard her brother
-relate, what an intimate acquaintance had told her, that her husband was
-concerned in the rebellion of 1745. He was tried at Carlisle, and found
-guilty. The evening before he was to die, sitting and musing in her
-chair, she fell fast asleep. She dreamed one came to her and said, 'Go
-to such a part of the wall, and among the loose stones you will find a
-key, which you must carry to your husband.' She waked; but thinking it a
-common dream, paid no attention to it. Presently she fell asleep again,
-and dreamed the very same dream. She started up, put on her cloak and
-hat, and went to that part of the wall, and among the loose stones found
-a key. Having, with some difficulty, procured admission into the gaol,
-she gave this to her husband. It opened the door of his cell, as well as
-the lock of the prison door.(!) So at midnight he escaped for life."
-
-It is not uncommon to find persons asserting that they have had dreams
-which have prefigured events, often trivial, in the common run of life.
-
-Probably, without exception, these are irrelevant conclusions: the
-affirmative instances being marked, to the total neglect of the
-negative. For example:--A lady with whom we are acquainted was
-accustomed to relate a dream which she had had, in which she thought
-that she was in the nursery watching one of her children play, when
-suddenly it tripped over the fender, and fell against the ribs of the
-grate, and before it could be extricated, the face was severely burned.
-On the following day the child she had seen in her dream, happened to
-have an accident in the nursery very similar to that she had seen occur
-in the dream.
-
-On inquiry, however, it proved that dreams of this nature respecting her
-children were quite usual to the lady, and that at one time or other she
-had witnessed while sleeping almost all those accidents occur to which
-infant life is exposed. This was the only instance in which any one had
-apparently come true; and _until_ this had occurred she had very
-properly and correctly attributed her dreams to the anxiety she
-naturally entertained respecting her young family.
-
-Of all the divisions, or rather branches, of supernatural lore, none has
-obtained more universal credence, none has been more persistent, than
-that of _presentiments_.
-
-A history of _presentiments_ would form a curious, if not very
-instructive work, and it alone would almost suffice to indicate the
-absurdity of the belief in its main features.
-
-We have instances of _high spirits_ foreboding evil; _low spirits_
-foreboding the same; _sudden illness_ shadowing forth calamity, _not_
-to the person affected, but to a companion; _sudden dullness of sight_
-presaging death--indeed a collection of these instances would show that
-every obscure sensation, every variation of emotion or passion,
-preceding an evil occurrence, has at one time or other been regarded as
-a presentiment of that evil.
-
-Jung-Stilling has so well described the nature of the faculty of
-presentiment, and the circumstances under which it is most commonly
-developed, that we cannot do better than quote the words of that
-celebrated writer on this subject. He writes:--
-
-"As the developed faculty of presentiment is a capability of
-experiencing the arrangements which are made in the world of spirits,
-and executed in the visible world, second-sight certainly belongs also
-under this head. And as those who possess this capability are generally
-simple people, it again follows from hence, that a developed faculty of
-presentiment is by no means a quality which belongs solely to devout and
-pious people, or that it should be regarded as a divine gift; I take it,
-on the contrary, for a disease of the soul, which we ought rather to
-endeavour to heal than promote.
-
-"He that has a natural disposition for it, and then fixes his
-imagination long and intensely, and therefore _magically_, upon a
-certain object, may at length be able, with respect to this object, to
-foresee things which have reference to it. Grave-diggers, nurses, and
-such as are employed to undress and shroud the dead, watchmen, and the
-like, are accustomed to be continually reflecting on objects which stand
-in connexion with death and interment; what wonder, therefore, if their
-faculty of presentiment at length develop itself on these subjects; and
-I am inclined to maintain, that it may be promoted by drinking ardent
-spirits."[74]
-
-In addition to this, Mrs. Crowe remarks:--
-
-"It is worthy of observation that idiots often possess some gleams of
-this faculty of second-sight or presentiment; and it is probably on this
-account that they are in some countries held sacred. Presentiment, which
-I think may very probably be merely the vague and imperfect recollection
-of what we _knew_ in our sleep, is often observed in drunken
-people."[75]
-
-Cicero,[76] after relating the myth of the apparition of Tages, in
-Etruria, adds:--
-
-"But I should indeed be more foolish than they who credit these things,
-if I seriously argue the matter."
-
-Equally foolish it would be for us to attempt to show the absurdity of
-the foregoing opinions; and we fear it would be a bootless and inutile
-task to argue with those who regard the statements of the studiously and
-transcendentally superstitious and ignorant, the incoherence of the
-drunkard, the depressed feelings experienced after a debauch, or the
-vague gleams of understanding in an idiot, as evidences of communication
-with the spirit-world.
-
-We know two ladies gifted with the faculty of ordinary presentiment, and
-who boast (if we may use that expression) that they are members of a
-family of which no scion has died for years without some supernatural
-indication of its occurrence. We well remember _after_ the information
-had been received by them of the death of the last male representative
-of one branch of the family, that they told how on the night of the
-death they happened to be awake in bed, when certain strange noises were
-heard about the bed-curtains, "as of a mouse" scrambling upon them, and
-immediately afterwards a blow was struck upon a large chest of drawers
-which stood opposite the foot of the bed, and the sound was as though
-the chest had been broken to pieces. We did not draw the inference which
-the ladies did from this circumstance, namely, that it was an intimation
-of the death of their relative, for, unfortunately for the romantic view
-of the question, we knew that such nightly occurrences as these were
-somewhat common with them, and that a simple and comfortable house in a
-densely-populated manufacturing district had been peopled by them with
-nightly noises and sounds, audible alone to them, to such an extent,
-that the adaptation of a presentiment to any particular occurrence was a
-matter of little difficulty.
-
-We also well remember, some years ago, when an infant brother lay dying,
-that our mother and the nurse were startled in the dead of night by a
-strange fluttering at the window. On the curtain being raised, the light
-of the candle showed a bird fluttering and beating against one of the
-panes. Was it an omen of death, and an emblem of the happy transition of
-the baby-spirit to another world? A few moments' examination soon showed
-that it was no spectre bird, but apparently a robin, which had been
-disturbed in the darkness, and was attracted by the light, and no sooner
-was the window darkened than it flew away.
-
-Three days ago, we saw a woman who had been for some months in a
-delicate state of health. "Sir," she said, "what I have most to complain
-of is, that I always feel as if some great evil was about to befall
-myself or family." This feeling is common, in a greater or less degree,
-to that depressed state of the system preceding attacks of febrile and
-many other diseases, and is often marked in hypocondriacism. Who, when
-suffering from slight indisposition, has not often felt this feeling of
-foreboding, of which the lowest grade is expressed in the ordinary
-phrase, low-spirits? This feeling, and thus derived, has been the
-substratum for those vague, so-called presentiments, which constitute
-the great bulk of instances in that doctrine; and the fallacy has been,
-that the mind, more readily affected by affirmative than by negative
-examples, has held to the former and neglected the latter, and deluded
-itself by an imperfect and too contracted view of the facts.
-
-Boismont, the most recent writer on the doctrine of presentiments,
-writes:--
-
-"In the greatest number of cases, they are not realised; in those where
-the event justifies them, they are only a reminiscence--a simple
-coincidence;--we admit all this. It is not the less true, that an
-unforeseen event, a strong prepossession, great restlessness, a sudden
-change in habits, any fear whatsoever, gives rise, at the moment, to
-presentiments which it would be difficult to deny by systematic
-credulity."[77]
-
-Let us examine one or two of the cases which would lead so distinguished
-a psychologist to give a certain degree of credence to this belief.
-
-The Prince de Radzvil had adopted one of his nieces, an orphan. He
-inhabited a château in Gallicia, and this château had a large hall which
-separated the apartments of the Prince from those occupied by the
-children, and in order to communicate between the two suites of rooms it
-was necessary either to traverse the hall or the court.
-
-The young Agnes, aged from five to six years, always uttered piercing
-cries every time that they caused her to traverse the great hall. She
-indicated, with an expression of terror, an enormous picture which was
-suspended above the door, and which represented the Sibyl of Cuma. They
-endeavoured for a length of time to vanquish this repugnance, which they
-attributed to infant obstinacy; but as serious accidents happened from
-this violence, they ended by permitting her no more to enter the hall;
-and the young girl loved better, during ten or twelve years, to traverse
-in rain, snow, or cold, the vast court or the gardens, rather than pass
-under this door, which made so disagreeable an impression upon her.
-
-The young Countess being of age to marry, and already betrothed, there
-was a reception at the château. The company, in the evening, wished to
-have some noisy game; they went into the great hall, where, moreover,
-the nuptial ball would be held. Animated by the young people who
-surrounded her, Agnes did not hesitate to accompany the guests. But
-scarcely had she crossed the threshold of the door, than she wished to
-draw back, and she avowed her fear. They had caused her to pass first,
-according to custom, her betrothed, friends, and uncle, laughing at her
-childishness, closing the doors upon her. But the poor young girl wished
-to resist; and in shaking and beating the door, caused the picture to
-fall which was above it. This enormous mass bruised the head by one of
-its corners, and killed her immediately.
-
-The scene of this story is an old castle in Gallicia, doubtless, like
-all similar places, having attached to it many strange and wonderful
-legends, and many servants fully imbued with these legends, and with all
-the folk-lore which a district like Gallicia contains. We have no
-information as to what amount of this lore the nurse indoctrinated into
-the child, or what use she may have made of the painting in order to
-terrify her little charge into submission from time to time. That an
-inquiry, special and distinct, upon this point was necessary ere the
-main point of the story could be substantiated, is evident; for the
-establishment of this influence would at once destroy the presentiment
-sought to be established; and to suppose that the child was brought up
-without its mind being so poisoned, is to suppose a phenomenon uniquely
-rare. Again, the painting was a representation of the Sibyl of Cuma. In
-her early days, says classic history, this Sibyl was lovely; but after
-her short-sighted bargain with Apollo for a life as long in years as the
-number of grains of sand she held in her hand, forgetting to add the
-request for perennial beauty also, she shortly became old and decrepid,
-her form decayed, her countenance melancholy and pale, and her looks
-haggard; and it is as thus described, that we are generally accustomed
-to see her pourtrayed. But we are left in the dark as to whether the
-painting in question represented the Sibyl in early youth, in her
-decrepid maturity, or at the moment of inspiration, when, according to
-the Æneis (Book vi),--
-
-    "Her colour changed; her face was not the same,
-    And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.
-    Her hair stood up, convulsive rage possess'd
-    Her trembling limbs, and heaved her labouring breast.
-    Greater than human kind she seem'd to look,
-    And with an accent more than mortal spoke,
-    Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll;
-    When all the god came rushing on her soul."
-
-That the painting must have depicted the Sibyl in one of the two latter
-characters is almost certain, for in any other it would have been
-meaningless; and leaving the question of the extent to which her mind
-might be poisoned by folk-lore, or by the servants making the painting a
-bugbear to her,--leaving this in abeyance, what must the effect of a
-frightful-looking and gigantic picture, staring the child in the face,
-have been upon a young mind? Little doubt need be entertained of the
-feeling of terror with which an infant eye would regard it, and we have
-already shown how such a feeling, being implanted there, would become a
-part and parcel of its nature, and be never subsequently eradicated.
-
-We see this feeling manifested every day in the aversion which some
-individuals manifest to certain animals. From emotions taught during
-childhood and youth, and often lost sight of in mature years, a cat, a
-dog, a rat, a spider, a frog, &c., has become an object of such dread to
-some persons, that even in advanced life the presence of one has caused
-the utmost annoyance and terror.
-
-The powerful and persistent influence of ideas thus associated has been
-clearly and pithily expressed by Locke,[78] and his first instance has
-an immediate bearing upon our subject:--
-
-"The ideas of goblins and sprights have really no more to do with
-darkness than light, yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on
-the mind of a child, and raise them there together, probably he shall
-never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness
-shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they
-shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other."
-
-That the fall of the painting was caused by the vibrations occasioned by
-shaking and beating upon the door beneath it, seems certain; but that
-there was any _presentimental_ connection (if we may so word it) between
-the fall of the painting and the previous dread of it,--any
-foreshadowing in this dread of the subsequent fall and its fatal
-consequences,--there is no satisfactory evidence whatever.
-
-Another example of presentiment, quoted by Boismont, is the following:--
-
-Two French gentlemen, refugees, who resided together in New York on
-terms of great amity, freighted a ship for India. Everything was
-prepared for their departure, and they waited only a favourable wind.
-One of them, B----, of a calm and placid temperament, apparently excited
-by the uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began to manifest a
-degree of restlessness which surprised his companion. One day he entered
-the apartment where his friend was engaged in writing letters for
-Europe, and under the influence of an excitement so great that he had
-difficulty to suppress it, he exclaimed: "Why lose time in writing
-letters?--they will never go to their destination. Come with me and take
-a turn on the Battery. The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps,
-nearer the point of departure than we suppose!" Acceding to the request,
-his friend accompanied him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he was
-astonished at the rapid and excited manner in which B---- walked. On
-reaching the Battery, B---- precipitated his rate of walking still more,
-until they approached the parapet. He spoke in a high and quick tone,
-expressing in florid terms his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he
-arrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend separated from him. "I
-regarded him fixedly," to continue the narrative in the words of the
-narrator; "he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down. 'B----,' I
-cried, 'you intend to kill me, you wish to throw me from this height
-into the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The madman looked me in
-the face with haggard eyes for a moment, but I was careful not to lose
-his glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured some incoherent words,
-and sought to pass by me. I barred the way, extending my arms. After
-looking vaguely right and left, he threw himself on my neck, and melted
-into tears. 'It is true, it is true, my friend! The thought has haunted
-me night and day, as a torch of hell. It was for this end that I brought
-you here; had you been but a foot from the border of the parapet, the
-work had been done.' The demon had abandoned him, his eyes were without
-expression, a foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was passed. I
-reconducted him to the house. Some days of repose, together with
-bleeding and low diet, re-established him completely; and what is still
-more extraordinary, we never more spoke of this event."
-
-Are we, with Boismont, to regard this as an example of "sudden and
-mysterious inspiration?" Would it not have been still more mysterious if
-a minute examination of the countenance of a madman, who was talking
-incoherently near the verge of a precipitous descent, and big with
-intent to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his purpose? We
-think it would, and that there is no evidence here of anything beyond
-the pale of the laws of common observation.
-
-It would be needless to multiply instances of presentiment which have
-carried conviction to the minds of persons less accustomed to analyze
-the operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont, and in whom
-errors of observation are infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless
-there are instances on record which, if the authority upon which they
-are stated be admitted, receive no explanation from natural laws so far
-as we are yet acquainted with them.
-
-One of the best and most striking examples of this kind is given on the
-authority of Mrs. Crowe.
-
-She writes:--
-
-"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which
-occurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when
-lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a
-young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away
-his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table,
-covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The
-president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young
-men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to
-speak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a
-sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India
-was dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I
-am perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this
-conviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The
-young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned."[79]
-
-A singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress
-Josephine, which may fitly be detailed here.
-
-"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "and it
-had early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her
-first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards
-be greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is
-placed beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her
-first husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the
-Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on
-account of his belonging to the nobility; and she herself, who was also
-imprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the
-fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind,
-that while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every
-hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to
-her fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies
-of the bed-chamber,--a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one
-of their number."
-
-Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the
-prophecy:--
-
-"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long before Napoleon's
-elevation to the throne, from the late Countess of Bath and the late
-Countess of Ancrum, who were educated in the same convent with
-Josephine, and had repeatedly heard her mention the circumstance in
-early youth."[80]
-
-The most grave of the errors affecting the details of those occurrences
-which have been supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some
-inexplicable and supernatural connection with certain circumstances
-occurring coincidently with them, has been fully set forth by Lord
-Bacon, in the 46th Aphorism of the "Novum Organum," and to this _dictum_
-nothing needs to be added.
-
-"The human understanding, when any proposition has been once laid down
-(either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it
-affords) forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation,
-and although most cogent and abundant instances may exist to the
-contrary, yet either does not observe, or despises them, or gets rid of
-and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious
-prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.
-It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive
-tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was
-pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by
-an inquiry, "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in
-spite of their vows?" All superstition is much the same, whether it be
-that of astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the like; in
-all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled,
-but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more
-common.... Besides, even in the absence of that eagerness and want of
-thought (which we have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual
-error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by
-affirmatives than negatives, whereas it ought duly and regularly to be
-impartial; nay, in establishing any true axiom, the negative instance is
-the most powerful."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-We have now briefly examined the principal of those phenomena which it
-has been, and in many instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural
-interposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain how far they receive
-explanation from the known laws of action of the senses and reasoning
-faculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion that they mainly
-come within the category of those laws.
-
-Of the exceptions to this conclusion, it is unfortunate that the
-authority upon which they depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the
-details imperfect in many of the most important particulars; and they,
-to use the words of Mrs. Crowe, (whose evidence in this respect is of
-considerable importance), "as they now stand, can have no scientific
-value; they cannot, in short, enter into the region of science at all,
-still less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be led
-to form, cannot be founded on pure induction. We must confine ourselves
-wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we shall
-assuredly founder."[81]
-
-We are not aware that this imperfection of details necessarily
-appertains to facts of this nature, and we simply require the same care
-against error which is expected and is exercised in other departments of
-inquiry; and until the instances presented bear evidence of this, we
-must entertain doubts, and decline to receive them as facts establishing
-such theories as have been endeavoured to be founded upon them.
-
-The great progress of physiology and psychology is almost daily enabling
-us to grapple with sensuous phenomena which have hitherto been obscure;
-and it is never to be lost sight of in researches into the domains of
-the so-called supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of our own
-powers is as yet very imperfect and limited.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR FARADAY'S LETTER ON TABLE MOVING.
-
-_Athenæum, July 2, 1853, p. 801._
-
-"The object which I had in view in my inquiry was, not to satisfy
-myself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of
-those who had turned tables,--but that I might be enabled to give a
-strong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for it.
-Yet the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the
-inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should adopt
-in any other physical investigation. The parties with whom I have worked
-were very honourable, very clear in their intentions, successful
-table-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the existence
-of a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual. It is with
-me a clear point that the table moves when the parties, though they
-strongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe, that they move it
-by ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table draws their hands;
-that it moves first, and they have to follow it; that sometimes it even
-moves from under their hands. With some, the table will move to the
-right or left, according as they wish or will it; with others, the
-direction of the first move is uncertain;--but all agree that the table
-moves the hands, and not the hands the table. Though I believe the
-parties do not intend to move the table, but obtain the result by a
-quasi-involuntary action, still I had no doubt of the influence of
-expectation upon their minds, and, through that, upon the success or
-failure of their efforts.
-
-"The first point, therefore, was to remove all objections due to
-expectation--having relation to the substances which I might desire to
-use; so, plates of the most different bodies, electrically speaking,
-namely, sand-paper, mill-board, glue, glass, moist clay, tinfoil,
-card-board, gutta percha, vulcanized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a
-bundle, and placed on a table, under the hands of a turner. The table
-turned. Other bundles of other plates were submitted to different
-persons at other times,--and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore,
-these substances may be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither
-during their use, nor at any other times, could the slightest trace of
-electrical or magnetic effects be obtained. At the same trials, it was
-readily ascertained that one person could produce the effect; and that
-the motion was not necessarily circular, but might be in a straight
-line. No form of experiment or mode of observation that I could devise
-gave me the slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No
-attraction or repulsion, or signs of tangential power appeared; nor
-anything which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical
-pressure exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to
-analyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal
-direction; doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A
-soft cement, consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was
-prepared. Four or five pieces of smooth slippery card-board were
-attached one over the other by little pellets of the cement, and the
-lower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table; the edges
-of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil
-line was drawn over the laps, so as to indicate position. The upper
-card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from
-sight. Then the table-turner placed the hands upon the upper card, and
-we waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to offer
-considerable resistence to mechanical motion, and also to retain the
-cards in any new position which they might acquire, and yet weak enough
-to give way slowly to a continued force.
-
-"When at last the tables, cards, and hands, all moved to the left
-together, and so a true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On
-examination, it was easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the
-line, that the hand had moved further than the table, and that the
-latter had lagged behind;--that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper
-card to the left, and that the under cards and the table had followed
-and been dragged by it. In other similar cases, when the table had not
-moved, still the upper card was found to have moved, showing that the
-hand had carried it in the expected direction. It was evident,
-therefore, that the table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor
-had it moved simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things
-under it, behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the
-hand back.
-
-"The next step was, to arrange an index, which should show whether the
-table moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both moved or
-remained at rest together.... Two thin boards, nine and a-half by seven
-inches, were provided; a board, nine by five inches, was glued to the
-middle of the under side of one of these (to be called the table-board),
-so as to raise the edges free from the table; being placed on the
-table, near and parallel to its side, an upright pin was fixed close to
-the further edge of the board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum
-for the indicating lever. Then, four glass rods, seven inches long, and
-a quarter of an inch in diameter, were placed as rollers on different
-parts of this table-board, and the upper board placed on them; the rods
-permitted any required amount of pressure on the boards, with a free
-motion of the upper on the lower to the right and left. At the part
-corresponding to the pin in the lower board, a piece was cut out of the
-upper board, and a pin attached there, which, being bent downwards,
-entered the hole in the end of the short arm of the index lever: this
-part of the lever was of card-board: the indicating prolongation was a
-straight hay-stalk fifteen inches long. In order to restrain the motion
-of the upper board on the lower, two vulcanized rubber rings were passed
-round both, at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst they
-tied the boards together, acted also as springs--and whilst they allowed
-the first, feeblest tendency to motion to be seen by the index, exerted,
-before the upper board had moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power
-in pulling the upper board back from either side, to resist a strong
-lateral action of the hand.
-
-"All being thus arranged, except that the lever was away, the two boards
-were tied together with string running parallel to the vulcanised rubber
-springs, so as to be immoveable in relation to each other. They were
-then placed on the table, and a table-turner sat down to them. The table
-very shortly moved in due order, showing that the apparatus offered no
-impediment to the action. A like apparatus, with metal rollers, produced
-the same result under the hands of another person. The index was now put
-into its place, and the string loosened, so that the springs should come
-into play. It was soon seen with the party that could will the motion in
-either direction (from whom the index was purposely hidden), that the
-hands were gradually creeping up in the direction before agreed upon,
-though the party certainly thought they were pressing downwards only.
-When shown that it was so, they were truly surprised; but when they
-lifted up their hands and immediately saw the index return to its normal
-position, they were convinced. When they looked at the index, and could
-see for themselves whether they were pressing truly downwards, or
-obliquely, so as to produce a resultant in the right or left handed
-direction, then such an effect never took place. Several tried, for a
-long while together, and with the best will in the world, but no motion,
-right or left, of the table or hand, or anything else, occurred.
-
-"I think the apparatus I have described may be useful to many who really
-wish to know the truth of nature, and who would prefer that truth to a
-mistaken conclusion, desired perhaps only because it seems to be new or
-strange. Persons do not know how difficult it is to press directly
-downward, or in any given direction against a fixed obstacle, or even to
-know only whether they are doing so or not, unless they have some
-indicator which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall instruct them;
-and this is more especially the case when the muscles of the fingers and
-hand have been cramped and rendered either tingling or insensible or
-cold by long-continued pressure. If a finger be pressed constantly into
-the corner of a window-frame for ten minutes or more, and then,
-continuing the pressure, the mind be directed to judge whether the force
-at a given moment is all horizontal or all downwards, or how much is in
-one direction and how much in the other, it will find great difficulty
-in deciding, and will, at last, become altogether uncertain,--at least
-such is my case. I know that a similar result occurs with others, for I
-have had two boards arranged, separated, not by rollers, but by plugs of
-vulcanized rubber; and with the vertical index, when a person with his
-hands on the upper board is requested to press only downwards, and the
-index is hidden from his sight, it moves to the right, to the left, to
-him and from him, and in all horizontal directions; so utterly unable is
-he strictly to fulfil his intention without a visible and correcting
-indicator. Now, such is the use of the instrument with the horizontal
-index and rollers; the mind is instructed and the involuntary or
-quasi-involuntary motion is checked in the commencement, and, therefore,
-never rises up to the degree needful to move the table, or even
-permanently the index itself. No one can suppose that looking at the
-index can in any way interfere with the transfer of electricity, or any
-other power, from the hand to the board under it, or to the table. If
-the board tends to move, it may do so; the index does not confine it;
-and if the table tends to move, there is no reason why it should not. If
-both were influenced by any power to move together, they may do so, as
-they did, indeed, when the apparatus was tied, and the mind and muscles
-left unwatched and unchecked."
-
-PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS, LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-
-[1] Locke. Of Human Understanding, B. I, ch. 2.
-
-[2] Cousin. Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne, edit. 1847,
-T. III, p. 269.
-
-[3] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 368.
-
-[4] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 370.
-
-[5] Plato. Politicus. Mitford's Greece, Vol. I, p. 84.
-
-[6] "Vain indeed is the life of all men in whom there is not the true
-knowledge of God: who, from the things which are seen to be good, have
-not been able to conceive aright of that which is goodness itself; nor,
-while they viewed the work, to acknowledge the architect: but have
-thought that either fire, or the wind, the swift air, or the stars in
-their courses, or the vast deep, or the sun and moon, were the deities
-presiding over the world."--_Liber Sapientiæ_, ch. 13, v. 1, 2.
-_Translation by Luke Howard, F.R.S._
-
-[7] An interesting illustration of the tendency of mankind in a state of
-savageism to attribute striking phenomena to supernatural agency, and
-deify the means through which they are apparently exhibited, occurred on
-the march of Cortes from Mexico to Honduras. During a deer-hunt, the
-horse which Cortes rode was taken ill. "It did not then die, though it
-would have been better if it had," says the devout but ruthless
-conqueror, parenthetically. A little while afterwards, having been
-courteously received by the Itzalan Indians, Cortes "entrusted them with
-the care of his horse Morgillo, which had been lamed, charging them to
-take great care of it, and attend to its recovery, as he prized it very
-highly, and telling them that when he had found the Spaniards he was in
-search of, he should send for his steed again. It was from no want of
-care on the part of the Itzaex, but rather from an excess of it, that
-Morgillo lost his life under their management; for in their anxiety to
-effect a cure, and regarding the animal as one endowed with reason, they
-gave him poultry and other meat to eat, and presented him with bunches
-of flowers, as they were accustomed to do to persons of rank when they
-were sick; a species of attention somewhat similar to that which the
-fool laughed at in _King Lear_, when he speaks of the cockney who for 'a
-pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.' The consequence of this
-unaccustomed style of medical treatment was, that Morgillo languished
-and died, and then a worse evil befell, for, observes the pious
-Villagutierre, "though some people say Canek burnt his idols in the
-presence of Cortes, there was in reality no burning of idols or anything
-else in that city of Tayasal; on the contrary, by leaving the horse with
-the infidel Itzaex, they obtained a greater and still more abominable
-idol than the many they had before." The meaning of this sentence is
-subsequently explained by the worthy chronicler informing us that, on
-the death of Morgillo, the Itzaex raised its effigy "in stone and
-mortar, very perfect," and worshipped it as a divinity. It was seated on
-its hind-quarters, on the floor of one of the temples, rising on its
-fore legs, with its hind legs bent under it. These barbarians adored it
-as the god of thunder and thunderbolts, calling him Tzinachac, which
-means the bride of thunder, or the thunderbolt. They gave it this name
-from having seen some of the Spaniards who were with Cortes fire their
-muskets over the horses' heads when they were hunting deer, and they
-believed the horses were the cause of the noise that was made, which
-they took for thunder, and the flash of the discharge and the smoke of
-the gunpowder for a thunderbolt."--_Fancourt's History of Yucatan._
-_Athenæum._ 1854, p. 109.
-
-[8] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum, B. II, c. 25.
-
-[9] Servius. Tooke's Pantheon, p. 198.
-
-[10] Horæ Britannicæ. By Jno. Hughes, Vol. I., p. 235. 1818.
-
-[11] The Garrows, a number of wild tribes occupying the district lying
-between the N.E. frontier of Bengal and the kingdom of Assam, in
-addition to the worship of Mâhâdeva, or Siva, adore also the sun and
-moon; and the _Khatties_, or _Catties_, another wild tribe inhabiting
-the peninsula of Guzerat, worship the sun.
-
-[12] Blackwell. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Bohn, 1847, p. 473.
-
-[13] Davis. "The Chinese," Chap. xii.
-
-[14] Humboldt. "Aspects of Nature," Vol. I., p. 198, note 51. "Steppes
-and Deserts."
-
-[15] Ruxton. Adventures in Mexico and Rocky Mountains, p. 192.
-
-[16]
-
-  _Str._  That cursed Chærophon and Socrates,
-          Who have deceived both thee and me alike.
-
-  _Phid._ I must not act unjustly towards my teachers.
-
-  _Str._  Nay, nay, revere paternal Jupiter;
-
-  _Phid._ Paternal Jupiter! old fashion'd fool;
-          Is there a Jupiter?
-
-  _Str._                    There is.
-
-  _Phid._                           Not so,
-          Since having cast out Jove a whirlwind reigns.
-
-  _Str._  Not cast him out; but I imagin'd this,
-          Seeing the whirlwind here. O wretched ones,
-          To take thee, earthen image, for a god!
-
-[17] Wheelwright's Translation, p. 124, and note. Oxford, 1837.
-
-[18] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum. B. I., ch. 15.
-
-[19] Op. cit., B. II., c. 24.
-
-[20] Bonomi. "Nineveh and its Palaces," pp. 139-264, &c.; Dr.
-Grotefend, Athenæum, June 26, 1853; Ravenshaw, Athenæum, July 16, 1853.
-
-[21] Paradise Lost.
-
-[22] Rape of the Lock. Ch. 1.
-
-[23] The _black_ colour which is popularly ascribed to the devil, was
-probably derived from old monkish legends, which affirmed that he often
-appeared as an Ethiopian. (Jortin. Vol. II., p. 13, ed. 1805.)
-
-[24] Bonomi. Op. cit., p. 159. "The root, or the original word from
-which teraphim is derived, signifies, to relax with fear, to strike with
-terror, or 'Repheh,' an appaller, one who makes others faint or fail; a
-signification that singularly accords with the terrifying images found
-by Botta." The possible connection between these images and the images
-(_teraphim_) which Rachel had stolen from her father Laban, is of great
-interest.
-
-[25] This custom is probably a relic of old Scandinavian mythology. In
-the "Prose Edda," it is stated, that the gods having captured Loki (the
-personification of evil), who had fled from their justly excited anger,
-"dragged him without commiseration into a cavern, wherein they placed
-three sharp-pointed rocks, boring a hole through each of them."
-
-[26] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 200.--Eusebius, in his _Oration_
-in praise of the Emperor Constantine, writes, that the Emperor honoured
-"the triumphall signe of the crosse, having really experienced and found
-the divine virtue that is therein. For by it the multitudes of his
-enemies were put to flight; by it the vaine ostentation of the enemies
-of God was suppressed, the petulant tongues of evil speakers and wicked
-men were silenced; by it the barbarous people were subdued; by it the
-invisible powers of the divil were vanquished and driven away; and by it
-the superstitious errors were confuted and abolished."
-
-[27] Bede. Ecclesiastical History. B. I., ch. 30. Dr. Giles' Transl.
-Bohn.
-
-[28] Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. Vol. I. p. 201. Note.
-Michaelmas Day.
-
-[29] Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum. B. III., ch. 5.
-
-[30] See "Notes and Queries." Sir J. E. Tennant, Vol. V., p. 121; W.
-Blood, &c., Vol. VIII., p. 413.
-
-[31] The Berlin correspondent of the _Times_ related the following
-incident:--
-
-"The comet which has lately been visible, has served a priest, not far
-from Warsaw, with materials for a very curious sermon. After having
-summoned his congregation together, although it was neither Sunday nor
-festival, and shown them the comet, he informed them that this was the
-same star that had appeared to the Magi at the birth of the Saviour, and
-that it was only visible now in the Russian Empire. Its appearance on
-this occasion was to intimate to the Russian eagle, that the time was
-now come for it to spread out its wings, and embrace all mankind in one
-orthodox and sanctifying church. He showed them the star now standing
-immediately over Constantinople, and explained that the dull light of
-the nucleus indicated its sorrow at the delay of the Russian army in
-proceeding to its destination."
-
-[32] "Madam Morrow, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and a
-descendant of a line of astrologers reaching back for centuries, will
-give ladies private lectures on all the events of life, in regard to
-health, wealth, love, courtship, and marriage. She is, without
-exception, the most wonderful astrologist in the world, or that has ever
-been known. She will even tell their very thoughts, and will show them
-the likenesses of their intended husbands and absent friends, which has
-astonished thousands during her absence in Europe. She will leave the
-city in a very short time. 76, Broome Street, between Cannon and
-Columbia. Gentlemen are not admitted."
-
-"Madame la Compt flatters herself that she is competent by her great
-experience in the art of astrology, to give true information in regard
-to the past, present, and future. She is able to see clearly any losses
-her visitors may have sustained, and will give satisfactory information
-in regard to the way of recovery. She has, and continues to give perfect
-satisfaction. Ladies and gentlemen 50 cents. 13, Howard Street."
-
-"Madame la Compt has been visited by over two hundred ladies and
-gentlemen the past week, and has given perfect satisfaction; and in
-consideration of the great patronage bestowed upon her, she will remain
-at 13, Howard Street, for four days more, when she will positively sail
-for the South."
-
-"Mrs. Alwin, renowned in Europe for her skill in foretelling the future,
-has arrived, and will furnish intelligence about all circumstances of
-life. She interprets dreams, law matters, and love, by astrology, books,
-and science, and tells to ladies and gentlemen the name of the persons
-they will marry; also the names of her visitors. Mrs. Alwin speaks the
-English, French, and German languages. Residence, 25, Rivington Street,
-upstairs, near the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"Mrs. Prewster, from Philadelphia, tenders her services to the ladies
-and gentlemen of this city in astrology, love, and law matters,
-interpreting dreams, &c., by books and science, constantly relied on by
-Napoleon; and will tell the name of the lady or gentleman they will
-marry; also the names of the visitors. No. 59, Great Jones Street,
-corner of the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"The celebrated Dr. F. Shuman, Swede by birth, just arrived in this
-city, offers his services in astrology, physiognomy, &c. He can be
-consulted in matters of love, marriage, past, present, and future events
-of life. Nativity calculated for ladies and gentlemen. Mr. S. has
-travelled through the greater part of the world in the last forty-two
-years, and is willing to give the most satisfactory information. Office,
-175, Chambers Street, near Greenwich."
-
-(From a recent number of the _New York Herald_. Notes and Queries,
-December 10, 1853, p. 561.)
-
-[33] The Æneis. B. III.
-
-[34] Carthon. Ossian.
-
-[35] "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe," by W. and Mary
-Howitt. Vol. I., p. 99.
-
-[36] Howitt. "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe." Vol. I.
-
-[37] An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians; by
-E. W. Lane, Vol. I, p. 311.
-
-[38] Adventures in the Libyan Desert, p. 22.
-
-[39] B. I, ch. 13 and 16.
-
-[40] Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Bohn, p. 248. And Table of Contents, p.
-XIII.
-
-[41] "The Fall of the Nibelungers," &c.; a Translation of the Nibelunge
-Nôt, or Nibelungenlied, by W. N. Lettsom, p. 59, St. 346, 347; p. 167,
-St. 983.
-
-[42] Thorpe. Op. cit. Table of Contents, p. IX.
-
-[43] "The marvellous stories, the frightful tales, the threats, which
-were so long the apanage of infancy, would dispose the naturally
-impressionable mind to receive all the fantastic creations of the
-period. Now, it is said, the system is completely changed, and they are
-taught to ridicule these ancient beliefs. This argument would be
-unanswerable if they spoke of colleges and boarding schools; but they
-forget the servants to whom are confided the early years of infants;
-thus is the nursery always reviving fooleries, terrors, and frightful
-stories, in the middle of which the infant grows. I will content me with
-one example, that of one of the celebrated poets of England, Robert
-Burns. 'I owed much in my infancy,' says this writer, 'to an old woman
-who lived with us, and who was extremely ignorant, and remarkably
-credulous and superstitious. No one in the country had a larger
-collection of tales and songs respecting devils, fairies, ghosts,
-sorcerers, magicians, jack-o'-lanterns, hobgoblins, phantoms,
-apparitions, charms, giants, dragons, &c.
-
-"'Not only did these tales cultivate in me the germs of poesy, but they
-had such an effect upon my imagination, that, even now, in my night
-journeys, I have often, in spite of myself, the eye upon certain
-suspicious places; and although no one can be more sceptical in such
-matters, an effort of the reason is occasionally necessary to chase away
-these vain terrors.'
-
-"'Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, solitariness, contribute
-strongly to develop the feeling of terror so wrongly cast in the minds
-of infants. Their eye readily perceives frightful figures which regard
-them in a menacing manner; their chamber is peopled with assassins,
-robbers, devils, and monsters of all kinds."--_A. Brierre de Boismont.
-"Des Hallucinations; ou Histoire Raisonnée des Apparitions,"_ &c. Ed.
-II, 1852, p. 362.
-
-[44] This idea has been beautifully expressed by Longfellow in the
-"Voices of the Night."
-
-    "When the hours of day are numbered,
-      And the voices of the night
-    Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
-      To a holy calm delight,
-
-    Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
-      And like phantoms grim and tall,
-    Shadows from the fitful firelight
-      Dance upon the parlour wall;
-
-    Then the forms of the departed
-      Enter at the open door;
-    The beloved, the true-hearted,
-      Come to visit us once more." &c.
-
-See also Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall. St. Martin's Eve.
-
-[45]
-
-    "I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
-      But or ever a prayer had gusht,
-    A wicked whisper came and made
-      My heart as dry as dust."
-
-                    Coleridge. "Ancient Mariner."
-
-[46] Brewster. Natural Magic, p. 15.
-
-[47] A few hundred feet from the place where this occurred, is a lane
-(Oldfield Lane, Wortley, near Leeds) which was noted, many years ago, as
-the beat of one of those somewhat rare spectres, a headless ghost. Some
-are living even now who have _known_ those who had seen this phantom.
-When last seen, it appeared as a comfortable-looking man, dressed in a
-drab-coat, and carried the head under the arm. As a Yorkshire version of
-a very ancient and wide-spread superstition, its memory is worth
-preserving. The belief in headless ghosts is found in many parts of
-England, Ireland (the _Dullahan_ or _Dulachan_), Wales, Scotland, Spain,
-France, and Germany.
-
-[48] Chambers' Miscellany. Art. "Spectral Apparitions," &c.
-
-[49] Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. 2nd Ed., p. 3.
-
-[50] "Phantoms of the Far East." Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Vol. XVII,
-p. 315.
-
-[51] Busby's Lucretius, B. IV.
-
-[52] Temora.
-
-[53] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 7.
-
-[54] Letters on Natural Magic. 5th Ed., p. 166.
-
-[55] D. Jardine, "Notes and Queries," Vol. VIII, p. 512, Nov. 26, 1853.
-
-[56] Hudibras. Can. III.
-
-[57] Athenæum. July 2, 1853, p. 801, and Appendix.
-
-[58] Müller. "Manuel de Physiologie." Traduit par A. J. L. Jourdan. 2nd
-ed., 1851, par E. Littré, T. II., p. 388. See also ¶ A. B. C. E. F.,
-Sect. V, "Phénomènes Subjectifs de Vision," p. 386.
-
-[59] Müller. Op. cit., T. II, p. 549.
-
-[60] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 74.
-
-[61] "Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, &c., in their Relations to
-the Vital Force," by Karl von Reichenbach, Pts. I & II.
-
-[62] "The Night Side of Nature," by Mrs. Crowe. Ed. 1853, p. 362.
-
-[63]
-
-    "I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,
-    Thy image steals between my God and me;
-    Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,
-    With every bead I drop too soft a tear."
-
-                       _Eloise and Abelard._ Pope.
-
-[64] Notes and Narrative of a Six Years' Mission principally among the
-Dens of London. By R. W. Vanderkiste, p. 182.
-
-[65] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 110.
-
-[66] "Theory of Pneumatology." By Dr. J. H. Jung-Stilling: translated by
-Saml. Jackson; p. 197, Lond., 1834.
-
-[67] Op. cit., p. 200.
-
-[68] The apparition of the "_White Lady_" was very irregular and
-uncertain, for many members of the family died without her spectre
-having been seen.
-
-[69] "Demonology and Witchcraft." 2nd Ed., p. 350, note.
-
-[70] "Household Words." Conducted by Charles Dickens, March, 1853, p. 6.
-
-[71] Op. cit., p. 142.
-
-[72] "Notes and Queries." Vol. VIII., p. 287.
-
-[73] Ed. 1829, Vol. IV., p. 271.
-
-[74] Op. cit., p. 182.
-
-[75] Op. cit., p. 470.
-
-[76] De. Divinatione et de Fato.
-
-[77] Op. cit. p. 243.
-
-[78] "Of Human Understanding." Bk. II, ch. 33, sect. 10.
-
-[79] Op. cit., p. 65.
-
-[80] "History of Europe," from 1789 to 1815. By Sir Archibald Alison,
-Bart. Chap. XX, Sect. 25, and notes.
-
-[81] Op. cit., p. 10.
-
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
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-<pre>
-
-Project Gutenberg's Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, by John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-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/license
-
-
-Title: Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites
-       Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief
-              in the Supernatural
-
-Author: John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-Release Date: August 29, 2012 [EBook #40616]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES ***
-
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-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
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-</pre>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h1>FIENDS, GHOSTS, <span class="smaller">AND</span> SPRITES.</h1>
-
-<p class="title lh2">INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF<br />
-THE ORIGIN AND NATURE<br />
-OF<br />
-BELIEF  IN THE SUPERNATURAL.</p>
-
-<p class="title largest"><span class="smcap">By JOHN NETTEN RADCLIFFE.</span></p>
-
-
-<p class="title smaller top6">LONDON:<br />
-RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.<br />
-1854.</p>
-
-<p class="title smaller">PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS,<br />
-LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<h2>FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.</h2>
-
-<hr class="r10" />
-
-<p class="p2">A belief in the supernatural has existed in all
-ages and among all nations.</p>
-
-<p>To trace the origin of this belief, the causes of
-the various modifications it has undergone, and
-the phases it has assumed, is, perhaps, one of the
-most interesting researches to which the mind
-can be given,&mdash;interesting, inasmuch as we find
-pervading every part of it the effects of those
-passions and affections which are most powerful
-and permanent in our nature.</p>
-
-<p>So general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling
-Power, possessing attributes altogether different
-from and superior to human powers, and
-bending these and the forces of nature to its
-will, that the thought has been entertained by
-many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span>
-is, however, refuted by an acquaintance with
-the inlets and modes of obtaining knowledge;
-by the fact that reason is necessary to its discovery;
-and by its uselessness.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> "There are
-neither innate ideas nor innate propositions; but
-there is an innate power of understanding that
-shows itself in primitive notions, which, when
-put into speech, are expressed in propositions,
-which propositions, decomposed, produce, under
-the influence of abstraction and analysis, distinct
-ideas."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p>
-
-<p>Others have asserted and maintained that man
-derives his knowledge of the existence of Deity,
-and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the
-exercise of reason upon himself and his own powers
-by self-reflection. If he reflects upon the wonderful
-power of liberty and free-will which he possesses,
-on his relation to surrounding beings and
-things, and particularly on his imperfect, limited,
-and finite powers, it is argued that the antithetical
-proposition of infinite must of necessity be admitted.
-"I cannot have the idea of the finite
-and of imperfection without having that of perfection
-and of infinite. These two ideas are logically
-correlative."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Or if man extends his reasoning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
-powers to the study or the contemplation "of
-the beauty, the order, the intelligence, the wisdom,
-and the perfection displayed throughout the universe;
-and as there must of necessity be in the
-cause what is witnessed in the effect, you reason
-from nature to its author, and from the existence
-of the perfection of the one you conclude the
-existence and perfection of the other."<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
-
-<p>But many theologists maintain that the knowledge
-of a Deity, and of the existence of supernatural
-beings, is derived solely from revelation;
-and stern and prolonged have been the struggles
-in this country between the upholders of the rival
-tenets.</p>
-
-<p>That no idea of a Deity, such as that which the
-Christian entertains, is to be found among the
-vague and undefined notions of supernatural
-power which are contained in the mythologies
-of pagan nations; that even the conceptions of
-Plato are to be summed up in the phrase "the
-unknown God;" and that the perfect idea of the
-Godhead is to be derived solely from Scripture,
-can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion
-sought to be established from this, that all our
-ideas of the supernatural are derived from this
-source, does not necessarily follow.</p>
-
-<p>The postulate that man can derive a knowledge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span>
-of the supernatural from the exercise of his
-mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or
-denied, but it is not improbable.</p>
-
-<p>Perhaps the nearest approach to correctness
-which we are as yet capable of on this subject
-is as follows:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>After the creation of man, God revealed himself.
-The perfect knowledge of the Deity thus
-obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the
-human race, notwithstanding the baneful effects
-of the fall; and at the epoch of the deluge, the
-solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm,
-formed a centre from which anew the
-attributes and powers of the Godhead were made
-known in all their truth and purity. But again
-sin prevailed, and with the exception of one race,
-who alone treasured the true knowledge of the
-Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of
-their fathers; and as they receded from the light,
-the idea of the Godhead became obscured, and in
-the progress of time well nigh lost, and the
-vague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power
-derived from tradition, prompted to a terror and
-awe of some invisible yet mighty influence, unknown
-and inexplicable, but which was manifested
-to man in the more striking objects and the incomprehensible
-phenomena of nature, which were
-regarded and worshipped as the seats of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
-unknown Power, forming the substratum of those
-wonderful systems of mythology which have characterised
-successive eras and races.</p>
-
-<p>"Once," writes Plato, referring to the earlier
-traditions of the Greeks, "one God governed the
-universe; but a great and extraordinary change
-taking place in the nature of men and things,
-infinitely for the worse (for originally there was
-perfect virtue and perfect happiness on earth),
-the command then devolved on Jupiter, with
-many inferior deities to preside over different
-departments under him."<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
-
-<p>To state the influence which each of the elements
-indicated above&mdash;tradition and reason&mdash;have
-had in the development of mythology, is doubtless
-impossible.</p>
-
-<p>The existence of the first element, <i>tradition</i>,
-is, to those who admit the truth of Scripture,
-undeniable, and it gives a clue to the elucidation
-of the leading principle in the belief in those
-gods, dÊmons, fiends, sprites, &amp;c., which, summed
-up, have constituted the objects of worship of
-different nations.</p>
-
-<p class="p2">I. As in the course of generations the pristine
-revelation of the Godhead to man became
-obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief
-alone remained,&mdash;the conceptions, the thoughts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>
-and imaginations of each generation being
-implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing
-it by the force of habit, education, and authority,&mdash;man,
-impressed with an imperfect notion of a
-supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of
-the material world, on seeking to unfold the
-source of those changes which he beheld in the
-budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of
-summer, the maturity of autumn, and the
-stern grandeur of winter, conceived that the
-wonderful phenomena ever going on around him
-owed their origin and effects to the influence of
-supernatural agency, and marking their apparent
-dependence upon the sun and other orbs in
-space, he offered adoration to those luminaries.
-But when he still further analysed the changes
-occurring on the surface of the globe, and comprehended
-the influence of the more palpable
-forces and elements, and the inexhaustible variety
-and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena
-which he witnessed, incapable of otherwise
-solving the mysteries which surrounded him, he
-deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling
-Spirit.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p>
-<p>Thus man concluded that he was surrounded
-by a world of supernatural beings, of different
-powers, attributes, and passions. The sun and
-moon, the planets and stars, were conceived to be
-the abodes of spiritual existences; and the effects
-caused by those orbs which more immediately
-influence our earth, were considered as the
-indications of the powers of their respective
-deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents;
-the ocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and
-rivers; and the earth, its hills, dales, and organic
-forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.
-Every object of beauty shadowed forth the
-operations of a beneficent Spirit; while devastating
-storms, barren places and deserts, and the convulsions
-of nature, betokened the malignancy of
-dÊmons or fiends. According as a country's
-surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and storm-tossed,
-or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the
-rays of a fervid sun, so do we find the principal
-characters of its mythology; stern, gigantic, and
-fierce gods or dÊmons, or spirits more kind
-towards man, and full of beauty and grace. The
-passions and affections of man, for the same
-reasons, were considered to be under the sway of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span>
-supernatural beings; in short, every operation of
-nature in the organic or inorganic, in the mental
-or physical worlds, was deemed an indication of
-the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled
-and governed it.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
-
-<p>These powers in the progress of time were
-personified and represented as possessed of
-passions and propensities similar to those of man;
-for the same finite and imperfect reason which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
-had concluded that they dwelt in the phenomena
-they were supposed to explain, also deemed,
-being unable to conceive any higher type of
-existence than was seen in man himself, that they
-differed simply in degree of power, and were alike
-subject to those appetites and passions which
-characterised humanity.</p>
-
-<p>This source of belief in spiritual existences is
-found dominant in the systems of mythology of
-all nations; and as it arises from causes which
-are inherant in man, it can easily be understood
-why there is so great a similarity in the primary
-mythological conceptions of different races.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p>
-<p>The mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome
-furnish a very perfect illustration of the influence
-which this cause has exercised in the development
-of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better
-method of illustration can be adopted, than a
-sketch of the physical signification of the principal
-deities, and classes of deities, of those countries.</p>
-
-<p>The primitive religion of the Greeks and
-Romans would appear to have consisted in the
-worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):&mdash;the
-Titans are nearly all personifications of the celestial
-orbs. Subsequently, their mythology assumed
-a more physical character, and the offspring of
-Cronos (Saturn, <i>time</i>), or the personifications of
-the firmament, atmosphere, sea, &amp;c., formed the
-leading deities of the more developed system of
-religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.</p>
-
-<p>In this system, the god Jupiter is symbolical
-of the upper regions of the atmosphere (<i>Æther</i>).
-Euripides writes:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This own the chief of deities above,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And this acknowledge by the name of Jove."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>At a later period this god was conceived to
-represent the soul of the world, diffused alike
-through animate and inanimate nature; or, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
-Virgil poetically describes it in the Æneid&mdash;(Book
-vi.):</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i4">"The heaven and earth's compacted frame,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And flowing waters, and the starry flame,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And both the radiant lights, one common soul<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This active mind infused through all the space,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And birds of air, and monsters of the main."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The god Apollo signifies the sun,&mdash;his prophetic
-power being symbolical of its influence in dispelling
-darkness; his knowledge of medicine and
-healing, signifies the influence of that luminary in
-revivifying and restoring the powers of organic
-life; his skill in music is symbolical of the
-central position of the sun among the seven
-planets, and its making harmony with them; and
-the harp upon which this god is depicted as playing,
-is furnished with seven strings, in emblem
-of the seven planets. <i>Pan</i> represents the universal
-world, and he is the emblem of fecundity.
-Hence this god is depicted in his upper part as a
-man, in his lower parts as a beast; "because the
-superior and celestial part of the world is beautiful,
-radiant and glorious, as the face of this god,
-whose horns resemble the rays of the sun, and the
-horns of the moon. The redness of his face is
-like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
-skin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament.
-In his lower parts he is shagged and deformed,
-which represents the shrubs, and wild
-beasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's
-feet signify the solidity of the earth; and his pipe
-of seven reeds, that celestial harmony which is
-made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's
-hook, crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies
-the turning of the year into itself."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
-
-<p>The goddess <i>Cybele</i> was symbolical of the
-earth; <i>Juno</i>, of the air&mdash;the link between earthly
-and heavenly natures; <i>Vulcan</i>, of fire; <i>Æolus</i>, of
-the winds; <i>Diana</i>, of the moon; <i>Neptune</i>, of the
-sea; <i>Rusina</i>, of the country; <i>Ceres</i>, of the fruits
-of the earth; <i>Collina</i>, of the hills; <i>Vallonia</i>, of
-the valleys; <i>Silvanus</i>, of the woods, which teemed
-also with inferior deities&mdash;<i>satyrs</i> and <i>fauns;</i> <i>Seia</i>
-presided over all seed; <i>Flora</i>, flowers; <i>Proserpina</i>
-cherished the corn when it had sprung above the
-earth; <i>Volasia</i> folded the blade round it ere the
-beard broke out; <i>Nodosus</i> watched over the
-joints and knots of the stalk; <i>Patelina</i> governed
-the opened ear; <i>Lactusa</i> took charge when it
-became milky; <i>Matura</i> guarded and conducted it
-to maturity; <i>Hostilina</i> presided over the crop; and
-<i>Tutelina</i>, over the cutting.</p>
-
-<p><i>Nymphs</i>, goddesses of lovely form, and light
-and airy beauty, sported about the earth; a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
-<i>Dryad</i> presided over every tree; a <i>Hamadryad</i>
-was born, lived, and died with each oak; <i>Oreads</i>
-dwelt on the mountains; <i>NapëÊ</i>, in the groves
-and valleys; <i>Lemoniads</i>, in the meadows and
-fields; <i>Nereiads</i>, in the ocean; <i>Naiads</i>, at the
-fountains; <i>Fluviales</i>, by the rivers: and <i>Lirinades</i>,
-by lakes and ponds.</p>
-
-<p><i>Vesta</i> presided over the vital heat of the body;
-<i>Janus</i> opened the gate of life to infant man;
-<i>Opis</i> assisted him when he came into the world;
-<i>Nascio</i> presided over the moment of birth;
-<i>Cunia</i> watched over the cradle, and while he lay
-and slept; <i>Vagitanus</i>, or <i>Vaticanus</i>, took care
-while the infant cried; <i>Rumina</i> presided while the
-child sucked the breast; <i>Potina</i> guarded the
-infant drinking; <i>Educa</i> watched over it while it
-received food; <i>Ossilago</i> "knit its bones" and
-hardened its body; <i>Carna</i> presided over the
-safety of the inward parts; the goddess <i>Nundina</i>
-had charge of the child on the ninth day&mdash;the day
-of purification; <i>Statilinus</i> taught the infant to
-stand and walk, and preserved it from falling;
-<i>Fabulinus</i> looked after the child when it began to
-speak; <i>Paventia</i> preserved it from fright; <i>Juventus</i>
-protected the beginning of youth; <i>Agenoria</i>
-excited man to action; <i>Strenua</i> encouraged him
-to behave bravely on all occasions; <i>Stimula</i> urged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
-him to extraordinary exertions; <i>Horta</i> exhorted
-him to noble actions; <i>Quis</i> gave peace and quietude;
-<i>Murcia</i> rendered man lazy, idle, and dull;
-<i>Adeona</i> protected him in his outgoings and incomings;
-<i>Vibilia</i> guarded wanderers; <i>Vacuna</i>
-protected the lazy and idle; <i>Fessonia</i> refreshed
-the weary; <i>Meditrina</i> healed injuries; <i>Vitula</i>
-presided over and gave mirth; <i>Volupia</i> governed
-pleasures; <i>Orbona</i> was a goddess supplicated that
-she might not leave parents destitute of children;
-<i>Pellonia</i> drove away enemies; <i>Numeria</i> endued
-men with the power of casting numbers; <i>Sentia</i>
-gave just and honourable sentiments; <i>Augerona</i>
-removed anguish from the mind; and <i>Consus</i>
-presided over good counsels.</p>
-
-<p><i>Virtue</i> also was worshipped as a goddess; and
-the several species of virtue were considered each
-as emanating from some godlike power, and
-<i>Faith</i>, <i>Hope</i>, <i>Justice</i>, <i>Piety</i>, <i>Peace</i>, <i>Fidelity</i>,
-<i>Liberty</i>, and <i>Money</i>, were worshipped as good
-deities; while, on the other hand, <i>Envy</i>, <i>Contumely</i>,
-<i>Impudence</i>, <i>Calumny</i>, <i>Fraud</i>, <i>Discord</i>,
-<i>Fury</i>, <i>Fame</i>, <i>Fortune</i>, <i>Fever</i>, and <i>Silence</i>, were
-supplicated as evil deities.</p>
-
-<p><i>Minerva</i> was symbolical of wisdom and chastity;
-<i>Mercury</i>, of eloquence&mdash;speech; <i>Venus</i> of ungovernable
-passions and desire; <i>Saturn</i>, time;
-<i>Momus</i>, mockery; <i>Silenus</i>, jesting; <i>Mars</i>, war; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
-<i>Bacchus</i>, wine. The <i>Muses</i> each represented an
-accomplishment. Thus, <i>Calliope</i> presided over
-epic poetry; <i>Clio</i>, history; <i>Erato</i>, elegy and
-amorous song; <i>Thalia</i>, comedy, gay, light, and
-pleasing song; <i>Melpomene</i>, tragedy; <i>Terpsichore</i>,
-dancing; <i>Euterpe</i>, music; <i>Polyhymnia</i>, religious
-song; and <i>Urania</i>, the knowledge of celestial
-events.</p>
-
-<p><i>Themis</i> taught mankind what was honest, just,
-and right; <i>AstrÊa</i> was the goddess of justice;
-<i>Nemesis</i> punished vice, rewarded virtue, and taught
-mankind their duty.</p>
-
-<p>Every action of man, both in his collective and
-individual capacity&mdash;everything in relation to his
-household and domestic affairs&mdash;was also conceived
-to be governed by supernatural powers, which
-were classed under the names of <i>Penates</i> and
-<i>Lares</i>.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Penates</i>, as may well be imagined, were
-almost numberless, but they may be divided into
-three classes: 1st, those which presided over kingdoms
-and provinces; 2nd, those which presided
-over cities only; and 3rd, those presiding over
-houses and families. To instance to what an extent
-this belief was carried, a penate named <i>Ferculus</i>
-looked after the door; the goddess <i>Cardua</i> after
-the hinges; and <i>Limentius</i> protected the threshold.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Lares</i> were of human origin, and they presided
-also over houses, streets, and ways. Subsequently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span>
-their power was extended to the country
-and the sea.</p>
-
-<p>To each person was also assigned two deities,
-termed <i>genii</i>. These spirits were subsidiary to the
-gods already mentioned, it being one of their
-duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The
-genii differed in nature and disposition, and were
-divided into two classes&mdash;the <i>good</i> and the <i>bad</i>.
-The <i>good genius</i> excited men to all actions of
-honour and virtue; the <i>evil genius</i> excited him to
-all manner of wickedness. The Greeks termed
-these genii <i>dÊmons</i>, either from the terror and
-dread they created when they appeared, or from
-the wise answer they returned when consulted as
-oracles.</p>
-
-<p>The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience
-and by the effects of the evil passions, were
-attributed to three supernatural powers termed
-the <i>Furies</i>&mdash;<i>Alecto</i>, <i>Tisiphone</i>, and <i>MegÊra</i>&mdash;who
-became symbolical of the avengers of wickedness;
-and lastly, Night, Sleep, and Death&mdash;<i>Nox</i>,
-<i>Mors</i>, and <i>Somnus</i>&mdash;were elevated among the gods.</p>
-
-<p>This brief sketch will serve to show the leading
-principle entering into the formation of the Grecian
-and Roman mythology&mdash;a mythology containing
-more than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate
-how every hidden power of nature as well in
-the organic as the inorganic world; and how<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> every
-equally inexplicable operation of the human mind
-was referred, for an explanation, to the influence
-of a supernatural power, which in the progress of
-time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed
-in such a form as best set forth the effects it was
-conceived to produce.</p>
-
-<p>This source of the belief in the supernatural, as
-we have already stated, will be found to have prevailed
-among all nations; hence their primary
-mythological conceptions are one and the same,
-modified by the difference of climate, habits, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, of the gods of the ancient Britons&mdash;<i>Belin</i>,
-<i>Plennyd</i>, or <i>Granwyn</i>, possessed the attributes
-of, and was the same with, Apollo; <i>Gwydion</i>,
-or <i>Teutath</i>, had all the attributes of Mercury;
-<i>Daronwy</i>, <i>Taranwy</i>, or <i>Taranis</i>, the thunderer, of
-Jove; <i>Anras</i>, or <i>Andraste</i>, of Bellona; <i>He-us</i>,
-<i>Hesus</i>, <i>Hugadarn</i>, or <i>Hu-ysgwn</i>, united the characters
-of Bacchus and Mars; <i>Ked</i> and <i>Keridwen</i>
-answered to Ceres; <i>Llenwy</i> to Proserpine; <i>Olwen</i>
-and <i>Dwynwen</i> to Venus; and <i>Neivion</i> to Neptune.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
-
-<p>In the Scandinavian mythology the principal
-gods are personifications of physical and mental
-powers. <i>Odin</i>, the most powerful of the three
-beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses
-the attributes of Mercury; and according
-to Finn Magnusen, <i>Vili</i> is the personification of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
-light; <i>Ve</i>, of fire. The two ravens which are
-depicted as sitting constantly upon the shoulders
-of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of the
-principal gods, we find that <i>Thor</i> is symbolical of
-thunder; <i>Baldur</i> of the sun; <i>Njord</i> rules over the
-winds, sea, &amp;c.; <i>Frey</i> is the god of rain, sunshine,
-and the fruits of the earth; <i>Tyr</i>, of war;
-<i>Bragi</i>, of wisdom and poetry; <i>Vidar</i>, of silence;
-<i>Forseti</i>, of law and justice; <i>Loki</i> is the personification
-of evil; <i>Frigga</i> is the goddess of the earth;
-and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the
-past, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance,
-love, courtesy, wisdom, and every form and
-passion and power of nature which the Scandinavians
-had separated and distinguished, each
-had its special and worshipped god.</p>
-
-<p>The original worship of the Hindoos<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> was directed
-to the heavenly bodies, the elements, and
-natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers,
-which form the principal part of the Vedas, or
-sacred writings, the firmament, the sun, moon,
-fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most frequently
-addressed. These writings inculcate the
-worship of the elements and planets, and differ<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
-from the more recent and legendary poems which
-teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In
-the Sanhitâ of the Rig-veda, the invocations which
-it contains are chiefly addressed to the deities of
-fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons, the
-sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present
-at the sacrifices, or are appealed to for wealth or
-for their several beneficial qualities. The personified
-attributes of <i>Brahma</i>, <i>Vishnu</i>, and <i>Siva</i>,
-signifying respectively creation, preservation, and
-destruction, are due to a later and more refined
-era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior
-deities ranking next in order to the <i>Trimurti</i>, and
-termed <i>Lokapalas</i>, are all personifications of natural
-objects and powers. Thus <i>Indra</i> is the god
-of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder,
-lightning, storm, and rain; <i>Agni</i>, of fire; <i>Yama</i>,
-of the infernal regions; <i>Surya</i>, of the sun; <i>Varuna</i>,
-of water; <i>Parana</i>, of wind; <i>Kuvera</i>, of wealth;
-and <i>Soma</i>, or <i>Chandra</i>, of the moon.</p>
-
-<p>The celebrated line which it is enjoined should
-be repeated without intermission, and which is
-the most holy passage in the Vedas, reads literally,
-"Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri
-(the sun&mdash;the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects."
-This, it is asserted, is addressed to the
-sun as the symbol of a divine and all-powerful
-being, and it is regarded as a proof of the mo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>notheism
-of the Vedas. This explanation is, however,
-considered by some to be far from satisfactory,
-and to offer greater difficulties than the text
-ever can when taken in a natural light.</p>
-
-<p>The creed of Buddha contains similar traces of
-elemental worship. The five Buddhas and the
-five Bodhisattwas would appear to be personifications
-of the principal natural elements and
-phenomena.</p>
-
-<p>In Persian mythology we find a similar deification
-of natural phenomena. In the creed of
-Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing
-beliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being,
-<i>Zernane Akherene</i> (illimitable, uncreated time),
-who created <i>Ormuzd</i> (light, goodness); and <i>Ahrimann</i>
-(darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe,
-and the genii, or deities of light, of whom
-there are three classes.</p>
-
-<p><i>1st Class.</i> The seven <i>Amshaspands</i>, including
-<i>Ormuzd</i> himself. The remaining are <i>Bahman</i>, the
-genius of the region of light; <i>Ardibehesht</i>, of
-ethereal fire; <i>Sharwir</i>, of metals; <i>Sarpandomad</i>,
-of fruitfulness; <i>Khudad</i>, of time; <i>Amerdad</i>, of
-the vegetable world, flocks, and herds.</p>
-
-<p><i>2nd Class.</i> The twenty-seven <i>Izeds</i>, male and
-female&mdash;the <i>elementary</i> deities: e.g. <i>Khorsid</i>, the
-deity of the sun; <i>Mah</i>, of the moon; <i>Tashter</i>, of
-the dog-star, and of rain; <i>Rapitan</i>, the deity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
-heat, &amp;c. These deities were probably worshipped
-before the belief was reduced to a system.</p>
-
-<p><i>3rd Class.</i> The <i>Fervers</i>&mdash;the vivifying principles
-of nature, the ideal types of the material universe,
-corresponding in general with the <i>ideas</i> of Plato.
-Every one, even Ormuzd, has his Ferver. "An
-Iranite has thus constantly by his side his ideal
-type, or uncorrupted material image, to guide him
-through life and preserve him from evil."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
-
-<p>The Iranite worships light, fire, and water, as
-emblems of Ormuzd, in whom these elements are
-united; he does not worship the elementary
-spirits attached to them.</p>
-
-<p>In China, the state religion&mdash;the religious system
-of Confucius&mdash;embodies the following objects
-of worship, arranged in three classes:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p><i>1st Class.</i> <i>Ta sze</i>, or <i>great sacrifices</i>, includes
-the worship of the heavens (<i>Yâng</i>), and the earth
-(<i>Yin</i>); and while worshipping the material heaven,
-they appear to consider that there exists an animating
-<i>intelligence</i> (<i>Tae-keih</i>) which presides over
-the world, rewarding virtue and vice. This class
-includes also deified sovereigns.</p>
-
-<p><i>2nd Class.</i> <i>Choong-sze</i>, <i>medium sacrifices</i>, includes
-the worship of gods of the land and grain,
-the sun and moon, genii, sages, gods of letters,
-inventors of agriculture, manufacturers, and useful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
-arts.</p>
-
-<p><i>3rd Class.</i> <i>Seaon-sze</i>, or <i>lesser sacrifices</i>, includes
-the worship of the ancient patron of the
-healing art; innumerable spirits of deceased statesmen,
-eminent scholars, martyrs to virtue, &amp;c.;
-the principal phenomena of nature, as the clouds,
-rain, wind, thunder, each of which has its presiding
-god; the military banners (like the Romans);
-the god of war; <i>Loong-wang</i>, the dragon-king;
-the gods of rain and the watery elements; and
-<i>Tien-how</i>, the queen of heaven and goddess of the
-weather. The Chinese also believe in good and
-evil genii, and in tutelar spirits presiding over
-families, houses, and towns.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p>
-
-<p>In Africa, the mythology of its different nations
-is based on natural objects and phenomena. The
-natives of Ashanti and the neighbouring districts
-worship water, lakes, rivers, mountains, rocks and
-stones, leopards, panthers, wolves, crocodiles, &amp;c.,
-all of which are more or less powerful "fetishes;"
-and the Nubian worships the moon. The natives
-of Tahiti and the islands of the South Sea also
-derive their principal ideas of supernatural beings
-from material objects. In Mangareva, the largest
-of the Gambier Islands, the gods adored by the
-natives were principally personifications of natural
-objects. A god named <i>Tea</i> was the deity <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>and
-creator of the sun, wind, and water; <i>Rongo</i> was
-the god of rain; <i>Tairi</i>, of thunder; <i>Arikitenow</i>, of
-the ocean; <i>A-nghi</i>, of storms and famine; <i>Napitoiti</i>,
-of death, &amp;c. The Tahitan conceives also
-that animals, trees, stones, &amp;c., possess souls
-which, like his own, after destruction will have a
-subsequent existence. On the vast continent of
-South America we find numerous traces of elemental
-and natural worship. The aborigines of
-Paraguay supplicate the sun, moon, stars, thunder,
-lightning, groves, &amp;c. In the district bounded
-by the Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and
-the Cassequiare, including an extent of about
-8000 square miles, and scattered also over a still
-greater extent of this continent, are found rocks
-covered with colossal symbolical figures of crocodiles
-and tigers, household utensils, and of the
-sun and moon,&mdash;doubtless objects of adoration
-to nations of whose existence even tradition has
-not preserved a trace. It is also probable that
-the rocks thus engraved were regarded as sacred;
-for the Macusi Indians, inhabiting one portion of
-the districts where these sculptures are found,
-have the tradition that "the sole survivor of a
-general deluge repeopled the earth by changing
-stones into human beings."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> The Incas of Peru&mdash;the
-children of the sun&mdash;bu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>ilt magnificent temples,
-and adored that luminary; and the sculptures
-on the walls of the colossal temples and buildings
-of the Aztecs, the ancient inhabitants of Mexico,
-as well as the remains of the pyramids of the sun
-and moon at Teotihuacan, teach the same lesson
-with regard to that extinct race. The Pueblo
-Indians of New Mexico still perpetuate the holy
-fire "by the side of which the Aztecan kept a
-continual watch for the return to earth of Quetzalcoatl,
-the god of air." In a solitary cave of
-the mountains is preserved the undying fire, and
-its dim light is seen by the hunter if, by chance,
-led by the chase, he passes near to this lonely
-temple.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> Among the tribes which inhabit the
-more northerly parts of the American continent,
-we find also similar traces of the important influence
-which natural phenomena have exercised
-in the development of their ideas of supernatural
-existences.</p>
-
-<p>We could not well close this sketch without
-allusion to the Shaman religion, which is diffused
-throughout the principal nations of Asiatic Russia,
-a great part of the Tartars, the Eins, Samoiedes,
-Ostiaks, Mandshurs, Burats, and Tungsees; and
-it is even professed among the Coriaks and
-Techuks, and people of the eastern islands.
-This sys<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>tem of religion is essentially founded
-upon the observation of natural phenomena: it
-teaches that the gods (<i>Burchans</i>) arose from the
-general mass of matter and spirit; and while inculcating
-the existence of a spiritual world, it
-instils the belief in the self-existence of matter.</p>
-
-<p>These remarks will sufficiently show the important
-influence which the observation of natural
-phenomena has had in the development of the
-belief in the Supernatural of most nations; and
-it will fully indicate the primary reason of the
-correspondence of their principal mythological
-conceptions. A consideration of the different
-habits, degree of civilization, locality, &amp;c., will
-also indicate the principal reason of the various
-modifications which the same mythological conception
-is found to present among different
-nations.</p>
-
-<p>There was one Jupiter for Europe, and another
-for Africa; and the varied forms under which this
-god was worshipped, derived from the locality,
-habits, and other peculiarities of his worshippers,
-were very numerous. At Athens, the great
-Jupiter was the Olympian; at Rome, the Capitoline.
-There was the mild and the thundering
-Jupiter, the Jupiter Nicephorus, Opitulus, Fulminator,
-&amp;c., all differing in some subordinate
-characters.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p>
-<p>Ammon, of Egypt; Belus, of the Babylonians;
-Ibis, of the Phœnicians; Allah, of the Arabians;
-Beel, Baal, Beelphagor, Beelzebub, Beelzemer,
-&amp;c., all possess the attributes of Jupiter, and are
-the same with that god.</p>
-
-<p>The Buddha of India; Fohi, of the Chinese;
-Odin, or Woden, of the Scandinavians; and Gwydion,
-of the Ancient Britons, correspond with
-Mercury.</p>
-
-<p>Vishnu, Brahma, Siva, and Krishna, the latter
-both of the Irish and Sanscrit, correspond with
-Apollo; whilst Arun, of the Irish and Hindoo
-superstitions, corresponds with the Aurora of the
-Greeks.</p>
-
-<p>It is peculiarly interesting to mark in the writings
-of classic authors the earlier traces of a
-correct explanation of the causes operating in the
-changes observed in nature, and their influence in
-modifying the mythological ideas of the period.
-Socrates penetrated so far in the interpretation of
-certain physical phenomena as to discover that
-they might be explained without having recourse
-to the idea of supernatural agency. This is most
-interestingly shown in Aristophanes' comedy of
-"The Clouds" (<span class="smaller">B.C.</span> 440). In this comedy, written
-for the purpose of throwing ridicule and contempt
-on the sophistical philosophy of Socrates,
-Strepsiades, an aged and ignorant man, is represented
-as suffering from the excesses and expenses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
-of his son Phidippides. He conceives the
-idea of studying logic, in order, by mere subtle
-reasoning, to overcome and cheat his creditors.
-He enrols himself as a pupil of Socrates, and in
-Act I, Scene 2, the following scene occurs:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="drama">
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>  Is not Olympian Jupiter our God?</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Soc.</i></span> What Jupiter? nay, jest not&mdash;there is none.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>  How say'st thou? who then rains?&mdash;this first of all<br />
-Declare to me.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Soc.</i></span>     <span class="s2">Why these (<i>the clouds</i>): by mighty signs</span><br />
-This I will prove to thee. Hast ever seen<br />
-Jove raining without clouds?&mdash;if it were so,<br />
-Through the clear fields of ether must he rain,<br />
-While these were far away.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>       <span class="s8">Now by Apollo,</span><br />
-Full well hast thou discours'd upon this point;<br />
-Till now, in truth, I thought 'twas Jupiter,<br />
-Distilling through a sieve. But tell me next,<br />
-Who is the thunderer?&mdash;this awakes my dread.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Soc.</i></span>  They thunder as they roll.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>         <span class="s10">But how, I pray?</span><br />
-Say, thou who darest all.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Soc.</i></span>         <span class="s6">When they are fill'd</span><br />
-With water, and perforce impell'd along,<br />
-Driven precipitate, all full of rain,<br />
-They meet together, bursting with a crash.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span> But who compels them thus to move along?<br />
-Is not this Jove?</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Soc.</i></span>      <span class="s4"> No, but th'Êtherial whirl.</span></p>
-</div>
-
-<p>In a subsequent part of the comedy (Act III,
-Scene 1) Strepsiades is represented as speaking of
-this idea of a whirlwind as a deified being, thus
-admirably showing the tendency of man to consider<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
-that which he could not comprehend as
-the result of supernatural agency, and to personify
-it.</p>
-
-<div class="drama">
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>  Thou swearest now, by Jove.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Phid.</i></span> I do.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>     <span class="s2"> Thou see'st how good it is to learn,</span><br />
-There is no Jove, Phidippides.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Phid.</i></span>     <span class="s8">Who then?</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>  A whirlwind reigns; having driven him, Jove, away.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<p>It would seem, also, that Socrates himself was
-subject to the influence of this feeling; for a
-passage in Act V, Scene 1,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> has led to the conclusion
-"that in the school of Socrates was placed
-an earthen image (ΎῖΜος, the name of an earthen
-vessel as well as of the <i>whirlwind</i>, who has usurped
-the honours and attributes of Jove). (See Schol.
-ad Vesp. 617.) This, probably, was done by the
-philosopher as a sort of compensation for having
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>expelled Jupiter (τ᜞Μ Διᜱ) from his mythological
-system."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
-
-<p class="p2">II. But the ideas derived from the contemplation
-of natural phenomena were not the sole
-sources of mythology, such as we have received
-it. Other and most powerful causes operated,
-and of those next in degree of importance were
-those feelings which prompted to the deification
-of men.</p>
-
-<p>PersÊus, a disciple of Zeno, "says, that they
-who have made discoveries advantageous to the
-life of man, should be esteemed as gods; and the
-very things, he says, which are healthful and
-beneficial, should have divine appellations; so
-that he thinks it not sufficient to call them the
-discoverers of gods, but that they themselves
-should be deemed divine."<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p>
-
-<p>The author of the "Book of Wisdom" in the
-Apocrypha, details other causes which tended
-to the same result. He writes, (Chapter xiv,
-v. 15-21):&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a
-son who hath been taken from him, makes an
-image of his child: and him who before was <i>to
-his family</i> as a dead man, they now begin to
-worship as a god; rites and sacrifices being instituted,
-to be observed by his dependents. And in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
-process of time, custom having established these
-as a law, an image set up by an impious tyrant
-receives divine honours. A man being unable to
-render such respect in their presence to those
-who dwelt remote from them, and having received
-their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded
-to make a conspicuous image of any king
-to whom they inclined to pay divine honours, by
-which means, though absent, the ruler receives
-their solicitous homage, as though present with
-them. The exquisite pains bestowed by the
-artist has likewise contributed to this worship of
-the absent by ignorant men; for being willing to
-give perfect satisfaction to him for whom he doth
-it, he avails himself of all the resources of his art
-to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude,
-allured by the beauty of the statue, come
-to regard as a god him whom before they honoured
-but as a man. And this hath been the great
-delusion of humanity, that out of affection for
-the dead, or subserviency to their rulers, men
-have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable
-name of God."</p>
-
-<p>Most systems of mythology contain examples
-of deities which have been derived from this
-source.</p>
-
-<p>"It has been a general custom, likewise," writes
-Cicero,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> "that men who have done important<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
-service to the public should be exalted to heaven
-by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules,
-Castor and Pollux, Æsculapius and Liber, became
-gods; *&nbsp;*&nbsp;* thus, likewise, Romulus, or Quirinus&mdash;for
-they are thought to be the same&mdash;became
-a god. They are justly esteemed as deities, since
-their souls subsist and enjoy eternity, from
-whence they are perfect and immortal beings."</p>
-
-<p>The Chinese, at the present day, deify and
-adore their deceased emperors, as well as the
-spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs to
-virtue, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>It has occasionally happened that some great
-sage, on his apotheosis, had attributed to him that
-which he had simply expounded during life, and
-thus became the personification of the religious
-ideas he had entertained. Buddha, who lived, as
-nearly as can be ascertained, about 1000 years before
-Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India.
-After death he was deified by his converts, and
-became the embodiment of the principles he had
-advocated when on earth; and his name, with
-various modifications, was applied to the system
-of cosmogony and religion which he had advocated.
-The Grand Lamas (<i>Chaberons</i>) of Thibet
-are regarded as incarnations (<i>avatars</i>) of Buddha,
-and as such are adored by the Thibetia<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>ns and the
-various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast
-district which extends from the banks of the
-Volga to Corea, in the Sea of Japan.</p>
-
-<p>After the persecution which terminated in the
-expulsion of the followers of Buddha from Hindostan,
-the Hindoos, not content with their celestial
-gods or heroes, extended their adoration to
-various living individuals, particularly to the
-Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight
-years of age are worshipped by them as forms of
-the goddess Bhavani (<i>Venus</i>); and at certain seasons
-of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his
-wife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.</p>
-
-<p>Some writers have thought that all the gods of
-the ancients consisted of deified men. This is,
-however, an error; for the deification of men was
-an act second in order to the worship of natural
-objects and phenomena. The chronological position
-of this element of mythology has, among
-other reasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting
-conclusions on the respective ages of the
-palaces of Nineveh.</p>
-
-<p>On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are
-found sculptured the winged and human-headed
-bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged
-figures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed
-divinities, and other figures, which are
-conceived to be symbolical of constellat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>ions, and
-of astronomical phenomena. From these nobler
-and simpler ideas of Divinity it is inferred, that
-when this palace was built the worship of the
-Assyrians was comparatively pure. But on the
-walls of Nimroud, in addition to the symbolical
-representations found at Khorsabad, there are
-also indications of an increased number of divinities,
-from the presence of deified men; hence a
-reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the
-system of religion at the period when this palace
-was built, and consequently its more recent date.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p>
-
-<p class="p2">III. Another element has also exercised a considerable
-influence upon the mythologies of some
-nations, namely, <i>Scriptural narrative and traditions</i>.
-It is not improbable that several of the
-heathen myths have been derived from this source.
-Many, indeed, believe that all mythology arises
-from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that
-Deucalion is merely another name for Noah; Hercules
-for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and Bacchus
-is either Nimrod or Moses&mdash;for the former supposition
-the similarity of name being assigned; for
-the latter, among others, one of the names and
-some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
-was named <i>Bicornis, double-horned;</i> and the face
-of Moses appeared double-horned when he came
-down from the mountain where he had spoken to
-God,&mdash;the rays of glory darting from his brow
-having the semblance of radiant horns. The
-BacchÊ drew waters from the rocks by striking
-them with their thyrsi; and wherever they
-went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and
-wine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and
-Hydaspes to dry up, by striking them with his
-thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,&mdash;an
-action similar to that of Moses at the passage of
-the Red Sea, &amp;c. That Scripture narrative has had
-an important influence in determining the formation
-of mythology, is highly probable; and we have
-already shown that the primary revelation of a
-Godhead at the creation of man supplied an important
-initial excitement to that development
-of the belief in the supernatural which occurred
-subsequent to the fall of man. The influence
-of Scriptural traditions on the myths of various
-nations it is probably impossible to unravel satisfactorily.</p>
-
-<p class="p2">IV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths
-of the ancients, and of modern pagan nations, were
-allegorical; and that they were designed to represent
-a philosophical, moral, or religious truth
-under a fabulous form. Thus, the myth of the
-giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>he
-sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards
-stolen from him by Mercury, and restored to
-Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful rebellions,
-by which the sinews of kings&mdash;their revenue
-and authority&mdash;are cut off; but by mildness of
-address, and wisdom of edicts, influencing the
-people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they recover
-their power and reconcile their subjects. And
-in the myth of the expedition of the gods against
-the giants, when the ass Silenus became of great
-service in dispersing them, on account of the terror
-excited by his braying, it is considered to be an
-allegory of those vast projects of rebels, which are
-mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain consternation.
-Minerva was fabled to have been born
-out of the head of Jupiter, because it was deemed
-that man did not in himself possess wisdom, but
-he derived it from divine inspiration; and this
-goddess was born armed, because a wise man
-clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified against
-all the harms of life.</p>
-
-<p>This element has undoubtedly had an important
-influence in the formation of the various
-myths, but it refers rather to an advanced stage
-in mythology, and to that period of development
-when a nation has made some progress in arts
-and literature.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span></p>
-<p>These elements, and doubtless also others of
-which the effects are less easily unfolded, <i>e.g.</i>
-intercourse between various nations, dispersion of
-tribes, &amp;c., have all exercised a greater or less
-degree of influence on the development and formation
-of the mythologies of different nations.</p>
-
-<p>If we contemplate a race in the earlier phases
-of its existence, or one degraded in the scale of
-being, we find that its ideas of the supernatural
-are confined to the deification and worship of the
-simplest and most striking of the objects and
-phenomena of nature: as it has increased in civilization
-and learning, those deities have been represented
-in symbolical forms; and as civilization
-and the cultivation of the mind advances, and the
-knowledge of surrounding nature has become increased,
-so have the number of deities been multiplied
-by the deification of the less evident
-powers of nature, of kings, and of distinguished
-men, and then also allegory has come into play.
-Every variation in the character of a nation, and
-every era, has impressed more or less distinct
-marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we
-receive it now, is the sum of all those changes
-which have been impressed upon it from its
-earliest formation.</p>
-
-<p>When Christianity dawned upon the world, its
-effect was not the immediate eradication or dispersion
-of the superstitious beliefs and observances<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
-then entertained: it induced a change in
-the form and nature of those beliefs.</p>
-
-<p>At the commencement of the Christian era,
-certain men, inspired by the Holy Ghost, were
-enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings
-derived from habit, education, and authority,
-and to receive at once, in all its purity and fulness,
-the light of the gospel&mdash;perhaps the most
-wonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ.
-Such was not the case, however, with the majority
-of the earlier Christians. They did not thus
-throw off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin,
-but modified them so as to concur, as they
-thought, with Scripture.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of
-one sole, omnipotent, and omniscient God; and it
-fully defined a power of evil, and denounced idolatry.
-Hence the early Christian fathers were led
-to conceive, and teach, that the gods of the
-heathen were devils; and further, that their
-history, attributes, and worship, had been taught
-to mankind by the devils themselves.</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Though of their names in heavenly records now<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Be no memorial,&mdash;blotted out and razed,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">By their rebellion from the book of life,&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">... wandering o'er the earth,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span>
-<span class="i0">By falsities and lies the greatest part<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">God their Creator, and the invisible<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Glory of Him that made them to transform<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Oft to the image of a brute adorn'd<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And devils to adore for deities;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Then were they known to man by various names,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And various idols through the heathen world."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>This phase being given to the existing superstitions,
-it will readily be understood how, under
-the form of devils, most of the principal classes of
-deities in pagan mythology were retained and
-believed in. Thus the elemental and primary
-gods of paganism were perpetuated under the name
-of <i>fiends</i>, <i>dÊmons</i>, <i>genii</i>, &amp;c.; and the terms <i>salamanders</i>,
-<i>undines</i>, &amp;c., expressed certain spirits of
-fire and of water; in the form of <i>fairies</i>, <i>elves</i>,
-<i>sylphs</i>, &amp;c., were retained the graceful Nymphs&mdash;Oreads,
-Dryads, &amp;c.&mdash;of antiquity,&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"The light militia of the lower sky;"<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="ind0">the hidden parts of the earth were peopled with
-<i>dwarfs</i>, and other spirits of a more powerful
-nature; and spectral apparitions frighted the midnight
-hours of the watcher.</p>
-
-<p>It is, therefore, to the retention of certain
-pagan superstitions in a modified form, that we
-are to attribute the origin of the belief in those
-unnumbered spirits, which, u<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>nder the names of
-fiends, dÊmons, genii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs,
-sprites, &amp;c., have been supposed to surround us, and
-have hampered the imaginations of all Christian
-nations, and of which, to use the words of Pope&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Some in the fields of purest Êther play,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or suck the mists in grosser air below,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Others on earth o'er human race preside,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide."<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The belief that the heathen deities were devils,
-naturally led to the further conclusion, that the
-priests who sacrificed to those gods, and who were
-regarded as the medium of communication
-between the gods and man, held immediate converse
-with devils,&mdash;a belief subsequently extended
-to idolators in general, and to all those practising
-magic and sorcery. Instances of the natural alliance
-of a mythological idea to a Christian belief
-might be multiplied.</p>
-
-<p>The power of evil, enunciated by the Scriptures,
-and spoken of as the "<i>Devil</i>," was early reputed
-to have appeared in a visible form, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span>suming the
-aspect of the god Pan, or of a faun or satyr, that is,
-a horned figure, with hirsute frame, and the lower
-extremities of a goat, which indeed, until recently,
-was considered to be the most orthodox form of
-visibility for his Satanic Majesty. The connection
-of the power of evil with the gods of the most
-gloomy and hidden parts of nature is obvious:
-Pan, indeed, was the god of terror.</p>
-
-<p>Frequently, also, Satan appeared under the form
-of a goat. The goat is an emblem of the sin-offering,
-and of the wicked at the day of judgment;
-hence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness,
-and in this form the devil most commonly
-appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins.
-In Leviticus (xvii. 7), where it is written "they
-shall no more offer sacrifices to devils," it is
-literally, to "hairy-ones"&mdash;goats. The symbol of
-the goat prompted to the nature of the form
-given to Pan in the Grecian and Roman mythology.
-Indeed, the Greeks derived their worship of
-that god from Egypt, where he was adored under
-the form of a goat; and it is fabled that he
-captivated Diana under the aspect of a white
-goat.</p>
-
-<p>A singular superstition of the connection of the
-goat with Satan is entertained in some districts of
-this island. It is asserted that a goat is never
-visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
-once in that time it must visit Satan to have its
-beard combed!<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
-
-<p>Another example of the wedding of a pagan
-myth to the Christian religion is this:&mdash;Most
-heathen nations believed in the existence of
-deities whose especial duty was to guard the
-threshold of the house, and prevent the entrance
-of evil spirits.</p>
-
-<p>The Grecians and Romans had their Penates
-and Lars, and the Genoese retain the superstition
-at the present day.</p>
-
-<p>The Lars (<i>familiares</i>) were the souls of men,
-who lingered about the dwellings and places they
-had formerly inhabited and frequented. They
-were represented by small images resembling
-monkeys, and covered with dog's skin; and these
-images were placed in a niche behind the door,
-or around the hearth. At the feet of the Lar
-was placed the figure of a dog, to intimate
-vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to
-them in the month of May, when offerings of
-fruit were presented, and the images were crowned
-with flowers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Plautus (<i>Aulularia</i>) represents a Lar as using
-the following words:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i10">"I am the family Lar<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of this house whence you see me coming out.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">'Tis many years now that I keep and guard<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">This family; both father and grandsire<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of him that has it now, I aye protected."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Beneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces
-at Nineveh were found images of a foul and ugly
-appearance (<i>teraphim</i>), some having a lynx's
-head and human body, others a lion's body and
-human head. Sentences were also inscribed on
-the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures
-were placed on each side of the portal. The
-intention was, doubtless, the prevention of the
-entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the
-household.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p>
-
-<p>The Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti,
-believe in the existence of similar deities. The
-Bhûtas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent
-spirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities.
-Every house and each family has its particular
-Bhûta, which is often represented by a shapel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>ess
-stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order
-to propitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to
-defend the house from the machinations of neighbouring
-Bhûtas. The native of Ashanti offers
-also daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which,
-under the form of a stone painted red, is placed
-upon a platform within his hut.</p>
-
-<p>There are several remnants of this ancient
-superstition still in vogue in England. The common
-practice of nailing a horse-shoe behind the
-door, to terrify witches and prevent the entrance
-of evil spirits, is familiar to most persons. Formerly
-it was the custom to nail the horse-shoe to
-the threshold. Aubrey writes, in his <i>Miscellanies:</i>
-"Most houses of the west end of London have the
-horse-shoe on the threshold." In Monmouth
-Street, in 1797, many horse-shoes were to be
-seen fastened to the threshold. In 1813, Sir
-Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes in this
-position in that street, but in 1841 the number
-had diminished to five or six.</p>
-
-<p>In some parts of England, naturally perforated
-stones are suspended behind the doors, with the
-same intention;<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> in others, jugs, of singular and
-often frightful form, are built into the wal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>ls of
-the cottages&mdash;an interesting approximation to the
-Assyrian teraphim; and in Glamorganshire the
-walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to
-terrify wandering spirits,&mdash;a mode of prevention
-which we should like to see more generally adopted,
-as it would doubtless prove of some effect in impeding
-the access of those roaming spirits of evil
-with which we have to contend most at the present
-day&mdash;cholera and fever.</p>
-
-<p>According to Durandus, the dedication-crosses
-of the Roman Catholic churches were adopted
-under the influence of a feeling in every respect
-analogous to this ancient superstition. He writes
-that the crosses were used, "first, as a terror to
-evil spirits, that they, having been driven forth
-thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of
-the cross, and may not presume to enter therein
-again. Secondly, as a mark of triumph, for
-crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of
-his triumph.... Thirdly, that such as look
-on them may call to mind the passion of Christ,
-by which He hath consecrated his church; and
-their belief in his passion."<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>But the influence of mythology on Christianity
-did not terminate with the mere natural results of
-previous education, habits, &amp;c. The church, under
-and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing
-in the protection of the civil power, and
-not content with the natural veneration due to
-those early Christians who had struggled for the
-cross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves
-by their long and protracted sufferings,
-insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced by
-the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to
-deify his benefactors, indulged a degree of reverence
-to the memory of those holy men, which soon
-ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately
-to their canonization and invocation. The
-Fathers of that period&mdash;Athanasius, Nazianzen,
-Chrysostom, &amp;c.&mdash;encouraged the belief; and a
-rage was developed for the search of the remains
-and resting-places of the holy dead, to whom
-prayers were offered; and, in its encouragement
-of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles, prophetic
-dreams, relics, &amp;c., the Roman church at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
-this time rivalled the omens, divinations, oracles,
-and hero-worship of one of the later phases of
-mythology.</p>
-
-<p>The church even sought to promote the spread
-of Christianity by the adoption of certain pagan
-rites and ceremonies. No more remarkable and
-interesting example of this is to be found than in
-the annals of our own country. In the year of
-our Lord 601, in a letter "sent to the Abbot
-Mellitus, then going into Britain," Pope Gregory
-wrote as follows:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"I have, upon mature deliberation on the affairs
-of the English, determined ... that the temples
-of the idols of that nation ought not to be destroyed;
-but let the idols that are in them be
-destroyed, let holy water be made and sprinkled
-in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics
-placed. For if those temples be well built, it is
-requisite that they be converted from the worship
-of devils to the service of the true God; that the
-nation, seeing that the temples are not destroyed,
-may remove error from their hearts, and knowing
-and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly
-resort to the places to which they have been
-accustomed. And because they have been used
-to slaughter many oxen in the sacrifices to devils,
-some solemnity must be exchanged for these on
-this account, as that on the day of dedicatio<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>n, or
-the nativities of the holy martyrs whose relics are
-there deposited, they may build themselves huts
-of the boughs of trees about those churches which
-have been turned to that use from temples, and
-no more offer beasts to the devil, but kill cattle to
-the praise of God in their eating, and return
-thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance;
-to the end that, whilst some gratifications
-are outwardly permitted them, they may the more
-easily consent to the inward consolations of the
-grace of God."<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p>
-
-<p>In <span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 726, Pope Gregory II expressed his
-approval of image-worship, and because the Greek
-emperor refused to accede to this form of idolatry,
-he caused the tribute paid to him by Rome to be
-suspended, and even went to the extent of excommunicating
-him; and in 789, the second Nicene
-council re-established and confirmed the adoration
-of images.</p>
-
-<p>Examples of the influence of these doctrines in
-the Roman and other churches may be multiplied.</p>
-
-<p>The censers and lustration vessels of the priesthood
-are copied from the sacrificial vessels which
-were used in the pagan temples; the woollen
-fillet was tra<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>nsformed into the priest's amice; and
-the <i>lituus</i>, or curved staff of the soothsayer,
-became the crozier of the bishop.</p>
-
-<p>The sacred fountains of antiquity were perpetuated
-in a Christian form by dedication to a
-saint. Examples of this are afforded by the wells
-of St. Elian, in Denbighshire; St. Winifred, in
-Flintshire, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>In no respect, however, has the Romish church
-so closely followed the example of pagan nations,
-and borrowed from mythology, as in the deification
-of men, and the adoption of tutelary
-divinities.</p>
-
-<p>As the mythology of ancient Rome and Greece
-had its gods who presided over countries, cities,
-towns, and the numerous actions and duties of
-man in his civil and religious life, to each of whom
-worship was offered and altars erected, so also the
-Romish church encouraged the belief in guardian
-saints, and in this respect its calendar rivals the
-Pantheon.</p>
-
-<p>As fully did this church adopt the principle of
-the deification (<i>canonization</i>) of men&mdash;one of the
-most prominent of the characteristics of idolatry.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the Romish calendar contains guardian
-saints of countries: St. George is the tutelary
-saint of England; St. Andrew, of Scotland; St.
-Patrick, of Ireland; St. Denis, of France; and
-St. Peter, of Flanders. Austria possesses two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
-guardian saints, St. Colman and St. Leopold;
-Germany has <i>three</i>, St. Martin, St. Boniface, and
-St. George Cataphrastus; and so on of all the
-countries of Europe.</p>
-
-<p>There are also guardian saints of cities. St.
-Egidius presides over Edinburgh, St. Nicholas,
-Aberdeen; St. Peter succeeded Mars at Rome;
-St. Frideswide, Oxford; St. Genevieve, Paris; St.
-Thomas Aquinas and St. Januarius, Naples, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>Of the general body of tutelary saints the following
-list will afford an illustration:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>St. Agatha presides over nurses; St. Catherine
-and St. Gregory over studious persons; St. Christopher,
-St. Hermus, and St. Nicholas, over mariners;
-St. Cecilia, over musicians; St. Cosmos and
-Damian, over physicians, surgeons, and philosophers;
-St. Dismas and St. Nicholas, over thieves;
-St. Eustace and St. Hubert, over hunters; St.
-Felicitas, over young children; St. Julian, over
-pilgrims; St. Leonard and St. Barbara, over captives;
-St. Luke, painters; St. Martin and St.
-Urban over ale-knights, to prevent them falling
-in the kennel; St. Æthelbert and Ælian are invoked
-against thieves, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>St. Agatha presides over valleys; St. Anne,
-riches; St. Barbara, hills; St. Florian, fire; St.
-Sylvester, woods, &amp;c.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p>
-<p>St. Thomas presides over divines; St. Thomas
-à-Becket, blind men; St. Valentine, lovers; St.
-Winifred, virgins; St. Joseph, carpenters; St.
-Anthony, swineherds and grocers; St. Arnhold,
-millers; St. Blaise, wool-combers; St. Catherine,
-spinners; St. Clement, tanners; St. Cloud, nailsmiths;
-St. Dunstan, goldsmiths; St. Elry, blacksmiths,
-farriers, &amp;c.; St. Florian, mercers; St.
-Francis, butchers; St. George, clothiers; St.
-Goodman and St. Ann, tailors; St. Gore, potters;
-St. Hilary, coopers; St. Leodager, drapers;
-St. Crispin, shoemakers, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>St. Anthony protects hogs; St. Ferriol, geese;
-St. Gertrude, mice and eggs; St. Hubert, dogs;
-St. Joy, horses, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>Numerous saints were invoked against diseases:
-<i>e.g.</i>, St. Clara against sore eyes; St. Genow, gout;
-St. Marus, palsies and convulsions; St. Sigismund,
-fevers, &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>"There be many miracles assigned to saints,"
-writes Barnaby Rich, in 1619, "that they say are
-good for all diseases: they can give sight to the
-blind, make the deafe to hear; they can restore
-limbs that be crippled, and make the lame go
-upright; they be good for horse, swine, and many
-other beasts. And women, also, have shee-saints....
-They have saints to pray to when they
-be grieved with a third-day ague, when they be
-pained with toothache, or when they would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
-revenged on their angry husbands.</p>
-
-<p>"They have saints that be good amongst poultry
-when they have the pip, for geese when they do
-sit, to have a happy success in goslings; and, to
-be short, there is no disease, no sickness, no
-griefe, either amongst men or beasts, that hath not
-his physician among the saints."<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p>
-
-<p>The Romish church also adopted the pagan
-belief in apparitions, and as the latter had supported
-the argument in favour of the existence of
-the gods by the fiction of their occasional manifestations
-in a visible form, so the former endeavoured
-to sustain its dogmas by fables of the
-apparition, from time to time, of its saints.</p>
-
-<p>It is needless to dwell upon the manner in
-which this church pandered to the credulity of the
-people in this respect, for an example is before
-the world even at the present time in the apparition
-of the Blessed Virgin near La Salette, a
-village about four miles from Corps, a small town
-situated on the road between Grenoble and Gap.</p>
-
-<p>The story is as follows:&mdash;On the 19th September,
-1846, the Blessed Virgin appeared to two
-children, the one a boy aged 11, and the other a
-girl aged 14 years, who were watching cows near
-a fountain, in the hol<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>low of a ravine in the mountains,
-about four miles from the church of La
-Salette. When first seen, she was in a sitting
-position, the head resting upon the hands, and
-she "had on white shoes, with roses about her
-shoes. The roses were of all colours. Her socks
-were yellow, her apron yellow, and her gown
-white, with pearls all over it. She had a white
-neckerchief, with roses round it; a high cap, a
-little bent in front; a crown round her cap with
-roses. She had a very small chain, to which was
-attached a crucifix; on the right were some
-pincers, on the left a hammer; at the extremities
-of the cross was another huge chain, which fell,
-like the roses, round her handkerchief. Her face
-was white and long."</p>
-
-<p>Addressing the children, tears coursing down
-her cheeks, she spoke to them on the wickedness
-of the peasantry, particularly their neglect of the
-Sabbath and of the duties of Lent, when they "go
-like dogs to the butchers' stalls." Then she foretold
-that if the men would not be converted,
-there should be no potatoes at Christmas, all the
-corn should be eaten up by animals, or if any did
-grow up, it should fall to dust when thrashed.
-There should be a great famine, preceding which
-"children below seven years of age should have
-convulsions, and die in the arms of those who
-held them; and the rest should do penance by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
-hunger. Nuts and grapes also should perish. But
-if men were converted, then the rocks and stones
-shall be changed into heaps of corn, and potatoes
-shall be sown all over the land." "The lady," in
-addition, confided to each of the children a secret
-which was not to be told to the other, but which
-they confided to the Pope in 1851. Then,
-after a little gossiping conversation, "the lady"
-vanished.</p>
-
-<p>Soon after this apparition had been noised
-abroad, it was discovered that the waters of the
-fountain were possessed of marvellous healing
-properties, and many miraculous cures were
-effected by its use. Pilgrims flocked to the scene
-of the vision, and it is affirmed that in one day
-60,000 of the faithful ascended the mountain.</p>
-
-<p>Among others, the present Bishop of Orleans
-made a pilgrimage to the "holy mountain," and
-he was so impressed by the solemn feelings
-excited by treading on such holy ground, that he
-often ejaculated, "It cannot be but that the
-finger of God is here." Other ecclesiastics of
-rank also visited the spot, and the whole affair
-was officially sanctioned.</p>
-
-<p>Nor did the matter rest here, for churches are
-being built, and dedicated to "Our Lady of
-Salette," in different countries; and a society
-has been established in England bearing her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
-name.</p>
-
-<p>We have already alluded to the sacred fountains
-of heathen nations, and in the holy fountain of
-Salette we witness the modern development of
-a similar superstition. So also in the apparition
-of the Virgin the same credulity is traced which
-prompted the ancients to believe in the occasional
-appearance of their deities.</p>
-
-<p>It is related that Castor and Pollux, the sons of
-Jupiter, by Leda the wife of Tyndarus, were seen
-fighting at the battle of Regillus; and that,
-subsequently, mounted on white horses, they
-appeared to P. Vatienus, as he journeyed by
-night to Rome, from his government of Reate,
-and told him that King Perses had that day been
-taken prisoner.</p>
-
-<p>On these legends Cicero remarks; "Do you
-believe that the TyndaridÊ, as you called them,
-that is, men sprung from men, and buried in
-Lacedemon, as we learn from Homer, who lived
-in the next age,&mdash;do you believe, I say, that
-they appeared to Vatienus on the road, mounted
-on white horses, without any servant to attend
-them, to tell the victory of the Romans to a
-country fellow rather than to M. Cato, who was
-that time the chief person of the senate? Do
-you take that print of a horse's hoof, which is
-now to be seen on a stone at Regillus, to be ma<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>de
-by Castor's horse? Should you not believe,
-what is probable, that the souls of eminent men,
-such as the TyndaridÊ, are divine and immortal,
-rather than that those bodies, which had been
-reduced to ashes, should mount on horses and
-fight in an army? If you say that was possible,
-you ought to show how it is so, and not amuse us
-with fabulous stories."</p>
-
-<p>"Do you take these for fabulous stories?" says
-Balbus. "Is not the temple built by Posthumius
-in honour of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in the
-Forum? Is not the decree of the senate concerning
-Vatienus still subsisting?...
-Ought not such authorities to move you?"</p>
-
-<p>"You oppose me," replies Cotta, "with stories,
-but I ask reasons of you."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p>
-
-<p>It would seem then that the parallelism is
-perfect, even to the building of temples, and the
-official recognition of the truth of the event.</p>
-
-<p>Of the individual personages of ancient
-mythology very few traces remain in England,
-and these principally belong to the fairy belief.
-This superstition, of which the analogue is
-found in the Nymphs, Oreads, Dryads, Naiads,
-Lemoniads, and Nerieds, of ancient Greece and
-Rome, is still prevalent in certain districts of this
-country; and the extinction of the general belief,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
-among the lower orders, of one of the most noted
-of the personages which are met with in fairy
-lore, the <i>hobgoblin</i>, is comparatively of recent
-date. The name is, however, still familiar, and
-in use for certain vague manifestations of the
-supernatural, although the actual signification of
-the term is, to a great extent, lost sight of.</p>
-
-<p>The hobgoblin is worthy of notice not only for
-its intrinsic interest, but also for the illustration
-which it affords of the intimate relationship which
-is often found to exist between the superstitions
-of different and even far distant nations.</p>
-
-<p>This spirit, in his palmy days, was that fairy
-which attached itself to houses, and the neighbourhood
-of dwellings and churches (for even
-sacred edifices were not exempted from its
-influence). In disposition it was mischievous
-and sportive, although it often deigned, during
-the night, to perform many menial offices, and
-whatsoever building it attached itself to prospered.
-It was apt to take offence, particularly if, as a
-reward, money or clothes were placed for it in
-that part of the house it most frequented; but it
-was partial to cream, or some delicately prepared
-eatable, and any housewife who was careful to
-conciliate the spirit by administering to this taste,
-was certain to be well rewarded. As might be
-anticipated, it was a favourite character wi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>th
-poets, and descriptions of its propensities and
-actions abound. Thus, in the "Midsummer
-Night's Dream" (Act II, Sc. 1), one of the Fairies
-is represented as addressing this spirit, and
-saying:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem" style="margin-left: 5%"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i6">"Either I mistake your shape and making quite,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Called Robin Goodfellow. Are you not he<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">That frights the maidens of the villagery,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Skims milk, and labours in the quern,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn;<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm;<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">You do their work and they shall have good luck,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Are not you he?<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0"><i>Puck.</i>             <span style="margin-left:6em">Thou speakest aright,</span><br /></span>
-<span class="i6">I am that merry wanderer of the night.<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">In very likeness of a roasted crab,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">And when she drinks against her lips I bob,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">And <i>tailor</i> cries, and falls into a cough;<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">And waxen in their mirth, and reeze, and swear<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">A merrier hour was never wasted there."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p>
-<p>Milton, in the "L'Allegro," writes of him in a
-different office, and&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To earn his cream-bowl duly set,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When in one night ere glimpse of morn,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">His shadowy flail has thrashed the corn,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That ten day-lab'rers could not end:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Then lies him down the lubber-fiend,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And stretched out all the chimney's length,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Basks at the fire his hairy strength,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And cropfull out of doors he flings,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ere the first cock his matin rings."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Another noted characteristic of this fairy is
-mentioned in the fine old song of Ben Johnson's:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"When house or hearth doth sluttish lye,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">I pinch the maidens black and blue;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And lay them naked all to view.<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Twixt sleepe and wake<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">I do them take<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And on the key-cold floor them throw:<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">If out they cry<br /></span>
-<span class="i6">Then forth I fly,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And loudly laugh out, ho! ho! ho!"<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The hobgoblin is one of the widest-spread forms
-of fairy belief. In England it is also termed
-<i>Boggard</i>, <i>Puck</i>, <i>Robin Goodfellow</i>, and <i>Robin Hood;</i>
-it is the <i>Brownie</i> of Scotland; the <i>Cluricaune</i>, <i>Luricaune</i>,
-<i>Leprochaune</i>, &amp;c., of Ireland; the <i>Kobold</i>
-of Germany; the <i>Servant</i> of Switzerland; the <i>Nis</i>
-of Denmark and Norway; the <i>NiÀgruiser</i> of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>
-Feroes; the <i>Tomt-gubbe</i>, or <i>Tont</i>, of Sweden; the
-<i>Phynnoderee</i> of the Isle of Man; the <i>Monaciello</i> of
-Naples; the <i>Duende</i> of Spain; the <i>Lutin</i>, or
-<i>Gobelin</i>, of France; and the <i>Para</i> of Finland
-appears to have some affinity with it.</p>
-
-<p>The derivation of some of the principal names
-of this fairy is also of interest. From the Sclavonic
-<i>BÃŽg</i>, signifying <i>God</i>, come the words <i>boggard</i> and
-<i>boggart;</i> the Scottish <i>Bogle</i>, a hill-fairy; and
-probably, also, the words <i>Bug-bear</i> and <i>Bugaboo;</i>
-and from the Icelandic <i>Puki</i>, an evil spirit, come
-the English <i>Puke</i>, a devil, as also <i>Puck;</i> the
-Friesland <i>Puk;</i> the German <i>Putz</i>, or <i>Butz;</i> the
-Devonshire <i>Pixie;</i> the Irish <i>Pouke;</i> the Welsh
-<i>Pwcca</i>, and the words <i>big</i> and <i>bug</i>,&mdash;all names of
-certain varieties of the fairy-belief, and having the
-signification of an evil spirit.</p>
-
-<p>Certain forms of pagan worship would appear
-to have been perpetuated unmodified in Christian
-countries even to the present time. A remarkable
-and singular illustration of this is found in Ireland.</p>
-
-<p>Off the north-west coast of that kingdom are
-situated the islands of Inniskea, containing a population
-of about 400 human beings. Nominally
-the inhabitants are Christians, and under Roman
-Catholic tuition; in reality, they observe the ancient
-forms of Irish clan government, and are idolaters,
-worshipping rocks and stones. Their chief god is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
-a stone idol termed <i>Nee-vougi</i>, which has been
-preserved from time immemorial. It is clothed
-in homespun flannel, which arises from the custom
-of its votaries offering portions of their
-dress when addressing it. These fragments are
-sewed upon it by an old woman who has charge
-of the idol, and who officiates as priestess. It is
-invoked, among other things, to dash helpless
-ships upon the coast, and to calm the sea in order
-that the fishing may be successful.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p>
-
-<p>The adoration of rocks and stone pillars is one
-of the most ancient forms of idolatry on record.
-It probably took its origin from the custom of
-erecting stone pillars as a memorial, and consecrating
-them as altars on any extraordinary event
-or occasion. The earliest mention of this custom
-is found in Genesis (cxxviii, v. 10):&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and
-took up the stone he had put for his pillow, and
-set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the
-top of it.</p>
-
-<p>"And he called the name of that place Beth-El
-... saying ... this stone which I have set
-up for a pillar shall be God's house."</p>
-
-<p>Stones thus erected as memorials, and consecrated
-as altars, in the course of time were consi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>dered
-to be the abode of, or rather to be filled
-with, the divine power, which had manifested itself
-there; and ultimately stone pillars were used as
-symbols of the Deity. Singularly formed rocks
-and stones were also regarded in a similar light;
-and traces of this very ancient form of idolatry
-may be found in all parts of the world.</p>
-
-<p>The "<i>animated stones</i>" of antiquity, which received
-divine honours, derived their names from
-Beth-El, as for example, Baithulia, Bethyllia, and
-Βαιτολια, signifying consecrated or living stones;
-and one of the modifications of Jupiter, <i>Jupiter
-Lapis</i> (a stone), was derived from this form of
-idolatry, and the most solemn of the Roman oaths
-was that taken in the name of this god.</p>
-
-<p>Numerous traces of superstition are found scattered
-throughout England, and the countries of
-Western Europe, which are the lineal, although
-degenerated descendants of the superstitions of
-the mythological era of the respective nations, or
-rather races, dwelling there.</p>
-
-<p>There are few large towns in Great Britain
-which do not contain one or more persons who
-profess to practise astrology, magic, or divination&mdash;<i>wise
-men</i>, as they are popularly designated;
-and the belief in charms and omens is far from
-being eradicated among a large mass of the population,
-particularly among those who dwell in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
-secluded or mountainous districts.</p>
-
-<p>Not unfrequently events happen by which we
-may gauge the extent to which these superstitions
-are still entertained. Those who marked the
-effect which the appearance of the late comet
-had on the minds of many in this country, would
-perceive that a somewhat powerful feeling of
-superstitious dread, on the occurrence of remarkable
-celestial events, remained. The alarm excited
-among the credulous in England was, however,
-if anything, less marked than that caused
-in many parts of the continent<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> and in America.</p>
-
-<p>Three years ago we had an opportunity of witnessing
-a singular exhibition of fear, which was
-excited in the inhabitants of the most impoverished
-districts of Leeds, by the prevalen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>ce of
-a brilliant display of the aurora borealis. The
-scene paralleled the descriptions recorded of the
-effects produced by similar phenomena in the
-Middle Ages. The prevailing impression was, that
-the world was on the point of, if not in, the
-actual process of destruction; and in many the
-alarm became extreme, when, during the most
-magnificent period of the phenomena, several of
-the streamers became of a deep crimson and
-blue tint.</p>
-
-<p>This display of the aurora extended over a
-vast extent of country, and a singular example of
-the feelings with which it was regarded in Spain
-was recorded at the time in the daily papers.</p>
-
-<p>On the evening on which it occurred, it so happened
-that the subject of the homily in one of the
-churches of Madrid was the destruction of the
-world, and the day of judgment. At the conclusion
-of the service, and as the congregation were
-issuing from the church, the northern heavens
-were glowing with the brilliant and ever-varying
-light of the aurora. Startled by a phenomenon
-which is of somewhat rare occurrence in Spain,
-the idea at once occurred that the terrible events
-upon which the priest had been descanting were
-about to come to pass; the people rushed back
-to the steps of the altar, and while the aurora
-continued, the terror and confusion beggared al<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span>l
-description.</p>
-
-<p>Another indication of the influence which the
-superstitions we have named exercise on the minds
-of certain classes, is the number of works on
-astrology, principally reprints, which have issued
-from the press during the last eight or nine
-years.</p>
-
-<p>This ancient superstition, which is still practised
-by the Mahomedans, Chinese, &amp;c., retains a
-hold upon the minds of many, even now. Its
-practice in this country is, however, most frequently
-combined with some of the minor forms
-of magic and divination; and those who profess a
-knowledge of these arts chiefly direct them to the
-ignoble purpose of detecting stolen articles.</p>
-
-<p>In America, it would seem, from the advertisements
-which from time to time appear in the
-newspapers, that this superstition is flourishing
-with some vigour. We subjoin, in a note, specimens
-of these advertisements.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The belief in charms and omens, which was one
-of the most important of the superstitions of antiquity,
-is still entertained by the lower orders in
-many counties, and it forms one of the most
-striking features of the current folk-lore.</p>
-
-<p>The Devonshire peasant will recite the 8th
-Psalm on three consecutive days, for three weeks,
-over his child, in order to prevent its being
-attacked with the thrush; and should the disease,
-notwithstanding this precaution, occur, he either
-plucks three rushes from a running stream, passes
-them through the mouth of the child, and then
-casts them into the stream, believing that the
-disease will decrease and disappear as the rus<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>hes
-float away; or seizing a duck, he will force it to
-open wide its bill, and then placing it close to
-the mouth of the child, he hopes to see the
-affection vanish as the duck inhales the infant's
-breath.</p>
-
-<p>The peasantry of Norfolk, Northampton, &amp;c.
-have, for the prevention of epileptic fits, implicit
-confidence in a ring made from nine sixpences,
-obtained, by gift, from persons of the opposite
-sex, or from the money contributed at the Sacrament
-of the Lord's Supper.</p>
-
-<p>There is a charm for cramp in the leg which
-must be familiar to most persons. It runs<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
-thus:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"The devil is tying a knot in my leg!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it, I beg!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Crosses three we make to ease us,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>This formula, with a little modification, was applicable
-also to other fleeting but painful affections.
-Coleridge states that when he was at the
-Blue-coat School there was a charm for one's foot
-when asleep, which ran thus:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Foot, foot, foot! is fast asleep!<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thumb, thumb, thumb! in spittle we steep;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Crosses three we make to ease us," &amp;c.<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>We have seen a charm for the toothache, which
-we believe has now fallen into desuetude, but
-which, from its singularity, is worthy of preservation.
-It is as follows:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>
-"In the name of God: Amen.<br />
-</p>
-
-<p>"As Jesus Christ passed through the gates of
-Jerusalem, he heard one of his disciples weeping
-and wailing. Jesus saith unto him, Simon Peter,
-why weepest and wailest thou? Simon Peter
-saith unto him: Lord, the pain in my tooth is so
-grievous, I can do nothing. Jesus saith unto
-him: Arise, Simon, and the pain in thy tooth
-shall be eased; and whosoever shall keep those
-words in remembrance or writing shall never be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
-troubled with the pain in the tooth:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy
-Ghost. Amen."</p>
-
-<p>The coral and bells which are suspended round
-the necks of children for their amusement, were
-originally used with very different intentions.</p>
-
-<p>Those who professed the occult sciences attributed
-several very wonderful properties to coral,
-it being regarded by them as a preservative against
-evil spirits, poison, and certain diseases.</p>
-
-<p>The ringing of bells was also, formerly, considered
-to be of great effect in terrifying and
-causing evil spirits to fly away. Nor did their
-influence cease there; they were esteemed efficacious
-for the dispersion of tempests; or, it would
-be more correct to say, that a cotemporary superstition
-was, that tempests, thunder and lightning,
-and high winds, were caused by evil spirits, or
-devils, who in this manner endeavoured to wreak
-their rage on man; hence, in the Golden Legend of
-Wynken de Worde, it is said that "evil spirytes
-that ben in the region of th' ayre, dowt much
-when they hear the bells rongen, an this is the
-cause why the bells ben rongen when it thondreth,
-and whanne great tempests and outrages of
-wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and
-wycked spirytes should be abashed and flee, and
-cease of the movynge of tempest." This supersti<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>tion
-probably dates from the period when it
-became customary to exorcise, bless, and baptize
-the bells suspended in churches,&mdash;a custom which
-originated in the tenth century.</p>
-
-<p>The use of the coral and bells was derived from
-these superstitions, and they were at first suspended
-from the neck as an amulet which was
-protective from the influence of evil spirits.</p>
-
-<p>Certain events are still regarded as omens by
-the peasantry in many districts.</p>
-
-<p>If a magpie cross our path, it is said that
-we shall prove unlucky, unless we immediately
-cross ourselves; and an old rhyme says of the
-magpie:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of a birth."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>In Devonshire, if a person sees four magpies, it
-is regarded as an omen of death in his family. If
-a pigeon is seen sitting on a tree, or comes into
-the house; or if a swarm of bees alight on a dead
-tree, or the dead bough of a living tree, it forebodes
-death in the family of the owner. In
-Derbyshire, if the sun shines through the boughs
-of the apple-trees on Christmas day, it is considered
-as a presage of a good crop the ensuing
-year.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p>
-<p>Of all the superstitions entertained previous to
-the advent of Christ, none have, however, been
-more fully perpetuated among Christian nations
-than that of spectral apparitions,&mdash;the visible
-appearance of the deities worshipped, or of the
-disembodied spirits of the dead&mdash;<i>ghosts</i>.</p>
-
-<p>This was due not only to the nature of the
-causes inducing spectral apparitions (causes which
-are inseparable from the physical constitution of
-man), but also to the confirmation which the
-belief was thought to receive from Holy Writ.</p>
-
-<p>The character of the superstition, as it has been
-retained down to the verge of the present period
-in our own country, and as it is still entertained
-in many countries, is very similar to that which it
-bore in the remotest periods of antiquity.</p>
-
-<p>The deities of those nations who had distinct
-and defined ideas respecting their gods, are reputed
-to have appeared from time to time to
-their votaries, assuming the form in which they
-were most commonly pourtrayed in the temples.</p>
-
-<p>Thus the gods which Æneas bore from the
-destruction of Troy and carried into Crete,
-appeared to him in that island:</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"'Twas night, when every creature, void of cares,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The common gift of balmy slumbers shares;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Those gods whom I from flaming Troy redeem'd,<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
-<span class="i0">Before me stood, majestically bright,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Full in the beams of Phœbe's entering light.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Then thus they spoke and eased my troubled mind:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">'What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He tells thee here, and sends us to relate.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Those powers are we, companions of thy fate,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Who from the burning town by thee were brought,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thy fortune follow'd, and thy safety wrought.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Through seas and lands, as we thy steps attend,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">So shall our care thy glorious race befriend.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A town that o'er the conquer'd world shall reign.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thou, mighty walls for mighty nations build;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nor let thy weary mind to labours yield:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But change thy seat; for not the Delian god<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Nor we have given thee Crete for our abode.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A land there is, Hesperia call'd of old,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">(The soil is fruitful, and the natives bold&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Th' Œotrians held it once), by later fame<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Now call'd Italia from the leader's name.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Iasius there, and Dardanus, were born;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From thence we came and thither must return.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Rise, and thy sire with these glad tidings greet:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Search Italy; for Jove denies thee Crete.'<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Astonished at their voices and their sight,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">(Nor were they dreams, but visions of the night;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I saw, I knew their faces, and descry'd,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In perfect view, their hair with fillets tied),<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I started from my couch; a clammy sweat<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">On all my limbs, and shivering body, sate.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To heaven I lift my hands with pious haste,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And sacred incense in the flames I cast."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Among Christian nations visions of this character
-have also been common; and the religious
-writings of every age of the Chu<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>rch contain numerous
-instances of apparitions of the Trinity, of
-our Lord, of the canonized, and the powers of evil.</p>
-
-<p>But the most familiar phase of the ghost-belief
-is that of the visible manifestation of the spirits
-of the dead; and probably few, if any, races are
-without a superstition of this nature.</p>
-
-<p>The Grecians and Romans believed that the
-souls of the dead (<i>manes</i>) roamed about the earth,
-having power to interfere with the affairs of man
-and inflict evil. The spirits of those who had
-been virtuous during life were distinguished by
-the name of <i>lares</i> (under which name we have in
-a previous page alluded to them as tutelary
-deities) or <i>manes;</i> and the spirits of the wicked
-were termed <i>larvÊ</i>, or <i>lemures</i>, and often terrified
-the good, and haunted the wicked and impious.
-These ghosts were also deified, and they were
-known as the <i>Dii Manes;</i> and the stones erected
-over the graves in Roman burial-grounds had
-usually inscribed upon them the letters D.M., or
-D.M.S., that is, <i>Dîs Manibus</i>, or <i>Dîs Manibus
-Sacrum</i>,&mdash;"Sacred to the Manes Gods." Sacrifices
-were offered to these deities, the offerings being
-termed <i>religiosÊ</i>, in contradistinction to those
-offered to the superior gods, which were denominated
-<i>sacrÊ;</i> and during the festivals held in
-honour of the ghosts (<i>Lemuria</i> or <i>Lemuralia</i>), it
-was customary to burn black beans over the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
-graves, and to beat kettles and drums, in order
-that, by the noxious odour of the former, and the
-noise of the latter, the ghosts might be frightened
-away, and no longer terrify their relations.</p>
-
-<p>We have already given several examples illustrative
-of the parallelism which exists between
-the accounts we possess of the apparitions of
-Grecian and Roman deities, and those manifestations
-of celestial personages which are recorded
-to have occurred in more modern times. A similar
-resemblance exists between the accounts given
-of the spectral appearance of the spirits of the
-dead.</p>
-
-<p>In the Odyssey (B. XI), Ulysses, previous to
-descending into hell, is described as offering
-"solemn rites and holy vows" to the dead:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"When lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Fair, pensive youths, and soft, enamour'd maids;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ghastly with wounds, the form of warriors slain<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">These and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the ground,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And all the dire assembly shriek'd around."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>A striking illustration of the similarity of
-ancient and modern ghost-stories, in all essential
-points, is contained in the description given in
-the Æneis (B. II) of the apparition of the ghost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
-of Hector to Æneas, at the destruction of Troy:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"'Twas in the dead of night, when sleep repairs<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Our bodies worn with toils, our minds with cares,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When Hector's ghost before my sight appears:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A bloody shroud he seem'd, and bath'd in tears;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Such as he was when by Pelides slain,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thessalian coursers dragg'd him o'er the plain;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Swoll'n were his feet, as when the thongs were thrust<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Through the bored holes; his body black with dust;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Unlike that Hector, who return'd from toils<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of war, triumphant in Æacians' spoils,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Or him, who made the fainting Greeks retire,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And launch'd against their navy Phrygian fire.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">His hair and beard stood stiffen'd with his gore,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And all the wounds he for his country bore<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Now streamed afresh, and with new purple ran."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>An equally, if not more marked example, is
-recorded by Pliny, the consul at Sura.</p>
-
-<p>A house at Athens was grievously haunted by
-a spirit, which, during the night, restlessly roamed
-through the apartments, dragging, apparently, a
-heavy chain after it. Athenodorus, the philosopher,
-hired the house, determined to reduce the spirit
-to order and silence. In the depth of the night,
-while pursuing his studies, the silence was broken
-by the noise of rattling chains, which approached
-the room where he sat. Presently, a spectre
-entered, and beckoned to him, but the philosopher
-took no notice. The spectre agitated its chains
-anew, and then he arose and, following his ghostly
-guide, he was led into the court-yard of the house<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>,
-to a certain spot, when the spectre vanished.
-He marked the place, and on the following day
-caused the ground to be dug up and searched,
-when beneath it they found the skeleton of a man
-in chains. The bones were publicly burned, and
-from that time the spirit ceased to haunt the
-mansion.</p>
-
-<p>A belief in ghosts was one of the most prominent
-of the superstitions of the ancient inhabitants
-of Northern Europe. It was customary with
-the Scandinavians, as with the Grecians, to perform
-certain ceremonies at the tombs of the dead, to
-propitiate the ghosts, and facilitate their entrance
-into the halls of bliss.</p>
-
-<p>The ghosts of the departed warriors, after they
-had entered their airy halls, were supposed to
-pursue pleasures similar in character to those which
-had engaged their attention on earth. They
-listened to the strains of immortal bards; followed
-the chase over the illimitable fields of heaven;
-visited the scenes of their former glories; and
-when resting within their tombs, they would talk
-of mortal men, and sing the songs of other worlds.
-Airy and unsubstantial as a wreath of mist, they
-often wandered on the surface of the earth. The
-ghost of a mighty hero, clothed in a panoply of
-lurid clouds, and armed with a meteor, might be
-seen brooding o'er his tomb, or attended "by a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
-ridge of formless shades," it swept across former
-battle-fields. The men of bygone days, wreathed
-in their vapoury robes, and reposing on clouds,
-hovered on the midnight blast, which bore in
-its mighty cadences the echoing sounds of the
-voices of the dead; or "like the new moon seen
-through the gathered mist, when the sky pours
-down its flaky snow, and the world is silent and
-dark,"<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> the spirits of the maidens glided over the
-rugged hills, or roamed on the pebbly shore.</p>
-
-<p>The early Scandinavian traditions and historical
-writings, are pregnant with ghosts and other supernatural
-agents. Mr. Howitt<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> quotes from one of
-the Eddaic songs, which records the lives of a
-hero named Helge and his wife Sigrun, the following
-singularly interesting scene.</p>
-
-<p>Helge died, and the body was laid in its cairn.
-In the evening Sigrun's maid passed the cairn,
-and saw the ghost of Helge ride into it with a
-numerous train. Addressing the ghost, the maid
-said, "Is it an illusion that I see, or the Eve of
-the Mighty, that ye ride your horses and urge
-them with your spurs? Or are the heroes bound
-for their homes?" The ghost replied, "It is no
-illusion which thou seest, nor the E<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>ve of the
-Mighty; though thou seest us, and we urge our
-horses with our spurs; neither are the heroes
-bound for their homes."</p>
-
-<p>The maid then went to her mistress and said,
-"Haste thee, Sigrun, from the hill of Seva, if
-the leader of the battle thou desirest to see.
-Open is the cairn; Helge is come; the war-scars
-bleed. Helge bade thee to still his dripping
-wound." Sigrun went to the cairn, and entering
-it, said to the shade of her dead husband, "Now
-am I as joyful of our meeting as Odin's ravens
-when, long-fasting, they scent the warm food, or
-the day-wearied when they behold the close of
-day. I will kiss my lifeless king before thou
-throwest off thy bloody cuirass. Thy hair, O
-Helge! is pierced through with frost, or with the
-dew of death is the hero slain. Cold are the
-hands of the friend of Högne. How, therefore,
-King, shall I find a cure for thee?"&mdash;"Thou only,
-Sigrun! on the hill of Seva," replied the ghost,
-"art the cause that Helge is here, slain by the
-dew of sorrow. Thou weepest, gold-adorned
-one! burning tears, maid of the sun-glowing
-south! Before thou sleepest, every tear shall
-fall bloody on the breast of the Prince, pierced
-through with the cold of thy grief. But we will
-drink the precious mead together, though we have
-lost gladness and lands. Yet no one sings a song<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
-of woe, though he sees a wound in my breast.
-Now are the brides closed in the cairns, and the
-princely maidens are laid beside us."</p>
-
-<p>Sigrun made a bed in the cairn, and said,
-"Here have I, Helge, prepared rest for thee; rest
-free from all trouble. Son of the Ylfinga! I will
-sleep in thy arms as formerly, when my hero
-lived." The ghost answered, "No longer will I
-say that thou art unfaithful on the hill of Seva.
-Since thou sleepest in the embrace of the dead in
-the cairn, thou fair daughter of Högur! And yet
-thou livest, offspring of kings! Time is to ride
-the red ways. Let the pale steed tramp the steeps
-of the air. In the west must we be, by the bridge
-Vindhjalen, ere the cock in Walhalla wakes the
-sons of victory."</p>
-
-<p>In the Eyrbyggja Saga (written before <span class="smaller">A.D.</span>
-1264; period when the events recorded occurred,
-<span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 883) is an account of certain spectral apparitions
-which followed the death of a lady whose
-commands upon the death-bed had not been
-obeyed. This story is almost unique in character,
-and it is a singularly interesting example
-of the ghost-belief of Iceland at an early period.</p>
-
-<p>On the evening of the day when the corpse was
-being removed to a distant place of sepulture, an
-apparition of the lady was seen busily preparing
-victuals in the kitchen of the house where the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
-bearers reposed for the night. On the night when
-the conductors of the funeral returned home, a
-spectral appearance resembling a half-moon glided
-around the boarded walls of the mansion, in a
-direction opposite to that of the sun, and continued
-its revolutions until the domestics retired
-to rest. "This apparition was renewed every
-night during the whole week, and was pronounced
-by Thorer with the wooden leg to presage pestilence
-and mortality." Shortly after, a herdsman
-showed signs of being persecuted by demons, and
-one morning he was found dead in bed, "and
-then" (to quote literally from Sir Walter Scott's
-abstract of the Saga) "commenced a scene of
-ghost-seeing unheard of in the annals of superstition.
-The first victim was Thorer, who had
-presaged the calamity. Going out of doors one
-evening, he was grappled by the spectre of the
-deceased shepherd as he attempted to re-enter the
-house. His wooden leg stood him in poor stead
-in such an encounter; he was hurled to the earth
-and so fearfully beaten that he died in consequence
-of the bruises. Thorer was no sooner
-dead than his ghost associated itself to that of the
-herdsman, and joined him in pursuing and assaulting
-the inhabitants of Froda. Meantime an infectious
-disorder spread fast amongst them, and
-several of the bondsmen died one after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> the other.
-Strange portents were seen within doors, the
-meal was displaced and mingled, and the dried fish
-flung about in a most alarming manner, without
-any visible agent. At length, while the servants
-were forming their evening circle around the fire,
-a spectre resembling the head of a seal-fish was
-seen to emerge out of the pavement of the room,
-bending its round black eyes full on the tapestried
-bed-curtains of Thorgunna (the deceased lady).
-Some of the domestics ventured to strike at the
-figure; but, far from giving way, it rather erected
-itself further from the floor, until Kiartan, who
-seemed to have a natural predominance over these
-supernatural prodigies, seizing a huge forge-hammer,
-struck the seal repeatedly on the head, and
-compelled it to disappear, forcing it down into the
-floor, as if he had driven a stake into the earth.
-This prodigy was found to intimate a new calamity.
-Thorodd, the master of the family, had some time
-before set forth on a voyage to bring home a cargo
-of dried fish; but, in crossing the river Enna, the
-skiff was lost, and he perished with the servants
-who attended him. A solemn funeral feast was
-held at Froda, in memory of the deceased, when,
-to the astonishment of the guests, the apparition
-of Thorodd and his followers seemed to enter the
-apartment dripping with water. Yet this vision
-excited less horror than might have been expec<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>ted;
-for the islanders, though nominally Christians,
-retained, among other superstitions, a belief that
-the spectres of such drowned persons as had
-been favourably received by the goddess Rana
-were wont to show themselves at their funeral
-feast. They saw, therefore, with some composure,
-Thorodd and his dripping attendants plant themselves
-by the fire, from which all mortal guests
-retreated to make room for them. It was supposed
-this apparition would not be renewed after
-the conclusion of the festival. But so far were
-their hopes disappointed, that, so soon as the
-mourning guests had departed, the fires being
-lighted, Thorodd and his comrades marched
-in on one side, drenched as before with water;
-on the other entered Thorer, heading all those
-who had died in the pestilence, and who appeared
-covered with dust. Both parties seized the seats
-by the fire, while the half-frozen and terrified
-domestics spent the night without either light or
-warmth. The same phenomenon took place the
-next night, though the fires had been lighted in a
-separate house, and at length Kiartan was obliged
-to compound matters with the spectres by kindling
-a large fire for them in the principal apartment,
-and one for the family and domestics in a separate
-hut. This prodigy continued during the whole
-feast of Jol. Other portents also happened t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>o appal
-this devoted family; the contagious disease again
-broke forth, and when any one fell a sacrifice to
-it, his spectre was sure to join the troop of persecutors,
-who had now almost full possession of the
-mansion of Froda. Thorgrima Galldrakinna, wife
-of Thorer, was one of these victims; and, in short,
-of thirty servants belonging to the household,
-eighteen died, and five fled for fear of the apparitions,
-so that only seven remained in the service
-of Kiartan."</p>
-
-<p>The trouble and annoyance from the spectres
-had now reached so serious a pitch that, by the
-advice of a maternal uncle, Kiartan instituted
-judicial measures against the spectres.</p>
-
-<p>"A tribunal being then constituted, with the
-usual legal solemnities, a charge was preferred by
-Kiartan against Thorer with the wooden leg, by
-Thordo Kausa against Thorodd, and by others
-chosen as accusers against the individual spectres
-present, accusing them of molesting the mansion,
-and introducing death and disease among its inhabitants.
-All the solemn rites of judicial procedure
-were observed on this singular occasion;
-evidence was adduced, charges given, and the
-cause formally decided. It does not appear that
-the ghosts put themselves on their defence, so that
-sentence of ejectment was pronounced against
-them individually in due and legal form. Whe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>n
-Thorer heard the judgment, he arose, and saying,
-'I have sat while it was lawful for me to do so,'
-left the apartment by the door opposite to that
-at which the judicial assembly was constituted.
-Each of the spectres, as they heard their individual
-sentence, left the place, saying something which
-indicated their unwillingness to depart, until
-Thorodd himself was solemnly appointed to depart.
-'We have here no longer,' said he, 'a peaceful
-dwelling, therefore will we remove.' Kiartan
-then entered the hall with his followers, and the
-priest, with holy water, and celebration of a
-solemn mass, completed the conquest over the
-goblins, which had been commenced by the
-power and authority of the Icelandic law."</p>
-
-<p>The spectral phenomena of the ancient Swedish
-folk-lore differs in no respect from the current
-histories of recent date. An interesting example
-of this is found in the beautiful ballad of Sir Ulf
-and Lady Sölfverlind.</p>
-
-<p>Sir Ulf was a nobleman who had married a wife
-from a foreign country. After they had lived
-together eight years, and had had a family of three
-children, the Lady Sölfverlind died. In a short
-time he married again, and by his second wife, the
-Lady Stineborg, he had also several children.
-This lady, however, proved a cruel step-mothe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>r;
-for, as the ballad reads:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Lady Stineborg's children went out to play,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lady Sölfverlind's children sate weeping all day.<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">The youngest child it wept so loud,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That it woke its mother beneath the sod.<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Lady Sölfverlind spoke to the angel-band:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">'Is it granted to visit the earthly land?'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'It is granted from heaven to earth to go,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But thou must return ere the first cock crow.'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">She came to the door, she tirled at the pin;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">'Rise up, my children, and let me in.'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'On sticks and stones why lie you thus?'<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">'Nothing besides is given to us.'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'Why look ye, my children, so grim and so grey?'<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">'We have not been washed since thou went away.'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'Rise up, Lady Stineborg, hearken to me,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For I have a few words to speak unto thee!'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'I left behind me both upland and low,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yet now my children must supperless go.'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'I left behind me both oxen and kine,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yet now they go barefoot, these children of mine.'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'I left soft down pillows, full many a one,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Now hard sticks and stones are the bed they lie on!'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'Hadst thou to my children shown tenderness sweet,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">God the Father in heaven had found thee a seat!'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">'Have thy children in me a hard step-mother known?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Henceforth will I love them as well as my own!'<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">There ne'er was a lovelier sight in the sky,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Than Sölfverlind taking her children on high.<br /></span>
-<span class="i12">This know we of Ulf."<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The ghost-belief of Hindostan is one of the
-most important of the popular superstitions of
-that country. It differs from that of more
-westerly countries in the degree of reality with
-which the natives have invested it; for while the
-former look upon the interference of the spirits of
-the dead in the events of ordinary life as a circumstance
-of rare occurrence, and regard manifestations
-of this nature with an awe befitting
-their solemnity and supernatural character, the
-latter lives in an atmosphere of spectral beings,
-which are the spirits of those who have lived
-a wicked life on earth, and retain their malignant
-disposition unabated after death, if indeed it is
-not increased in intensity by the devil-like nature
-they assume, and exercise their evil powers in all
-the affairs of life, haunting the localities which
-they pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>viously inhabited, and terrifying and
-tormenting alike friend and foe. Neither are
-their terrors confined to mere occasional apparition,
-and to the fear excited by this, but to the
-power which they possess of interference by physical
-force; for they belabour with blows, or
-grievously affect with bodily ailments, the unhappy
-individuals whom they haunt, and often subject
-to inexpressible tortures those who have had the
-ill-hap to offend them. Hence the Hindoo dreads
-a ghost not so much on account of its supernatural
-character, abstractedly considered, as for
-the physical evil it may inflict upon him.</p>
-
-<p>The ghosts of the wicked, and of the unmarried
-(as it is thought in some provinces), are alone permitted
-to wander on earth, and they have a
-partiality, like our own ghosts, for frequenting
-solitary places, woods, caverns, and ruins, from
-which they issue to exercise their baleful powers
-on man.</p>
-
-<p>Sometimes a ghost will haunt a certain house,
-or a plot of ground, and become so obstreperous,
-that the occupier of the house is obliged to desert
-it, and the proprietor of the land to allow it to
-become waste. But it has happened that if the
-spirit was that of an old proprietor, a deed
-executed in its name has appeased it, and it
-has no more troubled the place.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p>
-<p>These spirits are called, in the Deccan, <i>Vîrikas</i>,
-and in the more southerly parts of India, <i>Paisâchi</i>.
-It is customary to erect small shrines to them,
-formed of a pile of stones, on the top of which is
-a sheltered cavity, containing an image, or a
-rough, shapeless stone, to which offerings of cloth,
-rice, &amp;c., are presented from time to time. This
-propitiatory sacrifice is, in general, found to be an
-efficient method of obtaining immunity from the
-malignant pranks of the ghosts; but if it be
-neglected, they will visit the unfortunate sinner
-with torments and misfortune, or, appearing to
-him by night, intimate the miseries hanging over
-his head, unless he quickly amends himself, and
-offers up the necessary gifts.</p>
-
-<p>Dr. Buchanan relates a story of the apparition
-of a <i>Paisâchi</i> which occurred during his journey
-in Mysore. His cook had been taken ill, and
-died; orders had been given to secure his effects
-for the benefit of his wife and children, "but on
-inspection, after his death, no money could be
-found. Whether he had been plundered as soon
-as he became insensible, and that a guilty conscience
-occasioned fears among his companions,
-or whether the sudden manner of his death occasioned
-suspicions, I cannot say; but it was immediately
-believed that he would become a <i>Paisâchi</i>,
-and all my people were filled with terror. The
-butler imagined that the <i>Paisâchi</i> appea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>red to
-him at night with a black silk handkerchief tied
-round its head, and gave him instructions to take
-all the effects of the deceased to his family; upon
-this, the latter, being a man of courage, put his
-shoes on the right side of the door, which he
-considered to be a sure preventive against such
-intruders. Next night a cattle-driver, lying in all
-the agonies of nocturnal terror, saw the appearance
-of a dog enter, and smell round the place
-where the man had died; when, to his utter dismay,
-the spectre gradually grew larger and larger,
-and at length, having assumed the form of the
-cook, vanished with a shriek. The poor man had
-not the courage to use the slippers, but lay till
-morning in a kind of stupor. After this, even the
-minds of the <i>sepoys</i> were appalled, and when I
-happened to be awake I heard the sentries, by way
-of keeping up their courage, singing with a
-tremulous voice."</p>
-
-<p>There is a class of men called <i>Cani</i>, or <i>Shaycana</i>,
-who are supposed to have the power of
-ejecting and frightening away troublesome spirits
-by the performance of certain mystic ceremonies.
-It is requisite, first, to ascertain whether the
-offending ghost is that of a stranger, or if it
-belong to any deceased member of the family; for
-it would seem that much more powerful incantations
-are required to get rid of a family ghost,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
-which seems to have the opinion that it has a
-right to haunt its relations in the flesh, than
-to eject the ghost of a stranger. The latter,
-according to Dr. Buchanan, may be got rid of for
-a fanam, or about ninepence sterling; the former
-requires expensive sacrifices and many prayers,
-therefore the fee is much larger.</p>
-
-<p>The Chinese have a great dread of ghosts, particularly
-of the ghosts of those who have come to
-an untimely end. They suspend in their houses,
-for the purpose of preventing the entrance of
-these spirits, and of defending themselves from
-their influence, a cruciform piece of iron, to which
-is attached pieces of perforated money, the coinage
-of emperors who have been deified, and who
-are conceived to exercise a protective power over
-their votaries.</p>
-
-<p>The superstitions of the modern Egyptians and
-of the Arabs are rich in ghosts.</p>
-
-<p>The term <i>éfreet</i> is applied to the ghosts of dead
-persons, as well as to evil genii, by the Egyptians;
-and the following story, related by Mr.
-Lane, will illustrate the nature of this superstition
-as it is entertained by that people.</p>
-
-<p>"I had once a humorous cook, who was somewhat
-addicted to the intoxicating hhasheesh: soon
-after he had entered my service, I heard him, one
-evening, muttering and exclaiming on the stairs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
-as if in surprise at some event; and then politely
-saying, "But why are you sitting here in the
-draught? Do me the favour to come up into the
-kitchen, and amuse me with your conversation a
-little." The civil address not being answered, was
-repeated and varied several times, till I called out
-to the man, and asked him to whom he was
-speaking. "The éfreet of a Turkish soldier," he
-replied, "is sitting on the stairs, smoking his pipe,
-and refuses to move; he came up from the well
-below: pray step and see him." On my going to
-the stairs, and telling the servant that I could see
-nothing, he only remarked that it was because I
-had a clear conscience. He was told afterwards
-that the house had long been haunted; but asserted
-that he had not been previously informed of
-the supposed cause; which was the fact of a
-Turkish soldier having been murdered there. My
-cook professed to see this éfreet frequently after."<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a></p>
-
-<p>The Arabs entertain a considerable degree of
-fear and respect for ghosts.</p>
-
-<p>Mr. Bayle St. John states that when travelling
-through the Libyan desert, in 1847, he saw a
-burial-place of the Bedouin Arabs, in the centre of
-which were confusedly scattered "camel-howdahs"
-(<i>tachterwans</i>), stirrups, household <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>utensils, small
-ploughs, &amp;c., which had been left there by the
-Arabs, when commencing a journey, under the
-care of the ghost of a defunct sheikh, who had
-been interred there.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a></p>
-
-<p>Some of the aboriginal tribes of South America
-believe in the occasional apparition of the souls of
-the dead.</p>
-
-<p>Soon after the Roman Catholic mission was established
-at Bahia, an eclipse of the moon occurred;
-the savages, fully armed, rushed in terror to the
-mission, and when the priest inquired the cause of
-their alarm, they responded that the moon was the
-abode of the souls of the dead, and that on that
-night they had collected there in such numbers
-that they darkened its surface: this was a sure
-sign of evil.</p>
-
-<p>Such is a brief sketch of the ghost-belief of
-several nations, ancient and modern.</p>
-
-<p>This belief, in its essential characteristics, was
-the same in the remote periods of antiquity as in
-more recent times; and a similar analogy exists
-between the modifications of it which are now
-entertained in different and widely separated
-countries.</p>
-
-<p>The variations which it is found to possess are
-dependent upon those peculiarities of habit,
-religion, and social life which characterize each<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
-nation. This fact gives an important clue by
-which we may unravel the actual nature of the
-phenomena which are embodied in the belief. But
-previously to entering upon this task it is requisite
-to point out a remote consequence of mythological
-and legendary lore which exercises a highly important
-influence on the minds of most if not all
-persons at the present time.</p>
-
-<p>The numerous myths which were retained, the
-implicit faith reposed in them, and the great extent
-to which the practice of the occult sciences was carried
-in the Middle Ages, fostered ideas respecting
-the influence which supernatural beings exercised
-in the ordinary affairs of life, which rivalled in
-extent and variety those entertained before the
-Christian era; but they received perhaps a more
-gloomy character from the doctrine of the agency
-of devils.</p>
-
-<p>The prevalence of these superstitions throws a
-wild and weird-like shadow over the history of
-those periods, and one of the chief results was
-that the records of local and general events became
-pregnant with mysterious occurrences and supernatural
-interpositions; and a mass of legends,
-teeming with remnants of ancient myths, more or
-less modified, giants, demons, witches, wizards,
-ghosts, portents, &amp;c., have been perpetuated to
-modern times, and have formed an inexhaustible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
-mine to the novelist and romance-writer.</p>
-
-<p>There are few localities in England which do
-not possess legends or tradition of this nature; and
-the standard nursery and children's tales are full
-of supernatural personages and occurrences in
-which are set aside all the known laws of matter
-and force, and time and space are alike annihilated.
-Many of these tales are of great interest,
-for in them we find degenerated forms of some of
-the most ancient traditions and myths of our own
-and other races.</p>
-
-<p>The adventures of <i>Jack the Giant-Killer</i>, the
-most celebrated of all celebrated nursery heroes,
-are for the most part derived from the fabulous
-era of our own country, and from Scandinavian
-mythology; and the whole tale is a degraded and
-vitiated tradition in which the deeds of Corineus,
-a celebrated personage in the mythical history of
-Britain, and Prince Arthur; the adventures of
-Thor, the god of thunder, and other Scandinavian
-deities, are jumbled together in strange confusion.</p>
-
-<p>Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his British History<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>
-states that the early inhabitants of this island
-were giants. Brutus, a grandson of Ascanius,
-the companion of Æneas in his flight from Troy,
-and Corineus, also of Trojan desce<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>nt, guided by a
-dream, discovered Britain, and delighted with
-"the pleasant situation of the place, the plenty of
-rivers abounding with fish, and the engaging
-prospect of its woods," they became desirous of
-fixing their habitation in so desirable a country,
-and landing, drove the giants into the fastnesses of
-the mountains, and divided the country.</p>
-
-<p>To Corineus was apportioned that part of the
-island which we call Cornwall, and it is recorded
-that he had selected this portion of the island for
-his share, because "it was a diversion to him to
-encounter the said giants, which were in greater
-numbers there than in all the other provinces that
-fell to the share of his companions."</p>
-
-<p>Corineus is described as being "an ardent man
-in matters of council, and of great courage and
-boldness; who in an encounter with any person,
-even of gigantic stature, would immediately overthrow
-him as if he were a child."</p>
-
-<p>In the same fabulous history (B. X, ch. 3) it is
-stated, that a giant who had invaded our shores,
-and taken refuge at the top of St. Michael's
-Mount, was attacked by King Arthur in the
-night and killed; the country being thus freed
-"from a most destructive and voracious monster."</p>
-
-<p>Some of Jack's principal adventures are derived
-from the ancient Eddas and Sagas of Scandinavia.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The incident which represents Jack as having
-overheard a giant, upon whose hospitality he had
-intruded, muttering&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Though you lodge with me this night,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">You shall not see the morning light;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">My club shall dash your brains out quite;"<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="ind0">and in which he had evaded the catastrophe
-by placing a log of wood in the bed, he lying
-quietly in a corner, while the giant furiously beat
-with his club the inanimate object, thinking to
-dash him to pieces; and the delightfully cool
-response of Jack to the wonder-struck giant when
-he beheld him safe and sound in the morning, and
-inquired if he had not been disturbed in the
-night,&mdash;"No, nothing worth mentioning, I believe
-a rat struck me with his tail two or three
-times:"&mdash;this incident is a modification of an
-adventure which occurred to Thor on his journey
-to the land of giants, and it is found in some
-form or other in the folk-lore of every nation in
-the north of Europe.</p>
-
-<p>Thor, while journeying to the land of giants,
-met with one of that race named Skrymir. They
-formed a companionship, and the whole of the
-provisions were placed in the giant's wallet. At
-night, when they stopped to rest, Skrymir at
-once lay down and fell asleep, previously ha<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>nding
-the wallet to Thor in order that he might refresh
-himself. Thor was unable to open it, and wroth
-with the giant for his apparent insensibility and
-the mode in which he had tied the knots, he
-seized his mighty hammer and flung it at the
-giant's head. Skrymir awaking, asked whether a
-leaf had fallen on his head, and then he fell
-asleep again. Thor again struck him with his hammer,
-and it apparently sank deep into his skull;
-and the giant again awoke, and asked, "Did an
-acorn fall on my head? How fares it with thee,
-Thor?" Thor, incensed beyond measure, waited
-until the giant again slept, and then exerting all his
-power, dashed his hammer at the head of the
-sleeping monster, into which it sank up to the
-handle. Skrymir, rising up, rubbed his cheek
-and said, "Are there any birds perched on this
-tree? Methought, when I awoke, some moss
-from the branches fell on my head."</p>
-
-<p>Skrymir, distrusting Thor, had before he slept
-interposed a huge rock betwixt himself and the
-god, and upon this Thor had unwittingly exercised
-his strength.</p>
-
-<p>The adventure in which Jack is represented
-as outwitting a giant in eating, by placing his
-food in a large leathern receptacle beneath his
-vesture, and then ripping it up, and defying the
-giant to do the same, whereupon the giant seizes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
-a knife, plunges it into his breast and kills himself,
-is contained also in stories which are prevalent
-among the Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Servians,
-and Persians.</p>
-
-<p>The Swedish version is as follows:&mdash;"In the
-evening, when the giant and his boy were about
-to sup, the crone placed a large dish of porridge
-before them. "That would be excellent," said
-the boy, "if we were to try which could eat the
-most, father or I." The giant was ready for the
-trial, and they began to eat with all their might.
-But the boy was crafty: he had tied his wallet
-before his chest, and for every spoonful that entered
-his mouth, he let two fall into the wallet.
-When the giant had despatched seven bowls of
-porridge, he had taken his fill, and sat puffing and
-blowing, and unable to swallow another spoonful;
-but the boy continued with just as much good-will
-as when he began. The giant asked him how
-it was, that he who was so little could eat so much.
-"Father, I will soon show you: when I have eaten
-as much as I can contain, I slit up my stomach,
-and then I can take in as much again." Saying these
-words, he took a knife and ripped up the wallet,
-so that the porridge ran out. The giant thought this
-a capital plan, and that he would do the like. But
-when he stuck the knife in his stomach, the blood
-began to flow, and the end of the matter was that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
-it proved his death."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p>
-
-<p>The sword of sharpness, and the cloak which
-rendered the wearer invisible, and by the aid of
-which Jack won so many important victories, are
-two of the principal supernatural elements in the
-<i>Nibelungenlied</i>. In this ancient legend, which
-contains the same tragical story as the still more
-ancient Scandinavian poem, the <i>Völundar-Kvida</i>,
-the sword "Balmurg" is described:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i16">"a broad and mighty blade,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With such keen-cutting edges, that straight its way it made,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Where'er it smote on helmet:"<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="ind0">and the cloud-cloak which Siegfried took from the
-dwarf Albric, is pourtrayed as&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"A vesture that hight cloud-cloak, marvellous to tell,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whoever has it on him, may keep him safe and well<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From cuts and stabs of foemen; him none can hear or see,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As soon as he is in it, but see and hear can he<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Whate'er he will around him, and thus must needs prevail;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">He grows besides far stronger; so goes the wondrous tale."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The story of <i>Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper</i>, is
-of great antiquity, and versions of it are found in
-many countries.</p>
-
-<p>Ælian, who lived about <span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 225, relates that,
-as Rhodope, a celebrated Greek <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>courtezan, who
-had been carried into Egypt, was bathing one
-day, an eagle carried off one of her slippers,
-and as it flew over Memphis, where king Psammetichus
-was at that time sitting in tribunal, it
-let fall the sandal into his bosom. Astonished at
-the occurrence, and at the smallness of the sandal,
-he caused inquiries to be made for its owner,
-whom, when he had discovered, he married.</p>
-
-<p>Old versions of this story are found in Norway,
-Germany, Sweden, Denmark, France, Italy, Wallachia,
-Servia, Russia, Poland, and Wales.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p>
-
-<p>In <i>Jack and the Bean-stalk</i>, the bean is evidently
-a version of the ash Ygdrasil of the Edda,
-reaching from hell to heaven; and the golden hen,
-harp, &amp;c., are familiar features in northern stories.</p>
-
-<p><i>Puss in Boots</i>, the <i>Seven-league Boots</i>, &amp;c.,
-have their prototypes in Scandinavian folk-lore;
-and the two last-mentioned tales, as well as others,
-are probably of considerable antiquity.</p>
-
-<p>Tales derived from these sources and composed
-of such elements, and fables in which beasts,
-birds, and fishes are represented as speaking and
-reasoning in a manner that puts man to the blush,
-are among the earliest things engrafted in the
-infant mind; and ever now</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p>
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i14">"By night<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The village-matron round the blazing hearth,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Breathing astonishment&mdash;of witching rhymes,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of evil spirits: of the death-bed call<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of him who robb'd the widow, and devoured<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The orphan's portion: of unquiet souls<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of deeds in life concealed; of shapes that walk<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">At dead of night, and clank their chains and wave<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The torch of hell around the murderer's bed.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">At every solemn pause the crowd recoil,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With shiv'ring sighs; till eager for the event,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Around the beldam all erect they hang,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Each trembling heart with grateful terror quell'd."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Ideas of mysterious and supernatural powers,
-vague, undefined, and frightful, are thus instilled
-into the child, and influence it unchecked and
-uncontrolled by the Scriptural doctrines of the
-invisible which are taught to it. At first the two
-trains of thought derived from these antithetical
-sources go on separately and distinctly; the more
-frightful and wonderful events of legendary lore
-and fable having a much greater influence, and
-forming a deeper impression on the mind of the
-child, whose reasoning powers are still in abeyance
-to the emotions, than the Scriptural doctrines of
-the supernatural. As it advances in years these
-trains of thought insensibly blend; the more rampant
-absurdities of the supernatural framework of
-legendary and ghost-lore are discarded; but <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>the
-less obvious and more insidious portions remain
-to a greater or less extent, and they are so graven
-in the mind, that they become part and parcel of
-it, and in whatever manner they may be subsequently
-modified in form, it is probable that they
-are never eradicated, but form a medium which
-gives a false and deceptive gloss to all our ideas
-upon those matters which are not immediately
-within the ken of reason, or which are more
-clearly attributable to other agency than the forces
-of the material word&mdash;such matters, for example,
-as are contained in Holy Writ.</p>
-
-<p>Hence our ideas of the supernatural are derived
-from two sources&mdash;from legendary lore and from
-Scripture; and this results, that although in after-life
-the more glaring errors and absurdities of the
-former are removed, those only being retained
-which are thought to be compatible with Holy
-Writ, yet the idea of the supernatural thus
-obtained, foreign from revelation, is retained in a
-vague and undefined form, and its origin and
-sources being lost sight of, it is regarded as an
-innate consciousness of the existence of supernatural
-beings, and prompts to the ready reception
-and belief of mysterious and not readily
-explicable phenomena being the result of supernatural
-agency.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p>
-<p>That proclivity to the belief in supernatural
-interpositions, that vague notion of spiritual
-beings, that so-called innate consciousness of the
-existence of the supernatural, which most persons
-possess more or less of, and which is totally inconsistent
-with the clear and perfect doctrine of the
-invisible taught in the Gospel, is, we believe,
-derived solely from the infant mind and earlier
-periods of youth being poisoned by the supernatural
-events and phenomena detailed in fabulous,
-legendary, and ghost-lore.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p>
-
-<p>This substratum of superstition is the prime
-cause of the retention of those figments of degenerated
-and christianized mythology which are yet
-found among us, and for the persistence of the
-most generally received of these figments&mdash;<i>ghosts</i>.
-It is also a highly important element in the formation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
-of that state of the mind which is from
-time to time manifested in singular and wide-spreading
-delusions respecting the communication
-of the spirit-world with man, and of which we
-have examples before us at the present time in
-the prevalent follies of "spirit-rapping" and
-"table-talking."</p>
-
-<p>The belief in ghosts does not now possess those
-glaring features which were attached to it at
-the commencement of the present century, hence
-it is less obtrusive; but it is very far from
-being extinguished, as some would teach, and its
-"etiology" is of interest, because it leads to the
-elucidation of the principal causes and sources of
-the fallacies to which the senses of man are
-subject, and by which he has been led in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span>
-remotest periods of antiquity, as well as at the
-present time, to frame those mighty trammels of
-superstition from which the mind in vain strives
-to disentangle itself completely.</p>
-
-<p>The doctrine that the spirits of the dead return
-to visit the scenes which were dear to them during
-the body's existence, is in itself awfully solemn
-and sublime. Man, prone to believe in supernatural
-interpositions (from causes already explained),
-and trusting altogether to the evidence
-of his senses, for many ages received this doctrine
-unquestioned; and aided by a fertile imagination,
-he clothed it with attributes which, although
-absurd in the main, yet as appealing to some of
-the deepest and warmest affections and passions
-of our nature, cannot even now be contemplated
-without exciting sensations of awe, if not fear.</p>
-
-<p>The thought that the spirits of those who,
-during life, were bound to us by the closest ties of
-affection, are ever near, scrutinizing our actions
-and thoughts, and prompting us ever and anon to
-that course which would most tend to our profit
-here and our joy hereafter<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a>&mdash;shielding us, like
-guard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>ian angels, from the wiles of those wandering
-spirits who, like the "Wicked One" that came
-softly up to Christian in the Valley of the Shadow
-of Death, and "whisperingly suggested many
-grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily
-thought had proceeded from his own mind,"<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>
-seek to tempt us to destruction,&mdash;such a thought
-thrills through the soul of every one, and fills it
-with strange and undefined emotions of blended
-joy and fear.</p>
-
-<p>Few can free themselves altogether from the
-emotion of terror which is almost necessarily connected
-with scenes polluted by murder, or by
-other outbreaks of man's foulest passions. This
-f<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>eeling acting on the minds of the superstitious
-and ignorant, has led them to people with spectres
-all those places which have obtained notoriety from
-being the scene of some terrible ebullition of
-human frailty and wickedness.</p>
-
-<p>Thus, the glen where murder had been committed;
-the pond in which the mother had immersed
-her new-born infant; the hoary ruin pregnant
-with horrid legends of the past; the rocks
-over which the inebriated drunkard fell; the four
-cross roads where the suicide was impaled; the
-dwelling of the miser, or of him who did unjustly
-to the orphan; and the willow-banks of the still-flowing
-river into which the love-lorn maiden had
-cast herself,&mdash;each had its spectre, and at the
-midnight hour the ghost of the murdered bared to
-the moon the mementos of its foul and most unnatural
-end; the spectre of the murderer, writhing
-in agony, rattled its gibbet-chains; the suffocating
-sobs of the drowning infant were borne on the
-fitful breeze; hideous spectres hovered o'er the
-deserted ruin; the ghost of the miser guarded its
-quondam treasures; the cruel guardian and the
-suicide shrieked forth the agonies of the damned;
-and the phantom of the deceived maiden gliding on
-the banks of her watery grave, mingled its plaintive
-wails with each sough of the midnight wind.</p>
-
-<p>But, alas! this prolific source of terror and
-romance must be consigned to the delusions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> the
-past; and the churchyard&mdash;erst pregnant with
-"thin-sheeted phantoms"&mdash;is now also shorn of
-its gloomy horrors, and regarded alone as the last
-quiet resting-place of man on earth.</p>
-
-<p>Even when glimpses of the spirit-world are
-vouchsafed to those who still firmly believe in
-occasional visitations from its inhabitants, it would
-seem that the fashion of their appearance has
-become more in accordance with the quiet well-regulated
-ideas of the age. The major part of
-those terrible attributes of the nether world, that
-of old were delighted in, are no longer exhibited,
-and they are numbered with the things that have
-been. The form which appertained to Satan
-himself&mdash;the cloven foot, the forked tail, the hirsute
-frame, and the horned head&mdash;must also vanish
-before the march of civilisation; hence Mephistopheles,
-in the "Faust" of Goëthe, is represented
-as saying:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Refinement too, which smoothens all<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">O'er which it in the world has pass'd,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Has been extended in its call,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And reached the devil, too, at last.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That northern phantom found no more can be,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Horns, tail, and claws, we now no longer see,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">As for the foot&mdash;I cannot spare it,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">But were I openly to wear it,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">It might do greater harm than good<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">To me among the multitude.<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
-<span class="i0">And so like many a youth beside,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Who bravely to the eye appears,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yet something still contrives to hide,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">I've worn false calves for many years!"<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The phenomena upon which the belief of the
-occasional manifestation of disembodied spirits to
-man is founded, may be accounted for without
-having recourse to the doctrine of supernatural
-interposition.</p>
-
-<p>Our senses and our reasoning powers are apt to
-err. We may deceive ourselves, and are liable to
-be deceived by an erroneous appreciation of the
-sensations which we receive from the objects surrounding
-us&mdash;<i>illusions</i>&mdash;but of the nature of which
-we may readily convince ourselves.</p>
-
-<p>Illusions of the <i>sight</i> may arise either from an
-error of judgment, or from a disordered state of
-the eye.</p>
-
-<p>Of those illusions arising from an error of judgment,
-perhaps none bear directly upon our subject.
-Examples of this kind of illusion are the broken
-appearance of a stick partially immersed in water;
-the apparent movement of trees, houses, &amp;c., past
-a train in motion, or the banks of a river past a
-steamboat.</p>
-
-<p>Illusions arising from a disordered condition of
-the eye, prompting the imagination, are a prolific
-source of ghost-seeing.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p>
-<p>In the obscurity of the evening, or during the
-darkness of the night (particularly on those nights
-which are cloudy, and the darkness seems to rest
-on the ground), the difficulty with which we distinguish
-any object to which the attention is
-directed, is liable to induce a disordered state of
-the eye, the effects of which are very startling.</p>
-
-<p>"The imperfect view which we obtain of such
-objects forces us to fix the eye more steadily upon
-them; but the more exertion we make to ascertain
-what they are, the greater difficulties do we
-encounter to accomplish our object. The eye is
-actually thrown into a state of the most painful
-agitation, the object will swell and contract, and
-partly disappear, and it will again become visible
-when the eye has recovered from the delirium
-into which it has been thrown."<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p>
-
-<p>This illusion is increased by a disturbed condition
-of the pupil of the eye.</p>
-
-<p>The pupil is surrounded by a muscle called the
-<i>iris</i>, by the contraction and dilatation of which
-the size of the opening is increased or diminished,
-and a greater or less amount of light admitted to
-the eye. On a dark night, or during the twilight,
-the pupil is dilated to its utmost extent, so that
-every available ray of light may enter. In this
-condition the eye is not able to accommodate
-itself to near objects, and they become more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>indistinct;
-shadowy, and confused.</p>
-
-<p>Under these circumstances, an object to which
-the attention is strongly attracted, may appear to
-assume strange variations in form,&mdash;now increasing,
-now diminishing in size, now approaching
-nearer, now going further off, or anon disappearing
-altogether; and a bush, a guide-post, a stoop, &amp;c.,
-will seem as though it assumed the most startling
-changes in size and appearance. Add the effects
-of the imagination, and we shall at once perceive
-a source of the various goblins, boggards, and
-other strange sights which have been supposed to
-haunt many of our byeways and deserted places.</p>
-
-<p>To illustrate this form of illusion: a man with
-whom we were acquainted tells the following
-tale:&mdash;When young, he, one evening, had a
-quarrel with his mother about some trifling affair,
-and in defiance of her grief and supplications he
-left home late at night, intending to enter the
-army. It was very dark and stormy, and as he
-proceeded along a bye-path, suddenly a tall object
-arrested his attention; startled, he stood still,
-when, to his utter horror and astonishment, the
-object increased in size, and seemed as though
-about to pounce upon him; it then vanished,
-and anon appeared again. Terrified beyond
-measure, and conceiving that Satan had waylaid
-him for forsaking his mother, the poor man fel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>l
-on his knees, and exclaimed: "O good Lord
-Devil, do not take me, and I'll go back to my
-mother, and be a good lad!" It is unnecessary
-to dwell upon the goggle eyes burning with
-flames which he imagined Satan to possess; suffice
-it that he remained before the supposed devil
-some time, overcome with terror, when a blink of
-the rising moon showed that he was laid at the
-foot of the stump of a tree. Heartily ashamed of
-his fear, he rose up, slunk back home, and made
-peace with his mother.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p>
-
-<p>This will suffice as an example of the most
-degraded form of ghost-life with which our highways
-and byeways have been peopled by the superstitious
-and illiterate,&mdash;illusions which have arisen
-from the effects of a disturbed condition of the
-visual organ on an excited imagination. Burns
-humorously describes this variety of ghost in his
-"Address to the Deil:"</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Ae dreary, windy, winter night,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wi' you, mysel, I gat a fright,<br /></span>
-<span class="i10">Ayont the lough:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ye like a rash-bush stood in sight<br /></span>
-<span class="i10">Wi' waving sugh.<br /></span>
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span></div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"The cudgel in my nieve did shake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Each bristled hair stood like a stake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When wi' an eldricht stour, quaick&mdash;quaick&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i10">Amang the springs,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Awa ye squatter'd like a drake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i10">On whistling wings."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Another form of illusion is induced by objects
-seen indistinctly when the mind is disturbed and
-pre-occupied by some powerful and painful emotion.</p>
-
-<p>"A lady was once passing through a wood, in
-the darkening twilight of a stormy evening, to
-visit a friend who was watching over a dying
-child. The clouds were thick, the rain beginning
-to fall; darkness was increasing; the wind was
-moaning mournfully through the trees. The
-lady's heart almost failed her as she saw that
-she had a mile to walk through the woods in
-the gathering gloom. But the reflection of the
-situation of her friend forbade her turning back.
-Excited and trembling, she called to her aid a
-nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She
-had not proceeded far, when she beheld in t<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>he
-path before her the movement of some very indistinct
-object. It appeared to keep a little distance
-in advance of her, and as she made efforts to get
-nearer to see what it was, it seemed proportionally
-to recede. The lady began to feel rather unpleasantly.
-There was some pale white object certainly
-discernable before her, and it appeared
-mysteriously to float along at a regular distance
-without any effort at motion. Notwithstanding
-the lady's good sense and unusual resolution,
-a cold chill began to come over her; she made
-every effort to resist her fears, and soon succeeded
-in drawing nearer the mysterious object,
-when she was appalled at beholding the features
-of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in
-its shroud. She gazed earnestly, and then it
-remained distinct and clear before her eyes. She
-considered it a monition that her friend's child
-was dead, and that she must hasten on to her
-aid; but there was the apparition directly in
-her path; she must pass it. Taking up a little
-stick, she forced herself along to the object, and
-behold, some little animal scampered away. It
-was this that her excited imagination had transformed
-into the corpse of an infant in its winding-sheet."<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Sir Walter Scott relates an interesting case of
-illusion occasioned by an accidental arrangement
-of some articles of clothing:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Not long after the death of a late illustrious
-poet, who had filled, while living, a great station
-in the eye of the public, a literary friend, to
-whom the deceased had been well known, was
-engaged, during the darkening twilight of an
-autumn evening, in perusing one of the publications
-which professed to detail the habits and
-opinions of the distinguished individual who was
-now no more. As the reader had enjoyed the
-intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree,
-he was deeply interested in the publication, which
-contained some particulars relating to himself
-and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the
-apartment who was also engaged in reading.
-Their sitting-room opened into an entrance-hall
-rather fantastically fitted up with articles of
-armour, skins of wild animals, and the like. It
-was when laying down his book, and passing into
-this hall, through which the moon was beginning
-to shine, that the individual of whom I speak
-saw, right before him, and in a standing position,
-the exact representation of his departed friend,
-whose recollection had been so strongly brought
-to his imagination. He stopped for a single
-moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy
-with which fancy had impressed upon the bodily<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
-eye the peculiarities of dress and posture of the
-illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the delusion,
-he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at
-the extraordinary accuracy of the resemblance,
-and stepped onwards towards the figure, which
-resolved itself, as he approached, into the various
-materials of which it was composed. These were
-merely a screen, occupied by great-coats, shawls,
-plaids, and such other articles as usually are found
-in a country entrance-hall. The spectator returned
-to the spot from which he had seen
-the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his power,
-to recall the image which had been so singularly
-vivid. But this was beyond his capacity; and
-the person who had witnessed the apparition, or,
-more properly, whose excited state had been the
-means of raising it, had only to return, and tell
-the young friend he had left, under what a striking
-hallucination he had for a moment laboured."<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a></p>
-
-<p>The liability to illusion or hallucination in that
-transitional state of the mind when it reverts to
-surrounding objects, after it has been pre-occupied
-with some absorbing and intense thought, is very
-strikingly shown in the above case. It is very
-similar to that condition of the mind which obtains
-between sleeping and waking, when it is well
-known that our dreams are most vivid and brilliant.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Dr. Ferriar relates the following interesting
-case of illusion occasioned by a ray of moonlight
-acting upon the mind of an individual just
-awaking from a horrid dream.</p>
-
-<p>"A gentleman was benighted while travelling
-alone in a remote part of the highlands of Scotland,
-and was compelled to ask shelter for the
-night at a small lonely hut. When he was conducted
-to his bedroom, the landlady observed
-with mysterious reluctance, that he would find the
-window very insecure. On examination, part of
-the wall appeared to have been broken down to enlarge
-the opening. After some inquiry, he was
-told, that a pedlar, who had lodged in the room a
-short time before, had committed suicide, and was
-found hanging behind the door in the morning.</p>
-
-<p>"According to one of the superstitions of the
-country, it was deemed improper to remove the
-body through the door of the house; and to convey
-it through the window was impossible without
-removing part of the wall. Some hints were
-dropped that the room had been subsequently
-haunted by the poor man's spirit.</p>
-
-<p>"My friend laid his arms, properly prepared
-against intrusion of any kind, by the bedside, and
-retired to rest, not without some degree of apprehension.
-He was visited in a dream by a frightful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
-apparition, and awaking in agony, found himself
-sitting up in bed with a pistol grasped in his right
-hand. On casting a fearful glance round the
-room, he discovered, by the moonlight, a corpse
-dressed in a shroud, leaned against the wall close
-by the window. With much difficulty he summoned
-up resolution to approach the dismal
-object, the features of which, and the minutest
-parts of the funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly.
-He passed one hand over it, felt nothing,
-and staggered back to the bed. After a long
-interval, and much reasoning with himself, he
-renewed his investigation, and at length discovered
-that the object of his terrors was produced
-by the moonbeams forming a long bright
-image through the broken window, on which his
-fancy, impressed by his dream, had produced with
-mischievous accuracy, the lineaments of a body
-prepared for interment."</p>
-
-<p>There are some illusions which arise from
-certain of the laws of action of impressions on the
-<i>retina</i>&mdash;that tissue of the eye in which the changes
-necessary to the excitation of the sensation of
-light by luminous rays are induced.</p>
-
-<p>A sensation excited in the retina is not momentary,
-or during the continuance of the exciting
-cause alone, but it persists some seconds after that
-has been withdrawn. Thus if the end of a burning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
-stick be rapidly moved in a circle before the eyes,
-it gives rise to the sensation of an uninterrupted
-circle of light; the sensation excited on each part
-of the retina enduring for a certain period after
-the luminous point has passed.</p>
-
-<p>The following instance is an example of an
-illusion, having relation to our subject, from this
-cause.</p>
-
-<p>A gentleman had been earnestly regarding a
-small and very beautiful painting of the Virgin and
-Child. On turning round from the contemplation
-of it, he was surprised at finding a woman
-of the full size, with an infant in her arms, standing
-before him. On examining the figures more
-closely he, however, found that the woman wanted
-the lower fourth of the body, and this at once led
-to a correct appreciation of the nature of the
-phantom. The painting he had been viewing was
-a three-parts length, and it was the persistence
-of the image upon the retina for a short period
-after he had turned from it, which had given rise
-to the phantom.</p>
-
-<p>A species of divination is made use of in India
-which has its origin in an illusion of this nature,
-and of which the following is an interesting
-example:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>A lady who was about to undertake a long
-journey, was persuaded by a Moonshee to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>walk on
-the verandah and consult her fate.</p>
-
-<p>"It was a clear calm night, the moon was full,
-and not the faintest speck in the sky disturbed
-her reign. The Ganges was like a flood of silver
-light, hastening on in charmed silence; while on
-the green smooth sward on which they walked a
-tall shrub here and there stood erect and motionless.
-The young lady, whose impressions were
-probably deepened by the mystical words of the
-Moonshee, felt a kind of awe stealing over her;
-she looked round upon the accustomed scene as
-if in some new and strange world; and when the
-old man motioned her to stop, as they reached an
-open space on the sward, she obeyed with an indescribable
-thrill.</p>
-
-<p>"'Look there,' said he, pointing to her shadow,
-which fell tall and dark upon the grass. 'Do you
-see it?'</p>
-
-<p>"'Yes,' said she faintly, yet beginning to be
-ashamed. 'How sharply defined are its edges!
-It looks like something you could touch!'</p>
-
-<p>"'But look longer, look better, look steadfastly.
-Is it still definite?'</p>
-
-<p>"'A kind of halo begins to gather round it: my
-eyes dazzle.'</p>
-
-<p>"'Then raise them to the heavens; fix them on
-yonder blue sky. What do you see?'</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p>
-<p>"'I see it still; but it is as white as mist, and
-of a gigantic size.'</p>
-
-<p>"'Has it a head?' asked the Moonshee in an
-anxious whisper.</p>
-
-<p>"'Yes, it is complete in all its parts; but now
-it melts&mdash;floats&mdash;disappears.'</p>
-
-<p>"'Thank God!' said the old man: 'your journey
-shall be prosperous, such is the will of Heaven.'"<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a></p>
-
-<p>When a steady gaze is maintained upon an
-object until the retina is exhausted, which is
-shown by the imperfect vision, or "dazzling,"
-and the eyes are then suddenly directed away from
-it to an uniformly coloured surface, an image of
-the object, from the persistence of the impression,
-as already stated, will still remain for a short
-period upon the retina; but another phenomenon
-is also observed, for the exhausted condition of
-the retina renders it incapable of responding,
-during its continuation, to the impression of the
-original colour of the object, and the spectrum
-appears of a different colour. To this spectral
-colour the term <i>complementary</i> or <i>accidental</i> is
-applied; and if the colour of the object be red, the
-complementary colour will be green; if yellow,
-deep purple; if black, white, &amp;c., and <i>vice versâ</i>.
-Thus then the spectral apparition witnessed in the
-above relation receives a re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>ady and intelligible
-explanation.</p>
-
-<p>The sense of <i>hearing</i> is also subject to illusions:
-for example, when a timid person mistakes the
-rustling of leaves in a forest for the voices of
-robbers; or the soughing of the wind among the
-trees, in some place of evil repute, for the moaning
-of a wandering and unhappy spirit.</p>
-
-<p>The varied and undefined noises often produced
-by the wind when sweeping over an irregular surface,
-among rocks and trees, on the surface of
-water, in forests, or secluded and deep glens; and
-the mysterious sounds occasioned by the rushing
-of the water in the hollows and caverns of a rock-bound
-coast, have been fertile sources of illusion
-among the superstitious.</p>
-
-<p>The ancient Romans listening to the inexplicable
-sounds which assailed the ear in solitary and
-wooded places, fabled that they were the voices
-of the wood deities, or as Lucretius beautifully
-expresses it:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"The neighbouring swains believe, or fondly vaunt,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Satyrs and nymphs the rural regions haunt;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That fauns with wanton revel and delight<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Disturb the sober silence of the night:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That music's blended notes are heard around,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The plaintive voice, and harp's according sound:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And well they know when Pan, the sylvan god,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">(While o'er his brows the piny honours nod,)<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span>
-<span class="i0">With bending lip awakes the vocal reeds,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And the charmed ears of listening satyrs feeds.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With joy these tales they tell, or tales like these,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And fill the woods with fabled deities."<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>As the winds swept over the wild heaths of the
-north, or roared amid the mountain passes, bearing
-upon their bosom the heavy mantling clouds
-which enwreathed the ghosts of the heroes of old,
-often in their varied tones did the ancient Celt
-conceive that he heard the voices of the dead;
-and he who was stricken with misery deemed that
-his forefathers called upon him to hasten to the
-land of shadows. "The ghosts of fathers," they
-say, "call away the souls of their race while they
-behold them lonely in the midst of woe." Or
-when an eddy of wind sweeping into the hall
-awoke a cadence of music as it played over the
-strings of the harps suspended there, the hearers
-shrunk as the notes thrilled through them, and
-fearfully whispered that the ghosts of the dead
-touched the strings, and asked whose death of all
-the mighty the ghostly music portended. "The
-harps of the bards, untouched, sound mournful
-over the hill."<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p>
-
-<p>The supernatural framework of many legends
-depends upon illusions of the hearing of a similar
-character.</p>
-
-<p>At Crosmere, near Ellesmere, in Shropshire,
-there is a tradition <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>that a chapel once stood on
-the borders of the lake, and it was long believed
-that when the waters were ruffled by the wind
-the sound of the bells might be heard beneath
-the surface; and an old story records that, long
-ago, a church and village were entombed by an
-earthquake, near the spot where Raleigh, in Nottinghamshire,
-now stands; and that at Christmas,
-even now, the bells may be heard solemnly tolling
-deep in the bosom of the earth.</p>
-
-<p>Among the Cornish miners a very singular
-superstition prevails, which is due to the sounds
-occurring in old and deserted workings, from the
-dropping of water and other causes. These
-noises are supposed to be produced by certain
-spirits, which are termed "<i>Knockers</i>," and,
-according to the author of "Yeast; a Problem,"
-the miners hold that "they are <i>the ghosts of the
-old Jews that crucified our Lord, and were sent
-for slaves by the Roman Emperors to work the
-mines;</i> and we find their old smelting-houses,
-which we call <i>Jews' houses</i>, and their blocks, at
-the bottom of the great bogs, which we call <i>Jews'
-tin;</i> and there is a town among us, too, which we
-call <i>Market Jew</i>, but the old name was <i>Marazion</i>,
-that means the Bitterness of Zion, they tell me;
-and bitter work it was for them, no doubt, poor
-souls! We used to break into the old shafts and
-adits which they had made, and find old stags'-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>horn
-pickaxes that crumbled to pieces when we
-brought them to grass. And they say that, if a
-man will listen of a still night about those old
-shafts, he may hear the ghosts of them at working,
-knocking, and picking, as clear as if there
-was a man at work in the next level."<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a></p>
-
-<p>But the most common cause of illusion from
-sound arises from the difficulty which all more or
-less experience, of tracing the direction of a sound,
-particularly if it be indistinct. The ascertainment
-of the direction of a sound, and the distance
-of the sonorous body, is an act of judgment, and
-it is the result of experience. The power may be
-cultivated to a great extent, and many savage
-tribes possess it in a very high degree; but among
-civilized nations, where the sounds requisite to be
-attended to are principally of a point-blank
-character, and where the necessity for the cultivation
-of that nicety of hearing which is required in
-forest life does not exist, the power of distinguishing
-the direction and distance of sounds is
-very imperfect.</p>
-
-<p>The intensity of the sound, and the position of
-the ears, contribute to the formation of a correct
-judgment; but if the two ears have precisely the
-same relation to the point from which the sound
-issues, as when it occurs directly before or behi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>nd,
-it is impossible to distinguish by the sensation
-alone whether the sound arises in the front or the
-rear.</p>
-
-<p>The most familiar and striking illustration of
-the difficulty experienced in determining the
-direction of sound, is <i>ventriloquism</i>. By a cultivation
-of the power of speaking without the aid of
-the lips, and by keeping the muscles of the face
-in a state of passiveness, the ventriloquist, on
-giving the mind of the listener a certain leading
-idea, will induce him to think that he hears
-voices issuing from the floor, from the ceiling,
-from within him, or from any position but the
-correct one; and by a modification of the
-intensity of the sound, it may be made to appear
-as if it arose at different distances, as when voices
-are heard in the distance, which gradually
-approach the listener, come close to him, pass by,
-and are again lost in the distance. Although
-perfectly aware of the deception, there are few
-who can correct the impressions received, and
-trace them to their legitimate source.</p>
-
-<p>This uncertainty of distinguishing the direction
-and the nature of sounds has been a prolific source
-of belief in supernatural occurrences, and the
-majority, if not all, of those mysterious noises
-which are so common in old houses, and which it
-was customary, from inability to discover their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
-origin, to attribute to spiritual agency, have been
-due to this cause. The yielding of wood-work,
-the scouring of vermin, the sighing of the wind in
-chinks and crannies, have been transformed by
-excited and superstitious imaginations into the
-sighing, or whispering, or knocking of wandering
-ghosts, and there is, perhaps, not a town or
-village in England which has not at one time or
-other had one or more houses reputed to be
-haunted by incorporeal visitants who have thus
-announced their presence.</p>
-
-<p>Sir David Brewster relates an interesting
-example of illusion arising from this source.
-"A gentleman devoid of all superstitious feelings,
-and living in a house free from any gloomy
-associations, heard, night after night, in his bedroom,
-a singular noise, unlike any ordinary sound
-to which he was accustomed. He had slept in
-the same room for years without hearing it, and
-he attributed it at first to some change of circumstances
-in the roof or in the walls of the room;
-but after the strictest examination no cause could
-be found for it. It occurred only once in the
-night; it was heard almost every night with few
-interruptions. It was over in an instant, and it
-never took place till after the gentleman had gone
-to bed. It was always distinctly heard by his
-companion, to whose time of going to bed it h<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>ad
-no relation. It depended on the gentleman alone,
-and it followed him into another apartment with
-another bed, on the opposite side of the house.
-Accustomed to such investigations, he made the
-most diligent but fruitless search into its cause.
-The consideration that the sound had a special
-reference to him alone, operated upon his imagination,
-and he did not scruple to acknowledge
-that the recurrence of the mysterious sound
-induced a superstitious feeling at the moment.
-Many months afterwards it was found that the
-sound arose from the partial opening of the door
-of a wardrobe which was within a few feet of the
-gentleman's head, and which had been taken into
-the other apartment. This wardrobe was almost
-always opened before he retired to bed, and the
-door being a little too tight, it gradually forced
-itself open with a sort of dull sound, resembling
-the note of a drum. As the door had only
-started half an inch out of its place, its change of
-position never attracted attention. The sound,
-indeed, seemed to come in a different direction,
-and from a greater distance.</p>
-
-<p>"When sounds so mysterious in their origin
-are heard by persons predisposed to a belief in
-the marvellous, their influence over the mind
-must be very powerful. An inquiry into their
-origin, if made at all, will be made more in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> the
-hope of confirming than of removing the original
-impression, and the unfortunate victim of his
-own fears will also be the willing dupe of his own
-judgment."<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p>
-
-<p>Not unfrequently the difficulty of distinguishing
-the direction of sound has been made
-the basis of imposition upon the credulous; and
-when it is considered how readily the judgment
-is led into error in this respect, even when aware
-of the deception practised, as in ventriloquism,
-the easy facility with which it is imposed upon
-when superstitious feelings are excited, and the
-wide-spread delusions which have thus arisen,
-cannot be wondered at.</p>
-
-<p>The Cock-lane ghost is a familiar example of
-a deception of this nature: but this, and every
-other delusion of a similar character, sink into
-insignificance before a delusion of our own day
-and times&mdash;<i>Spirit-rapping</i>.</p>
-
-<p>The idea of a communication of the spiritual
-world with man by the intervention of <i>raps</i>, is
-not new. A writer in a recent number of "Notes
-and Queries,"<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> gives the following example of
-an early instance of this kind in England.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>"Rushton Hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire,
-was long the residence of the
-ancient and distinguished family of Treshams.
-In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion
-was occupied by Sir Thomas Tresham, who was a
-pedant and a fanatic; but who was an important
-character in his time by reason of his great
-wealth and powerful connections. There is a
-lodge at Rushton, situate about half-a-mile from
-the old hall, now in ruins, but covered all over
-within and without with emblems of the Trinity.
-This lodge is known to have been built by Sir
-Thomas Tresham; but his precise motive for
-selecting this mode of illustrating his favourite
-doctrine was unknown until it appeared from a
-letter written by himself about the year 1584, and
-discovered in a bundle of books and papers inclosed
-since 1605, in a wall of the old mansion,
-and brought to light about twenty years ago. The
-following relation of a "rapping" or "knocking"
-is extracted from this letter:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"If it be demanded why I labour so much in
-the Trinity and Passion of Christ to depaint in
-this chamber, this is the principal instance thereof;
-that at my last being hither committed"&mdash;(referring
-to his commitments for recusancy,
-which had been frequent)&mdash;"and I usually having
-my servants here allowed me, to read nightly an
-hour to me after supper, it fortuned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> that Fulcis,
-my then servant, reading in the "Christian Resolution,"
-in the treatise of "Proof that there is a
-God, &amp;c.," there was upon a wainscot table at
-that instant three loud knocks (as if it had been
-with an iron hammer) given; to the great amazing
-of me and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton."</p>
-
-<p>Another example of early "spirit-rapping" is
-the celebrated ghost of "<i>Old Jeffreys</i>," at the
-Epworth Parsonage, during the childhood of the
-Revds. John and Charles Wesley.</p>
-
-<p>The conception of a familiar correspondence
-between the spirit-world and man by means of
-knocks and raps is, however, an idea of modern
-times, and for which we are indebted to America,
-although it would seem that in 1835 we were on
-the eve of making this unenviable discovery in
-our own country, for the invisible cause of certain
-noisy disturbances in a house occupied by a Captain
-Molesworth at Trinity, near Edinburgh, in
-that year, would, it is asserted, respond to a question
-by knocks, if it could be answered numerically;
-as, for example, "How many people are
-there in the room?" when it would answer by as
-many knocks. This so-called spirit seemed at
-times to be drumming a certain tune. The knocks
-in this case had some very intimate connection
-with a sick girl, a daughter of Captain Molesworth;
-for they accompanied her, and wherever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
-she was there they prevailed most.</p>
-
-<p>In 1846, or 1847, a house in the village of
-Hydesville, State of New York, America, was
-reported to be haunted by certain noises, as
-knockings on the doors, panels, floors, ceilings,
-&amp;c., of which the source could not be ascertained;
-and chairs and tables were occasionally displaced,
-and crockery broken by some invisible power.
-When the noises and disturbances first commenced,
-it is stated that the house was occupied
-by a man named Weekman; but subsequently it
-passed into the possession of a person called Fox,
-who had two daughters, Catherine and Margaretta,
-and during their residence in it, not only did the
-knockings and irregular motions of the furniture
-persist, but they increased in intensity, variety,
-and frequency of occurrence, and it was ascertained
-by the young women that the knocks
-would mimic sounds which they made, and even
-respond to questions put orally. A code of
-signals in the affirmative and negative was next
-arranged, and by going over the letters of the
-alphabet, and the affirmative signal duly occurring
-at certain letters, which were recorded, a system
-of correspondence was established with the invisible,
-but apparently intelligent, source of the disturbances.
-By this method it was ascertained
-that the cause of the noises, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> other indications
-of invisible power, professed to be the spirit of a
-man named Charles Ryan, who, while in the flesh,
-had resided in that house; had been foully murdered
-there; the corpse interred in a certain part
-of the cellar; and had left a family of five children,
-all of whom were then alive. These revelations
-caused, as may well be imagined, a great sensation
-in the village, and, notwithstanding that no such
-person as Charles Ryan had ever lived there, or
-in that house, and that on searching the cellar
-carefully no remains of a corpse were found, the
-imposition and delusion was persisted in. It is
-scarcely necessary to add that as yet no one has
-come forward to claim kindred with the first of
-the disembodied spirits that held communication
-with man.</p>
-
-<p>Several committees were appointed to investigate
-the matter, but they failed to ascertain the
-cause of the sounds, and by common consent, no
-natural cause being evident, it was assumed, <i>therefore</i>,
-that the cause was supernatural.</p>
-
-<p>Subsequently, the Fox family removed to
-Rochester, and singular to say, the spirit-sounds
-followed them. Noises began also to be heard in
-other houses and towns, and it was soon found
-that many females, equally with the Misses Fox,
-possessed the power of communicating familiarly
-through the medium of sounds, with the spirit-w<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>orld.
-In an almost incredibly brief space of
-time, this delusion swept over the United States,
-and multitudes from all ranks and conditions of
-society gave in their accession to the system of
-belief into which it was quickly moulded.</p>
-
-<p>Certain persons only were found to possess the
-power of summoning the spiritual knocks at pleasure;
-these were principally females, and they were
-termed "<i>mediums</i>." The belief itself was spoken
-of under the simple term of "<i>Spirit-rapping</i>," and
-its advocates and believers as "<i>Rappers</i>," or
-"<i>Rappites</i>."</p>
-
-<p>Each "medium," somehow or other, managed
-to interweave his or her own views with the spirit-revelations,
-and the spirits themselves did not
-hesitate in simple set phrase to give the lie to one
-another; consequently, the revelations and doctrines
-inculcated are somewhat varied and inconsistent.
-The most generally received doctrine at
-the present time may, however, be summed up as
-follows:&mdash;The "knocks," "raps," and other manifestations
-of invisible power, are caused by the
-spirits of the dead, who, by direct permission of
-the Almighty (according to the more religious), or
-by self-discovery on the part of the spirits (according
-to a statement made by the spirit of Benjamin
-Franklin), are enabled to communicate with their
-fellow-men by various sounds and exhibitions of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
-physical power. This correspondence was permitted
-by God in consequence of the great
-advance which the Americans in particular, and
-mankind in general, had made towards perfection;
-and it is intimated that if the present rate of progression
-towards perfection continue, we shall
-soon be able to have intercourse by voice and sight
-with the spirit-world. As it is, certain persons
-possess these privileges in full, and the mass of
-Christians, <i>if believers</i>, have so grown in goodness
-that the religion of the present day&mdash;Biblical
-religion&mdash;is no longer needed, and Christianity
-is to be regarded as a state of probation that <i>was</i>
-requisite to attain the perfection now arrived at;
-but this transition state being passed, from the
-elevation of the spirit-world we can see that many
-of its doctrines form now a mighty and dangerous
-slough, in which we are in danger of being
-smothered.</p>
-
-<p>The ideas entertained by mankind respecting
-spiritual existences are singularly incorrect; notwithstanding
-this, however, most of the spirits, as
-when in the body, entertain some peculiarity of
-doctrine, which shows that even in the "spheres"
-opinions are divided on this point. The most
-general opinion states that the spirit-world surrounds
-the earth, and is divided into seven spheres,
-which are subdivided into seven other spheres<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>,
-and these again admit of still further division,&mdash;a
-geography evidently derived from Mahomedanism,
-and the old monkish legends of the septate division
-of hell, purgatory, and paradise. In the
-first of the spheres the lowest orders of spirits
-reside. These form the most degraded class of
-spirit-life, and are unhappy compared with those
-in the higher spheres; but the lowest degree of
-their unhappiness exceeds the highest degree of
-man's pleasures. Into this sphere pass all those
-who have had an unsatisfactory character on
-earth; while those who have been more correct in
-their conduct pass immediately into the sphere
-which approximates to their degree of goodness.
-The residence of any spirit in the lower spheres is
-not constant; for, exposed to heavenly influences,
-it goes on gradually improving, and as it sublimes,
-it ascends through the higher spheres, until at last
-the seventh sphere is attained, where it is fulfilled
-with bliss, and enters the presence of God.
-Hence we find St. Paul and Tom Paine, Calvin and
-Napoleon, Wesley and Shelley, united in friendly
-brotherhood. There is no hell, such as is taught
-in the Scriptures, and no eternal punishment, and
-man carries into the spirit-world his passions and
-propensities, and relative degrees of ignorance
-and knowledge. The spirit of Calvin stated that
-the spirits understood all languages intuitivel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span>y;
-but this has been refuted by an immense majority
-of spirits, and it is certain that they know no
-other languages than those they were acquainted
-with on earth. Indeed, it is requisite to have
-rudimental education in our own language in
-heaven. "I have no friends to teach me how to
-spell," said a spirit named Jack Waters. Another,
-named Frank Copland, was unable to make any
-satisfactory communication, from being "an illiterate
-youth" when he died; and the "medium" to
-whom this communication was made, kindly
-advised the spirit to get the soul of a deceased
-sister to teach him. He did so, and in three
-months it was ascertained that he had made very
-creditable progress in spelling, &amp;c. The amusements
-of the "spirits" consist of music, concerts,
-dancing, card-playing, &amp;c., and they live in a
-species of concubinage. They dress according to
-fancy, but the male spirits generally wear trousers,
-hats or turbans, and beards. They have also
-condescended to teach certain celestial architectural
-vagaries. They <i>lie</i> like mortals, and coolly
-admit it; and it is occasionally necessary to put
-the spirits on oath! They are very liable to error,
-and the spirit of General Washington, equally
-careless of grammar and orthography, revealed,
-that they "many times make mistakes, and so
-we are called liars; but this is owing to o<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>ur neglect
-of the records that are given us, and also to evel
-spirits; but we will try to be more careful or correct
-after we have becom more use to writing for
-our friends." The spirits speak with the utmost
-contempt and abhorrence of the religious beliefs
-of the present day, and regard the Bible as unfit
-for general perusal, from the errors (due to the
-translators) which it contains; and this assertion
-is fittingly crowned by the statement that it emanates
-under a special communication from St.
-Paul himself.</p>
-
-<p>Notwithstanding the painful absurdity and
-frightful blasphemy of these doctrines (which satisfactorily
-show the class of persons by whom the
-delusion is fostered, and the flagrant character of
-the imposition), clergymen, judges, and persons
-distinguished in literature have permitted themselves
-to be led away by the delusion, each establishing
-some conscientious clause or giving a
-peculiar phase to the belief, in order to exculpate
-themselves from the charge of contributing to
-some of the more outrageous dogmas of this
-strange delusion.</p>
-
-<p>The phenomena which led to the delusion were
-sounds of various kinds and intensity, which were
-called up by the "medium" at will, apparently
-in various parts of the room in which the
-"<i>séances</i>" were held, but principal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>ly beneath the
-table at which she sat; and the movement of certain
-articles of furniture. The intelligent correspondence
-with the "raps" (for the furniture-moving
-was merely indicative of the <i>power</i> of the
-suppositious spirits) was by questions uttered
-audibly, mentally, or in writing, to which replies
-were given by repeated raps&mdash;an affirmative; or by
-silence&mdash;a negative; or the words of the response
-were spelled out by running over the alphabet&mdash;the
-affirmative knocks taking place when the
-finger or pencil rested on the letters required to
-form the sentence. Some more highly-gifted
-mediums, pervaded by a spiritual afflatus, were
-enabled to write the answers; and others shadowed
-them forth in dancing.</p>
-
-<p>If we reflect for a moment upon the difficulty
-which most persons experience in detecting the
-direction and position of sounds, particularly when
-the mind is under the dominion of certain ideas,
-we may readily imagine how at the first the delusion
-of spirit-rapping obtained credence among the
-credulous and ignorant. It was, however, soon
-ascertained that an imposition was being practised;
-and very shortly after the development of the
-mania, a "medium" came forward and confessed
-the deception practised, and the mode in which
-she had carried it out. This "medium," named
-Mrs. Norman Culvers, had been taught the mod<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>e
-of deception by Margaretta Fox, one of the
-original "mediums;" and she stated that the
-raps were produced by the toes, the listener's
-mind being distracted by directing the attention,
-by a fixed gaze or otherwise, to certain parts of
-the room, from which he was instructed that the
-sounds came. By the confession of other "mediums,"
-and by observation, it was ascertained
-that, in addition to the rapping by the toes, raps
-were produced by a lateral movement of the knee-joint,
-and the joints of the thumb and fingers (the
-"cracking" of the joints, a familiar phenomenon);
-by the action of the feet against the leg of the
-table, or by the movement of the soles of the
-shoes one against another; and lastly, by a
-hammer ingeniously fixed in the woodwork of
-the table. It was further shown to demonstration,
-that in no case when the "mediums" were
-placed in positions where none of the before-mentioned
-methods of rapping could occur, did
-the raps take place; that in no case could the
-"spirits" reply correctly to a single question,
-when the querist, by an impassibility of countenance
-and scrupulous care over his actions,
-did not betray his thoughts, or indicate the letters
-constituting the words he required; and that the
-"spirits" might be led to answer the most absurd
-and incorrect questions, utterly unconscious of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span>
-imposition or error.</p>
-
-<p>Notwithstanding this exposure, the delusion is
-persisted in; and it is principally maintained by
-the occasional correct replies which are given by
-the medium to questions of which none present
-could be acquainted with the answer, but the
-querist; and many men, even of considerable
-literary attainments, have been led into the delusion
-by this simple phenomenon alone.</p>
-
-<p>A careful examination of the details of the spirit-communications,
-and the confessions of the mediums
-already alluded to, will show that in no
-case was there a correct response given to questions
-when precautions were taken to guard against
-the indication given by the countenance or by the
-actions to the medium, and even this was not
-sufficient to prevent a multitude of errors being
-fallen into.</p>
-
-<p>The pure spirit-communications which have
-been received from the Apostles, Franklin, Washington,
-&amp;c., vary according to the mediums to
-which they have been vouchsafed, and often flatly
-contradict each other; in itself a sufficient indication
-of the glaring character of the delusion.</p>
-
-<p>Some, admitting the spiritual origin of the
-"raps" have gone a little further, and enunciated
-the opinion that the "rappings" occur through the
-influence of electricity or magnetism which the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
-spirits wield; "and if," writes N. P. Willis, "disembodied
-spirits are still moving consciously
-among us, and have thus <i>found an agent at last&mdash;electricity&mdash;by
-which they can communicate with the
-world they have left</i>, it must soon, in the progressive
-nature of things, ripen to an intercourse
-between this and the spirit-world." Surely an
-electric condition that would cause sonorous
-"raps," and tables, chairs, &amp;c., to dance jigs, and
-imitate ships tossed in a storm, would be within
-reach of the test of experiment. Such a test,
-however, has never been attempted; and thus it is
-men, even of high standing in literature, with the
-utmost coolness plunge into conjectures respecting
-the operations of forces of which they seem to be
-unacquainted even with the signification of the
-terms. For electricity and magnetism are no
-vague names, but terms applied to certain phenomena
-which are readily ascertained, and without
-the presence of which we are not justified in
-using them.</p>
-
-<p>We have already sufficiently shown the illusions
-to which the sense of hearing is liable, and the
-influence they have had in the formation of the
-belief in spirit-rapping is evident. The disposition
-of the mind in contributing towards this
-and allied delusions requires a brief comment.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span></p>
-<p>The substratum of superstition which is found
-to prevail more or less in most persons, is a never-failing
-source of delusion; and it is the groundwork
-upon which the impostor acts. Readily
-excited and brought into play by phenomena of
-which the origin is not palpably evident, it seizes
-with avidity upon doctrines which pander to its
-taste for mystery and wonder; and a suggestion,
-whether direct or implied, induces a condition of
-the mind that interposes an almost insuperable
-bar to the healthy action of the reason. This
-unconscious action of the mind, under the influence
-of leading ideas, is the prime foundation of
-those illusions of the senses of which we have
-illustrations in the pseudo sciences of "mesmerism,"
-"electro-biology," &amp;c., all the phenomena
-of which may be produced by simply inducing
-certain trains of thought.</p>
-
-<p>When Goëthe represented Mephistopheles as
-saying&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"<i>Whispered suggestions</i> are the devil's rÃŽle,"<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p class="ind0">it was with a profound perception of the powerful
-influence they exercise in the creation of delusions.</p>
-
-<p>The throngs which crowd around the table of
-the "medium," go pregnant with a desire to see
-a mystery, and filled with a vague fear of the
-supernatural influences to which they may be s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>ubjected.
-This is increased by the interval of from
-five minutes to half an hour which is allowed to
-intervene between the commencement of the
-<i>séance</i>, and the first "rap" from the spirits; and
-during this period the mind is kept to the utmost
-tension by listening, or is well exercised by attending
-to the anecdotes illustrative of the power of
-the spirits which are detailed by the medium, and
-it is thus brought into the state that is requisite
-for the perfection of the delusion. In the condition
-of the mind thus induced, the medium has little
-difficulty in leading her credulous hearer to whatever
-length it may be desired, and a careful
-examination of the countenance and the hand will
-suffice for a correct response to the majority of
-the questions which may be proposed.</p>
-
-<p>The want of discrimination of the facts from
-the theories invented to explain them, is another
-and great source of delusion; for the majority it
-suffices that if the "raps" occur, or the table
-moves, it is sufficiently demonstrative that it is
-by the influence of spirits; and it is a much less
-difficult matter to them to believe that the phenomena
-arises from supernatural than natural
-agency.</p>
-
-<p>Certain luminous phenomena, phosphorescent
-flames, luminous clouds, glistening stars, &amp;c.,
-have been observed when the spirit-manifestatio<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>ns
-have occurred in profound darkness. These appearances
-were dependent upon a disordered
-condition of the eye, which will be fully dwelt
-upon in a subsequent part of this work.</p>
-
-<p>The irregular and violent movements of the
-furniture which occurred when the <i>séances</i> were
-held in <i>darkened</i> apartments, were the result of
-the most palpable collusion. There were certain
-movements of the tables, however, around which
-the experimenters sat when eliciting the spirit-rappings,
-that could not be attributed to this
-source; and an examination of these motions
-showed that if several persons arranged themselves
-around a table, and rested their hands slightly
-upon it, after a longer or shorter period motion
-would occur, which was to a great extent under
-the control of the will, although the experimenters
-were not aware that they exerted any
-force whatever upon the table; and further, it
-was ascertained that a table thus set in motion
-would respond by rapping with the legs, to
-questions propounded to it, and that with a
-facility equal to the most perfect "medium."</p>
-
-<p>This interesting phenomenon soon attracted considerable
-attention, for it was certain that neither
-collusion nor wilful deception were concerned in
-it; and it could be produced by persons who did
-not pretend to the character of "mediums;"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
-indeed, out of a company of several individuals
-it was pretty certain that some could be found
-capable of inducing the phenomenon.</p>
-
-<p>The "Rappites" looked upon it simply as
-another and more general manifestation of the
-spirit-world; others, imbued with the pseudo-scientific
-dogmas of animal magnetism, odylism,
-&amp;c., sought an explanation in the principles of
-their respective theories; some regarded it as the
-result of Satanic agency; and lastly, those best
-capable of judging on the question, looked upon
-the motion as the result of muscular force exerted
-unconsciously by the experimenters, and in accordance
-with certain well-known laws of muscular
-and mental action.</p>
-
-<p>The doctrine of Satanic agency has excited
-great attention in this country, from the fact of its
-being propounded and advocated by certain
-clergymen of our Established Church, who not
-content with regarding it as one of those "great
-wonders" which are to prelude the reign of Anti-christ,
-have even sought by this agency to verify
-the truths of the immortality of the soul, eternity,
-the existence of a hell; thus seeking a confirmation
-of the Scripture from the devil himself,
-and comically identifying themselves with the
-principles so pithily expressed by Ralpho:&mdash;</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span></p>
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Those principles I've quoted late,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Prove that the godly may allege<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For anything their privilege,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And to the devil himself may go,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">If they have motives thereunto:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For as there is a war between<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The dev'l and them, it is no sin<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">If they, by subtle stratagem,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Make use of him, as he does them."<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a><br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The answer to this explication, as well as to those
-other explications based on the doctrines of the
-"Rappites," and the principles of the pseudo-sciences,
-is found in the simple fact, that if care
-be taken to ascertain the sources of motion which
-arise from the experimenters themselves, and
-to obviate their influence in the experiment,
-neither movements nor responses occur; and by
-a careful examination of the conditions requisite
-for the perfection of the experiment, and an experimental
-illustration of them, we arrive at the
-conclusion that "table-moving" and "table-talking"
-are the result solely of muscular action
-exercised unconsciously under the influence of
-certain expectant ideas.</p>
-
-<p>If we proceed in the examination of this question
-as in that of every other physical question,
-by seeking the conditions requisite for the fulfilment
-of the experiment, and examining their
-nature, we observe that the position of the persons
-who perform it is one that would <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>give rise
-to certain easily understood and comprehensible
-results. The hands are placed upon the table in
-such a position that the experimenter exercises
-the least degree of pressure of which he can be
-conscious, and in this position they are kept for a
-longer or shorter period, but generally averaging
-from twenty to thirty minutes. Whether the
-individual be sitting or standing, the protracted
-exertion of the muscles to keep the hand in so
-constrained a position, gives rise to considerable
-fatigue, which is manifested by the usual painful
-sensations in the over-exercised parts; and these
-sensations have been sagely compared by the advocates
-of the pseudo-sciences to those experienced
-by electric or electro-magnetic currents. As the
-muscular fatigue and the painful state of tension
-into which the muscles are thrown increase, the
-sensations by which we judge of the amount of
-pressure exercised upon a given object diminishes,
-and unless the degree of pressure exercised is
-checked by information derived through some
-other sense, it goes on ever increasing in a direct
-ratio until the whole weight of the hand, the arm,
-and even the shoulders of the person so standing
-is unconsciously thrown upon the table, and a
-degree of force exercised, which is sufficient to
-induce the movements we witness in the table<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
-experimented on.</p>
-
-<p>The inertia of the table is as thoroughly destroyed
-by the amount of force thus brought to
-bear upon it, as if a more intense force had acted
-momentarily. The period of suspense which occurs
-previous to the first movement taking place, is
-that during which the force communicated by the
-hand is equally diffused through the table, and the
-moment this happens, as no body can be set in
-motion until the motion has been imparted to
-every integral particle of that body, a slight additional
-force will be sufficient to overcome the
-resistence of surrounding media, and cause it
-to change its position. Hence a comparatively
-slight force exercised over a long period will not
-unfrequently induce effects equal to those caused
-by a greater degree of force exercised during a
-short period of time.</p>
-
-<p>We often witness the practical application of
-this principle. If we observe two men endeavouring
-to move a railway carriage upon the line,
-we shall notice that they do not at the first exert
-all their strength in one powerful, and what would
-probably prove exhaustive and futile, effort, but
-placing their backs against the carriage, they will
-push with a continuous and gradually increasing
-effort for several seconds, or even longer, when a
-slight movement will be perceived in the carriage,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
-and a slight additional exercise of force will set it
-in motion. So also, as we have seen in quarries,
-when several men have endeavoured to move a
-large mass of stone with a lever, they have not
-used one long and powerful effort, but a succession
-of slighter ones, until a tremulous motion
-has been seen in the mass, when by one exertion
-of force they have hurled it from its place.</p>
-
-<p>The degree of pressure exercised by any given
-persons will be in the inverse ratio of the degree of
-control which they can exercise over the muscular
-system, and over their ideas; hence the phenomena
-of table-turning and table-talking are most
-fully developed by those who are possessed of but
-a low degree of volitional power, and in whom the
-passions and emotions are paramount, as in young
-females, boys, or those who are influenced by certain
-dominant ideas: and as these conditions vary
-in different persons to an almost endless extent,
-it would follow that the power of exciting the
-movements of the table and responses, as well as
-the nature and degree of the responses, would
-vary in a similar degree, which is found to be the
-case; and the rule of response is, as one of the
-supporters of the Satanic theory (the Rev. N. S.
-Godfrey) very naïvely remarks, "whatever the
-investigator wishes it to be."</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p>
-<p>The directive force in the phenomena of table-moving
-is derived from certain habitual actions of
-the muscles, as in the direction from right to left,
-from the customary use of the right hand; and the
-influence which our ideas exercise upon the muscular
-system, unwittingly and involuntarily on our
-part.</p>
-
-<p>This, as well as the preceding remarks, are all
-capable of being experimentally illustrated and
-demonstrated; and Professor Faraday,<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> by a rigorous
-series of experiments, has shown that it is
-upon these principles that the phenomena depend.</p>
-
-<p>By the use of a most ingenious and simple
-piece of mechanism connected with an index, he
-showed the extent to which we exercise a certain
-degree of force and directive power unconsciously,
-and the nature of this directive power; and the
-result was:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"That when the parties saw the index it remained
-very steady; when it was hidden from
-them, or they looked away from it, it wavered
-about, though they believed that they always
-pressed directly downwards; and when the table
-did not move, there was still a resultant hand-force
-in the direction in which it was wished the
-table should move, which, however, was exercised
-quite unwittingly by the party operating. This
-resultant it is which, in the course of the waiting-time,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
-while the fingers and hands become stiff,
-numb, and insensible by continued pressure, grows
-up to an amount sufficient to move the table or
-the substances pressed upon. But the most valuable
-effect of this test-apparatus is the corrective
-power it possesses over the mind of the table-turner.
-As soon as the index is placed before the
-most earnest, and they perceive&mdash;as in my presence
-they have always done&mdash;that it tells truly
-whether they are pressing downwards only or obliquely,
-then all effects of table-turning cease,
-even though the parties persevere, earnestly
-desiring motion, till they become weary and worn-out.
-No prompting or checking of the hand is
-heeded; <i>the power is gone;</i> and this only because
-the parties are made conscious of what they are
-really doing mechanically, and so are unable unwittingly
-to deceive themselves."</p>
-
-<p>An experiment is familiar to many persons by
-which a ring, being suspended by means of a piece
-of thread to one of the fingers, may be caused to
-beat responses against a glass surface (as that of a
-tumbler), in answer to certain queries put audibly;
-or, if the ring be held by the questioner, it is
-requisite merely that the questions be conceived
-mentally. This, to many, a puzzling phenomenon
-is dependent upon precisely the same cause as
-"table-talking"&mdash;a movement caused by muscula<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>r
-action developed unconsciously under the influence
-of certain ideational states of the mind.</p>
-
-<p>It is an interesting fact, that a species of divination
-is mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, in
-which a ring, used after the above fashion, and a
-table, consecrated by mystic rites, were used. We
-are indebted to the Rev. J. W. Thomas, of Dewsbury,
-for the following quotation from the works
-of this author, who lived about the middle of the
-fourth century. The quotation is taken from the first
-chapter of the twenty-ninth book ("Construximus,
-magnifici judices, ad cortinÊ similitudinem
-DelphicÊ," &amp;c.):&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Noble judges, this unfortunate little table
-which you see, we constructed of laurel-rods with
-fearful rites (or ill-omened signs), after the likeness
-of the Delphic tripod; and (it having been)
-virtually consecrated with imprecations of mystic
-incantations (secret hymns), and many splendid
-and long-continued preparations, we at length used
-(<i>lit.</i> moved) it; and of using (moving) it, as often
-as it was consulted about secret things, this was
-the method. It was placed in the middle of a
-clean house, with a round plate made of divers
-metallic materials, correctly (<i>lit.</i> purely) put upon
-it, on whose extreme circumference the twenty-four
-letters of the alphabet were learnedly engraven,
-separated by spaces accurately measured.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
-A person [gifted] with ceremonial science stood at
-it, clothed in linen garments, his feet in linen
-socks, a wreath round his head, bearing branches
-of a lucky tree, a fortunate omen having been obtained
-from the deity who is the author of predictions,
-by hymns conceived (Apollo); weighing
-with scales a pensile ring, formed (or furnished)
-with very fine Carpathian thread, consecrated
-with mystic rites, which (or who) by distinct intervals
-falling by leaps on every letter retained,
-makes heroic verses agreeing with (or answering
-to) the interrogatories, to the completed numbers
-and metres, such as the Delphic ones are read, or
-those given by the oracles of the BranchidÊ.
-Thus then to those who inquired of us who should
-succeed to the present imperial government, for
-being swept in every part [as] it has been mentioned,
-and the ring leaping touched (went through)
-two syllables, ΘΕΟ; with the addition of the last
-letter (last additional letter), one present cried out
-'Theodorus!' (as the name portended) by the
-decree of fate (by castal necessity)."</p>
-
-<p>This paragraph embodies the defence of one
-Hilarius, who, together with a certain Patricius,
-was charged with having spread abroad prophecies
-adverse to the throne of the Emperor Valens.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p>
-<p>A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (Vol.
-IX., p. 201) quotes the following interesting passage
-from the "Apologeticus" of Tertullian, cap.
-xxiii.: ("Porro si et magi phantasmata," &amp;c.):&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Moreover, if magical professors also exhibit
-phantoms and defame the souls of the departed;
-if they press oracles out of childrens' talk; if they
-play many miracles with mountebank tricks, and
-if they send dreams, having once the power assisting
-them, of inviting angels and demons, <i>by whom</i>,
-and she-goats, <i>and tables, they were accustomed to
-divine;</i> how much more, &amp;c."</p>
-
-<p>The correspondent remarks: "Here table-divination,
-by means of angels and demons, seems distinctly
-alluded to. How like the modern system!
-The context of this passage, as well as the extract
-itself, will suggest singular coincidence between
-modern and ancient pretensions of this class."</p>
-
-<p>The sense of <i>touch</i> rarely leads to illusions
-which are referred to the supernatural, except
-under the influence of powerful superstitious
-feelings, when it is generally connected with illusions
-of the other senses.</p>
-
-<p>The influence of fear in developing illusions of
-the senses of sight, hearing, and touch, has been
-well pourtrayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's
-comedy of "The Beggar's Bush" (Act V, Scene 1):</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p>
-
-<div class="drama">
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span> Mistress, it grows somewhat pretty and dark.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Gertrude.</i></span>     <span class="s14">What then?</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span> Nay, nothing. Do not think I am afraid,<br />
-Although, perhaps, you are.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>           <span class="s8">I am not. Forward!</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span> Sure but you are. Give me your hand; fear nothing.<br />
-There's one leg in the wood; do not fall backwards!<br />
-What a sweat one on's are in; you or I!<br />
-Pray God it do not prove the plague. Yet sure<br />
-It has infected me; for I sweat too:<br />
-It runs out at my knees. Feel, feel, I pray you!</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>  What ails the fellow?</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span>        <span class="s8"> Hark! hark! I beseech you:</span><br />
-Do you hear nothing?</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>         <span class="s6">No.</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span>        <span class="s8">List! a wild hog;</span><br />
-He grunts! now 'tis a bear; this wood is full of 'em!<br />
-And now a wolf, mistress; a wolf! a wolf!<br />
-It is the howling of a wolf.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>  The braying of an ass, is it not?</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span>      <span class="s12">Oh, now one has me!</span><br />
-Oh my left ham! farewell!</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>       <span class="s8">Look to your shanks,</span><br />
-Your breech is safe enough; the wolf's a fern-brake.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span> But see, see, see! there is a serpent in it!<br />
-'T has eyes as broad as platters; it spits fire!<br />
-Now it creeps tow'rds us; help me and say my prayers!<br />
-'T hath swallowed me almost; my breath is stopt:<br />
-I cannot speak! Do I speak, mistress?&mdash;tell me.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>  Why thou strange timorous sot, canst thou perceive<br />
-Anything i' th' bush but a poor glowworm.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span> It may be 'tis but a glowworm now; but 'twill<br />
-Grow to a fire-drake presently.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>        <span class="s10">Come then from it!</span><br />
-I have a precious guide of you, and courteous,<br />
-That gives me leave to lead myself the way thus. <span class="sd">[<i>Holla.</i></span></p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span> It thunders; you hear that now?</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>        <span class="s12">I hear one holla.</span></p>
-
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span> 'Tis thunder! thunder! see a flash of lightning<br />
-Are you not blasted, mistress? Pull your mask off;<br />
-'T has play'd the barber with me here: I have lost<br />
-My beard, my beard! Pray God you be not shaven;<br />
-'T will spoil your marriage, mistress.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>  What strange wonders fear fancies in a coward!</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Boor.</i></span> Now the earth opens!</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Ger.</i></span>       <span class="s8">Prithee hold thy peace.</span></p>
-</div>
-
-<p>We have now glanced at the principal illusions
-to which the senses of sight and hearing are liable,
-and the bearing which they have on the subject of
-spectral apparitions and other phenomena which
-it has been customary to regard as manifestations
-of the supernatural.</p>
-
-<p>But a false appreciation of sensations excited by
-natural objects is not the only mode in which we
-are liable to be deceived, for we are apt to regard
-sensations excited by the action of the mind, or
-by a disordered condition of the nervous system,
-or both combined&mdash;subjective sensations&mdash;as sensations
-excited by natural objects&mdash;objective sensations.</p>
-
-<p>To the erroneous perceptions arising from this
-source the term <i>hallucination</i> has been given, and
-the phantasmata to which they give rise are more
-important than those arising from illusions, since
-the judgment is often unable to correct them, and
-they may impose equally on the wisest and the
-most ignorant.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span></p>
-<p>It is a law in physiology that a nerve of special
-sensation, (including in that term its central as well
-as its peripheral terminations,) in whatever manner
-it may be excited, can only produce that sensation
-to which it is appointed. Thus the nerve of sight,
-whether it be excited by natural or artificial light,
-or mechanical stimulus from without, or by morbid
-changes within, can only give rise to the
-sensation of light; the nerve of hearing, sound;
-the nerve of smell, odours; and so on.</p>
-
-<p>If the ball of the eye is pressed upon (say by
-the finger at the inner angle) when the eyelids are
-closed, or the light otherwise excluded, certain
-luminous figures will be perceived. This arises
-from the pressure exciting the inner coat of the
-eye (the <i>retina</i>), which is formed principally by the
-expansion of the nerve of light (the <i>optic nerve</i>),
-and is the tissue in which the changes necessary
-for the production of the sensation of light are
-induced by the rays of light from without.</p>
-
-<p>The luminous figures caused by mechanical excitation
-of this, the peripheral termination of the
-nerve of sight, vary in intensity in different individuals
-and at different times. They are sometimes
-very brilliant, and have been observed to be
-iridescent. In form they are circular, radiating,
-or regularly divided into squares, which have been
-compared by Purkinje to the figures produced by
-the vibrations communicated to a fine powder<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
-scattered on a plate of glass, along one edge of
-which a violin-bow is drawn; or to the rhomboidal
-figures formed on the surface of water in a
-glass, thrown into vibration by the same means.</p>
-
-<p>A familiar illustration of the excitation of a
-sensation of light by mechanical stimulus is the
-brilliant sparks of light, starlike figures, &amp;c.,
-caused by a blow on the eye, or by a fall on the
-head.</p>
-
-<p>A sensation of light may also be caused by the
-passage of a current of electricity through the
-eyeball; by mental emotion, as grief, passion,
-&amp;c.; and by a morbid state of the brain or optic
-nerve. It is often also induced by a disordered
-state of the health, and under this condition the
-luminous appearance occasionally assumes a bluish,
-green, yellow, or even red tint.</p>
-
-<p>When an excess of blood is determined in the
-vessels of the eye, either from position or other
-cause, a luminous arborescent figure is occasionally
-observed in the field of vision on entering a dark
-apartment. This, according to Purkinje, is due
-to pressure on the retina by the distended blood-vessels.
-A luminous spot is also sometimes observed
-isochronous with the pulse.</p>
-
-<p>In ourselves, in ordinary health a lambent bluish
-coloured cloud of light constantly floats before the
-eyes in a darkened apartment; and there are probably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
-few who would not perceive a greater or less
-sensation of light on being shut up in profound
-darkness.</p>
-
-<p>On the spontaneous appearance of light in the
-field of vision when it is darkened, MÃŒller, the
-distinguished Prussian physiologist, writes:&mdash;"If
-we observe the field of vision, keeping the eyes
-closed, it occasionally happens that we perceive
-not only a certain degree of luminousness, but
-further, that we discover a more marked glimmering
-of light, affecting even, in certain cases, the
-form of circular waves, which are developed from
-the centre towards the periphery, where they disappear.
-Sometimes the faint light resembles a
-nebulosity, spots, and more rarely, in myself, it is
-reproduced with a certain rhythm. To this spontaneous
-appearance of light in the eye, which is
-always very vague, are related the more clearly
-delineated forms which show themselves at the
-moment we are about to fall asleep, and which
-depend upon the influence of the imagination
-isolating the nebulous glimmerings one from the
-other, and clothing them with more distinct
-forms."<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>The degree to which this sensation of light is
-produced in health, and the power which the
-imagination has over it, vary greatly in different
-individuals.</p>
-
-<p>MÃŒller writes:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"I had occasion, in 1828, to converse with
-Göethe upon this subject, which had an equal
-interest for both of us. Knowing that when I was
-tranquilly extended in bed, the eyes closed, but
-not asleep, I frequently perceived figures that I
-could observe distinctly, he was curious to know
-what I experienced then: I told him that my will
-had not any influence either upon the production
-or the metamorphoses of these figures, and that
-I never distinguished anything symmetrical, anything
-that had the character of vegetation. Göethe,
-on the contrary, was able to appoint at will a theme,
-which afterwards transformed itself, after a fashion
-apparently involuntary, but always in obedience to
-the laws of harmony and symmetry: a difference
-between two men, of which one possessed the
-poetical imagination in the highest degree of development,
-whilst the other devoted his life to the
-study of reality and of nature.</p>
-
-<p>"Göethe says, 'When I close the eyes, on
-lowering the head, I imagine that I see a flower
-in the middle of my visual organ; this flower does
-not for a moment preserve its form: it is quickly
-decomposed, and from its interior are born other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
-flowers with coloured or sometimes green petals;
-these are not natural flowers, but fantastic, nevertheless
-regular, figures, such as the roses of sculptors.
-It was impossible for me to regard this
-creation fixedly, but it continued as long as I
-wished, without increasing or diminishing. Even
-when I figured to me a disc charged with various
-colours, I saw continually borne from the
-centre towards the circumference, new forms comparable
-to those that I could perceive in a kaleidoscope."<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a></p>
-
-<p>Illusions arising from the production of the
-sensation of light, whether by pressure, mental
-emotion, or a disordered state of the health, have
-been a most prolific source of ghosts.</p>
-
-<p>Imagine a person suffering from severe grief
-occasioned by the loss of a friend or relative; or
-one subject to superstitious terrors. On retiring
-to rest in a darkened apartment, the attention
-is attracted and wonder raised by the appearance
-of a cloud of pale white, or blueish coloured
-light (the colours which ghosts love to deck
-themselves in, and which are most readily excited)
-floating before the eyes. Unacquainted with its
-nature and source, he is naturally startled, and his
-superstitious fears are awakened. The imagination
-next coming into play, the luminous cloud is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
-moulded into the form of the person recently
-dead, or of the superstitious ideas most prominent
-in the mind of the individual at the time.</p>
-
-<p>Or suppose a superstitious person passing, in
-the obscurity of the night, a place where some
-foul crime had been perpetrated. Terror gives
-rise to the production of a vivid sensation of
-light in the field of vision, and the imagination, as
-in the previous case, works out the rest.</p>
-
-<p>The following cases are examples of the influence
-which the spontaneous appearance of light
-in the field of vision exercises in the development
-of spectral apparitions.</p>
-
-<p>A gentleman who had lost his wife from a painful
-and protracted disease, for some time subsequently
-was troubled by her phantom, which remained
-before his eyes so long as he was in
-obscurity. On a light being brought, or during
-the day, this spectre vanished, but no sooner was
-he placed in darkness than it appeared vividly
-limned before him, and was a source of constant
-terror.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></p>
-
-<p>This phantom was evidently due to the production
-of the sensation of light in the field of
-vision, and the subsequent effects of the imagination.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>A gentleman with whom we are acquainted happened,
-when young, to have a severe fall on the head.
-After this accident and until he attained the age
-of eleven years, he was subject to visions of brilliant
-and variously coloured light, when he retired
-to bed at night, and all light in his room had been
-extinguished. Occasionally these visions were so
-gorgeous and resplendent that he is accustomed
-to compare them to the jewelled decorations of
-the palaces of the genii in the Arabian Nights'
-Entertainment. When about eleven years of
-age he got possession of a volume of legends
-and romances, which were pregnant with supernatural
-events and personages; and a friend injudiciously
-gave him a work full of ghost-stories, and
-entitled, "News from the Invisible World." These
-works he read with avidity, and the effect upon
-the mind was such that henceforth his nightly
-visions were transformed into foul, horrid, and
-often variously coloured spectres, rendering the
-period of time intervening between retiring to
-rest and sleep, one of unmitigated terror, and it
-became necessary to have a light constantly burning
-in the room until sleep occurred. After the
-twelfth year the intensity of the visions rapidly
-diminished, and at length only occurred when he
-turned himself upon his face in bed. In this
-position a sensation as if the bed had passed from
-under him occurred, and his eye formed the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
-centre of a circle of imps which whirled rapidly
-round it. The number of these spectres next
-began to diminish, and by the time he was fifteen
-years of age, but one remained, and this appeared
-only occasionally. This solitary spectre gradually
-lost its fiend-like form, and assumed that of a
-respectable-looking old Roman, clothed in a toga;
-and it at length vanished to re-appear no more.</p>
-
-<p>This gentleman has for many years been free
-from any spectral apparition; but hard study,
-mental emotion, a disordered state of the health,
-or pressure with the finger on the eyeball, is apt
-to occasion a brilliant evolution of coloured light
-in the field of vision.</p>
-
-<p>The spontaneous appearance of light in the
-visual field, in this case, formed the substratum
-upon which the mind moulded the spectres; and
-it is interesting to remark the influence which
-the perusal of a volume of legends and ghost-stories,
-and subsequent classical studies, had in
-determining the form of the phantasma.</p>
-
-<p>To the same cause&mdash;the subjective phenomena
-of vision&mdash;are due the various coloured lights or
-luminous appearances which, in the experiments
-of Reichenbach, the believers in animal magnetism,
-mesmerism, and electro-biology, are
-supposed to have been seen issue, by the
-"susceptible," from the poles of magnets<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> placed
-in darkened apartments, from so-called magnetised
-bodies, or from bodies placed in the conditions
-which the respective theories demand.</p>
-
-<p>All the sensations of light that are experienced
-under these circumstances, and which have been
-sought to be explained by the assumption of the
-"od" force, or by the influence of magnetism,
-&amp;c., are dependent on that excitation of a
-sensation of light in the eye when plunged into
-darkness, or when under certain mental emotions
-which we have fully explained.</p>
-
-<p>This has been demonstrated by positive experiment;
-for if we take any of the "susceptibles,"
-and, indeed, others, and place them in a darkened
-apartment, we may by simple suggestions excite
-all the luminous sensations attributed to the
-supposititious "od" force, or to "animal magnetism."</p>
-
-<p>The luminous appearances which certain
-"sensitives" have averred that they witnessed
-over graves, were due also to the subjective phenomena
-of vision, excited by an expectant idea.</p>
-
-<p>A young clergyman named Billing, who acted
-as an amanuensis to Pfeffer, the blind poet,
-asserted that he constantly saw, at night, a
-luminous cloud resting in one position in the
-poet's garden; and on search being made beneath
-the surface of the ground, at the spot occupied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> by
-this phantasm, the remains of a skeleton were
-found.</p>
-
-<p>Reichenbach concluded from this that the
-process of decomposition of a corpse going on in
-the grave, probably like what is observed in
-other forms of chemical action, gave rise to
-luminous appearances which were visible to
-highly "sensitive" persons.</p>
-
-<p>"It appeared possible," he writes, "that such
-a person might see over graves in which mouldering
-bodies lie, something similar to that which
-Billing had seen. Mademoiselle Reichel had the
-courage, rare in her sex, to gratify this wish of
-the author. On two very dark nights she
-allowed herself to be taken from the Castle of
-Reisenberg, where she was living with the
-author's family, to the neighbouring churchyard
-of Grunzing. The result justified his anticipation
-in the most beautiful manner. She very
-soon saw a light, and observed on one of the
-graves, along its length, a delicate breathing
-flame; she also saw the same thing, only weaker,
-on a second grave. But she saw neither witches
-nor ghosts. She described the fiery appearance as
-a shining vapour, one to two spans high, extending
-as far as the grave, and floating near its
-surface. Sometime afterwards she was taken to
-two large cemeteries near Vienna, where sever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>al
-burials occur daily, and graves lie about by thousands.
-Here she saw numerous graves provided
-with similar lights. Wherever she looked she
-saw luminous masses scattered about. But this
-appearance was most vivid over the newest graves,
-while on the oldest it could not be perceived.
-She described the appearance less as a clear flame
-than as a dense vaporous mass of fire, intermediate
-between fog and flame. On many graves
-the flame was four feet high, so that when she
-stood on them it surrounded her up to the neck.
-If she thrust her hand into it, it was like putting
-it into a dense fiery cloud. She betrayed no
-uneasiness, because she had all her life been
-accustomed to such emanations, and had seen the
-same, in the author's experiments, often produced
-by natural causes."<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p>
-
-<p>The total neglect of those precautions which
-are requisite to obviate the influence of expectant
-ideas and the subjective phenomena of vision in
-this experiment is most strange, and it is painful
-to witness men like Reichenbach, Gregory, and
-others, thus stumbling over some of the simplest
-facts of physiology and psychology, and utterly
-prostituting the name and calling of science.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Singular and fallacious as are the pseudo-scientific
-doctrines just mentioned, they are
-exceeded by the extraordinary speculations of
-other writers, who also appear to hold in utter
-contempt the ordinary laws of action of the
-senses. For example, Mrs. Crowe writes of the
-sensation of light perceived by somnambules and
-dreamers, and of the still more simple phenomenon
-of the sensation of light induced by the
-inhalation of ether, in the following manner:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"All somnambules of the highest order,&mdash;and
-when I make use of this expression, I repeat
-that I do not allude to the subjects of mesmeric
-experiments, but to those extraordinary cases of
-disease, the particulars of which have been
-recorded by various continental physicians of
-eminence,&mdash;all persons in that condition describe
-themselves as hearing and seeing, not by the
-ordinary organs, but by some means the idea of
-which they cannot convey further than that they
-are pervaded by light; and that this is not the
-<i>ordinary</i> physical light is evident, inasmuch as
-they generally see best in the dark,&mdash;a remarkable
-instance of which I myself witnessed.</p>
-
-<p>"I never had the slightest idea of this internal
-light till, in the way of experiment, I inhaled the
-sulphuric ether; but I am now very well able to
-conceive it; for, after first feeling an agreeable
-warmth pervading my limbs, my next sensation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
-was to find myself&mdash;I cannot say in this heavenly
-light, for the light was in <i>me</i>&mdash;I was pervaded by
-it; it was not perceived by my eyes, which were
-closed, but perceived internally, I cannot tell how.
-Of what nature this heavenly light was&mdash;I cannot
-forbear calling it <i>heavenly</i>, for it was like nothing
-on earth&mdash;I know not,"<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>The sense of <i>hearing</i>, like that of sight, in whatever
-manner it may be excited, only gives rise to
-the sensation of sound; <i>e.g.</i>, when an electric
-current is passed through it, or a severe blow is
-struck upon it, and causes it "to ring," as it is
-expressed in common parlance. The rushing and
-other sounds&mdash;as of the ringing of bells, rustling
-of leaves, &amp;c.&mdash;caused by a disordered state of the
-circulation in the head, are other examples; and
-there are perhaps few persons who have not at
-some time or other, started, and responded to
-their name, or to calls which they suppose they
-have heard, in the voice of persons who were at a
-distance, or who had not spoken.</p>
-
-<p>A similar excitation of the nerves of <i>taste</i> and
-<i>smell</i> will also give rise to their special sensations;
-but disorder of these nerves and their centres
-will rarely excite hallucinations, except in connection
-with a d<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span>isturbed condition of the senses of
-sight and hearing.</p>
-
-<p>Such are the simplest forms of hallucination of
-the senses of sight, hearing, taste, and smell; and
-we have seen that all the phenomena of light,
-colour, sound, taste, and smell, can occur in man
-without the presence of natural or artificial light,
-sonorous undulations of the air, sapid or odorous
-substances.</p>
-
-<p>We are now in a position to comprehend more
-fully that, by the action of the imagination and
-emotions alone, the changes going on in the nervous
-centres may be so far disturbed that the whole
-of those sensations which are generally excited
-by agents external to the body may be called
-into play, and the mental idea assume, in light,
-colour and shade, sound, taste and touch, all the
-distinctness and definitiveness which appertains to
-an actual object within the sphere of the respective
-senses, and be considered as such.</p>
-
-<p>If the mind revert to any of the varied sensations
-which are stored up in the memory, and are
-within the power of the will to recall, an image
-is conjured up before the "mind's eye," such that
-we can describe it as though a real object stood
-before us; and if it be that of a person&mdash;a parent,
-a friend, or one bound by even still stronger ties&mdash;every
-lineament, every peculiarity, is depicted with
-a fidelity but little less than that we should<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> be
-capable of were the individual actually present
-before us; or should it be a scene which has been
-treasured up for its grandeur, its loveliness, or for
-its being endeared to us by still stronger feelings,
-every characteristic feature, every object, is minutely
-and truly described; and did we possess
-the power of limning, not unfrequently we should
-find little difficulty in transferring the mental
-image to the canvass. "I think I see him now"&mdash;"She
-might be before me"&mdash;"I can call to
-mind every tree and stone, so vivid is the
-memory"&mdash;are forms of expression in constant
-use, and they contain the germ of the simplest
-form of ideal hallucination to which we are
-subject.</p>
-
-<p>Under the influence of love, grief, remorse, or
-other powerful and protracted emotion, the ideas
-upon which the mind is concentrated assume a
-vividness, in many persons little short of the
-reality; and when Victorian, addressing Preciosa
-in the "Spanish Student" (Act I, Scene 3), is
-represented as saying:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Thou comest between me and those books too often;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I see thy face in everything I see;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The paintings on the chapel wear thy looks,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The canticles are changed to sarabands;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And with the learned doctors of the schools,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">I see thee dance cachucas;"<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span></p>
-<p class="ind0">he makes use of no exaggerated poetical tropes or
-figures, but speaks the simple fact.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a></p>
-
-<p>A painful illustration of the vividness of the
-mental image under powerful emotion is afforded
-by a passage in "The Dream" of Lord Byron, in
-which he describes the images of the object and
-scenes of his youthful and only love, that occupied
-his mind, and rendered him insensible to the
-ceremony of his marriage until he was aroused
-from his abstraction by the congratulations of the
-bystanders.</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i18">"He spoke<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The fitting vows, but heard not his own words,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And all things reel'd around him; he could see<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Not that which was, nor that which should have been,&mdash;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">But the old mansion, and the accustom'd hall,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And the remember'd chambers, and the place,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">All things pertaining to that place and hour,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And her who was his destiny, came back,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And thrust themselves between him and the light."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The protracted devotion of the thoughts to the
-memory of those whom the grave has severed from
-us, or from whom we are separated by distance,
-and which is induced by grief, gives also to the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>mental image great vividness. Exquisitely beautiful
-and true is the sentence placed in the mouth
-of Constance, when blamed for the grief she entertained
-on being separated from Prince Arthur:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Grief fills the room up of my absent child,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Remembers me of all his gracious parts,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Then have I reason to be fond of grief."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>In direct proportion to the concentration of
-the mind in the contemplation of its own actions,
-is the brilliancy and distinctness of the ideas
-which pass athwart it; and in the state of abstraction
-or of reverie, when from intense meditation,
-or from mere inactivity, the sensations derived from
-surrounding objects are not attended to, the ideas
-are so defined that they differ but little from
-actual objects in the sensations they excite. So
-also in sleep, if, from any cause, physical or mental,
-we are roused into a state of semi-consciousness,
-as in dreaming, the phantasms of former
-events, stored up in the memory, and by certain
-sensations or trains of thought thrown to the surface,
-differ in no respect&mdash;light, colour, shade, or
-sound&mdash;from the sensations derived from the
-objects represented.</p>
-
-<p>Should, therefore, the concentration of the
-mind upon any subject be such as to disturb<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
-the natural functions of the brain, the mental
-image is liable to excite sensations, and to be
-pourtrayed with a distinctness and "outness"
-which approximates to, or equals, that of a real
-object, and it is regarded as such.</p>
-
-<p>In the majority of individuals the concentration
-and intensity of feeling necessary for the production
-of hallucinations is of rare occurrence, and it
-is found only under such conditions as profound
-grief caused by death under painful or peculiar
-circumstances; from terror, excited by causes
-bringing powerful superstitious feelings into play&mdash;under
-which circumstances the hallucinations
-induced are generally transitory&mdash;or by emotions
-inordinately protracted; hence it is that we find
-visions of the dead among the most common of the
-temporary hallucinations. In the studious, and
-men of powerful thought, the mind being habituated
-to absorption in its own ideas, it not unfrequently
-happens that hallucinations occur from a
-disordered state of the brain induced by continued
-mental labour. These hallucinations are generally
-very vivid, and may arise either voluntarily or
-involuntarily, and may become habitual without
-the health being seriously disturbed.</p>
-
-<p>It will be seen, therefore, that the action of the
-mental powers alone is sufficient to give rise to
-sensations which are regarded as resulting from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
-actual objects; and that from the simple vividness
-of the mental image, which is common to most
-persons, we may trace their effects, in a gradually
-ascending scale, in inducing mental conditions in
-which the brilliancy of the image is such that, for
-the time, it completely occupies the attention, and
-shuts out, as it were, the sensations derived from
-objects before the field of vision,&mdash;and in the formation
-of ideas so vivid and defined, that they
-take their position among surrounding, and excite
-the sensations proper to external, objects.</p>
-
-<p>We have thus far spoken of the effects of the
-imagination on the healthy frame, but in certain
-disordered conditions of the nervous system, occurring
-either alone, or in connection with other and
-more general morbid alterations in the economy,
-hallucinations are more apt to occur than in health.
-The system in this state is more susceptible of
-the effects of emotion, and the images arising in
-the mind are more vivid than would happen from
-the same degree of excitement in health, and are
-readily converted into hallucinations. This is
-witnessed in certain forms of hysteria, febrile
-diseases, &amp;c.; hence, in these disordered conditions
-of the system, the hallucinations are not
-to be attributed to the action of the mind, so much
-as to a morbid susceptibility to undergo those
-changes requisite to the production of halluci<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>nations;
-and these are, consequently, induced by
-grades of emotion and by influences which would
-not have caused that in ordinary health.</p>
-
-<p>On the other hand, the action of the mind in
-the development of hallucinations equally induces
-certain diseased states, either special or general.
-Even simple and temporary hallucination, in
-whatever manner caused, must be regarded as
-an indication that the changes going on in the
-nervous centres have passed the bounds of health;
-and according as the causes inducing hallucinations
-are more or less protracted, or the hallucinations
-are more or less persistent or frequent, so
-we may mark a greater or less deterioration in the
-mental powers, the nervous or the general system,
-or indications of more acute disease, to progress
-along with them, until the acme is reached in
-insanity, idiocy, or some more rapidly progressive
-and equally formidable disease.</p>
-
-<p>To illustrate these remarks: Blake, the artist,
-who, after the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
-enjoyed great fame as a portrait-painter, owed his
-celebrity, in great part, to the singular fact that
-he required but one or, at the most, two sittings,
-from those whose portraits he painted. He was
-accustomed to regard the person who sat to him
-attentively for about half an hour, sketching from
-time to time on the canvas, and he would then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
-pass on to another subject. When he wished to
-continue the first portrait, on placing the canvas
-before him, he had the power of calling up so
-vivid a mental image of the personage, the outline
-of whose face was depicted upon it, that it
-assumed all the appearance of reality, and he perceived
-it in the position in which he required it to
-be. From this phantasm he painted, turning from
-the canvas and regarding it as he would have done
-had the representative of the phantom been there
-in person. By degrees he began to lose the
-distinction between the real and the imaginary
-objects, and at length a complete confusion of the
-mind occurred, rendering it necessary for him to
-be confined in an asylum. During his residence
-there, his insanity was marked by an exaggeration
-of that vivid power of imagination he had possessed
-previously; for he at will could summon
-before him the phantoms of any of the personages
-of history, and he held long and sensible conversations
-with Michael Angelo, Moses, Semiramis,
-Richard III, &amp;c., all of whom appeared to him,
-when he desired, in the vivid hues and distinct
-outlines of reality.</p>
-
-<p>Talma, the great French tragedian, had the
-power, when upon the stage, of causing the vestments
-of his audience to disappear, and of depicting
-them as skeletons. When the hallucination was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
-complete, and he had filled the theatre with these
-ghastly auditors, he was enabled to give the
-fullest and most surprising force to his performance.</p>
-
-<p>Examples of the influence of powerful and protracted
-emotions in inducing hallucinations are
-numerous. Dr. Conolly relates the case of a
-gentleman who, when at one time in great danger
-of being wrecked in a small boat on the Eddystone
-rocks, in the moment of greatest peril saw his
-family before him.</p>
-
-<p>M. Boismont quotes the case of a world-known
-general who, when in a combat one day, was surrounded
-by the enemy, and in so great danger
-that escape seemed impossible. He, nevertheless,
-contrived to escape; but the impression made
-upon him was such, that afterwards, until a late
-period of life, he occasionally suffered from an
-hallucination in which the scene of danger was
-again presented before him and re-enacted; and
-when subsequently on a throne, sometimes the
-silence of the palace would be disturbed by his
-cries, as he struggled and fought with his phantom
-foes. The hallucination was momentary.</p>
-
-<p>The intense emotion which Sir Richard Croft
-experienced on being summoned to attend the
-Princess Charlotte of Wales on her death-bed
-was such, that he saw her form, habited in w<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>hite,
-glide along before his carriage.</p>
-
-<p>A case is related by Boismont of a lady who,
-while suffering from the depression occasioned
-by receiving information that her daughter was
-seriously ill, heard a voice which addressed to her
-the words, "Lovest thou me?" The lady responded
-immediately, "Lord, thou knowest that I have
-placed all my confidence in thee, and that I love
-thee with all my soul." The voice then said,
-"Dost thou give her to me?" The lady trembled
-with fear, but summoning courage, she replied,
-"However painful the sacrifice may be, let Thy
-will be accomplished." This lady was deeply
-pious, and the hallucination arose from the powerful
-and painful emotion caused by the sudden
-news of her daughter's illness, inducing that disordered
-state of the nervous system, in which
-the thoughts naturally engendered in one who
-submitted everything to the Almighty, became
-audible.</p>
-
-<p>The combined influence of love and sorrow has
-been a powerful source of hallucinations, and
-many of those wild and beautiful legends and
-tales which are scattered throughout the kingdom,
-recording the apparition of a deceased or distant
-lover to his betrothed, have been due to this
-cause.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span></p>
-<p>Thus, as in the old ballad:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"When it was grown to dark midnight,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And all were fast asleep,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In came Margaret's grimly ghost,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And stood at William's feet."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Or in the story of "Isabella," by Boccacio, so
-beautifully rendered by Keats:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Had made a miry channel for his tears.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">For there was striving in its piteous tongue,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">To speak as when on earth it was awake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And Isabella on its music hung:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briers among.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">From the poor girl by magic of their light,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">The while it did unthread the horrid woof<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of the late darken'd time&mdash;the murd'rous spite<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Of pride and avarice&mdash;the dark pine roof<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">In the forest&mdash;and the sodden turfed dell,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When, without any word, from stabs it fell.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Saying moreover, "Isabel, my sweet!<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Red whortle-berries droop above my head,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
-<span class="i0">Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Comes from beyond the river to my bed:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And it shall comfort me within the tomb.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"I am a shadow now, alas! alas!<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">While little sounds of life are round me knelling,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And thou art distant in humanity."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>Some of these apparitions have, in all probability,
-been illusions caused by an object indistinctly
-seen in the pale moonlight, or by an accidental
-arrangement of the furniture of the apartment,
-transformed by an imagination devoted to
-the subject of its own sorrows, or influenced by a
-vivid dream, into the idea at the moment most
-prominent in the mind.</p>
-
-<p>The influence of remorse, or of those terrible
-emotions which accrue to the murderer on the
-perpetration of the foul deed, in causing hallucinations,
-is well known.</p>
-
-<p>The ghost of Banquo (Macbeth, Act III,
-Scene 3) is a type of many wondrous histories:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Prythee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo!&mdash;How say you?<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Why what can I? If thou canst nod, speak too.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Those that we bury, back, our monuments<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Shall be the maws of kites."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p>
-<p>Vanderkiste<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> relates the story of a convict who
-had murdered an overseer, and taken to the
-bush:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"He lived in the woods, and came armed
-to the huts to demand provisions for some time,
-but imagined he was continually haunted by the
-spirit of the man he had murdered. At last he
-delivered himself up to the authorities, declaring
-his life a burden. He was seen for days, dogged,
-as he conceived, by the spectre of his victim, and
-escaping from tree to tree."</p>
-
-<p>Sir Walter Scott records the story, that the
-captain of a slaver, in a fit of anger, shot at, and
-mortally wounded, one of his sailors. As the
-man was dying, he fixed his eyes upon the
-captain, and said, "Sir, you have done for me,
-but I will never leave you." The captain became
-grave and moody, and some time after
-he invited the mate into the cabin, and addressing
-him, said, "I need not tell you, Jack, what
-sort of hand we have got on board with us. He
-told me he would never leave me, and he has kept
-his word. You only see him now and then, but
-he is always by my side, and never out of my
-sight. At this very moment I see him. I am
-determined to bear it no longer, and I have
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>resolved to leave you." Soon after this, the
-captain, watching an opportunity when he was
-unobserved, plunged into the sea: the mate
-rushed to the side of the ship, and the captain
-perceiving him, extended his hands upwards,
-exclaimed; "By &mdash;&mdash;, Bill is with me now!"
-and sunk.</p>
-
-<p>One of the most remarkable examples of hallucination
-arising from the feelings excited by
-cold-blooded murder is recorded by Boismont:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"A duellist, who had killed sixteen persons in
-single combat, was constantly accompanied by
-their phantoms; they never left him night or
-day."</p>
-
-<p>The solitary hours of Charles IX were made
-frightful by the shrieks and cries which had
-reached him during the massacre of the Eve of
-St. Bartholomew, and he was haunted for many
-days subsequent to its occurrence by hideous and
-bloody faces. Taking Ambrose Paré aside, at one
-time, he remarked that he wished they had not
-comprised in the massacre the aged and children.</p>
-
-<p>No cause is, however, so apt to engender hallucinations
-as religious enthusiasm, or an inordinate
-or rather fanatical occupation of the mind in the
-contemplation of religious subjects.</p>
-
-<p>In the saint-visions which are so numerously
-scattered in the annals of Christian churches
-and which were so common under the self-denyi<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>ng
-and ascetic rules of some of the monastic orders,
-we have examples; and Spenser's "Hermit" furnishes
-the type of this species of hallucination:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Thence forward by that painfull way they pas<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Forth to an hill, that was both steepe and hy;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">On top whereof a sacred chapel was,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And eke a little hermitage thereby,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wherein an aged holy man did lie,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">That day and night said his devotion,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Ne other worldly busines did apply:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">His name was Heavenly Contemplation;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Of God and goodness, was his meditation.<br /></span>
-</div><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Great grace that old man to him given had;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">For God he often saw from heavens hight:<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And through great age had lost their kindly sight,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Yet wondrous quick and persaunt was his spright,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">As eagles eie, that can behold the sunne."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>The Virgin appeared to Ignatius Loyola, and
-confirming his designs, urged him to the enterprise
-he had in view for the establishment of the
-Roman Catholic church on a surer basis. Satan
-came visibly to Luther and contended with him,
-sometimes worsting him in argument. Swedenborg
-beheld in visions the heavenly scenes which
-his imagination had pourtrayed; while Pascal
-wrote he beheld an abyss of flames beside his
-writing-table; and Symeon Stylites conceived that
-Satan had appeared to him under the form of
-Jesus Christ, and invited him to ascend to <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>heaven
-in a chariot drawn by cherubim. Symeon put
-out his foot to enter the chariot, when the
-whole vanished; and, as a punishment for his
-presumption, the offending thigh was affected with
-an ulcer, which obliged him to rest upon one leg
-for the remainder of his life.</p>
-
-<p>It is important to comprehend fully the influence
-of the imagination in developing visions of
-this nature, particularly in a disordered state of the
-health, from the important effects which they
-have exercised and still exercise upon mankind.</p>
-
-<p>The following example is an interesting illustration
-of the nature and source of these hallucinations:</p>
-
-<p>Some years ago considerable attention was excited
-in Germany by the publication of a series
-of visions which a lady of considerable literary
-attainments and high character had beheld, and
-for which she believed that she was indebted to
-divine favour.</p>
-
-<p>The hallucinations which she experienced had
-first been noted in the fourth year of her age,
-when one day, as she was dressing a doll, and for
-greater convenience had placed a large folio Bible
-beneath her feet, she heard a voice exclaim:
-"Put the book where you found it!" She did
-not immediately obey the order, as she saw no
-one, but in a few moments the mandate was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
-repeated, and she thought some one took hold of
-her face. This hallucination, according to Dr.
-Hibbert, is to be regarded as a renovated feeling
-arising from some prior remonstrances regarding
-the holy volume; and, we would add, together
-with the altered sensation experienced in the face,
-was evidently due to the earlier stages of a disease
-which occasioned the more fully developed visions.
-After this period, she devoted herself to the study
-of the Scriptures; and her labours, in this respect,
-were incessant and protracted. In her seventh
-year she saw, when playing, a vision of a clear
-flame which entered the chamber door, in the
-centre of which was a strong bright light, described
-as about the size of a child six years old. This
-vision endured about half an hour. No other
-vision is mentioned until the period of her marriage,
-which proved unfortunate, embittering her
-life and causing her constantly to meditate on death.
-It was in this state of mind that the principal
-visions to which she was subjected occurred. On
-one occasion, after receiving some ill-treatment
-from her husband, broken down in spirits, and
-thinking the Lord had forsaken her, she made a
-resolution to desist from prayer. On retiring to
-bed, she repented the decision she had made, and
-prayed fervently. She awoke in the morning
-before daybreak, and was surprised to find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> the
-room vividly illuminated, and that at the bedside
-was seated a heavenly figure, in the form of an old
-man. This phantom was dressed in a blueish
-robe, and had bright hair; and the countenance
-shone like the clearest red and white crystal. It
-regarded her benignantly, and said, "<i>Proceed,
-proceed, proceed!</i>" At first the words were unintelligible
-to her, but a young and beautiful angel,
-which appeared on the other side of the bed,
-exclaimed: "<i>Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith,
-proceed in trials!</i>" After this the devil appeared,
-pulled her by the hair, and tormented her in other
-ways, until the angel interfered, and drove him
-away. Satan in this case assumed his usual
-hideous garb. Subsequently one of the angels
-exclaimed, three times: "Lord, this is sufficient;"
-and while saying these words, the lady beheld
-large wings on his shoulders, and knew him to be
-an angel of God. The light and the angels then
-vanished, and the lady felt eased of her grief, and
-arose.</p>
-
-<p>If the nature of the figures and the mode of
-action in these visions had not sufficed to show how
-completely they were dependent upon dominant
-ideas and a disordered state of the nervous system,
-the history of the case would demonstrate it. The
-early, protracted, and inordinate study of religious
-beliefs, similar to that which laid the basis of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
-Swedenborg's visions; the painful state of the
-mind induced by her unhappy marriage, and
-disease, were the source of the hallucinations to
-which she was subject; for it was ascertained that
-when the visions occurred she always suffered
-from slight attacks of epilepsy.</p>
-
-<p>Intense and protracted mental exertion frequently
-gives rise to hallucinations.</p>
-
-<p>A medical gentleman in Edinburgh, while
-seated one evening in his library, after a period of
-excessive study, on raising his head, was startled
-by perceiving at the opposite side of the table
-the spectre of a gentleman who had died under melancholy
-circumstances some days previously, and
-at whose post-mortem examination he had assisted.</p>
-
-<p>That excessive action of the imagination, and
-consequent absorption of the mind in its own
-workings, to exclusion of external sensations,
-which is common in men of genius, has been a
-fertile source of hallucinations.</p>
-
-<p>In some instances the hallucinations have been
-"counterfeit presentments" of the ideas which
-have been most prominent in the mind; in others
-they have had no relation to that condition.</p>
-
-<p>Spinello, who had painted the Fall of the Angels,
-thought that he was haunted by the frightful
-devils which he had depicted. He was rendered
-so miserable by this hallucination that he de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>stroyed
-himself. One of our own artists, who was much
-engaged in painting caricatures, became haunted
-by the distorted faces he drew; and the deep
-melancholy and terror which accompanied these
-apparitions caused him to commit suicide. MÃŒller,
-who executed the copper-plate of the Sixtine
-Madonna, had more lovely visions. Towards the
-close of his life the Virgin appeared to him, and
-thanking him for the affection he had shown
-towards her, invited him to follow her to heaven.
-To achieve this, the artist starved himself to
-death. Beethoven, who became completely deaf
-in the decline of life, often heard his sublime compositions
-performed distinctly.</p>
-
-<p>It is related of Ben Jonson, that he spent the
-whole of one night in regarding his great toe,
-around which he saw Tartars, Turks, Romans, and
-Catholics climbing up, and struggling and fighting.
-Goëthe, when out riding one day, was
-surprised to see an exact image of himself on
-horseback, dressed in a light-coloured coat, riding
-towards him.</p>
-
-<p>A similar kind of hallucination to this of
-Goëthe's has been observed as a precursor of certain
-forms of insanity, and in the delirium of fever.</p>
-
-<p>Boismont records the case of a gentleman who
-was troubled with a spectral image of himself,
-which he had the power of calling before him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
-voluntarily. This, for several years, was a source
-of amusement to him; but by degrees this
-phantom became more persistent, arose involuntarily,
-and addressed him. The hallucination
-then assumed a still graver character, for his
-double would dispute with him, and often foil
-him in argument; and coincidently with this
-phase of the disease the gentleman became
-melancholy, and he ultimately committed suicide.</p>
-
-<p>The imagination rarely gives rise to hallucinations
-of the senses of touch, taste, or smell alone.
-The sweet-smelling odours which are stated to
-have been experienced during the visions of
-angels and saints; and the foul and sulphurous
-fumes which have accompanied apparitions of the
-infernals, are, however, to be attributed to this
-cause.</p>
-
-<p>Thus far our illustrations and remarks have
-been confined to that class of hallucinations
-which are induced principally by the action of the
-imagination, mental emotion, or excessive exertion
-of the reasoning powers.</p>
-
-<p>There is, however, another class of hallucinations
-dependent upon certain disordered states of
-the general health and nervous system, which
-have an important bearing upon the belief in the
-supernatural.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span></p>
-<p>The simplest forms of hallucination of this
-class are those occasionally observed during the
-initiatory stages of some diseases, after the termination
-of exhausting affections, or during
-temporary morbid conditions of the brain.</p>
-
-<p>The following examples will illustrate the
-nature of the hallucinations arising from these
-sources.</p>
-
-<p>A lady, with whom we are acquainted, was
-walking early one morning in a lonely and unfrequented
-path, which was open to the eye for
-some distance. On approaching its termination,
-she was surprised to see a lady advancing towards
-her, dressed in deep mourning, and reading a
-book. Struck by the peculiar beauty of the
-lady's face, she turned round to gaze upon her as
-she passed; but, to her surprise, the figure
-vanished. Startled and alarmed, she hurried
-home, and almost immediately afterwards was
-seized with shiverings, and suffered from a violent
-attack of fever, characterised by severe cerebral
-disturbance. The hallucination in this case was
-caused by the changes induced in the nervous
-system by the initiatory stages of the disease.</p>
-
-<p>A young lady recovering from a severe attack
-of fever, was left in charge of the house during a
-fine Sunday evening in autumn, the remainder of
-the family having gone to church. A thunder-storm
-came on, with heavy rain, and she became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span>
-very anxious about her aged father. On going
-into the room generally occupied by the family,
-there, to her great astonishment, she beheld, as she
-thought, her father sitting in his usual position.
-Supposing that he must have returned from church
-unwell, she advanced, placed her hand upon the
-semblance, and found nothing. Although startled,
-she attributed the vision to its proper cause,
-anxiety and weakness; but though she went in
-and out of the room several times, the spectre
-persisted for a considerable period.</p>
-
-<p>A merchant, while sitting in his counting-house,
-was annoyed by hearing voices outside the door
-conversing freely respecting his character, and
-speaking of him as a dishonoured man. Thinking
-it was some trick of his friends, he quietly
-opened the door, and was astonished to find no
-one. On closing it the voices again began in a
-similar strain; and on re-opening the door he still
-found no one. Alarmed, he left his office, and
-proceeded home, but the voices followed him,
-threatening punishment for imaginary crimes.
-This hallucination was accompanied by other
-signs of a disordered state of the brain, and it
-was not until after a period of entire relaxation
-from business, and a daily game at cricket, that
-the phantom-voices ceased.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span></p>
-<p>There are certain formidable disorders of the
-nervous system in which hallucinations affect all
-the senses.</p>
-
-<p>The following is an example of the diseases of
-this class, and it will show the influence which
-they are liable to exert in the development of
-certain forms of superstition.</p>
-
-<p>A maiden lady, aged forty years, who from early
-youth had been of a very susceptible and restless
-disposition, suffered from hallucinations which
-persisted for many years.</p>
-
-<p>At first the sight alone was affected, and she
-saw numerous persons of singular and fantastic
-form. Subsequently she heard voices, which professed
-to have taken up their abode in her stomach,
-and addressed her from thence. These voices
-tormented her; commanded all her actions; informed
-her of what took place within the body;
-gave her instructions upon diseases, and even
-prescribed for them. The voices gave her information
-respecting the characters of divers persons,
-and occasionally endowed her with the power of
-expressing herself in terms more florid and fluent
-than she was accustomed to. Often the voices
-conversed on geography, grammar, rhetoric, &amp;c.;
-and they would reprove her when she had done
-amiss. They told her that she was possessed, and
-although she was not superstitious, and fully
-recognized the hallucinations she suffered fr<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>om,
-she at this time sought a priest to exorcise her,
-thought much of eternity, and sometimes gave
-herself up to despair. At one time the voices
-told her she would become queen; often they
-conversed with her upon strange, and sometimes
-even abominable subjects; then they would say
-things extremely comical, and make her laugh.
-They would please, and then mock her, and then
-assail her more violently than ever, and spoil
-like harpies everything she touched or did. If
-she took a glass of water, the voices would call
-out that it was poisoned; and frequently they
-urged her to destroy herself. When she walked
-out, if she passed a female, the voices would cry
-out that she carried musk (the odour of which the
-lady abominated) and immediately she smelt this
-odour; if a man passed her, she was affected with
-the smell of tobacco. The voices often gave her
-no rest until she did what they liked, and they
-even ordered her to Paris, to place herself under
-the care of physicians there.</p>
-
-<p>The visions she suffered from were very singular.
-Her apartment was filled with persons of
-all characters and descriptions; numerous processions
-defiled before her, and some of the figures
-had but one half the body, a profile, or one
-eye; they were large or small, and occasionally
-underwent singular and fantastic changes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
-form.</p>
-
-<p>The food she took did not possess its natural
-taste, and the voices often gave unpleasant savours,
-to prevent her eating.</p>
-
-<p>When she journeyed, she felt as if soaked with
-water, and she would attempt to wring her
-clothes.</p>
-
-<p>Addressing one of her physicians, when the
-malady was fully developed, she said, "I know
-that it is monomania, but the voices are stronger
-than my will. I wish you to prescribe for me,
-it is impossible for me to remain in one place."<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a></p>
-
-<p>This case is an interesting illustration of a form
-of disease, which, when developed in persons who
-are subject to religious enthusiasm, has given rise
-to the belief of possession with devils (<i>demonomania</i>).
-Instances of this disease are frequently
-met with in the French asylums.</p>
-
-<p>Many other forms of hallucination occur in
-insanity, monomania, fever, hysteria, and other
-diseases, in dreams, and from the influence of
-certain poisonous substances taken into the
-system. Some of these hallucinations are of
-considerable interest, since they have been the
-prime cause of many superstitions.</p>
-
-<p>In addition to the hallucinations of the hearing
-already mentioned, in certain diseases, w<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>ords
-spoken in the right ear have been heard in the
-left, and <i>vice versâ;</i> and under the influence of
-opium or haschish (prepared from the Indian
-hemp), the sense becomes, occasionally, so developed,
-that a word pronounced low, or a slight
-movement, sounds like a peal of thunder. Hallucinations
-of the sight have occasionally presented
-figures of colossal stature, or of extreme diminutiveness;
-or the patient has conceived the idea
-that he was so tall that he was unable to walk
-erect in a lofty apartment, or so diminutive that
-he dreaded the movements of any near to
-him, lest they should do him harm. Pleasant or
-fetid odours are sometimes constantly present to
-the smell. Feuchtersleben states the case of a
-lady who was long haunted with the effluvia as
-of a charnel-house. The taste is subjected to hallucinations
-of exquisitely flavoured viands and
-wines; or the reverse, no food being taken; or
-everything taken presents one undeviating flavour,
-which may be pleasant or unpleasant, or it has
-no taste at all. A sensation of <i>flying</i> is not uncommon.
-Boismont has a friend who frequently
-experiences this sensation, and it often occurs in
-dreams. A friend of ours is in the habit of
-dreaming that he is suspended about a foot above
-the surface of the earth, and is carried along by
-simple volition, without movement of the limbs;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
-and St. Jerome states, that often in dreams he
-flew from the earth over mountains and seas.
-Our ideas of depth and space are sometimes
-increased in dreams to an extent that is inexpressible
-and almost bewildering; and the sensation
-of falling into an abyss is common to the dreamer.
-The idea of time is often extended indefinitely;
-in the space of a single night, days, weeks, years,
-and even ages, have appeared to elapse. Transformation
-of the figure is occasionally met with
-among the hallucinations of insanity; and in the
-state induced by haschish, the singular and fantastic
-forms which those under its influence, and
-the parties surrounding them, have appeared to
-undergo, are of great interest. "The eyelashes,"
-writes one gentleman, "lengthened themselves
-indefinitely, and rolled themselves as threads of
-gold on little ivory bobbins, which turned unassisted,
-with frightful rapidity.... I still saw
-my comrades at certain moments, but <i>deformed</i>,
-half men, half plants, with the pensive airs of an
-ibis standing on one foot, of ostriches flapping
-their wings, &amp;c."&mdash;"I imagined that I was the
-parroquet of the Queen of Sheba, and I imitated
-as well as I was able the cries of this praiseworthy
-bird."</p>
-
-<p>In the state caused by haschish it occasionally
-also happens that the person under its influenc<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>e
-may be caused to speak or act in any manner that
-is suggested to him. This phenomenon is also
-seen in dreams; in both conditions the half-awakened
-mind automatically pursues the train
-of thought which has been suggested to it either
-by the voice or by certain sensations.</p>
-
-<p>Lastly, in certain disordered conditions of the
-system, the person has the power of looking, as it
-were, into himself, and ascertaining what is going
-on there, or of extending his sensual powers
-beyond the bounds of their ordinary sphere, and
-ascertaining what transpires in other places, or at
-a distance of many miles (<i>clairvoyance</i>). The
-gentleman from whose experience of the effects of
-haschish we have already quoted, thought he could
-look at will into his stomach, and that he saw
-there, in the form of an emerald, from which
-escaped millions of sparkles, the drug he had
-swallowed.</p>
-
-<p>By a careful consideration of the illusions and
-hallucinations to which we are liable, we obtain a
-clue to unravel the wild fantasies which constitute
-the greater part of the most prominent superstitions.</p>
-
-<p>If we reflect on the superstitious ideas which
-filled the minds of our forefathers, and follow them
-back, in their deepening intensity, into the middle
-ages, we can easily imagine how the irregular and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
-fantastic figures which an indistinct and disordered
-vision gave rise to in the gloom of the night, were
-transformed into fiends and demons; how spectres,
-clothed in their horrid white and blue panoply, were
-seen stalking over the earth, and haunting the
-murder-stained castle, glade, and forest; how the
-dimly illuminated mists of the evening and morning
-shadowed forth the forms of the dead, and the
-spirits of the waters and the air; how in the mist
-of Killarney, an O'Donoghue, mounted on his milk-white
-steed, and attended by a host of fairy forms,
-swept over the beautiful lake; and a spectral array
-arose night after night from the bed of the rushing
-Moldau, and besieged the walls of Prague; how
-the moonbeams chequering the deep recesses of
-the woods, and the banks and meadows overhung
-with foliage, were metamorphised into fairies; how
-the wind howling among the rocks and mountains,
-sweeping through the valleys, or whispering amid
-the trees and about the nooks and corners of the
-turretted castle and ruinous mansion, bore on its
-bosom the sounds of spectre-horsemen, demon-hunters,
-and fiend-like hounds, or the wail and
-lamentations of wandering and lost spirits, and
-the shrieks of the infernals; and how the billows,
-rushing into the caverns and deep fissures in the
-cliffs of a rock-bound coast, filled the air with the
-mysterious and incomprehensible language of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>
-spirits of the deep.</p>
-
-<p>A clue also is obtained to other forms of
-superstition.</p>
-
-<p>The power which the witch was supposed to
-possess of transporting herself from place to place,
-and which those self-deluded wretches themselves
-believed; and the orgies of the witch-sabbath,
-which were again and again deposed to, were
-hallucinations due to a form of insanity&mdash;for we
-may so call it&mdash;prevailing at the period, which
-was determined by the nature of the superstitious
-beliefs entertained. The real character of this
-superstition is well shown by an incident which is
-recorded by Jung-Stilling.</p>
-
-<p>He writes:&mdash;"I am acquainted with a tale, for
-the truth of which I can vouch, because it is taken
-from the official documents of an old witch-process.
-An old woman was imprisoned, put to the
-torture, and confessed all that witches are generally
-charged with. Amongst others, she also
-denounced a neighbour of hers, who had been with
-her on the Blocksberg, the preceding Walpurgis
-night. This woman was called, and asked if it
-were true what the prisoner said of her? On
-which she stated that, on Walpurgis eve she
-had called upon this woman, because she had something
-to say to her. On entering her kitchen, she
-found the prisoner busy in preparing a deco<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>ction
-of herbs. On asking her what she was boiling,
-she said, with a smiling and mysterious mien,
-"Wilt thou go with me to the Brocken?" From
-curiosity, and in order to ascertain what there was
-in the matter, she answered, "Yes: I should
-like to go well enough." On which the prisoner
-chattered some time about the feast, and the dance,
-and the enormous goat. She then drank of the
-decoction, and offered it to her, saying: "There,
-take a hearty drink of it, that thou mayest be
-able to ride through the air:" she likewise put the
-pot to her mouth, and made as if she drank of it,
-but did not taste a drop. During this, the prisoner
-had put a pitchfork between her legs, and
-placed herself upon the hearth; that she soon
-sunk down, and began to sleep and snore: after
-having looked on for some time, she was at length
-tired of it, and went home.</p>
-
-<p>The next morning, the prisoner came to her,
-and said, "Well, how dost thou like being at the
-Brocken? Sith, there were glorious doings." On
-which she had laughed heartily, and told her
-that she had not drunk of the potion, and that
-she, the prisoner, had not been at the Brocken,
-but had slept with her pitchfork upon the hearth.
-That the woman, on this, became angry, and
-said to her, that she ought not to deny having
-been at the Brocken, and having danced and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
-kissed the goat."<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p>
-
-<p>Gassendi relates an experiment to the same
-effect. He anointed some peasants with a pomade
-made of belladonna or opium, persuading them
-that the operation would convey them to the
-witch-sabbath. After a profound sleep, they
-awoke, and told how they had been present at
-the sabbath, and the pleasures they had enjoyed.</p>
-
-<p>Stupifying and intoxicating drugs were, in all
-probability, freely used by sorcerers, and in the
-ancient mysteries, and to their use is to be attributed
-many of the illusions and hallucinations
-which are familiar in the details of the practice
-of the occult sciences.</p>
-
-<p>Jung-Stilling quotes a singularly interesting
-example of a method of practising one of the most
-important processes of magic; and an examination
-of it satisfactory shows the manner in which
-some of the most striking of the deceptions of
-that art were brought about, and how it happened
-that the professor, as well as the student, was
-equally deluded.</p>
-
-<p>In Eckhartshausen's "Key to Magic" there is
-an account of a young Scotsman "who, though he
-meddled not with the conjuration of spirits, and
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>such like charlatanry, had learned, however, a
-remarkable piece of art from a Jew, which he communicated
-also to Eckhartshausen, and made the
-experiment with him,&mdash;which is surprising, and
-worthy of perusal. He that wishes to raise and see
-any particular spirit, <i>must prepare himself for it, for
-some days together, both spiritually and physically</i>.
-There are also particular and remarkable requisites
-and relations necessary betwixt such a spirit and
-the person who wishes to see it&mdash;relations which
-cannot otherwise be explained, than on the ground
-of the intervention of some secret influence from
-the invisible world. After all these precautions, a
-vapour is produced in a room, from certain
-materials which Eckhartshausen, with propriety,
-does not divulge, on account of the dangerous
-abuse which might be made of it, which visibly
-forms itself into a figure which bears a resemblance
-to that which the person wishes to see. In this
-there is no question of any magic-lantern or optical
-artifice; but the vapour really forms a human
-figure, similar to that which the individual desires
-to behold. I will now insert the conclusion of
-the story in Eckhartshausen's own words:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Some time after the departure of the stranger,
-that is, the Scotsman, I made the experiment
-for one of my friends. He saw as I did, and
-had the same sensations.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p>
-<p>"The observations that we made were these. As
-soon as the ingredients were thrown into the
-chafing-dish, a whitish body forms itself, that
-seems to hover above the chafing-dish, as large
-as life.</p>
-
-<p>"It possesses the likeness of the person whom
-we wished to see, only the visage is of an ashy
-paleness.</p>
-
-<p>"On approaching the figure, one is conscious
-of a resistance, similar to that which is felt when
-going against a strong wind, which drives one
-back.</p>
-
-<p>"If one speaks with it, one remembers no more
-distinctly what is spoken; and when the appearance
-vanishes, one feels as if awakening from a
-dream. The head is stupified, and a contraction
-is felt about the abdomen. It is also very singular
-that the same appearance presents itself when one
-is in the dark, or when looking upon dark objects.</p>
-
-<p>"The unpleasantness of this sensation was the
-reason why I was unwilling to repeat the experiment,
-although often urged to do so by many
-individuals."<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a></p>
-
-<p>It would be difficult to conceive any more
-powerful method of inducing hallucinations than
-that detailed in this instructive and interesting
-recital. The previous schooling of the imagination,
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>in order thoroughly to imbue it with the
-train of ideas requisite for the full development
-of the phenomenon, and the subsequent intoxication
-induced by the inhalation of powerful narcotic
-vapours&mdash;an intoxication which, as we have already
-seen in the example of haschish, is peculiarly apt
-to the development of hallucinations&mdash;will sufficiently
-account for the illusion of the smoke of
-the chafing-dish presenting any figure which the
-mind desires to see. The difficulty which the
-experimenter experienced in approaching the
-phantom, and which he compares to the resistance
-which is felt when contending against a
-strong wind, was evidently due to the powerful
-emotion which he experienced depriving him of
-that control of the voluntary muscles, such as we
-find in a person paralyzed by fear or astonishment;
-or perhaps it was rather a feeling similar
-to that experienced in nightmare, when, whatever
-effort we may make, we feel almost incapable of
-motion.</p>
-
-<p>The action of the narcotic vapour alone was
-sufficient to induce hallucinations; for, persuaded
-by a very experienced physician, who "maintained
-that the narcotic ingredients which formed the
-vapour must of necessity violently affect the imagination,
-and might be very injurious, according
-to circumstances," Eckhartshausen made the
-experiment on himself without previous pre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>paration;
-"but," he writes, "scarcely had I cast the
-quantum of ingredients into the chafing-dish, when
-a figure presented itself. I was, however, seized
-with such a horror, that I was obliged to leave the
-room. I was very ill during three hours, and
-thought I saw the figure always before me.
-Towards evening, after inhaling the fumes of
-vinegar, and drinking it with water, I was better
-again; but for three weeks afterwards I felt a
-debility: and the strangest part of the matter is,
-that when I remember the circumstance, and look
-for some time upon any dark object, this ashy pale
-figure still presents itself very vividly to my sight.
-After this I no longer dared to make any experiments
-with it."</p>
-
-<p>The use of intoxicating and stupifying drugs
-doubtless contributed also to the development of
-those ideas of strange and wonderful transformations
-and anomalies of form with which the legends
-and romances of Oriental and European nations
-teem. In the examples of hallucinations we have
-already given from this source, we find the key to
-the explanation of several of these transformations;
-and the elaborated supernatural framework of fairy
-tales, in which men are changed without compunction
-into inferior animals, trees, or vegetables, has
-probably had a similar origin.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span></p>
-<p>The state of "clairvoyance," and that condition
-of the nervous system which is found in certain
-diseases, dreams, and under the influence of
-narcotic poisons, in which, by suggestions, in
-whatever manner given, certain actions and trains
-of thought may be excited at the will of the
-suggestor, is seen also, and may be induced at will
-in those conditions of the system which are
-summed up under the terms "mesmerism,"
-"animal magnetism," "electro-biology," &amp;c.;
-and the theories which have been invented to
-explain them, and which are expressed in the
-above names, are not only needless, but inconsistent
-with the facts observed. The so-called
-mesmeric and electro-biological trance is strictly
-allied to certain forms of dreaming; and the whole
-of the results witnessed may be explained by
-certain admitted physiological and physical laws
-of action, and are due to leading trains of thought
-which are excited by suggestions direct or indirect.
-As to the higher faculty of prevision claimed in
-this state, we are not aware that, as yet, a single
-trustworthy instance has been established.</p>
-
-<p>There is a class of spectral apparitions which
-differ from those which we have already dwelt
-upon, inasmuch as they have appeared to foreshadow,
-or have occurred coincidently with, the
-death of an individual; or they have made
-known events occurring at a distance, or <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>have
-brought to light things else hidden by the
-grave.</p>
-
-<p>In the deepening gloom of twilight the seer of
-Scotland often witnessed the <i>wraiths</i> of those who
-were about to die, wreathed in the ascending mists
-of the night, troop in ghostly silence before his
-horror-stricken vision; and the <i>Bodach Glas</i>
-crossed the path of the death-laden Mac Ivor;
-the <i>Bodac au Dun</i>, or Ghost of the Hill, warned the
-Rothmurchan of approaching calamity; the spectre
-of the Bloody Hand scared the Kincardines; the
-<i>Bodach Gartin</i> glided in significant horror through
-the gloomy passages of Gartnibeg House; and the
-Girl with the Hairy Left Hand&mdash;<i>Manch Monlach</i>&mdash;pointed
-to the death-bolt about to carry weeping
-and wailing into the halls of Tulloch Gorus.</p>
-
-<p>The spectral <i>fetch</i> shadowed forth in the sister
-isle the dark course of death; while the Banshee
-mourned with the frightful accents of the dead
-over the dying scions of the ancient families.
-Hovering near the sorrow-laden mansion, her robe
-flowing wide in the night air, and her tangled
-tresses borne upon the wind, she cried the keen
-of another world adown the vaulted passages, and
-sobbed in ghastly agony her bitter lamentations.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Gwrâch y Rhibyn</i>&mdash;Hag of the Dribble&mdash;when
-the night had covered the earth, spread out
-her leathern-like wings, and flitting befor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>e the
-house of the death-stricken Cambrians, shrieked
-in harsh, broken, and prolonged tones their names.</p>
-
-<p>In our own land the spectres of all those who
-would die in the parish during the year might be
-seen walking in ghostly procession to the church,
-or entering its portals, by him who would watch,
-three years consecutively, during the last hour of
-the night and the first hour of the morning, in the
-porch, on the Eve of St. Mark, or would kneel
-and look through the keyhole of the door of the
-sanctuary at midnight on the Eve of St. John the
-Baptist.</p>
-
-<p>The <i>White Lady</i>, who haunts the ancient castle
-of the celebrated Bohemian family of Rosenberg-Neuhaus,
-and who also appears from time to
-time in the castles of the allied families of Brandenburg,
-Baden, and Darmstadt,&mdash;Trzebon, Islubocka,
-Bechin, and Tretzen, and even has been
-seen in Berlin, Bayreuth, and at Carlsrhue is of
-historical notoriety. Tall of stature, attired in
-white, and wearing a white widow's veil adorned
-with ribbons, through the folds of which, and
-from within her, a faint light has been seen to
-glimmer, she glides with a modest air through the
-corridors and apartments of those castles and palaces
-in which the death of one of her family is about
-to occur; and she has been seen at other times,
-and oft, with the aspect and air as though the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>spirit
-had a melancholy pleasure in visiting and hovering
-about her descendants. It is said to be the ghost of
-one Perchta Von Rosenberg, who was born between
-<span class="smaller">A.D.</span> 1420 and 1430, and subsequently married to
-John Von Lichtenstein, a rich and profligate
-baron, who so embittered her life that she was
-obliged to seek relief from her relatives, and she
-died borne down with the insults and indescribable
-distress she endured. Among the old paintings
-of the family of Rosenberg was found a portrait
-of this lady, attired after the fashion of the times,
-and bearing an exact resemblance to the "<i>White
-Lady</i>." In December, 1628, she appeared in
-Berlin, and was heard to exclaim, "Veni, judica
-vivos et mortuos: judicium mihi adhuc superest!"&mdash;"Come,
-judge the living and the dead; my fate
-is not yet decided."</p>
-
-<p>The <i>Klage-weib</i> (Mourning Woman) when the
-storm is driving the rift before it, and the moon
-shines fitfully and faintly on the earth, may be
-seen stalking along, her gigantic and shadowy
-form enveloped in dark flowing grave-clothes, her
-deathlike countenance and deep cavernous eyes
-freezing the unhappy spectator with horror, while,
-extending her vast arm, she sweeps it above the
-cottage marked out by death.</p>
-
-<p>In the Tyrol also, the phantom of a white
-woman looks in at the window of a house w<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>here a
-person must die.</p>
-
-<p>These are examples of spectral apparitions foreboding
-death and misfortune, which the lapse of
-ages and the influence of superstition have invested
-with a semblance of reality, approximating
-them in apparent truthfulness to historical facts.</p>
-
-<p>It is a needless, and would be a thankless task,
-to show how these notions were the legitimate
-result of the ideas of the supernatural entertained
-at the period when they were developed; and how
-when the superstitions once assumed a definite
-form, the slightest illusion during the period of
-sickness or calamity, whether observed in the
-castellated mansion, pregnant generally with deeds
-of darkness or blood, or in the twilight or the
-storm of a moon-lit night, were converted into
-these phantoms;<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> or the imperfectly remembered
-dream, or its vivid depiction of the superstition,
-shadowed forth the same.</p>
-
-<p>Scant of romance, and that wild and thrilling
-medium through which many of our old legends
-are seen, we have handed to us numerous business-like
-stories, some of very recent date, in
-which the same principles are involved as in the
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>legends we have detailed, and which demand grave
-attention, from the honest truthfulness with which
-they are evidently detailed, and the events which
-they appear to have foreshadowed.</p>
-
-<p>Let us examine some of these instances, and
-endeavour to ascertain whether they come under
-the character of illusions or hallucinations; or
-whether they are to be placed in another category,
-and to be regarded as the results of supernatural
-agency, as is most frequently done.</p>
-
-<p>In "Blackwood's Magazine" for 1840, there is
-a letter which contains the following statement:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"The 'Hawk' being on her passage from
-the Cape of Good Hope towards the island of
-Java, and myself having the charge of the middle
-watch, between one and two in the morning I
-was taken suddenly ill, which obliged me to send
-for the officer next in turn; I then went down on
-the gun-deck, and sent my boy for a light. In
-the meanwhile, I sat down on a chest in the
-steerage, under the after-grating, when I felt a
-gentle squeeze by a very cold hand; I started,
-and saw a figure in white; stepping back, I said,
-'God's my life! who is that?' It stood and
-gazed at me a short time, stooped its head to get
-a more perfect view, sighed aloud, repeated the
-exclamation 'Oh!' three times, and instantly
-vanished. The night was fine, though the moon
-afforded through the gratings but a weak ligh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>t, so
-that little of feature could be seen, only a figure
-rather tall than otherwise, and white-clad. My
-boy returning now with a light, I sent him to the
-cabins of all the officers, when he brought me
-word that not one of them had been stirring.
-Coming afterwards to St. Helena, homeward-bound,
-hearing of my sister's death, and finding
-the time so nearly coinciding, it added much to
-my painful concern; and I have only to thank
-God, that when I saw what I now verily believe
-to have been her apparition (my sister Ann), I
-did not then know the melancholy occasion of
-it."</p>
-
-<p>The superstitious feelings which we find pervading
-the mind of the gentleman relating this
-incident, and which is evinced by its termination;
-the circumstances under which the apparition
-took place, namely, a dim uncertain light,
-that most favourable to illusion; an attack of
-indisposition leading to alteration of the natural
-sensations; and lastly, and most important of all,
-the after-conclusion arrived at on hearing of the
-sister's death, and under the influence of which
-the account was written, and which, it is evident
-from the nature of the details, gave rise to that
-definite statement which has been recorded,&mdash;all
-tend to the conclusion that the spectre was an
-illusion, and that its significance was a phas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>e
-imparted to it by superstitious feelings alone.</p>
-
-<p>The influence of subsequent conclusions in
-warping the real history of an event, and giving a
-definite and precise character to what would otherwise
-have been vague and inconclusive, as is
-witnessed in the above story, is one of the most
-important fallacies pervading ghost-stories. There
-is no source of self-deception to which we are
-exposed, more insidious; and it is requisite to
-keep it constantly in view, not only in relations
-of this nature, but in the examination of events of
-any kind whatever. The colouring which facts
-receive from this source, too often hides their real
-character; and the reciter is perfectly unconscious
-of the erroneous light which he casts upon them.
-Hence the importance of ascertaining the peculiar
-bias and tendencies of thought which appertain
-to one who records occurrences upon which important
-conclusions or theories may be based.</p>
-
-<p>The vicious habit which has been common
-among the advocates of supernatural visitations,
-of supporting their opinions upon the assertions
-of men of known probity and honour, to the complete
-exclusion of an examination of the sources
-of delusion and error to which these men were
-liable from the character of their previous education,
-habits of thought, associations, &amp;c., and
-from their imperfect acquaintance with th<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>e fallacies
-to which they may have been exposed, has
-been a fertile source of error.</p>
-
-<p>A so-called fact is not an abstract truth; it is
-simply a fact so far as it relates to the assertor,
-and the credence given to it by others depends
-upon the extent to which it agrees with their
-experience, or upon the knowledge that the assertor
-has by previous study or experience so far
-diminished the probability of error on the subject
-to which it relates, that the statement may be
-received without hesitation.</p>
-
-<p>Another form of ghost-story is that in which
-the spirit of the dead has been compelled to
-wander in misery on the earth, for some crime or
-error, small or great, committed during life, and
-which, unless it be atoned for or rectified, prevents
-its eternal repose.</p>
-
-<p>A story of this kind is given by Jung-Stilling,
-and however absurd it may be in some parts, it
-is interesting from the precision of its details
-enabling us to lay hold of a clue to the explanation
-of the majority of these tales.</p>
-
-<p>In 1756, M. Doerien, one of the proctors of
-Caroline College, Brunswick, was taken ill and
-died, shortly after "St. John's Day" (June 24th).
-Immediately before his death, he requested to see
-another of the proctors, M. Hoefer, having some
-communication of importance to make to him;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
-but before that gentleman arrived, death had taken
-place. After some time a report became prevalent
-in the college that the ghost of the deceased
-proctor had been seen; but as this proceeded
-merely from the young, little attention had been
-given to it. At length, in October, upwards of
-three months after the death of M. Doerien, as
-M. Hoefer was proceeding on his accustomed
-nightly round, between the hours of eleven and
-twelve, in one of the corridors he saw the spectre
-of that professor, clothed in a common night-gown
-and white night-cap. This unexpected
-sight terrified M. Hoefer somewhat, but recollecting
-that he was in the path of duty, he recovered
-himself, and advancing to the spectre,
-endeavoured to examine it by the light of the
-candle he held in his hand; but such a horror
-came over him, that he could scarcely withdraw
-the hand in which he extended the light, and
-from that moment it was so swollen, "that some
-months elapsed before it was healed." The following
-night he was accompanied in his rounds
-by a philosopher, Professor Oeder, who was rather
-sceptical on the subject of apparitions; but on
-approaching the spot in which the spectre had
-been seen on the previous evening, there they
-beheld it again in the same position.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span></p>
-<p>Others attempted to gain a sight of the ghost,
-but it would not manifest itself, not even to MM.
-Oeder and Hoefer, until the former gentleman,
-wearied with his useless watching during a somewhat
-prolonged period, exclaimed, "I have gone
-after the spirit long enough to please him; if he
-now wants anything, let him come to me." But
-what followed? About fourteen days after, when
-he was thinking about anything else than of
-ghosts, he was suddenly and rudely awakened,
-between three and four o'clock in the morning, by
-some external motion. On opening his eyes, he
-saw an apparition opposite to the bed, standing
-by the clothes-press, which was only two paces
-from it, that presented itself in the same attire
-as the spirit. He raised himself up, and could
-then clearly discern the whole face. He fixed his
-eyes steadfastly upon the phantom, until, after a
-period of eight minutes, it became invisible.</p>
-
-<p>The next morning he was again awakened
-about the same time, and saw the same apparition,
-only with this difference, that the door of the
-press made a cracking noise, just as if some one
-leaned upon it. This time the spirit remained
-longer, so that Professor Oeder spoke to it as
-follows: "Get thee hence, thou evil spirit; what
-hast thou to do here?" At these words the
-phantom made all kinds of dreadful motions, waved
-its head, its hands, and its feet in such a manne<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span>r,
-that the terrified Professor began to pray, "Who
-trusts in God, &amp;c.," and "God the Father dwell
-with us, &amp;c.," on which the spirit vanished.</p>
-
-<p>After eight days the spirit again appeared, "but
-with this difference, that it came from the press
-directly towards him, and inclined its head over
-him," whereupon the terrified Professor struck out
-at it, and the spirit retired; but no sooner had he
-laid down, than it again advanced, and he, noticing
-that its aspect was "more in sorrow than in anger,"
-observed it attentively, and saw that the ghost had
-a short tobacco-pipe in its mouth. This circumstance
-and the spirit's mild mien induced him
-to address the ghost, and ask, "Are you still
-owing anything." He knew beforehand that the
-deceased had left some debts, and the amount of
-a few dollars, <i>which occasioned the inquiry</i>. The
-spirit looked attentively at this query; and at
-length, guided by the tobacco-pipe, when the
-Professor asked, "Are you perhaps owing something
-for tobacco?" the spirit retreated and
-suddenly disappeared. Measures were immediately
-taken to liquidate the debt which was
-found to be owing for tobacco.</p>
-
-<p>The next night Professor Seidler remained with
-Oeder. The spirit again appeared, but not as formerly,
-at the press, but near it, close to the white
-wall. It was visible only to Oeder, his broth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>er
-professor merely seeing "something white." From
-this night Oeder burnt a night-lamp, and he no
-longer saw the apparition; but for some nights, at
-the same time, from three to five, he was troubled
-with uneasy sensations, and frequently heard a
-noise at the clothes-press and knocking at the
-door. By degrees these sensations passed away,
-and he discontinued the night-lamp; but the
-second night after, the spectre again appeared "at
-the accustomed hour, but visibly darker." It
-had, moreover, a new sign in its hand&mdash;"It was
-like a picture, and had a hole in the centre, into
-which the spirit frequently put its hand. After
-long ruminating and inquiring what the deceased
-might mean by these signs, so much was at
-length elicited, that a short time before his illness
-he had taken some paintings in a magic lantern
-from a picture-dealer on trial, which had not been
-returned. The paintings were given to the rightful
-owner, and from that time Oeder continued
-undisturbed."</p>
-
-<p>In this story we notice, first, that a report was
-prevalent in the college, that the ghost of
-M. Doerien had been seen by several persons;
-and it is but natural to suppose that such a statement
-would exercise a powerful effect upon the
-mind of M. Hoefer, who had been placed in the
-painful position of being summoned to the dea<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>th-bed
-of his friend, to receive a communication
-"necessary to mention to him," but had arrived
-in time only to witness the death-struggle. Upwards
-of three months after the death of M.
-Doerien, and when M. Hoefer was evidently in a
-disordered state of health, as is indicated by the
-swelling of the hand, and subsequent persistence
-of this swelling for some time, as this gentleman
-was making his usual rounds by the light of a
-taper in the dead of night, he witnesses the first
-apparition in a situation pregnant with associations
-of the deceased. The apparition may
-have been an illusion, suggested at first by some
-outlines indistinctly seen; or it may have been,
-and it is more probable to have been, an hallucination
-excited by the association of ideas in a
-person whose system was in a disordered state.</p>
-
-<p>That connection of ideas, similar or dissimilar,
-which is acquired by habit or otherwise, so that
-one of them, in whatever manner we may become
-conscious of it, will suggest and give rise to the
-others, without the intervention of a voluntary
-action of the mind, is familiar to most persons.</p>
-
-<p>The association which the mind habitually
-forms between certain objects and scenes, and
-persons connected with them, is most evident
-when a separation has been effected by death or
-removal to a distance; and, as is well-known, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>nd
-has probably been painfully experienced by most
-persons, when the mind has been rallying from a
-state of abstraction or reverie, the sight of some
-object, or an indistinct sound, which during the
-full activity of the faculties would not have been
-regarded, or would simply have sufficed to arouse
-an ordinary reminiscence, will cause to flash
-athwart the mind, a vivid and startling image of
-the deceased or far distant one.</p>
-
-<p>We well remember some years ago, when a
-fellow-student, with whom we had been on very
-intimate terms, was cut off after a few days' illness.
-He had been in the habit of spending much time
-in our rooms. For some months after his death,
-particularly when wearied with study, a slight
-noise in the passage or at the door of the room
-has given rise to so vivid an impression that he
-was approaching, or at the door, that it has
-required an effort of the mind to quell the hallucination.</p>
-
-<p>The apparition which M. Hoefer witnessed,
-was most probably an hallucination of this kind;
-the corridor, and position in which it occurred,
-recalling to memory, in all the vividness of reality,
-the form and lineaments of that deceased friend
-who had formerly frequented it along with him.</p>
-
-<p>We have already seen an instance of a somewhat
-similar character, in the account given in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
-previous paper of the apparition of a father, then
-alive, but absent at church, to his daughter at
-home. In that case the apparition was excited
-by the sight of the arm-chair generally occupied
-by the old gentleman, and connected with it
-alone, the association of the ideas being obvious;
-and the state of the brain forming, so to speak,
-the substratum of the hallucination, was induced
-by uneasiness caused by a heavy thunder-storm
-acting on a frame debilitated by fever.</p>
-
-<p>The apparition of the following night, which
-was seen also by Professor Oeder, was, so far as
-M. Hoefer was concerned, a modification of the
-hallucination of the preceding night, prompted by
-the belief that the apparition he had witnessed was
-supernatural; and the precise similarity of the
-apparition professed to have been seen by M. Oeder,
-to that seen by M. Hoefer on that and the
-preceding night, would lead to the suspicion that
-in the former gentleman it was a trick of the
-imagination alone,&mdash;a suspicion confirmed by the
-subsequent progress of the tale.</p>
-
-<p>Professor Oeder brooded upon the apparition he
-had witnessed, and, it is important to mark, made
-every endeavour for some time to obtain a second
-sight of it, but failed, until wearied out with his
-fruitless research, he ceased to hunt after it.
-Fourteen days afterwards, he states that he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
-suddenly and rudely awakened "by some external
-motion" (which is evidently an after-conclusion
-derived from what followed), and saw the apparition
-of Doerien standing by the clothes-press.</p>
-
-<p>In other words, he awoke suddenly out of a
-troubled sleep, and in the transition state between
-sleeping and waking, in which the mental images
-are as bright and defined as in dreams, the subject
-which had occupied his mind so much of late
-was presented before him in a visible form. As it
-not unfrequently happens when a dream has made
-a powerful impression on the mind, it is repeated
-again, so on the following night M. Oeder's hallucination
-occurred, but with the addition of a slight
-creaking noise of the clothes-press door.</p>
-
-<p>Oeder was now fully convinced of the supernatural
-character of his visitant, and when the
-spectre again appeared to him, which was after a
-period of eight days, he having adopted the opinion
-at that period very prevalent, of troubled
-spirits, proceeded to inquire as to the cause of its
-visitations; and noticing a white tobacco-pipe in
-the spirit's mouth, and <i>knowing</i> that the deceased
-Doerien had "left some debts to the amount of
-a few dollars," he asked, "Are you perhaps owing
-for tobacco?" whereupon the spirit disappeared.
-Here then we find an hallucination, either in the
-dreaming or waking state, presenting the precise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
-similitude of the Professor's opinions and conceptions
-respecting the possible cause of the
-spectre.</p>
-
-<p>The following night, when the spectre appeared
-again, a friend was with Oeder, but this friend
-saw "nothing further than something white,"&mdash;no
-very extraordinary sight in a room which had
-white walls, and was not perfectly dark.</p>
-
-<p>From this time Oeder used a night-lamp, and
-the spectre no more appeared, but by certain
-sensations and noises he knew it was in the apartment.</p>
-
-<p>The invisibility of the spectre, when the light
-was present, would indicate that a sensation of
-light excited in the eye by a disordered state of
-the head, such as we have fully dwelt upon in a
-previous part of the work, played an important
-part of the hallucination; and the disturbed sleep
-for so many nights, and uneasy sensations, point
-to a circumstance which we have not yet alluded
-to, that the Professor's health was not in good
-condition,&mdash;the probable cause of the whole series
-of hallucinations.</p>
-
-<p>The uneasy sensations ceased, the light was
-dispensed with, the spectre again came, but it
-was darker, and contained a new sign in its hand,
-which, by following out a similar course of reasoning
-as upon the tobacco-pipe, and by long ruminating<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
-and inquiring, the Professor puzzled out
-to signify some paintings belonging to a magic
-lantern which Doerien had received on trial
-before his death, and which had not been returned.
-They were sought up, sent to their rightful
-owner, and the apparition vanished to return no
-more.</p>
-
-<p>It is to be remembered that this story, like
-most others of a similar nature, has been written
-under a full belief of the supernatural character
-of the apparitions, and it has received a colouring
-accordingly; and our comments suffice to show
-that no care, no attempt, has been made by the
-ghost-seer, to ascertain how much the apparitions
-might depend upon some illusion or hallucinations
-connected with his bodily health. The progress of
-the tale further shows that the apparitions occurred,
-in both M. Hoefer as well as Professor Oeder's
-case, in connection with symptoms of disordered
-health, and that they added nothing to what these
-gentlemen knew, or could work out, as M. Oeder
-did, by his own reason and judgment; in short,
-that they were simple images of ideas they already
-possessed or arrived at from the information they
-obtained.</p>
-
-<p>Other sources of error in the judgment could
-be pointed out, and other causes of illusion and
-hallucination in the above tale, but we have wri<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>tten
-sufficient to show its worthlessness.</p>
-
-<p>One of the most formidable objections to the
-majority of ghost-stories of this nature is the insufficiency
-of the authority upon which they are given.
-In many instances we cannot trace them satisfactorily
-to their origin; in others, we have
-received them after they have passed through the
-hands of several persons; and in still more (as in
-the tales we have just analysed) there is intrinsic
-evidence that no endeavour has been made to
-obviate or elicit the sources of fallacy to which the
-ghost-seer has been exposed, and diminish as
-much as possible the chances of error.</p>
-
-<p>The story of the "Last Hours of Lord Lyttleton"
-is a singularly interesting example of a
-ghost-story, based upon insufficient authority, and
-probably also upon a trivial circumstance, receiving
-almost universal credence; and it shows,
-moreover, how readily the superstitious feelings
-of the listeners will lead them to receive without
-due examination, tales which in themselves may
-be utterly void of satisfactory foundation; and
-induce them to retail subsequently an account
-which has probably received its precision and
-colouring from their imaginations alone.</p>
-
-<p>Oft as the story has been told, we are necessitated
-again to quote it in part, in order to show
-more fully the nature of the authority upon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> which
-it depends.</p>
-
-<p>A gentleman, who was on a visit to Lord Lyttleton,
-writes:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"I was at Pitt Place, Epsom, when Lord
-Lyttleton died; Lord Fortescue, Lady Flood,
-and the two Miss Amphletts, were also present.
-Lord Lyttleton had not long been returned from
-Ireland, and frequently had been seized with suffocating
-fits; he was attacked several times by
-them in the course of the preceding month, while
-he was at his house in Hill Street, Berkeley
-Square. It happened that he dreamt, three days
-before his death, that he saw a fluttering bird;
-and afterwards, that a woman appeared to him in
-white apparel, and said to him, 'Prepare to die,
-you will not exist three days.' His Lordship was
-much alarmed, and called to a servant from a
-closet adjoining, who found him much agitated,
-and in a profuse perspiration: the circumstance
-had a considerable effect all the next day on his
-Lordship's spirits. On the third day, while his
-Lordship was at breakfast with the above personages,
-he said, 'If I live over to-night, I shall have
-jockied the ghost, for this is the third day.' The
-whole party presently set off for Pitt Place, where
-they had not long arrived before his Lordship was
-visited by one of his accustomed fits; after a short
-interval, he recovered. He dined at five o'clock<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
-that day, and went to bed at eleven, when his
-servant was about to give him rhubarb and mint-water;
-but his Lordship perceiving him stir it
-with a tooth-pick, called him a slovenly dog, and
-bade him go and fetch a tea-spoon; but on the
-man's return, he found his master in a fit, and the
-pillow being placed high, his chin bore hard upon
-his neck, when the servant, instead of relieving
-his Lordship on the instant from his perilous
-situation, ran in his fright and called out for help,
-but on his return he found his Lordship dead."</p>
-
-<p>The circumstances attending the apparition, as
-related by Lord Lyttleton, according to the statement
-of a relative of Lady Lyttleton's, were as
-follows:</p>
-
-<p>"Two nights before, on his retiring to bed, after
-his servant was dismissed and his light extinguished,
-he had heard a noise resembling the
-fluttering of a dove at his chamber window. This
-attracted his attention to the spot; when, looking
-in the direction of the sound, he saw the figure of
-an unhappy female whom he had seduced and deserted,
-and who, when deserted, had put a violent
-end to her own existence, standing in the aperture
-of the window from which the fluttering sound had
-proceeded. The form approached the foot of the
-bed, the room was preternaturally light, the objects
-of the chamber were distinctly visible; raising her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
-head and pointing to a dial which stood on the
-mantel-piece of the chimney, the figure, with a
-severe solemnity of voice and manner, announced
-to the appalled and conscience-stricken man that,
-at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation,
-his life and his sins would be concluded, and
-nothing but their punishment remain, if he availed
-himself not of the warning to repentance which he
-had received. The eye of Lord Lyttleton glanced
-upon the dial, the hand was upon the stroke of
-twelve; again the apartment was involved in total
-darkness, the warning spirit disappeared, and bore
-away at her departure all the lightness of heart
-and buoyancy of spirit, ready flow of wit, and
-vivacity of manner, which had formerly been the
-pride and ornament of the unhappy being to
-whom she had delivered her tremendous summons."</p>
-
-<p>From a passage in the Memoirs of Sir Nathanial
-Wraxall, it would seem that the sole authority for
-the above story was his Lordship's <i>valet-de-chambre</i>,
-for he writes:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Dining at Pitt Place, about four years after
-the death of Lord Lyttleton, in the year 1783, I
-had the curiosity to visit the bedchamber, where
-the casement-window, at which Lord Lyttleton
-asserted the dove appeared to flutter, was pointed
-out to me; and at his stepmother's, the Dowager<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
-Lady Lyttleton's, in Portugal Street, Grosvenor
-Square, I have frequently seen a painting, which she
-herself executed, in 1780, expressly to commemorate
-the event; it hung in a conspicuous part of
-her drawing-room. There the dove appears at the
-window, while a female figure, habited in white,
-stands at the foot of the bed, announcing to Lord
-Lyttleton his dissolution. Every part of the picture
-was faithfully designed, <i>after the description
-given to her by the valet-de-chambre who attended
-him, to whom his master related all the circumstances</i>."</p>
-
-<p>In addition it would appear, according to Lord
-Fortescue, that the only foundation upon which
-this story rests, is as follows:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"I heard Lord Fortescue once say," writes a
-friend of Sir Walter Scott, "that he was in the
-house with him (Lord Lyttleton) at the time of
-the supposed visitation, and he mentioned the
-following circumstances as the only foundation
-for the extraordinary superstructure at which the
-world has wondered:&mdash;A woman of the party had
-one day lost a favourite bird, and all the men
-tried to recover it for her. Soon after, on assembling
-at breakfast, Lord Lyttleton complained of
-having passed a very bad night, and having been
-worried in his dreams by a repetition of the chase
-of the lady's bird. His death followed, as stated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
-in the story."<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p>
-
-<p>It would seem highly probable, therefore, that
-this story has been framed much after the same
-fashion as that of the "three black crows," and
-the singular differences which we find in the
-versions we have given, fully confirm this view.</p>
-
-<p>Connected with the foregoing story is another
-of the apparition of Lord Lyttleton, on the night
-of his death, to Miles Peter Andrews, one of his
-most intimate friends. This apparition occurred
-at Dartford Mills, where Mr. Andrews was then
-staying, and doubtless, in its origin and mode of
-development, the story is in every respect similar
-to that of Lord Lyttleton's.</p>
-
-<p>The March number of "<i>Household Words</i>,"<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a>
-for 1853, contains a ghost-story which exhibits
-another form of the belief, differing from those
-which we have already dwelt upon, and it is
-interesting from its comparatively recent occurrence,
-and from its having to a certain extent
-received the confirmation of a law-court.</p>
-
-<p>In the colony of New South Wales, at a place
-called Penrith, distant from Sydney about thirty-seven
-miles, lived a farmer named Fisher. He
-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>was unmarried, about forty-five years old, and
-his lands and stock were worth not less than
-£4000. Suddenly Fisher disappeared, and a
-neighbour, named Smith, gave out that he
-had gone to England for two or three years, and
-produced a written document authorizing him to
-act as his agent during his absence. As Fisher
-was an eccentric man, this sudden departure did
-not create much surprise, and it was declared to
-be "exactly like him."</p>
-
-<p>About six months after Fisher's disappearance,
-an old man called Ben Weir, who had a
-small farm near Penrith, and who always drove
-his own cart to market, was returning from
-Sydney one night, when he beheld, seated on a
-rail which bounded the road&mdash;Fisher. <i>The night
-was very dark, and the distance of the fence from
-the middle of the road was at least twelve yards.</i>
-Weir, nevertheless, saw Fisher's figure seated on
-the rail. He pulled his old mare up, and called
-out, "Fisher, is that you?" No answer was
-returned, but there, still on the rail, sat the form
-of the man with whom he had been on the most
-intimate terms. Weir, who was not drunk,
-though he had had several glasses of strong
-liquor, jumped off his cart, and approached the
-rail. To his surprise, the form vanished.</p>
-
-<p>Weir noticed that the ghost was marked by "a
-cruel gash" on the forehead, and that there <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>was
-the appearance of fresh blood about it; and
-before leaving the spot, he marked it by breaking
-several branches of a sapling close by.</p>
-
-<p>On returning home he told his story to his
-wife, who, however, told him that he was drunk,
-and ridiculed him.</p>
-
-<p>On the following Thursday night, when old
-Ben was returning from market,&mdash;again in his
-cart,&mdash;he saw seated upon the same rail, the
-identical apparition. He had purposely abstained
-from drinking that day, and was in the full
-possession of all his senses.</p>
-
-<p>Weir again told his wife of the apparition, to
-be again ridiculed by her, and he remarked,
-"Smith is a bad un! Do you think Fisher
-would ever have left this country without coming
-to bid you and me good-bye?"</p>
-
-<p>The next morning Ben waited on a Mr.
-Grafton, a justice of the peace, who lived near to
-him, and told his tale. The magistrate was at first
-disposed to treat the account lightly, but after
-consideration, he summoned one of the aboriginal
-natives, and at sunrise met Weir at the place
-where the apparition had occurred, and which was
-sufficiently marked by the dead and broken
-branches of the sapling.</p>
-
-<p>The rail was found to be stained in several
-places, and the native, without any previou<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>s
-intimation of the object of the search, was
-directed to examine them, and he shortly pronounced
-them to be "<i>white man's blood</i>," and
-searching about, he pointed out a spot whereon a
-body had been laid. "Not a single shower of
-rain had fallen for several months previously,&mdash;not
-sufficient to lay even the dust upon the roads.
-Notwithstanding this, however, the native succeeded
-in tracking the footsteps of one man to
-the unfrequented side of a pond at some distance.
-He gave it as his opinion that another man had
-been dragged thither. The savage walked round
-and round the pond, eagerly examining its
-borders, and the sedges and weeds springing up
-around it. At first he seemed baffled,&mdash;no clue
-had been washed ashore to show that anything
-unusual had been sunk in the pond; but having
-finished this examination, he laid himself down
-on his face, and looked keenly along the surface
-of the smooth and stagnant water. Presently he
-jumped up, uttered a cry peculiar to the natives
-when gratified by finding some long-sought object,
-clapped his hands, and pointing to the middle of
-the pond, to where the decomposition of some
-sunken substance had produced a slimy coating
-streaked with prismatic colours, he exclaimed,
-'<i>White man's fat!</i>' The pond was immediately
-searched; and, below the spot indicated, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
-remains of a body were discovered. A large
-stone and a rotted silk handkerchief were found
-near the body; these had been used to sink it."</p>
-
-<p>By the teeth, and buttons upon the waistcoat, the
-body was identified as that of Fisher. Smith was
-arrested, and, upon this evidence, tried before the
-late Sir Francis Forbes, found guilty, sentenced to
-death, and hung; but previous to the execution,
-"he confessed that he, and he alone, committed
-the murder, and that it was upon the very rail
-where Weir swore that he had seen Fisher's
-ghost sitting, and that he had knocked out
-Fisher's brains with a tomahawk."</p>
-
-<p>We quote this story as an interesting example
-of one of the best and most consistent of the
-tales of this kind, although it is probable that a
-more thorough investigation of the circumstances
-connected with it, would show an origin of a
-nature similar to that of the "Last Hours of Lord
-Lyttleton."</p>
-
-<p>Several statements in the story require confirmation,
-and throw doubt upon the whole.</p>
-
-<p>The assertion that Weir, on a "very dark"
-night, saw seated upon a rail, at a distance of
-<i>twelve yards</i>, a resemblance of Fisher which he
-took to be real, and was not aware of the actual
-nature of the appearance until he advanced
-towards it, is a statement too improbable <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>to be
-worthy of credence unless supported by other
-and less objectionable evidence; and notwithstanding
-the extraordinary degree to which the
-visual and other senses of the aboriginal natives
-are, as we are aware, often developed, yet that
-they will enable them to state that an old blood-stain
-is produced by the blood of a white man,
-or that an iridescent scum floating at a distance
-on water is produced by the fat of the white man,
-are statements which cannot be admitted without
-strong confirmatory evidence.</p>
-
-<p>It not unfrequently happens that dreams appear
-to foreshadow events, the occurrence of
-which could not be anticipated by the reasoning
-faculties. Many of the instances recorded of this
-kind are after-conclusions founded upon imperfectly
-remembered dreams, and are consequently
-worthless. Such, for example, is the story stated
-by Mrs. Crowe of a gentleman "who has several
-times been conscious on awaking that he had
-been conversing with some one, whom he has
-been subsequently startled to hear had died at that
-period."<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a></p>
-
-<p>Other dreams have received a verification from
-the natural results of the dreamer's superstitious
-folly.</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Mrs. Crowe has quoted the following example
-from a continental newspaper:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"A letter from Hamburg contains the following
-curious story relative to the verification of a
-dream. It appears that a locksmith's apprentice,
-one morning lately, informed his master (Claude
-Soller), that on the previous night he dreamt that
-he had been assassinated on the road to Bergsdorff,
-a little town at about two hours' distance
-from Hamburg. The master laughed at the
-young man's credulity, and to prove that he
-himself had little faith in dreams, insisted upon
-sending him to Bergsdorff, with 140 rix dollars
-(£22 8<i>s.</i>), which he owed to his brother-in-law
-who resided in the town. The apprentice, after
-in vain imploring his master to change his intention,
-was compelled to set out at about eleven
-o'clock. On arriving at the village of Billwaerder,
-about halfway between Hamburg and Bergsdorff,
-he recollected his dream with terror but
-perceiving the baillie of the village at a little
-distance talking to some of his workmen, he
-accosted him, and acquainted him with his singular
-dream, at the same time requesting, that
-as he had money about his person, one of his
-workmen might be allowed to accompany him for
-protection across a small wood which lay in his
-way. The baillie smiled, and in obedience to
-his orders, one of the men set out with his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>young
-apprentice. The next day the corpse of the
-latter was conveyed by some peasants to the
-baillie, along with a reaping-hook, which had been
-found by his side, and with which the throat of
-the murdered youth had been cut. The baillie
-immediately recognized the instrument as one
-which he had on the previous day given to the
-workman who had served as the apprentice's
-guide, for the purpose of pruning some willows.
-The workman was apprehended, and on being
-confronted with the body of his victim, made a full
-confession of his crime, adding that the recital of
-the dream had alone prompted him to commit the
-horrible act. The assassin, who is thirty-five
-years of age, was a native of Billwaerder, and previously
-to the perpetration of the murder, had
-always borne an irreproachable character."</p>
-
-<p>It is well known that sensations from without
-will not only frequently excite dreaming, but will
-also often determine the character of the dreams.
-The following story is evidently an example of
-a dream of this nature.</p>
-
-<p>On the 30th July, 1853, the dead body of a
-young woman was discovered in a field at Littleport,
-in the Isle of Ely. There could be little
-doubt that the woman had been murdered; and
-at the adjourned inquest held before Mr. W.
-Marshall, one of the coroners for the isle,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> on the
-29th August, the following extraordinary evidence
-was given:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"James Jessop, an elderly respectable-looking
-labourer, with a face of the most perfect stolidity,
-and who possessed a most curiously shaped skull,
-broad and flat at the top, and projecting greatly
-on each side over the ears, deposed: 'I live about
-a furlong and a half from where the body was
-found. I have seen the body of the deceased.
-I had never seen her before her death. On the
-night of Friday, the 29th of July, I dreamt three
-successive times that I heard the cry of murder
-issuing from near the bottom of a close called
-Little Ditchment Close (the place where the body
-was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the
-cry, it woke me. I fell asleep again, and dreamt
-the same again. I then woke again, and told my
-wife. I could not rest; but I dreamt it again
-after that. I got up between four or five o'clock,
-but I did not go down to the Close, the wheat
-and barley in which have since been cut. I
-dreamt once, about twenty years ago, that I saw
-a woman hanging in a barn, and on passing the
-next morning the barn which appeared to me in
-my dream, I entered, and did find a woman there
-hanging, and cut her down just in time to save
-her life. I never told my wife I heard any cries
-of murder, but I have mentioned it to several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span>
-persons since. I saw the body on the Saturday
-it was found. I did not mention my dream to
-any one till a day or two after that. I saw the
-field distinctly in my dream, and the trees thereon,
-but I saw no person in it. On the night of
-the murder the wind lay from that spot to my
-house."</p>
-
-<p>"Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated
-that her husband related his dreams to her, on
-the evening of the day the body was found."<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a></p>
-
-<p>It is highly probable, that in this instance, the
-screams of the unfortunate woman, borne upon
-the wind, were the exciting cause of the dreams,
-and the direction from which the sound came
-would be sufficient to call up the associated idea
-of the fields in which the murder occurred. The
-powerful impression made upon the mind of the
-man, according to his own account, will sufficiently
-account for the repetition of the dreams;
-and the statement that the particulars of the
-dream were not related until after the finding of
-the body, must induce a little caution to the
-reception of the above version as an actual detail
-of the facts of the case. This remark applies
-also to the dream interpolated in the evidence.</p>
-
-<p>Among the most vivid and connected dreams,
-are those excited by a dominant or absorbing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
-train of thought, which has engaged the mind
-during waking hours, or by powerful or protracted
-emotion.</p>
-
-<p>M. Boismont relates a dream, which he conceives
-is to be classed among the inexplicable phenomena
-of this nature, but which, with all deference
-to that distinguished psychologist, is rather to be
-placed in the category we have just named.</p>
-
-<p>Miss R., gifted with an excellent judgment, and
-religious without bigotry, lived, before her marriage,
-at the house of an uncle, a celebrated
-physician, and a member of the Institute. She
-was at that time separated from her mother, who
-had been attacked, in the country, by a severe
-illness. One night, this young lady dreamed that
-she saw her mother before her, pale, disfigured,
-about to render the last breath, and showing particularly
-lively grief at not being surrounded by her
-children, of whom one, curé of one of the parishes
-in Paris, had emigrated to Spain, and the other was
-in Paris. Presently she heard her call upon her
-many times by her Christian name; whereupon
-the persons who surrounded her mother, supposing
-that she called her grand-daughter, who bore the
-same name, went to seek her in the neighbouring
-room, but a sign from the invalid apprised them
-that it was not the grand-daughter, but the
-daughter who resided in Paris, that she wis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>hed to
-see. Her appearance expressed the grief she felt
-at her absence; suddenly her features changed,
-became covered with the paleness of death, and
-she fell without life on the bed.</p>
-
-<p>The lady had died during that night; and it was
-subsequently ascertained, that the circumstances
-delineated in the dream, simulated those which
-had occurred by the death-bed.</p>
-
-<p>What are the circumstances of this case?&mdash;A
-mother dangerously ill&mdash;her children away from
-home. What more likely to occur to a child cognisant
-of these facts, than the train of thought
-which engendered and caused this dream? The
-events attending a death-bed scene under such
-circumstances were all but inevitable, and we
-cannot, justifiably, consider this case in any
-other light than that of a "simple coincidence."</p>
-
-<p>Many physiologists and metaphysicians are of
-opinion, and there is much ground for the belief,
-that every sensation which has been actually experienced,
-may become the subject of perception
-at some future time, although, in the interval, all
-trace of its existence may have been lost, and it
-is beyond the power of the will to recall.</p>
-
-<p>The phenomena upon which this opinion has
-been principally founded, have been observed in
-the delirium of certain febrile diseases, and i<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>n
-dreaming.</p>
-
-<p>There is a case on record of a woman, who,
-during the delirium of fever, repeated long
-passages in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongues.
-When in health she was perfectly ignorant of
-these languages; and it was ascertained, that the
-sentences she spoke in her delirium, were correct
-passages from known writers in them. It was
-subsequently discovered, that at one period of
-her life she had lived with a clergyman who was
-in the habit of walking up and down the passage,
-reading aloud from Hebrew and Chaldaic works,
-and it was the sensations thus derived, and
-retained unconsciously to herself, which had been
-revivified by the changes induced during the progress
-of the fever.</p>
-
-<p>A case is also recorded by Dr. Abercrombie, in
-which a servant-girl who had manifested no "ear"
-for, or pleasure in music, during sleep was heard to
-imitate the sounds of a violin, even the tuning,
-and to perform most complicated and difficult
-pieces of music. This girl had slept for some
-time, and much to her annoyance, in a room
-adjoining that occupied by an itinerant violinist
-who was somewhat of an enthusiast in his art,
-and was accustomed to spend a portion of the
-night in practising difficult pieces of music, often
-preventing this female from sleeping. The music<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
-she had thus heard, registered in the mind, so to
-speak, was repeated, unconsciously, during the
-disturbed action of the brain consequent upon
-imperfect health and dreaming.</p>
-
-<p>The principle which has been deduced from
-these and similar cases, gives a ready explanation
-to numerous stories which it has been customary
-to regard as coming within the pale of the
-supernatural.</p>
-
-<p>Those instances in which, during a dream, the
-places in which documents of value, which had
-been lost or misplaced, have been revealed, are
-examples of revivified sensations which had been
-lost sight of, and of which the return had been
-determined by the protracted exercise of the mind
-to recover the missing traces.</p>
-
-<p>Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to "The Antiquary,"
-relates the following highly interesting
-illustration:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"Mr. R&mdash;&mdash;d, of Bowland, a gentleman of
-landed property in the vale of Gala, was prosecuted
-for a very considerable sum, the accumulated
-arrears of tiend (or tithe), for which he was
-said to be indebted to a noble family, the titulars
-(lay improprietors of the tithes). Mr. R&mdash;&mdash;d
-was strongly impressed with the belief, that his
-father had, by a form of process peculiar to the
-law of Scotland, purchased those lands from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
-titular; and therefore, that the present prosecution
-was groundless. But after an industrious
-search among his father's papers, an investigation
-of the public records, and a careful inquiry among
-all persons who had transacted law business for
-his father, no evidence could be recovered to
-support his defence. The period was now near at
-hand, when he conceived the loss of the lawsuit to
-be inevitable, and he had formed his determination
-to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the
-best bargain he could in the way of compromise.
-He even went to bed with this resolution, and
-with all the circumstances of the case floating
-upon his mind, had a dream to the following
-purpose.</p>
-
-<p>"His father, who had been many years dead,
-appeared to him, he thought, and asked him why
-he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams men
-are not supprised at such apparitions. Mr.
-R&mdash;&mdash;d thought he informed his father of the
-cause of his distress, adding, that the payment of
-a considerable sum of money was the more unpleasant
-to him, because he had a strong consciousness
-that it was not due, though he was unable
-to acquire any evidence in support of his belief.
-'You are right, my son,' replied the paternal
-shade; 'I did acquire right to these tiends, for
-payment of which you are now prosecuted. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
-papers relating to the transaction are in the hands
-of Mr. &mdash;&mdash;, a writer (or attorney), who is now
-retired from professional business, and resides at
-Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He was a person
-whom I employed on that occasion for a particular
-reason, but who never, on any other occasion,
-transacted business on my account. It is very
-possible,' pursued the vision, 'that Mr. &mdash;&mdash;
-may have forgotten a matter which is now of a very
-old date; but you may call it to his recollection
-by this token,&mdash;that when I came to pay his
-account, there was difficulty in getting change for
-a Portugal piece of gold, and that we were forced
-to drink out the balance at a tavern.'</p>
-
-<p>"Mr. R&mdash;&mdash;d awoke in the morning with all
-the words of the vision imprinted on his mind,
-and thought it worth while to ride across the
-country to Inveresk, instead of going straight to
-Edinburgh. When he came there, he waited on
-the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very old
-man; without saying anything of the vision, he
-inquired whether he remembered having conducted
-such a matter for his deceased father. The
-old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance
-to his recollection, but on mention of
-the Portugal piece of gold, the whole returned upon
-his memory; he made an immediate search for
-the papers, and recovered them; so that Mr.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
-R&mdash;&mdash;d carried to Edinburgh the documents
-necessary to gain the cause which he was on the
-verge of losing.</p>
-
-<p>"The author's theory is, that the dream was
-only the recapitulation of information which Mr.
-R&mdash;&mdash;d had really received from his father while
-in life, but which at first he merely recalled as a
-general impression that the claim was settled. It
-is not uncommon for persons to recover, during
-sleep, the thread of ideas which they have lost
-during waking hours.</p>
-
-<p>"It may be added, that this remarkable circumstance
-was attended with bad consequences to
-Mr. R&mdash;&mdash;d, whose health and spirits were afterwards
-impaired by the attention which he thought
-himself obliged to pay to the visions of the
-night."</p>
-
-<p>An instance which is related by Mrs. Crowe,
-receives its explanation also from this source.</p>
-
-<p>"A case occurred not many years since in the
-North of Scotland, where a murder having been
-committed, a man came forward, saying, that he
-had dreamt that the pack of the murdered pedlar
-was hidden in a certain spot; whereon, a search
-being made, it was actually found. They at first
-concluded he was himself the assassin, but the
-real criminal was afterwards discovered; and it
-being asserted, though I have been told erroneo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>usly,
-that the two men had passed some time
-together, since the murder, in a state of intoxication,
-it was decided that the crime, and the place
-of concealment, had been communicated to the
-pretended dreamer," &amp;c.</p>
-
-<p>If the statement that the murderer and the
-dreamer had spent some time together in a state
-of intoxication, after the murder had been committed,
-be correct, the supposition that the
-murder had been communicated to the dreamer,
-forgotten when the state of intoxication had
-passed away, but subsequently recalled during the
-progress of a dream, affords an easy and natural
-explanation of the whole matter.</p>
-
-<p>As an example of that class of dreams which
-are inexplicable, but which, unfortunately, are of
-little weight from the imperfect authority upon
-which they are given, and from the fact that they
-bear intrinsic evidence of having been received
-without inquiry into the circumstances under
-which they occurred, and the fallacies to which
-the dreamer and subsequent details had been
-exposed, we quote the following from the works
-of the Rev. John Wesley.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p>
-
-<p>"Among the congregation at Ambleside were
-a gentleman and his wife, who gave me a remarkable
-relation. She said she had often heard her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
-brother relate, what an intimate acquaintance had
-told her, that her husband was concerned in the
-rebellion of 1745. He was tried at Carlisle, and
-found guilty. The evening before he was to die,
-sitting and musing in her chair, she fell fast asleep.
-She dreamed one came to her and said, 'Go to
-such a part of the wall, and among the loose
-stones you will find a key, which you must carry
-to your husband.' She waked; but thinking it
-a common dream, paid no attention to it. Presently
-she fell asleep again, and dreamed the very
-same dream. She started up, put on her cloak
-and hat, and went to that part of the wall, and
-among the loose stones found a key. Having,
-with some difficulty, procured admission into the
-gaol, she gave this to her husband. It opened
-the door of his cell, as well as the lock of the
-prison door.(!) So at midnight he escaped for
-life."</p>
-
-<p>It is not uncommon to find persons asserting
-that they have had dreams which have prefigured
-events, often trivial, in the common run of life.</p>
-
-<p>Probably, without exception, these are irrelevant
-conclusions: the affirmative instances being
-marked, to the total neglect of the negative. For
-example:&mdash;A lady with whom we are acquainted
-was accustomed to relate a dream which she had
-had, in which she thought that she was in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span>
-nursery watching one of her children play, when
-suddenly it tripped over the fender, and fell against
-the ribs of the grate, and before it could be extricated,
-the face was severely burned. On the following
-day the child she had seen in her dream,
-happened to have an accident in the nursery very
-similar to that she had seen occur in the dream.</p>
-
-<p>On inquiry, however, it proved that dreams of
-this nature respecting her children were quite
-usual to the lady, and that at one time or other
-she had witnessed while sleeping almost all those
-accidents occur to which infant life is exposed.
-This was the only instance in which any one had
-apparently come true; and <i>until</i> this had occurred
-she had very properly and correctly attributed her
-dreams to the anxiety she naturally entertained
-respecting her young family.</p>
-
-<p>Of all the divisions, or rather branches, of
-supernatural lore, none has obtained more universal
-credence, none has been more persistent,
-than that of <i>presentiments</i>.</p>
-
-<p>A history of <i>presentiments</i> would form a curious,
-if not very instructive work, and it alone would
-almost suffice to indicate the absurdity of the
-belief in its main features.</p>
-
-<p>We have instances of <i>high spirits</i> foreboding
-evil; <i>low spirits</i> foreboding the same; <i>sudden
-illness</i> shadowing forth calamity, <i>not</i> to the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>person
-affected, but to a companion; <i>sudden dullness of
-sight</i> presaging death&mdash;indeed a collection of these
-instances would show that every obscure sensation,
-every variation of emotion or passion, preceding
-an evil occurrence, has at one time or other been
-regarded as a presentiment of that evil.</p>
-
-<p>Jung-Stilling has so well described the nature
-of the faculty of presentiment, and the circumstances
-under which it is most commonly developed,
-that we cannot do better than quote the
-words of that celebrated writer on this subject.
-He writes:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"As the developed faculty of presentiment is a
-capability of experiencing the arrangements which
-are made in the world of spirits, and executed in
-the visible world, second-sight certainly belongs
-also under this head. And as those who possess
-this capability are generally simple people, it
-again follows from hence, that a developed faculty
-of presentiment is by no means a quality which
-belongs solely to devout and pious people, or that
-it should be regarded as a divine gift; I take it,
-on the contrary, for a disease of the soul, which
-we ought rather to endeavour to heal than promote.</p>
-
-<p>"He that has a natural disposition for it, and
-then fixes his imagination long and intensely, and
-therefore <i>magically</i>, upon a certain object, may at
-length be able, with respect to this object, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
-foresee things which have reference to it. Grave-diggers,
-nurses, and such as are employed to
-undress and shroud the dead, watchmen, and the
-like, are accustomed to be continually reflecting
-on objects which stand in connexion with death
-and interment; what wonder, therefore, if their
-faculty of presentiment at length develop itself
-on these subjects; and I am inclined to maintain,
-that it may be promoted by drinking ardent
-spirits."<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p>
-
-<p>In addition to this, Mrs. Crowe remarks:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"It is worthy of observation that idiots often possess
-some gleams of this faculty of second-sight or
-presentiment; and it is probably on this account
-that they are in some countries held sacred.
-Presentiment, which I think may very probably
-be merely the vague and imperfect recollection of
-what we <i>knew</i> in our sleep, is often observed in
-drunken people."<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p>
-
-<p>Cicero,<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> after relating the myth of the apparition
-of Tages, in Etruria, adds:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"But I should indeed be more foolish than
-they who credit these things, if I seriously argue
-the matter."</p>
-
-<p>Equally foolish it would be for us to attempt to
-show the absurdity of the foregoing opini<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>ons; and
-we fear it would be a bootless and inutile task to
-argue with those who regard the statements of
-the studiously and transcendentally superstitious
-and ignorant, the incoherence of the drunkard,
-the depressed feelings experienced after a debauch,
-or the vague gleams of understanding in
-an idiot, as evidences of communication with the
-spirit-world.</p>
-
-<p>We know two ladies gifted with the faculty of
-ordinary presentiment, and who boast (if we may
-use that expression) that they are members of a
-family of which no scion has died for years
-without some supernatural indication of its occurrence.
-We well remember <i>after</i> the information
-had been received by them of the death of the
-last male representative of one branch of the
-family, that they told how on the night of the
-death they happened to be awake in bed, when
-certain strange noises were heard about the bed-curtains,
-"as of a mouse" scrambling upon
-them, and immediately afterwards a blow was
-struck upon a large chest of drawers which stood
-opposite the foot of the bed, and the sound was
-as though the chest had been broken to pieces.
-We did not draw the inference which the ladies
-did from this circumstance, namely, that it was an
-intimation of the death of their relative, for, unfortunately
-for the romantic view of the question,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
-we knew that such nightly occurrences as these
-were somewhat common with them, and that a
-simple and comfortable house in a densely-populated
-manufacturing district had been peopled
-by them with nightly noises and sounds, audible
-alone to them, to such an extent, that the adaptation
-of a presentiment to any particular occurrence
-was a matter of little difficulty.</p>
-
-<p>We also well remember, some years ago, when
-an infant brother lay dying, that our mother and
-the nurse were startled in the dead of night
-by a strange fluttering at the window. On the
-curtain being raised, the light of the candle showed
-a bird fluttering and beating against one of the
-panes. Was it an omen of death, and an emblem
-of the happy transition of the baby-spirit to
-another world? A few moments' examination
-soon showed that it was no spectre bird, but
-apparently a robin, which had been disturbed in
-the darkness, and was attracted by the light, and
-no sooner was the window darkened than it flew
-away.</p>
-
-<p>Three days ago, we saw a woman who had been
-for some months in a delicate state of health.
-"Sir," she said, "what I have most to complain
-of is, that I always feel as if some great evil was
-about to befall myself or family." This feeling is
-common, in a greater or less degree, to that depre<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>ssed
-state of the system preceding attacks of
-febrile and many other diseases, and is often
-marked in hypocondriacism. Who, when suffering
-from slight indisposition, has not often felt this
-feeling of foreboding, of which the lowest grade is
-expressed in the ordinary phrase, low-spirits?
-This feeling, and thus derived, has been the substratum
-for those vague, so-called presentiments,
-which constitute the great bulk of instances in that
-doctrine; and the fallacy has been, that the mind,
-more readily affected by affirmative than by negative
-examples, has held to the former and
-neglected the latter, and deluded itself by an
-imperfect and too contracted view of the facts.</p>
-
-<p>Boismont, the most recent writer on the doctrine
-of presentiments, writes:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"In the greatest number of cases, they are not
-realised; in those where the event justifies them,
-they are only a reminiscence&mdash;a simple coincidence;&mdash;we
-admit all this. It is not the less true,
-that an unforeseen event, a strong prepossession,
-great restlessness, a sudden change in habits, any
-fear whatsoever, gives rise, at the moment, to presentiments
-which it would be difficult to deny by
-systematic credulity."<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a></p>
-
-<p>Let us examine one or two of the cases which
-would lead so distinguished a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>psychologist to give
-a certain degree of credence to this belief.</p>
-
-<p>The Prince de Radzvil had adopted one of his
-nieces, an orphan. He inhabited a château in
-Gallicia, and this château had a large hall which
-separated the apartments of the Prince from those
-occupied by the children, and in order to communicate
-between the two suites of rooms it was
-necessary either to traverse the hall or the court.</p>
-
-<p>The young Agnes, aged from five to six years,
-always uttered piercing cries every time that they
-caused her to traverse the great hall. She indicated,
-with an expression of terror, an enormous
-picture which was suspended above the door, and
-which represented the Sibyl of Cuma. They
-endeavoured for a length of time to vanquish this
-repugnance, which they attributed to infant obstinacy;
-but as serious accidents happened from this
-violence, they ended by permitting her no more to
-enter the hall; and the young girl loved better,
-during ten or twelve years, to traverse in rain,
-snow, or cold, the vast court or the gardens, rather
-than pass under this door, which made so disagreeable
-an impression upon her.</p>
-
-<p>The young Countess being of age to marry, and
-already betrothed, there was a reception at the
-château. The company, in the evening, wished
-to have some noisy game; they went into the
-great hall, where, moreover, the nuptial ball would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
-be held. Animated by the young people who
-surrounded her, Agnes did not hesitate to accompany
-the guests. But scarcely had she crossed
-the threshold of the door, than she wished to
-draw back, and she avowed her fear. They had
-caused her to pass first, according to custom,
-her betrothed, friends, and uncle, laughing at
-her childishness, closing the doors upon her. But
-the poor young girl wished to resist; and in
-shaking and beating the door, caused the picture
-to fall which was above it. This enormous mass
-bruised the head by one of its corners, and killed
-her immediately.</p>
-
-<p>The scene of this story is an old castle in Gallicia,
-doubtless, like all similar places, having
-attached to it many strange and wonderful legends,
-and many servants fully imbued with these legends,
-and with all the folk-lore which a district like Gallicia
-contains. We have no information as to what
-amount of this lore the nurse indoctrinated into
-the child, or what use she may have made of the
-painting in order to terrify her little charge into
-submission from time to time. That an inquiry,
-special and distinct, upon this point was necessary
-ere the main point of the story could be substantiated,
-is evident; for the establishment of this
-influence would at once destroy the presentiment
-sought to be established; and to suppose that th<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>e
-child was brought up without its mind being so
-poisoned, is to suppose a phenomenon uniquely
-rare. Again, the painting was a representation of
-the Sibyl of Cuma. In her early days, says classic
-history, this Sibyl was lovely; but after her short-sighted
-bargain with Apollo for a life as long in
-years as the number of grains of sand she held in
-her hand, forgetting to add the request for perennial
-beauty also, she shortly became old and
-decrepid, her form decayed, her countenance melancholy
-and pale, and her looks haggard; and it
-is as thus described, that we are generally accustomed
-to see her pourtrayed. But we are left in
-the dark as to whether the painting in question
-represented the Sibyl in early youth, in her
-decrepid maturity, or at the moment of inspiration,
-when, according to the Æneis (Book vi),&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"Her colour changed; her face was not the same,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Her hair stood up, convulsive rage possess'd<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Her trembling limbs, and heaved her labouring breast.<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Greater than human kind she seem'd to look,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">And with an accent more than mortal spoke,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">When all the god came rushing on her soul."<br /></span>
-</div></div>
-
-<p>That the painting must have depicted the Sibyl
-in one of the two latter characters is almost certain,
-for in any other it would have been meaningless;
-and leaving the question of the extent to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
-which her mind might be poisoned by folk-lore,
-or by the servants making the painting a bugbear
-to her,&mdash;leaving this in abeyance, what must the
-effect of a frightful-looking and gigantic picture,
-staring the child in the face, have been upon a
-young mind? Little doubt need be entertained
-of the feeling of terror with which an infant eye
-would regard it, and we have already shown how
-such a feeling, being implanted there, would
-become a part and parcel of its nature, and be
-never subsequently eradicated.</p>
-
-<p>We see this feeling manifested every day in the
-aversion which some individuals manifest to certain
-animals. From emotions taught during childhood
-and youth, and often lost sight of in mature
-years, a cat, a dog, a rat, a spider, a frog, &amp;c., has
-become an object of such dread to some persons,
-that even in advanced life the presence of one has
-caused the utmost annoyance and terror.</p>
-
-<p>The powerful and persistent influence of ideas
-thus associated has been clearly and pithily expressed
-by Locke,<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> and his first instance has an
-immediate bearing upon our subject:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"The ideas of goblins and sprights have really
-no more to do with darkness than light, yet let
-but a foolish maid inculcate these often on the
-mind of a child, and raise them there together,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
-probably he shall never be able to separate them
-again so long as he lives, but darkness shall ever
-afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and
-they shall be so joined that he can no more bear
-the one than the other."</p>
-
-<p>That the fall of the painting was caused by the
-vibrations occasioned by shaking and beating upon
-the door beneath it, seems certain; but that there
-was any <i>presentimental</i> connection (if we may
-so word it) between the fall of the painting and
-the previous dread of it,&mdash;any foreshadowing in
-this dread of the subsequent fall and its fatal
-consequences,&mdash;there is no satisfactory evidence
-whatever.</p>
-
-<p>Another example of presentiment, quoted by
-Boismont, is the following:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>Two French gentlemen, refugees, who resided
-together in New York on terms of great amity,
-freighted a ship for India. Everything was prepared
-for their departure, and they waited only a
-favourable wind. One of them, B&mdash;&mdash;, of a calm
-and placid temperament, apparently excited by the
-uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began
-to manifest a degree of restlessness which surprised
-his companion. One day he entered the apartment
-where his friend was engaged in writing
-letters for Europe, and under the influence of an
-excitement so great that he had difficulty to sup<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>press
-it, he exclaimed: "Why lose time in writing
-letters?&mdash;they will never go to their destination.
-Come with me and take a turn on the Battery.
-The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps,
-nearer the point of departure than we suppose!"
-Acceding to the request, his friend accompanied
-him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he
-was astonished at the rapid and excited manner in
-which B&mdash;&mdash; walked. On reaching the Battery,
-B&mdash;&mdash; precipitated his rate of walking still more,
-until they approached the parapet. He spoke in
-a high and quick tone, expressing in florid terms
-his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he
-arrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend
-separated from him. "I regarded him fixedly,"
-to continue the narrative in the words of the narrator;
-"he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down.
-'B&mdash;&mdash;,' I cried, 'you intend to kill
-me, you wish to throw me from this height into
-the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The
-madman looked me in the face with haggard eyes
-for a moment, but I was careful not to lose his
-glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured
-some incoherent words, and sought to pass by
-me. I barred the way, extending my arms.
-After looking vaguely right and left, he threw
-himself on my neck, and melted into tears. 'It
-is true, it is true, my friend! The thought ha<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>s
-haunted me night and day, as a torch of hell. It
-was for this end that I brought you here; had you
-been but a foot from the border of the parapet,
-the work had been done.' The demon had abandoned
-him, his eyes were without expression, a
-foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was
-passed. I reconducted him to the house. Some
-days of repose, together with bleeding and low
-diet, re-established him completely; and what is
-still more extraordinary, we never more spoke of
-this event."</p>
-
-<p>Are we, with Boismont, to regard this as an
-example of "sudden and mysterious inspiration?"
-Would it not have been still more mysterious if a
-minute examination of the countenance of a
-madman, who was talking incoherently near the
-verge of a precipitous descent, and big with intent
-to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his
-purpose? We think it would, and that there is
-no evidence here of anything beyond the pale of
-the laws of common observation.</p>
-
-<p>It would be needless to multiply instances of
-presentiment which have carried conviction to the
-minds of persons less accustomed to analyze the
-operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont,
-and in whom errors of observation are
-infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless there
-are instances on record which, if the authority<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
-upon which they are stated be admitted, receive
-no explanation from natural laws so far as we are
-yet acquainted with them.</p>
-
-<p>One of the best and most striking examples of
-this kind is given on the authority of Mrs.
-Crowe.</p>
-
-<p>She writes:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment
-I know, is that which occurred not very
-long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships,
-when lying off Portsmouth. The officers being
-one day at the mess-table, a young Lieutenant
-P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork,
-pushed away his plate, and turned extremely pale.
-He then rose from the table, covering his face
-with his hands, and retired from the room. The
-president of the mess, supposing him to be ill,
-sent one of the young men to inquire what was
-the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to speak,
-but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had
-been seized by a sudden and irresistible impression
-that a brother he had then in India was dead.
-'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at
-six o'clock; I am perfectly certain of it!' No
-argument could overthrow this conviction, which
-in due course of post was verified to the letter.
-The young man had died at Cawnpore, at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
-precise period mentioned."<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p>
-
-<p>A singular story is also related of the early days
-of the Empress Josephine, which may fitly be
-detailed here.</p>
-
-<p>"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir
-Archibald Alison, "and it had early been prophesied
-by an old negress that she should lose her
-first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that
-she should afterwards be greater than a queen.
-This prophecy, the authenticity of which is placed
-beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular
-manner. Her first husband, Count Alexander
-Beauharnais, a general in the army on the Rhine,
-had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror,
-solely on account of his belonging to the nobility;
-and she herself, who was also imprisoned at the
-same time, was only saved from impending death
-by the fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the
-prophecy impressed on her mind, that while lying
-in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting
-every hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary
-Tribunal, she mentioned it to her fellow-prisoners,
-and, to amuse them, named some of them as
-ladies of the bed-chamber,&mdash;a jest which she
-afterwards lived to realise to one of their number."</p>
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span></p>
-
-<p>Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note
-in confirmation of the prophecy:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long
-before Napoleon's elevation to the throne, from
-the late Countess of Bath and the late Countess
-of Ancrum, who were educated in the same
-convent with Josephine, and had repeatedly heard
-her mention the circumstance in early youth."<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p>
-
-<p>The most grave of the errors affecting the
-details of those occurrences which have been
-supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some
-inexplicable and supernatural connection with
-certain circumstances occurring coincidently with
-them, has been fully set forth by Lord Bacon,
-in the 46th Aphorism of the "Novum Organum,"
-and to this <i>dictum</i> nothing needs to be added.</p>
-
-<p>"The human understanding, when any proposition
-has been once laid down (either from general
-admission and belief, or from the pleasure it
-affords) forces everything else to add fresh support
-and confirmation, and although most cogent
-and abundant instances may exist to the contrary,
-yet either does not observe, or despises them, or
-gets rid of and rejects them by some distinction,
-with violent and injurious prejudice, rather than
-sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions. It
-was well answered by him who was shown in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
-temple the votive tablets suspended by such as
-had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was
-pressed as to whether he would then recognise
-the power of the gods, by an inquiry, "But
-where are the portraits of those who have
-perished in spite of their vows?" All superstition
-is much the same, whether it be that of astrology,
-dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the
-like; in all of which the deluded believers observe
-events which are fulfilled, but neglect and
-pass over their failure, though it be much more
-common.... Besides, even in the absence
-of that eagerness and want of thought (which we
-have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual
-error of the human understanding to be more
-moved and excited by affirmatives than negatives,
-whereas it ought duly and regularly to be impartial;
-nay, in establishing any true axiom, the
-negative instance is the most powerful."</p>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<p>We have now briefly examined the principal of
-those phenomena which it has been, and in many
-instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural
-interposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain
-how far they receive explanation from the
-known laws of action of the senses and reasoning
-faculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion
-that they mainly come within the category<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
-of those laws.</p>
-
-<p>Of the exceptions to this conclusion, it is
-unfortunate that the authority upon which they
-depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the details
-imperfect in many of the most important particulars;
-and they, to use the words of Mrs. Crowe,
-(whose evidence in this respect is of considerable
-importance), "as they now stand, can have no
-scientific value; they cannot, in short, enter into
-the region of science at all, still less into that of
-philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be
-led to form, cannot be founded on pure induction.
-We must confine ourselves wholly within the
-region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we
-shall assuredly founder."<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p>
-
-<p>We are not aware that this imperfection of
-details necessarily appertains to facts of this
-nature, and we simply require the same care
-against error which is expected and is exercised
-in other departments of inquiry; and until the
-instances presented bear evidence of this, we
-must entertain doubts, and decline to receive
-them as facts establishing such theories as have
-been endeavoured to be founded upon them.</p>
-
-<p>The great progress of physiology and psychology
-is almost daily enabling us to grapple with
-sensuous phenomena which have <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span>hitherto been
-obscure; and it is never to be lost sight of in
-researches into the domains of the so-called
-supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of
-our own powers is as yet very imperfect and
-limited.</p>
-
-<hr class="chap" />
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></p>
-
-<h2>APPENDIX.</h2>
-
-<hr class="r10" />
-
-<h3><span class="smcap">Extracts from Professor Faraday's Letter
-on Table Moving.</span></h3>
-
-<h4><i>AthenÊum, July 2, 1853, p. 801.</i></h4>
-
-<p>"The object which I had in view in my inquiry
-was, not to satisfy myself, for my conclusion had
-been formed already on the evidence of those who
-had turned tables,&mdash;but that I might be enabled
-to give a strong opinion, founded on facts, to the
-many who applied to me for it. Yet the proof
-which I sought for, and the method followed in
-the inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as
-those which I should adopt in any other physical
-investigation. The parties with whom I have
-worked were very honourable, very clear in their
-intentions, successful table-movers, very desirous
-of succeeding in establishing the existence of a
-peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very
-effectual. It is with me a clear point that the
-table moves when the parties, though they strongly
-wish it, do not intend, and do not believe, that
-they move it by ordinary mechanical power. They
-say, the table draws their hands; that it moves
-first, and they have to follow it; that sometim<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>es it
-even moves from under their hands. With some,
-the table will move to the right or left, according
-as they wish or will it; with others, the direction
-of the first move is uncertain;&mdash;but all agree that
-the table moves the hands, and not the hands the
-table. Though I believe the parties do not
-intend to move the table, but obtain the result by
-a quasi-involuntary action, still I had no doubt
-of the influence of expectation upon their minds,
-and, through that, upon the success or failure of
-their efforts.</p>
-
-<p>"The first point, therefore, was to remove all
-objections due to expectation&mdash;having relation to
-the substances which I might desire to use; so,
-plates of the most different bodies, electrically
-speaking, namely, sand-paper, mill-board, glue,
-glass, moist clay, tinfoil, card-board, gutta percha,
-vulcanized rubber, wood, &amp;c., were made into a
-bundle, and placed on a table, under the hands of
-a turner. The table turned. Other bundles of
-other plates were submitted to different persons
-at other times,&mdash;and the tables turned.
-Henceforth, therefore, these substances may
-be used in the construction of apparatus.
-Neither during their use, nor at any other
-times, could the slightest trace of electrical or
-magnetic effects be obtained. At the same trials,
-it was readily ascertained that one person could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
-produce the effect; and that the motion was not
-necessarily circular, but might be in a straight
-line. No form of experiment or mode of observation
-that I could devise gave me the slightest indication
-of any peculiar natural force. No attraction
-or repulsion, or signs of tangential power
-appeared; nor anything which could be referred to
-other than the mere mechanical pressure exerted
-inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded
-to analyze this pressure, or that part of it
-exerted in a horizontal direction; doing so, in
-the first instance, unawares to the party. A
-soft cement, consisting of wax and turpentine,
-or wax and pomatum, was prepared. Four
-or five pieces of smooth slippery card-board
-were attached one over the other by little
-pellets of the cement, and the lower of these to
-a piece of sand-paper resting on the table; the
-edges of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on
-the under surface a pencil line was drawn over
-the laps, so as to indicate position. The upper
-card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover
-the whole from sight. Then the table-turner
-placed the hands upon the upper card, and we
-waited for the result. Now, the cement was
-strong enough to offer considerable resistence to
-mechanical motion, and also to retain the cards in
-any new position which they might acquire, and yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>
-weak enough to give way slowly to a continued force.</p>
-
-<p>"When at last the tables, cards, and hands, all
-moved to the left together, and so a true result
-was obtained, I took up the pack. On examination,
-it was easy to see by the displacement of
-the parts of the line, that the hand had moved
-further than the table, and that the latter had
-lagged behind;&mdash;that the hand, in fact, had
-pushed the upper card to the left, and that the
-under cards and the table had followed and been
-dragged by it. In other similar cases, when the
-table had not moved, still the upper card was
-found to have moved, showing that the hand had
-carried it in the expected direction. It was evident,
-therefore, that the table had not drawn the
-hand and person round, nor had it moved simultaneously
-with the hand. The hand had left all
-things under it, behind, and the table evidently
-tended continually to keep the hand back.</p>
-
-<p>"The next step was, to arrange an index, which
-should show whether the table moved first, or the
-hand moved before the table, or both moved or
-remained at rest together.... Two thin
-boards, nine and a-half by seven inches, were provided;
-a board, nine by five inches, was glued to
-the middle of the under side of one of these (to
-be called the table-board), so as to raise the edges
-free from the table; being placed on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
-table, near and parallel to its side, an upright
-pin was fixed close to the further edge of the
-board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum
-for the indicating lever. Then, four glass rods,
-seven inches long, and a quarter of an inch in
-diameter, were placed as rollers on different parts
-of this table-board, and the upper board placed on
-them; the rods permitted any required amount of
-pressure on the boards, with a free motion of the
-upper on the lower to the right and left. At the
-part corresponding to the pin in the lower board,
-a piece was cut out of the upper board, and a pin
-attached there, which, being bent downwards,
-entered the hole in the end of the short arm of
-the index lever: this part of the lever was of card-board:
-the indicating prolongation was a straight
-hay-stalk fifteen inches long. In order to restrain
-the motion of the upper board on the lower, two
-vulcanized rubber rings were passed round both,
-at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst
-they tied the boards together, acted also as springs&mdash;and
-whilst they allowed the first, feeblest
-tendency to motion to be seen by the index,
-exerted, before the upper board had moved a
-quarter of an inch, sufficient power in pulling the
-upper board back from either side, to resist a
-strong lateral action of the hand.</p>
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span></p>
-<p>"All being thus arranged, except that the lever
-was away, the two boards were tied together with
-string running parallel to the vulcanised rubber
-springs, so as to be immoveable in relation to
-each other. They were then placed on the table,
-and a table-turner sat down to them. The table
-very shortly moved in due order, showing that the
-apparatus offered no impediment to the action.
-A like apparatus, with metal rollers, produced the
-same result under the hands of another person.
-The index was now put into its place, and the
-string loosened, so that the springs should come
-into play. It was soon seen with the party that
-could will the motion in either direction (from
-whom the index was purposely hidden), that the
-hands were gradually creeping up in the direction
-before agreed upon, though the party certainly
-thought they were pressing downwards only.
-When shown that it was so, they were truly
-surprised; but when they lifted up their hands
-and immediately saw the index return to its normal
-position, they were convinced. When they looked
-at the index, and could see for themselves whether
-they were pressing truly downwards, or obliquely,
-so as to produce a resultant in the right or left
-handed direction, then such an effect never took
-place. Several tried, for a long while together,
-and with the best will in the world, but no
-motion, right or left, of the table or hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>, or
-anything else, occurred.</p>
-
-<p>"I think the apparatus I have described may
-be useful to many who really wish to know the
-truth of nature, and who would prefer that truth
-to a mistaken conclusion, desired perhaps only
-because it seems to be new or strange. Persons
-do not know how difficult it is to press directly
-downward, or in any given direction against a fixed
-obstacle, or even to know only whether they are
-doing so or not, unless they have some indicator
-which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall
-instruct them; and this is more especially the
-case when the muscles of the fingers and hand
-have been cramped and rendered either tingling
-or insensible or cold by long-continued pressure.
-If a finger be pressed constantly into the corner
-of a window-frame for ten minutes or more, and
-then, continuing the pressure, the mind be directed
-to judge whether the force at a given moment is
-all horizontal or all downwards, or how much is in
-one direction and how much in the other, it will
-find great difficulty in deciding, and will, at
-last, become altogether uncertain,&mdash;at least such
-is my case. I know that a similar result occurs
-with others, for I have had two boards arranged,
-separated, not by rollers, but by plugs of vulcanized
-rubber; and with the vertical index, when
-a person with his hands on the upper boar<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>d is
-requested to press only downwards, and the index
-is hidden from his sight, it moves to the right, to
-the left, to him and from him, and in all horizontal
-directions; so utterly unable is he strictly
-to fulfil his intention without a visible and
-correcting indicator. Now, such is the use of the
-instrument with the horizontal index and rollers;
-the mind is instructed and the involuntary or
-quasi-involuntary motion is checked in the commencement,
-and, therefore, never rises up to the
-degree needful to move the table, or even permanently
-the index itself. No one can suppose
-that looking at the index can in any way interfere
-with the transfer of electricity, or any other
-power, from the hand to the board under it, or to
-the table. If the board tends to move, it may do
-so; the index does not confine it; and if the table
-tends to move, there is no reason why it should
-not. If both were influenced by any power to
-move together, they may do so, as they did,
-indeed, when the apparatus was tied, and the
-mind and muscles left unwatched and unchecked."</p>
-
-<p class="title smaller top4">PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS,<br />
-LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.</p>
-
-<div class="footnotes top4"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Locke. Of Human Understanding, B. I, ch. 2.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Cousin. Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne,
-edit. 1847, T. III, p. 269.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 368.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 370.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Plato. Politicus. Mitford's Greece, Vol. I, p. 84.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "Vain indeed is the life of all men in whom there is not the
-true knowledge of God: who, from the things which are seen to
-be good, have not been able to conceive aright of that which is
-goodness itself; nor, while they viewed the work, to acknowledge
-the architect: but have thought that either fire, or the wind, the
-swift air, or the stars in their courses, or the vast deep, or the
-sun and moon, were the deities presiding over the world."&mdash;<i>Liber
-SapientiÊ</i>, ch. 13, v. 1, 2. <i>Translation by Luke Howard,
-F.R.S.</i></p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> An interesting illustration of the tendency of mankind in a
-state of savageism to attribute striking phenomena to supernatural
-agency, and deify the means through which they are
-apparently exhibited, occurred on the march of Cortes from
-Mexico to Honduras. During a deer-hunt, the horse which
-Cortes rode was taken ill. "It did not then die, though it would
-have been better if it had," says the devout but ruthless conqueror,
-parenthetically. A little while afterwards, having been
-courteously received by the Itzalan Indians, Cortes "entrusted
-them with the care of his horse Morgillo, which had been lamed,
-charging them to take great care of it, and attend to its recovery,
-as he prized it very highly, and telling them that when he had
-found the Spaniards he was in search of, he should send for his
-steed again. It was from no want of care on the part of the
-Itzaex, but rather from an excess of it, that Morgillo lost his
-life under their management; for in their anxiety to effect a cure,
-and regarding the animal as one endowed with reason, they gave
-him poultry and other meat to eat, and presented him with
-bunches of flowers, as they were accustomed to do to persons of
-rank when they were sick; a species of attention somewhat
-similar to that which the fool laughed at in <i>King Lear</i>, when he
-speaks of the cockney who for 'a pure kindness to his horse,
-buttered his hay.' The consequence of this unaccustomed style
-of medical treatment was, that Morgillo languished and died, and
-then a worse evil befell, for, observes the pious Villagutierre,
-"though some people say Canek burnt his idols in the presence
-of Cortes, there was in reality no burning of idols or anything
-else in that city of Tayasal; on the contrary, by leaving the horse
-with the infidel Itzaex, they obtained a greater and still more
-abominable idol than the many they had before." The meaning
-of this sentence is subsequently explained by the worthy chronicler
-informing us that, on the death of Morgillo, the Itzaex
-raised its effigy "in stone and mortar, very perfect," and worshipped
-it as a divinity. It was seated on its hind-quarters, on
-the floor of one of the temples, rising on its fore legs, with its
-hind legs bent under it. These barbarians adored it as the god of
-thunder and thunderbolts, calling him Tzinachac, which means
-the bride of thunder, or the thunderbolt. They gave it this
-name from having seen some of the Spaniards who were with
-Cortes fire their muskets over the horses' heads when they were
-hunting deer, and they believed the horses were the cause of the
-noise that was made, which they took for thunder, and the flash
-of the discharge and the smoke of the gunpowder for a thunderbolt."&mdash;<i>Fancourt's
-History of Yucatan.</i> <i>AthenÊum.</i> 1854,
-p. 109.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum, B. II, c. 25.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> Servius. Tooke's Pantheon, p. 198.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> HorÊ BritannicÊ. By Jno. Hughes, Vol. I., p. 235. 1818.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> The Garrows, a number of wild tribes occupying the district
-lying between the N.E. frontier of Bengal and the kingdom of
-Assam, in addition to the worship of Mâhâdeva, or Siva, adore also
-the sun and moon; and the <i>Khatties</i>, or <i>Catties</i>, another wild
-tribe inhabiting the peninsula of Guzerat, worship the sun.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Blackwell. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Bohn, 1847, p. 473.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Davis. "The Chinese," Chap. xii.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Humboldt. "Aspects of Nature," Vol. I., p. 198, note 51.
-"Steppes and Deserts."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Ruxton. Adventures in Mexico and Rocky Mountains,
-p. 192.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a></p>
-
-<div class="drama">
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>  That cursed ChÊrophon and Socrates,<br />
-Who have deceived both thee and me alike.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Phid.</i></span> I must not act unjustly towards my teachers.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>  Nay, nay, revere paternal Jupiter;</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Phid.</i></span> Paternal Jupiter! old fashion'd fool;<br />
-Is there a Jupiter?</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>            <span class="s4">There is.</span></p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Phid.</i></span>            <span class="s6">Not so,</span><br />
-Since having cast out Jove a whirlwind reigns.</p>
-
-<p><span class="char"><i>Str.</i></span>  Not cast him out; but I imagin'd this,<br />
-Seeing the whirlwind here. O wretched ones,<br />
-To take thee, earthen image, for a god!</p>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Wheelwright's Translation, p. 124, and note. Oxford, 1837.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum. B. I., ch. 15.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Op. cit., B. II., c. 24.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Bonomi. "Nineveh and its Palaces," pp. 139-264, &amp;c.;
-Dr. Grotefend, AthenÊum, June 26, 1853; Ravenshaw, AthenÊum,
-July 16, 1853.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Paradise Lost.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Rape of the Lock. Ch. 1.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> The <i>black</i> colour which is popularly ascribed to the devil, was
-probably derived from old monkish legends, which affirmed that
-he often appeared as an Ethiopian. (Jortin. Vol. II., p. 13,
-ed. 1805.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Bonomi. Op. cit., p. 159. "The root, or the original word
-from which teraphim is derived, signifies, to relax with fear, to
-strike with terror, or 'Repheh,' an appaller, one who makes others
-faint or fail; a signification that singularly accords with the terrifying
-images found by Botta." The possible connection between
-these images and the images (<i>teraphim</i>) which Rachel had stolen
-from her father Laban, is of great interest.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> This custom is probably a relic of old Scandinavian
-mythology. In the "Prose Edda," it is stated, that the gods
-having captured Loki (the personification of evil), who had fled
-from their justly excited anger, "dragged him without commiseration
-into a cavern, wherein they placed three sharp-pointed
-rocks, boring a hole through each of them."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 200.&mdash;Eusebius, in his <i>Oration</i>
-in praise of the Emperor Constantine, writes, that the Emperor
-honoured "the triumphall signe of the crosse, having really
-experienced and found the divine virtue that is therein. For by it
-the multitudes of his enemies were put to flight; by it the vaine
-ostentation of the enemies of God was suppressed, the petulant
-tongues of evil speakers and wicked men were silenced; by it the
-barbarous people were subdued; by it the invisible powers of the
-divil were vanquished and driven away; and by it the superstitious
-errors were confuted and abolished."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> Bede. Ecclesiastical History. B. I., ch. 30. Dr. Giles'
-Transl. Bohn.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. Vol. I. p. 201.
-Note. Michaelmas Day.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Cicero. De Naturâ Deorum. B. III., ch. 5.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> See "Notes and Queries." Sir J. E. Tennant, Vol. V.,
-p. 121; W. Blood, &amp;c., Vol. VIII., p. 413.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> The Berlin correspondent of the <i>Times</i> related the following
-incident:&mdash;
-</p>
-<p>
-"The comet which has lately been visible, has served a priest,
-not far from Warsaw, with materials for a very curious sermon.
-After having summoned his congregation together, although it was
-neither Sunday nor festival, and shown them the comet, he informed
-them that this was the same star that had appeared to the Magi at
-the birth of the Saviour, and that it was only visible now in the
-Russian Empire. Its appearance on this occasion was to intimate
-to the Russian eagle, that the time was now come for it to spread
-out its wings, and embrace all mankind in one orthodox and
-sanctifying church. He showed them the star now standing immediately
-over Constantinople, and explained that the dull light of
-the nucleus indicated its sorrow at the delay of the Russian army
-in proceeding to its destination."</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> "Madam Morrow, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and
-a descendant of a line of astrologers reaching back for centuries, will
-give ladies private lectures on all the events of life, in regard to
-health, wealth, love, courtship, and marriage. She is, without
-exception, the most wonderful astrologist in the world, or that has
-ever been known. She will even tell their very thoughts, and will
-show them the likenesses of their intended husbands and absent
-friends, which has astonished thousands during her absence in
-Europe. She will leave the city in a very short time. 76, Broome
-Street, between Cannon and Columbia. Gentlemen are not
-admitted."
-</p>
-<p>
-"Madame la Compt flatters herself that she is competent by
-her great experience in the art of astrology, to give true information
-in regard to the past, present, and future. She is able to see
-clearly any losses her visitors may have sustained, and will give
-satisfactory information in regard to the way of recovery. She
-has, and continues to give perfect satisfaction. Ladies and gentlemen
-50 cents. 13, Howard Street."
-</p>
-<p>
-"Madame la Compt has been visited by over two hundred
-ladies and gentlemen the past week, and has given perfect satisfaction;
-and in consideration of the great patronage bestowed upon
-her, she will remain at 13, Howard Street, for four days more,
-when she will positively sail for the South."
-</p>
-<p>
-"Mrs. Alwin, renowned in Europe for her skill in foretelling
-the future, has arrived, and will furnish intelligence about all
-circumstances of life. She interprets dreams, law matters, and
-love, by astrology, books, and science, and tells to ladies and
-gentlemen the name of the persons they will marry; also the
-names of her visitors. Mrs. Alwin speaks the English, French,
-and German languages. Residence, 25, Rivington Street, upstairs,
-near the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-</p>
-<p>
-"Mrs. Prewster, from Philadelphia, tenders her services to the
-ladies and gentlemen of this city in astrology, love, and law matters,
-interpreting dreams, &amp;c., by books and science, constantly relied
-on by Napoleon; and will tell the name of the lady or gentleman
-they will marry; also the names of the visitors. No. 59, Great
-Jones Street, corner of the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen
-1 dollar."
-</p>
-<p>
-"The celebrated Dr. F. Shuman, Swede by birth, just arrived
-in this city, offers his services in astrology, physiognomy, &amp;c.
-He can be consulted in matters of love, marriage, past, present,
-and future events of life. Nativity calculated for ladies and gentlemen.
-Mr. S. has travelled through the greater part of the world
-in the last forty-two years, and is willing to give the most satisfactory
-information. Office, 175, Chambers Street, near Greenwich."
-</p>
-<p>
-(From a recent number of the <i>New York Herald</i>. Notes and
-Queries, December 10, 1853, p. 561.)</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> The Æneis. B. III.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Carthon. Ossian.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe," by
-W. and Mary Howitt. Vol. I., p. 99.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Howitt. "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe."
-Vol. I.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern
-Egyptians; by E. W. Lane, Vol. I, p. 311.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Adventures in the Libyan Desert, p. 22.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> B. I, ch. 13 and 16.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Bohn, p. 248. And Table of
-Contents, p. XIII.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> "The Fall of the Nibelungers," &amp;c.; a Translation of the
-Nibelunge NÃŽt, or Nibelungenlied, by W. N. Lettsom, p. 59,
-St. 346, 347; p. 167, St. 983.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Thorpe. Op. cit. Table of Contents, p. IX.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> "The marvellous stories, the frightful tales, the threats,
-which were so long the apanage of infancy, would dispose the
-naturally impressionable mind to receive all the fantastic creations
-of the period. Now, it is said, the system is completely changed,
-and they are taught to ridicule these ancient beliefs. This argument
-would be unanswerable if they spoke of colleges and boarding
-schools; but they forget the servants to whom are confided
-the early years of infants; thus is the nursery always reviving
-fooleries, terrors, and frightful stories, in the middle of which the
-infant grows. I will content me with one example, that of one of
-the celebrated poets of England, Robert Burns. 'I owed much
-in my infancy,' says this writer, 'to an old woman who lived
-with us, and who was extremely ignorant, and remarkably credulous
-and superstitious. No one in the country had a larger
-collection of tales and songs respecting devils, fairies, ghosts,
-sorcerers, magicians, jack-o'-lanterns, hobgoblins, phantoms,
-apparitions, charms, giants, dragons, &amp;c.
-</p>
-<p>
-"'Not only did these tales cultivate in me the germs of poesy,
-but they had such an effect upon my imagination, that, even now,
-in my night journeys, I have often, in spite of myself, the eye
-upon certain suspicious places; and although no one can be more
-sceptical in such matters, an effort of the reason is occasionally
-necessary to chase away these vain terrors.'
-</p>
-<p>
-"'Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, solitariness, contribute
-strongly to develop the feeling of terror so wrongly cast in
-the minds of infants. Their eye readily perceives frightful figures
-which regard them in a menacing manner; their chamber is
-peopled with assassins, robbers, devils, and monsters of all kinds."&mdash;<i>A.
-Brierre de Boismont. "Des Hallucinations; ou Histoire
-Raisonnée des Apparitions,"</i> &amp;c. Ed. II, 1852, p. 362.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> This idea has been beautifully expressed by Longfellow in the
-"Voices of the Night."
-</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"When the hours of day are numbered,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And the voices of the night<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Wake the better soul, that slumbered,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">To a holy calm delight,<br /></span>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Ere the evening lamps are lighted,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">And like phantoms grim and tall,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Shadows from the fitful firelight<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Dance upon the parlour wall;<br /></span>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">Then the forms of the departed<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Enter at the open door;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">The beloved, the true-hearted,<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">Come to visit us once more." &amp;c.<br /></span>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>See also Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall. St. Martin's
-Eve.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a>
-</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">But or ever a prayer had gusht,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">A wicked whisper came and made<br /></span>
-<span class="i2">My heart as dry as dust."<br /></span>
-<span class="cit">Coleridge. "Ancient Mariner."</span>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Brewster. Natural Magic, p. 15.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> A few hundred feet from the place where this occurred, is a
-lane (Oldfield Lane, Wortley, near Leeds) which was noted,
-many years ago, as the beat of one of those somewhat rare
-spectres, a headless ghost. Some are living even now who have
-<i>known</i> those who had seen this phantom. When last seen, it
-appeared as a comfortable-looking man, dressed in a drab-coat,
-and carried the head under the arm. As a Yorkshire version of a
-very ancient and wide-spread superstition, its memory is worth
-preserving. The belief in headless ghosts is found in many parts
-of England, Ireland (the <i>Dullahan</i> or <i>Dulachan</i>), Wales, Scotland,
-Spain, France, and Germany.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Chambers' Miscellany. Art. "Spectral Apparitions," &amp;c.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. 2nd Ed., p. 3.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> "Phantoms of the Far East." Chambers' Edinburgh
-Journal. Vol. XVII, p. 315.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Busby's Lucretius, B. IV.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Temora.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 7.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Letters on Natural Magic. 5th Ed., p. 166.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> D. Jardine, "Notes and Queries," Vol. VIII, p. 512, Nov.
-26, 1853.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Hudibras. Can. III.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> AthenÊum. July 2, 1853, p. 801, and Appendix.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> MÃŒller. "Manuel de Physiologie." Traduit par A. J. L.
-Jourdan. 2nd ed., 1851, par E. Littré, T. II., p. 388. See also
-¶ A. B. C. E. F., Sect. V, "PhénomÚnes Subjectifs de Vision,"
-p. 386.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> MÃŒller. Op. cit., T. II, p. 549.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Boismont. Op. cit., p. 74.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> "Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, &amp;c., in their Relations
-to the Vital Force," by Karl von Reichenbach, Pts. I &amp; II.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> "The Night Side of Nature," by Mrs. Crowe. Ed. 1853,
-p. 362.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a>
-</p>
-
-<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
-<span class="i0">"I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thy image steals between my God and me;<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,<br /></span>
-<span class="i0">With every bead I drop too soft a tear."<br /></span>
-<span class="cit"><i>Eloise and Abelard.</i> Pope.</span>
-</div></div>
-
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Notes and Narrative of a Six Years' Mission principally
-among the Dens of London. By R. W. Vanderkiste, p. 182.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> Boismont. Op. cit., p. 110.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> "Theory of Pneumatology." By Dr. J. H. Jung-Stilling:
-translated by Saml. Jackson; p. 197, Lond., 1834.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 200.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> The apparition of the "<i>White Lady</i>" was very irregular
-and uncertain, for many members of the family died without her
-spectre having been seen.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> "Demonology and Witchcraft." 2nd Ed., p. 350, note.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> "Household Words." Conducted by Charles Dickens,
-March, 1853, p. 6.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 142.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> "Notes and Queries." Vol. VIII., p. 287.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> Ed. 1829, Vol. IV., p. 271.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 182.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 470.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> De. Divinatione et de Fato.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> Op. cit. p. 243.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> "Of Human Understanding." Bk. II, ch. 33, sect. 10.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 65.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> "History of Europe," from 1789 to 1815. By Sir Archibald
-Alison, Bart. Chap. XX, Sect. 25, and notes.</p></div>
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 10.</p></div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="transnote top4">
-<h4>Transcriber's Note:</h4>
-
-<p>Punctuation in the text has been standardised, and typographical errors
-have been silently corrected.</p>
-
-<p>Variations in hyphenation, and obsolete or variant spelling, including
-quoted passages, have all been preserved. Inconsistencies in quotation
-mark usage, single quotes, double quotes, and quotes-within-quotes are
-all as in the original.</p>
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
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diff --git a/old/40616.txt b/old/40616.txt
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-Project Gutenberg's Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites, by John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-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/license
-
-
-Title: Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites
-       Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief
-       in the Supernatural
-
-Author: John Nettin Radcliffe
-
-Release Date: August 29, 2012 [EBook #40616]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Jennifer Linklater and the
-Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
-(This file was produced from images generously made
-available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-  FIENDS, GHOSTS,
-  AND
-  SPRITES.
-
-  INCLUDING AN ACCOUNT OF
-  THE ORIGIN AND NATURE
-  OF
-  BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL.
-
-  BY JOHN NETTEN RADCLIFFE.
-
-  LONDON:
-  RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
-  1854.
-
-  PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS,
-  LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FIENDS, GHOSTS, AND SPRITES.
-
-
-A belief in the supernatural has existed in all ages and among all
-nations.
-
-To trace the origin of this belief, the causes of the various
-modifications it has undergone, and the phases it has assumed, is,
-perhaps, one of the most interesting researches to which the mind can be
-given,--interesting, inasmuch as we find pervading every part of it the
-effects of those passions and affections which are most powerful and
-permanent in our nature.
-
-So general is the belief in a supreme and over-ruling Power, possessing
-attributes altogether different from and superior to human powers, and
-bending these and the forces of nature to its will, that the thought
-has been entertained by many that it is inborn in man. Such a doctrine
-is, however, refuted by an acquaintance with the inlets and modes of
-obtaining knowledge; by the fact that reason is necessary to its
-discovery; and by its uselessness.[1] "There are neither innate ideas
-nor innate propositions; but there is an innate power of understanding
-that shows itself in primitive notions, which, when put into speech, are
-expressed in propositions, which propositions, decomposed, produce,
-under the influence of abstraction and analysis, distinct ideas."[2]
-
-Others have asserted and maintained that man derives his knowledge of
-the existence of Deity, and, consequently, of the supernatural, from the
-exercise of reason upon himself and his own powers by self-reflection.
-If he reflects upon the wonderful power of liberty and free-will which
-he possesses, on his relation to surrounding beings and things, and
-particularly on his imperfect, limited, and finite powers, it is argued
-that the antithetical proposition of infinite must of necessity be
-admitted. "I cannot have the idea of the finite and of imperfection
-without having that of perfection and of infinite. These two ideas are
-logically correlative."[3] Or if man extends his reasoning powers to the
-study or the contemplation "of the beauty, the order, the intelligence,
-the wisdom, and the perfection displayed throughout the universe; and as
-there must of necessity be in the cause what is witnessed in the effect,
-you reason from nature to its author, and from the existence of the
-perfection of the one you conclude the existence and perfection of the
-other."[4]
-
-But many theologists maintain that the knowledge of a Deity, and of the
-existence of supernatural beings, is derived solely from revelation; and
-stern and prolonged have been the struggles in this country between the
-upholders of the rival tenets.
-
-That no idea of a Deity, such as that which the Christian entertains, is
-to be found among the vague and undefined notions of supernatural power
-which are contained in the mythologies of pagan nations; that even the
-conceptions of Plato are to be summed up in the phrase "the unknown
-God;" and that the perfect idea of the Godhead is to be derived solely
-from Scripture, can be satisfactorily shown. But the conclusion sought
-to be established from this, that all our ideas of the supernatural are
-derived from this source, does not necessarily follow.
-
-The postulate that man can derive a knowledge of the supernatural from
-the exercise of his mental powers alone, cannot either be affirmed or
-denied, but it is not improbable.
-
-Perhaps the nearest approach to correctness which we are as yet capable
-of on this subject is as follows:--
-
-After the creation of man, God revealed himself. The perfect knowledge
-of the Deity thus obtained, was perpetuated by a fragment of the human
-race, notwithstanding the baneful effects of the fall; and at the epoch
-of the deluge, the solitary family which escaped that mighty cataclysm,
-formed a centre from which anew the attributes and powers of the Godhead
-were made known in all their truth and purity. But again sin prevailed,
-and with the exception of one race, who alone treasured the true
-knowledge of the Deity, mankind lost by degrees the pure faith of their
-fathers; and as they receded from the light, the idea of the Godhead
-became obscured, and in the progress of time well nigh lost, and the
-vague and imperfect ideas of a supernatural Power derived from
-tradition, prompted to a terror and awe of some invisible yet mighty
-influence, unknown and inexplicable, but which was manifested to man in
-the more striking objects and the incomprehensible phenomena of nature,
-which were regarded and worshipped as the seats of this unknown Power,
-forming the substratum of those wonderful systems of mythology which
-have characterised successive eras and races.
-
-"Once," writes Plato, referring to the earlier traditions of the Greeks,
-"one God governed the universe; but a great and extraordinary change
-taking place in the nature of men and things, infinitely for the worse
-(for originally there was perfect virtue and perfect happiness on
-earth), the command then devolved on Jupiter, with many inferior deities
-to preside over different departments under him."[5]
-
-To state the influence which each of the elements indicated
-above--tradition and reason--have had in the development of mythology,
-is doubtless impossible.
-
-The existence of the first element, _tradition_, is, to those who admit
-the truth of Scripture, undeniable, and it gives a clue to the
-elucidation of the leading principle in the belief in those gods,
-daemons, fiends, sprites, &c., which, summed up, have constituted the
-objects of worship of different nations.
-
-
-I. As in the course of generations the pristine revelation of the
-Godhead to man became obscured, and a vague and traditionary belief
-alone remained,--the conceptions, the thoughts and imaginations of each
-generation being implanted in the succeeding one, and influencing it by
-the force of habit, education, and authority,--man, impressed with an
-imperfect notion of a supernatural Power, and ignorant of the forces of
-the material world, on seeking to unfold the source of those changes
-which he beheld in the budding forth of spring, the fervid beauty of
-summer, the maturity of autumn, and the stern grandeur of winter,
-conceived that the wonderful phenomena ever going on around him owed
-their origin and effects to the influence of supernatural agency, and
-marking their apparent dependence upon the sun and other orbs in space,
-he offered adoration to those luminaries. But when he still further
-analysed the changes occurring on the surface of the globe, and
-comprehended the influence of the more palpable forces and elements, and
-the inexhaustible variety and seeming disconnectedness of the phenomena
-which he witnessed, incapable of otherwise solving the mysteries which
-surrounded him, he deemed each as the work of a potent and indwelling
-Spirit.[6]
-
-Thus man concluded that he was surrounded by a world of supernatural
-beings, of different powers, attributes, and passions. The sun and moon,
-the planets and stars, were conceived to be the abodes of spiritual
-existences; and the effects caused by those orbs which more immediately
-influence our earth, were considered as the indications of the powers of
-their respective deities. So also the air, its clouds and currents; the
-ocean, with its mighty progeny of lakes and rivers; and the earth, its
-hills, dales, and organic forms, were peopled with incorporeal beings.
-Every object of beauty shadowed forth the operations of a beneficent
-Spirit; while devastating storms, barren places and deserts, and the
-convulsions of nature, betokened the malignancy of daemons or fiends.
-According as a country's surface is harsh, rugged, barren, and
-storm-tossed, or clothed with lovely verdure and basking in the rays of
-a fervid sun, so do we find the principal characters of its mythology;
-stern, gigantic, and fierce gods or daemons, or spirits more kind towards
-man, and full of beauty and grace. The passions and affections of man,
-for the same reasons, were considered to be under the sway of
-supernatural beings; in short, every operation of nature in the organic
-or inorganic, in the mental or physical worlds, was deemed an indication
-of the existence of a supernatural Being which ruled and governed it.[7]
-
-These powers in the progress of time were personified and represented as
-possessed of passions and propensities similar to those of man; for the
-same finite and imperfect reason which had concluded that they dwelt in
-the phenomena they were supposed to explain, also deemed, being unable
-to conceive any higher type of existence than was seen in man himself,
-that they differed simply in degree of power, and were alike subject to
-those appetites and passions which characterised humanity.
-
-This source of belief in spiritual existences is found dominant in the
-systems of mythology of all nations; and as it arises from causes which
-are inherant in man, it can easily be understood why there is so great a
-similarity in the primary mythological conceptions of different races.
-
-The mythologies of ancient Greece and Rome furnish a very perfect
-illustration of the influence which this cause has exercised in the
-development of the belief in supernatural beings, and no better method
-of illustration can be adopted, than a sketch of the physical
-signification of the principal deities, and classes of deities, of those
-countries.
-
-The primitive religion of the Greeks and Romans would appear to have
-consisted in the worship of the heavenly bodies (Sabaism):--the Titans
-are nearly all personifications of the celestial orbs. Subsequently,
-their mythology assumed a more physical character, and the offspring of
-Cronos (Saturn, _time_), or the personifications of the firmament,
-atmosphere, sea, &c., formed the leading deities of the more developed
-system of religion, and the reign of Jupiter commenced.
-
-In this system, the god Jupiter is symbolical of the upper regions of
-the atmosphere (_AEther_). Euripides writes:--
-
-    "The vast, expanded, boundless sky behold,
-    See it with soft embrace the earth enfold;
-    This own the chief of deities above,
-    And this acknowledge by the name of Jove."[8]
-
-At a later period this god was conceived to represent the soul of the
-world, diffused alike through animate and inanimate nature; or, as
-Virgil poetically describes it in the AEneid--(Book vi.):
-
-        "The heaven and earth's compacted frame,
-    And flowing waters, and the starry flame,
-    And both the radiant lights, one common soul
-    Inspires and feeds, and animates the whole.
-    This active mind infused through all the space,
-    Unites and mingles with the mighty mass.
-    Hence man and beasts the breath of life obtain,
-    And birds of air, and monsters of the main."
-
-The god Apollo signifies the sun,--his prophetic power being symbolical
-of its influence in dispelling darkness; his knowledge of medicine and
-healing, signifies the influence of that luminary in revivifying and
-restoring the powers of organic life; his skill in music is symbolical
-of the central position of the sun among the seven planets, and its
-making harmony with them; and the harp upon which this god is depicted
-as playing, is furnished with seven strings, in emblem of the seven
-planets. _Pan_ represents the universal world, and he is the emblem of
-fecundity. Hence this god is depicted in his upper part as a man, in his
-lower parts as a beast; "because the superior and celestial part of the
-world is beautiful, radiant and glorious, as the face of this god, whose
-horns resemble the rays of the sun, and the horns of the moon. The
-redness of his face is like the splendour of the sky; and the spotted
-skin that he wears is an image of the starry firmament. In his lower
-parts he is shagged and deformed, which represents the shrubs, and wild
-beasts, and trees of the earth below. His goat's feet signify the
-solidity of the earth; and his pipe of seven reeds, that celestial
-harmony which is made by the seven planets. He has a shepherd's hook,
-crooked at the top, in his hand, which signifies the turning of the year
-into itself."[9]
-
-The goddess _Cybele_ was symbolical of the earth; _Juno_, of the
-air--the link between earthly and heavenly natures; _Vulcan_, of fire;
-_AEolus_, of the winds; _Diana_, of the moon; _Neptune_, of the sea;
-_Rusina_, of the country; _Ceres_, of the fruits of the earth;
-_Collina_, of the hills; _Vallonia_, of the valleys; _Silvanus_, of the
-woods, which teemed also with inferior deities--_satyrs_ and _fauns_;
-_Seia_ presided over all seed; _Flora_, flowers; _Proserpina_ cherished
-the corn when it had sprung above the earth; _Volasia_ folded the blade
-round it ere the beard broke out; _Nodosus_ watched over the joints and
-knots of the stalk; _Patelina_ governed the opened ear; _Lactusa_ took
-charge when it became milky; _Matura_ guarded and conducted it to
-maturity; _Hostilina_ presided over the crop; and _Tutelina_, over the
-cutting.
-
-_Nymphs_, goddesses of lovely form, and light and airy beauty, sported
-about the earth; a _Dryad_ presided over every tree; a _Hamadryad_ was
-born, lived, and died with each oak; _Oreads_ dwelt on the mountains;
-_Napeae_, in the groves and valleys; _Lemoniads_, in the meadows and
-fields; _Nereiads_, in the ocean; _Naiads_, at the fountains;
-_Fluviales_, by the rivers: and _Lirinades_, by lakes and ponds.
-
-_Vesta_ presided over the vital heat of the body; _Janus_ opened the
-gate of life to infant man; _Opis_ assisted him when he came into the
-world; _Nascio_ presided over the moment of birth; _Cunia_ watched over
-the cradle, and while he lay and slept; _Vagitanus_, or _Vaticanus_,
-took care while the infant cried; _Rumina_ presided while the child
-sucked the breast; _Potina_ guarded the infant drinking; _Educa_ watched
-over it while it received food; _Ossilago_ "knit its bones" and hardened
-its body; _Carna_ presided over the safety of the inward parts; the
-goddess _Nundina_ had charge of the child on the ninth day--the day of
-purification; _Statilinus_ taught the infant to stand and walk, and
-preserved it from falling; _Fabulinus_ looked after the child when it
-began to speak; _Paventia_ preserved it from fright; _Juventus_
-protected the beginning of youth; _Agenoria_ excited man to action;
-_Strenua_ encouraged him to behave bravely on all occasions; _Stimula_
-urged him to extraordinary exertions; _Horta_ exhorted him to noble
-actions; _Quis_ gave peace and quietude; _Murcia_ rendered man lazy,
-idle, and dull; _Adeona_ protected him in his outgoings and incomings;
-_Vibilia_ guarded wanderers; _Vacuna_ protected the lazy and idle;
-_Fessonia_ refreshed the weary; _Meditrina_ healed injuries; _Vitula_
-presided over and gave mirth; _Volupia_ governed pleasures; _Orbona_ was
-a goddess supplicated that she might not leave parents destitute of
-children; _Pellonia_ drove away enemies; _Numeria_ endued men with the
-power of casting numbers; _Sentia_ gave just and honourable sentiments;
-_Augerona_ removed anguish from the mind; and _Consus_ presided over
-good counsels.
-
-_Virtue_ also was worshipped as a goddess; and the several species of
-virtue were considered each as emanating from some godlike power, and
-_Faith_, _Hope_, _Justice_, _Piety_, _Peace_, _Fidelity_, _Liberty_, and
-_Money_, were worshipped as good deities; while, on the other hand,
-_Envy_, _Contumely_, _Impudence_, _Calumny_, _Fraud_, _Discord_, _Fury_,
-_Fame_, _Fortune_, _Fever_, and _Silence_, were supplicated as evil
-deities.
-
-_Minerva_ was symbolical of wisdom and chastity; _Mercury_, of
-eloquence--speech; _Venus_ of ungovernable passions and desire;
-_Saturn_, time; _Momus_, mockery; _Silenus_, jesting; _Mars_, war; and
-_Bacchus_, wine. The _Muses_ each represented an accomplishment. Thus,
-_Calliope_ presided over epic poetry; _Clio_, history; _Erato_, elegy
-and amorous song; _Thalia_, comedy, gay, light, and pleasing song;
-_Melpomene_, tragedy; _Terpsichore_, dancing; _Euterpe_, music;
-_Polyhymnia_, religious song; and _Urania_, the knowledge of celestial
-events.
-
-_Themis_ taught mankind what was honest, just, and right; _Astraea_ was
-the goddess of justice; _Nemesis_ punished vice, rewarded virtue, and
-taught mankind their duty.
-
-Every action of man, both in his collective and individual
-capacity--everything in relation to his household and domestic
-affairs--was also conceived to be governed by supernatural powers, which
-were classed under the names of _Penates_ and _Lares_.
-
-The _Penates_, as may well be imagined, were almost numberless, but they
-may be divided into three classes: 1st, those which presided over
-kingdoms and provinces; 2nd, those which presided over cities only; and
-3rd, those presiding over houses and families. To instance to what an
-extent this belief was carried, a penate named _Ferculus_ looked after
-the door; the goddess _Cardua_ after the hinges; and _Limentius_
-protected the threshold.
-
-The _Lares_ were of human origin, and they presided also over houses,
-streets, and ways. Subsequently their power was extended to the country
-and the sea.
-
-To each person was also assigned two deities, termed _genii_. These
-spirits were subsidiary to the gods already mentioned, it being one of
-their duties to carry the prayers of men to them. The genii differed in
-nature and disposition, and were divided into two classes--the _good_
-and the _bad_. The _good genius_ excited men to all actions of honour
-and virtue; the _evil genius_ excited him to all manner of wickedness.
-The Greeks termed these genii _daemons_, either from the terror and dread
-they created when they appeared, or from the wise answer they returned
-when consulted as oracles.
-
-The ravages caused by an ever-gnawing conscience and by the effects of
-the evil passions, were attributed to three supernatural powers termed
-the _Furies_--_Alecto_, _Tisiphone_, and _Megaera_--who became symbolical
-of the avengers of wickedness; and lastly, Night, Sleep, and
-Death--_Nox_, _Mors_, and _Somnus_--were elevated among the gods.
-
-This brief sketch will serve to show the leading principle entering into
-the formation of the Grecian and Roman mythology--a mythology containing
-more than 30,000 gods; and it will illustrate how every hidden power of
-nature as well in the organic as the inorganic world; and how every
-equally inexplicable operation of the human mind was referred, for an
-explanation, to the influence of a supernatural power, which in the
-progress of time was personified, worshipped, and pourtrayed in such a
-form as best set forth the effects it was conceived to produce.
-
-This source of the belief in the supernatural, as we have already
-stated, will be found to have prevailed among all nations; hence their
-primary mythological conceptions are one and the same, modified by the
-difference of climate, habits, &c.
-
-Thus, of the gods of the ancient Britons--_Belin_, _Plennyd_, or
-_Granwyn_, possessed the attributes of, and was the same with, Apollo;
-_Gwydion_, or _Teutath_, had all the attributes of Mercury; _Daronwy_,
-_Taranwy_, or _Taranis_, the thunderer, of Jove; _Anras_, or _Andraste_,
-of Bellona; _He-us_, _Hesus_, _Hugadarn_, or _Hu-ysgwn_, united the
-characters of Bacchus and Mars; _Ked_ and _Keridwen_ answered to Ceres;
-_Llenwy_ to Proserpine; _Olwen_ and _Dwynwen_ to Venus; and _Neivion_ to
-Neptune.[10]
-
-In the Scandinavian mythology the principal gods are personifications of
-physical and mental powers. _Odin_, the most powerful of the three
-beings first educed from chaotic confusion, possesses the attributes of
-Mercury; and according to Finn Magnusen, _Vili_ is the personification
-of light; _Ve_, of fire. The two ravens which are depicted as sitting
-constantly upon the shoulders of Odin, represent Mind and Memory; and of
-the principal gods, we find that _Thor_ is symbolical of thunder;
-_Baldur_ of the sun; _Njord_ rules over the winds, sea, &c.; _Frey_ is
-the god of rain, sunshine, and the fruits of the earth; _Tyr_, of war;
-_Bragi_, of wisdom and poetry; _Vidar_, of silence; _Forseti_, of law
-and justice; _Loki_ is the personification of evil; _Frigga_ is the
-goddess of the earth; and night, day, the moon, time, the present, the
-past, and the future, healing, chastity, abundance, love, courtesy,
-wisdom, and every form and passion and power of nature which the
-Scandinavians had separated and distinguished, each had its special and
-worshipped god.
-
-The original worship of the Hindoos[11] was directed to the heavenly
-bodies, the elements, and natural objects. In the mandras, or prayers,
-which form the principal part of the Vedas, or sacred writings, the
-firmament, the sun, moon, fire, air, and spirit of the earth, are most
-frequently addressed. These writings inculcate the worship of the
-elements and planets, and differ from the more recent and legendary
-poems which teach the worship of deified heroes and sages. In the
-Sanhita of the Rig-veda, the invocations which it contains are chiefly
-addressed to the deities of fire, the firmament, the winds, the seasons,
-the sun, and the moon, who are invited to be present at the sacrifices,
-or are appealed to for wealth or for their several beneficial qualities.
-The personified attributes of _Brahma_, _Vishnu_, and _Siva_, signifying
-respectively creation, preservation, and destruction, are due to a later
-and more refined era of Hindoo mythology; and the eight inferior deities
-ranking next in order to the _Trimurti_, and termed _Lokapalas_, are all
-personifications of natural objects and powers. Thus _Indra_ is the god
-of, and is symbolical of the visible heavens, thunder, lightning, storm,
-and rain; _Agni_, of fire; _Yama_, of the infernal regions; _Surya_, of
-the sun; _Varuna_, of water; _Parana_, of wind; _Kuvera_, of wealth; and
-_Soma_, or _Chandra_, of the moon.
-
-The celebrated line which it is enjoined should be repeated without
-intermission, and which is the most holy passage in the Vedas, reads
-literally, "Let us meditate on the adorable light of Savitri (the
-sun--the divine ruler); may it guide our intellects." This, it is
-asserted, is addressed to the sun as the symbol of a divine and
-all-powerful being, and it is regarded as a proof of the monotheism of
-the Vedas. This explanation is, however, considered by some to be far
-from satisfactory, and to offer greater difficulties than the text ever
-can when taken in a natural light.
-
-The creed of Buddha contains similar traces of elemental worship. The
-five Buddhas and the five Bodhisattwas would appear to be
-personifications of the principal natural elements and phenomena.
-
-In Persian mythology we find a similar deification of natural phenomena.
-In the creed of Zoroaster, which was a modification of pre-existing
-beliefs, there is an eternal almighty Being, _Zernane Akherene_
-(illimitable, uncreated time), who created _Ormuzd_ (light, goodness);
-and _Ahrimann_ (darkness, evil). Ormuzd created the universe, and the
-genii, or deities of light, of whom there are three classes.
-
-_1st Class._ The seven _Amshaspands_, including _Ormuzd_ himself. The
-remaining are _Bahman_, the genius of the region of light;
-_Ardibehesht_, of ethereal fire; _Sharwir_, of metals; _Sarpandomad_, of
-fruitfulness; _Khudad_, of time; _Amerdad_, of the vegetable world,
-flocks, and herds.
-
-_2nd Class._ The twenty-seven _Izeds_, male and female--the _elementary_
-deities: e.g. _Khorsid_, the deity of the sun; _Mah_, of the moon;
-_Tashter_, of the dog-star, and of rain; _Rapitan_, the deity of heat,
-&c. These deities were probably worshipped before the belief was reduced
-to a system.
-
-_3rd Class._ The _Fervers_--the vivifying principles of nature, the
-ideal types of the material universe, corresponding in general with the
-_ideas_ of Plato. Every one, even Ormuzd, has his Ferver. "An Iranite
-has thus constantly by his side his ideal type, or uncorrupted material
-image, to guide him through life and preserve him from evil."[12]
-
-The Iranite worships light, fire, and water, as emblems of Ormuzd, in
-whom these elements are united; he does not worship the elementary
-spirits attached to them.
-
-In China, the state religion--the religious system of
-Confucius--embodies the following objects of worship, arranged in three
-classes:--
-
-_1st Class._ _Ta sze_, or _great sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-the heavens (_Yang_), and the earth (_Yin_); and while worshipping the
-material heaven, they appear to consider that there exists an animating
-_intelligence_ (_Tae-keih_) which presides over the world, rewarding
-virtue and vice. This class includes also deified sovereigns.
-
-_2nd Class._ _Choong-sze_, _medium sacrifices_, includes the worship of
-gods of the land and grain, the sun and moon, genii, sages, gods of
-letters, inventors of agriculture, manufacturers, and useful arts.
-
-_3rd Class._ _Seaon-sze_, or _lesser sacrifices_, includes the worship
-of the ancient patron of the healing art; innumerable spirits of
-deceased statesmen, eminent scholars, martyrs to virtue, &c.; the
-principal phenomena of nature, as the clouds, rain, wind, thunder, each
-of which has its presiding god; the military banners (like the Romans);
-the god of war; _Loong-wang_, the dragon-king; the gods of rain and the
-watery elements; and _Tien-how_, the queen of heaven and goddess of the
-weather. The Chinese also believe in good and evil genii, and in tutelar
-spirits presiding over families, houses, and towns.[13]
-
-In Africa, the mythology of its different nations is based on natural
-objects and phenomena. The natives of Ashanti and the neighbouring
-districts worship water, lakes, rivers, mountains, rocks and stones,
-leopards, panthers, wolves, crocodiles, &c., all of which are more or
-less powerful "fetishes;" and the Nubian worships the moon. The natives
-of Tahiti and the islands of the South Sea also derive their principal
-ideas of supernatural beings from material objects. In Mangareva, the
-largest of the Gambier Islands, the gods adored by the natives were
-principally personifications of natural objects. A god named _Tea_ was
-the deity and creator of the sun, wind, and water; _Rongo_ was the god
-of rain; _Tairi_, of thunder; _Arikitenow_, of the ocean; _A-nghi_, of
-storms and famine; _Napitoiti_, of death, &c. The Tahitan conceives also
-that animals, trees, stones, &c., possess souls which, like his own,
-after destruction will have a subsequent existence. On the vast
-continent of South America we find numerous traces of elemental and
-natural worship. The aborigines of Paraguay supplicate the sun, moon,
-stars, thunder, lightning, groves, &c. In the district bounded by the
-Orinoco, the Atabapo, the Rio Negro, and the Cassequiare, including an
-extent of about 8000 square miles, and scattered also over a still
-greater extent of this continent, are found rocks covered with colossal
-symbolical figures of crocodiles and tigers, household utensils, and of
-the sun and moon,--doubtless objects of adoration to nations of whose
-existence even tradition has not preserved a trace. It is also probable
-that the rocks thus engraved were regarded as sacred; for the Macusi
-Indians, inhabiting one portion of the districts where these sculptures
-are found, have the tradition that "the sole survivor of a general
-deluge repeopled the earth by changing stones into human beings."[14]
-The Incas of Peru--the children of the sun--built magnificent temples,
-and adored that luminary; and the sculptures on the walls of the
-colossal temples and buildings of the Aztecs, the ancient inhabitants of
-Mexico, as well as the remains of the pyramids of the sun and moon at
-Teotihuacan, teach the same lesson with regard to that extinct race. The
-Pueblo Indians of New Mexico still perpetuate the holy fire "by the side
-of which the Aztecan kept a continual watch for the return to earth of
-Quetzalcoatl, the god of air." In a solitary cave of the mountains is
-preserved the undying fire, and its dim light is seen by the hunter if,
-by chance, led by the chase, he passes near to this lonely temple.[15]
-Among the tribes which inhabit the more northerly parts of the American
-continent, we find also similar traces of the important influence which
-natural phenomena have exercised in the development of their ideas of
-supernatural existences.
-
-We could not well close this sketch without allusion to the Shaman
-religion, which is diffused throughout the principal nations of Asiatic
-Russia, a great part of the Tartars, the Eins, Samoiedes, Ostiaks,
-Mandshurs, Burats, and Tungsees; and it is even professed among the
-Coriaks and Techuks, and people of the eastern islands. This system of
-religion is essentially founded upon the observation of natural
-phenomena: it teaches that the gods (_Burchans_) arose from the general
-mass of matter and spirit; and while inculcating the existence of a
-spiritual world, it instils the belief in the self-existence of matter.
-
-These remarks will sufficiently show the important influence which the
-observation of natural phenomena has had in the development of the
-belief in the Supernatural of most nations; and it will fully indicate
-the primary reason of the correspondence of their principal mythological
-conceptions. A consideration of the different habits, degree of
-civilization, locality, &c., will also indicate the principal reason of
-the various modifications which the same mythological conception is
-found to present among different nations.
-
-There was one Jupiter for Europe, and another for Africa; and the varied
-forms under which this god was worshipped, derived from the locality,
-habits, and other peculiarities of his worshippers, were very numerous.
-At Athens, the great Jupiter was the Olympian; at Rome, the Capitoline.
-There was the mild and the thundering Jupiter, the Jupiter Nicephorus,
-Opitulus, Fulminator, &c., all differing in some subordinate characters.
-
-Ammon, of Egypt; Belus, of the Babylonians; Ibis, of the Phoenicians;
-Allah, of the Arabians; Beel, Baal, Beelphagor, Beelzebub, Beelzemer,
-&c., all possess the attributes of Jupiter, and are the same with that
-god.
-
-The Buddha of India; Fohi, of the Chinese; Odin, or Woden, of the
-Scandinavians; and Gwydion, of the Ancient Britons, correspond with
-Mercury.
-
-Vishnu, Brahma, Siva, and Krishna, the latter both of the Irish and
-Sanscrit, correspond with Apollo; whilst Arun, of the Irish and Hindoo
-superstitions, corresponds with the Aurora of the Greeks.
-
-It is peculiarly interesting to mark in the writings of classic authors
-the earlier traces of a correct explanation of the causes operating in
-the changes observed in nature, and their influence in modifying the
-mythological ideas of the period. Socrates penetrated so far in the
-interpretation of certain physical phenomena as to discover that they
-might be explained without having recourse to the idea of supernatural
-agency. This is most interestingly shown in Aristophanes' comedy of "The
-Clouds" (B.C. 440). In this comedy, written for the purpose of throwing
-ridicule and contempt on the sophistical philosophy of Socrates,
-Strepsiades, an aged and ignorant man, is represented as suffering from
-the excesses and expenses of his son Phidippides. He conceives the idea
-of studying logic, in order, by mere subtle reasoning, to overcome and
-cheat his creditors. He enrols himself as a pupil of Socrates, and in
-Act I, Scene 2, the following scene occurs:--
-
-  _Str._  Is not Olympian Jupiter our God?
-
-  _Soc._  What Jupiter? nay, jest not--there is none.
-
-  _Str._  How say'st thou? who then rains?--this first of all
-          Declare to me.
-
-  _Soc._              Why these (_the clouds_): by mighty signs
-          This I will prove to thee. Hast ever seen
-          Jove raining without clouds?--if it were so,
-          Through the clear fields of ether must he rain,
-          While these were far away.
-
-  _Str._                          Now by Apollo,
-          Full well hast thou discours'd upon this point;
-          Till now, in truth, I thought 'twas Jupiter,
-          Distilling through a sieve. But tell me next,
-          Who is the thunderer?--this awakes my dread.
-
-  _Soc._  They thunder as they roll.
-
-  _Str._                          But how, I pray?
-          Say, thou who darest all.
-
-  _Soc._                        When they are fill'd
-          With water, and perforce impell'd along,
-          Driven precipitate, all full of rain,
-          They meet together, bursting with a crash.
-
-  _Str._  But who compels them thus to move along?
-          Is not this Jove?
-
-  _Soc._                  No, but th'aetherial whirl.
-
-In a subsequent part of the comedy (Act III, Scene 1) Strepsiades is
-represented as speaking of this idea of a whirlwind as a deified being,
-thus admirably showing the tendency of man to consider that which he
-could not comprehend as the result of supernatural agency, and to
-personify it.
-
-  _Str._  Thou swearest now, by Jove.
-
-  _Phid._ I do.
-
-  _Str._      Thou see'st how good it is to learn,
-          There is no Jove, Phidippides.
-
-  _Phid._                           Who then?
-
-  _Str._  A whirlwind reigns; having driven him, Jove, away.
-
-It would seem, also, that Socrates himself was subject to the influence
-of this feeling; for a passage in Act V, Scene 1,[16] has led to the
-conclusion "that in the school of Socrates was placed an earthen image
-(#dinos#, the name of an earthen vessel as well as of the
-_whirlwind_, who has usurped the honours and attributes of Jove). (See
-Schol. ad Vesp. 617.) This, probably, was done by the philosopher as a
-sort of compensation for having expelled Jupiter (#ton Dia#)
-from his mythological system."[17]
-
-
-II. But the ideas derived from the contemplation of natural phenomena
-were not the sole sources of mythology, such as we have received it.
-Other and most powerful causes operated, and of those next in degree of
-importance were those feelings which prompted to the deification of men.
-
-Persaeus, a disciple of Zeno, "says, that they who have made discoveries
-advantageous to the life of man, should be esteemed as gods; and the
-very things, he says, which are healthful and beneficial, should have
-divine appellations; so that he thinks it not sufficient to call them
-the discoverers of gods, but that they themselves should be deemed
-divine."[18]
-
-The author of the "Book of Wisdom" in the Apocrypha, details other
-causes which tended to the same result. He writes, (Chapter xiv, v.
-15-21):--
-
-"Thus, some parent mourning bitterly for a son who hath been taken from
-him, makes an image of his child: and him who before was _to his family_
-as a dead man, they now begin to worship as a god; rites and sacrifices
-being instituted, to be observed by his dependents. And in process of
-time, custom having established these as a law, an image set up by an
-impious tyrant receives divine honours. A man being unable to render
-such respect in their presence to those who dwelt remote from them, and
-having received their likeness, brought from far, they have proceeded to
-make a conspicuous image of any king to whom they inclined to pay divine
-honours, by which means, though absent, the ruler receives their
-solicitous homage, as though present with them. The exquisite pains
-bestowed by the artist has likewise contributed to this worship of the
-absent by ignorant men; for being willing to give perfect satisfaction
-to him for whom he doth it, he avails himself of all the resources of
-his art to produce a perfect resemblance. Thus the multitude, allured by
-the beauty of the statue, come to regard as a god him whom before they
-honoured but as a man. And this hath been the great delusion of
-humanity, that out of affection for the dead, or subserviency to their
-rulers, men have given to stocks and stones the incommunicable name of
-God."
-
-Most systems of mythology contain examples of deities which have been
-derived from this source.
-
-"It has been a general custom, likewise," writes Cicero,[19] "that men
-who have done important service to the public should be exalted to
-heaven by fame and universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux,
-AEsculapius and Liber, became gods; * * * thus, likewise, Romulus, or
-Quirinus--for they are thought to be the same--became a god. They are
-justly esteemed as deities, since their souls subsist and enjoy
-eternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings."
-
-The Chinese, at the present day, deify and adore their deceased
-emperors, as well as the spirits of eminent statesmen, scholars, martyrs
-to virtue, &c.
-
-It has occasionally happened that some great sage, on his apotheosis,
-had attributed to him that which he had simply expounded during life,
-and thus became the personification of the religious ideas he had
-entertained. Buddha, who lived, as nearly as can be ascertained, about
-1000 years before Christ, attempted to reform Brahminical India. After
-death he was deified by his converts, and became the embodiment of the
-principles he had advocated when on earth; and his name, with various
-modifications, was applied to the system of cosmogony and religion which
-he had advocated. The Grand Lamas (_Chaberons_) of Thibet are regarded
-as incarnations (_avatars_) of Buddha, and as such are adored by the
-Thibetians and the various tribes of Tartars who roam over the vast
-district which extends from the banks of the Volga to Corea, in the Sea
-of Japan.
-
-After the persecution which terminated in the expulsion of the followers
-of Buddha from Hindostan, the Hindoos, not content with their celestial
-gods or heroes, extended their adoration to various living individuals,
-particularly to the Brahmins and priests. Daughters under eight years of
-age are worshipped by them as forms of the goddess Bhavani (_Venus_);
-and at certain seasons of the year the Brahmin is worshipped by his
-wife, and the wives of Brahmins by other men.
-
-Some writers have thought that all the gods of the ancients consisted of
-deified men. This is, however, an error; for the deification of men was
-an act second in order to the worship of natural objects and phenomena.
-The chronological position of this element of mythology has, among other
-reasons, led Bonomi to arrive at some interesting conclusions on the
-respective ages of the palaces of Nineveh.
-
-On the walls of the palace at Khorsabad are found sculptured the winged
-and human-headed bulls, emblems of wisdom or the sun, the four-winged
-figures, typical of Ibis or Cronos, eagle-headed divinities, and other
-figures, which are conceived to be symbolical of constellations, and of
-astronomical phenomena. From these nobler and simpler ideas of Divinity
-it is inferred, that when this palace was built the worship of the
-Assyrians was comparatively pure. But on the walls of Nimroud, in
-addition to the symbolical representations found at Khorsabad, there are
-also indications of an increased number of divinities, from the presence
-of deified men; hence a reason for the belief in the degeneracy of the
-system of religion at the period when this palace was built, and
-consequently its more recent date.[20]
-
-
-III. Another element has also exercised a considerable influence upon
-the mythologies of some nations, namely, _Scriptural narrative and
-traditions_. It is not improbable that several of the heathen myths have
-been derived from this source. Many, indeed, believe that all mythology
-arises from corrupted Scripture, and it is asserted that Deucalion is
-merely another name for Noah; Hercules for Samson; Arion for Jonah, and
-Bacchus is either Nimrod or Moses--for the former supposition the
-similarity of name being assigned; for the latter, among others, one of
-the names and some of the actions of this God. Thus, Bacchus was named
-_Bicornis, double-horned_; and the face of Moses appeared double-horned
-when he came down from the mountain where he had spoken to God,--the
-rays of glory darting from his brow having the semblance of radiant
-horns. The Bacchae drew waters from the rocks by striking them with their
-thyrsi; and wherever they went, the land flowed with milk, honey, and
-wine. Bacchus caused the rivers Orontes and Hydaspes to dry up, by
-striking them with his thyrsus, and passed through them dry-shod,--an
-action similar to that of Moses at the passage of the Red Sea, &c. That
-Scripture narrative has had an important influence in determining the
-formation of mythology, is highly probable; and we have already shown
-that the primary revelation of a Godhead at the creation of man supplied
-an important initial excitement to that development of the belief in the
-supernatural which occurred subsequent to the fall of man. The influence
-of Scriptural traditions on the myths of various nations it is probably
-impossible to unravel satisfactorily.
-
-
-IV. Again, it has been supposed that the myths of the ancients, and of
-modern pagan nations, were allegorical; and that they were designed to
-represent a philosophical, moral, or religious truth under a fabulous
-form. Thus, the myth of the giant Typhon cutting away and carrying off
-the sinews of Jupiter, and that they were afterwards stolen from him by
-Mercury, and restored to Jupiter, is supposed to refer to powerful
-rebellions, by which the sinews of kings--their revenue and
-authority--are cut off; but by mildness of address, and wisdom of
-edicts, influencing the people, as it were, in a stolen manner, they
-recover their power and reconcile their subjects. And in the myth of the
-expedition of the gods against the giants, when the ass Silenus became
-of great service in dispersing them, on account of the terror excited by
-his braying, it is considered to be an allegory of those vast projects
-of rebels, which are mostly dissipated by light rumours and vain
-consternation. Minerva was fabled to have been born out of the head of
-Jupiter, because it was deemed that man did not in himself possess
-wisdom, but he derived it from divine inspiration; and this goddess was
-born armed, because a wise man clothed in wisdom and virtue is fortified
-against all the harms of life.
-
-This element has undoubtedly had an important influence in the formation
-of the various myths, but it refers rather to an advanced stage in
-mythology, and to that period of development when a nation has made some
-progress in arts and literature.
-
-These elements, and doubtless also others of which the effects are less
-easily unfolded, _e.g._ intercourse between various nations, dispersion
-of tribes, &c., have all exercised a greater or less degree of influence
-on the development and formation of the mythologies of different
-nations.
-
-If we contemplate a race in the earlier phases of its existence, or one
-degraded in the scale of being, we find that its ideas of the
-supernatural are confined to the deification and worship of the simplest
-and most striking of the objects and phenomena of nature: as it has
-increased in civilization and learning, those deities have been
-represented in symbolical forms; and as civilization and the cultivation
-of the mind advances, and the knowledge of surrounding nature has become
-increased, so have the number of deities been multiplied by the
-deification of the less evident powers of nature, of kings, and of
-distinguished men, and then also allegory has come into play. Every
-variation in the character of a nation, and every era, has impressed
-more or less distinct marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we
-receive it now, is the sum of all those changes which have been
-impressed upon it from its earliest formation.
-
-When Christianity dawned upon the world, its effect was not the
-immediate eradication or dispersion of the superstitious beliefs and
-observances then entertained: it induced a change in the form and
-nature of those beliefs.
-
-At the commencement of the Christian era, certain men, inspired by the
-Holy Ghost, were enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings
-derived from habit, education, and authority, and to receive at once, in
-all its purity and fulness, the light of the gospel--perhaps the most
-wonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ. Such was not the case,
-however, with the majority of the earlier Christians. They did not thus
-throw off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin, but modified them
-so as to concur, as they thought, with Scripture.
-
-Thus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of one sole, omnipotent,
-and omniscient God; and it fully defined a power of evil, and denounced
-idolatry. Hence the early Christian fathers were led to conceive, and
-teach, that the gods of the heathen were devils; and further, that their
-history, attributes, and worship, had been taught to mankind by the
-devils themselves.
-
-    "Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones;
-    Though of their names in heavenly records now
-    Be no memorial,--blotted out and razed,
-    By their rebellion from the book of life,--
-    ... wandering o'er the earth,
-    Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man,
-    By falsities and lies the greatest part
-    Of mankind they corrupted, to forsake
-    God their Creator, and the invisible
-    Glory of Him that made them to transform
-    Oft to the image of a brute adorn'd
-    With gay religions, full of pomp and gold,
-    And devils to adore for deities;
-    Then were they known to man by various names,
-    And various idols through the heathen world."[21]
-
-This phase being given to the existing superstitions, it will readily be
-understood how, under the form of devils, most of the principal classes
-of deities in pagan mythology were retained and believed in. Thus the
-elemental and primary gods of paganism were perpetuated under the name
-of _fiends_, _daemons_, _genii_, &c.; and the terms _salamanders_,
-_undines_, &c., expressed certain spirits of fire and of water; in the
-form of _fairies_, _elves_, _sylphs_, &c., were retained the graceful
-Nymphs--Oreads, Dryads, &c.--of antiquity,--
-
-    "The light militia of the lower sky;"
-
-the hidden parts of the earth were peopled with _dwarfs_, and other
-spirits of a more powerful nature; and spectral apparitions frighted the
-midnight hours of the watcher.
-
-It is, therefore, to the retention of certain pagan superstitions in a
-modified form, that we are to attribute the origin of the belief in
-those unnumbered spirits, which, under the names of fiends, daemons,
-genii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs, sprites, &c., have been supposed to
-surround us, and have hampered the imaginations of all Christian
-nations, and of which, to use the words of Pope--
-
-    "Some in the fields of purest aether play,
-    And bask and whiten in the blaze of day;
-    Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high,
-    Or roll the planets through the boundless sky;
-    Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light,
-    Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,
-    Or suck the mists in grosser air below,
-    Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
-    Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main,
-    Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain;
-    Others on earth o'er human race preside,
-    Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide."[22]
-
-The belief that the heathen deities were devils, naturally led to the
-further conclusion, that the priests who sacrificed to those gods, and
-who were regarded as the medium of communication between the gods and
-man, held immediate converse with devils,--a belief subsequently
-extended to idolators in general, and to all those practising magic and
-sorcery. Instances of the natural alliance of a mythological idea to a
-Christian belief might be multiplied.
-
-The power of evil, enunciated by the Scriptures, and spoken of as the
-"_Devil_," was early reputed to have appeared in a visible form,
-assuming the aspect of the god Pan, or of a faun or satyr, that is, a
-horned figure, with hirsute frame, and the lower extremities of a goat,
-which indeed, until recently, was considered to be the most orthodox
-form of visibility for his Satanic Majesty. The connection of the power
-of evil with the gods of the most gloomy and hidden parts of nature is
-obvious: Pan, indeed, was the god of terror.
-
-Frequently, also, Satan appeared under the form of a goat. The goat is
-an emblem of the sin-offering, and of the wicked at the day of judgment;
-hence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness, and in this form
-the devil most commonly appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins.
-In Leviticus (xvii. 7), where it is written "they shall no more offer
-sacrifices to devils," it is literally, to "hairy-ones"--goats. The
-symbol of the goat prompted to the nature of the form given to Pan in
-the Grecian and Roman mythology. Indeed, the Greeks derived their
-worship of that god from Egypt, where he was adored under the form of a
-goat; and it is fabled that he captivated Diana under the aspect of a
-white goat.
-
-A singular superstition of the connection of the goat with Satan is
-entertained in some districts of this island. It is asserted that a goat
-is never visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as once in that
-time it must visit Satan to have its beard combed![23]
-
-Another example of the wedding of a pagan myth to the Christian religion
-is this:--Most heathen nations believed in the existence of deities
-whose especial duty was to guard the threshold of the house, and prevent
-the entrance of evil spirits.
-
-The Grecians and Romans had their Penates and Lars, and the Genoese
-retain the superstition at the present day.
-
-The Lars (_familiares_) were the souls of men, who lingered about the
-dwellings and places they had formerly inhabited and frequented. They
-were represented by small images resembling monkeys, and covered with
-dog's skin; and these images were placed in a niche behind the door, or
-around the hearth. At the feet of the Lar was placed the figure of a
-dog, to intimate vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to them
-in the month of May, when offerings of fruit were presented, and the
-images were crowned with flowers.
-
-Plautus (_Aulularia_) represents a Lar as using the following words:--
-
-              "I am the family Lar
-    Of this house whence you see me coming out.
-    'Tis many years now that I keep and guard
-    This family; both father and grandsire
-    Of him that has it now, I aye protected."
-
-Beneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found
-images of a foul and ugly appearance (_teraphim_), some having a lynx's
-head and human body, others a lion's body and human head. Sentences were
-also inscribed on the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures were
-placed on each side of the portal. The intention was, doubtless, the
-prevention of the entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the
-household.[24]
-
-The Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti, believe in the existence
-of similar deities. The Bhutas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent
-spirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities. Every house and each
-family has its particular Bhuta, which is often represented by a
-shapeless stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order to
-propitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to defend the house from
-the machinations of neighbouring Bhutas. The native of Ashanti offers
-also daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which, under the form of a
-stone painted red, is placed upon a platform within his hut.
-
-There are several remnants of this ancient superstition still in vogue
-in England. The common practice of nailing a horse-shoe behind the door,
-to terrify witches and prevent the entrance of evil spirits, is familiar
-to most persons. Formerly it was the custom to nail the horse-shoe to
-the threshold. Aubrey writes, in his _Miscellanies_: "Most houses of the
-west end of London have the horse-shoe on the threshold." In Monmouth
-Street, in 1797, many horse-shoes were to be seen fastened to the
-threshold. In 1813, Sir Henry Ellis counted seventeen horse-shoes in
-this position in that street, but in 1841 the number had diminished to
-five or six.
-
-In some parts of England, naturally perforated stones are suspended
-behind the doors, with the same intention;[25] in others, jugs, of
-singular and often frightful form, are built into the walls of the
-cottages--an interesting approximation to the Assyrian teraphim; and in
-Glamorganshire the walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to
-terrify wandering spirits,--a mode of prevention which we should like to
-see more generally adopted, as it would doubtless prove of some effect
-in impeding the access of those roaming spirits of evil with which we
-have to contend most at the present day--cholera and fever.
-
-According to Durandus, the dedication-crosses of the Roman Catholic
-churches were adopted under the influence of a feeling in every respect
-analogous to this ancient superstition. He writes that the crosses were
-used, "first, as a terror to evil spirits, that they, having been
-driven forth thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of the
-cross, and may not presume to enter therein again. Secondly, as a mark
-of triumph, for crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of his
-triumph.... Thirdly, that such as look on them may call to mind the
-passion of Christ, by which He hath consecrated his church; and their
-belief in his passion."[26]
-
-But the influence of mythology on Christianity did not terminate with
-the mere natural results of previous education, habits, &c. The church,
-under and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing in the
-protection of the civil power, and not content with the natural
-veneration due to those early Christians who had struggled for the
-cross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves by their long and
-protracted sufferings, insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced
-by the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to deify his
-benefactors, indulged a degree of reverence to the memory of those holy
-men, which soon ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately
-to their canonization and invocation. The Fathers of that
-period--Athanasius, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.--encouraged the belief;
-and a rage was developed for the search of the remains and
-resting-places of the holy dead, to whom prayers were offered; and, in
-its encouragement of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles,
-prophetic dreams, relics, &c., the Roman church at this time rivalled
-the omens, divinations, oracles, and hero-worship of one of the later
-phases of mythology.
-
-The church even sought to promote the spread of Christianity by the
-adoption of certain pagan rites and ceremonies. No more remarkable and
-interesting example of this is to be found than in the annals of our own
-country. In the year of our Lord 601, in a letter "sent to the Abbot
-Mellitus, then going into Britain," Pope Gregory wrote as follows:--
-
-"I have, upon mature deliberation on the affairs of the English,
-determined ... that the temples of the idols of that nation ought not to
-be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed, let holy
-water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected,
-and relics placed. For if those temples be well built, it is requisite
-that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the
-true God; that the nation, seeing that the temples are not destroyed,
-may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true
-God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have
-been accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen
-in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for these
-on this account, as that on the day of dedication, or the nativities of
-the holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may build
-themselves huts of the boughs of trees about those churches which have
-been turned to that use from temples, and no more offer beasts to the
-devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return
-thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end that,
-whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the
-more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God."[27]
-
-In A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II expressed his approval of image-worship,
-and because the Greek emperor refused to accede to this form of
-idolatry, he caused the tribute paid to him by Rome to be suspended, and
-even went to the extent of excommunicating him; and in 789, the second
-Nicene council re-established and confirmed the adoration of images.
-
-Examples of the influence of these doctrines in the Roman and other
-churches may be multiplied.
-
-The censers and lustration vessels of the priesthood are copied from the
-sacrificial vessels which were used in the pagan temples; the woollen
-fillet was transformed into the priest's amice; and the _lituus_, or
-curved staff of the soothsayer, became the crozier of the bishop.
-
-The sacred fountains of antiquity were perpetuated in a Christian form
-by dedication to a saint. Examples of this are afforded by the wells of
-St. Elian, in Denbighshire; St. Winifred, in Flintshire, &c.
-
-In no respect, however, has the Romish church so closely followed the
-example of pagan nations, and borrowed from mythology, as in the
-deification of men, and the adoption of tutelary divinities.
-
-As the mythology of ancient Rome and Greece had its gods who presided
-over countries, cities, towns, and the numerous actions and duties of
-man in his civil and religious life, to each of whom worship was offered
-and altars erected, so also the Romish church encouraged the belief in
-guardian saints, and in this respect its calendar rivals the Pantheon.
-
-As fully did this church adopt the principle of the deification
-(_canonization_) of men--one of the most prominent of the
-characteristics of idolatry.
-
-Thus the Romish calendar contains guardian saints of countries: St.
-George is the tutelary saint of England; St. Andrew, of Scotland; St.
-Patrick, of Ireland; St. Denis, of France; and St. Peter, of Flanders.
-Austria possesses two guardian saints, St. Colman and St. Leopold;
-Germany has _three_, St. Martin, St. Boniface, and St. George
-Cataphrastus; and so on of all the countries of Europe.
-
-There are also guardian saints of cities. St. Egidius presides over
-Edinburgh, St. Nicholas, Aberdeen; St. Peter succeeded Mars at Rome; St.
-Frideswide, Oxford; St. Genevieve, Paris; St. Thomas Aquinas and St.
-Januarius, Naples, &c.
-
-Of the general body of tutelary saints the following list will afford an
-illustration:--
-
-St. Agatha presides over nurses; St. Catherine and St. Gregory over
-studious persons; St. Christopher, St. Hermus, and St. Nicholas, over
-mariners; St. Cecilia, over musicians; St. Cosmos and Damian, over
-physicians, surgeons, and philosophers; St. Dismas and St. Nicholas,
-over thieves; St. Eustace and St. Hubert, over hunters; St. Felicitas,
-over young children; St. Julian, over pilgrims; St. Leonard and St.
-Barbara, over captives; St. Luke, painters; St. Martin and St. Urban
-over ale-knights, to prevent them falling in the kennel; St. AEthelbert
-and AElian are invoked against thieves, &c.
-
-St. Agatha presides over valleys; St. Anne, riches; St. Barbara, hills;
-St. Florian, fire; St. Sylvester, woods, &c.
-
-St. Thomas presides over divines; St. Thomas a-Becket, blind men; St.
-Valentine, lovers; St. Winifred, virgins; St. Joseph, carpenters; St.
-Anthony, swineherds and grocers; St. Arnhold, millers; St. Blaise,
-wool-combers; St. Catherine, spinners; St. Clement, tanners; St. Cloud,
-nailsmiths; St. Dunstan, goldsmiths; St. Elry, blacksmiths, farriers,
-&c.; St. Florian, mercers; St. Francis, butchers; St. George, clothiers;
-St. Goodman and St. Ann, tailors; St. Gore, potters; St. Hilary,
-coopers; St. Leodager, drapers; St. Crispin, shoemakers, &c.
-
-St. Anthony protects hogs; St. Ferriol, geese; St. Gertrude, mice and
-eggs; St. Hubert, dogs; St. Joy, horses, &c.
-
-Numerous saints were invoked against diseases: _e.g._, St. Clara against
-sore eyes; St. Genow, gout; St. Marus, palsies and convulsions; St.
-Sigismund, fevers, &c.
-
-"There be many miracles assigned to saints," writes Barnaby Rich, in
-1619, "that they say are good for all diseases: they can give sight to
-the blind, make the deafe to hear; they can restore limbs that be
-crippled, and make the lame go upright; they be good for horse, swine,
-and many other beasts. And women, also, have shee-saints.... They have
-saints to pray to when they be grieved with a third-day ague, when they
-be pained with toothache, or when they would be revenged on their angry
-husbands.
-
-"They have saints that be good amongst poultry when they have the pip,
-for geese when they do sit, to have a happy success in goslings; and, to
-be short, there is no disease, no sickness, no griefe, either amongst
-men or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints."[28]
-
-The Romish church also adopted the pagan belief in apparitions, and as
-the latter had supported the argument in favour of the existence of the
-gods by the fiction of their occasional manifestations in a visible
-form, so the former endeavoured to sustain its dogmas by fables of the
-apparition, from time to time, of its saints.
-
-It is needless to dwell upon the manner in which this church pandered to
-the credulity of the people in this respect, for an example is before
-the world even at the present time in the apparition of the Blessed
-Virgin near La Salette, a village about four miles from Corps, a small
-town situated on the road between Grenoble and Gap.
-
-The story is as follows:--On the 19th September, 1846, the Blessed
-Virgin appeared to two children, the one a boy aged 11, and the other a
-girl aged 14 years, who were watching cows near a fountain, in the
-hollow of a ravine in the mountains, about four miles from the church
-of La Salette. When first seen, she was in a sitting position, the head
-resting upon the hands, and she "had on white shoes, with roses about
-her shoes. The roses were of all colours. Her socks were yellow, her
-apron yellow, and her gown white, with pearls all over it. She had a
-white neckerchief, with roses round it; a high cap, a little bent in
-front; a crown round her cap with roses. She had a very small chain, to
-which was attached a crucifix; on the right were some pincers, on the
-left a hammer; at the extremities of the cross was another huge chain,
-which fell, like the roses, round her handkerchief. Her face was white
-and long."
-
-Addressing the children, tears coursing down her cheeks, she spoke to
-them on the wickedness of the peasantry, particularly their neglect of
-the Sabbath and of the duties of Lent, when they "go like dogs to the
-butchers' stalls." Then she foretold that if the men would not be
-converted, there should be no potatoes at Christmas, all the corn should
-be eaten up by animals, or if any did grow up, it should fall to dust
-when thrashed. There should be a great famine, preceding which "children
-below seven years of age should have convulsions, and die in the arms of
-those who held them; and the rest should do penance by hunger. Nuts and
-grapes also should perish. But if men were converted, then the rocks and
-stones shall be changed into heaps of corn, and potatoes shall be sown
-all over the land." "The lady," in addition, confided to each of the
-children a secret which was not to be told to the other, but which they
-confided to the Pope in 1851. Then, after a little gossiping
-conversation, "the lady" vanished.
-
-Soon after this apparition had been noised abroad, it was discovered
-that the waters of the fountain were possessed of marvellous healing
-properties, and many miraculous cures were effected by its use. Pilgrims
-flocked to the scene of the vision, and it is affirmed that in one day
-60,000 of the faithful ascended the mountain.
-
-Among others, the present Bishop of Orleans made a pilgrimage to the
-"holy mountain," and he was so impressed by the solemn feelings excited
-by treading on such holy ground, that he often ejaculated, "It cannot be
-but that the finger of God is here." Other ecclesiastics of rank also
-visited the spot, and the whole affair was officially sanctioned.
-
-Nor did the matter rest here, for churches are being built, and
-dedicated to "Our Lady of Salette," in different countries; and a
-society has been established in England bearing her name.
-
-We have already alluded to the sacred fountains of heathen nations, and
-in the holy fountain of Salette we witness the modern development of a
-similar superstition. So also in the apparition of the Virgin the same
-credulity is traced which prompted the ancients to believe in the
-occasional appearance of their deities.
-
-It is related that Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter, by Leda the
-wife of Tyndarus, were seen fighting at the battle of Regillus; and
-that, subsequently, mounted on white horses, they appeared to P.
-Vatienus, as he journeyed by night to Rome, from his government of
-Reate, and told him that King Perses had that day been taken prisoner.
-
-On these legends Cicero remarks; "Do you believe that the Tyndaridae, as
-you called them, that is, men sprung from men, and buried in Lacedemon,
-as we learn from Homer, who lived in the next age,--do you believe, I
-say, that they appeared to Vatienus on the road, mounted on white
-horses, without any servant to attend them, to tell the victory of the
-Romans to a country fellow rather than to M. Cato, who was that time the
-chief person of the senate? Do you take that print of a horse's hoof,
-which is now to be seen on a stone at Regillus, to be made by Castor's
-horse? Should you not believe, what is probable, that the souls of
-eminent men, such as the Tyndaridae, are divine and immortal, rather than
-that those bodies, which had been reduced to ashes, should mount on
-horses and fight in an army? If you say that was possible, you ought to
-show how it is so, and not amuse us with fabulous stories."
-
-"Do you take these for fabulous stories?" says Balbus. "Is not the
-temple built by Posthumius in honour of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in
-the Forum? Is not the decree of the senate concerning Vatienus still
-subsisting?... Ought not such authorities to move you?"
-
-"You oppose me," replies Cotta, "with stories, but I ask reasons of
-you."[29]
-
-It would seem then that the parallelism is perfect, even to the building
-of temples, and the official recognition of the truth of the event.
-
-Of the individual personages of ancient mythology very few traces remain
-in England, and these principally belong to the fairy belief. This
-superstition, of which the analogue is found in the Nymphs, Oreads,
-Dryads, Naiads, Lemoniads, and Nerieds, of ancient Greece and Rome, is
-still prevalent in certain districts of this country; and the extinction
-of the general belief, among the lower orders, of one of the most noted
-of the personages which are met with in fairy lore, the _hobgoblin_, is
-comparatively of recent date. The name is, however, still familiar, and
-in use for certain vague manifestations of the supernatural, although
-the actual signification of the term is, to a great extent, lost sight
-of.
-
-The hobgoblin is worthy of notice not only for its intrinsic interest,
-but also for the illustration which it affords of the intimate
-relationship which is often found to exist between the superstitions of
-different and even far distant nations.
-
-This spirit, in his palmy days, was that fairy which attached itself to
-houses, and the neighbourhood of dwellings and churches (for even sacred
-edifices were not exempted from its influence). In disposition it was
-mischievous and sportive, although it often deigned, during the night,
-to perform many menial offices, and whatsoever building it attached
-itself to prospered. It was apt to take offence, particularly if, as a
-reward, money or clothes were placed for it in that part of the house it
-most frequented; but it was partial to cream, or some delicately
-prepared eatable, and any housewife who was careful to conciliate the
-spirit by administering to this taste, was certain to be well rewarded.
-As might be anticipated, it was a favourite character with poets, and
-descriptions of its propensities and actions abound. Thus, in the
-"Midsummer Night's Dream" (Act II, Sc. 1), one of the Fairies is
-represented as addressing this spirit, and saying:--
-
-          "Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
-          Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
-          Called Robin Goodfellow. Are you not he
-          That frights the maidens of the villagery,
-          Skims milk, and labours in the quern,
-          And bootless makes the breathless housewife churn;
-          And sometimes makes the drink to bear no barm;
-          Misleads night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
-          Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck,
-          You do their work and they shall have good luck,
-          Are not you he?
-
-  _Puck._           Thou speakest aright,
-          I am that merry wanderer of the night.
-          I jest to Oberon, and make him smile,
-          When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
-          Neighing in likeness of a filly-foal;
-          And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl,
-          In very likeness of a roasted crab,
-          And when she drinks against her lips I bob,
-          And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
-          The wisest aunt telling the saddest tale,
-          Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
-          Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
-          And _tailor_ cries, and falls into a cough;
-          And then the whole quire hold their hips and loffe,
-          And waxen in their mirth, and reeze, and swear
-          A merrier hour was never wasted there."
-
-Milton, in the "L'Allegro," writes of him in a different office, and--
-
-    "Tells how the drudging goblin sweat,
-    To earn his cream-bowl duly set,
-    When in one night ere glimpse of morn,
-    His shadowy flail has thrashed the corn,
-    That ten day-lab'rers could not end:
-    Then lies him down the lubber-fiend,
-    And stretched out all the chimney's length,
-    Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
-    And cropfull out of doors he flings,
-    Ere the first cock his matin rings."
-
-Another noted characteristic of this fairy is mentioned in the fine old
-song of Ben Johnson's:--
-
-    "When house or hearth doth sluttish lye,
-      I pinch the maidens black and blue;
-    The bed-clothes from the bed pull I,
-      And lay them naked all to view.
-          Twixt sleepe and wake
-          I do them take
-    And on the key-cold floor them throw:
-          If out they cry
-          Then forth I fly,
-    And loudly laugh out, ho! ho! ho!"
-
-The hobgoblin is one of the widest-spread forms of fairy belief. In
-England it is also termed _Boggard_, _Puck_, _Robin Goodfellow_, and
-_Robin Hood_; it is the _Brownie_ of Scotland; the _Cluricaune_,
-_Luricaune_, _Leprochaune_, &c., of Ireland; the _Kobold_ of Germany;
-the _Servant_ of Switzerland; the _Nis_ of Denmark and Norway; the
-_Niaegruiser_ of the Feroes; the _Tomt-gubbe_, or _Tont_, of Sweden; the
-_Phynnoderee_ of the Isle of Man; the _Monaciello_ of Naples; the
-_Duende_ of Spain; the _Lutin_, or _Gobelin_, of France; and the _Para_
-of Finland appears to have some affinity with it.
-
-The derivation of some of the principal names of this fairy is also of
-interest. From the Sclavonic _Bog_, signifying _God_, come the words
-_boggard_ and _boggart_; the Scottish _Bogle_, a hill-fairy; and
-probably, also, the words _Bug-bear_ and _Bugaboo_; and from the
-Icelandic _Puki_, an evil spirit, come the English _Puke_, a devil, as
-also _Puck_; the Friesland _Puk_; the German _Putz_, or _Butz_; the
-Devonshire _Pixie_; the Irish _Pouke_; the Welsh _Pwcca_, and the words
-_big_ and _bug_,--all names of certain varieties of the fairy-belief,
-and having the signification of an evil spirit.
-
-Certain forms of pagan worship would appear to have been perpetuated
-unmodified in Christian countries even to the present time. A remarkable
-and singular illustration of this is found in Ireland.
-
-Off the north-west coast of that kingdom are situated the islands of
-Inniskea, containing a population of about 400 human beings. Nominally
-the inhabitants are Christians, and under Roman Catholic tuition; in
-reality, they observe the ancient forms of Irish clan government, and
-are idolaters, worshipping rocks and stones. Their chief god is a stone
-idol termed _Nee-vougi_, which has been preserved from time immemorial.
-It is clothed in homespun flannel, which arises from the custom of its
-votaries offering portions of their dress when addressing it. These
-fragments are sewed upon it by an old woman who has charge of the idol,
-and who officiates as priestess. It is invoked, among other things, to
-dash helpless ships upon the coast, and to calm the sea in order that
-the fishing may be successful.[30]
-
-The adoration of rocks and stone pillars is one of the most ancient
-forms of idolatry on record. It probably took its origin from the custom
-of erecting stone pillars as a memorial, and consecrating them as altars
-on any extraordinary event or occasion. The earliest mention of this
-custom is found in Genesis (cxxviii, v. 10):--
-
-"And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took up the stone he had
-put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the
-top of it.
-
-"And he called the name of that place Beth-El ... saying ... this stone
-which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house."
-
-Stones thus erected as memorials, and consecrated as altars, in the
-course of time were considered to be the abode of, or rather to be
-filled with, the divine power, which had manifested itself there; and
-ultimately stone pillars were used as symbols of the Deity. Singularly
-formed rocks and stones were also regarded in a similar light; and
-traces of this very ancient form of idolatry may be found in all parts
-of the world.
-
-The "_animated stones_" of antiquity, which received divine honours,
-derived their names from Beth-El, as for example, Baithulia, Bethyllia,
-and #Baitolia#, signifying consecrated or living stones; and one
-of the modifications of Jupiter, _Jupiter Lapis_ (a stone), was derived
-from this form of idolatry, and the most solemn of the Roman oaths was
-that taken in the name of this god.
-
-Numerous traces of superstition are found scattered throughout England,
-and the countries of Western Europe, which are the lineal, although
-degenerated descendants of the superstitions of the mythological era of
-the respective nations, or rather races, dwelling there.
-
-There are few large towns in Great Britain which do not contain one or
-more persons who profess to practise astrology, magic, or
-divination--_wise men_, as they are popularly designated; and the belief
-in charms and omens is far from being eradicated among a large mass of
-the population, particularly among those who dwell in secluded or
-mountainous districts.
-
-Not unfrequently events happen by which we may gauge the extent to which
-these superstitions are still entertained. Those who marked the effect
-which the appearance of the late comet had on the minds of many in this
-country, would perceive that a somewhat powerful feeling of
-superstitious dread, on the occurrence of remarkable celestial events,
-remained. The alarm excited among the credulous in England was, however,
-if anything, less marked than that caused in many parts of the
-continent[31] and in America.
-
-Three years ago we had an opportunity of witnessing a singular
-exhibition of fear, which was excited in the inhabitants of the most
-impoverished districts of Leeds, by the prevalence of a brilliant
-display of the aurora borealis. The scene paralleled the descriptions
-recorded of the effects produced by similar phenomena in the Middle
-Ages. The prevailing impression was, that the world was on the point of,
-if not in, the actual process of destruction; and in many the alarm
-became extreme, when, during the most magnificent period of the
-phenomena, several of the streamers became of a deep crimson and blue
-tint.
-
-This display of the aurora extended over a vast extent of country, and a
-singular example of the feelings with which it was regarded in Spain was
-recorded at the time in the daily papers.
-
-On the evening on which it occurred, it so happened that the subject of
-the homily in one of the churches of Madrid was the destruction of the
-world, and the day of judgment. At the conclusion of the service, and as
-the congregation were issuing from the church, the northern heavens were
-glowing with the brilliant and ever-varying light of the aurora.
-Startled by a phenomenon which is of somewhat rare occurrence in Spain,
-the idea at once occurred that the terrible events upon which the priest
-had been descanting were about to come to pass; the people rushed back
-to the steps of the altar, and while the aurora continued, the terror
-and confusion beggared all description.
-
-Another indication of the influence which the superstitions we have
-named exercise on the minds of certain classes, is the number of works
-on astrology, principally reprints, which have issued from the press
-during the last eight or nine years.
-
-This ancient superstition, which is still practised by the Mahomedans,
-Chinese, &c., retains a hold upon the minds of many, even now. Its
-practice in this country is, however, most frequently combined with some
-of the minor forms of magic and divination; and those who profess a
-knowledge of these arts chiefly direct them to the ignoble purpose of
-detecting stolen articles.
-
-In America, it would seem, from the advertisements which from time to
-time appear in the newspapers, that this superstition is flourishing
-with some vigour. We subjoin, in a note, specimens of these
-advertisements.[32]
-
-The belief in charms and omens, which was one of the most important of
-the superstitions of antiquity, is still entertained by the lower orders
-in many counties, and it forms one of the most striking features of the
-current folk-lore.
-
-The Devonshire peasant will recite the 8th Psalm on three consecutive
-days, for three weeks, over his child, in order to prevent its being
-attacked with the thrush; and should the disease, notwithstanding this
-precaution, occur, he either plucks three rushes from a running stream,
-passes them through the mouth of the child, and then casts them into the
-stream, believing that the disease will decrease and disappear as the
-rushes float away; or seizing a duck, he will force it to open wide its
-bill, and then placing it close to the mouth of the child, he hopes to
-see the affection vanish as the duck inhales the infant's breath.
-
-The peasantry of Norfolk, Northampton, &c. have, for the prevention of
-epileptic fits, implicit confidence in a ring made from nine sixpences,
-obtained, by gift, from persons of the opposite sex, or from the money
-contributed at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
-
-There is a charm for cramp in the leg which must be familiar to most
-persons. It runs thus:--
-
-    "The devil is tying a knot in my leg!
-    Mark, Luke, and John, unloose it, I beg!
-    Crosses three we make to ease us,
-    Two for the thieves, and one for Christ Jesus."
-
-This formula, with a little modification, was applicable also to other
-fleeting but painful affections. Coleridge states that when he was at
-the Blue-coat School there was a charm for one's foot when asleep, which
-ran thus:--
-
-    "Foot, foot, foot! is fast asleep!
-    Thumb, thumb, thumb! in spittle we steep;
-    Crosses three we make to ease us," &c.
-
-We have seen a charm for the toothache, which we believe has now fallen
-into desuetude, but which, from its singularity, is worthy of
-preservation. It is as follows:--
-
-"In the name of God: Amen.
-
-"As Jesus Christ passed through the gates of Jerusalem, he heard one of
-his disciples weeping and wailing. Jesus saith unto him, Simon Peter,
-why weepest and wailest thou? Simon Peter saith unto him: Lord, the pain
-in my tooth is so grievous, I can do nothing. Jesus saith unto him:
-Arise, Simon, and the pain in thy tooth shall be eased; and whosoever
-shall keep those words in remembrance or writing shall never be
-troubled with the pain in the tooth:--
-
-"In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen."
-
-The coral and bells which are suspended round the necks of children for
-their amusement, were originally used with very different intentions.
-
-Those who professed the occult sciences attributed several very
-wonderful properties to coral, it being regarded by them as a
-preservative against evil spirits, poison, and certain diseases.
-
-The ringing of bells was also, formerly, considered to be of great
-effect in terrifying and causing evil spirits to fly away. Nor did their
-influence cease there; they were esteemed efficacious for the dispersion
-of tempests; or, it would be more correct to say, that a cotemporary
-superstition was, that tempests, thunder and lightning, and high winds,
-were caused by evil spirits, or devils, who in this manner endeavoured
-to wreak their rage on man; hence, in the Golden Legend of Wynken de
-Worde, it is said that "evil spirytes that ben in the region of th'
-ayre, dowt much when they hear the bells rongen, an this is the cause
-why the bells ben rongen when it thondreth, and whanne great tempests
-and outrages of wether happen, to the ende that the feinds and wycked
-spirytes should be abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of
-tempest." This superstition probably dates from the period when it
-became customary to exorcise, bless, and baptize the bells suspended in
-churches,--a custom which originated in the tenth century.
-
-The use of the coral and bells was derived from these superstitions, and
-they were at first suspended from the neck as an amulet which was
-protective from the influence of evil spirits.
-
-Certain events are still regarded as omens by the peasantry in many
-districts.
-
-If a magpie cross our path, it is said that we shall prove unlucky,
-unless we immediately cross ourselves; and an old rhyme says of the
-magpie:--
-
-    "One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth;
-    Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of a birth."
-
-In Devonshire, if a person sees four magpies, it is regarded as an omen
-of death in his family. If a pigeon is seen sitting on a tree, or comes
-into the house; or if a swarm of bees alight on a dead tree, or the dead
-bough of a living tree, it forebodes death in the family of the owner.
-In Derbyshire, if the sun shines through the boughs of the apple-trees
-on Christmas day, it is considered as a presage of a good crop the
-ensuing year.
-
-Of all the superstitions entertained previous to the advent of Christ,
-none have, however, been more fully perpetuated among Christian nations
-than that of spectral apparitions,--the visible appearance of the
-deities worshipped, or of the disembodied spirits of the dead--_ghosts_.
-
-This was due not only to the nature of the causes inducing spectral
-apparitions (causes which are inseparable from the physical constitution
-of man), but also to the confirmation which the belief was thought to
-receive from Holy Writ.
-
-The character of the superstition, as it has been retained down to the
-verge of the present period in our own country, and as it is still
-entertained in many countries, is very similar to that which it bore in
-the remotest periods of antiquity.
-
-The deities of those nations who had distinct and defined ideas
-respecting their gods, are reputed to have appeared from time to time to
-their votaries, assuming the form in which they were most commonly
-pourtrayed in the temples.
-
-Thus the gods which AEneas bore from the destruction of Troy and carried
-into Crete, appeared to him in that island:
-
-    "'Twas night, when every creature, void of cares,
-    The common gift of balmy slumbers shares;
-    The statues of my gods (for such they seem'd),
-    Those gods whom I from flaming Troy redeem'd,
-    Before me stood, majestically bright,
-    Full in the beams of Phoebe's entering light.
-    Then thus they spoke and eased my troubled mind:
-    'What from the Delian god thou go'st to find,
-    He tells thee here, and sends us to relate.
-    Those powers are we, companions of thy fate,
-    Who from the burning town by thee were brought,
-    Thy fortune follow'd, and thy safety wrought.
-    Through seas and lands, as we thy steps attend,
-    So shall our care thy glorious race befriend.
-    An ample realm for thee thy fates ordain,
-    A town that o'er the conquer'd world shall reign.
-    Thou, mighty walls for mighty nations build;
-    Nor let thy weary mind to labours yield:
-    But change thy seat; for not the Delian god
-    Nor we have given thee Crete for our abode.
-    A land there is, Hesperia call'd of old,
-    (The soil is fruitful, and the natives bold--
-    Th' Oeotrians held it once), by later fame
-    Now call'd Italia from the leader's name.
-    Iasius there, and Dardanus, were born;
-    From thence we came and thither must return.
-    Rise, and thy sire with these glad tidings greet:
-    Search Italy; for Jove denies thee Crete.'
-    Astonished at their voices and their sight,
-    (Nor were they dreams, but visions of the night;
-    I saw, I knew their faces, and descry'd,
-    In perfect view, their hair with fillets tied),
-    I started from my couch; a clammy sweat
-    On all my limbs, and shivering body, sate.
-    To heaven I lift my hands with pious haste,
-    And sacred incense in the flames I cast."[33]
-
-Among Christian nations visions of this character have also been common;
-and the religious writings of every age of the Church contain numerous
-instances of apparitions of the Trinity, of our Lord, of the canonized,
-and the powers of evil.
-
-But the most familiar phase of the ghost-belief is that of the visible
-manifestation of the spirits of the dead; and probably few, if any,
-races are without a superstition of this nature.
-
-The Grecians and Romans believed that the souls of the dead (_manes_)
-roamed about the earth, having power to interfere with the affairs of
-man and inflict evil. The spirits of those who had been virtuous during
-life were distinguished by the name of _lares_ (under which name we have
-in a previous page alluded to them as tutelary deities) or _manes_; and
-the spirits of the wicked were termed _larvae_, or _lemures_, and often
-terrified the good, and haunted the wicked and impious. These ghosts
-were also deified, and they were known as the _Dii Manes_; and the
-stones erected over the graves in Roman burial-grounds had usually
-inscribed upon them the letters D.M., or D.M.S., that is, _Dis Manibus_,
-or _Dis Manibus Sacrum_,--"Sacred to the Manes Gods." Sacrifices were
-offered to these deities, the offerings being termed _religiosae_, in
-contradistinction to those offered to the superior gods, which were
-denominated _sacrae_; and during the festivals held in honour of the
-ghosts (_Lemuria_ or _Lemuralia_), it was customary to burn black beans
-over the graves, and to beat kettles and drums, in order that, by the
-noxious odour of the former, and the noise of the latter, the ghosts
-might be frightened away, and no longer terrify their relations.
-
-We have already given several examples illustrative of the parallelism
-which exists between the accounts we possess of the apparitions of
-Grecian and Roman deities, and those manifestations of celestial
-personages which are recorded to have occurred in more modern times. A
-similar resemblance exists between the accounts given of the spectral
-appearance of the spirits of the dead.
-
-In the Odyssey (B. XI), Ulysses, previous to descending into hell, is
-described as offering "solemn rites and holy vows" to the dead:--
-
-    "When lo! appear'd along the dusky coasts,
-    Thin, airy shoals of visionary ghosts;
-    Fair, pensive youths, and soft, enamour'd maids;
-    And wither'd elders, pale and wrinkled shades
-    Ghastly with wounds, the form of warriors slain
-    Stalk'd with majestic port, a martial train:
-    These and a thousand more swarm'd o'er the ground,
-    And all the dire assembly shriek'd around."
-
-A striking illustration of the similarity of ancient and modern
-ghost-stories, in all essential points, is contained in the description
-given in the AEneis (B. II) of the apparition of the ghost of Hector to
-AEneas, at the destruction of Troy:--
-
-    "'Twas in the dead of night, when sleep repairs
-    Our bodies worn with toils, our minds with cares,
-    When Hector's ghost before my sight appears:
-    A bloody shroud he seem'd, and bath'd in tears;
-    Such as he was when by Pelides slain,
-    Thessalian coursers dragg'd him o'er the plain;
-    Swoll'n were his feet, as when the thongs were thrust
-    Through the bored holes; his body black with dust;
-    Unlike that Hector, who return'd from toils
-    Of war, triumphant in AEacians' spoils,
-    Or him, who made the fainting Greeks retire,
-    And launch'd against their navy Phrygian fire.
-    His hair and beard stood stiffen'd with his gore,
-    And all the wounds he for his country bore
-    Now streamed afresh, and with new purple ran."
-
-An equally, if not more marked example, is recorded by Pliny, the consul
-at Sura.
-
-A house at Athens was grievously haunted by a spirit, which, during the
-night, restlessly roamed through the apartments, dragging, apparently, a
-heavy chain after it. Athenodorus, the philosopher, hired the house,
-determined to reduce the spirit to order and silence. In the depth of
-the night, while pursuing his studies, the silence was broken by the
-noise of rattling chains, which approached the room where he sat.
-Presently, a spectre entered, and beckoned to him, but the philosopher
-took no notice. The spectre agitated its chains anew, and then he arose
-and, following his ghostly guide, he was led into the court-yard of the
-house, to a certain spot, when the spectre vanished. He marked the
-place, and on the following day caused the ground to be dug up and
-searched, when beneath it they found the skeleton of a man in chains.
-The bones were publicly burned, and from that time the spirit ceased to
-haunt the mansion.
-
-A belief in ghosts was one of the most prominent of the superstitions of
-the ancient inhabitants of Northern Europe. It was customary with the
-Scandinavians, as with the Grecians, to perform certain ceremonies at
-the tombs of the dead, to propitiate the ghosts, and facilitate their
-entrance into the halls of bliss.
-
-The ghosts of the departed warriors, after they had entered their airy
-halls, were supposed to pursue pleasures similar in character to those
-which had engaged their attention on earth. They listened to the strains
-of immortal bards; followed the chase over the illimitable fields of
-heaven; visited the scenes of their former glories; and when resting
-within their tombs, they would talk of mortal men, and sing the songs of
-other worlds. Airy and unsubstantial as a wreath of mist, they often
-wandered on the surface of the earth. The ghost of a mighty hero,
-clothed in a panoply of lurid clouds, and armed with a meteor, might be
-seen brooding o'er his tomb, or attended "by a ridge of formless
-shades," it swept across former battle-fields. The men of bygone days,
-wreathed in their vapoury robes, and reposing on clouds, hovered on the
-midnight blast, which bore in its mighty cadences the echoing sounds of
-the voices of the dead; or "like the new moon seen through the gathered
-mist, when the sky pours down its flaky snow, and the world is silent
-and dark,"[34] the spirits of the maidens glided over the rugged hills,
-or roamed on the pebbly shore.
-
-The early Scandinavian traditions and historical writings, are pregnant
-with ghosts and other supernatural agents. Mr. Howitt[35] quotes from
-one of the Eddaic songs, which records the lives of a hero named Helge
-and his wife Sigrun, the following singularly interesting scene.
-
-Helge died, and the body was laid in its cairn. In the evening Sigrun's
-maid passed the cairn, and saw the ghost of Helge ride into it with a
-numerous train. Addressing the ghost, the maid said, "Is it an illusion
-that I see, or the Eve of the Mighty, that ye ride your horses and urge
-them with your spurs? Or are the heroes bound for their homes?" The
-ghost replied, "It is no illusion which thou seest, nor the Eve of the
-Mighty; though thou seest us, and we urge our horses with our spurs;
-neither are the heroes bound for their homes."
-
-The maid then went to her mistress and said, "Haste thee, Sigrun, from
-the hill of Seva, if the leader of the battle thou desirest to see. Open
-is the cairn; Helge is come; the war-scars bleed. Helge bade thee to
-still his dripping wound." Sigrun went to the cairn, and entering it,
-said to the shade of her dead husband, "Now am I as joyful of our
-meeting as Odin's ravens when, long-fasting, they scent the warm food,
-or the day-wearied when they behold the close of day. I will kiss my
-lifeless king before thou throwest off thy bloody cuirass. Thy hair, O
-Helge! is pierced through with frost, or with the dew of death is the
-hero slain. Cold are the hands of the friend of Hoegne. How, therefore,
-King, shall I find a cure for thee?"--"Thou only, Sigrun! on the hill of
-Seva," replied the ghost, "art the cause that Helge is here, slain by
-the dew of sorrow. Thou weepest, gold-adorned one! burning tears, maid
-of the sun-glowing south! Before thou sleepest, every tear shall fall
-bloody on the breast of the Prince, pierced through with the cold of thy
-grief. But we will drink the precious mead together, though we have lost
-gladness and lands. Yet no one sings a song of woe, though he sees a
-wound in my breast. Now are the brides closed in the cairns, and the
-princely maidens are laid beside us."
-
-Sigrun made a bed in the cairn, and said, "Here have I, Helge, prepared
-rest for thee; rest free from all trouble. Son of the Ylfinga! I will
-sleep in thy arms as formerly, when my hero lived." The ghost answered,
-"No longer will I say that thou art unfaithful on the hill of Seva.
-Since thou sleepest in the embrace of the dead in the cairn, thou fair
-daughter of Hoegur! And yet thou livest, offspring of kings! Time is to
-ride the red ways. Let the pale steed tramp the steeps of the air. In
-the west must we be, by the bridge Vindhjalen, ere the cock in Walhalla
-wakes the sons of victory."
-
-In the Eyrbyggja Saga (written before A.D. 1264; period when the events
-recorded occurred, A.D. 883) is an account of certain spectral
-apparitions which followed the death of a lady whose commands upon the
-death-bed had not been obeyed. This story is almost unique in character,
-and it is a singularly interesting example of the ghost-belief of
-Iceland at an early period.
-
-On the evening of the day when the corpse was being removed to a distant
-place of sepulture, an apparition of the lady was seen busily preparing
-victuals in the kitchen of the house where the bearers reposed for the
-night. On the night when the conductors of the funeral returned home, a
-spectral appearance resembling a half-moon glided around the boarded
-walls of the mansion, in a direction opposite to that of the sun, and
-continued its revolutions until the domestics retired to rest. "This
-apparition was renewed every night during the whole week, and was
-pronounced by Thorer with the wooden leg to presage pestilence and
-mortality." Shortly after, a herdsman showed signs of being persecuted
-by demons, and one morning he was found dead in bed, "and then" (to
-quote literally from Sir Walter Scott's abstract of the Saga) "commenced
-a scene of ghost-seeing unheard of in the annals of superstition. The
-first victim was Thorer, who had presaged the calamity. Going out of
-doors one evening, he was grappled by the spectre of the deceased
-shepherd as he attempted to re-enter the house. His wooden leg stood him
-in poor stead in such an encounter; he was hurled to the earth and so
-fearfully beaten that he died in consequence of the bruises. Thorer was
-no sooner dead than his ghost associated itself to that of the herdsman,
-and joined him in pursuing and assaulting the inhabitants of Froda.
-Meantime an infectious disorder spread fast amongst them, and several of
-the bondsmen died one after the other. Strange portents were seen
-within doors, the meal was displaced and mingled, and the dried fish
-flung about in a most alarming manner, without any visible agent. At
-length, while the servants were forming their evening circle around the
-fire, a spectre resembling the head of a seal-fish was seen to emerge
-out of the pavement of the room, bending its round black eyes full on
-the tapestried bed-curtains of Thorgunna (the deceased lady). Some of
-the domestics ventured to strike at the figure; but, far from giving
-way, it rather erected itself further from the floor, until Kiartan, who
-seemed to have a natural predominance over these supernatural prodigies,
-seizing a huge forge-hammer, struck the seal repeatedly on the head, and
-compelled it to disappear, forcing it down into the floor, as if he had
-driven a stake into the earth. This prodigy was found to intimate a new
-calamity. Thorodd, the master of the family, had some time before set
-forth on a voyage to bring home a cargo of dried fish; but, in crossing
-the river Enna, the skiff was lost, and he perished with the servants
-who attended him. A solemn funeral feast was held at Froda, in memory of
-the deceased, when, to the astonishment of the guests, the apparition of
-Thorodd and his followers seemed to enter the apartment dripping with
-water. Yet this vision excited less horror than might have been
-expected; for the islanders, though nominally Christians, retained,
-among other superstitions, a belief that the spectres of such drowned
-persons as had been favourably received by the goddess Rana were wont to
-show themselves at their funeral feast. They saw, therefore, with some
-composure, Thorodd and his dripping attendants plant themselves by the
-fire, from which all mortal guests retreated to make room for them. It
-was supposed this apparition would not be renewed after the conclusion
-of the festival. But so far were their hopes disappointed, that, so soon
-as the mourning guests had departed, the fires being lighted, Thorodd
-and his comrades marched in on one side, drenched as before with water;
-on the other entered Thorer, heading all those who had died in the
-pestilence, and who appeared covered with dust. Both parties seized the
-seats by the fire, while the half-frozen and terrified domestics spent
-the night without either light or warmth. The same phenomenon took place
-the next night, though the fires had been lighted in a separate house,
-and at length Kiartan was obliged to compound matters with the spectres
-by kindling a large fire for them in the principal apartment, and one
-for the family and domestics in a separate hut. This prodigy continued
-during the whole feast of Jol. Other portents also happened to appal
-this devoted family; the contagious disease again broke forth, and when
-any one fell a sacrifice to it, his spectre was sure to join the troop
-of persecutors, who had now almost full possession of the mansion of
-Froda. Thorgrima Galldrakinna, wife of Thorer, was one of these victims;
-and, in short, of thirty servants belonging to the household, eighteen
-died, and five fled for fear of the apparitions, so that only seven
-remained in the service of Kiartan."
-
-The trouble and annoyance from the spectres had now reached so serious a
-pitch that, by the advice of a maternal uncle, Kiartan instituted
-judicial measures against the spectres.
-
-"A tribunal being then constituted, with the usual legal solemnities, a
-charge was preferred by Kiartan against Thorer with the wooden leg, by
-Thordo Kausa against Thorodd, and by others chosen as accusers against
-the individual spectres present, accusing them of molesting the mansion,
-and introducing death and disease among its inhabitants. All the solemn
-rites of judicial procedure were observed on this singular occasion;
-evidence was adduced, charges given, and the cause formally decided. It
-does not appear that the ghosts put themselves on their defence, so that
-sentence of ejectment was pronounced against them individually in due
-and legal form. When Thorer heard the judgment, he arose, and saying,
-'I have sat while it was lawful for me to do so,' left the apartment by
-the door opposite to that at which the judicial assembly was
-constituted. Each of the spectres, as they heard their individual
-sentence, left the place, saying something which indicated their
-unwillingness to depart, until Thorodd himself was solemnly appointed to
-depart. 'We have here no longer,' said he, 'a peaceful dwelling,
-therefore will we remove.' Kiartan then entered the hall with his
-followers, and the priest, with holy water, and celebration of a solemn
-mass, completed the conquest over the goblins, which had been commenced
-by the power and authority of the Icelandic law."
-
-The spectral phenomena of the ancient Swedish folk-lore differs in no
-respect from the current histories of recent date. An interesting
-example of this is found in the beautiful ballad of Sir Ulf and Lady
-Soelfverlind.
-
-Sir Ulf was a nobleman who had married a wife from a foreign country.
-After they had lived together eight years, and had had a family of three
-children, the Lady Soelfverlind died. In a short time he married again,
-and by his second wife, the Lady Stineborg, he had also several
-children. This lady, however, proved a cruel step-mother; for, as the
-ballad reads:--
-
-    "Lady Stineborg's children went out to play,
-    Lady Soelfverlind's children sate weeping all day.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    The youngest child it wept so loud,
-    That it woke its mother beneath the sod.
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    Lady Soelfverlind spoke to the angel-band:
-    'Is it granted to visit the earthly land?'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'It is granted from heaven to earth to go,
-    But thou must return ere the first cock crow.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    She came to the door, she tirled at the pin;
-    'Rise up, my children, and let me in.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'On sticks and stones why lie you thus?'
-    'Nothing besides is given to us.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Why look ye, my children, so grim and so grey?'
-    'We have not been washed since thou went away.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Rise up, Lady Stineborg, hearken to me,
-    For I have a few words to speak unto thee!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both upland and low,
-    Yet now my children must supperless go.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left behind me both oxen and kine,
-    Yet now they go barefoot, these children of mine.'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'I left soft down pillows, full many a one,
-    Now hard sticks and stones are the bed they lie on!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Hadst thou to my children shown tenderness sweet,
-    God the Father in heaven had found thee a seat!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    'Have thy children in me a hard step-mother known?
-    Henceforth will I love them as well as my own!'
-                This know we of Ulf.
-
-    There ne'er was a lovelier sight in the sky,
-    Than Soelfverlind taking her children on high.
-                This know we of Ulf."[36]
-
-The ghost-belief of Hindostan is one of the most important of the
-popular superstitions of that country. It differs from that of more
-westerly countries in the degree of reality with which the natives have
-invested it; for while the former look upon the interference of the
-spirits of the dead in the events of ordinary life as a circumstance of
-rare occurrence, and regard manifestations of this nature with an awe
-befitting their solemnity and supernatural character, the latter lives
-in an atmosphere of spectral beings, which are the spirits of those who
-have lived a wicked life on earth, and retain their malignant
-disposition unabated after death, if indeed it is not increased in
-intensity by the devil-like nature they assume, and exercise their evil
-powers in all the affairs of life, haunting the localities which they
-previously inhabited, and terrifying and tormenting alike friend and
-foe. Neither are their terrors confined to mere occasional apparition,
-and to the fear excited by this, but to the power which they possess of
-interference by physical force; for they belabour with blows, or
-grievously affect with bodily ailments, the unhappy individuals whom
-they haunt, and often subject to inexpressible tortures those who have
-had the ill-hap to offend them. Hence the Hindoo dreads a ghost not so
-much on account of its supernatural character, abstractedly considered,
-as for the physical evil it may inflict upon him.
-
-The ghosts of the wicked, and of the unmarried (as it is thought in some
-provinces), are alone permitted to wander on earth, and they have a
-partiality, like our own ghosts, for frequenting solitary places, woods,
-caverns, and ruins, from which they issue to exercise their baleful
-powers on man.
-
-Sometimes a ghost will haunt a certain house, or a plot of ground, and
-become so obstreperous, that the occupier of the house is obliged to
-desert it, and the proprietor of the land to allow it to become waste.
-But it has happened that if the spirit was that of an old proprietor, a
-deed executed in its name has appeased it, and it has no more troubled
-the place.
-
-These spirits are called, in the Deccan, _Virikas_, and in the more
-southerly parts of India, _Paisachi_. It is customary to erect small
-shrines to them, formed of a pile of stones, on the top of which is a
-sheltered cavity, containing an image, or a rough, shapeless stone, to
-which offerings of cloth, rice, &c., are presented from time to time.
-This propitiatory sacrifice is, in general, found to be an efficient
-method of obtaining immunity from the malignant pranks of the ghosts;
-but if it be neglected, they will visit the unfortunate sinner with
-torments and misfortune, or, appearing to him by night, intimate the
-miseries hanging over his head, unless he quickly amends himself, and
-offers up the necessary gifts.
-
-Dr. Buchanan relates a story of the apparition of a _Paisachi_ which
-occurred during his journey in Mysore. His cook had been taken ill, and
-died; orders had been given to secure his effects for the benefit of his
-wife and children, "but on inspection, after his death, no money could
-be found. Whether he had been plundered as soon as he became insensible,
-and that a guilty conscience occasioned fears among his companions, or
-whether the sudden manner of his death occasioned suspicions, I cannot
-say; but it was immediately believed that he would become a _Paisachi_,
-and all my people were filled with terror. The butler imagined that the
-_Paisachi_ appeared to him at night with a black silk handkerchief tied
-round its head, and gave him instructions to take all the effects of the
-deceased to his family; upon this, the latter, being a man of courage,
-put his shoes on the right side of the door, which he considered to be a
-sure preventive against such intruders. Next night a cattle-driver,
-lying in all the agonies of nocturnal terror, saw the appearance of a
-dog enter, and smell round the place where the man had died; when, to
-his utter dismay, the spectre gradually grew larger and larger, and at
-length, having assumed the form of the cook, vanished with a shriek. The
-poor man had not the courage to use the slippers, but lay till morning
-in a kind of stupor. After this, even the minds of the _sepoys_ were
-appalled, and when I happened to be awake I heard the sentries, by way
-of keeping up their courage, singing with a tremulous voice."
-
-There is a class of men called _Cani_, or _Shaycana_, who are supposed
-to have the power of ejecting and frightening away troublesome spirits
-by the performance of certain mystic ceremonies. It is requisite, first,
-to ascertain whether the offending ghost is that of a stranger, or if it
-belong to any deceased member of the family; for it would seem that much
-more powerful incantations are required to get rid of a family ghost,
-which seems to have the opinion that it has a right to haunt its
-relations in the flesh, than to eject the ghost of a stranger. The
-latter, according to Dr. Buchanan, may be got rid of for a fanam, or
-about ninepence sterling; the former requires expensive sacrifices and
-many prayers, therefore the fee is much larger.
-
-The Chinese have a great dread of ghosts, particularly of the ghosts of
-those who have come to an untimely end. They suspend in their houses,
-for the purpose of preventing the entrance of these spirits, and of
-defending themselves from their influence, a cruciform piece of iron, to
-which is attached pieces of perforated money, the coinage of emperors
-who have been deified, and who are conceived to exercise a protective
-power over their votaries.
-
-The superstitions of the modern Egyptians and of the Arabs are rich in
-ghosts.
-
-The term _efreet_ is applied to the ghosts of dead persons, as well as
-to evil genii, by the Egyptians; and the following story, related by Mr.
-Lane, will illustrate the nature of this superstition as it is
-entertained by that people.
-
-"I had once a humorous cook, who was somewhat addicted to the
-intoxicating hhasheesh: soon after he had entered my service, I heard
-him, one evening, muttering and exclaiming on the stairs, as if in
-surprise at some event; and then politely saying, "But why are you
-sitting here in the draught? Do me the favour to come up into the
-kitchen, and amuse me with your conversation a little." The civil
-address not being answered, was repeated and varied several times, till
-I called out to the man, and asked him to whom he was speaking. "The
-efreet of a Turkish soldier," he replied, "is sitting on the stairs,
-smoking his pipe, and refuses to move; he came up from the well below:
-pray step and see him." On my going to the stairs, and telling the
-servant that I could see nothing, he only remarked that it was because I
-had a clear conscience. He was told afterwards that the house had long
-been haunted; but asserted that he had not been previously informed of
-the supposed cause; which was the fact of a Turkish soldier having been
-murdered there. My cook professed to see this efreet frequently
-after."[37]
-
-The Arabs entertain a considerable degree of fear and respect for
-ghosts.
-
-Mr. Bayle St. John states that when travelling through the Libyan
-desert, in 1847, he saw a burial-place of the Bedouin Arabs, in the
-centre of which were confusedly scattered "camel-howdahs"
-(_tachterwans_), stirrups, household utensils, small ploughs, &c.,
-which had been left there by the Arabs, when commencing a journey, under
-the care of the ghost of a defunct sheikh, who had been interred
-there.[38]
-
-Some of the aboriginal tribes of South America believe in the occasional
-apparition of the souls of the dead.
-
-Soon after the Roman Catholic mission was established at Bahia, an
-eclipse of the moon occurred; the savages, fully armed, rushed in terror
-to the mission, and when the priest inquired the cause of their alarm,
-they responded that the moon was the abode of the souls of the dead, and
-that on that night they had collected there in such numbers that they
-darkened its surface: this was a sure sign of evil.
-
-Such is a brief sketch of the ghost-belief of several nations, ancient
-and modern.
-
-This belief, in its essential characteristics, was the same in the
-remote periods of antiquity as in more recent times; and a similar
-analogy exists between the modifications of it which are now entertained
-in different and widely separated countries.
-
-The variations which it is found to possess are dependent upon those
-peculiarities of habit, religion, and social life which characterize
-each nation. This fact gives an important clue by which we may unravel
-the actual nature of the phenomena which are embodied in the belief. But
-previously to entering upon this task it is requisite to point out a
-remote consequence of mythological and legendary lore which exercises a
-highly important influence on the minds of most if not all persons at
-the present time.
-
-The numerous myths which were retained, the implicit faith reposed in
-them, and the great extent to which the practice of the occult sciences
-was carried in the Middle Ages, fostered ideas respecting the influence
-which supernatural beings exercised in the ordinary affairs of life,
-which rivalled in extent and variety those entertained before the
-Christian era; but they received perhaps a more gloomy character from
-the doctrine of the agency of devils.
-
-The prevalence of these superstitions throws a wild and weird-like
-shadow over the history of those periods, and one of the chief results
-was that the records of local and general events became pregnant with
-mysterious occurrences and supernatural interpositions; and a mass of
-legends, teeming with remnants of ancient myths, more or less modified,
-giants, demons, witches, wizards, ghosts, portents, &c., have been
-perpetuated to modern times, and have formed an inexhaustible mine to
-the novelist and romance-writer.
-
-There are few localities in England which do not possess legends or
-tradition of this nature; and the standard nursery and children's tales
-are full of supernatural personages and occurrences in which are set
-aside all the known laws of matter and force, and time and space are
-alike annihilated. Many of these tales are of great interest, for in
-them we find degenerated forms of some of the most ancient traditions
-and myths of our own and other races.
-
-The adventures of _Jack the Giant-Killer_, the most celebrated of all
-celebrated nursery heroes, are for the most part derived from the
-fabulous era of our own country, and from Scandinavian mythology; and
-the whole tale is a degraded and vitiated tradition in which the deeds
-of Corineus, a celebrated personage in the mythical history of Britain,
-and Prince Arthur; the adventures of Thor, the god of thunder, and other
-Scandinavian deities, are jumbled together in strange confusion.
-
-Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his British History[39] states that the early
-inhabitants of this island were giants. Brutus, a grandson of Ascanius,
-the companion of AEneas in his flight from Troy, and Corineus, also of
-Trojan descent, guided by a dream, discovered Britain, and delighted
-with "the pleasant situation of the place, the plenty of rivers
-abounding with fish, and the engaging prospect of its woods," they
-became desirous of fixing their habitation in so desirable a country,
-and landing, drove the giants into the fastnesses of the mountains, and
-divided the country.
-
-To Corineus was apportioned that part of the island which we call
-Cornwall, and it is recorded that he had selected this portion of the
-island for his share, because "it was a diversion to him to encounter
-the said giants, which were in greater numbers there than in all the
-other provinces that fell to the share of his companions."
-
-Corineus is described as being "an ardent man in matters of council, and
-of great courage and boldness; who in an encounter with any person, even
-of gigantic stature, would immediately overthrow him as if he were a
-child."
-
-In the same fabulous history (B. X, ch. 3) it is stated, that a giant
-who had invaded our shores, and taken refuge at the top of St. Michael's
-Mount, was attacked by King Arthur in the night and killed; the country
-being thus freed "from a most destructive and voracious monster."
-
-Some of Jack's principal adventures are derived from the ancient Eddas
-and Sagas of Scandinavia.
-
-The incident which represents Jack as having overheard a giant, upon
-whose hospitality he had intruded, muttering--
-
-    "Though you lodge with me this night,
-    You shall not see the morning light;
-    My club shall dash your brains out quite;"
-
-and in which he had evaded the catastrophe by placing a log of wood in
-the bed, he lying quietly in a corner, while the giant furiously beat
-with his club the inanimate object, thinking to dash him to pieces; and
-the delightfully cool response of Jack to the wonder-struck giant when
-he beheld him safe and sound in the morning, and inquired if he had not
-been disturbed in the night,--"No, nothing worth mentioning, I believe a
-rat struck me with his tail two or three times:"--this incident is a
-modification of an adventure which occurred to Thor on his journey to
-the land of giants, and it is found in some form or other in the
-folk-lore of every nation in the north of Europe.
-
-Thor, while journeying to the land of giants, met with one of that race
-named Skrymir. They formed a companionship, and the whole of the
-provisions were placed in the giant's wallet. At night, when they
-stopped to rest, Skrymir at once lay down and fell asleep, previously
-handing the wallet to Thor in order that he might refresh himself. Thor
-was unable to open it, and wroth with the giant for his apparent
-insensibility and the mode in which he had tied the knots, he seized his
-mighty hammer and flung it at the giant's head. Skrymir awaking, asked
-whether a leaf had fallen on his head, and then he fell asleep again.
-Thor again struck him with his hammer, and it apparently sank deep into
-his skull; and the giant again awoke, and asked, "Did an acorn fall on
-my head? How fares it with thee, Thor?" Thor, incensed beyond measure,
-waited until the giant again slept, and then exerting all his power,
-dashed his hammer at the head of the sleeping monster, into which it
-sank up to the handle. Skrymir, rising up, rubbed his cheek and said,
-"Are there any birds perched on this tree? Methought, when I awoke, some
-moss from the branches fell on my head."
-
-Skrymir, distrusting Thor, had before he slept interposed a huge rock
-betwixt himself and the god, and upon this Thor had unwittingly
-exercised his strength.
-
-The adventure in which Jack is represented as outwitting a giant in
-eating, by placing his food in a large leathern receptacle beneath his
-vesture, and then ripping it up, and defying the giant to do the same,
-whereupon the giant seizes a knife, plunges it into his breast and
-kills himself, is contained also in stories which are prevalent among
-the Swedes, Norwegians, Germans, Servians, and Persians.
-
-The Swedish version is as follows:--"In the evening, when the giant and
-his boy were about to sup, the crone placed a large dish of porridge
-before them. "That would be excellent," said the boy, "if we were to try
-which could eat the most, father or I." The giant was ready for the
-trial, and they began to eat with all their might. But the boy was
-crafty: he had tied his wallet before his chest, and for every spoonful
-that entered his mouth, he let two fall into the wallet. When the giant
-had despatched seven bowls of porridge, he had taken his fill, and sat
-puffing and blowing, and unable to swallow another spoonful; but the boy
-continued with just as much good-will as when he began. The giant asked
-him how it was, that he who was so little could eat so much. "Father, I
-will soon show you: when I have eaten as much as I can contain, I slit
-up my stomach, and then I can take in as much again." Saying these
-words, he took a knife and ripped up the wallet, so that the porridge
-ran out. The giant thought this a capital plan, and that he would do the
-like. But when he stuck the knife in his stomach, the blood began to
-flow, and the end of the matter was that it proved his death."[40]
-
-The sword of sharpness, and the cloak which rendered the wearer
-invisible, and by the aid of which Jack won so many important victories,
-are two of the principal supernatural elements in the _Nibelungenlied_.
-In this ancient legend, which contains the same tragical story as the
-still more ancient Scandinavian poem, the _Voelundar-Kvida_, the sword
-"Balmurg" is described:--
-
-                    "a broad and mighty blade,
-    With such keen-cutting edges, that straight its way it made,
-    Where'er it smote on helmet:"
-
-and the cloud-cloak which Siegfried took from the dwarf Albric, is
-pourtrayed as--
-
-    "A vesture that hight cloud-cloak, marvellous to tell,
-    Whoever has it on him, may keep him safe and well
-    From cuts and stabs of foemen; him none can hear or see,
-    As soon as he is in it, but see and hear can he
-    Whate'er he will around him, and thus must needs prevail;
-    He grows besides far stronger; so goes the wondrous tale."[41]
-
-The story of _Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper_, is of great antiquity,
-and versions of it are found in many countries.
-
-AElian, who lived about A.D. 225, relates that, as Rhodope, a celebrated
-Greek courtezan, who had been carried into Egypt, was bathing one day,
-an eagle carried off one of her slippers, and as it flew over Memphis,
-where king Psammetichus was at that time sitting in tribunal, it let
-fall the sandal into his bosom. Astonished at the occurrence, and at the
-smallness of the sandal, he caused inquiries to be made for its owner,
-whom, when he had discovered, he married.
-
-Old versions of this story are found in Norway, Germany, Sweden,
-Denmark, France, Italy, Wallachia, Servia, Russia, Poland, and
-Wales.[42]
-
-In _Jack and the Bean-stalk_, the bean is evidently a version of the ash
-Ygdrasil of the Edda, reaching from hell to heaven; and the golden hen,
-harp, &c., are familiar features in northern stories.
-
-_Puss in Boots_, the _Seven-league Boots_, &c., have their prototypes in
-Scandinavian folk-lore; and the two last-mentioned tales, as well as
-others, are probably of considerable antiquity.
-
-Tales derived from these sources and composed of such elements, and
-fables in which beasts, birds, and fishes are represented as speaking
-and reasoning in a manner that puts man to the blush, are among the
-earliest things engrafted in the infant mind; and ever now
-
-                  "By night
-    The village-matron round the blazing hearth,
-    Suspends the infant-audience with her tales,
-    Breathing astonishment--of witching rhymes,
-    Of evil spirits: of the death-bed call
-    Of him who robb'd the widow, and devoured
-    The orphan's portion: of unquiet souls
-    Risen from the grave to ease the heavy guilt
-    Of deeds in life concealed; of shapes that walk
-    At dead of night, and clank their chains and wave
-    The torch of hell around the murderer's bed.
-    At every solemn pause the crowd recoil,
-    Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd
-    With shiv'ring sighs; till eager for the event,
-    Around the beldam all erect they hang,
-    Each trembling heart with grateful terror quell'd."
-
-Ideas of mysterious and supernatural powers, vague, undefined, and
-frightful, are thus instilled into the child, and influence it unchecked
-and uncontrolled by the Scriptural doctrines of the invisible which are
-taught to it. At first the two trains of thought derived from these
-antithetical sources go on separately and distinctly; the more frightful
-and wonderful events of legendary lore and fable having a much greater
-influence, and forming a deeper impression on the mind of the child,
-whose reasoning powers are still in abeyance to the emotions, than the
-Scriptural doctrines of the supernatural. As it advances in years these
-trains of thought insensibly blend; the more rampant absurdities of the
-supernatural framework of legendary and ghost-lore are discarded; but
-the less obvious and more insidious portions remain to a greater or
-less extent, and they are so graven in the mind, that they become part
-and parcel of it, and in whatever manner they may be subsequently
-modified in form, it is probable that they are never eradicated, but
-form a medium which gives a false and deceptive gloss to all our ideas
-upon those matters which are not immediately within the ken of reason,
-or which are more clearly attributable to other agency than the forces
-of the material word--such matters, for example, as are contained in
-Holy Writ.
-
-Hence our ideas of the supernatural are derived from two sources--from
-legendary lore and from Scripture; and this results, that although in
-after-life the more glaring errors and absurdities of the former are
-removed, those only being retained which are thought to be compatible
-with Holy Writ, yet the idea of the supernatural thus obtained, foreign
-from revelation, is retained in a vague and undefined form, and its
-origin and sources being lost sight of, it is regarded as an innate
-consciousness of the existence of supernatural beings, and prompts to
-the ready reception and belief of mysterious and not readily explicable
-phenomena being the result of supernatural agency.
-
-That proclivity to the belief in supernatural interpositions, that vague
-notion of spiritual beings, that so-called innate consciousness of the
-existence of the supernatural, which most persons possess more or less
-of, and which is totally inconsistent with the clear and perfect
-doctrine of the invisible taught in the Gospel, is, we believe, derived
-solely from the infant mind and earlier periods of youth being poisoned
-by the supernatural events and phenomena detailed in fabulous,
-legendary, and ghost-lore.[43]
-
-This substratum of superstition is the prime cause of the retention of
-those figments of degenerated and christianized mythology which are yet
-found among us, and for the persistence of the most generally received
-of these figments--_ghosts_. It is also a highly important element in
-the formation of that state of the mind which is from time to time
-manifested in singular and wide-spreading delusions respecting the
-communication of the spirit-world with man, and of which we have
-examples before us at the present time in the prevalent follies of
-"spirit-rapping" and "table-talking."
-
-The belief in ghosts does not now possess those glaring features which
-were attached to it at the commencement of the present century, hence it
-is less obtrusive; but it is very far from being extinguished, as some
-would teach, and its "etiology" is of interest, because it leads to the
-elucidation of the principal causes and sources of the fallacies to
-which the senses of man are subject, and by which he has been led in
-the remotest periods of antiquity, as well as at the present time, to
-frame those mighty trammels of superstition from which the mind in vain
-strives to disentangle itself completely.
-
-The doctrine that the spirits of the dead return to visit the scenes
-which were dear to them during the body's existence, is in itself
-awfully solemn and sublime. Man, prone to believe in supernatural
-interpositions (from causes already explained), and trusting altogether
-to the evidence of his senses, for many ages received this doctrine
-unquestioned; and aided by a fertile imagination, he clothed it with
-attributes which, although absurd in the main, yet as appealing to some
-of the deepest and warmest affections and passions of our nature, cannot
-even now be contemplated without exciting sensations of awe, if not
-fear.
-
-The thought that the spirits of those who, during life, were bound
-to us by the closest ties of affection, are ever near, scrutinizing
-our actions and thoughts, and prompting us ever and anon to that
-course which would most tend to our profit here and our joy
-hereafter[44]--shielding us, like guardian angels, from the wiles
-of those wandering spirits who, like the "Wicked One" that came
-softly up to Christian in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and
-"whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he
-verily thought had proceeded from his own mind,"[45] seek to tempt
-us to destruction,--such a thought thrills through the soul of every
-one, and fills it with strange and undefined emotions of blended joy
-and fear.
-
-Few can free themselves altogether from the emotion of terror which is
-almost necessarily connected with scenes polluted by murder, or by other
-outbreaks of man's foulest passions. This feeling acting on the minds
-of the superstitious and ignorant, has led them to people with spectres
-all those places which have obtained notoriety from being the scene of
-some terrible ebullition of human frailty and wickedness.
-
-Thus, the glen where murder had been committed; the pond in which the
-mother had immersed her new-born infant; the hoary ruin pregnant with
-horrid legends of the past; the rocks over which the inebriated drunkard
-fell; the four cross roads where the suicide was impaled; the dwelling
-of the miser, or of him who did unjustly to the orphan; and the
-willow-banks of the still-flowing river into which the love-lorn maiden
-had cast herself,--each had its spectre, and at the midnight hour the
-ghost of the murdered bared to the moon the mementos of its foul and
-most unnatural end; the spectre of the murderer, writhing in agony,
-rattled its gibbet-chains; the suffocating sobs of the drowning infant
-were borne on the fitful breeze; hideous spectres hovered o'er the
-deserted ruin; the ghost of the miser guarded its quondam treasures; the
-cruel guardian and the suicide shrieked forth the agonies of the damned;
-and the phantom of the deceived maiden gliding on the banks of her
-watery grave, mingled its plaintive wails with each sough of the
-midnight wind.
-
-But, alas! this prolific source of terror and romance must be consigned
-to the delusions of the past; and the churchyard--erst pregnant with
-"thin-sheeted phantoms"--is now also shorn of its gloomy horrors, and
-regarded alone as the last quiet resting-place of man on earth.
-
-Even when glimpses of the spirit-world are vouchsafed to those who still
-firmly believe in occasional visitations from its inhabitants, it would
-seem that the fashion of their appearance has become more in accordance
-with the quiet well-regulated ideas of the age. The major part of those
-terrible attributes of the nether world, that of old were delighted in,
-are no longer exhibited, and they are numbered with the things that have
-been. The form which appertained to Satan himself--the cloven foot, the
-forked tail, the hirsute frame, and the horned head--must also vanish
-before the march of civilisation; hence Mephistopheles, in the "Faust"
-of Goethe, is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Refinement too, which smoothens all
-      O'er which it in the world has pass'd,
-    Has been extended in its call,
-      And reached the devil, too, at last.
-    That northern phantom found no more can be,
-    Horns, tail, and claws, we now no longer see,
-      As for the foot--I cannot spare it,
-      But were I openly to wear it,
-      It might do greater harm than good
-      To me among the multitude.
-    And so like many a youth beside,
-      Who bravely to the eye appears,
-    Yet something still contrives to hide,
-      I've worn false calves for many years!"
-
-The phenomena upon which the belief of the occasional manifestation of
-disembodied spirits to man is founded, may be accounted for without
-having recourse to the doctrine of supernatural interposition.
-
-Our senses and our reasoning powers are apt to err. We may deceive
-ourselves, and are liable to be deceived by an erroneous appreciation of
-the sensations which we receive from the objects surrounding
-us--_illusions_--but of the nature of which we may readily convince
-ourselves.
-
-Illusions of the _sight_ may arise either from an error of judgment, or
-from a disordered state of the eye.
-
-Of those illusions arising from an error of judgment, perhaps none bear
-directly upon our subject. Examples of this kind of illusion are the
-broken appearance of a stick partially immersed in water; the apparent
-movement of trees, houses, &c., past a train in motion, or the banks of
-a river past a steamboat.
-
-Illusions arising from a disordered condition of the eye, prompting the
-imagination, are a prolific source of ghost-seeing.
-
-In the obscurity of the evening, or during the darkness of the night
-(particularly on those nights which are cloudy, and the darkness seems
-to rest on the ground), the difficulty with which we distinguish any
-object to which the attention is directed, is liable to induce a
-disordered state of the eye, the effects of which are very startling.
-
-"The imperfect view which we obtain of such objects forces us to fix the
-eye more steadily upon them; but the more exertion we make to ascertain
-what they are, the greater difficulties do we encounter to accomplish
-our object. The eye is actually thrown into a state of the most painful
-agitation, the object will swell and contract, and partly disappear, and
-it will again become visible when the eye has recovered from the
-delirium into which it has been thrown."[46]
-
-This illusion is increased by a disturbed condition of the pupil of the
-eye.
-
-The pupil is surrounded by a muscle called the _iris_, by the
-contraction and dilatation of which the size of the opening is increased
-or diminished, and a greater or less amount of light admitted to the
-eye. On a dark night, or during the twilight, the pupil is dilated to
-its utmost extent, so that every available ray of light may enter. In
-this condition the eye is not able to accommodate itself to near
-objects, and they become more indistinct; shadowy, and confused.
-
-Under these circumstances, an object to which the attention is strongly
-attracted, may appear to assume strange variations in form,--now
-increasing, now diminishing in size, now approaching nearer, now going
-further off, or anon disappearing altogether; and a bush, a guide-post,
-a stoop, &c., will seem as though it assumed the most startling changes
-in size and appearance. Add the effects of the imagination, and we shall
-at once perceive a source of the various goblins, boggards, and other
-strange sights which have been supposed to haunt many of our byeways and
-deserted places.
-
-To illustrate this form of illusion: a man with whom we were acquainted
-tells the following tale:--When young, he, one evening, had a quarrel
-with his mother about some trifling affair, and in defiance of her grief
-and supplications he left home late at night, intending to enter the
-army. It was very dark and stormy, and as he proceeded along a bye-path,
-suddenly a tall object arrested his attention; startled, he stood still,
-when, to his utter horror and astonishment, the object increased in
-size, and seemed as though about to pounce upon him; it then vanished,
-and anon appeared again. Terrified beyond measure, and conceiving that
-Satan had waylaid him for forsaking his mother, the poor man fell on
-his knees, and exclaimed: "O good Lord Devil, do not take me, and I'll
-go back to my mother, and be a good lad!" It is unnecessary to dwell
-upon the goggle eyes burning with flames which he imagined Satan to
-possess; suffice it that he remained before the supposed devil some
-time, overcome with terror, when a blink of the rising moon showed that
-he was laid at the foot of the stump of a tree. Heartily ashamed of his
-fear, he rose up, slunk back home, and made peace with his mother.[47]
-
-This will suffice as an example of the most degraded form of ghost-life
-with which our highways and byeways have been peopled by the
-superstitious and illiterate,--illusions which have arisen from the
-effects of a disturbed condition of the visual organ on an excited
-imagination. Burns humorously describes this variety of ghost in his
-"Address to the Deil:"
-
-    "Ae dreary, windy, winter night,
-    The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light,
-    Wi' you, mysel, I gat a fright,
-              Ayont the lough:
-    Ye like a rash-bush stood in sight
-              Wi' waving sugh.
-
-    "The cudgel in my nieve did shake,
-    Each bristled hair stood like a stake,
-    When wi' an eldricht stour, quaick--quaick--
-              Amang the springs,
-    Awa ye squatter'd like a drake,
-              On whistling wings."
-
-Another form of illusion is induced by objects seen indistinctly when
-the mind is disturbed and pre-occupied by some powerful and painful
-emotion.
-
-"A lady was once passing through a wood, in the darkening twilight of a
-stormy evening, to visit a friend who was watching over a dying child.
-The clouds were thick, the rain beginning to fall; darkness was
-increasing; the wind was moaning mournfully through the trees. The
-lady's heart almost failed her as she saw that she had a mile to walk
-through the woods in the gathering gloom. But the reflection of the
-situation of her friend forbade her turning back. Excited and trembling,
-she called to her aid a nervous resolution, and pressed onward. She had
-not proceeded far, when she beheld in the path before her the movement
-of some very indistinct object. It appeared to keep a little distance in
-advance of her, and as she made efforts to get nearer to see what it
-was, it seemed proportionally to recede. The lady began to feel rather
-unpleasantly. There was some pale white object certainly discernable
-before her, and it appeared mysteriously to float along at a regular
-distance without any effort at motion. Notwithstanding the lady's good
-sense and unusual resolution, a cold chill began to come over her; she
-made every effort to resist her fears, and soon succeeded in drawing
-nearer the mysterious object, when she was appalled at beholding the
-features of her friend's child, cold in death, wrapt in its shroud. She
-gazed earnestly, and then it remained distinct and clear before her
-eyes. She considered it a monition that her friend's child was dead, and
-that she must hasten on to her aid; but there was the apparition
-directly in her path; she must pass it. Taking up a little stick, she
-forced herself along to the object, and behold, some little animal
-scampered away. It was this that her excited imagination had transformed
-into the corpse of an infant in its winding-sheet."[48]
-
-Sir Walter Scott relates an interesting case of illusion occasioned by
-an accidental arrangement of some articles of clothing:--
-
-"Not long after the death of a late illustrious poet, who had filled,
-while living, a great station in the eye of the public, a literary
-friend, to whom the deceased had been well known, was engaged, during
-the darkening twilight of an autumn evening, in perusing one of the
-publications which professed to detail the habits and opinions of the
-distinguished individual who was now no more. As the reader had enjoyed
-the intimacy of the deceased to a considerable degree, he was deeply
-interested in the publication, which contained some particulars relating
-to himself and other friends. A visitor was sitting in the apartment who
-was also engaged in reading. Their sitting-room opened into an
-entrance-hall rather fantastically fitted up with articles of armour,
-skins of wild animals, and the like. It was when laying down his book,
-and passing into this hall, through which the moon was beginning to
-shine, that the individual of whom I speak saw, right before him, and in
-a standing position, the exact representation of his departed friend,
-whose recollection had been so strongly brought to his imagination. He
-stopped for a single moment, so as to notice the wonderful accuracy with
-which fancy had impressed upon the bodily eye the peculiarities of
-dress and posture of the illustrious poet. Sensible, however, of the
-delusion, he felt no sentiment save that of wonder at the extraordinary
-accuracy of the resemblance, and stepped onwards towards the figure,
-which resolved itself, as he approached, into the various materials of
-which it was composed. These were merely a screen, occupied by
-great-coats, shawls, plaids, and such other articles as usually are
-found in a country entrance-hall. The spectator returned to the spot
-from which he had seen the illusion, and endeavoured, with all his
-power, to recall the image which had been so singularly vivid. But this
-was beyond his capacity; and the person who had witnessed the
-apparition, or, more properly, whose excited state had been the means of
-raising it, had only to return, and tell the young friend he had left,
-under what a striking hallucination he had for a moment laboured."[49]
-
-The liability to illusion or hallucination in that transitional state of
-the mind when it reverts to surrounding objects, after it has been
-pre-occupied with some absorbing and intense thought, is very strikingly
-shown in the above case. It is very similar to that condition of the
-mind which obtains between sleeping and waking, when it is well known
-that our dreams are most vivid and brilliant.
-
-Dr. Ferriar relates the following interesting case of illusion
-occasioned by a ray of moonlight acting upon the mind of an individual
-just awaking from a horrid dream.
-
-"A gentleman was benighted while travelling alone in a remote part of
-the highlands of Scotland, and was compelled to ask shelter for the
-night at a small lonely hut. When he was conducted to his bedroom, the
-landlady observed with mysterious reluctance, that he would find the
-window very insecure. On examination, part of the wall appeared to have
-been broken down to enlarge the opening. After some inquiry, he was
-told, that a pedlar, who had lodged in the room a short time before, had
-committed suicide, and was found hanging behind the door in the morning.
-
-"According to one of the superstitions of the country, it was deemed
-improper to remove the body through the door of the house; and to convey
-it through the window was impossible without removing part of the wall.
-Some hints were dropped that the room had been subsequently haunted by
-the poor man's spirit.
-
-"My friend laid his arms, properly prepared against intrusion of any
-kind, by the bedside, and retired to rest, not without some degree of
-apprehension. He was visited in a dream by a frightful apparition, and
-awaking in agony, found himself sitting up in bed with a pistol grasped
-in his right hand. On casting a fearful glance round the room, he
-discovered, by the moonlight, a corpse dressed in a shroud, leaned
-against the wall close by the window. With much difficulty he summoned
-up resolution to approach the dismal object, the features of which, and
-the minutest parts of the funeral apparel, he perceived distinctly. He
-passed one hand over it, felt nothing, and staggered back to the bed.
-After a long interval, and much reasoning with himself, he renewed his
-investigation, and at length discovered that the object of his terrors
-was produced by the moonbeams forming a long bright image through the
-broken window, on which his fancy, impressed by his dream, had produced
-with mischievous accuracy, the lineaments of a body prepared for
-interment."
-
-There are some illusions which arise from certain of the laws of action
-of impressions on the _retina_--that tissue of the eye in which the
-changes necessary to the excitation of the sensation of light by
-luminous rays are induced.
-
-A sensation excited in the retina is not momentary, or during the
-continuance of the exciting cause alone, but it persists some seconds
-after that has been withdrawn. Thus if the end of a burning stick be
-rapidly moved in a circle before the eyes, it gives rise to the
-sensation of an uninterrupted circle of light; the sensation excited on
-each part of the retina enduring for a certain period after the luminous
-point has passed.
-
-The following instance is an example of an illusion, having relation to
-our subject, from this cause.
-
-A gentleman had been earnestly regarding a small and very beautiful
-painting of the Virgin and Child. On turning round from the
-contemplation of it, he was surprised at finding a woman of the full
-size, with an infant in her arms, standing before him. On examining the
-figures more closely he, however, found that the woman wanted the lower
-fourth of the body, and this at once led to a correct appreciation of
-the nature of the phantom. The painting he had been viewing was a
-three-parts length, and it was the persistence of the image upon the
-retina for a short period after he had turned from it, which had given
-rise to the phantom.
-
-A species of divination is made use of in India which has its origin in
-an illusion of this nature, and of which the following is an interesting
-example:--
-
-A lady who was about to undertake a long journey, was persuaded by a
-Moonshee to walk on the verandah and consult her fate.
-
-"It was a clear calm night, the moon was full, and not the faintest
-speck in the sky disturbed her reign. The Ganges was like a flood of
-silver light, hastening on in charmed silence; while on the green smooth
-sward on which they walked a tall shrub here and there stood erect and
-motionless. The young lady, whose impressions were probably deepened by
-the mystical words of the Moonshee, felt a kind of awe stealing over
-her; she looked round upon the accustomed scene as if in some new and
-strange world; and when the old man motioned her to stop, as they
-reached an open space on the sward, she obeyed with an indescribable
-thrill.
-
-"'Look there,' said he, pointing to her shadow, which fell tall and dark
-upon the grass. 'Do you see it?'
-
-"'Yes,' said she faintly, yet beginning to be ashamed. 'How sharply
-defined are its edges! It looks like something you could touch!'
-
-"'But look longer, look better, look steadfastly. Is it still definite?'
-
-"'A kind of halo begins to gather round it: my eyes dazzle.'
-
-"'Then raise them to the heavens; fix them on yonder blue sky. What do
-you see?'
-
-"'I see it still; but it is as white as mist, and of a gigantic size.'
-
-"'Has it a head?' asked the Moonshee in an anxious whisper.
-
-"'Yes, it is complete in all its parts; but now it
-melts--floats--disappears.'
-
-"'Thank God!' said the old man: 'your journey shall be prosperous, such
-is the will of Heaven.'"[50]
-
-When a steady gaze is maintained upon an object until the retina is
-exhausted, which is shown by the imperfect vision, or "dazzling," and
-the eyes are then suddenly directed away from it to an uniformly
-coloured surface, an image of the object, from the persistence of the
-impression, as already stated, will still remain for a short period upon
-the retina; but another phenomenon is also observed, for the exhausted
-condition of the retina renders it incapable of responding, during its
-continuation, to the impression of the original colour of the object,
-and the spectrum appears of a different colour. To this spectral colour
-the term _complementary_ or _accidental_ is applied; and if the colour
-of the object be red, the complementary colour will be green; if yellow,
-deep purple; if black, white, &c., and _vice versa_. Thus then the
-spectral apparition witnessed in the above relation receives a ready
-and intelligible explanation.
-
-The sense of _hearing_ is also subject to illusions: for example, when a
-timid person mistakes the rustling of leaves in a forest for the voices
-of robbers; or the soughing of the wind among the trees, in some place
-of evil repute, for the moaning of a wandering and unhappy spirit.
-
-The varied and undefined noises often produced by the wind when sweeping
-over an irregular surface, among rocks and trees, on the surface of
-water, in forests, or secluded and deep glens; and the mysterious sounds
-occasioned by the rushing of the water in the hollows and caverns of a
-rock-bound coast, have been fertile sources of illusion among the
-superstitious.
-
-The ancient Romans listening to the inexplicable sounds which assailed
-the ear in solitary and wooded places, fabled that they were the voices
-of the wood deities, or as Lucretius beautifully expresses it:--
-
-    "The neighbouring swains believe, or fondly vaunt,
-    Satyrs and nymphs the rural regions haunt;
-    That fauns with wanton revel and delight
-    Disturb the sober silence of the night:
-    That music's blended notes are heard around,
-    The plaintive voice, and harp's according sound:
-    And well they know when Pan, the sylvan god,
-    (While o'er his brows the piny honours nod,)
-    With bending lip awakes the vocal reeds,
-    And the charmed ears of listening satyrs feeds.
-    With joy these tales they tell, or tales like these,
-    And fill the woods with fabled deities."[51]
-
-As the winds swept over the wild heaths of the north, or roared amid the
-mountain passes, bearing upon their bosom the heavy mantling clouds
-which enwreathed the ghosts of the heroes of old, often in their varied
-tones did the ancient Celt conceive that he heard the voices of the
-dead; and he who was stricken with misery deemed that his forefathers
-called upon him to hasten to the land of shadows. "The ghosts of
-fathers," they say, "call away the souls of their race while they behold
-them lonely in the midst of woe." Or when an eddy of wind sweeping into
-the hall awoke a cadence of music as it played over the strings of the
-harps suspended there, the hearers shrunk as the notes thrilled through
-them, and fearfully whispered that the ghosts of the dead touched the
-strings, and asked whose death of all the mighty the ghostly music
-portended. "The harps of the bards, untouched, sound mournful over the
-hill."[52]
-
-The supernatural framework of many legends depends upon illusions of the
-hearing of a similar character.
-
-At Crosmere, near Ellesmere, in Shropshire, there is a tradition that a
-chapel once stood on the borders of the lake, and it was long believed
-that when the waters were ruffled by the wind the sound of the bells
-might be heard beneath the surface; and an old story records that, long
-ago, a church and village were entombed by an earthquake, near the spot
-where Raleigh, in Nottinghamshire, now stands; and that at Christmas,
-even now, the bells may be heard solemnly tolling deep in the bosom of
-the earth.
-
-Among the Cornish miners a very singular superstition prevails, which is
-due to the sounds occurring in old and deserted workings, from the
-dropping of water and other causes. These noises are supposed to be
-produced by certain spirits, which are termed "_Knockers_," and,
-according to the author of "Yeast; a Problem," the miners hold that
-"they are _the ghosts of the old Jews that crucified our Lord, and were
-sent for slaves by the Roman Emperors to work the mines_; and we find
-their old smelting-houses, which we call _Jews' houses_, and their
-blocks, at the bottom of the great bogs, which we call _Jews' tin_; and
-there is a town among us, too, which we call _Market Jew_, but the old
-name was _Marazion_, that means the Bitterness of Zion, they tell me;
-and bitter work it was for them, no doubt, poor souls! We used to break
-into the old shafts and adits which they had made, and find old
-stags'-horn pickaxes that crumbled to pieces when we brought them to
-grass. And they say that, if a man will listen of a still night about
-those old shafts, he may hear the ghosts of them at working, knocking,
-and picking, as clear as if there was a man at work in the next
-level."[53]
-
-But the most common cause of illusion from sound arises from the
-difficulty which all more or less experience, of tracing the direction
-of a sound, particularly if it be indistinct. The ascertainment of the
-direction of a sound, and the distance of the sonorous body, is an act
-of judgment, and it is the result of experience. The power may be
-cultivated to a great extent, and many savage tribes possess it in a
-very high degree; but among civilized nations, where the sounds
-requisite to be attended to are principally of a point-blank character,
-and where the necessity for the cultivation of that nicety of hearing
-which is required in forest life does not exist, the power of
-distinguishing the direction and distance of sounds is very imperfect.
-
-The intensity of the sound, and the position of the ears, contribute to
-the formation of a correct judgment; but if the two ears have precisely
-the same relation to the point from which the sound issues, as when it
-occurs directly before or behind, it is impossible to distinguish by
-the sensation alone whether the sound arises in the front or the rear.
-
-The most familiar and striking illustration of the difficulty
-experienced in determining the direction of sound, is _ventriloquism_.
-By a cultivation of the power of speaking without the aid of the lips,
-and by keeping the muscles of the face in a state of passiveness, the
-ventriloquist, on giving the mind of the listener a certain leading
-idea, will induce him to think that he hears voices issuing from the
-floor, from the ceiling, from within him, or from any position but the
-correct one; and by a modification of the intensity of the sound, it may
-be made to appear as if it arose at different distances, as when voices
-are heard in the distance, which gradually approach the listener, come
-close to him, pass by, and are again lost in the distance. Although
-perfectly aware of the deception, there are few who can correct the
-impressions received, and trace them to their legitimate source.
-
-This uncertainty of distinguishing the direction and the nature of
-sounds has been a prolific source of belief in supernatural occurrences,
-and the majority, if not all, of those mysterious noises which are so
-common in old houses, and which it was customary, from inability to
-discover their origin, to attribute to spiritual agency, have been due
-to this cause. The yielding of wood-work, the scouring of vermin, the
-sighing of the wind in chinks and crannies, have been transformed by
-excited and superstitious imaginations into the sighing, or whispering,
-or knocking of wandering ghosts, and there is, perhaps, not a town or
-village in England which has not at one time or other had one or more
-houses reputed to be haunted by incorporeal visitants who have thus
-announced their presence.
-
-Sir David Brewster relates an interesting example of illusion arising
-from this source. "A gentleman devoid of all superstitious feelings, and
-living in a house free from any gloomy associations, heard, night after
-night, in his bedroom, a singular noise, unlike any ordinary sound to
-which he was accustomed. He had slept in the same room for years without
-hearing it, and he attributed it at first to some change of
-circumstances in the roof or in the walls of the room; but after the
-strictest examination no cause could be found for it. It occurred only
-once in the night; it was heard almost every night with few
-interruptions. It was over in an instant, and it never took place till
-after the gentleman had gone to bed. It was always distinctly heard by
-his companion, to whose time of going to bed it had no relation. It
-depended on the gentleman alone, and it followed him into another
-apartment with another bed, on the opposite side of the house.
-Accustomed to such investigations, he made the most diligent but
-fruitless search into its cause. The consideration that the sound had a
-special reference to him alone, operated upon his imagination, and he
-did not scruple to acknowledge that the recurrence of the mysterious
-sound induced a superstitious feeling at the moment. Many months
-afterwards it was found that the sound arose from the partial opening of
-the door of a wardrobe which was within a few feet of the gentleman's
-head, and which had been taken into the other apartment. This wardrobe
-was almost always opened before he retired to bed, and the door being a
-little too tight, it gradually forced itself open with a sort of dull
-sound, resembling the note of a drum. As the door had only started half
-an inch out of its place, its change of position never attracted
-attention. The sound, indeed, seemed to come in a different direction,
-and from a greater distance.
-
-"When sounds so mysterious in their origin are heard by persons
-predisposed to a belief in the marvellous, their influence over the mind
-must be very powerful. An inquiry into their origin, if made at all,
-will be made more in the hope of confirming than of removing the
-original impression, and the unfortunate victim of his own fears will
-also be the willing dupe of his own judgment."[54]
-
-Not unfrequently the difficulty of distinguishing the direction of sound
-has been made the basis of imposition upon the credulous; and when it is
-considered how readily the judgment is led into error in this respect,
-even when aware of the deception practised, as in ventriloquism, the
-easy facility with which it is imposed upon when superstitious feelings
-are excited, and the wide-spread delusions which have thus arisen,
-cannot be wondered at.
-
-The Cock-lane ghost is a familiar example of a deception of this
-nature: but this, and every other delusion of a similar character,
-sink into insignificance before a delusion of our own day and
-times--_Spirit-rapping_.
-
-The idea of a communication of the spiritual world with man by the
-intervention of _raps_, is not new. A writer in a recent number of
-"Notes and Queries,"[55] gives the following example of an early
-instance of this kind in England.
-
-"Rushton Hall, near Kettering, in Northamptonshire, was long the
-residence of the ancient and distinguished family of Treshams. In the
-reign of Queen Elizabeth, the mansion was occupied by Sir Thomas
-Tresham, who was a pedant and a fanatic; but who was an important
-character in his time by reason of his great wealth and powerful
-connections. There is a lodge at Rushton, situate about half-a-mile from
-the old hall, now in ruins, but covered all over within and without with
-emblems of the Trinity. This lodge is known to have been built by Sir
-Thomas Tresham; but his precise motive for selecting this mode of
-illustrating his favourite doctrine was unknown until it appeared from a
-letter written by himself about the year 1584, and discovered in a
-bundle of books and papers inclosed since 1605, in a wall of the old
-mansion, and brought to light about twenty years ago. The following
-relation of a "rapping" or "knocking" is extracted from this letter:--
-
-"If it be demanded why I labour so much in the Trinity and Passion of
-Christ to depaint in this chamber, this is the principal instance
-thereof; that at my last being hither committed"--(referring to his
-commitments for recusancy, which had been frequent)--"and I usually
-having my servants here allowed me, to read nightly an hour to me after
-supper, it fortuned that Fulcis, my then servant, reading in the
-"Christian Resolution," in the treatise of "Proof that there is a God,
-&c.," there was upon a wainscot table at that instant three loud knocks
-(as if it had been with an iron hammer) given; to the great amazing of
-me and my two servants, Fulcis and Nilkton."
-
-Another example of early "spirit-rapping" is the celebrated ghost of
-"_Old Jeffreys_," at the Epworth Parsonage, during the childhood of the
-Revds. John and Charles Wesley.
-
-The conception of a familiar correspondence between the spirit-world and
-man by means of knocks and raps is, however, an idea of modern times,
-and for which we are indebted to America, although it would seem that in
-1835 we were on the eve of making this unenviable discovery in our own
-country, for the invisible cause of certain noisy disturbances in a
-house occupied by a Captain Molesworth at Trinity, near Edinburgh, in
-that year, would, it is asserted, respond to a question by knocks, if it
-could be answered numerically; as, for example, "How many people are
-there in the room?" when it would answer by as many knocks. This
-so-called spirit seemed at times to be drumming a certain tune. The
-knocks in this case had some very intimate connection with a sick girl,
-a daughter of Captain Molesworth; for they accompanied her, and
-wherever she was there they prevailed most.
-
-In 1846, or 1847, a house in the village of Hydesville, State of New
-York, America, was reported to be haunted by certain noises, as
-knockings on the doors, panels, floors, ceilings, &c., of which the
-source could not be ascertained; and chairs and tables were occasionally
-displaced, and crockery broken by some invisible power. When the noises
-and disturbances first commenced, it is stated that the house was
-occupied by a man named Weekman; but subsequently it passed into the
-possession of a person called Fox, who had two daughters, Catherine and
-Margaretta, and during their residence in it, not only did the knockings
-and irregular motions of the furniture persist, but they increased in
-intensity, variety, and frequency of occurrence, and it was ascertained
-by the young women that the knocks would mimic sounds which they made,
-and even respond to questions put orally. A code of signals in the
-affirmative and negative was next arranged, and by going over the
-letters of the alphabet, and the affirmative signal duly occurring at
-certain letters, which were recorded, a system of correspondence was
-established with the invisible, but apparently intelligent, source of
-the disturbances. By this method it was ascertained that the cause of
-the noises, and other indications of invisible power, professed to be
-the spirit of a man named Charles Ryan, who, while in the flesh, had
-resided in that house; had been foully murdered there; the corpse
-interred in a certain part of the cellar; and had left a family of five
-children, all of whom were then alive. These revelations caused, as may
-well be imagined, a great sensation in the village, and, notwithstanding
-that no such person as Charles Ryan had ever lived there, or in that
-house, and that on searching the cellar carefully no remains of a corpse
-were found, the imposition and delusion was persisted in. It is scarcely
-necessary to add that as yet no one has come forward to claim kindred
-with the first of the disembodied spirits that held communication with
-man.
-
-Several committees were appointed to investigate the matter, but they
-failed to ascertain the cause of the sounds, and by common consent, no
-natural cause being evident, it was assumed, _therefore_, that the cause
-was supernatural.
-
-Subsequently, the Fox family removed to Rochester, and singular to say,
-the spirit-sounds followed them. Noises began also to be heard in other
-houses and towns, and it was soon found that many females, equally with
-the Misses Fox, possessed the power of communicating familiarly through
-the medium of sounds, with the spirit-world. In an almost incredibly
-brief space of time, this delusion swept over the United States, and
-multitudes from all ranks and conditions of society gave in their
-accession to the system of belief into which it was quickly moulded.
-
-Certain persons only were found to possess the power of summoning the
-spiritual knocks at pleasure; these were principally females, and they
-were termed "_mediums_." The belief itself was spoken of under the
-simple term of "_Spirit-rapping_," and its advocates and believers as
-"_Rappers_," or "_Rappites_."
-
-Each "medium," somehow or other, managed to interweave his or her own
-views with the spirit-revelations, and the spirits themselves did not
-hesitate in simple set phrase to give the lie to one another;
-consequently, the revelations and doctrines inculcated are somewhat
-varied and inconsistent. The most generally received doctrine at the
-present time may, however, be summed up as follows:--The "knocks,"
-"raps," and other manifestations of invisible power, are caused by the
-spirits of the dead, who, by direct permission of the Almighty
-(according to the more religious), or by self-discovery on the part of
-the spirits (according to a statement made by the spirit of Benjamin
-Franklin), are enabled to communicate with their fellow-men by various
-sounds and exhibitions of physical power. This correspondence was
-permitted by God in consequence of the great advance which the Americans
-in particular, and mankind in general, had made towards perfection; and
-it is intimated that if the present rate of progression towards
-perfection continue, we shall soon be able to have intercourse by voice
-and sight with the spirit-world. As it is, certain persons possess these
-privileges in full, and the mass of Christians, _if believers_, have so
-grown in goodness that the religion of the present day--Biblical
-religion--is no longer needed, and Christianity is to be regarded as a
-state of probation that _was_ requisite to attain the perfection now
-arrived at; but this transition state being passed, from the elevation
-of the spirit-world we can see that many of its doctrines form now a
-mighty and dangerous slough, in which we are in danger of being
-smothered.
-
-The ideas entertained by mankind respecting spiritual existences are
-singularly incorrect; notwithstanding this, however, most of the
-spirits, as when in the body, entertain some peculiarity of doctrine,
-which shows that even in the "spheres" opinions are divided on this
-point. The most general opinion states that the spirit-world surrounds
-the earth, and is divided into seven spheres, which are subdivided into
-seven other spheres, and these again admit of still further
-division,--a geography evidently derived from Mahomedanism, and the old
-monkish legends of the septate division of hell, purgatory, and
-paradise. In the first of the spheres the lowest orders of spirits
-reside. These form the most degraded class of spirit-life, and are
-unhappy compared with those in the higher spheres; but the lowest degree
-of their unhappiness exceeds the highest degree of man's pleasures. Into
-this sphere pass all those who have had an unsatisfactory character on
-earth; while those who have been more correct in their conduct pass
-immediately into the sphere which approximates to their degree of
-goodness. The residence of any spirit in the lower spheres is not
-constant; for, exposed to heavenly influences, it goes on gradually
-improving, and as it sublimes, it ascends through the higher spheres,
-until at last the seventh sphere is attained, where it is fulfilled with
-bliss, and enters the presence of God. Hence we find St. Paul and Tom
-Paine, Calvin and Napoleon, Wesley and Shelley, united in friendly
-brotherhood. There is no hell, such as is taught in the Scriptures, and
-no eternal punishment, and man carries into the spirit-world his
-passions and propensities, and relative degrees of ignorance and
-knowledge. The spirit of Calvin stated that the spirits understood all
-languages intuitively; but this has been refuted by an immense majority
-of spirits, and it is certain that they know no other languages than
-those they were acquainted with on earth. Indeed, it is requisite to
-have rudimental education in our own language in heaven. "I have no
-friends to teach me how to spell," said a spirit named Jack Waters.
-Another, named Frank Copland, was unable to make any satisfactory
-communication, from being "an illiterate youth" when he died; and the
-"medium" to whom this communication was made, kindly advised the spirit
-to get the soul of a deceased sister to teach him. He did so, and in
-three months it was ascertained that he had made very creditable
-progress in spelling, &c. The amusements of the "spirits" consist of
-music, concerts, dancing, card-playing, &c., and they live in a species
-of concubinage. They dress according to fancy, but the male spirits
-generally wear trousers, hats or turbans, and beards. They have also
-condescended to teach certain celestial architectural vagaries. They
-_lie_ like mortals, and coolly admit it; and it is occasionally
-necessary to put the spirits on oath! They are very liable to error, and
-the spirit of General Washington, equally careless of grammar and
-orthography, revealed, that they "many times make mistakes, and so we
-are called liars; but this is owing to our neglect of the records that
-are given us, and also to evel spirits; but we will try to be more
-careful or correct after we have becom more use to writing for our
-friends." The spirits speak with the utmost contempt and abhorrence of
-the religious beliefs of the present day, and regard the Bible as unfit
-for general perusal, from the errors (due to the translators) which it
-contains; and this assertion is fittingly crowned by the statement that
-it emanates under a special communication from St. Paul himself.
-
-Notwithstanding the painful absurdity and frightful blasphemy of these
-doctrines (which satisfactorily show the class of persons by whom the
-delusion is fostered, and the flagrant character of the imposition),
-clergymen, judges, and persons distinguished in literature have
-permitted themselves to be led away by the delusion, each establishing
-some conscientious clause or giving a peculiar phase to the belief, in
-order to exculpate themselves from the charge of contributing to some of
-the more outrageous dogmas of this strange delusion.
-
-The phenomena which led to the delusion were sounds of various kinds and
-intensity, which were called up by the "medium" at will, apparently in
-various parts of the room in which the "_seances_" were held, but
-principally beneath the table at which she sat; and the movement of
-certain articles of furniture. The intelligent correspondence with the
-"raps" (for the furniture-moving was merely indicative of the _power_ of
-the suppositious spirits) was by questions uttered audibly, mentally, or
-in writing, to which replies were given by repeated raps--an
-affirmative; or by silence--a negative; or the words of the response
-were spelled out by running over the alphabet--the affirmative knocks
-taking place when the finger or pencil rested on the letters required to
-form the sentence. Some more highly-gifted mediums, pervaded by a
-spiritual afflatus, were enabled to write the answers; and others
-shadowed them forth in dancing.
-
-If we reflect for a moment upon the difficulty which most persons
-experience in detecting the direction and position of sounds,
-particularly when the mind is under the dominion of certain ideas, we
-may readily imagine how at the first the delusion of spirit-rapping
-obtained credence among the credulous and ignorant. It was, however,
-soon ascertained that an imposition was being practised; and very
-shortly after the development of the mania, a "medium" came forward and
-confessed the deception practised, and the mode in which she had carried
-it out. This "medium," named Mrs. Norman Culvers, had been taught the
-mode of deception by Margaretta Fox, one of the original "mediums;" and
-she stated that the raps were produced by the toes, the listener's mind
-being distracted by directing the attention, by a fixed gaze or
-otherwise, to certain parts of the room, from which he was instructed
-that the sounds came. By the confession of other "mediums," and by
-observation, it was ascertained that, in addition to the rapping by the
-toes, raps were produced by a lateral movement of the knee-joint, and
-the joints of the thumb and fingers (the "cracking" of the joints, a
-familiar phenomenon); by the action of the feet against the leg of the
-table, or by the movement of the soles of the shoes one against another;
-and lastly, by a hammer ingeniously fixed in the woodwork of the table.
-It was further shown to demonstration, that in no case when the
-"mediums" were placed in positions where none of the before-mentioned
-methods of rapping could occur, did the raps take place; that in no case
-could the "spirits" reply correctly to a single question, when the
-querist, by an impassibility of countenance and scrupulous care over his
-actions, did not betray his thoughts, or indicate the letters
-constituting the words he required; and that the "spirits" might be led
-to answer the most absurd and incorrect questions, utterly unconscious
-of imposition or error.
-
-Notwithstanding this exposure, the delusion is persisted in; and it is
-principally maintained by the occasional correct replies which are given
-by the medium to questions of which none present could be acquainted
-with the answer, but the querist; and many men, even of considerable
-literary attainments, have been led into the delusion by this simple
-phenomenon alone.
-
-A careful examination of the details of the spirit-communications, and
-the confessions of the mediums already alluded to, will show that in no
-case was there a correct response given to questions when precautions
-were taken to guard against the indication given by the countenance or
-by the actions to the medium, and even this was not sufficient to
-prevent a multitude of errors being fallen into.
-
-The pure spirit-communications which have been received from the
-Apostles, Franklin, Washington, &c., vary according to the mediums to
-which they have been vouchsafed, and often flatly contradict each other;
-in itself a sufficient indication of the glaring character of the
-delusion.
-
-Some, admitting the spiritual origin of the "raps" have gone a
-little further, and enunciated the opinion that the "rappings" occur
-through the influence of electricity or magnetism which the spirits
-wield; "and if," writes N. P. Willis, "disembodied spirits are still
-moving consciously among us, and have thus _found an agent at
-last--electricity--by which they can communicate with the world they
-have left_, it must soon, in the progressive nature of things, ripen
-to an intercourse between this and the spirit-world." Surely an
-electric condition that would cause sonorous "raps," and tables,
-chairs, &c., to dance jigs, and imitate ships tossed in a storm,
-would be within reach of the test of experiment. Such a test,
-however, has never been attempted; and thus it is men, even of high
-standing in literature, with the utmost coolness plunge into
-conjectures respecting the operations of forces of which they seem
-to be unacquainted even with the signification of the terms. For
-electricity and magnetism are no vague names, but terms applied to
-certain phenomena which are readily ascertained, and without the
-presence of which we are not justified in using them.
-
-We have already sufficiently shown the illusions to which the sense of
-hearing is liable, and the influence they have had in the formation of
-the belief in spirit-rapping is evident. The disposition of the mind in
-contributing towards this and allied delusions requires a brief comment.
-
-The substratum of superstition which is found to prevail more or less in
-most persons, is a never-failing source of delusion; and it is the
-groundwork upon which the impostor acts. Readily excited and brought
-into play by phenomena of which the origin is not palpably evident, it
-seizes with avidity upon doctrines which pander to its taste for mystery
-and wonder; and a suggestion, whether direct or implied, induces a
-condition of the mind that interposes an almost insuperable bar to the
-healthy action of the reason. This unconscious action of the mind, under
-the influence of leading ideas, is the prime foundation of those
-illusions of the senses of which we have illustrations in the pseudo
-sciences of "mesmerism," "electro-biology," &c., all the phenomena of
-which may be produced by simply inducing certain trains of thought.
-
-When Goethe represented Mephistopheles as saying--
-
-    "_Whispered suggestions_ are the devil's role,"
-
-it was with a profound perception of the powerful influence they
-exercise in the creation of delusions.
-
-The throngs which crowd around the table of the "medium," go pregnant
-with a desire to see a mystery, and filled with a vague fear of the
-supernatural influences to which they may be subjected. This is
-increased by the interval of from five minutes to half an hour which is
-allowed to intervene between the commencement of the _seance_, and the
-first "rap" from the spirits; and during this period the mind is kept to
-the utmost tension by listening, or is well exercised by attending to
-the anecdotes illustrative of the power of the spirits which are
-detailed by the medium, and it is thus brought into the state that is
-requisite for the perfection of the delusion. In the condition of the
-mind thus induced, the medium has little difficulty in leading her
-credulous hearer to whatever length it may be desired, and a careful
-examination of the countenance and the hand will suffice for a correct
-response to the majority of the questions which may be proposed.
-
-The want of discrimination of the facts from the theories invented to
-explain them, is another and great source of delusion; for the majority
-it suffices that if the "raps" occur, or the table moves, it is
-sufficiently demonstrative that it is by the influence of spirits; and
-it is a much less difficult matter to them to believe that the phenomena
-arises from supernatural than natural agency.
-
-Certain luminous phenomena, phosphorescent flames, luminous clouds,
-glistening stars, &c., have been observed when the spirit-manifestations
-have occurred in profound darkness. These appearances were dependent upon
-a disordered condition of the eye, which will be fully dwelt upon in a
-subsequent part of this work.
-
-The irregular and violent movements of the furniture which occurred when
-the _seances_ were held in _darkened_ apartments, were the result of the
-most palpable collusion. There were certain movements of the tables,
-however, around which the experimenters sat when eliciting the
-spirit-rappings, that could not be attributed to this source; and an
-examination of these motions showed that if several persons arranged
-themselves around a table, and rested their hands slightly upon it,
-after a longer or shorter period motion would occur, which was to a
-great extent under the control of the will, although the experimenters
-were not aware that they exerted any force whatever upon the table; and
-further, it was ascertained that a table thus set in motion would
-respond by rapping with the legs, to questions propounded to it, and
-that with a facility equal to the most perfect "medium."
-
-This interesting phenomenon soon attracted considerable attention, for
-it was certain that neither collusion nor wilful deception were
-concerned in it; and it could be produced by persons who did not pretend
-to the character of "mediums;" indeed, out of a company of several
-individuals it was pretty certain that some could be found capable of
-inducing the phenomenon.
-
-The "Rappites" looked upon it simply as another and more general
-manifestation of the spirit-world; others, imbued with the
-pseudo-scientific dogmas of animal magnetism, odylism, &c., sought an
-explanation in the principles of their respective theories; some
-regarded it as the result of Satanic agency; and lastly, those best
-capable of judging on the question, looked upon the motion as the result
-of muscular force exerted unconsciously by the experimenters, and in
-accordance with certain well-known laws of muscular and mental action.
-
-The doctrine of Satanic agency has excited great attention in this
-country, from the fact of its being propounded and advocated by certain
-clergymen of our Established Church, who not content with regarding it
-as one of those "great wonders" which are to prelude the reign of
-Anti-christ, have even sought by this agency to verify the truths of the
-immortality of the soul, eternity, the existence of a hell; thus seeking
-a confirmation of the Scripture from the devil himself, and comically
-identifying themselves with the principles so pithily expressed by
-Ralpho:--
-
-    "Those principles I've quoted late,
-    Prove that the godly may allege
-    For anything their privilege,
-    And to the devil himself may go,
-    If they have motives thereunto:
-    For as there is a war between
-    The dev'l and them, it is no sin
-    If they, by subtle stratagem,
-    Make use of him, as he does them."[56]
-
-The answer to this explication, as well as to those other explications
-based on the doctrines of the "Rappites," and the principles of the
-pseudo-sciences, is found in the simple fact, that if care be taken to
-ascertain the sources of motion which arise from the experimenters
-themselves, and to obviate their influence in the experiment, neither
-movements nor responses occur; and by a careful examination of the
-conditions requisite for the perfection of the experiment, and an
-experimental illustration of them, we arrive at the conclusion that
-"table-moving" and "table-talking" are the result solely of muscular
-action exercised unconsciously under the influence of certain expectant
-ideas.
-
-If we proceed in the examination of this question as in that of every
-other physical question, by seeking the conditions requisite for the
-fulfilment of the experiment, and examining their nature, we observe
-that the position of the persons who perform it is one that would give
-rise to certain easily understood and comprehensible results. The hands
-are placed upon the table in such a position that the experimenter
-exercises the least degree of pressure of which he can be conscious, and
-in this position they are kept for a longer or shorter period, but
-generally averaging from twenty to thirty minutes. Whether the
-individual be sitting or standing, the protracted exertion of the
-muscles to keep the hand in so constrained a position, gives rise to
-considerable fatigue, which is manifested by the usual painful
-sensations in the over-exercised parts; and these sensations have been
-sagely compared by the advocates of the pseudo-sciences to those
-experienced by electric or electro-magnetic currents. As the muscular
-fatigue and the painful state of tension into which the muscles are
-thrown increase, the sensations by which we judge of the amount of
-pressure exercised upon a given object diminishes, and unless the degree
-of pressure exercised is checked by information derived through some
-other sense, it goes on ever increasing in a direct ratio until the
-whole weight of the hand, the arm, and even the shoulders of the person
-so standing is unconsciously thrown upon the table, and a degree of
-force exercised, which is sufficient to induce the movements we witness
-in the table experimented on.
-
-The inertia of the table is as thoroughly destroyed by the amount of
-force thus brought to bear upon it, as if a more intense force had acted
-momentarily. The period of suspense which occurs previous to the first
-movement taking place, is that during which the force communicated by
-the hand is equally diffused through the table, and the moment this
-happens, as no body can be set in motion until the motion has been
-imparted to every integral particle of that body, a slight additional
-force will be sufficient to overcome the resistence of surrounding
-media, and cause it to change its position. Hence a comparatively slight
-force exercised over a long period will not unfrequently induce effects
-equal to those caused by a greater degree of force exercised during a
-short period of time.
-
-We often witness the practical application of this principle. If we
-observe two men endeavouring to move a railway carriage upon the line,
-we shall notice that they do not at the first exert all their strength
-in one powerful, and what would probably prove exhaustive and futile,
-effort, but placing their backs against the carriage, they will push
-with a continuous and gradually increasing effort for several seconds,
-or even longer, when a slight movement will be perceived in the
-carriage, and a slight additional exercise of force will set it in
-motion. So also, as we have seen in quarries, when several men have
-endeavoured to move a large mass of stone with a lever, they have not
-used one long and powerful effort, but a succession of slighter ones,
-until a tremulous motion has been seen in the mass, when by one exertion
-of force they have hurled it from its place.
-
-The degree of pressure exercised by any given persons will be in the
-inverse ratio of the degree of control which they can exercise over the
-muscular system, and over their ideas; hence the phenomena of
-table-turning and table-talking are most fully developed by those who
-are possessed of but a low degree of volitional power, and in whom the
-passions and emotions are paramount, as in young females, boys, or those
-who are influenced by certain dominant ideas: and as these conditions
-vary in different persons to an almost endless extent, it would follow
-that the power of exciting the movements of the table and responses, as
-well as the nature and degree of the responses, would vary in a similar
-degree, which is found to be the case; and the rule of response is, as
-one of the supporters of the Satanic theory (the Rev. N. S. Godfrey)
-very naively remarks, "whatever the investigator wishes it to be."
-
-The directive force in the phenomena of table-moving is derived from
-certain habitual actions of the muscles, as in the direction from right
-to left, from the customary use of the right hand; and the influence
-which our ideas exercise upon the muscular system, unwittingly and
-involuntarily on our part.
-
-This, as well as the preceding remarks, are all capable of being
-experimentally illustrated and demonstrated; and Professor Faraday,[57]
-by a rigorous series of experiments, has shown that it is upon these
-principles that the phenomena depend.
-
-By the use of a most ingenious and simple piece of mechanism connected
-with an index, he showed the extent to which we exercise a certain
-degree of force and directive power unconsciously, and the nature of
-this directive power; and the result was:--
-
-"That when the parties saw the index it remained very steady; when it
-was hidden from them, or they looked away from it, it wavered about,
-though they believed that they always pressed directly downwards; and
-when the table did not move, there was still a resultant hand-force in
-the direction in which it was wished the table should move, which,
-however, was exercised quite unwittingly by the party operating. This
-resultant it is which, in the course of the waiting-time, while the
-fingers and hands become stiff, numb, and insensible by continued
-pressure, grows up to an amount sufficient to move the table or the
-substances pressed upon. But the most valuable effect of this
-test-apparatus is the corrective power it possesses over the mind of the
-table-turner. As soon as the index is placed before the most earnest,
-and they perceive--as in my presence they have always done--that it
-tells truly whether they are pressing downwards only or obliquely, then
-all effects of table-turning cease, even though the parties persevere,
-earnestly desiring motion, till they become weary and worn-out. No
-prompting or checking of the hand is heeded; _the power is gone_; and
-this only because the parties are made conscious of what they are really
-doing mechanically, and so are unable unwittingly to deceive
-themselves."
-
-An experiment is familiar to many persons by which a ring, being
-suspended by means of a piece of thread to one of the fingers, may be
-caused to beat responses against a glass surface (as that of a tumbler),
-in answer to certain queries put audibly; or, if the ring be held by the
-questioner, it is requisite merely that the questions be conceived
-mentally. This, to many, a puzzling phenomenon is dependent upon
-precisely the same cause as "table-talking"--a movement caused by
-muscular action developed unconsciously under the influence of certain
-ideational states of the mind.
-
-It is an interesting fact, that a species of divination is mentioned by
-Ammianus Marcellinus, in which a ring, used after the above fashion, and
-a table, consecrated by mystic rites, were used. We are indebted to the
-Rev. J. W. Thomas, of Dewsbury, for the following quotation from the
-works of this author, who lived about the middle of the fourth century.
-The quotation is taken from the first chapter of the twenty-ninth book
-("Construximus, magnifici judices, ad cortinae similitudinem Delphicae,"
-&c.):--
-
-"Noble judges, this unfortunate little table which you see, we
-constructed of laurel-rods with fearful rites (or ill-omened signs),
-after the likeness of the Delphic tripod; and (it having been) virtually
-consecrated with imprecations of mystic incantations (secret hymns), and
-many splendid and long-continued preparations, we at length used (_lit._
-moved) it; and of using (moving) it, as often as it was consulted about
-secret things, this was the method. It was placed in the middle of a
-clean house, with a round plate made of divers metallic materials,
-correctly (_lit._ purely) put upon it, on whose extreme circumference
-the twenty-four letters of the alphabet were learnedly engraven,
-separated by spaces accurately measured. A person [gifted] with
-ceremonial science stood at it, clothed in linen garments, his feet in
-linen socks, a wreath round his head, bearing branches of a lucky tree,
-a fortunate omen having been obtained from the deity who is the author
-of predictions, by hymns conceived (Apollo); weighing with scales a
-pensile ring, formed (or furnished) with very fine Carpathian thread,
-consecrated with mystic rites, which (or who) by distinct intervals
-falling by leaps on every letter retained, makes heroic verses agreeing
-with (or answering to) the interrogatories, to the completed numbers and
-metres, such as the Delphic ones are read, or those given by the oracles
-of the Branchidae. Thus then to those who inquired of us who should
-succeed to the present imperial government, for being swept in every
-part [as] it has been mentioned, and the ring leaping touched (went
-through) two syllables, #THEO#; with the addition of the last
-letter (last additional letter), one present cried out 'Theodorus!' (as
-the name portended) by the decree of fate (by castal necessity)."
-
-This paragraph embodies the defence of one Hilarius, who, together with
-a certain Patricius, was charged with having spread abroad prophecies
-adverse to the throne of the Emperor Valens.
-
-A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" (Vol. IX., p. 201) quotes the
-following interesting passage from the "Apologeticus" of Tertullian,
-cap. xxiii.: ("Porro si et magi phantasmata," &c.):--
-
-"Moreover, if magical professors also exhibit phantoms and defame the
-souls of the departed; if they press oracles out of childrens' talk; if
-they play many miracles with mountebank tricks, and if they send dreams,
-having once the power assisting them, of inviting angels and demons, _by
-whom_, and she-goats, _and tables, they were accustomed to divine_; how
-much more, &c."
-
-The correspondent remarks: "Here table-divination, by means of angels
-and demons, seems distinctly alluded to. How like the modern system! The
-context of this passage, as well as the extract itself, will suggest
-singular coincidence between modern and ancient pretensions of this
-class."
-
-The sense of _touch_ rarely leads to illusions which are referred to the
-supernatural, except under the influence of powerful superstitious
-feelings, when it is generally connected with illusions of the other
-senses.
-
-The influence of fear in developing illusions of the senses of sight,
-hearing, and touch, has been well pourtrayed in Beaumont and Fletcher's
-comedy of "The Beggar's Bush" (Act V, Scene 1):
-
-  _Boor._ Mistress, it grows somewhat pretty and dark.
-
-  _Gertrude._                                       What then?
-
-  _Boor._ Nay, nothing. Do not think I am afraid,
-          Although, perhaps, you are.
-
-  _Ger._                          I am not. Forward!
-
-  _Boor._ Sure but you are. Give me your hand; fear nothing.
-          There's one leg in the wood; do not fall backwards!
-          What a sweat one on's are in; you or I!
-          Pray God it do not prove the plague. Yet sure
-          It has infected me; for I sweat too:
-          It runs out at my knees. Feel, feel, I pray you!
-
-  _Ger._  What ails the fellow?
-
-  _Boor._                     Hark! hark! I beseech you:
-          Do you hear nothing?
-
-  _Ger._                      No.
-
-  _Boor._                       List! a wild hog;
-          He grunts! now 'tis a bear; this wood is full of 'em!
-          And now a wolf, mistress; a wolf! a wolf!
-          It is the howling of a wolf.
-
-  _Ger._  The braying of an ass, is it not?
-
-  _Boor._                                 Oh, now one has me!
-          Oh my left ham! farewell!
-
-  _Ger._                                  Look to your shanks,
-          Your breech is safe enough; the wolf's a fern-brake.
-
-  _Boor._ But see, see, see! there is a serpent in it!
-          'T has eyes as broad as platters; it spits fire!
-          Now it creeps tow'rds us; help me and say my prayers!
-          'T hath swallowed me almost; my breath is stopt:
-          I cannot speak! Do I speak, mistress?--tell me.
-
-  _Ger._  Why thou strange timorous sot, canst thou perceive
-          Anything i' th' bush but a poor glowworm.
-
-  _Boor._ It may be 'tis but a glowworm now; but 'twill
-          Grow to a fire-drake presently.
-
-  _Ger._                              Come then from it!
-          I have a precious guide of you, and courteous,
-          That gives me leave to lead myself the way thus. [_Holla._
-
-  _Boor._ It thunders; you hear that now?
-
-  _Ger._                                I hear one holla.
-
-  _Boor._ 'Tis thunder! thunder! see a flash of lightning
-          Are you not blasted, mistress? Pull your mask off;
-          'T has play'd the barber with me here: I have lost
-          My beard, my beard! Pray God you be not shaven;
-          'T will spoil your marriage, mistress.
-
-  _Ger._  What strange wonders fear fancies in a coward!
-
-  _Boor._ Now the earth opens!
-
-  _Ger._                      Prithee hold thy peace.
-
-We have now glanced at the principal illusions to which the senses of
-sight and hearing are liable, and the bearing which they have on the
-subject of spectral apparitions and other phenomena which it has been
-customary to regard as manifestations of the supernatural.
-
-But a false appreciation of sensations excited by natural objects is not
-the only mode in which we are liable to be deceived, for we are apt to
-regard sensations excited by the action of the mind, or by a disordered
-condition of the nervous system, or both combined--subjective
-sensations--as sensations excited by natural objects--objective
-sensations.
-
-To the erroneous perceptions arising from this source the term
-_hallucination_ has been given, and the phantasmata to which they give
-rise are more important than those arising from illusions, since the
-judgment is often unable to correct them, and they may impose equally on
-the wisest and the most ignorant.
-
-It is a law in physiology that a nerve of special sensation, (including
-in that term its central as well as its peripheral terminations,) in
-whatever manner it may be excited, can only produce that sensation to
-which it is appointed. Thus the nerve of sight, whether it be excited by
-natural or artificial light, or mechanical stimulus from without, or by
-morbid changes within, can only give rise to the sensation of light; the
-nerve of hearing, sound; the nerve of smell, odours; and so on.
-
-If the ball of the eye is pressed upon (say by the finger at the inner
-angle) when the eyelids are closed, or the light otherwise excluded,
-certain luminous figures will be perceived. This arises from the
-pressure exciting the inner coat of the eye (the _retina_), which is
-formed principally by the expansion of the nerve of light (the _optic
-nerve_), and is the tissue in which the changes necessary for the
-production of the sensation of light are induced by the rays of light
-from without.
-
-The luminous figures caused by mechanical excitation of this, the
-peripheral termination of the nerve of sight, vary in intensity in
-different individuals and at different times. They are sometimes very
-brilliant, and have been observed to be iridescent. In form they are
-circular, radiating, or regularly divided into squares, which have been
-compared by Purkinje to the figures produced by the vibrations
-communicated to a fine powder scattered on a plate of glass, along one
-edge of which a violin-bow is drawn; or to the rhomboidal figures formed
-on the surface of water in a glass, thrown into vibration by the same
-means.
-
-A familiar illustration of the excitation of a sensation of light by
-mechanical stimulus is the brilliant sparks of light, starlike figures,
-&c., caused by a blow on the eye, or by a fall on the head.
-
-A sensation of light may also be caused by the passage of a current of
-electricity through the eyeball; by mental emotion, as grief, passion,
-&c.; and by a morbid state of the brain or optic nerve. It is often also
-induced by a disordered state of the health, and under this condition
-the luminous appearance occasionally assumes a bluish, green, yellow, or
-even red tint.
-
-When an excess of blood is determined in the vessels of the eye, either
-from position or other cause, a luminous arborescent figure is
-occasionally observed in the field of vision on entering a dark
-apartment. This, according to Purkinje, is due to pressure on the retina
-by the distended blood-vessels. A luminous spot is also sometimes
-observed isochronous with the pulse.
-
-In ourselves, in ordinary health a lambent bluish coloured cloud of
-light constantly floats before the eyes in a darkened apartment; and
-there are probably few who would not perceive a greater or less
-sensation of light on being shut up in profound darkness.
-
-On the spontaneous appearance of light in the field of vision when it is
-darkened, Mueller, the distinguished Prussian physiologist, writes:--"If
-we observe the field of vision, keeping the eyes closed, it occasionally
-happens that we perceive not only a certain degree of luminousness, but
-further, that we discover a more marked glimmering of light, affecting
-even, in certain cases, the form of circular waves, which are developed
-from the centre towards the periphery, where they disappear. Sometimes
-the faint light resembles a nebulosity, spots, and more rarely, in
-myself, it is reproduced with a certain rhythm. To this spontaneous
-appearance of light in the eye, which is always very vague, are related
-the more clearly delineated forms which show themselves at the moment we
-are about to fall asleep, and which depend upon the influence of the
-imagination isolating the nebulous glimmerings one from the other, and
-clothing them with more distinct forms."[58]
-
-The degree to which this sensation of light is produced in health, and
-the power which the imagination has over it, vary greatly in different
-individuals.
-
-Mueller writes:--
-
-"I had occasion, in 1828, to converse with Goeethe upon this subject,
-which had an equal interest for both of us. Knowing that when I was
-tranquilly extended in bed, the eyes closed, but not asleep, I
-frequently perceived figures that I could observe distinctly, he was
-curious to know what I experienced then: I told him that my will had not
-any influence either upon the production or the metamorphoses of these
-figures, and that I never distinguished anything symmetrical, anything
-that had the character of vegetation. Goeethe, on the contrary, was able
-to appoint at will a theme, which afterwards transformed itself, after a
-fashion apparently involuntary, but always in obedience to the laws of
-harmony and symmetry: a difference between two men, of which one
-possessed the poetical imagination in the highest degree of development,
-whilst the other devoted his life to the study of reality and of nature.
-
-"Goeethe says, 'When I close the eyes, on lowering the head, I imagine
-that I see a flower in the middle of my visual organ; this flower does
-not for a moment preserve its form: it is quickly decomposed, and from
-its interior are born other flowers with coloured or sometimes green
-petals; these are not natural flowers, but fantastic, nevertheless
-regular, figures, such as the roses of sculptors. It was impossible for
-me to regard this creation fixedly, but it continued as long as I
-wished, without increasing or diminishing. Even when I figured to me a
-disc charged with various colours, I saw continually borne from the
-centre towards the circumference, new forms comparable to those that I
-could perceive in a kaleidoscope."[59]
-
-Illusions arising from the production of the sensation of light, whether
-by pressure, mental emotion, or a disordered state of the health, have
-been a most prolific source of ghosts.
-
-Imagine a person suffering from severe grief occasioned by the loss of a
-friend or relative; or one subject to superstitious terrors. On retiring
-to rest in a darkened apartment, the attention is attracted and wonder
-raised by the appearance of a cloud of pale white, or blueish coloured
-light (the colours which ghosts love to deck themselves in, and which
-are most readily excited) floating before the eyes. Unacquainted with
-its nature and source, he is naturally startled, and his superstitious
-fears are awakened. The imagination next coming into play, the luminous
-cloud is moulded into the form of the person recently dead, or of the
-superstitious ideas most prominent in the mind of the individual at the
-time.
-
-Or suppose a superstitious person passing, in the obscurity of the
-night, a place where some foul crime had been perpetrated. Terror gives
-rise to the production of a vivid sensation of light in the field of
-vision, and the imagination, as in the previous case, works out the
-rest.
-
-The following cases are examples of the influence which the spontaneous
-appearance of light in the field of vision exercises in the development
-of spectral apparitions.
-
-A gentleman who had lost his wife from a painful and protracted disease,
-for some time subsequently was troubled by her phantom, which remained
-before his eyes so long as he was in obscurity. On a light being
-brought, or during the day, this spectre vanished, but no sooner was he
-placed in darkness than it appeared vividly limned before him, and was a
-source of constant terror.[60]
-
-This phantom was evidently due to the production of the sensation of
-light in the field of vision, and the subsequent effects of the
-imagination.
-
-A gentleman with whom we are acquainted happened, when young, to have a
-severe fall on the head. After this accident and until he attained the
-age of eleven years, he was subject to visions of brilliant and
-variously coloured light, when he retired to bed at night, and all light
-in his room had been extinguished. Occasionally these visions were so
-gorgeous and resplendent that he is accustomed to compare them to the
-jewelled decorations of the palaces of the genii in the Arabian Nights'
-Entertainment. When about eleven years of age he got possession of a
-volume of legends and romances, which were pregnant with supernatural
-events and personages; and a friend injudiciously gave him a work full
-of ghost-stories, and entitled, "News from the Invisible World." These
-works he read with avidity, and the effect upon the mind was such that
-henceforth his nightly visions were transformed into foul, horrid, and
-often variously coloured spectres, rendering the period of time
-intervening between retiring to rest and sleep, one of unmitigated
-terror, and it became necessary to have a light constantly burning in
-the room until sleep occurred. After the twelfth year the intensity of
-the visions rapidly diminished, and at length only occurred when he
-turned himself upon his face in bed. In this position a sensation as if
-the bed had passed from under him occurred, and his eye formed the
-centre of a circle of imps which whirled rapidly round it. The number of
-these spectres next began to diminish, and by the time he was fifteen
-years of age, but one remained, and this appeared only occasionally.
-This solitary spectre gradually lost its fiend-like form, and assumed
-that of a respectable-looking old Roman, clothed in a toga; and it at
-length vanished to re-appear no more.
-
-This gentleman has for many years been free from any spectral
-apparition; but hard study, mental emotion, a disordered state of the
-health, or pressure with the finger on the eyeball, is apt to occasion a
-brilliant evolution of coloured light in the field of vision.
-
-The spontaneous appearance of light in the visual field, in this case,
-formed the substratum upon which the mind moulded the spectres; and it
-is interesting to remark the influence which the perusal of a volume of
-legends and ghost-stories, and subsequent classical studies, had in
-determining the form of the phantasma.
-
-To the same cause--the subjective phenomena of vision--are due the
-various coloured lights or luminous appearances which, in the
-experiments of Reichenbach, the believers in animal magnetism,
-mesmerism, and electro-biology, are supposed to have been seen issue, by
-the "susceptible," from the poles of magnets placed in darkened
-apartments, from so-called magnetised bodies, or from bodies placed in
-the conditions which the respective theories demand.
-
-All the sensations of light that are experienced under these
-circumstances, and which have been sought to be explained by the
-assumption of the "od" force, or by the influence of magnetism, &c., are
-dependent on that excitation of a sensation of light in the eye when
-plunged into darkness, or when under certain mental emotions which we
-have fully explained.
-
-This has been demonstrated by positive experiment; for if we take any of
-the "susceptibles," and, indeed, others, and place them in a darkened
-apartment, we may by simple suggestions excite all the luminous
-sensations attributed to the supposititious "od" force, or to "animal
-magnetism."
-
-The luminous appearances which certain "sensitives" have averred that
-they witnessed over graves, were due also to the subjective phenomena of
-vision, excited by an expectant idea.
-
-A young clergyman named Billing, who acted as an amanuensis to Pfeffer,
-the blind poet, asserted that he constantly saw, at night, a luminous
-cloud resting in one position in the poet's garden; and on search being
-made beneath the surface of the ground, at the spot occupied by this
-phantasm, the remains of a skeleton were found.
-
-Reichenbach concluded from this that the process of decomposition of a
-corpse going on in the grave, probably like what is observed in other
-forms of chemical action, gave rise to luminous appearances which were
-visible to highly "sensitive" persons.
-
-"It appeared possible," he writes, "that such a person might see over
-graves in which mouldering bodies lie, something similar to that which
-Billing had seen. Mademoiselle Reichel had the courage, rare in her sex,
-to gratify this wish of the author. On two very dark nights she allowed
-herself to be taken from the Castle of Reisenberg, where she was living
-with the author's family, to the neighbouring churchyard of Grunzing.
-The result justified his anticipation in the most beautiful manner. She
-very soon saw a light, and observed on one of the graves, along its
-length, a delicate breathing flame; she also saw the same thing, only
-weaker, on a second grave. But she saw neither witches nor ghosts. She
-described the fiery appearance as a shining vapour, one to two spans
-high, extending as far as the grave, and floating near its surface.
-Sometime afterwards she was taken to two large cemeteries near Vienna,
-where several burials occur daily, and graves lie about by thousands.
-Here she saw numerous graves provided with similar lights. Wherever she
-looked she saw luminous masses scattered about. But this appearance was
-most vivid over the newest graves, while on the oldest it could not be
-perceived. She described the appearance less as a clear flame than as a
-dense vaporous mass of fire, intermediate between fog and flame. On many
-graves the flame was four feet high, so that when she stood on them it
-surrounded her up to the neck. If she thrust her hand into it, it was
-like putting it into a dense fiery cloud. She betrayed no uneasiness,
-because she had all her life been accustomed to such emanations, and had
-seen the same, in the author's experiments, often produced by natural
-causes."[61]
-
-The total neglect of those precautions which are requisite to obviate
-the influence of expectant ideas and the subjective phenomena of vision
-in this experiment is most strange, and it is painful to witness men
-like Reichenbach, Gregory, and others, thus stumbling over some of the
-simplest facts of physiology and psychology, and utterly prostituting
-the name and calling of science.
-
-Singular and fallacious as are the pseudo-scientific doctrines just
-mentioned, they are exceeded by the extraordinary speculations of other
-writers, who also appear to hold in utter contempt the ordinary laws of
-action of the senses. For example, Mrs. Crowe writes of the sensation of
-light perceived by somnambules and dreamers, and of the still more
-simple phenomenon of the sensation of light induced by the inhalation of
-ether, in the following manner:--
-
-"All somnambules of the highest order,--and when I make use of this
-expression, I repeat that I do not allude to the subjects of mesmeric
-experiments, but to those extraordinary cases of disease, the
-particulars of which have been recorded by various continental
-physicians of eminence,--all persons in that condition describe
-themselves as hearing and seeing, not by the ordinary organs, but by
-some means the idea of which they cannot convey further than that they
-are pervaded by light; and that this is not the _ordinary_ physical
-light is evident, inasmuch as they generally see best in the dark,--a
-remarkable instance of which I myself witnessed.
-
-"I never had the slightest idea of this internal light till, in the way
-of experiment, I inhaled the sulphuric ether; but I am now very well
-able to conceive it; for, after first feeling an agreeable warmth
-pervading my limbs, my next sensation was to find myself--I cannot say
-in this heavenly light, for the light was in _me_--I was pervaded by it;
-it was not perceived by my eyes, which were closed, but perceived
-internally, I cannot tell how. Of what nature this heavenly light was--I
-cannot forbear calling it _heavenly_, for it was like nothing on
-earth--I know not,"[62] &c.
-
-The sense of _hearing_, like that of sight, in whatever manner it may be
-excited, only gives rise to the sensation of sound; _e.g._, when an
-electric current is passed through it, or a severe blow is struck upon
-it, and causes it "to ring," as it is expressed in common parlance. The
-rushing and other sounds--as of the ringing of bells, rustling of
-leaves, &c.--caused by a disordered state of the circulation in the
-head, are other examples; and there are perhaps few persons who have not
-at some time or other, started, and responded to their name, or to calls
-which they suppose they have heard, in the voice of persons who were at
-a distance, or who had not spoken.
-
-A similar excitation of the nerves of _taste_ and _smell_ will also give
-rise to their special sensations; but disorder of these nerves and their
-centres will rarely excite hallucinations, except in connection with a
-disturbed condition of the senses of sight and hearing.
-
-Such are the simplest forms of hallucination of the senses of sight,
-hearing, taste, and smell; and we have seen that all the phenomena of
-light, colour, sound, taste, and smell, can occur in man without the
-presence of natural or artificial light, sonorous undulations of the
-air, sapid or odorous substances.
-
-We are now in a position to comprehend more fully that, by the action of
-the imagination and emotions alone, the changes going on in the nervous
-centres may be so far disturbed that the whole of those sensations which
-are generally excited by agents external to the body may be called into
-play, and the mental idea assume, in light, colour and shade, sound,
-taste and touch, all the distinctness and definitiveness which
-appertains to an actual object within the sphere of the respective
-senses, and be considered as such.
-
-If the mind revert to any of the varied sensations which are stored up
-in the memory, and are within the power of the will to recall, an image
-is conjured up before the "mind's eye," such that we can describe it as
-though a real object stood before us; and if it be that of a person--a
-parent, a friend, or one bound by even still stronger ties--every
-lineament, every peculiarity, is depicted with a fidelity but little
-less than that we should be capable of were the individual actually
-present before us; or should it be a scene which has been treasured up
-for its grandeur, its loveliness, or for its being endeared to us by
-still stronger feelings, every characteristic feature, every object, is
-minutely and truly described; and did we possess the power of limning,
-not unfrequently we should find little difficulty in transferring the
-mental image to the canvass. "I think I see him now"--"She might be
-before me"--"I can call to mind every tree and stone, so vivid is the
-memory"--are forms of expression in constant use, and they contain the
-germ of the simplest form of ideal hallucination to which we are
-subject.
-
-Under the influence of love, grief, remorse, or other powerful and
-protracted emotion, the ideas upon which the mind is concentrated assume
-a vividness, in many persons little short of the reality; and when
-Victorian, addressing Preciosa in the "Spanish Student" (Act I, Scene
-3), is represented as saying:--
-
-    "Thou comest between me and those books too often;
-    I see thy face in everything I see;
-    The paintings on the chapel wear thy looks,
-    The canticles are changed to sarabands;
-    And with the learned doctors of the schools,
-    I see thee dance cachucas;"
-
-he makes use of no exaggerated poetical tropes or figures, but speaks
-the simple fact.[63]
-
-A painful illustration of the vividness of the mental image under
-powerful emotion is afforded by a passage in "The Dream" of Lord Byron,
-in which he describes the images of the object and scenes of his
-youthful and only love, that occupied his mind, and rendered him
-insensible to the ceremony of his marriage until he was aroused from his
-abstraction by the congratulations of the bystanders.
-
-                      "He spoke
-    The fitting vows, but heard not his own words,
-    And all things reel'd around him; he could see
-    Not that which was, nor that which should have been,--
-    But the old mansion, and the accustom'd hall,
-    And the remember'd chambers, and the place,
-    The day, the hour, the sunshine, and the shade,
-    All things pertaining to that place and hour,
-    And her who was his destiny, came back,
-    And thrust themselves between him and the light."
-
-The protracted devotion of the thoughts to the memory of those whom the
-grave has severed from us, or from whom we are separated by distance,
-and which is induced by grief, gives also to the mental image great
-vividness. Exquisitely beautiful and true is the sentence placed in the
-mouth of Constance, when blamed for the grief she entertained on being
-separated from Prince Arthur:--
-
-    "Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
-    Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;
-    Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
-    Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
-    Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
-    Then have I reason to be fond of grief."
-
-In direct proportion to the concentration of the mind in the
-contemplation of its own actions, is the brilliancy and distinctness of
-the ideas which pass athwart it; and in the state of abstraction or of
-reverie, when from intense meditation, or from mere inactivity, the
-sensations derived from surrounding objects are not attended to, the
-ideas are so defined that they differ but little from actual objects in
-the sensations they excite. So also in sleep, if, from any cause,
-physical or mental, we are roused into a state of semi-consciousness, as
-in dreaming, the phantasms of former events, stored up in the memory,
-and by certain sensations or trains of thought thrown to the surface,
-differ in no respect--light, colour, shade, or sound--from the
-sensations derived from the objects represented.
-
-Should, therefore, the concentration of the mind upon any subject be
-such as to disturb the natural functions of the brain, the mental image
-is liable to excite sensations, and to be pourtrayed with a distinctness
-and "outness" which approximates to, or equals, that of a real object,
-and it is regarded as such.
-
-In the majority of individuals the concentration and intensity of
-feeling necessary for the production of hallucinations is of rare
-occurrence, and it is found only under such conditions as profound grief
-caused by death under painful or peculiar circumstances; from terror,
-excited by causes bringing powerful superstitious feelings into
-play--under which circumstances the hallucinations induced are generally
-transitory--or by emotions inordinately protracted; hence it is that we
-find visions of the dead among the most common of the temporary
-hallucinations. In the studious, and men of powerful thought, the mind
-being habituated to absorption in its own ideas, it not unfrequently
-happens that hallucinations occur from a disordered state of the brain
-induced by continued mental labour. These hallucinations are generally
-very vivid, and may arise either voluntarily or involuntarily, and may
-become habitual without the health being seriously disturbed.
-
-It will be seen, therefore, that the action of the mental powers alone
-is sufficient to give rise to sensations which are regarded as resulting
-from actual objects; and that from the simple vividness of the mental
-image, which is common to most persons, we may trace their effects, in a
-gradually ascending scale, in inducing mental conditions in which the
-brilliancy of the image is such that, for the time, it completely
-occupies the attention, and shuts out, as it were, the sensations
-derived from objects before the field of vision,--and in the formation
-of ideas so vivid and defined, that they take their position among
-surrounding, and excite the sensations proper to external, objects.
-
-We have thus far spoken of the effects of the imagination on the healthy
-frame, but in certain disordered conditions of the nervous system,
-occurring either alone, or in connection with other and more general
-morbid alterations in the economy, hallucinations are more apt to occur
-than in health. The system in this state is more susceptible of the
-effects of emotion, and the images arising in the mind are more vivid
-than would happen from the same degree of excitement in health, and are
-readily converted into hallucinations. This is witnessed in certain
-forms of hysteria, febrile diseases, &c.; hence, in these disordered
-conditions of the system, the hallucinations are not to be attributed to
-the action of the mind, so much as to a morbid susceptibility to undergo
-those changes requisite to the production of hallucinations; and these
-are, consequently, induced by grades of emotion and by influences which
-would not have caused that in ordinary health.
-
-On the other hand, the action of the mind in the development of
-hallucinations equally induces certain diseased states, either special
-or general. Even simple and temporary hallucination, in whatever manner
-caused, must be regarded as an indication that the changes going on in
-the nervous centres have passed the bounds of health; and according as
-the causes inducing hallucinations are more or less protracted, or the
-hallucinations are more or less persistent or frequent, so we may mark a
-greater or less deterioration in the mental powers, the nervous or the
-general system, or indications of more acute disease, to progress along
-with them, until the acme is reached in insanity, idiocy, or some more
-rapidly progressive and equally formidable disease.
-
-To illustrate these remarks: Blake, the artist, who, after the death of
-Sir Joshua Reynolds, enjoyed great fame as a portrait-painter, owed his
-celebrity, in great part, to the singular fact that he required but one
-or, at the most, two sittings, from those whose portraits he painted. He
-was accustomed to regard the person who sat to him attentively for about
-half an hour, sketching from time to time on the canvas, and he would
-then pass on to another subject. When he wished to continue the first
-portrait, on placing the canvas before him, he had the power of calling
-up so vivid a mental image of the personage, the outline of whose face
-was depicted upon it, that it assumed all the appearance of reality, and
-he perceived it in the position in which he required it to be. From this
-phantasm he painted, turning from the canvas and regarding it as he
-would have done had the representative of the phantom been there in
-person. By degrees he began to lose the distinction between the real and
-the imaginary objects, and at length a complete confusion of the mind
-occurred, rendering it necessary for him to be confined in an asylum.
-During his residence there, his insanity was marked by an exaggeration
-of that vivid power of imagination he had possessed previously; for he
-at will could summon before him the phantoms of any of the personages of
-history, and he held long and sensible conversations with Michael
-Angelo, Moses, Semiramis, Richard III, &c., all of whom appeared to him,
-when he desired, in the vivid hues and distinct outlines of reality.
-
-Talma, the great French tragedian, had the power, when upon the stage,
-of causing the vestments of his audience to disappear, and of depicting
-them as skeletons. When the hallucination was complete, and he had
-filled the theatre with these ghastly auditors, he was enabled to give
-the fullest and most surprising force to his performance.
-
-Examples of the influence of powerful and protracted emotions in
-inducing hallucinations are numerous. Dr. Conolly relates the case of a
-gentleman who, when at one time in great danger of being wrecked in a
-small boat on the Eddystone rocks, in the moment of greatest peril saw
-his family before him.
-
-M. Boismont quotes the case of a world-known general who, when in a
-combat one day, was surrounded by the enemy, and in so great danger that
-escape seemed impossible. He, nevertheless, contrived to escape; but the
-impression made upon him was such, that afterwards, until a late period
-of life, he occasionally suffered from an hallucination in which the
-scene of danger was again presented before him and re-enacted; and when
-subsequently on a throne, sometimes the silence of the palace would be
-disturbed by his cries, as he struggled and fought with his phantom
-foes. The hallucination was momentary.
-
-The intense emotion which Sir Richard Croft experienced on being
-summoned to attend the Princess Charlotte of Wales on her death-bed was
-such, that he saw her form, habited in white, glide along before his
-carriage.
-
-A case is related by Boismont of a lady who, while suffering from the
-depression occasioned by receiving information that her daughter was
-seriously ill, heard a voice which addressed to her the words, "Lovest
-thou me?" The lady responded immediately, "Lord, thou knowest that I
-have placed all my confidence in thee, and that I love thee with all my
-soul." The voice then said, "Dost thou give her to me?" The lady
-trembled with fear, but summoning courage, she replied, "However painful
-the sacrifice may be, let Thy will be accomplished." This lady was
-deeply pious, and the hallucination arose from the powerful and painful
-emotion caused by the sudden news of her daughter's illness, inducing
-that disordered state of the nervous system, in which the thoughts
-naturally engendered in one who submitted everything to the Almighty,
-became audible.
-
-The combined influence of love and sorrow has been a powerful source of
-hallucinations, and many of those wild and beautiful legends and tales
-which are scattered throughout the kingdom, recording the apparition of
-a deceased or distant lover to his betrothed, have been due to this
-cause.
-
-Thus, as in the old ballad:--
-
-    "When it was grown to dark midnight,
-      And all were fast asleep,
-    In came Margaret's grimly ghost,
-      And stood at William's feet."
-
-Or in the story of "Isabella," by Boccacio, so beautifully rendered by
-Keats:--
-
-    "It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,
-      The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot
-    Lorenzo stood, and wept: the forest tomb
-      Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot
-    Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom
-      Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute
-    From his lorn voice, and past his loamed ears
-    Had made a miry channel for his tears.
-
-    Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;
-      For there was striving in its piteous tongue,
-    To speak as when on earth it was awake,
-      And Isabella on its music hung:
-    Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,
-      As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;
-    And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,
-    Like hoarse night-gusts sepulchral briers among.
-
-    Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright
-      With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof
-    From the poor girl by magic of their light,
-      The while it did unthread the horrid woof
-    Of the late darken'd time--the murd'rous spite
-      Of pride and avarice--the dark pine roof
-    In the forest--and the sodden turfed dell,
-    When, without any word, from stabs it fell.
-
-    Saying moreover, "Isabel, my sweet!
-      Red whortle-berries droop above my head,
-    And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet;
-      Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed
-    Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat
-      Comes from beyond the river to my bed:
-    Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,
-    And it shall comfort me within the tomb.
-
-    "I am a shadow now, alas! alas!
-      Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling
-    Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,
-      While little sounds of life are round me knelling,
-    And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,
-      And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,
-    Paining me through: those sounds grow strange to me,
-    And thou art distant in humanity."
-
-Some of these apparitions have, in all probability, been illusions
-caused by an object indistinctly seen in the pale moonlight, or by an
-accidental arrangement of the furniture of the apartment, transformed by
-an imagination devoted to the subject of its own sorrows, or influenced
-by a vivid dream, into the idea at the moment most prominent in the
-mind.
-
-The influence of remorse, or of those terrible emotions which accrue to
-the murderer on the perpetration of the foul deed, in causing
-hallucinations, is well known.
-
-The ghost of Banquo (Macbeth, Act III, Scene 3) is a type of many
-wondrous histories:--
-
-    "Prythee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo!--How say you?
-    Why what can I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
-    If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send
-    Those that we bury, back, our monuments
-    Shall be the maws of kites."
-
-Vanderkiste[64] relates the story of a convict who had murdered an
-overseer, and taken to the bush:--
-
-"He lived in the woods, and came armed to the huts to demand provisions
-for some time, but imagined he was continually haunted by the spirit of
-the man he had murdered. At last he delivered himself up to the
-authorities, declaring his life a burden. He was seen for days, dogged,
-as he conceived, by the spectre of his victim, and escaping from tree to
-tree."
-
-Sir Walter Scott records the story, that the captain of a slaver, in a
-fit of anger, shot at, and mortally wounded, one of his sailors. As the
-man was dying, he fixed his eyes upon the captain, and said, "Sir, you
-have done for me, but I will never leave you." The captain became grave
-and moody, and some time after he invited the mate into the cabin, and
-addressing him, said, "I need not tell you, Jack, what sort of hand we
-have got on board with us. He told me he would never leave me, and he
-has kept his word. You only see him now and then, but he is always by my
-side, and never out of my sight. At this very moment I see him. I am
-determined to bear it no longer, and I have resolved to leave you."
-Soon after this, the captain, watching an opportunity when he was
-unobserved, plunged into the sea: the mate rushed to the side of the
-ship, and the captain perceiving him, extended his hands upwards,
-exclaimed; "By ----, Bill is with me now!" and sunk.
-
-One of the most remarkable examples of hallucination arising from the
-feelings excited by cold-blooded murder is recorded by Boismont:--
-
-"A duellist, who had killed sixteen persons in single combat, was
-constantly accompanied by their phantoms; they never left him night or
-day."
-
-The solitary hours of Charles IX were made frightful by the shrieks and
-cries which had reached him during the massacre of the Eve of St.
-Bartholomew, and he was haunted for many days subsequent to its
-occurrence by hideous and bloody faces. Taking Ambrose Pare aside, at
-one time, he remarked that he wished they had not comprised in the
-massacre the aged and children.
-
-No cause is, however, so apt to engender hallucinations as religious
-enthusiasm, or an inordinate or rather fanatical occupation of the mind
-in the contemplation of religious subjects.
-
-In the saint-visions which are so numerously scattered in the annals of
-Christian churches and which were so common under the self-denying and
-ascetic rules of some of the monastic orders, we have examples; and
-Spenser's "Hermit" furnishes the type of this species of
-hallucination:--
-
-    "Thence forward by that painfull way they pas
-    Forth to an hill, that was both steepe and hy;
-    On top whereof a sacred chapel was,
-    And eke a little hermitage thereby,
-    Wherein an aged holy man did lie,
-    That day and night said his devotion,
-    Ne other worldly busines did apply:
-    His name was Heavenly Contemplation;
-    Of God and goodness, was his meditation.
-
-    Great grace that old man to him given had;
-    For God he often saw from heavens hight:
-    All were his earthly eien both blunt and bad,
-    And through great age had lost their kindly sight,
-    Yet wondrous quick and persaunt was his spright,
-    As eagles eie, that can behold the sunne."
-
-The Virgin appeared to Ignatius Loyola, and confirming his designs,
-urged him to the enterprise he had in view for the establishment of the
-Roman Catholic church on a surer basis. Satan came visibly to Luther and
-contended with him, sometimes worsting him in argument. Swedenborg
-beheld in visions the heavenly scenes which his imagination had
-pourtrayed; while Pascal wrote he beheld an abyss of flames beside his
-writing-table; and Symeon Stylites conceived that Satan had appeared to
-him under the form of Jesus Christ, and invited him to ascend to heaven
-in a chariot drawn by cherubim. Symeon put out his foot to enter the
-chariot, when the whole vanished; and, as a punishment for his
-presumption, the offending thigh was affected with an ulcer, which
-obliged him to rest upon one leg for the remainder of his life.
-
-It is important to comprehend fully the influence of the imagination in
-developing visions of this nature, particularly in a disordered state of
-the health, from the important effects which they have exercised and
-still exercise upon mankind.
-
-The following example is an interesting illustration of the nature and
-source of these hallucinations:
-
-Some years ago considerable attention was excited in Germany by the
-publication of a series of visions which a lady of considerable literary
-attainments and high character had beheld, and for which she believed
-that she was indebted to divine favour.
-
-The hallucinations which she experienced had first been noted in the
-fourth year of her age, when one day, as she was dressing a doll, and
-for greater convenience had placed a large folio Bible beneath her feet,
-she heard a voice exclaim: "Put the book where you found it!" She did
-not immediately obey the order, as she saw no one, but in a few moments
-the mandate was repeated, and she thought some one took hold of her
-face. This hallucination, according to Dr. Hibbert, is to be regarded as
-a renovated feeling arising from some prior remonstrances regarding the
-holy volume; and, we would add, together with the altered sensation
-experienced in the face, was evidently due to the earlier stages of a
-disease which occasioned the more fully developed visions. After this
-period, she devoted herself to the study of the Scriptures; and her
-labours, in this respect, were incessant and protracted. In her seventh
-year she saw, when playing, a vision of a clear flame which entered the
-chamber door, in the centre of which was a strong bright light,
-described as about the size of a child six years old. This vision
-endured about half an hour. No other vision is mentioned until the
-period of her marriage, which proved unfortunate, embittering her life
-and causing her constantly to meditate on death. It was in this state of
-mind that the principal visions to which she was subjected occurred. On
-one occasion, after receiving some ill-treatment from her husband,
-broken down in spirits, and thinking the Lord had forsaken her, she made
-a resolution to desist from prayer. On retiring to bed, she repented the
-decision she had made, and prayed fervently. She awoke in the morning
-before daybreak, and was surprised to find the room vividly
-illuminated, and that at the bedside was seated a heavenly figure, in
-the form of an old man. This phantom was dressed in a blueish robe, and
-had bright hair; and the countenance shone like the clearest red and
-white crystal. It regarded her benignantly, and said, "_Proceed,
-proceed, proceed!_" At first the words were unintelligible to her, but a
-young and beautiful angel, which appeared on the other side of the bed,
-exclaimed: "_Proceed in prayer, proceed in faith, proceed in trials!_"
-After this the devil appeared, pulled her by the hair, and tormented her
-in other ways, until the angel interfered, and drove him away. Satan in
-this case assumed his usual hideous garb. Subsequently one of the angels
-exclaimed, three times: "Lord, this is sufficient;" and while saying
-these words, the lady beheld large wings on his shoulders, and knew him
-to be an angel of God. The light and the angels then vanished, and the
-lady felt eased of her grief, and arose.
-
-If the nature of the figures and the mode of action in these visions had
-not sufficed to show how completely they were dependent upon dominant
-ideas and a disordered state of the nervous system, the history of the
-case would demonstrate it. The early, protracted, and inordinate study
-of religious beliefs, similar to that which laid the basis of
-Swedenborg's visions; the painful state of the mind induced by her
-unhappy marriage, and disease, were the source of the hallucinations to
-which she was subject; for it was ascertained that when the visions
-occurred she always suffered from slight attacks of epilepsy.
-
-Intense and protracted mental exertion frequently gives rise to
-hallucinations.
-
-A medical gentleman in Edinburgh, while seated one evening in his
-library, after a period of excessive study, on raising his head, was
-startled by perceiving at the opposite side of the table the spectre of
-a gentleman who had died under melancholy circumstances some days
-previously, and at whose post-mortem examination he had assisted.
-
-That excessive action of the imagination, and consequent absorption of
-the mind in its own workings, to exclusion of external sensations, which
-is common in men of genius, has been a fertile source of hallucinations.
-
-In some instances the hallucinations have been "counterfeit
-presentments" of the ideas which have been most prominent in the mind;
-in others they have had no relation to that condition.
-
-Spinello, who had painted the Fall of the Angels, thought that he was
-haunted by the frightful devils which he had depicted. He was rendered
-so miserable by this hallucination that he destroyed himself. One of
-our own artists, who was much engaged in painting caricatures, became
-haunted by the distorted faces he drew; and the deep melancholy and
-terror which accompanied these apparitions caused him to commit suicide.
-Mueller, who executed the copper-plate of the Sixtine Madonna, had more
-lovely visions. Towards the close of his life the Virgin appeared to
-him, and thanking him for the affection he had shown towards her,
-invited him to follow her to heaven. To achieve this, the artist starved
-himself to death. Beethoven, who became completely deaf in the decline
-of life, often heard his sublime compositions performed distinctly.
-
-It is related of Ben Jonson, that he spent the whole of one night in
-regarding his great toe, around which he saw Tartars, Turks, Romans, and
-Catholics climbing up, and struggling and fighting. Goethe, when out
-riding one day, was surprised to see an exact image of himself on
-horseback, dressed in a light-coloured coat, riding towards him.
-
-A similar kind of hallucination to this of Goethe's has been observed as
-a precursor of certain forms of insanity, and in the delirium of fever.
-
-Boismont records the case of a gentleman who was troubled with a
-spectral image of himself, which he had the power of calling before him
-voluntarily. This, for several years, was a source of amusement to him;
-but by degrees this phantom became more persistent, arose involuntarily,
-and addressed him. The hallucination then assumed a still graver
-character, for his double would dispute with him, and often foil him in
-argument; and coincidently with this phase of the disease the gentleman
-became melancholy, and he ultimately committed suicide.
-
-The imagination rarely gives rise to hallucinations of the senses of
-touch, taste, or smell alone. The sweet-smelling odours which are stated
-to have been experienced during the visions of angels and saints; and
-the foul and sulphurous fumes which have accompanied apparitions of the
-infernals, are, however, to be attributed to this cause.
-
-Thus far our illustrations and remarks have been confined to that class
-of hallucinations which are induced principally by the action of the
-imagination, mental emotion, or excessive exertion of the reasoning
-powers.
-
-There is, however, another class of hallucinations dependent upon
-certain disordered states of the general health and nervous system,
-which have an important bearing upon the belief in the supernatural.
-
-The simplest forms of hallucination of this class are those occasionally
-observed during the initiatory stages of some diseases, after the
-termination of exhausting affections, or during temporary morbid
-conditions of the brain.
-
-The following examples will illustrate the nature of the hallucinations
-arising from these sources.
-
-A lady, with whom we are acquainted, was walking early one morning in a
-lonely and unfrequented path, which was open to the eye for some
-distance. On approaching its termination, she was surprised to see a
-lady advancing towards her, dressed in deep mourning, and reading a
-book. Struck by the peculiar beauty of the lady's face, she turned round
-to gaze upon her as she passed; but, to her surprise, the figure
-vanished. Startled and alarmed, she hurried home, and almost immediately
-afterwards was seized with shiverings, and suffered from a violent
-attack of fever, characterised by severe cerebral disturbance. The
-hallucination in this case was caused by the changes induced in the
-nervous system by the initiatory stages of the disease.
-
-A young lady recovering from a severe attack of fever, was left in
-charge of the house during a fine Sunday evening in autumn, the
-remainder of the family having gone to church. A thunder-storm came on,
-with heavy rain, and she became very anxious about her aged father. On
-going into the room generally occupied by the family, there, to her
-great astonishment, she beheld, as she thought, her father sitting in
-his usual position. Supposing that he must have returned from church
-unwell, she advanced, placed her hand upon the semblance, and found
-nothing. Although startled, she attributed the vision to its proper
-cause, anxiety and weakness; but though she went in and out of the room
-several times, the spectre persisted for a considerable period.
-
-A merchant, while sitting in his counting-house, was annoyed by hearing
-voices outside the door conversing freely respecting his character, and
-speaking of him as a dishonoured man. Thinking it was some trick of his
-friends, he quietly opened the door, and was astonished to find no one.
-On closing it the voices again began in a similar strain; and on
-re-opening the door he still found no one. Alarmed, he left his office,
-and proceeded home, but the voices followed him, threatening punishment
-for imaginary crimes. This hallucination was accompanied by other signs
-of a disordered state of the brain, and it was not until after a period
-of entire relaxation from business, and a daily game at cricket, that
-the phantom-voices ceased.
-
-There are certain formidable disorders of the nervous system in which
-hallucinations affect all the senses.
-
-The following is an example of the diseases of this class, and it will
-show the influence which they are liable to exert in the development of
-certain forms of superstition.
-
-A maiden lady, aged forty years, who from early youth had been of a very
-susceptible and restless disposition, suffered from hallucinations which
-persisted for many years.
-
-At first the sight alone was affected, and she saw numerous persons of
-singular and fantastic form. Subsequently she heard voices, which
-professed to have taken up their abode in her stomach, and addressed her
-from thence. These voices tormented her; commanded all her actions;
-informed her of what took place within the body; gave her instructions
-upon diseases, and even prescribed for them. The voices gave her
-information respecting the characters of divers persons, and
-occasionally endowed her with the power of expressing herself in terms
-more florid and fluent than she was accustomed to. Often the voices
-conversed on geography, grammar, rhetoric, &c.; and they would reprove
-her when she had done amiss. They told her that she was possessed, and
-although she was not superstitious, and fully recognized the
-hallucinations she suffered from, she at this time sought a priest to
-exorcise her, thought much of eternity, and sometimes gave herself up to
-despair. At one time the voices told her she would become queen; often
-they conversed with her upon strange, and sometimes even abominable
-subjects; then they would say things extremely comical, and make her
-laugh. They would please, and then mock her, and then assail her more
-violently than ever, and spoil like harpies everything she touched or
-did. If she took a glass of water, the voices would call out that it was
-poisoned; and frequently they urged her to destroy herself. When she
-walked out, if she passed a female, the voices would cry out that she
-carried musk (the odour of which the lady abominated) and immediately
-she smelt this odour; if a man passed her, she was affected with the
-smell of tobacco. The voices often gave her no rest until she did what
-they liked, and they even ordered her to Paris, to place herself under
-the care of physicians there.
-
-The visions she suffered from were very singular. Her apartment was
-filled with persons of all characters and descriptions; numerous
-processions defiled before her, and some of the figures had but one half
-the body, a profile, or one eye; they were large or small, and
-occasionally underwent singular and fantastic changes of form.
-
-The food she took did not possess its natural taste, and the voices
-often gave unpleasant savours, to prevent her eating.
-
-When she journeyed, she felt as if soaked with water, and she would
-attempt to wring her clothes.
-
-Addressing one of her physicians, when the malady was fully developed,
-she said, "I know that it is monomania, but the voices are stronger than
-my will. I wish you to prescribe for me, it is impossible for me to
-remain in one place."[65]
-
-This case is an interesting illustration of a form of disease, which,
-when developed in persons who are subject to religious enthusiasm, has
-given rise to the belief of possession with devils (_demonomania_).
-Instances of this disease are frequently met with in the French asylums.
-
-Many other forms of hallucination occur in insanity, monomania, fever,
-hysteria, and other diseases, in dreams, and from the influence of
-certain poisonous substances taken into the system. Some of these
-hallucinations are of considerable interest, since they have been the
-prime cause of many superstitions.
-
-In addition to the hallucinations of the hearing already mentioned, in
-certain diseases, words spoken in the right ear have been heard in the
-left, and _vice versa_; and under the influence of opium or haschish
-(prepared from the Indian hemp), the sense becomes, occasionally, so
-developed, that a word pronounced low, or a slight movement, sounds like
-a peal of thunder. Hallucinations of the sight have occasionally
-presented figures of colossal stature, or of extreme diminutiveness; or
-the patient has conceived the idea that he was so tall that he was
-unable to walk erect in a lofty apartment, or so diminutive that he
-dreaded the movements of any near to him, lest they should do him harm.
-Pleasant or fetid odours are sometimes constantly present to the smell.
-Feuchtersleben states the case of a lady who was long haunted with the
-effluvia as of a charnel-house. The taste is subjected to hallucinations
-of exquisitely flavoured viands and wines; or the reverse, no food being
-taken; or everything taken presents one undeviating flavour, which may
-be pleasant or unpleasant, or it has no taste at all. A sensation of
-_flying_ is not uncommon. Boismont has a friend who frequently
-experiences this sensation, and it often occurs in dreams. A friend of
-ours is in the habit of dreaming that he is suspended about a foot above
-the surface of the earth, and is carried along by simple volition,
-without movement of the limbs; and St. Jerome states, that often in
-dreams he flew from the earth over mountains and seas. Our ideas of
-depth and space are sometimes increased in dreams to an extent that is
-inexpressible and almost bewildering; and the sensation of falling into
-an abyss is common to the dreamer. The idea of time is often extended
-indefinitely; in the space of a single night, days, weeks, years, and
-even ages, have appeared to elapse. Transformation of the figure is
-occasionally met with among the hallucinations of insanity; and in the
-state induced by haschish, the singular and fantastic forms which those
-under its influence, and the parties surrounding them, have appeared to
-undergo, are of great interest. "The eyelashes," writes one gentleman,
-"lengthened themselves indefinitely, and rolled themselves as threads of
-gold on little ivory bobbins, which turned unassisted, with frightful
-rapidity.... I still saw my comrades at certain moments, but _deformed_,
-half men, half plants, with the pensive airs of an ibis standing on one
-foot, of ostriches flapping their wings, &c."--"I imagined that I was
-the parroquet of the Queen of Sheba, and I imitated as well as I was
-able the cries of this praiseworthy bird."
-
-In the state caused by haschish it occasionally also happens that the
-person under its influence may be caused to speak or act in any manner
-that is suggested to him. This phenomenon is also seen in dreams; in
-both conditions the half-awakened mind automatically pursues the train
-of thought which has been suggested to it either by the voice or by
-certain sensations.
-
-Lastly, in certain disordered conditions of the system, the person has
-the power of looking, as it were, into himself, and ascertaining what is
-going on there, or of extending his sensual powers beyond the bounds of
-their ordinary sphere, and ascertaining what transpires in other places,
-or at a distance of many miles (_clairvoyance_). The gentleman from
-whose experience of the effects of haschish we have already quoted,
-thought he could look at will into his stomach, and that he saw there,
-in the form of an emerald, from which escaped millions of sparkles, the
-drug he had swallowed.
-
-By a careful consideration of the illusions and hallucinations to which
-we are liable, we obtain a clue to unravel the wild fantasies which
-constitute the greater part of the most prominent superstitions.
-
-If we reflect on the superstitious ideas which filled the minds of our
-forefathers, and follow them back, in their deepening intensity, into
-the middle ages, we can easily imagine how the irregular and fantastic
-figures which an indistinct and disordered vision gave rise to in the
-gloom of the night, were transformed into fiends and demons; how
-spectres, clothed in their horrid white and blue panoply, were seen
-stalking over the earth, and haunting the murder-stained castle, glade,
-and forest; how the dimly illuminated mists of the evening and morning
-shadowed forth the forms of the dead, and the spirits of the waters and
-the air; how in the mist of Killarney, an O'Donoghue, mounted on his
-milk-white steed, and attended by a host of fairy forms, swept over the
-beautiful lake; and a spectral array arose night after night from the
-bed of the rushing Moldau, and besieged the walls of Prague; how the
-moonbeams chequering the deep recesses of the woods, and the banks and
-meadows overhung with foliage, were metamorphised into fairies; how the
-wind howling among the rocks and mountains, sweeping through the
-valleys, or whispering amid the trees and about the nooks and corners of
-the turretted castle and ruinous mansion, bore on its bosom the sounds
-of spectre-horsemen, demon-hunters, and fiend-like hounds, or the wail
-and lamentations of wandering and lost spirits, and the shrieks of the
-infernals; and how the billows, rushing into the caverns and deep
-fissures in the cliffs of a rock-bound coast, filled the air with the
-mysterious and incomprehensible language of the spirits of the deep.
-
-A clue also is obtained to other forms of superstition.
-
-The power which the witch was supposed to possess of transporting
-herself from place to place, and which those self-deluded wretches
-themselves believed; and the orgies of the witch-sabbath, which were
-again and again deposed to, were hallucinations due to a form of
-insanity--for we may so call it--prevailing at the period, which was
-determined by the nature of the superstitious beliefs entertained. The
-real character of this superstition is well shown by an incident which
-is recorded by Jung-Stilling.
-
-He writes:--"I am acquainted with a tale, for the truth of which I can
-vouch, because it is taken from the official documents of an old
-witch-process. An old woman was imprisoned, put to the torture, and
-confessed all that witches are generally charged with. Amongst others,
-she also denounced a neighbour of hers, who had been with her on the
-Blocksberg, the preceding Walpurgis night. This woman was called, and
-asked if it were true what the prisoner said of her? On which she stated
-that, on Walpurgis eve she had called upon this woman, because she had
-something to say to her. On entering her kitchen, she found the prisoner
-busy in preparing a decoction of herbs. On asking her what she was
-boiling, she said, with a smiling and mysterious mien, "Wilt thou go
-with me to the Brocken?" From curiosity, and in order to ascertain what
-there was in the matter, she answered, "Yes: I should like to go well
-enough." On which the prisoner chattered some time about the feast, and
-the dance, and the enormous goat. She then drank of the decoction, and
-offered it to her, saying: "There, take a hearty drink of it, that thou
-mayest be able to ride through the air:" she likewise put the pot to her
-mouth, and made as if she drank of it, but did not taste a drop. During
-this, the prisoner had put a pitchfork between her legs, and placed
-herself upon the hearth; that she soon sunk down, and began to sleep and
-snore: after having looked on for some time, she was at length tired of
-it, and went home.
-
-The next morning, the prisoner came to her, and said, "Well, how dost
-thou like being at the Brocken? Sith, there were glorious doings." On
-which she had laughed heartily, and told her that she had not drunk of
-the potion, and that she, the prisoner, had not been at the Brocken, but
-had slept with her pitchfork upon the hearth. That the woman, on this,
-became angry, and said to her, that she ought not to deny having been at
-the Brocken, and having danced and kissed the goat."[66]
-
-Gassendi relates an experiment to the same effect. He anointed some
-peasants with a pomade made of belladonna or opium, persuading them that
-the operation would convey them to the witch-sabbath. After a profound
-sleep, they awoke, and told how they had been present at the sabbath,
-and the pleasures they had enjoyed.
-
-Stupifying and intoxicating drugs were, in all probability, freely used
-by sorcerers, and in the ancient mysteries, and to their use is to be
-attributed many of the illusions and hallucinations which are familiar
-in the details of the practice of the occult sciences.
-
-Jung-Stilling quotes a singularly interesting example of a method of
-practising one of the most important processes of magic; and an
-examination of it satisfactory shows the manner in which some of the
-most striking of the deceptions of that art were brought about, and how
-it happened that the professor, as well as the student, was equally
-deluded.
-
-In Eckhartshausen's "Key to Magic" there is an account of a young
-Scotsman "who, though he meddled not with the conjuration of spirits,
-and such like charlatanry, had learned, however, a remarkable piece of
-art from a Jew, which he communicated also to Eckhartshausen, and made
-the experiment with him,--which is surprising, and worthy of perusal. He
-that wishes to raise and see any particular spirit, _must prepare
-himself for it, for some days together, both spiritually and
-physically_. There are also particular and remarkable requisites and
-relations necessary betwixt such a spirit and the person who wishes to
-see it--relations which cannot otherwise be explained, than on the
-ground of the intervention of some secret influence from the invisible
-world. After all these precautions, a vapour is produced in a room, from
-certain materials which Eckhartshausen, with propriety, does not
-divulge, on account of the dangerous abuse which might be made of it,
-which visibly forms itself into a figure which bears a resemblance to
-that which the person wishes to see. In this there is no question of any
-magic-lantern or optical artifice; but the vapour really forms a human
-figure, similar to that which the individual desires to behold. I will
-now insert the conclusion of the story in Eckhartshausen's own words:--
-
-"Some time after the departure of the stranger, that is, the Scotsman, I
-made the experiment for one of my friends. He saw as I did, and had the
-same sensations.
-
-"The observations that we made were these. As soon as the ingredients
-were thrown into the chafing-dish, a whitish body forms itself, that
-seems to hover above the chafing-dish, as large as life.
-
-"It possesses the likeness of the person whom we wished to see, only the
-visage is of an ashy paleness.
-
-"On approaching the figure, one is conscious of a resistance, similar to
-that which is felt when going against a strong wind, which drives one
-back.
-
-"If one speaks with it, one remembers no more distinctly what is spoken;
-and when the appearance vanishes, one feels as if awakening from a
-dream. The head is stupified, and a contraction is felt about the
-abdomen. It is also very singular that the same appearance presents
-itself when one is in the dark, or when looking upon dark objects.
-
-"The unpleasantness of this sensation was the reason why I was unwilling
-to repeat the experiment, although often urged to do so by many
-individuals."[67]
-
-It would be difficult to conceive any more powerful method of inducing
-hallucinations than that detailed in this instructive and interesting
-recital. The previous schooling of the imagination, in order thoroughly
-to imbue it with the train of ideas requisite for the full development
-of the phenomenon, and the subsequent intoxication induced by the
-inhalation of powerful narcotic vapours--an intoxication which, as we
-have already seen in the example of haschish, is peculiarly apt to the
-development of hallucinations--will sufficiently account for the
-illusion of the smoke of the chafing-dish presenting any figure which
-the mind desires to see. The difficulty which the experimenter
-experienced in approaching the phantom, and which he compares to the
-resistance which is felt when contending against a strong wind, was
-evidently due to the powerful emotion which he experienced depriving him
-of that control of the voluntary muscles, such as we find in a person
-paralyzed by fear or astonishment; or perhaps it was rather a feeling
-similar to that experienced in nightmare, when, whatever effort we may
-make, we feel almost incapable of motion.
-
-The action of the narcotic vapour alone was sufficient to induce
-hallucinations; for, persuaded by a very experienced physician, who
-"maintained that the narcotic ingredients which formed the vapour must
-of necessity violently affect the imagination, and might be very
-injurious, according to circumstances," Eckhartshausen made the
-experiment on himself without previous preparation; "but," he writes,
-"scarcely had I cast the quantum of ingredients into the chafing-dish,
-when a figure presented itself. I was, however, seized with such a
-horror, that I was obliged to leave the room. I was very ill during
-three hours, and thought I saw the figure always before me. Towards
-evening, after inhaling the fumes of vinegar, and drinking it with
-water, I was better again; but for three weeks afterwards I felt a
-debility: and the strangest part of the matter is, that when I remember
-the circumstance, and look for some time upon any dark object, this ashy
-pale figure still presents itself very vividly to my sight. After this I
-no longer dared to make any experiments with it."
-
-The use of intoxicating and stupifying drugs doubtless contributed also
-to the development of those ideas of strange and wonderful
-transformations and anomalies of form with which the legends and
-romances of Oriental and European nations teem. In the examples of
-hallucinations we have already given from this source, we find the key
-to the explanation of several of these transformations; and the
-elaborated supernatural framework of fairy tales, in which men are
-changed without compunction into inferior animals, trees, or vegetables,
-has probably had a similar origin.
-
-The state of "clairvoyance," and that condition of the nervous system
-which is found in certain diseases, dreams, and under the influence of
-narcotic poisons, in which, by suggestions, in whatever manner given,
-certain actions and trains of thought may be excited at the will of the
-suggestor, is seen also, and may be induced at will in those conditions
-of the system which are summed up under the terms "mesmerism," "animal
-magnetism," "electro-biology," &c.; and the theories which have been
-invented to explain them, and which are expressed in the above names,
-are not only needless, but inconsistent with the facts observed. The
-so-called mesmeric and electro-biological trance is strictly allied to
-certain forms of dreaming; and the whole of the results witnessed may be
-explained by certain admitted physiological and physical laws of action,
-and are due to leading trains of thought which are excited by
-suggestions direct or indirect. As to the higher faculty of prevision
-claimed in this state, we are not aware that, as yet, a single
-trustworthy instance has been established.
-
-There is a class of spectral apparitions which differ from those which
-we have already dwelt upon, inasmuch as they have appeared to
-foreshadow, or have occurred coincidently with, the death of an
-individual; or they have made known events occurring at a distance, or
-have brought to light things else hidden by the grave.
-
-In the deepening gloom of twilight the seer of Scotland often witnessed
-the _wraiths_ of those who were about to die, wreathed in the ascending
-mists of the night, troop in ghostly silence before his horror-stricken
-vision; and the _Bodach Glas_ crossed the path of the death-laden Mac
-Ivor; the _Bodac au Dun_, or Ghost of the Hill, warned the Rothmurchan
-of approaching calamity; the spectre of the Bloody Hand scared the
-Kincardines; the _Bodach Gartin_ glided in significant horror through
-the gloomy passages of Gartnibeg House; and the Girl with the Hairy Left
-Hand--_Manch Monlach_--pointed to the death-bolt about to carry weeping
-and wailing into the halls of Tulloch Gorus.
-
-The spectral _fetch_ shadowed forth in the sister isle the dark course
-of death; while the Banshee mourned with the frightful accents of the
-dead over the dying scions of the ancient families. Hovering near the
-sorrow-laden mansion, her robe flowing wide in the night air, and her
-tangled tresses borne upon the wind, she cried the keen of another world
-adown the vaulted passages, and sobbed in ghastly agony her bitter
-lamentations.
-
-The _Gwrach y Rhibyn_--Hag of the Dribble--when the night had covered
-the earth, spread out her leathern-like wings, and flitting before the
-house of the death-stricken Cambrians, shrieked in harsh, broken, and
-prolonged tones their names.
-
-In our own land the spectres of all those who would die in the parish
-during the year might be seen walking in ghostly procession to the
-church, or entering its portals, by him who would watch, three years
-consecutively, during the last hour of the night and the first hour of
-the morning, in the porch, on the Eve of St. Mark, or would kneel and
-look through the keyhole of the door of the sanctuary at midnight on the
-Eve of St. John the Baptist.
-
-The _White Lady_, who haunts the ancient castle of the celebrated
-Bohemian family of Rosenberg-Neuhaus, and who also appears from time to
-time in the castles of the allied families of Brandenburg, Baden, and
-Darmstadt,--Trzebon, Islubocka, Bechin, and Tretzen, and even has been
-seen in Berlin, Bayreuth, and at Carlsrhue is of historical notoriety.
-Tall of stature, attired in white, and wearing a white widow's veil
-adorned with ribbons, through the folds of which, and from within her, a
-faint light has been seen to glimmer, she glides with a modest air
-through the corridors and apartments of those castles and palaces in
-which the death of one of her family is about to occur; and she has been
-seen at other times, and oft, with the aspect and air as though the
-spirit had a melancholy pleasure in visiting and hovering about her
-descendants. It is said to be the ghost of one Perchta Von Rosenberg,
-who was born between A.D. 1420 and 1430, and subsequently married to
-John Von Lichtenstein, a rich and profligate baron, who so embittered
-her life that she was obliged to seek relief from her relatives, and she
-died borne down with the insults and indescribable distress she endured.
-Among the old paintings of the family of Rosenberg was found a portrait
-of this lady, attired after the fashion of the times, and bearing an
-exact resemblance to the "_White Lady_." In December, 1628, she appeared
-in Berlin, and was heard to exclaim, "Veni, judica vivos et mortuos:
-judicium mihi adhuc superest!"--"Come, judge the living and the dead; my
-fate is not yet decided."
-
-The _Klage-weib_ (Mourning Woman) when the storm is driving the rift
-before it, and the moon shines fitfully and faintly on the earth, may be
-seen stalking along, her gigantic and shadowy form enveloped in dark
-flowing grave-clothes, her deathlike countenance and deep cavernous eyes
-freezing the unhappy spectator with horror, while, extending her vast
-arm, she sweeps it above the cottage marked out by death.
-
-In the Tyrol also, the phantom of a white woman looks in at the window
-of a house where a person must die.
-
-These are examples of spectral apparitions foreboding death and
-misfortune, which the lapse of ages and the influence of superstition
-have invested with a semblance of reality, approximating them in
-apparent truthfulness to historical facts.
-
-It is a needless, and would be a thankless task, to show how these
-notions were the legitimate result of the ideas of the supernatural
-entertained at the period when they were developed; and how when the
-superstitions once assumed a definite form, the slightest illusion
-during the period of sickness or calamity, whether observed in the
-castellated mansion, pregnant generally with deeds of darkness or blood,
-or in the twilight or the storm of a moon-lit night, were converted into
-these phantoms;[68] or the imperfectly remembered dream, or its vivid
-depiction of the superstition, shadowed forth the same.
-
-Scant of romance, and that wild and thrilling medium through which many
-of our old legends are seen, we have handed to us numerous business-like
-stories, some of very recent date, in which the same principles are
-involved as in the legends we have detailed, and which demand grave
-attention, from the honest truthfulness with which they are evidently
-detailed, and the events which they appear to have foreshadowed.
-
-Let us examine some of these instances, and endeavour to ascertain
-whether they come under the character of illusions or hallucinations; or
-whether they are to be placed in another category, and to be regarded as
-the results of supernatural agency, as is most frequently done.
-
-In "Blackwood's Magazine" for 1840, there is a letter which contains the
-following statement:--
-
-"The 'Hawk' being on her passage from the Cape of Good Hope towards the
-island of Java, and myself having the charge of the middle watch,
-between one and two in the morning I was taken suddenly ill, which
-obliged me to send for the officer next in turn; I then went down on the
-gun-deck, and sent my boy for a light. In the meanwhile, I sat down on a
-chest in the steerage, under the after-grating, when I felt a gentle
-squeeze by a very cold hand; I started, and saw a figure in white;
-stepping back, I said, 'God's my life! who is that?' It stood and gazed
-at me a short time, stooped its head to get a more perfect view, sighed
-aloud, repeated the exclamation 'Oh!' three times, and instantly
-vanished. The night was fine, though the moon afforded through the
-gratings but a weak light, so that little of feature could be seen,
-only a figure rather tall than otherwise, and white-clad. My boy
-returning now with a light, I sent him to the cabins of all the
-officers, when he brought me word that not one of them had been
-stirring. Coming afterwards to St. Helena, homeward-bound, hearing of my
-sister's death, and finding the time so nearly coinciding, it added much
-to my painful concern; and I have only to thank God, that when I saw
-what I now verily believe to have been her apparition (my sister Ann), I
-did not then know the melancholy occasion of it."
-
-The superstitious feelings which we find pervading the mind of the
-gentleman relating this incident, and which is evinced by its
-termination; the circumstances under which the apparition took place,
-namely, a dim uncertain light, that most favourable to illusion; an
-attack of indisposition leading to alteration of the natural sensations;
-and lastly, and most important of all, the after-conclusion arrived at
-on hearing of the sister's death, and under the influence of which the
-account was written, and which, it is evident from the nature of the
-details, gave rise to that definite statement which has been
-recorded,--all tend to the conclusion that the spectre was an illusion,
-and that its significance was a phase imparted to it by superstitious
-feelings alone.
-
-The influence of subsequent conclusions in warping the real history of
-an event, and giving a definite and precise character to what would
-otherwise have been vague and inconclusive, as is witnessed in the above
-story, is one of the most important fallacies pervading ghost-stories.
-There is no source of self-deception to which we are exposed, more
-insidious; and it is requisite to keep it constantly in view, not only
-in relations of this nature, but in the examination of events of any
-kind whatever. The colouring which facts receive from this source, too
-often hides their real character; and the reciter is perfectly
-unconscious of the erroneous light which he casts upon them. Hence the
-importance of ascertaining the peculiar bias and tendencies of thought
-which appertain to one who records occurrences upon which important
-conclusions or theories may be based.
-
-The vicious habit which has been common among the advocates of
-supernatural visitations, of supporting their opinions upon the
-assertions of men of known probity and honour, to the complete exclusion
-of an examination of the sources of delusion and error to which these
-men were liable from the character of their previous education, habits
-of thought, associations, &c., and from their imperfect acquaintance
-with the fallacies to which they may have been exposed, has been a
-fertile source of error.
-
-A so-called fact is not an abstract truth; it is simply a fact so far as
-it relates to the assertor, and the credence given to it by others
-depends upon the extent to which it agrees with their experience, or
-upon the knowledge that the assertor has by previous study or experience
-so far diminished the probability of error on the subject to which it
-relates, that the statement may be received without hesitation.
-
-Another form of ghost-story is that in which the spirit of the dead has
-been compelled to wander in misery on the earth, for some crime or
-error, small or great, committed during life, and which, unless it be
-atoned for or rectified, prevents its eternal repose.
-
-A story of this kind is given by Jung-Stilling, and however absurd it
-may be in some parts, it is interesting from the precision of its
-details enabling us to lay hold of a clue to the explanation of the
-majority of these tales.
-
-In 1756, M. Doerien, one of the proctors of Caroline College, Brunswick,
-was taken ill and died, shortly after "St. John's Day" (June 24th).
-Immediately before his death, he requested to see another of the
-proctors, M. Hoefer, having some communication of importance to make to
-him; but before that gentleman arrived, death had taken place. After
-some time a report became prevalent in the college that the ghost of the
-deceased proctor had been seen; but as this proceeded merely from the
-young, little attention had been given to it. At length, in October,
-upwards of three months after the death of M. Doerien, as M. Hoefer was
-proceeding on his accustomed nightly round, between the hours of eleven
-and twelve, in one of the corridors he saw the spectre of that
-professor, clothed in a common night-gown and white night-cap. This
-unexpected sight terrified M. Hoefer somewhat, but recollecting that he
-was in the path of duty, he recovered himself, and advancing to the
-spectre, endeavoured to examine it by the light of the candle he held in
-his hand; but such a horror came over him, that he could scarcely
-withdraw the hand in which he extended the light, and from that moment
-it was so swollen, "that some months elapsed before it was healed." The
-following night he was accompanied in his rounds by a philosopher,
-Professor Oeder, who was rather sceptical on the subject of apparitions;
-but on approaching the spot in which the spectre had been seen on the
-previous evening, there they beheld it again in the same position.
-
-Others attempted to gain a sight of the ghost, but it would not manifest
-itself, not even to MM. Oeder and Hoefer, until the former gentleman,
-wearied with his useless watching during a somewhat prolonged period,
-exclaimed, "I have gone after the spirit long enough to please him; if
-he now wants anything, let him come to me." But what followed? About
-fourteen days after, when he was thinking about anything else than of
-ghosts, he was suddenly and rudely awakened, between three and four
-o'clock in the morning, by some external motion. On opening his eyes, he
-saw an apparition opposite to the bed, standing by the clothes-press,
-which was only two paces from it, that presented itself in the same
-attire as the spirit. He raised himself up, and could then clearly
-discern the whole face. He fixed his eyes steadfastly upon the phantom,
-until, after a period of eight minutes, it became invisible.
-
-The next morning he was again awakened about the same time, and saw the
-same apparition, only with this difference, that the door of the press
-made a cracking noise, just as if some one leaned upon it. This time the
-spirit remained longer, so that Professor Oeder spoke to it as follows:
-"Get thee hence, thou evil spirit; what hast thou to do here?" At these
-words the phantom made all kinds of dreadful motions, waved its head,
-its hands, and its feet in such a manner, that the terrified Professor
-began to pray, "Who trusts in God, &c.," and "God the Father dwell with
-us, &c.," on which the spirit vanished.
-
-After eight days the spirit again appeared, "but with this difference,
-that it came from the press directly towards him, and inclined its head
-over him," whereupon the terrified Professor struck out at it, and the
-spirit retired; but no sooner had he laid down, than it again advanced,
-and he, noticing that its aspect was "more in sorrow than in anger,"
-observed it attentively, and saw that the ghost had a short tobacco-pipe
-in its mouth. This circumstance and the spirit's mild mien induced him
-to address the ghost, and ask, "Are you still owing anything." He knew
-beforehand that the deceased had left some debts, and the amount of a
-few dollars, _which occasioned the inquiry_. The spirit looked
-attentively at this query; and at length, guided by the tobacco-pipe,
-when the Professor asked, "Are you perhaps owing something for tobacco?"
-the spirit retreated and suddenly disappeared. Measures were immediately
-taken to liquidate the debt which was found to be owing for tobacco.
-
-The next night Professor Seidler remained with Oeder. The spirit again
-appeared, but not as formerly, at the press, but near it, close to the
-white wall. It was visible only to Oeder, his brother professor merely
-seeing "something white." From this night Oeder burnt a night-lamp, and
-he no longer saw the apparition; but for some nights, at the same time,
-from three to five, he was troubled with uneasy sensations, and
-frequently heard a noise at the clothes-press and knocking at the door.
-By degrees these sensations passed away, and he discontinued the
-night-lamp; but the second night after, the spectre again appeared "at
-the accustomed hour, but visibly darker." It had, moreover, a new sign
-in its hand--"It was like a picture, and had a hole in the centre, into
-which the spirit frequently put its hand. After long ruminating and
-inquiring what the deceased might mean by these signs, so much was at
-length elicited, that a short time before his illness he had taken some
-paintings in a magic lantern from a picture-dealer on trial, which had
-not been returned. The paintings were given to the rightful owner, and
-from that time Oeder continued undisturbed."
-
-In this story we notice, first, that a report was prevalent in the
-college, that the ghost of M. Doerien had been seen by several persons;
-and it is but natural to suppose that such a statement would exercise a
-powerful effect upon the mind of M. Hoefer, who had been placed in the
-painful position of being summoned to the death-bed of his friend, to
-receive a communication "necessary to mention to him," but had arrived
-in time only to witness the death-struggle. Upwards of three months
-after the death of M. Doerien, and when M. Hoefer was evidently in a
-disordered state of health, as is indicated by the swelling of the hand,
-and subsequent persistence of this swelling for some time, as this
-gentleman was making his usual rounds by the light of a taper in the
-dead of night, he witnesses the first apparition in a situation pregnant
-with associations of the deceased. The apparition may have been an
-illusion, suggested at first by some outlines indistinctly seen; or it
-may have been, and it is more probable to have been, an hallucination
-excited by the association of ideas in a person whose system was in a
-disordered state.
-
-That connection of ideas, similar or dissimilar, which is acquired by
-habit or otherwise, so that one of them, in whatever manner we may
-become conscious of it, will suggest and give rise to the others,
-without the intervention of a voluntary action of the mind, is familiar
-to most persons.
-
-The association which the mind habitually forms between certain objects
-and scenes, and persons connected with them, is most evident when a
-separation has been effected by death or removal to a distance; and, as
-is well-known, and has probably been painfully experienced by most
-persons, when the mind has been rallying from a state of abstraction or
-reverie, the sight of some object, or an indistinct sound, which during
-the full activity of the faculties would not have been regarded, or
-would simply have sufficed to arouse an ordinary reminiscence, will
-cause to flash athwart the mind, a vivid and startling image of the
-deceased or far distant one.
-
-We well remember some years ago, when a fellow-student, with whom we had
-been on very intimate terms, was cut off after a few days' illness. He
-had been in the habit of spending much time in our rooms. For some
-months after his death, particularly when wearied with study, a slight
-noise in the passage or at the door of the room has given rise to so
-vivid an impression that he was approaching, or at the door, that it has
-required an effort of the mind to quell the hallucination.
-
-The apparition which M. Hoefer witnessed, was most probably an
-hallucination of this kind; the corridor, and position in which it
-occurred, recalling to memory, in all the vividness of reality, the form
-and lineaments of that deceased friend who had formerly frequented it
-along with him.
-
-We have already seen an instance of a somewhat similar character, in the
-account given in a previous paper of the apparition of a father, then
-alive, but absent at church, to his daughter at home. In that case the
-apparition was excited by the sight of the arm-chair generally occupied
-by the old gentleman, and connected with it alone, the association of
-the ideas being obvious; and the state of the brain forming, so to
-speak, the substratum of the hallucination, was induced by uneasiness
-caused by a heavy thunder-storm acting on a frame debilitated by fever.
-
-The apparition of the following night, which was seen also by Professor
-Oeder, was, so far as M. Hoefer was concerned, a modification of the
-hallucination of the preceding night, prompted by the belief that the
-apparition he had witnessed was supernatural; and the precise similarity
-of the apparition professed to have been seen by M. Oeder, to that seen
-by M. Hoefer on that and the preceding night, would lead to the
-suspicion that in the former gentleman it was a trick of the imagination
-alone,--a suspicion confirmed by the subsequent progress of the tale.
-
-Professor Oeder brooded upon the apparition he had witnessed, and, it is
-important to mark, made every endeavour for some time to obtain a second
-sight of it, but failed, until wearied out with his fruitless research,
-he ceased to hunt after it. Fourteen days afterwards, he states that he
-was suddenly and rudely awakened "by some external motion" (which is
-evidently an after-conclusion derived from what followed), and saw the
-apparition of Doerien standing by the clothes-press.
-
-In other words, he awoke suddenly out of a troubled sleep, and in the
-transition state between sleeping and waking, in which the mental images
-are as bright and defined as in dreams, the subject which had occupied
-his mind so much of late was presented before him in a visible form. As
-it not unfrequently happens when a dream has made a powerful impression
-on the mind, it is repeated again, so on the following night M. Oeder's
-hallucination occurred, but with the addition of a slight creaking noise
-of the clothes-press door.
-
-Oeder was now fully convinced of the supernatural character of his
-visitant, and when the spectre again appeared to him, which was after a
-period of eight days, he having adopted the opinion at that period very
-prevalent, of troubled spirits, proceeded to inquire as to the cause of
-its visitations; and noticing a white tobacco-pipe in the spirit's
-mouth, and _knowing_ that the deceased Doerien had "left some debts to
-the amount of a few dollars," he asked, "Are you perhaps owing for
-tobacco?" whereupon the spirit disappeared. Here then we find an
-hallucination, either in the dreaming or waking state, presenting the
-precise similitude of the Professor's opinions and conceptions
-respecting the possible cause of the spectre.
-
-The following night, when the spectre appeared again, a friend was with
-Oeder, but this friend saw "nothing further than something white,"--no
-very extraordinary sight in a room which had white walls, and was not
-perfectly dark.
-
-From this time Oeder used a night-lamp, and the spectre no more
-appeared, but by certain sensations and noises he knew it was in the
-apartment.
-
-The invisibility of the spectre, when the light was present, would
-indicate that a sensation of light excited in the eye by a disordered
-state of the head, such as we have fully dwelt upon in a previous part
-of the work, played an important part of the hallucination; and the
-disturbed sleep for so many nights, and uneasy sensations, point to a
-circumstance which we have not yet alluded to, that the Professor's
-health was not in good condition,--the probable cause of the whole
-series of hallucinations.
-
-The uneasy sensations ceased, the light was dispensed with, the spectre
-again came, but it was darker, and contained a new sign in its hand,
-which, by following out a similar course of reasoning as upon the
-tobacco-pipe, and by long ruminating and inquiring, the Professor
-puzzled out to signify some paintings belonging to a magic lantern which
-Doerien had received on trial before his death, and which had not been
-returned. They were sought up, sent to their rightful owner, and the
-apparition vanished to return no more.
-
-It is to be remembered that this story, like most others of a similar
-nature, has been written under a full belief of the supernatural
-character of the apparitions, and it has received a colouring
-accordingly; and our comments suffice to show that no care, no attempt,
-has been made by the ghost-seer, to ascertain how much the apparitions
-might depend upon some illusion or hallucinations connected with his
-bodily health. The progress of the tale further shows that the
-apparitions occurred, in both M. Hoefer as well as Professor Oeder's
-case, in connection with symptoms of disordered health, and that they
-added nothing to what these gentlemen knew, or could work out, as M.
-Oeder did, by his own reason and judgment; in short, that they were
-simple images of ideas they already possessed or arrived at from the
-information they obtained.
-
-Other sources of error in the judgment could be pointed out, and other
-causes of illusion and hallucination in the above tale, but we have
-written sufficient to show its worthlessness.
-
-One of the most formidable objections to the majority of ghost-stories
-of this nature is the insufficiency of the authority upon which they are
-given. In many instances we cannot trace them satisfactorily to their
-origin; in others, we have received them after they have passed through
-the hands of several persons; and in still more (as in the tales we have
-just analysed) there is intrinsic evidence that no endeavour has been
-made to obviate or elicit the sources of fallacy to which the ghost-seer
-has been exposed, and diminish as much as possible the chances of error.
-
-The story of the "Last Hours of Lord Lyttleton" is a singularly
-interesting example of a ghost-story, based upon insufficient authority,
-and probably also upon a trivial circumstance, receiving almost
-universal credence; and it shows, moreover, how readily the
-superstitious feelings of the listeners will lead them to receive
-without due examination, tales which in themselves may be utterly void
-of satisfactory foundation; and induce them to retail subsequently an
-account which has probably received its precision and colouring from
-their imaginations alone.
-
-Oft as the story has been told, we are necessitated again to quote it in
-part, in order to show more fully the nature of the authority upon
-which it depends.
-
-A gentleman, who was on a visit to Lord Lyttleton, writes:--
-
-"I was at Pitt Place, Epsom, when Lord Lyttleton died; Lord Fortescue,
-Lady Flood, and the two Miss Amphletts, were also present. Lord
-Lyttleton had not long been returned from Ireland, and frequently had
-been seized with suffocating fits; he was attacked several times by them
-in the course of the preceding month, while he was at his house in Hill
-Street, Berkeley Square. It happened that he dreamt, three days before
-his death, that he saw a fluttering bird; and afterwards, that a woman
-appeared to him in white apparel, and said to him, 'Prepare to die, you
-will not exist three days.' His Lordship was much alarmed, and called to
-a servant from a closet adjoining, who found him much agitated, and in a
-profuse perspiration: the circumstance had a considerable effect all the
-next day on his Lordship's spirits. On the third day, while his Lordship
-was at breakfast with the above personages, he said, 'If I live over
-to-night, I shall have jockied the ghost, for this is the third day.'
-The whole party presently set off for Pitt Place, where they had not
-long arrived before his Lordship was visited by one of his accustomed
-fits; after a short interval, he recovered. He dined at five o'clock
-that day, and went to bed at eleven, when his servant was about to give
-him rhubarb and mint-water; but his Lordship perceiving him stir it with
-a tooth-pick, called him a slovenly dog, and bade him go and fetch a
-tea-spoon; but on the man's return, he found his master in a fit, and
-the pillow being placed high, his chin bore hard upon his neck, when the
-servant, instead of relieving his Lordship on the instant from his
-perilous situation, ran in his fright and called out for help, but on
-his return he found his Lordship dead."
-
-The circumstances attending the apparition, as related by Lord
-Lyttleton, according to the statement of a relative of Lady Lyttleton's,
-were as follows:
-
-"Two nights before, on his retiring to bed, after his servant was
-dismissed and his light extinguished, he had heard a noise resembling
-the fluttering of a dove at his chamber window. This attracted his
-attention to the spot; when, looking in the direction of the sound, he
-saw the figure of an unhappy female whom he had seduced and deserted,
-and who, when deserted, had put a violent end to her own existence,
-standing in the aperture of the window from which the fluttering sound
-had proceeded. The form approached the foot of the bed, the room was
-preternaturally light, the objects of the chamber were distinctly
-visible; raising her head and pointing to a dial which stood on the
-mantel-piece of the chimney, the figure, with a severe solemnity of
-voice and manner, announced to the appalled and conscience-stricken man
-that, at that very hour, on the third day after the visitation, his life
-and his sins would be concluded, and nothing but their punishment
-remain, if he availed himself not of the warning to repentance which he
-had received. The eye of Lord Lyttleton glanced upon the dial, the hand
-was upon the stroke of twelve; again the apartment was involved in total
-darkness, the warning spirit disappeared, and bore away at her departure
-all the lightness of heart and buoyancy of spirit, ready flow of wit,
-and vivacity of manner, which had formerly been the pride and ornament
-of the unhappy being to whom she had delivered her tremendous summons."
-
-From a passage in the Memoirs of Sir Nathanial Wraxall, it would seem
-that the sole authority for the above story was his Lordship's
-_valet-de-chambre_, for he writes:--
-
-"Dining at Pitt Place, about four years after the death of Lord
-Lyttleton, in the year 1783, I had the curiosity to visit the
-bedchamber, where the casement-window, at which Lord Lyttleton asserted
-the dove appeared to flutter, was pointed out to me; and at his
-stepmother's, the Dowager Lady Lyttleton's, in Portugal Street,
-Grosvenor Square, I have frequently seen a painting, which she herself
-executed, in 1780, expressly to commemorate the event; it hung in a
-conspicuous part of her drawing-room. There the dove appears at the
-window, while a female figure, habited in white, stands at the foot of
-the bed, announcing to Lord Lyttleton his dissolution. Every part of the
-picture was faithfully designed, _after the description given to her by
-the valet-de-chambre who attended him, to whom his master related all
-the circumstances_."
-
-In addition it would appear, according to Lord Fortescue, that the only
-foundation upon which this story rests, is as follows:--
-
-"I heard Lord Fortescue once say," writes a friend of Sir Walter Scott,
-"that he was in the house with him (Lord Lyttleton) at the time of the
-supposed visitation, and he mentioned the following circumstances as the
-only foundation for the extraordinary superstructure at which the world
-has wondered:--A woman of the party had one day lost a favourite bird,
-and all the men tried to recover it for her. Soon after, on assembling
-at breakfast, Lord Lyttleton complained of having passed a very bad
-night, and having been worried in his dreams by a repetition of the
-chase of the lady's bird. His death followed, as stated in the
-story."[69]
-
-It would seem highly probable, therefore, that this story has been
-framed much after the same fashion as that of the "three black crows,"
-and the singular differences which we find in the versions we have
-given, fully confirm this view.
-
-Connected with the foregoing story is another of the apparition of Lord
-Lyttleton, on the night of his death, to Miles Peter Andrews, one of his
-most intimate friends. This apparition occurred at Dartford Mills, where
-Mr. Andrews was then staying, and doubtless, in its origin and mode of
-development, the story is in every respect similar to that of Lord
-Lyttleton's.
-
-The March number of "_Household Words_,"[70] for 1853, contains a
-ghost-story which exhibits another form of the belief, differing from
-those which we have already dwelt upon, and it is interesting from its
-comparatively recent occurrence, and from its having to a certain extent
-received the confirmation of a law-court.
-
-In the colony of New South Wales, at a place called Penrith, distant
-from Sydney about thirty-seven miles, lived a farmer named Fisher. He
-was unmarried, about forty-five years old, and his lands and stock were
-worth not less than L4000. Suddenly Fisher disappeared, and a neighbour,
-named Smith, gave out that he had gone to England for two or three
-years, and produced a written document authorizing him to act as his
-agent during his absence. As Fisher was an eccentric man, this sudden
-departure did not create much surprise, and it was declared to be
-"exactly like him."
-
-About six months after Fisher's disappearance, an old man called Ben
-Weir, who had a small farm near Penrith, and who always drove his own
-cart to market, was returning from Sydney one night, when he beheld,
-seated on a rail which bounded the road--Fisher. _The night was very
-dark, and the distance of the fence from the middle of the road was at
-least twelve yards._ Weir, nevertheless, saw Fisher's figure seated on
-the rail. He pulled his old mare up, and called out, "Fisher, is that
-you?" No answer was returned, but there, still on the rail, sat the form
-of the man with whom he had been on the most intimate terms. Weir, who
-was not drunk, though he had had several glasses of strong liquor,
-jumped off his cart, and approached the rail. To his surprise, the form
-vanished.
-
-Weir noticed that the ghost was marked by "a cruel gash" on the
-forehead, and that there was the appearance of fresh blood about it;
-and before leaving the spot, he marked it by breaking several branches
-of a sapling close by.
-
-On returning home he told his story to his wife, who, however, told him
-that he was drunk, and ridiculed him.
-
-On the following Thursday night, when old Ben was returning from
-market,--again in his cart,--he saw seated upon the same rail, the
-identical apparition. He had purposely abstained from drinking that day,
-and was in the full possession of all his senses.
-
-Weir again told his wife of the apparition, to be again ridiculed by
-her, and he remarked, "Smith is a bad un! Do you think Fisher would ever
-have left this country without coming to bid you and me good-bye?"
-
-The next morning Ben waited on a Mr. Grafton, a justice of the peace,
-who lived near to him, and told his tale. The magistrate was at first
-disposed to treat the account lightly, but after consideration, he
-summoned one of the aboriginal natives, and at sunrise met Weir at the
-place where the apparition had occurred, and which was sufficiently
-marked by the dead and broken branches of the sapling.
-
-The rail was found to be stained in several places, and the native,
-without any previous intimation of the object of the search, was
-directed to examine them, and he shortly pronounced them to be "_white
-man's blood_," and searching about, he pointed out a spot whereon a body
-had been laid. "Not a single shower of rain had fallen for several
-months previously,--not sufficient to lay even the dust upon the roads.
-Notwithstanding this, however, the native succeeded in tracking the
-footsteps of one man to the unfrequented side of a pond at some
-distance. He gave it as his opinion that another man had been dragged
-thither. The savage walked round and round the pond, eagerly examining
-its borders, and the sedges and weeds springing up around it. At first
-he seemed baffled,--no clue had been washed ashore to show that anything
-unusual had been sunk in the pond; but having finished this examination,
-he laid himself down on his face, and looked keenly along the surface of
-the smooth and stagnant water. Presently he jumped up, uttered a cry
-peculiar to the natives when gratified by finding some long-sought
-object, clapped his hands, and pointing to the middle of the pond, to
-where the decomposition of some sunken substance had produced a slimy
-coating streaked with prismatic colours, he exclaimed, '_White man's
-fat!_' The pond was immediately searched; and, below the spot indicated,
-the remains of a body were discovered. A large stone and a rotted silk
-handkerchief were found near the body; these had been used to sink it."
-
-By the teeth, and buttons upon the waistcoat, the body was identified as
-that of Fisher. Smith was arrested, and, upon this evidence, tried
-before the late Sir Francis Forbes, found guilty, sentenced to death,
-and hung; but previous to the execution, "he confessed that he, and he
-alone, committed the murder, and that it was upon the very rail where
-Weir swore that he had seen Fisher's ghost sitting, and that he had
-knocked out Fisher's brains with a tomahawk."
-
-We quote this story as an interesting example of one of the best and
-most consistent of the tales of this kind, although it is probable that
-a more thorough investigation of the circumstances connected with it,
-would show an origin of a nature similar to that of the "Last Hours of
-Lord Lyttleton."
-
-Several statements in the story require confirmation, and throw doubt
-upon the whole.
-
-The assertion that Weir, on a "very dark" night, saw seated upon a rail,
-at a distance of _twelve yards_, a resemblance of Fisher which he took
-to be real, and was not aware of the actual nature of the appearance
-until he advanced towards it, is a statement too improbable to be
-worthy of credence unless supported by other and less objectionable
-evidence; and notwithstanding the extraordinary degree to which the
-visual and other senses of the aboriginal natives are, as we are aware,
-often developed, yet that they will enable them to state that an old
-blood-stain is produced by the blood of a white man, or that an
-iridescent scum floating at a distance on water is produced by the fat
-of the white man, are statements which cannot be admitted without strong
-confirmatory evidence.
-
-It not unfrequently happens that dreams appear to foreshadow events, the
-occurrence of which could not be anticipated by the reasoning faculties.
-Many of the instances recorded of this kind are after-conclusions
-founded upon imperfectly remembered dreams, and are consequently
-worthless. Such, for example, is the story stated by Mrs. Crowe of a
-gentleman "who has several times been conscious on awaking that he had
-been conversing with some one, whom he has been subsequently startled to
-hear had died at that period."[71]
-
-Other dreams have received a verification from the natural results of
-the dreamer's superstitious folly.
-
-Mrs. Crowe has quoted the following example from a continental
-newspaper:--
-
-"A letter from Hamburg contains the following curious story relative to
-the verification of a dream. It appears that a locksmith's apprentice,
-one morning lately, informed his master (Claude Soller), that on the
-previous night he dreamt that he had been assassinated on the road to
-Bergsdorff, a little town at about two hours' distance from Hamburg. The
-master laughed at the young man's credulity, and to prove that he
-himself had little faith in dreams, insisted upon sending him to
-Bergsdorff, with 140 rix dollars (L22 8_s._), which he owed to his
-brother-in-law who resided in the town. The apprentice, after in vain
-imploring his master to change his intention, was compelled to set out
-at about eleven o'clock. On arriving at the village of Billwaerder,
-about halfway between Hamburg and Bergsdorff, he recollected his dream
-with terror but perceiving the baillie of the village at a little
-distance talking to some of his workmen, he accosted him, and acquainted
-him with his singular dream, at the same time requesting, that as he had
-money about his person, one of his workmen might be allowed to accompany
-him for protection across a small wood which lay in his way. The baillie
-smiled, and in obedience to his orders, one of the men set out with his
-young apprentice. The next day the corpse of the latter was conveyed by
-some peasants to the baillie, along with a reaping-hook, which had been
-found by his side, and with which the throat of the murdered youth had
-been cut. The baillie immediately recognized the instrument as one which
-he had on the previous day given to the workman who had served as the
-apprentice's guide, for the purpose of pruning some willows. The workman
-was apprehended, and on being confronted with the body of his victim,
-made a full confession of his crime, adding that the recital of the
-dream had alone prompted him to commit the horrible act. The assassin,
-who is thirty-five years of age, was a native of Billwaerder, and
-previously to the perpetration of the murder, had always borne an
-irreproachable character."
-
-It is well known that sensations from without will not only frequently
-excite dreaming, but will also often determine the character of the
-dreams. The following story is evidently an example of a dream of this
-nature.
-
-On the 30th July, 1853, the dead body of a young woman was discovered in
-a field at Littleport, in the Isle of Ely. There could be little doubt
-that the woman had been murdered; and at the adjourned inquest held
-before Mr. W. Marshall, one of the coroners for the isle, on the 29th
-August, the following extraordinary evidence was given:--
-
-"James Jessop, an elderly respectable-looking labourer, with a face of
-the most perfect stolidity, and who possessed a most curiously shaped
-skull, broad and flat at the top, and projecting greatly on each side
-over the ears, deposed: 'I live about a furlong and a half from where
-the body was found. I have seen the body of the deceased. I had never
-seen her before her death. On the night of Friday, the 29th of July, I
-dreamt three successive times that I heard the cry of murder issuing
-from near the bottom of a close called Little Ditchment Close (the place
-where the body was found). The first time I dreamt I heard the cry, it
-woke me. I fell asleep again, and dreamt the same again. I then woke
-again, and told my wife. I could not rest; but I dreamt it again after
-that. I got up between four or five o'clock, but I did not go down to
-the Close, the wheat and barley in which have since been cut. I dreamt
-once, about twenty years ago, that I saw a woman hanging in a barn, and
-on passing the next morning the barn which appeared to me in my dream, I
-entered, and did find a woman there hanging, and cut her down just in
-time to save her life. I never told my wife I heard any cries of murder,
-but I have mentioned it to several persons since. I saw the body on the
-Saturday it was found. I did not mention my dream to any one till a day
-or two after that. I saw the field distinctly in my dream, and the trees
-thereon, but I saw no person in it. On the night of the murder the wind
-lay from that spot to my house."
-
-"Rhoda Jessop, wife of the last witness, stated that her husband related
-his dreams to her, on the evening of the day the body was found."[72]
-
-It is highly probable, that in this instance, the screams of the
-unfortunate woman, borne upon the wind, were the exciting cause of the
-dreams, and the direction from which the sound came would be sufficient
-to call up the associated idea of the fields in which the murder
-occurred. The powerful impression made upon the mind of the man,
-according to his own account, will sufficiently account for the
-repetition of the dreams; and the statement that the particulars of the
-dream were not related until after the finding of the body, must induce
-a little caution to the reception of the above version as an actual
-detail of the facts of the case. This remark applies also to the dream
-interpolated in the evidence.
-
-Among the most vivid and connected dreams, are those excited by a
-dominant or absorbing train of thought, which has engaged the mind
-during waking hours, or by powerful or protracted emotion.
-
-M. Boismont relates a dream, which he conceives is to be classed among
-the inexplicable phenomena of this nature, but which, with all deference
-to that distinguished psychologist, is rather to be placed in the
-category we have just named.
-
-Miss R., gifted with an excellent judgment, and religious without
-bigotry, lived, before her marriage, at the house of an uncle, a
-celebrated physician, and a member of the Institute. She was at that
-time separated from her mother, who had been attacked, in the country,
-by a severe illness. One night, this young lady dreamed that she saw her
-mother before her, pale, disfigured, about to render the last breath,
-and showing particularly lively grief at not being surrounded by her
-children, of whom one, cure of one of the parishes in Paris, had
-emigrated to Spain, and the other was in Paris. Presently she heard her
-call upon her many times by her Christian name; whereupon the persons
-who surrounded her mother, supposing that she called her grand-daughter,
-who bore the same name, went to seek her in the neighbouring room, but a
-sign from the invalid apprised them that it was not the grand-daughter,
-but the daughter who resided in Paris, that she wished to see. Her
-appearance expressed the grief she felt at her absence; suddenly her
-features changed, became covered with the paleness of death, and she
-fell without life on the bed.
-
-The lady had died during that night; and it was subsequently
-ascertained, that the circumstances delineated in the dream, simulated
-those which had occurred by the death-bed.
-
-What are the circumstances of this case?--A mother dangerously ill--her
-children away from home. What more likely to occur to a child cognisant
-of these facts, than the train of thought which engendered and caused
-this dream? The events attending a death-bed scene under such
-circumstances were all but inevitable, and we cannot, justifiably,
-consider this case in any other light than that of a "simple
-coincidence."
-
-Many physiologists and metaphysicians are of opinion, and there is much
-ground for the belief, that every sensation which has been actually
-experienced, may become the subject of perception at some future time,
-although, in the interval, all trace of its existence may have been
-lost, and it is beyond the power of the will to recall.
-
-The phenomena upon which this opinion has been principally founded, have
-been observed in the delirium of certain febrile diseases, and in
-dreaming.
-
-There is a case on record of a woman, who, during the delirium of fever,
-repeated long passages in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongues. When in
-health she was perfectly ignorant of these languages; and it was
-ascertained, that the sentences she spoke in her delirium, were correct
-passages from known writers in them. It was subsequently discovered,
-that at one period of her life she had lived with a clergyman who was in
-the habit of walking up and down the passage, reading aloud from Hebrew
-and Chaldaic works, and it was the sensations thus derived, and retained
-unconsciously to herself, which had been revivified by the changes
-induced during the progress of the fever.
-
-A case is also recorded by Dr. Abercrombie, in which a servant-girl who
-had manifested no "ear" for, or pleasure in music, during sleep was
-heard to imitate the sounds of a violin, even the tuning, and to perform
-most complicated and difficult pieces of music. This girl had slept for
-some time, and much to her annoyance, in a room adjoining that occupied
-by an itinerant violinist who was somewhat of an enthusiast in his art,
-and was accustomed to spend a portion of the night in practising
-difficult pieces of music, often preventing this female from sleeping.
-The music she had thus heard, registered in the mind, so to speak, was
-repeated, unconsciously, during the disturbed action of the brain
-consequent upon imperfect health and dreaming.
-
-The principle which has been deduced from these and similar cases, gives
-a ready explanation to numerous stories which it has been customary to
-regard as coming within the pale of the supernatural.
-
-Those instances in which, during a dream, the places in which documents
-of value, which had been lost or misplaced, have been revealed, are
-examples of revivified sensations which had been lost sight of, and of
-which the return had been determined by the protracted exercise of the
-mind to recover the missing traces.
-
-Sir Walter Scott, in his notes to "The Antiquary," relates the following
-highly interesting illustration:--
-
-"Mr. R----d, of Bowland, a gentleman of landed property in the vale of
-Gala, was prosecuted for a very considerable sum, the accumulated
-arrears of tiend (or tithe), for which he was said to be indebted to a
-noble family, the titulars (lay improprietors of the tithes). Mr. R----d
-was strongly impressed with the belief, that his father had, by a form
-of process peculiar to the law of Scotland, purchased those lands from
-the titular; and therefore, that the present prosecution was
-groundless. But after an industrious search among his father's papers,
-an investigation of the public records, and a careful inquiry among all
-persons who had transacted law business for his father, no evidence
-could be recovered to support his defence. The period was now near at
-hand, when he conceived the loss of the lawsuit to be inevitable, and he
-had formed his determination to ride to Edinburgh next day, and make the
-best bargain he could in the way of compromise. He even went to bed with
-this resolution, and with all the circumstances of the case floating
-upon his mind, had a dream to the following purpose.
-
-"His father, who had been many years dead, appeared to him, he thought,
-and asked him why he was disturbed in his mind. In dreams men are not
-supprised at such apparitions. Mr. R----d thought he informed his father
-of the cause of his distress, adding, that the payment of a considerable
-sum of money was the more unpleasant to him, because he had a strong
-consciousness that it was not due, though he was unable to acquire any
-evidence in support of his belief. 'You are right, my son,' replied the
-paternal shade; 'I did acquire right to these tiends, for payment of
-which you are now prosecuted. The papers relating to the transaction
-are in the hands of Mr. ----, a writer (or attorney), who is now retired
-from professional business, and resides at Inveresk, near Edinburgh. He
-was a person whom I employed on that occasion for a particular reason,
-but who never, on any other occasion, transacted business on my account.
-It is very possible,' pursued the vision, 'that Mr. ---- may have
-forgotten a matter which is now of a very old date; but you may call it
-to his recollection by this token,--that when I came to pay his account,
-there was difficulty in getting change for a Portugal piece of gold, and
-that we were forced to drink out the balance at a tavern.'
-
-"Mr. R----d awoke in the morning with all the words of the vision
-imprinted on his mind, and thought it worth while to ride across the
-country to Inveresk, instead of going straight to Edinburgh. When he
-came there, he waited on the gentleman mentioned in the dream, a very
-old man; without saying anything of the vision, he inquired whether he
-remembered having conducted such a matter for his deceased father. The
-old gentleman could not at first bring the circumstance to his
-recollection, but on mention of the Portugal piece of gold, the whole
-returned upon his memory; he made an immediate search for the papers,
-and recovered them; so that Mr. R----d carried to Edinburgh the
-documents necessary to gain the cause which he was on the verge of
-losing.
-
-"The author's theory is, that the dream was only the recapitulation of
-information which Mr. R----d had really received from his father while
-in life, but which at first he merely recalled as a general impression
-that the claim was settled. It is not uncommon for persons to recover,
-during sleep, the thread of ideas which they have lost during waking
-hours.
-
-"It may be added, that this remarkable circumstance was attended with
-bad consequences to Mr. R----d, whose health and spirits were afterwards
-impaired by the attention which he thought himself obliged to pay to the
-visions of the night."
-
-An instance which is related by Mrs. Crowe, receives its explanation
-also from this source.
-
-"A case occurred not many years since in the North of Scotland, where a
-murder having been committed, a man came forward, saying, that he had
-dreamt that the pack of the murdered pedlar was hidden in a certain
-spot; whereon, a search being made, it was actually found. They at first
-concluded he was himself the assassin, but the real criminal was
-afterwards discovered; and it being asserted, though I have been told
-erroneously, that the two men had passed some time together, since the
-murder, in a state of intoxication, it was decided that the crime, and
-the place of concealment, had been communicated to the pretended
-dreamer," &c.
-
-If the statement that the murderer and the dreamer had spent some time
-together in a state of intoxication, after the murder had been
-committed, be correct, the supposition that the murder had been
-communicated to the dreamer, forgotten when the state of intoxication
-had passed away, but subsequently recalled during the progress of a
-dream, affords an easy and natural explanation of the whole matter.
-
-As an example of that class of dreams which are inexplicable, but which,
-unfortunately, are of little weight from the imperfect authority upon
-which they are given, and from the fact that they bear intrinsic
-evidence of having been received without inquiry into the circumstances
-under which they occurred, and the fallacies to which the dreamer and
-subsequent details had been exposed, we quote the following from the
-works of the Rev. John Wesley.[73]
-
-"Among the congregation at Ambleside were a gentleman and his wife, who
-gave me a remarkable relation. She said she had often heard her brother
-relate, what an intimate acquaintance had told her, that her husband was
-concerned in the rebellion of 1745. He was tried at Carlisle, and found
-guilty. The evening before he was to die, sitting and musing in her
-chair, she fell fast asleep. She dreamed one came to her and said, 'Go
-to such a part of the wall, and among the loose stones you will find a
-key, which you must carry to your husband.' She waked; but thinking it a
-common dream, paid no attention to it. Presently she fell asleep again,
-and dreamed the very same dream. She started up, put on her cloak and
-hat, and went to that part of the wall, and among the loose stones found
-a key. Having, with some difficulty, procured admission into the gaol,
-she gave this to her husband. It opened the door of his cell, as well as
-the lock of the prison door.(!) So at midnight he escaped for life."
-
-It is not uncommon to find persons asserting that they have had dreams
-which have prefigured events, often trivial, in the common run of life.
-
-Probably, without exception, these are irrelevant conclusions: the
-affirmative instances being marked, to the total neglect of the
-negative. For example:--A lady with whom we are acquainted was
-accustomed to relate a dream which she had had, in which she thought
-that she was in the nursery watching one of her children play, when
-suddenly it tripped over the fender, and fell against the ribs of the
-grate, and before it could be extricated, the face was severely burned.
-On the following day the child she had seen in her dream, happened to
-have an accident in the nursery very similar to that she had seen occur
-in the dream.
-
-On inquiry, however, it proved that dreams of this nature respecting her
-children were quite usual to the lady, and that at one time or other she
-had witnessed while sleeping almost all those accidents occur to which
-infant life is exposed. This was the only instance in which any one had
-apparently come true; and _until_ this had occurred she had very
-properly and correctly attributed her dreams to the anxiety she
-naturally entertained respecting her young family.
-
-Of all the divisions, or rather branches, of supernatural lore, none has
-obtained more universal credence, none has been more persistent, than
-that of _presentiments_.
-
-A history of _presentiments_ would form a curious, if not very
-instructive work, and it alone would almost suffice to indicate the
-absurdity of the belief in its main features.
-
-We have instances of _high spirits_ foreboding evil; _low spirits_
-foreboding the same; _sudden illness_ shadowing forth calamity, _not_
-to the person affected, but to a companion; _sudden dullness of sight_
-presaging death--indeed a collection of these instances would show that
-every obscure sensation, every variation of emotion or passion,
-preceding an evil occurrence, has at one time or other been regarded as
-a presentiment of that evil.
-
-Jung-Stilling has so well described the nature of the faculty of
-presentiment, and the circumstances under which it is most commonly
-developed, that we cannot do better than quote the words of that
-celebrated writer on this subject. He writes:--
-
-"As the developed faculty of presentiment is a capability of
-experiencing the arrangements which are made in the world of spirits,
-and executed in the visible world, second-sight certainly belongs also
-under this head. And as those who possess this capability are generally
-simple people, it again follows from hence, that a developed faculty of
-presentiment is by no means a quality which belongs solely to devout and
-pious people, or that it should be regarded as a divine gift; I take it,
-on the contrary, for a disease of the soul, which we ought rather to
-endeavour to heal than promote.
-
-"He that has a natural disposition for it, and then fixes his
-imagination long and intensely, and therefore _magically_, upon a
-certain object, may at length be able, with respect to this object, to
-foresee things which have reference to it. Grave-diggers, nurses, and
-such as are employed to undress and shroud the dead, watchmen, and the
-like, are accustomed to be continually reflecting on objects which stand
-in connexion with death and interment; what wonder, therefore, if their
-faculty of presentiment at length develop itself on these subjects; and
-I am inclined to maintain, that it may be promoted by drinking ardent
-spirits."[74]
-
-In addition to this, Mrs. Crowe remarks:--
-
-"It is worthy of observation that idiots often possess some gleams of
-this faculty of second-sight or presentiment; and it is probably on this
-account that they are in some countries held sacred. Presentiment, which
-I think may very probably be merely the vague and imperfect recollection
-of what we _knew_ in our sleep, is often observed in drunken
-people."[75]
-
-Cicero,[76] after relating the myth of the apparition of Tages, in
-Etruria, adds:--
-
-"But I should indeed be more foolish than they who credit these things,
-if I seriously argue the matter."
-
-Equally foolish it would be for us to attempt to show the absurdity of
-the foregoing opinions; and we fear it would be a bootless and inutile
-task to argue with those who regard the statements of the studiously and
-transcendentally superstitious and ignorant, the incoherence of the
-drunkard, the depressed feelings experienced after a debauch, or the
-vague gleams of understanding in an idiot, as evidences of communication
-with the spirit-world.
-
-We know two ladies gifted with the faculty of ordinary presentiment, and
-who boast (if we may use that expression) that they are members of a
-family of which no scion has died for years without some supernatural
-indication of its occurrence. We well remember _after_ the information
-had been received by them of the death of the last male representative
-of one branch of the family, that they told how on the night of the
-death they happened to be awake in bed, when certain strange noises were
-heard about the bed-curtains, "as of a mouse" scrambling upon them, and
-immediately afterwards a blow was struck upon a large chest of drawers
-which stood opposite the foot of the bed, and the sound was as though
-the chest had been broken to pieces. We did not draw the inference which
-the ladies did from this circumstance, namely, that it was an intimation
-of the death of their relative, for, unfortunately for the romantic view
-of the question, we knew that such nightly occurrences as these were
-somewhat common with them, and that a simple and comfortable house in a
-densely-populated manufacturing district had been peopled by them with
-nightly noises and sounds, audible alone to them, to such an extent,
-that the adaptation of a presentiment to any particular occurrence was a
-matter of little difficulty.
-
-We also well remember, some years ago, when an infant brother lay dying,
-that our mother and the nurse were startled in the dead of night by a
-strange fluttering at the window. On the curtain being raised, the light
-of the candle showed a bird fluttering and beating against one of the
-panes. Was it an omen of death, and an emblem of the happy transition of
-the baby-spirit to another world? A few moments' examination soon showed
-that it was no spectre bird, but apparently a robin, which had been
-disturbed in the darkness, and was attracted by the light, and no sooner
-was the window darkened than it flew away.
-
-Three days ago, we saw a woman who had been for some months in a
-delicate state of health. "Sir," she said, "what I have most to complain
-of is, that I always feel as if some great evil was about to befall
-myself or family." This feeling is common, in a greater or less degree,
-to that depressed state of the system preceding attacks of febrile and
-many other diseases, and is often marked in hypocondriacism. Who, when
-suffering from slight indisposition, has not often felt this feeling of
-foreboding, of which the lowest grade is expressed in the ordinary
-phrase, low-spirits? This feeling, and thus derived, has been the
-substratum for those vague, so-called presentiments, which constitute
-the great bulk of instances in that doctrine; and the fallacy has been,
-that the mind, more readily affected by affirmative than by negative
-examples, has held to the former and neglected the latter, and deluded
-itself by an imperfect and too contracted view of the facts.
-
-Boismont, the most recent writer on the doctrine of presentiments,
-writes:--
-
-"In the greatest number of cases, they are not realised; in those where
-the event justifies them, they are only a reminiscence--a simple
-coincidence;--we admit all this. It is not the less true, that an
-unforeseen event, a strong prepossession, great restlessness, a sudden
-change in habits, any fear whatsoever, gives rise, at the moment, to
-presentiments which it would be difficult to deny by systematic
-credulity."[77]
-
-Let us examine one or two of the cases which would lead so distinguished
-a psychologist to give a certain degree of credence to this belief.
-
-The Prince de Radzvil had adopted one of his nieces, an orphan. He
-inhabited a chateau in Gallicia, and this chateau had a large hall which
-separated the apartments of the Prince from those occupied by the
-children, and in order to communicate between the two suites of rooms it
-was necessary either to traverse the hall or the court.
-
-The young Agnes, aged from five to six years, always uttered piercing
-cries every time that they caused her to traverse the great hall. She
-indicated, with an expression of terror, an enormous picture which was
-suspended above the door, and which represented the Sibyl of Cuma. They
-endeavoured for a length of time to vanquish this repugnance, which they
-attributed to infant obstinacy; but as serious accidents happened from
-this violence, they ended by permitting her no more to enter the hall;
-and the young girl loved better, during ten or twelve years, to traverse
-in rain, snow, or cold, the vast court or the gardens, rather than pass
-under this door, which made so disagreeable an impression upon her.
-
-The young Countess being of age to marry, and already betrothed, there
-was a reception at the chateau. The company, in the evening, wished to
-have some noisy game; they went into the great hall, where, moreover,
-the nuptial ball would be held. Animated by the young people who
-surrounded her, Agnes did not hesitate to accompany the guests. But
-scarcely had she crossed the threshold of the door, than she wished to
-draw back, and she avowed her fear. They had caused her to pass first,
-according to custom, her betrothed, friends, and uncle, laughing at her
-childishness, closing the doors upon her. But the poor young girl wished
-to resist; and in shaking and beating the door, caused the picture to
-fall which was above it. This enormous mass bruised the head by one of
-its corners, and killed her immediately.
-
-The scene of this story is an old castle in Gallicia, doubtless, like
-all similar places, having attached to it many strange and wonderful
-legends, and many servants fully imbued with these legends, and with all
-the folk-lore which a district like Gallicia contains. We have no
-information as to what amount of this lore the nurse indoctrinated into
-the child, or what use she may have made of the painting in order to
-terrify her little charge into submission from time to time. That an
-inquiry, special and distinct, upon this point was necessary ere the
-main point of the story could be substantiated, is evident; for the
-establishment of this influence would at once destroy the presentiment
-sought to be established; and to suppose that the child was brought up
-without its mind being so poisoned, is to suppose a phenomenon uniquely
-rare. Again, the painting was a representation of the Sibyl of Cuma. In
-her early days, says classic history, this Sibyl was lovely; but after
-her short-sighted bargain with Apollo for a life as long in years as the
-number of grains of sand she held in her hand, forgetting to add the
-request for perennial beauty also, she shortly became old and decrepid,
-her form decayed, her countenance melancholy and pale, and her looks
-haggard; and it is as thus described, that we are generally accustomed
-to see her pourtrayed. But we are left in the dark as to whether the
-painting in question represented the Sibyl in early youth, in her
-decrepid maturity, or at the moment of inspiration, when, according to
-the AEneis (Book vi),--
-
-    "Her colour changed; her face was not the same,
-    And hollow groans from her deep spirit came.
-    Her hair stood up, convulsive rage possess'd
-    Her trembling limbs, and heaved her labouring breast.
-    Greater than human kind she seem'd to look,
-    And with an accent more than mortal spoke,
-    Her staring eyes with sparkling fury roll;
-    When all the god came rushing on her soul."
-
-That the painting must have depicted the Sibyl in one of the two latter
-characters is almost certain, for in any other it would have been
-meaningless; and leaving the question of the extent to which her mind
-might be poisoned by folk-lore, or by the servants making the painting a
-bugbear to her,--leaving this in abeyance, what must the effect of a
-frightful-looking and gigantic picture, staring the child in the face,
-have been upon a young mind? Little doubt need be entertained of the
-feeling of terror with which an infant eye would regard it, and we have
-already shown how such a feeling, being implanted there, would become a
-part and parcel of its nature, and be never subsequently eradicated.
-
-We see this feeling manifested every day in the aversion which some
-individuals manifest to certain animals. From emotions taught during
-childhood and youth, and often lost sight of in mature years, a cat, a
-dog, a rat, a spider, a frog, &c., has become an object of such dread to
-some persons, that even in advanced life the presence of one has caused
-the utmost annoyance and terror.
-
-The powerful and persistent influence of ideas thus associated has been
-clearly and pithily expressed by Locke,[78] and his first instance has
-an immediate bearing upon our subject:--
-
-"The ideas of goblins and sprights have really no more to do with
-darkness than light, yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on
-the mind of a child, and raise them there together, probably he shall
-never be able to separate them again so long as he lives, but darkness
-shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they
-shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other."
-
-That the fall of the painting was caused by the vibrations occasioned by
-shaking and beating upon the door beneath it, seems certain; but that
-there was any _presentimental_ connection (if we may so word it) between
-the fall of the painting and the previous dread of it,--any
-foreshadowing in this dread of the subsequent fall and its fatal
-consequences,--there is no satisfactory evidence whatever.
-
-Another example of presentiment, quoted by Boismont, is the following:--
-
-Two French gentlemen, refugees, who resided together in New York on
-terms of great amity, freighted a ship for India. Everything was
-prepared for their departure, and they waited only a favourable wind.
-One of them, B----, of a calm and placid temperament, apparently excited
-by the uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began to manifest a
-degree of restlessness which surprised his companion. One day he entered
-the apartment where his friend was engaged in writing letters for
-Europe, and under the influence of an excitement so great that he had
-difficulty to suppress it, he exclaimed: "Why lose time in writing
-letters?--they will never go to their destination. Come with me and take
-a turn on the Battery. The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps,
-nearer the point of departure than we suppose!" Acceding to the request,
-his friend accompanied him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he was
-astonished at the rapid and excited manner in which B---- walked. On
-reaching the Battery, B---- precipitated his rate of walking still more,
-until they approached the parapet. He spoke in a high and quick tone,
-expressing in florid terms his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he
-arrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend separated from him. "I
-regarded him fixedly," to continue the narrative in the words of the
-narrator; "he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down. 'B----,' I
-cried, 'you intend to kill me, you wish to throw me from this height
-into the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The madman looked me in
-the face with haggard eyes for a moment, but I was careful not to lose
-his glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured some incoherent words,
-and sought to pass by me. I barred the way, extending my arms. After
-looking vaguely right and left, he threw himself on my neck, and melted
-into tears. 'It is true, it is true, my friend! The thought has haunted
-me night and day, as a torch of hell. It was for this end that I brought
-you here; had you been but a foot from the border of the parapet, the
-work had been done.' The demon had abandoned him, his eyes were without
-expression, a foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was passed. I
-reconducted him to the house. Some days of repose, together with
-bleeding and low diet, re-established him completely; and what is still
-more extraordinary, we never more spoke of this event."
-
-Are we, with Boismont, to regard this as an example of "sudden and
-mysterious inspiration?" Would it not have been still more mysterious if
-a minute examination of the countenance of a madman, who was talking
-incoherently near the verge of a precipitous descent, and big with
-intent to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his purpose? We
-think it would, and that there is no evidence here of anything beyond
-the pale of the laws of common observation.
-
-It would be needless to multiply instances of presentiment which have
-carried conviction to the minds of persons less accustomed to analyze
-the operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont, and in whom
-errors of observation are infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless
-there are instances on record which, if the authority upon which they
-are stated be admitted, receive no explanation from natural laws so far
-as we are yet acquainted with them.
-
-One of the best and most striking examples of this kind is given on the
-authority of Mrs. Crowe.
-
-She writes:--
-
-"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which
-occurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when
-lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a
-young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away
-his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table,
-covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The
-president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young
-men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to
-speak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a
-sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India
-was dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I
-am perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this
-conviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The
-young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned."[79]
-
-A singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress
-Josephine, which may fitly be detailed here.
-
-"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "and it
-had early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her
-first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards
-be greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is
-placed beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her
-first husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the
-Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on
-account of his belonging to the nobility; and she herself, who was also
-imprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the
-fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind,
-that while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every
-hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to
-her fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies
-of the bed-chamber,--a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one
-of their number."
-
-Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the
-prophecy:--
-
-"The author heard this prophecy in 1801, long before Napoleon's
-elevation to the throne, from the late Countess of Bath and the late
-Countess of Ancrum, who were educated in the same convent with
-Josephine, and had repeatedly heard her mention the circumstance in
-early youth."[80]
-
-The most grave of the errors affecting the details of those occurrences
-which have been supposed to foreshadow events, or to have some
-inexplicable and supernatural connection with certain circumstances
-occurring coincidently with them, has been fully set forth by Lord
-Bacon, in the 46th Aphorism of the "Novum Organum," and to this _dictum_
-nothing needs to be added.
-
-"The human understanding, when any proposition has been once laid down
-(either from general admission and belief, or from the pleasure it
-affords) forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation,
-and although most cogent and abundant instances may exist to the
-contrary, yet either does not observe, or despises them, or gets rid of
-and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious
-prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.
-It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive
-tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was
-pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by
-an inquiry, "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in
-spite of their vows?" All superstition is much the same, whether it be
-that of astrology, dreams, omens, retributive judgment, or the like; in
-all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled,
-but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more
-common.... Besides, even in the absence of that eagerness and want of
-thought (which we have mentioned), it is the peculiar and perpetual
-error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by
-affirmatives than negatives, whereas it ought duly and regularly to be
-impartial; nay, in establishing any true axiom, the negative instance is
-the most powerful."
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-We have now briefly examined the principal of those phenomena which it
-has been, and in many instances is, customary to ascribe to supernatural
-interposition; and we have endeavoured to ascertain how far they receive
-explanation from the known laws of action of the senses and reasoning
-faculties; and we have seen reason for the conclusion that they mainly
-come within the category of those laws.
-
-Of the exceptions to this conclusion, it is unfortunate that the
-authority upon which they depend is generally unsatisfactory, and the
-details imperfect in many of the most important particulars; and they,
-to use the words of Mrs. Crowe, (whose evidence in this respect is of
-considerable importance), "as they now stand, can have no scientific
-value; they cannot, in short, enter into the region of science at all,
-still less into that of philosophy. Whatever conclusions we may be led
-to form, cannot be founded on pure induction. We must confine ourselves
-wholly within the region of opinion; if we venture beyond this, we shall
-assuredly founder."[81]
-
-We are not aware that this imperfection of details necessarily
-appertains to facts of this nature, and we simply require the same care
-against error which is expected and is exercised in other departments of
-inquiry; and until the instances presented bear evidence of this, we
-must entertain doubts, and decline to receive them as facts establishing
-such theories as have been endeavoured to be founded upon them.
-
-The great progress of physiology and psychology is almost daily enabling
-us to grapple with sensuous phenomena which have hitherto been obscure;
-and it is never to be lost sight of in researches into the domains of
-the so-called supernatural, that the knowledge we possess of our own
-powers is as yet very imperfect and limited.
-
-
-
-
-APPENDIX.
-
-
-EXTRACTS FROM PROFESSOR FARADAY'S LETTER ON TABLE MOVING.
-
-_Athenaeum, July 2, 1853, p. 801._
-
-"The object which I had in view in my inquiry was, not to satisfy
-myself, for my conclusion had been formed already on the evidence of
-those who had turned tables,--but that I might be enabled to give a
-strong opinion, founded on facts, to the many who applied to me for it.
-Yet the proof which I sought for, and the method followed in the
-inquiry, were precisely of the same nature as those which I should adopt
-in any other physical investigation. The parties with whom I have worked
-were very honourable, very clear in their intentions, successful
-table-movers, very desirous of succeeding in establishing the existence
-of a peculiar power, thoroughly candid, and very effectual. It is with
-me a clear point that the table moves when the parties, though they
-strongly wish it, do not intend, and do not believe, that they move it
-by ordinary mechanical power. They say, the table draws their hands;
-that it moves first, and they have to follow it; that sometimes it even
-moves from under their hands. With some, the table will move to the
-right or left, according as they wish or will it; with others, the
-direction of the first move is uncertain;--but all agree that the table
-moves the hands, and not the hands the table. Though I believe the
-parties do not intend to move the table, but obtain the result by a
-quasi-involuntary action, still I had no doubt of the influence of
-expectation upon their minds, and, through that, upon the success or
-failure of their efforts.
-
-"The first point, therefore, was to remove all objections due to
-expectation--having relation to the substances which I might desire to
-use; so, plates of the most different bodies, electrically speaking,
-namely, sand-paper, mill-board, glue, glass, moist clay, tinfoil,
-card-board, gutta percha, vulcanized rubber, wood, &c., were made into a
-bundle, and placed on a table, under the hands of a turner. The table
-turned. Other bundles of other plates were submitted to different
-persons at other times,--and the tables turned. Henceforth, therefore,
-these substances may be used in the construction of apparatus. Neither
-during their use, nor at any other times, could the slightest trace of
-electrical or magnetic effects be obtained. At the same trials, it was
-readily ascertained that one person could produce the effect; and that
-the motion was not necessarily circular, but might be in a straight
-line. No form of experiment or mode of observation that I could devise
-gave me the slightest indication of any peculiar natural force. No
-attraction or repulsion, or signs of tangential power appeared; nor
-anything which could be referred to other than the mere mechanical
-pressure exerted inadvertently by the turner. I therefore proceeded to
-analyze this pressure, or that part of it exerted in a horizontal
-direction; doing so, in the first instance, unawares to the party. A
-soft cement, consisting of wax and turpentine, or wax and pomatum, was
-prepared. Four or five pieces of smooth slippery card-board were
-attached one over the other by little pellets of the cement, and the
-lower of these to a piece of sand-paper resting on the table; the edges
-of these sheets overlapped slightly, and on the under surface a pencil
-line was drawn over the laps, so as to indicate position. The upper
-card-board was larger than the rest, so as to cover the whole from
-sight. Then the table-turner placed the hands upon the upper card, and
-we waited for the result. Now, the cement was strong enough to offer
-considerable resistence to mechanical motion, and also to retain the
-cards in any new position which they might acquire, and yet weak enough
-to give way slowly to a continued force.
-
-"When at last the tables, cards, and hands, all moved to the left
-together, and so a true result was obtained, I took up the pack. On
-examination, it was easy to see by the displacement of the parts of the
-line, that the hand had moved further than the table, and that the
-latter had lagged behind;--that the hand, in fact, had pushed the upper
-card to the left, and that the under cards and the table had followed
-and been dragged by it. In other similar cases, when the table had not
-moved, still the upper card was found to have moved, showing that the
-hand had carried it in the expected direction. It was evident,
-therefore, that the table had not drawn the hand and person round, nor
-had it moved simultaneously with the hand. The hand had left all things
-under it, behind, and the table evidently tended continually to keep the
-hand back.
-
-"The next step was, to arrange an index, which should show whether the
-table moved first, or the hand moved before the table, or both moved or
-remained at rest together.... Two thin boards, nine and a-half by seven
-inches, were provided; a board, nine by five inches, was glued to the
-middle of the under side of one of these (to be called the table-board),
-so as to raise the edges free from the table; being placed on the
-table, near and parallel to its side, an upright pin was fixed close to
-the further edge of the board, at the middle, to serve as the fulcrum
-for the indicating lever. Then, four glass rods, seven inches long, and
-a quarter of an inch in diameter, were placed as rollers on different
-parts of this table-board, and the upper board placed on them; the rods
-permitted any required amount of pressure on the boards, with a free
-motion of the upper on the lower to the right and left. At the part
-corresponding to the pin in the lower board, a piece was cut out of the
-upper board, and a pin attached there, which, being bent downwards,
-entered the hole in the end of the short arm of the index lever: this
-part of the lever was of card-board: the indicating prolongation was a
-straight hay-stalk fifteen inches long. In order to restrain the motion
-of the upper board on the lower, two vulcanized rubber rings were passed
-round both, at the parts not resting on the table: these, whilst they
-tied the boards together, acted also as springs--and whilst they allowed
-the first, feeblest tendency to motion to be seen by the index, exerted,
-before the upper board had moved a quarter of an inch, sufficient power
-in pulling the upper board back from either side, to resist a strong
-lateral action of the hand.
-
-"All being thus arranged, except that the lever was away, the two boards
-were tied together with string running parallel to the vulcanised rubber
-springs, so as to be immoveable in relation to each other. They were
-then placed on the table, and a table-turner sat down to them. The table
-very shortly moved in due order, showing that the apparatus offered no
-impediment to the action. A like apparatus, with metal rollers, produced
-the same result under the hands of another person. The index was now put
-into its place, and the string loosened, so that the springs should come
-into play. It was soon seen with the party that could will the motion in
-either direction (from whom the index was purposely hidden), that the
-hands were gradually creeping up in the direction before agreed upon,
-though the party certainly thought they were pressing downwards only.
-When shown that it was so, they were truly surprised; but when they
-lifted up their hands and immediately saw the index return to its normal
-position, they were convinced. When they looked at the index, and could
-see for themselves whether they were pressing truly downwards, or
-obliquely, so as to produce a resultant in the right or left handed
-direction, then such an effect never took place. Several tried, for a
-long while together, and with the best will in the world, but no motion,
-right or left, of the table or hand, or anything else, occurred.
-
-"I think the apparatus I have described may be useful to many who really
-wish to know the truth of nature, and who would prefer that truth to a
-mistaken conclusion, desired perhaps only because it seems to be new or
-strange. Persons do not know how difficult it is to press directly
-downward, or in any given direction against a fixed obstacle, or even to
-know only whether they are doing so or not, unless they have some
-indicator which, by visible motion or otherwise, shall instruct them;
-and this is more especially the case when the muscles of the fingers and
-hand have been cramped and rendered either tingling or insensible or
-cold by long-continued pressure. If a finger be pressed constantly into
-the corner of a window-frame for ten minutes or more, and then,
-continuing the pressure, the mind be directed to judge whether the force
-at a given moment is all horizontal or all downwards, or how much is in
-one direction and how much in the other, it will find great difficulty
-in deciding, and will, at last, become altogether uncertain,--at least
-such is my case. I know that a similar result occurs with others, for I
-have had two boards arranged, separated, not by rollers, but by plugs of
-vulcanized rubber; and with the vertical index, when a person with his
-hands on the upper board is requested to press only downwards, and the
-index is hidden from his sight, it moves to the right, to the left, to
-him and from him, and in all horizontal directions; so utterly unable is
-he strictly to fulfil his intention without a visible and correcting
-indicator. Now, such is the use of the instrument with the horizontal
-index and rollers; the mind is instructed and the involuntary or
-quasi-involuntary motion is checked in the commencement, and, therefore,
-never rises up to the degree needful to move the table, or even
-permanently the index itself. No one can suppose that looking at the
-index can in any way interfere with the transfer of electricity, or any
-other power, from the hand to the board under it, or to the table. If
-the board tends to move, it may do so; the index does not confine it;
-and if the table tends to move, there is no reason why it should not. If
-both were influenced by any power to move together, they may do so, as
-they did, indeed, when the apparatus was tied, and the mind and muscles
-left unwatched and unchecked."
-
-PRINTED BY HARRISON AND SONS, LONDON GAZETTE OFFICE, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
-
-
-
-
-FOOTNOTES:
-
-
-[1] Locke. Of Human Understanding, B. I, ch. 2.
-
-[2] Cousin. Cours de l'Histoire de la Philosophie Moderne, edit. 1847,
-T. III, p. 269.
-
-[3] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 368.
-
-[4] Cousin. Op. cit., T. III, p. 370.
-
-[5] Plato. Politicus. Mitford's Greece, Vol. I, p. 84.
-
-[6] "Vain indeed is the life of all men in whom there is not the true
-knowledge of God: who, from the things which are seen to be good, have
-not been able to conceive aright of that which is goodness itself; nor,
-while they viewed the work, to acknowledge the architect: but have
-thought that either fire, or the wind, the swift air, or the stars in
-their courses, or the vast deep, or the sun and moon, were the deities
-presiding over the world."--_Liber Sapientiae_, ch. 13, v. 1, 2.
-_Translation by Luke Howard, F.R.S._
-
-[7] An interesting illustration of the tendency of mankind in a state of
-savageism to attribute striking phenomena to supernatural agency, and
-deify the means through which they are apparently exhibited, occurred on
-the march of Cortes from Mexico to Honduras. During a deer-hunt, the
-horse which Cortes rode was taken ill. "It did not then die, though it
-would have been better if it had," says the devout but ruthless
-conqueror, parenthetically. A little while afterwards, having been
-courteously received by the Itzalan Indians, Cortes "entrusted them with
-the care of his horse Morgillo, which had been lamed, charging them to
-take great care of it, and attend to its recovery, as he prized it very
-highly, and telling them that when he had found the Spaniards he was in
-search of, he should send for his steed again. It was from no want of
-care on the part of the Itzaex, but rather from an excess of it, that
-Morgillo lost his life under their management; for in their anxiety to
-effect a cure, and regarding the animal as one endowed with reason, they
-gave him poultry and other meat to eat, and presented him with bunches
-of flowers, as they were accustomed to do to persons of rank when they
-were sick; a species of attention somewhat similar to that which the
-fool laughed at in _King Lear_, when he speaks of the cockney who for 'a
-pure kindness to his horse, buttered his hay.' The consequence of this
-unaccustomed style of medical treatment was, that Morgillo languished
-and died, and then a worse evil befell, for, observes the pious
-Villagutierre, "though some people say Canek burnt his idols in the
-presence of Cortes, there was in reality no burning of idols or anything
-else in that city of Tayasal; on the contrary, by leaving the horse with
-the infidel Itzaex, they obtained a greater and still more abominable
-idol than the many they had before." The meaning of this sentence is
-subsequently explained by the worthy chronicler informing us that, on
-the death of Morgillo, the Itzaex raised its effigy "in stone and
-mortar, very perfect," and worshipped it as a divinity. It was seated on
-its hind-quarters, on the floor of one of the temples, rising on its
-fore legs, with its hind legs bent under it. These barbarians adored it
-as the god of thunder and thunderbolts, calling him Tzinachac, which
-means the bride of thunder, or the thunderbolt. They gave it this name
-from having seen some of the Spaniards who were with Cortes fire their
-muskets over the horses' heads when they were hunting deer, and they
-believed the horses were the cause of the noise that was made, which
-they took for thunder, and the flash of the discharge and the smoke of
-the gunpowder for a thunderbolt."--_Fancourt's History of Yucatan._
-_Athenaeum._ 1854, p. 109.
-
-[8] Cicero. De Natura Deorum, B. II, c. 25.
-
-[9] Servius. Tooke's Pantheon, p. 198.
-
-[10] Horae Britannicae. By Jno. Hughes, Vol. I., p. 235. 1818.
-
-[11] The Garrows, a number of wild tribes occupying the district lying
-between the N.E. frontier of Bengal and the kingdom of Assam, in
-addition to the worship of Mahadeva, or Siva, adore also the sun and
-moon; and the _Khatties_, or _Catties_, another wild tribe inhabiting
-the peninsula of Guzerat, worship the sun.
-
-[12] Blackwell. Mallet's Northern Antiquities. Bohn, 1847, p. 473.
-
-[13] Davis. "The Chinese," Chap. xii.
-
-[14] Humboldt. "Aspects of Nature," Vol. I., p. 198, note 51. "Steppes
-and Deserts."
-
-[15] Ruxton. Adventures in Mexico and Rocky Mountains, p. 192.
-
-[16]
-
-  _Str._  That cursed Chaerophon and Socrates,
-          Who have deceived both thee and me alike.
-
-  _Phid._ I must not act unjustly towards my teachers.
-
-  _Str._  Nay, nay, revere paternal Jupiter;
-
-  _Phid._ Paternal Jupiter! old fashion'd fool;
-          Is there a Jupiter?
-
-  _Str._                    There is.
-
-  _Phid._                           Not so,
-          Since having cast out Jove a whirlwind reigns.
-
-  _Str._  Not cast him out; but I imagin'd this,
-          Seeing the whirlwind here. O wretched ones,
-          To take thee, earthen image, for a god!
-
-[17] Wheelwright's Translation, p. 124, and note. Oxford, 1837.
-
-[18] Cicero. De Natura Deorum. B. I., ch. 15.
-
-[19] Op. cit., B. II., c. 24.
-
-[20] Bonomi. "Nineveh and its Palaces," pp. 139-264, &c.; Dr.
-Grotefend, Athenaeum, June 26, 1853; Ravenshaw, Athenaeum, July 16, 1853.
-
-[21] Paradise Lost.
-
-[22] Rape of the Lock. Ch. 1.
-
-[23] The _black_ colour which is popularly ascribed to the devil, was
-probably derived from old monkish legends, which affirmed that he often
-appeared as an Ethiopian. (Jortin. Vol. II., p. 13, ed. 1805.)
-
-[24] Bonomi. Op. cit., p. 159. "The root, or the original word from
-which teraphim is derived, signifies, to relax with fear, to strike with
-terror, or 'Repheh,' an appaller, one who makes others faint or fail; a
-signification that singularly accords with the terrifying images found
-by Botta." The possible connection between these images and the images
-(_teraphim_) which Rachel had stolen from her father Laban, is of great
-interest.
-
-[25] This custom is probably a relic of old Scandinavian mythology. In
-the "Prose Edda," it is stated, that the gods having captured Loki (the
-personification of evil), who had fled from their justly excited anger,
-"dragged him without commiseration into a cavern, wherein they placed
-three sharp-pointed rocks, boring a hole through each of them."
-
-[26] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 200.--Eusebius, in his _Oration_
-in praise of the Emperor Constantine, writes, that the Emperor honoured
-"the triumphall signe of the crosse, having really experienced and found
-the divine virtue that is therein. For by it the multitudes of his
-enemies were put to flight; by it the vaine ostentation of the enemies
-of God was suppressed, the petulant tongues of evil speakers and wicked
-men were silenced; by it the barbarous people were subdued; by it the
-invisible powers of the divil were vanquished and driven away; and by it
-the superstitious errors were confuted and abolished."
-
-[27] Bede. Ecclesiastical History. B. I., ch. 30. Dr. Giles' Transl.
-Bohn.
-
-[28] Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain. Vol. I. p. 201. Note.
-Michaelmas Day.
-
-[29] Cicero. De Natura Deorum. B. III., ch. 5.
-
-[30] See "Notes and Queries." Sir J. E. Tennant, Vol. V., p. 121; W.
-Blood, &c., Vol. VIII., p. 413.
-
-[31] The Berlin correspondent of the _Times_ related the following
-incident:--
-
-"The comet which has lately been visible, has served a priest, not far
-from Warsaw, with materials for a very curious sermon. After having
-summoned his congregation together, although it was neither Sunday nor
-festival, and shown them the comet, he informed them that this was the
-same star that had appeared to the Magi at the birth of the Saviour, and
-that it was only visible now in the Russian Empire. Its appearance on
-this occasion was to intimate to the Russian eagle, that the time was
-now come for it to spread out its wings, and embrace all mankind in one
-orthodox and sanctifying church. He showed them the star now standing
-immediately over Constantinople, and explained that the dull light of
-the nucleus indicated its sorrow at the delay of the Russian army in
-proceeding to its destination."
-
-[32] "Madam Morrow, seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and a
-descendant of a line of astrologers reaching back for centuries, will
-give ladies private lectures on all the events of life, in regard to
-health, wealth, love, courtship, and marriage. She is, without
-exception, the most wonderful astrologist in the world, or that has ever
-been known. She will even tell their very thoughts, and will show them
-the likenesses of their intended husbands and absent friends, which has
-astonished thousands during her absence in Europe. She will leave the
-city in a very short time. 76, Broome Street, between Cannon and
-Columbia. Gentlemen are not admitted."
-
-"Madame la Compt flatters herself that she is competent by her great
-experience in the art of astrology, to give true information in regard
-to the past, present, and future. She is able to see clearly any losses
-her visitors may have sustained, and will give satisfactory information
-in regard to the way of recovery. She has, and continues to give perfect
-satisfaction. Ladies and gentlemen 50 cents. 13, Howard Street."
-
-"Madame la Compt has been visited by over two hundred ladies and
-gentlemen the past week, and has given perfect satisfaction; and in
-consideration of the great patronage bestowed upon her, she will remain
-at 13, Howard Street, for four days more, when she will positively sail
-for the South."
-
-"Mrs. Alwin, renowned in Europe for her skill in foretelling the future,
-has arrived, and will furnish intelligence about all circumstances of
-life. She interprets dreams, law matters, and love, by astrology, books,
-and science, and tells to ladies and gentlemen the name of the persons
-they will marry; also the names of her visitors. Mrs. Alwin speaks the
-English, French, and German languages. Residence, 25, Rivington Street,
-upstairs, near the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"Mrs. Prewster, from Philadelphia, tenders her services to the ladies
-and gentlemen of this city in astrology, love, and law matters,
-interpreting dreams, &c., by books and science, constantly relied on by
-Napoleon; and will tell the name of the lady or gentleman they will
-marry; also the names of the visitors. No. 59, Great Jones Street,
-corner of the Bowery. Ladies 50 cents, gentlemen 1 dollar."
-
-"The celebrated Dr. F. Shuman, Swede by birth, just arrived in this
-city, offers his services in astrology, physiognomy, &c. He can be
-consulted in matters of love, marriage, past, present, and future events
-of life. Nativity calculated for ladies and gentlemen. Mr. S. has
-travelled through the greater part of the world in the last forty-two
-years, and is willing to give the most satisfactory information. Office,
-175, Chambers Street, near Greenwich."
-
-(From a recent number of the _New York Herald_. Notes and Queries,
-December 10, 1853, p. 561.)
-
-[33] The AEneis. B. III.
-
-[34] Carthon. Ossian.
-
-[35] "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe," by W. and Mary
-Howitt. Vol. I., p. 99.
-
-[36] Howitt. "The Literature and Romance of Northern Europe." Vol. I.
-
-[37] An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians; by
-E. W. Lane, Vol. I, p. 311.
-
-[38] Adventures in the Libyan Desert, p. 22.
-
-[39] B. I, ch. 13 and 16.
-
-[40] Thorpe's Yule-Tide Stories. Bohn, p. 248. And Table of Contents, p.
-XIII.
-
-[41] "The Fall of the Nibelungers," &c.; a Translation of the Nibelunge
-Not, or Nibelungenlied, by W. N. Lettsom, p. 59, St. 346, 347; p. 167,
-St. 983.
-
-[42] Thorpe. Op. cit. Table of Contents, p. IX.
-
-[43] "The marvellous stories, the frightful tales, the threats, which
-were so long the apanage of infancy, would dispose the naturally
-impressionable mind to receive all the fantastic creations of the
-period. Now, it is said, the system is completely changed, and they are
-taught to ridicule these ancient beliefs. This argument would be
-unanswerable if they spoke of colleges and boarding schools; but they
-forget the servants to whom are confided the early years of infants;
-thus is the nursery always reviving fooleries, terrors, and frightful
-stories, in the middle of which the infant grows. I will content me with
-one example, that of one of the celebrated poets of England, Robert
-Burns. 'I owed much in my infancy,' says this writer, 'to an old woman
-who lived with us, and who was extremely ignorant, and remarkably
-credulous and superstitious. No one in the country had a larger
-collection of tales and songs respecting devils, fairies, ghosts,
-sorcerers, magicians, jack-o'-lanterns, hobgoblins, phantoms,
-apparitions, charms, giants, dragons, &c.
-
-"'Not only did these tales cultivate in me the germs of poesy, but they
-had such an effect upon my imagination, that, even now, in my night
-journeys, I have often, in spite of myself, the eye upon certain
-suspicious places; and although no one can be more sceptical in such
-matters, an effort of the reason is occasionally necessary to chase away
-these vain terrors.'
-
-"'Darkness, obscurity, the silence of night, solitariness, contribute
-strongly to develop the feeling of terror so wrongly cast in the minds
-of infants. Their eye readily perceives frightful figures which regard
-them in a menacing manner; their chamber is peopled with assassins,
-robbers, devils, and monsters of all kinds."--_A. Brierre de Boismont.
-"Des Hallucinations; ou Histoire Raisonnee des Apparitions,"_ &c. Ed.
-II, 1852, p. 362.
-
-[44] This idea has been beautifully expressed by Longfellow in the
-"Voices of the Night."
-
-    "When the hours of day are numbered,
-      And the voices of the night
-    Wake the better soul, that slumbered,
-      To a holy calm delight,
-
-    Ere the evening lamps are lighted,
-      And like phantoms grim and tall,
-    Shadows from the fitful firelight
-      Dance upon the parlour wall;
-
-    Then the forms of the departed
-      Enter at the open door;
-    The beloved, the true-hearted,
-      Come to visit us once more." &c.
-
-See also Washington Irving's Bracebridge Hall. St. Martin's Eve.
-
-[45]
-
-    "I looked to heaven, and tried to pray;
-      But or ever a prayer had gusht,
-    A wicked whisper came and made
-      My heart as dry as dust."
-
-                    Coleridge. "Ancient Mariner."
-
-[46] Brewster. Natural Magic, p. 15.
-
-[47] A few hundred feet from the place where this occurred, is a lane
-(Oldfield Lane, Wortley, near Leeds) which was noted, many years ago, as
-the beat of one of those somewhat rare spectres, a headless ghost. Some
-are living even now who have _known_ those who had seen this phantom.
-When last seen, it appeared as a comfortable-looking man, dressed in a
-drab-coat, and carried the head under the arm. As a Yorkshire version of
-a very ancient and wide-spread superstition, its memory is worth
-preserving. The belief in headless ghosts is found in many parts of
-England, Ireland (the _Dullahan_ or _Dulachan_), Wales, Scotland, Spain,
-France, and Germany.
-
-[48] Chambers' Miscellany. Art. "Spectral Apparitions," &c.
-
-[49] Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. 2nd Ed., p. 3.
-
-[50] "Phantoms of the Far East." Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. Vol. XVII,
-p. 315.
-
-[51] Busby's Lucretius, B. IV.
-
-[52] Temora.
-
-[53] Notes and Queries, Vol. VIII, p. 7.
-
-[54] Letters on Natural Magic. 5th Ed., p. 166.
-
-[55] D. Jardine, "Notes and Queries," Vol. VIII, p. 512, Nov. 26, 1853.
-
-[56] Hudibras. Can. III.
-
-[57] Athenaeum. July 2, 1853, p. 801, and Appendix.
-
-[58] Mueller. "Manuel de Physiologie." Traduit par A. J. L. Jourdan. 2nd
-ed., 1851, par E. Littre, T. II., p. 388. See also ¶ A. B. C. E. F.,
-Sect. V, "Phenomenes Subjectifs de Vision," p. 386.
-
-[59] Mueller. Op. cit., T. II, p. 549.
-
-[60] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 74.
-
-[61] "Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, &c., in their Relations to
-the Vital Force," by Karl von Reichenbach, Pts. I & II.
-
-[62] "The Night Side of Nature," by Mrs. Crowe. Ed. 1853, p. 362.
-
-[63]
-
-    "I waste the matin lamp in sighs for thee,
-    Thy image steals between my God and me;
-    Thy voice I seem in every hymn to hear,
-    With every bead I drop too soft a tear."
-
-                       _Eloise and Abelard._ Pope.
-
-[64] Notes and Narrative of a Six Years' Mission principally among the
-Dens of London. By R. W. Vanderkiste, p. 182.
-
-[65] Boismont. Op. cit., p. 110.
-
-[66] "Theory of Pneumatology." By Dr. J. H. Jung-Stilling: translated by
-Saml. Jackson; p. 197, Lond., 1834.
-
-[67] Op. cit., p. 200.
-
-[68] The apparition of the "_White Lady_" was very irregular and
-uncertain, for many members of the family died without her spectre
-having been seen.
-
-[69] "Demonology and Witchcraft." 2nd Ed., p. 350, note.
-
-[70] "Household Words." Conducted by Charles Dickens, March, 1853, p. 6.
-
-[71] Op. cit., p. 142.
-
-[72] "Notes and Queries." Vol. VIII., p. 287.
-
-[73] Ed. 1829, Vol. IV., p. 271.
-
-[74] Op. cit., p. 182.
-
-[75] Op. cit., p. 470.
-
-[76] De. Divinatione et de Fato.
-
-[77] Op. cit. p. 243.
-
-[78] "Of Human Understanding." Bk. II, ch. 33, sect. 10.
-
-[79] Op. cit., p. 65.
-
-[80] "History of Europe," from 1789 to 1815. By Sir Archibald Alison,
-Bart. Chap. XX, Sect. 25, and notes.
-
-[81] Op. cit., p. 10.
-
-
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